Tag Archives: Chaput foot prints

Spain

Animal Museum in Ronda

We went to a museum in Ronda called “Museo de Caza” which translates to the Hunting Museum. We thought it looked interesting so we went to see it. Once we entered inside the museum we were greeted with a large stuffed grizzly bear.

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A stuffed Grizzly Bear at the Museo de Caza in Ronda

We paid our two euros each and began exploring the different rooms which displayed an enormous amount of stuffed animals.

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One of the rooms in the Museo de Caza in Ronda

As we walked through the museum we came across more and more stuffed animals. There were animals from all over the world and displayed beside the animals were plaques identifying their origin and where they were killed.

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Plaque displaying the area where the animals were killed.

We came across tigers and lions in one of the rooms and an alligator in another room.

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Lion on display in Museo de Caza in Ronda
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Large cat in Museo de Caza .in Ronda
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Shelley with an alligator on display at Museo de Caza.

The animals on displays were all over the walls and there was very little free space in the Museum. It was a bit unsettling being in the rooms with so many dead animals displayed as trophies. There were some areas where we needed to watch our heads in order not to bump into an animal on display.

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Some of the animals on displayed that were on the wall causing a low overhead when walking.

Walking through the different rooms we came across animals from all different areas of the world. We came across monkeys, gazelles and wild boars from Africa.

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Monkeys, wild boars, and other African animals on display
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Wild boar in Museo de Caza in Ronda

There were water buffalo and other African animals, some which I have never seen before.

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There was a pair of  Elephant tusk that was on display which was enormous. The plaque indicated that the tusk were obtained prior to the ban on ivory.

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African Elephant Tusk on display at Museo de Caza in Ronda

We even saw animals that were from North America and Canada in particular.

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Brown Bear that was killed in Canada
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Black bears and assorted gazelles on display. Note the elephant foot used as a table on the right.

There were walls full of mounted skulls with horns displayed from all over the world.

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Horns and skulls mounted and displayed in Museo de Caza

They had every imaginable type of animal displayed including waterfowl, groundhogs, and birds.

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Waterfowl on display at the Museo de Caza

The museum was full of animals from around the world. It was hard to imagine that such a collection of animals were on display in the small mountaintop town of Ronda Spain.

“Adios y que tiene un gran dia”

France

Driving in Paris

We saw first hand just how intense and dangerous it can be to drive in Paris.  We were on the Hop-on bus touring the city of Paris and watched how the drivers navigated the streets.  The traffic is heavy and there are numerous scooters and motorcycles on the roads.

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Heavy traffic in downtown Paris

Some of the streets are multi-lane up to four or five lanes wide.

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The motorcycles and scooters swerve through traffic sometimes in very dangerous maneuvers.

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Motorcycles passing on the right of the bus and cutting off pedestrians crossing the road in Paris.

In order to demonstrate the intense traffic and dangerous driving of some motorist in Paris, we made a short YouTube video. The video is quickened to not be too long but you will get a good sense of the driving there. Take a look at the YouTube video and let us know what you think.

https://youtu.be/oeW-iZl1dhE

“Au revoir et bonne journée”

 

United Kingdom

A visit to London England

We went to London for a few days to tour the city. We took a hop-on bus, in order to view as many of the sites as possible. The capital of England is a very large city with a population of over 8.6 million people.

We started our day with a tour of the main section of London. We saw some beautiful and historic sites. The tower of London was interesting because the tower is not very high, certainly not what we expected.

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The Tower of London

We also saw “Big Ben” which is the nickname for the great bell in the clock tower. People refer to the clock tower as Big Ben, but the tower is officially called the “Elizabeth Tower” named in 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The tower holds the second largest four-faced chiming clock in the world and is very impressive.

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Palace of Westminster with the Elizabeth Tower.

We also stopped at Buckingham Palace. The exterior of the Palace is very spectacular. We walked around the outside of Buckingham Palace admiring the building.

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Buckingham Palace in London

Buckingham Palace has a large steel fence with several gates at the front. The gates are very large and have the royal coat of arms prominently displayed on them.

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Ray and Shelley at the front of Buckingham Palace gates

Inside the fenced area of Buckingham Palace, we could see the Royal guards as well as regular police security.

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Royal Guard at the Buckingham Palace

We then took a riverboat cruise on the Thames River. The views from the water were different from seeing the sites from the hop-on bus. We traveled the Thames River up to the tower bridge which is an iconic symbol of London.

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Tower Bridge in London
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A view of the Tower Bridge in London from the Thames River
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Shelley and Ray on the shore of the Thames River with the Tower Bridge in the background

Along, our water cruise, we saw the London Eye which is basically a giant Ferris wheel with observation platforms.

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A view of the London Eye from the Thames River

We saw some very interesting buildings along the Thames River including a Pup called “The Anchor Bankside” which was a pup under different for over 800 years. It was also a location for a scene in the Mission Impossible movie.

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A view of the Anchor Bankside Pup on the south bank of the Thames River in London.

We also saw the London Bridge which was quite a surprise for us. The bridge was not very impressive and was plain.

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A view of the London Bridge from the Thames River
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Under the London Bridge

We spent the entire day traveling throughout London looking at the many historic sites. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to tour inside any of the sites. We will plan another trip to London in the future to visit this amazing city in more detail.

“Bob’s your uncle, Cheerio”

Spain

Visit to Cuenca Spain

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We took the high-speed rail system to Cuenca Spain, a small quaint city in the mountains. We arrived at the train station “Cuenca Fernando Zobel” which is a new station located on the outskirts of Cuenca.

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Cuenca, Spain the new RENFE train station platform

The new train station is a beautiful new facility and is quite impressive. It looks more like an airport than a train station.

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Inside of the RENFE train station in Cuenca, Spain

We decided to walk into Cuenca and headed down the sidewalk towards the city.

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Walking along the new sidewalk away from the train station toward Cuenca.

As we continued the walk the sidewalk ended and we were walking along the roadway.

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Walking along the side of the road heading towards Cuenca.

We continued to walk for approximately 30 minutes when a priest stopped his car and approached us.  He asked us if we were ok and where we were headed. We told him to our hotel in Cuenca and he indicated that we were about 6 kilometers away from our hotel. He offered to take us there in his vehicle and we decided to take him up on his offer. The four of us and our carry bags squeezed into his small compact 4 cylinder car. The priest was very helpful and drove us to the hotel.

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Priest driving us to the hotel in Cuenca

We thanked him very much and offered him some money, which he refused. He told us to pray for him and wished us well. It is nice to see the goodwill of strangers and to be the recipient of a random act of kindness.

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Our hotel “Torremangana” in Cuenca, Spain

We settled into our hotel rooms and prepared for the next few days of exploration and adventures in Cuenca Spain.

Spain

A walk on the Beach of Arenales

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We decided to take the bus and head out to Arenales for a walk along the beach. The bus from Alicante to Arenales takes about a half and hour and provides some beautiful views of the Mediterranean Sea along the way.

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Brad and Louise on the Bus to Arenales

Once we got to Arenales we decided to have lunch before heading out to the beach.

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Beachside restaurant in Arenales

We enjoyed some traditional Spanish food, which consisted of Potato salad with tuna, ham, Seafood salad, and refreshments. After lunch, we walked along the beach working our way to the point towards Santa Pola. The beach and scenery were beautiful.

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Ray and Brad walking along the beach in Arenales

We walked approximately 2 kilometers up the beach and decided to stop and have a break at a beach front bar.

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Ray, Brad, Louise, and Shelley at beach front bar

After our break, we continued up the beach. Along the walk, we found an interesting fish?? washed up on the beach.

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Fish?? washed up on the beach in Arenales

Ray and Brad decided that a swim in the Mediterranean Sea was a good idea. They both went into the water and enjoyed swimming in the Sea and body surfing the waves.

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Ray and Brad in the Sea

After the swim and walk along the beach, we headed back to the bus stop and returned to Alicante. It was a very enjoyable full day of walking the beach and lots of sun.

“adios y que tenga un gran dia”