Posts In The “Destinations” Category
Mukilteo, a small Snohomish County city about a 45-minute drive north of Seattle, was a native-American settlement for centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Captain George Vancouver was among the first to visit, when he landed there in 1792. In the mid-1800s, the land was ceded to the Washington Territorial government and European settlement began….
On our final day in Barcelona, we returned to the Barceloneta waterfront district to tour the area in more detail and visit Barcelona’s L’Aquarium. We started the day with a wonderful tapas lunch at Xup Xup beachside along Passeig Maritim de la Barceloneta, the busy pedestrian walkway that edges the beach. We saw some unusual…
The city of Girona is famous for its medieval wall and many centuries-old buildings and artifacts, including the 14th-century Girona Cathedral. The city’s Jewish Quarter also is one of the most well-preserved in Europe, with a maze of narrow, cobblestone streets, steps and arches dating from the 12th century. These features made it the location…
The Montjuic hilltop was the birthplace of Barcelona, in the 3rd century BC or earlier, and the site of many of the city’s significant events. With a commanding view to the Mediterranean and the surrounding area, several fortifications were built on hill, the latest being the still-standing 17th-century Montjuic Castle. More recently, the hilltop hosted…
The Montserrat mountains rise almost vertically from the surrounding landscape to 2,055 ft (1,236 m) above sea level. Montserrat means “jagged peaks” in Catalan, and their unusual shape is prominent for miles around. The mountains are a popular day trip from Barcelona, reachable in just over an hour by train or a 45-minute drive. The…
Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudi is famous for his unique and fantastical designs inspired from nature. The majority of his creations are in Barcelona, with seven comprising the UNESCO World Heritage Site, “Works of Antoni Gaudi”, including his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia. At 412 ft (125m) high, the Sagrada Familia dominates the Barcelona skyline and is…
Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter is the oldest section of the city, with ruins dating back to the Roman Empire. Narrow cobblestone lanes, wonderful to explore on foot, wind through the quarter past varied architecture. Although most of the buildings appear medieval, many actually were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s as part of a…
May brought unseasonably warm and sunny weather to the Pacific Northwest. We started the month on a cruise to Alaska, where the clear skies and moderate temperatures were notable for that time of year. We enjoyed warm weather for much of the rest of the month in Seattle, eating outside wherever possible. Following our presentation…
Barcelona was high on the list of stops for our aborted trip to the Mediterranean in 2020. And we’re big Formula 1 fans, but hadn’t attended a race since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2018. So when a last-minute opportunity came together to attend the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, we jumped on it….
On most of our airplane trips, we prefer to pack light and bring carry-on luggage only. This saves us time at the airport and also avoids the risk of lost bags. For our upcoming trip to Barcelona, we had one hike planned, but not enough to warrant bringing our large hiking boots as we did…
We’d normally take advantage of a long weekend and make a trip somewhere. But having just returned from Anacortes the previous weekend and scheduled to fly to Barcelona the following Wednesday, we decided that all three of us should take a staycation for Memorial Day Weekend. As luck would have it, three of Seattle’s five…
With two large marinas, Anacortes, WA is a popular boating destination close to the beautiful San Juan Islands. The city also is the gateway to the islands for those without a boat, with nearly a million arriving by ferry in 2021. That is how we visited the islands last fall. And Anacortes has been the…
One of the reasons we booked a cruise to Alaska from Vancouver, rather than from our home of Seattle, was to travel one-way through the Inside Passage all the way up, and to visit Hubbard Glacier and Seward. Ships departing from Seattle run mostly offshore, west of Vancouver Island, and generally only visit Southeast Alaska…
The 125-mile (201 km) Seward Highway, between Anchorage and Seward, is considered one of the most scenic routes in the state of Alaska. Named a National Forest Scenic Byway in 1989, the 2.5-hour journey from Seward passes through the Kenai Mountains and between Turnagain Arm and the Chugach Mountains, with numerous lakes and other attractions…
Hubbard Glacier, at the head of Yakutat Bay, is the largest tidewater glacier in North America at 76 miles (122km) long and 7 miles (11km) wide. The terminal face is 600 feet (182m) high, with 250 feet (76m) hidden below the waterline. The 350 feet (106m) visible above the waterline is actively calving, filling the…
Dramatic Glacier Bay National Park was the only overlap between our Norwegian Jewel cruise and our 2010 Southeast Alaska trip on Dirona. But we could return here every year and never tire of the amazing scenery. On another unusually clear day for early in the season, we cruised slowly up Glacier Bay under a bright…
During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 through 1899, roughly 100,000 prospectors poured into the Yukon in northwestern Canada, in the hopes of striking it rich. The main routes to the Yukon gold fields were from the southeast Alaska towns of Skagway or Dyea, across White Pass or Chilkoot Pass respectively. No roads or railways…
Alaska’s capital, Juneau, is the only mainland US capital city with no road connections. The only way in or out is by air or sea. And despite having a population of only 32,000, it’s the second largest city in the US by area, after Sitka, also in Alaska. We arrived by boat, as do the…