This is our website which has our updates and pictures of our trip abroad during 2004-2005.
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- View from our apartment (Tenerife)
- Bananera (Tenerife) 2km from our home
- Final Blog Update
- Early Anniversary at the Eiffel Tower Photos
- Anniversary Lunch: Altitude 95 Rest., Eiffel Twr, ...
- Pictures from the top of the Eiffel Tower
- Notre Dame Cathedral Pictures
- The Louvre Pictures
- Random Photos in Paris
- New Portugal Photos Available
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Tom and Ronit Ricoy
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Ricoy Update No. 8
Hope you all had a beautiful Valentine´s Day! We enjoyed a wonderful meal made by my husband-the-chef, accompanied by wine, chocolate, and my favorite flowers from our wedding.
I´m writing to tell you about our weekend, though. We went to Segovia, about an hour outside of Madrid. If you come to Spain, I´d include Segovia on your itinerary.
They say Segovia was founded by a great-grandson of Noah around 1076 B.C.
The most amazing thing I saw there remains from the Roman period: an aquaduct built in the first century A.D. We´ll try to get the photos on our blog by March. It is 728 meters long with a maximum height of 28.9 meters and it was made of huge stones with no mortar and is still standing strong almost 2000 years later!
The Alcanzar looks like a fairy-tale castle (the kind Walt Disney would create and probably copied). We´ll include these photos too.
The Cathedral has the tallest ceilings I have ever seen in my entire life. This is the first European cathedral I have been in, so I don´t have much to compare it to, but Tom also thought it was amazing (and he has seen several).
Visiting the Old Jewish Quarter was sad because Segovia was one of the places in Europe and Spain that suffered less persecution for a time and the Jewish community grew. Then in the early 15th century, the Catholic Monarchs ordered that Jews and Christians separate and created the Jewish Quarter, which was further enclosed to really become a Jewish ghetto. Then of course in 1492 the Spanish kicked all Jews out of Spain and that was the end of that. The old synagogue was turned into a Catholic church, but today there is an educational museum at its side. Even so, some idiots spray-painted swastikas in the alley. Yet a Spanish official claimed, ¨There is no anti-Semitism in Spain.¨ Really?
The other memorable experience in Segovia was eating at a Balkan restuarant. There are many things I enjoy about Spain, but the food is not one of them. (That´s just as well as eating out is expensive, so we got a place with a kitchen.) Anyway, the Bulgarian waitresses were really nice and the atmosphere made us want to visit Bulgaria! (Who knows, maybe we will.)
¶
11:55 AM
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Ricoy Update No. 7
Hello Friends and Family!
We have crossed the ocean and are exploring a new continent! Today we visited a famous museum in Madrid: El Prado. Since we are not students of art/art history, we wandered around for a few hours and felt very uncultured. We bought a book and will return to the museum next week (having ¨studied up¨) to try to more fully appreciate what we see! We have rented an apartment in Madrid for the discount monthly rate, so it looks as if we will be here in the city through the end of the month. The architecture is beautiful and OLD (I don´t know how old our building is, but I intend to find out). If we stick our heads far out the balcony, we can see an ornate statue, and as we look up and down the narrow street, we can admire some incredible architecture. (Again, I feel I need to ¨study up¨so that I can better appreciate what I am seeing.) The thing you don´t want to do is look down or walk to the next block -- if you want to maintain that "cultured" feeling, that is The reason: Affordability also means the red light district. There are, sadly, at least five ¨sex shops¨within a mile of our place! However, there are several police cars which plant themselves firmly on the corner and it seems quite safe to walk around. There are always people -- everywhere. We have already determined that we are NOT ¨city people,¨ but it is exciting to be in the middle of it all for the short-term. In addition to expanding our art and architecture horizons, we are enjoying just being lazy and reading this week. (We are still hurting from that car accident in Guatemala, and we really pushed ourselves phsycially in order to help Lucy in Oaxaca, Mexico, so we´re taking a little recovery time -- saw a physical therapist, etc. We are beginning to wonder if we´ll ever fully recover from those injuries and it can get pretty depressing, even though we`ve just had the reminder -- with Lucy -- of how much we have to be thankful for.). Tom is still studying on-line, completing his degree in Business. They send him his textbooks, anywhere in the world, and he logs on a few times during the week, turning in all his assignments by Saturday of each week. He is going to take Spanish here to fulfill his elective courses, beginning next month. (We tried to get approval for a school when we were in Guatemala, but it appears easier to get credits approved for his program from a school in Spain.)
Lucy still needs your prayers. When we left Oaxaca, she was in the hospital, beginning treatment and awaiting more tests. She has had the spinal tap but we still do not know the results of that. Thank you so much to those who donated and helped cover the cost of her trip to Mexico City for the MRI, neurologist appointments, etc. All of her current medical costs have been covered. (She will, unfortunately, continue to have medical needs and medical costs. We will keep you updated and let you know which organization can best get those funds to her as we are no longer in Mexico.)
I just got another e-mail from Madeleine in Guatemala, who reports that the school year (January to October) has gotten off to a good start there.
Hope you all are well! It has been wonderful to get your updates -- thank you for those.
Happy (early) Valentines Day!
Ronit and Tom
We have crossed the ocean and are exploring a new continent! Today we visited a famous museum in Madrid: El Prado. Since we are not students of art/art history, we wandered around for a few hours and felt very uncultured. We bought a book and will return to the museum next week (having ¨studied up¨) to try to more fully appreciate what we see! We have rented an apartment in Madrid for the discount monthly rate, so it looks as if we will be here in the city through the end of the month. The architecture is beautiful and OLD (I don´t know how old our building is, but I intend to find out). If we stick our heads far out the balcony, we can see an ornate statue, and as we look up and down the narrow street, we can admire some incredible architecture. (Again, I feel I need to ¨study up¨so that I can better appreciate what I am seeing.) The thing you don´t want to do is look down or walk to the next block -- if you want to maintain that "cultured" feeling, that is The reason: Affordability also means the red light district. There are, sadly, at least five ¨sex shops¨within a mile of our place! However, there are several police cars which plant themselves firmly on the corner and it seems quite safe to walk around. There are always people -- everywhere. We have already determined that we are NOT ¨city people,¨ but it is exciting to be in the middle of it all for the short-term. In addition to expanding our art and architecture horizons, we are enjoying just being lazy and reading this week. (We are still hurting from that car accident in Guatemala, and we really pushed ourselves phsycially in order to help Lucy in Oaxaca, Mexico, so we´re taking a little recovery time -- saw a physical therapist, etc. We are beginning to wonder if we´ll ever fully recover from those injuries and it can get pretty depressing, even though we`ve just had the reminder -- with Lucy -- of how much we have to be thankful for.). Tom is still studying on-line, completing his degree in Business. They send him his textbooks, anywhere in the world, and he logs on a few times during the week, turning in all his assignments by Saturday of each week. He is going to take Spanish here to fulfill his elective courses, beginning next month. (We tried to get approval for a school when we were in Guatemala, but it appears easier to get credits approved for his program from a school in Spain.)
Lucy still needs your prayers. When we left Oaxaca, she was in the hospital, beginning treatment and awaiting more tests. She has had the spinal tap but we still do not know the results of that. Thank you so much to those who donated and helped cover the cost of her trip to Mexico City for the MRI, neurologist appointments, etc. All of her current medical costs have been covered. (She will, unfortunately, continue to have medical needs and medical costs. We will keep you updated and let you know which organization can best get those funds to her as we are no longer in Mexico.)
I just got another e-mail from Madeleine in Guatemala, who reports that the school year (January to October) has gotten off to a good start there.
Hope you all are well! It has been wonderful to get your updates -- thank you for those.
Happy (early) Valentines Day!
Ronit and Tom
¶
3:12 PM