The Cards Continue Travels
My name is Peter Card. I am currently teaching and living in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I am truly amazed at where life has taken me. I hope by sharing my experiences it encourages you to pursue your dreams as well. God Bless!
It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since Cheryl and I first made the decision to journey overseas. There are days when we get home from school and we both say we are done. This is our last year. By the end of the week, we are back in agreement: maybe one or two more years. It truly is one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of our lives rolled into one. If I had the chance to do it all over again, knowing what I know right now, I would still would say yes.
With that said, we do not travel as much as we once did. We only travel on the major school breaks: winter, summer and spring. Although the number of trips is a little less, these three vacations were some of the best. I will attempt to chronicle some of our adventures in the next 3 series of articles.
Our summer travels began with a flight to Barcelona.
We began our first night with a night walk through the oldest parts of the city. The city is really a work of art designed to host travelers from across the world. It has welcomed both the Olympics and World Expos for many years. While in Barcelona, we visited Sagrada Familia, a modern work of art cathedral unlike anything we have ever seen although still largely unfinished, Camp Nou, home of the Barcelona Football Club (arguably the most popular soccer teams in the world) and Mountjuic, a high hill in the city home to many attractions. In addition, we took a day trip to Montserrat, the home of a cathedral built atop a mountain where the Black Madonna is worshipped. This does not even begin to scratch the surface of what Barcelona has to offer. Barcelona is truly on par with the greatest cities of Europe such as Paris, London or Rome.
Our next stop took us to Madrid. Madrid is indeed a lovely walking city that seemed to never sleep as we went in early and came out later only to find even more people out and about, but for us it did not start to compare to the charm of Barcelona.
Here’s where my wife says I always go a little overboard. From my internet research on Spain, the majority opinion was that the true beauty of was not in the big cities but in Southern Spain, known as the Andalusia Region. This area contains many cities that still showcase the strong Muslim influence of the once occupied area. This meant train trips to four cities each with their own iconic attractions.
Cordoba: Mosque of Cordoba (Grand Mosque), a mosque converted into a cathedral, a fairly common practice throughout Europe and an ancient bridge crossing the river directly in front of the mosque and the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (Castle of the Christian Monarchs).
Sevilla: Sevilla Cathedral and Plaza de Espana, built for the World Expo of 1928
Granada: Al Hambra, a fort palace built atop a mountain by the Spanish Moors
Malaga: Picasso Museum and Alcazaba, a Moor mountain palace
The research was correct. Southern Spain provided us with a entirely different view of Spain. It was one of my favorite vacations. But it was just the start of a busy summer.
If you would like to hear or see more of my adventures, you may look for Peter Card in the UAE on Youtube or the Peter Card Facebook page. Feel free to leave a question or comment at either of these places or email me at cardsimon@hotmail.com.
