Busy Busy

I recently got back from a vacation (aka medieval research trip) to Spain, hence all of the reviews the last few months about Spanish history. I'm in the process of going through the 7000+ photos I took (many MANY duplicates that need deleting) and getting back into the swing of life. I wasn't able to read on the trip so I'm afraid I won't have a book review until next week after I've finished Torn by Rowena Miller (which is fantastic so far, sort of a fantasy version of the French Revolution).

I'm hoping to do some posts about some of the stuff I saw. This was my second trip to Spain, which is a gorgeous country with a lot of great churches and castles. Last time I did the north (Camino to Santiago de Compostela) and the Alhambra in Granada. I went to Toledo but was too tired to do more than wander the medieval streets (which I LOVED). This time I did Seville, Cordoba, Toledo (to actually see the sights), and Madrid. I learned a fair bit about Jewish and Muslim customs so I could better appreciate the architecture of the 3 synagogues I visited and the mosques turned churches after the reconquest. Did a TON of walking and decided the replacement insoles I got for my running shoes were garbage. My feet hurt every night. Worth it though considering everything I was able to see. Looking into buying new insoles right now.

My next vacation/research trip is to Ethiopia, which has some amazing rock hewn churches and liturgical manuscripts. I expect to spend the next month or two finishing off my Spanish research and compiling what I did on that trip before turning to researching Ethiopia and early Christian (and probably Jewish) history.