This was one of my first views of the Mediterranean.  Beautiful, isn't it?  I took this picture one morning in Port Bou, which is only a few miles from France.  I stopped at the tiny town on my way to Tarragona.

This picture shows part of Port Bou, which, as you can see, is set in the mountains along the coast.  This is the Costa Brava region of Spain, a popular destination for tourists.

This picture is of Tarragona, a coastal city founded by Romans.  You can see some ruins of a Roman amphitheater to the right of the photo.  Around the third century, Christians built a church in the middle of the theater, which was no longer in use.  The church was built in the shape of a cross to constantly remind believers of their Savior.

The Roman amphitheater is centered in this photo, but I think the sea steals the show here.  =)

Here's a different angle of the Mediterranean from about the same spot as the picture above.  When I took these pictures, I was on top of a wall that the Romans built around the center of the city.  Surprisingly, much of the wall is still intact.  The main section is now a museum about Tarragona's history.

This is a tunnel that the Romans built underground to help support a higher tunnel built above this one.  See that light at the end of the tunnel?  =)  It's the exit to the tunnel, and it's as tall as I am.  A lot of people ask me what the lights are along the bottom of the tunnel.  Well...they're lights at the bottom of the tunnel.  If they weren't there, the path would be pretty dark, and people might sue the museum if they fell.

This little picture shows Spain's Royal Palace (Palacio Reál) in Madrid.  Unlike the pic, the real palace is quite large. (Did you catch that pun?)  To get an idea of the palace's size, look at the car toward the bottom left of the photo.

This is the Royal Cathedral in Madrid.  It was so big that I couldn't fit it in the picture, even with the camera angled!  The Cathedral doors were huge; each door was about fifteen feet high and made of solid wood.  They were intricately carved with illustrations from the Bible and pictures of Catholic saints.  Although Spain was Communist at one time, it's main religion now is Catholicism, like it was before it's Communist period.

The monument in this plaza commemorates Columbus and his discovery of America.  The Spanish are quite proud of Columbus...even though it seems to me like he's just another man who got lost because he wouldn't stop for directions.  =)

This is the "Communications Palace" in Madrid.  Natives to the city make fun of the building because it is so ornate that it looks like a palace, while it is actually the headquarters for the national communications company...kind of like AT&T, but a monopoly..... =)

This is the first cathedral that Gaudí designed.  In Barcelona, it's called El Catedrál.  That's "the cathedral", for those of you who speak neither español nor spanglish.  See how elaborate and decorative everything is?  It's kind of gaudy if you ask me....

Here's another of Gaudí's buildings.  This one reminds me of skeletons, but it's still really lovely.  I think the colors of the wall are fitting for a coastal city. 

This is the bay in Barcelona.  That big white thing on the left?  That's a boat.

This concludes the Spanish portion of my web site.  I hope you have enjoyed your visit.  If you feel that you have not seen enough pictures, feel free to stop by any of the other pages on my site.  Please come back again.