We decided to do a family sightseeing trip

George and Beth had agreed to go on a family trip and Ann wanted to see Spain and vicinity. We chose a tour company based on our need for a Jewish oriented tour and kosher food (more on that in a later post) and set out an hour before midnight on Oct 21, 2017.  Spain is about as big as Texas so obviously we didn't see the whole country.

The trip included Spain (cities on the map of Spain that we visited include Barcelona, Cordova, Seville, Malaga and Granada), Gibraltar and Portugal (cites on the map of Portugal that we visited include Guarda, Evora, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Sintra and Lisbon).

There was quite a bit more walking and steps then we thought there would be (and some steps were without handrails and even on slippery pavement) but that is the only way to see things in this part of the world.  .

Sightseeing days were long. We typically were up at 7am and didn't get finished with supper until 8pm or so (some days 10pm). Because of this, I had to reconstruct the trip after we took it instead of posting each day. Long sightseeing days are obviously the way to maximize the opportunities to visit places.

In many of the following posts, I provide historical information that comes from all kinds of sources including on line encyclopedias and the sources the encyclopedias reference as well as what local guides told us and also the various brochures we received during the tour. I tried to chase down many of the questions I had about the history. 

However, I may have gotten some facts wrong anyway. Also there are a number of places where the history is actually uncertain or at least I was unable to determine a consensus or adequately document 'correct' opinion. Any help along those lines would be welcome.

maps are from lonelyplanet.com
image of book from walmart.com

Also, almost all the images expand when you click on them. 

A table of contents of sorts is on the right side of the blog. You can click on a subject. Also, when you get to the last 'page' of a blog, you can click the 'older posts' to get to the next page.

Various posts are in different colors. That is just to break up the visual monotony and since some people do better with different colors. 

Finally, I sometimes provide a link to another website. This is done by a one or two word change in color. You click or double click on the word (or words)