On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good Morning All,
Still working on things, so today’s a bit light.
Regardless, have a wonderful day and enjoy the pictures!
Oh – before I forget – today is the First of August, Swiss National Day. Cheese, sausage, wine, good bread, and good mustard are called for, as well as brotherhood(and sisterhood!), good music and good cheer. I’ve got a few treats lined up for the day, but no festivities this year. Next year I’ll be changing that.
Today, pictures from valued commenter Skinny Ankles.
Pictures I took from a recent trip to Granada Spain where my wife and I will be relocating to permanently next year.
Jamon and vino
Key part of the Granadino diet!
Thank you so much Skinny Ankles, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
p.a.
Mmmmmmm… Cured porcine goodness.
And wine…
rikyrah
Awe…more pics, please?
Amir Khalid
@p.a.:
I think the queso cabra might be halal. Anything else would make me burst into flames.
Dan B
@Amir Khalid: As a certified member, well, friends are, of Flaming Queens Ltd. you are granted an honorary tiara.
Oh, you meant something else.. by flames.
But it is interesting that Islam played such a key role in Iberia. When did the wine and sausage / jamon arrive?
Tokyokie
It’s the Swiss national day? Damn, I should be wearing one of my Nati jerseys.
HinTN
Hey @Skinny Ankles if you are around, how did you come to choose Granada?
HinTN
@Dan B:
I think they predated and outlasted the expansion of Islam across Iberia.
Amir Khalid
@Dan B:
I’m pretty sure the Muslim conquerors didn’t bring alcoholic beverages and pork products. Those would have been part of the native cuisine.
p.a.
Maybe not de jure , but I believe de facto Islam has historically been a bit wobbly on vino. Not so on pork.
currants
Oh Skinny Ankles–wow, Granada! Thank you! I loved that place–pomegranate (granada) emblems everywhere, on the ironwork gates, on the lights, above doorways–loved that. I went there primarily to visit the Alhambra and the Generalife (look them up on Instagram for some great photos). (And if you go, make sure you get a ticket to visit at night TOO, not just in the day time.) The sound of water was almost everywhere–what an amazing place. Stayed in Cuevas el Abanico –lots of walking, but just about eye level across the ravine from the Generalife and the Alhambra and wonderfully gorgeous at night. Would do that again in an instant, and wow, relocating there would be quite something. (Of course the whole city is not the Alhambra and surrounds, but still.)
Aleta
Raclette over a campfire (someplace with cooler air than here).
Take a hike (pref. uphill); sit and eat a slab of good chocolate on a hunk of crusty bread. Find a cow and put a really nice melodious bell on her; take her on a walk somewhere that has an echo. Be neutral about something. Swim in a cold deep lake. Look at then-and-now pictures of a glacier retreating up a valley.
Comparison photos of Swiss glaciers, with sliders.
Happy Swiss National Day!
eta There’s an estimate that more than 500 new lakes will be formed in Switzerland as glaciers melt and decades pass. More swimming places.
Elizabelle
Granada! You have my attention. Lucky bugs, to be relocating.
@currants: I had not picked up on the pomegranate reference. Beautiful place; didn’t see it as much as I’d hoped to as my traveling friend came down with food poisoning from another Spanish city. But did a minimal tour of the Alhambra, and enjoyed roaming the streets a bit. (Mostly looking for ginger ale and saltine crackers. Not easy to find in Granada.)
Origuy
I was in Grenada in 1995. I arrived on a train from Sevilla, got out my Rough Guide and called a hostel to get a room. Took a crowded bus there. When I arrived, the woman told me something about the aqua en la noche. I thought she told me that the hot water was shut off at night, not unusual. I went up to my room to take a nap. When I awoke after 9 PM, there was no water at all. I found out later that because of a severe drought, the city water shut off at night. Only the big hotels which had cisterns had water at night. I had to buy a bottle of agua con gas to brush my teeth.
The Alhambra was worth it, though.
J R in WV
Hey, Alain,
I’m a quarter Swiss, my paternal Grandfather’s parents, Johann and Elizabet, came to this country in the late 1890s and settled in a Swiss settled area of NE Ohio, a dairy farming country like their home. My grandfather prospered after a difficult childhood involving a farming accident that left him with no right leg, followed by the county orphanage. But it all worked out he became a printer and eventually owned several small town newspapers.
He took his family to Switzerland to visit cousins wife and 4 kids and a big gray Oldsmobile in – get this – 1938. They toured most all of Europe. I never met any of the European Swiss cousins, I think from the Bern area, Switzerdeutsch speaking, Granddad never spoke any English until grade school.
But I grew up with swiss cheeses from up in Ohio, sauerkraut and short ribs, German style potato salad, etc. And sausages, and beer.
So Happy Switzerland Day, fellow partly Swiss cohort!
Origuy
Alain, I sent you an email with links to my Flickr photos from Russia. Did you get it and can you use it? I tried to make it as easy as possible to drop in. Thanks.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Far be it from me to question anyone’s faith or the dietary restrictions it may impose, but personally I find the existence of jamón ibérico to be a fairly compelling proof of the existence of a just deity.