May 14 - Sonora Desert Museum

 The Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place. The landscape is Arizona Desert to a T. Cactuses, desert flowers and trees. It’s spring time so the plants are in flower. The cactuses have flowers popping up all over. The museum is also an animal preservation site with desert animals, birds and fish, some rescued animals, others here to preserve a breeding group of endangered animals. 

 

 

Squirrels were all over the park

Mexican Grey Wolf 

 

Dragon Flies

 

Long Horn Sheep

Quail

May 12 - Tubac Arizona

 Tucson is about 120 km from Nogales, on the border with Mexico and just before that is a small town called Tubac, dating back to 1752. This is now an art and craft town with beautiful galleries and gift shops selling local and Mexican art and craft. There is also a small Spanish mission, Tumacacori ,built in the 1600s by Jesuit then Franciscan monks as a mission to the local O’odham people. It is now just an historical site as anti Spanish violence in the 178h century meant it had to be closed down.

We had lunch at a golf resort nearby looking out over green grass to the Santa Rita Mountain range.

Sculptures Tubac

Tumacacori Mission

Mission Church - not quite up to the standards of La Sagrada Familia but it was built in the 17th century

What’s left of the sanctuary 

The bell tower

Tubac Golf resort

May 11 - Tucson

 We’re now in Tucson, staying with Di’s best friend from high school, Dell, and her husband Jerry. Their house looks out on the Catalina mountains and a landscape of cactuses and dry country trees. It’s springtime and the cactuses and other trees are all in flower.

May 10 Barcelona to Los Angeles

 Today was a travel day, from Barcelona to Helsinki then straight on to Los Angeles. Our bags were safely transferred to the LA flight despite our first leg being 15 minutes late.

Our flight took us over Greenland (which must have been named in Summer - see the photos below) then across Canada and down to LA. We arrived in LA just 1 hour after our departure time in Helsinki. Jet lag here we come!

May 9 Barcelona

 Yesterday we flew from Bologna to Barcelona, we had ashore walk around the block but didn’t really do any sightseeing.

Today we visited La Sagrada Familia, the amazing cathedral designed by Gaudi in the late 19th century. It was started in 1882 with Guadi taking over the design and construction in 1883. Building stopped in 1926 with Guadi’s death and then the Spanish Civil war and wasn’t resumed until the 1950s. Construction was slow because of Gaudi’s intricate designs plus the fact that the building is fully funded by donations. An Australian/New Zealand Architect became involved in the project in 1979. He introduced computer design and computer controlled stone cutting which has greatly increased the speed of construction, such that it is expected to be completed by 2026. As you’ll see from some of these pictures there is still plenty of construction going on with cranes hovering over the site, but internally it mostly complete. I don’t have room her for all my photos but they are all on on my website.

The front of the Cathedral features carvings depicting the nativity and the other side of the cathedral has carvings depicting the crucifixion. Inside the pillars are shaped to remind you of the plane trees in the streets around. The stained glass windows are amazing and the high ceiling gives a sense of majesty and awe that befits the worship of the one true and living God.

 

One of the many beaches alongside the city

Wahale sculpture - above the Casino

Yachts waiting for summer

May 7 Bologna

 Bologna has managed to preserve the gates of the old city if not its original walls. Some are in better condition than others. These are the few that we passed by.

Ports Castigliane

Porta Galliera

Porta San Vitale

Porta Saragozza

Porta Saragozza

Porta di Strade Maggiore

Porta San Felice

As we walked along one of the small streets on the edge of the old city we came across this piece of sculpture, just sitting on the edge of a portico.

The poet, Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci was the first Italian to win the Nobel prize for literature. His residence is in the north east corner of the old city. This is part of the garden.

The Davia Bargellini Museum house an interesting collection of artworks from Bolgna plus a large variety of applied art objects often collected from archeological digs, from pottery dating from the 1300s, to furniture to embroidery, Venetian glass, Venetian marionettes and a selection of brass door knobs, knockers, keys, etc and even an 18th century carriage.

Palazzo Pepoli

Chiesa di San Petronio