Travelog for: Sir James

Today we went out for a bike ride. One of our hosts had to run some errands so we went along to see a bit of the city. It wasn't much but we still had a lot of fun.
We passed by a big park named after a famous spanish poet, the Federico Garcia Lorca. It was very pretty, and had many flowers:

(scroll to the right to see the full picture)
But our host was in such a hurry that he took the panoramic image too fast... so don't worry, although I look like I lost my ear it's still there.

We also passed by the Museum of Science. Here I am with Capote and Kibblet rolling a big marble ball that weighs one ton! :O

We felt very strong, but it's easier because the ball is floating on water.

And here's the biggest river that crosses Granada, it's called the Genil:

As you can see the day was very sunny, and it was getting so hot I had to loosen up my scarf...

I like my scarf very much and I don't want to stop wearing it, but this is not the right weather for using it... oh well, I guess that if you want to get to know the world you must put up with some inconvenient weather.

Love from Granada,
Sir James.

Hello Mommy,
We've been having a good time, although the weather is still very hot. This week was Corpus Christi and it's when the main fair of Granada takes place. So we went to the "Recinto Ferial", here I am with my friends Kibblet and Capote in the main entrance:

As you can see I had to take off the scarf because of the heat.

Right inside there were many shops with many other fun things:

We had lunch there with some friends and then danced a long time, it was so much fun!, too bad we didn't take many more pictures.
There were a lot of townspeople from the province that came in their horses and carriages all dressed up.

We had a lot of fun that lasted until the evening. We passed by the central square of Granada, called the Bib-Rambla.
Capote says this dragon tried to eat him before:

But the squared looked very different this time with so many lights and so many people. Many flamenco schools were performing there as well.

Before finally going home we stopped by a very good ice cream store:

I put on my scarf after because it was getting cooler outside, maybe in part because of the ice cream.

Here I am in from of the Town Hall. It was also specially decorated because of the fair:

I specially liked how there are many flowers here in Granada, in spite of the very hot weather.

Many of the buildings looked ancient but well mantained. And there were many decorations thanks to the festivities:


Here's the main post office:


The city is named after the pomegranate fruit, so you can find drawings of the fruit in the city (and even in the Spanish Coat of Arms), so here you can see it in flowers by a fountain called the fountain of the battles:

I had a lot of fun today... it was very nice to see the town on a holiday.
Love,
Sir James

Hello mommy,
Today we started a surprise trip, here I am with Kibblet and Capote in the Málaga Airport:

we took a very economic airline, it was funny how bright the colors were inside the plane, they also had lotto on board and when we landed they played a loud fanfare sound:

When we got to Budapest we took the train, it was very old and worn out, but at least it seemed clean:


Here I am with the Parliament building from the other side of the Danube river, it's very big and pretty:


We then walked to the center of the eastern side of the city, they used to be two cities divided by the river, Buda and Pest, when they joined the two by the bridge they just joined the two names, so this part is in Pest. Here we are in front of a mall and the Hard Rock Cafe:


They had a cultural act were people from very different places around the World showed their folkloric dances:


In that same square there was a nice fountain, here I am with my friends:


We continued walking until we got so tired we had to stop for a rest in the grass in front of the main opera house:


Then we walked through the famous Chain Bridge to Buda:


Then we went to the Castle Hill, here I am in front of Mathias Church


And the Fishersman's Bastion, can you find me?:


Here we are in a model of both those buildings:


Then we went down to a very very very scary place called Labirintus, it was a lot of underground caves and it was very dark, luckily there was a map and we were able to get out:

That's it for Budapest, here we are leaving in the train:


Love,
Sir James

So we went by train to Balatonalmádi, a really small town by Balaton lake:

It was a really old train and it didn't have air conditioning, so it was so hot I thought I was going to melt!.

Here I am in the train station:


Then we walked to the lake and it was really pretty, and we saw some ducks and swans:


It was a really nice place, quiet and peaceful, here's the view from our window were we watched many trains go by and the boats in the lake to the left:


I liked Balatonalmádi, the weather was nice for summer, although it was so full of mosquitos.
Love,
Sir James

After Balatonalmádi, we went back to Budapest and took a plane to Barcelona, here's me in the plane, I love flying:

In Barcelona we visited the famous Gaudi's church, "La Sagrada Familia":

It was amazing, with lots of pretty details, it's still in construction since 1882!, I hope to see it finished some day.
Then we took a walk by the beach:


Here's me with my friends having a great time:


Love,
Sir James

In Barcelona we boarded a cruise in which we will sail several days in the Mediterranean, we're very excited, it's such a big ship!.

Here you can see a view of the port:


I had a great time relaxing with my friends!


We spent the first day navigating, we went through the middle of the islands of Sardinia:


And Corsica:


We had a lot of fun on board, it's very nice and there are a lot of fun things to do all the time. We even got to see the control bridge and the Captain navigate between the islands, but no photos were allowed.

Ahoy,
Sir James

Today we docked at Naples and there we took a train to the ancient city of Pompeii:


When we arrived the ruins' workers were on a strike so we decided to go to the Vesuvius volcan first, to get there we took a huge all-terrain buses that looked like military trucks:

The ride was really bumpy! and there were a lot of curves so I got a little dizzy, the road was also very narrow so it seemed like we were about to fall of a cliff!.

When we finally arrived we still had a long way to the top, luckily we fit in our hosts' bag and he carried us all the way (it was very dusty so I would have ended up completly dirty anyways).

On the top we got to see the inside of a giant volcano's crater!:

It was really amazing! and the volcan is still active!

After going down, we visited the ruins of Pompeii, this city was destroyed by the volcano's eruption more than 19 centuries ago but the ruins were only discovered recently so it's been very well preserved.
The place was really big and there was a lot of sun, definetly no place for a nice polar bear like me, but it was still very interesting to see such a well organized and complete city from so long ago. Many of the things and people were conserved exactly how they were when the volcano erupted. Here's us in one of the temples:


It was a very fun day, but in the end we had to rush to the train or the ship would leave us, so we could only see Naples as we walked by. This is from when we were waiting for the train:


Love,
Sir James

Bon giorno!
Today we went to Rome, the first thing we visited was the Coliseum, of course:

Next thing we visited was the Fontana di Trevi, the tour guide was in such a hurry that we didn't take any pictures. I hope you believe me.
But I did throw a coin backwards into the fountain so I'll be coming back some day!

We walked really fast and saw many historical buildings and learned a lot of the very long history of Rome.We stopped for a little in Piazza Navona:

We wanted to take a group picture but Kibblet wouldn't stop chasing that cat:


Then we stopped for a quick lunch, I had lasagna, in Italy!, it was very good , they make very good pasta here!.

Finally we visited the Vatican, here's me in front of Saint Peter's Basilica, the biggest church in the World. We went inside and it was gorgeous.


Well this is it for Rome, we only spent a few hours here so we had to run and see everything quickly, but as the tour guide said, this was just an appetizer so we would come back and see Rome more calmly some other time.

Arrivederci,
Sir James

Ciao mamma!
I have been improving my Italian!, today we went to Florence and Pisa!, here you can see me in front of the Cathedral of Florence, it was really nice and really big but it was really simple inside. A very interesting site.


Florence is filled with amazing buildings and works of art in the streets. Here I am with a replica of Michelangelo's David.


And after Florence we stopped by Pisa and in the miracle's square saw the famous leaning tower...

I of course tried to straighten it up .

Baci,
Sir James

Hello mommy,
Today we visited a lot of different places, first a town that is called Éze in France which is really small and is on top of a very steep hill. Here I am before going up:


Then we went to Monaco, here I am overlooking it, still from France:


When we got there we first went to the castle, here's me with Capote and Kibblet .

There we saw the change of guard and then took some pictures of the view.


Here's the Marina where you can see part of the Formula-1 race track (which is a normal street when they're not racing):


and the Justice Palace:


and of course the famous Montecarlo casino:


We also had the chance to visit the city of Cannes and get our picture taken in the Red Carpet of the film festival:

I think some people might have recognized us from our famous travels because many of them took pictures of us.

My hosts let me drink a bit of wine, since they knew this was part of my life missions, but we forgot to take a picture .

Finally we got into an emergency life boat to go back to our ship it was really fun:

Here's a view of Cannes from the ship:


I had a lot of fun today... and again got to visit more than one country in one day!. I love getting to know so many places.
Love,
Sir James

Hello,
Today our ship stopped in Marseille but we stayed on board to relax and enjoy our last day at sea.

Here's a view of Marseille from the port:


Love,
Sir James

Hello mom,
Today we said goodbye to Kibblet, as always it was sad, but we're happy to have him travelling and getting to know the World. Before leaving Granada we organized a proper goodbye with the help of his Original Dog friends:

He really liked it.

After that we left to Valencia by a midnight train-hotel:


We had a lot of fun on board:


We arrived to a very pretty station that had a very classic look to it:

Valencia has a very interesting area that is called the "City of arts and science" where a very famous arquitect was in charge of many buildings, it's really amazing how every one of them looks very futuristic:


Here you can see a suspension bridge and the Opera House.


We took a quick bus ride to the beach:

There we had a lot of fun playing and basking in the Sun... I think I've become used to the summer heat.

We also visited the city center, here I am in front of the city hall:


But everything must come to an end, and so here I am waiting for another midnight train back to Granada:


Love,
Sir James

Hi mommy!,
Sorry I haven't written in such a long time.
We've been relaxing at home most of the time, not much to say for a while. Here's me watching the Olympic games:


We went up to the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which is a sky resort. But since it's been such a hot summer it wasn't very "Nevada" (which means snowed), here are the sky slopes:

So we walked up to the an astronomical observatory!, they have many big telescopes in there and they use them to look at stars very far away.

Look at this rock, it was falling up instead of down!


We also hiked around the mountains, it was a nice exercise.


And the sights were very pretty:


Here we are looking back at the astronomical observatory and also a big antena they also use to look at the stars.


We found a small lake. I wanted to take a swim and at 3000 meters of altitude, the water was very cold, just how I like it, but my hosts said that I would get dirty walking down all wet.


Love,
Sir James

Hello mommy!
Today a new toyvoyager arrived!, and not any ToyVoyager, but the Voyager of the Week, at first he was shy





but then we became really good friends!


He's been in many places and tells really good stories, his name is Phinook


We took a bus to the city center, and Susy came with us. She's a new ToyVoyager waiting to start her journey.


I showed my friends around town. Here is Granada's main post office and a street painter being inspired by the street life:



This is the town hall



And these are some typical moorish shops in narrow streets by the city center.




And the city's most centric square, the Bib-Rambla:



When we came back home we decided to bake a cake, here we are with all the ingredients, it was very good to have so many helping hands



We took turns at working the mixer



Sadly, when we were done, we were so excited to eat the cake that we forgot to take a picture before it was gone!.
It was a really nice day, two new friends, seeing more of the city center and a cake!.
Love,
Sir James

Hello,
Today I joined my host parents to do run some errands and on our way back we stopped in a few nice places. Here's the local Plaza de Toros (bullfighting ring).


There are many pretty buildings in Granada, here's a government building in the center.



Love,
Sir James