Cycling Oceanside

This picture is taken at Carlsbad beach during a cycling event with Performance Bikes group. We started from the bike shop at Oceanside, rode down Plaza drive to Hecienda, then south on Melrose, to Palomar, to Paseo Del Norte, to Cannon Rd. to Carlsbad Blvd. On the way back we took Cannon Rd. all the way to College Blvd. to Plaza Dr. to the bike shop again. The ride was about 22 miles and took about 2 hours and 15 minutes including a brief stop, which means we were making about 10 miles per hour. My Trek mountain bike served me quite well over the past several years especially on dirt rough roads up and down hills, but here in California one needs a road bike to take on those smoothly paved hilly roads that require a lighter and more maneuver capable bike, so I bought this Fuji Roubaix 1.0 road bike. This bike comes with a light aluminum frame (except the front fork which is all carbon), Ultegra 11-speed drivetrain, 105 front derailleur, and Oval compact crankset and Shimano 11/28 cassette. The wheels are Oval 327 with Vittoria Zaffiro slick Slick tires. At first I installed Shimano pedals with triangular cleats PD-R550 that go with Shimano RP-05 shoes, but after falling four or five times while using them I decided to return them and replace them with regular platform pedals. I rode this new bike along 18 miles which took me about two hours and the experience was fantastic. The Ultegra drivetrain shifts flawlessly and the brakes work great giving an overall exhilarating experience. I also liked the Oceanside bike shop "Performance Bikes" who accepted my returns with no questions asked, and they re-aligned my gears after my numerous falls off the bike free of charge.

Fig Tree Growth

Growing a fig tree is so easy. If you know somebody who has a fig tree, ask them to give you a branch of it during April as the tree starts to bloom. Take that branch and soak it in water for a couple of weeks until you see roots start to come out, then bury it in the ground. That is all to it. In picture number 1 on the right you see the branch after a week or so from planting it in the ground. You see that it started to have leaves. The picture number 2 shows the same branch after a couple more weeks as new leaves started to emerge.

Picture number 3 shows the same branch after six weeks or so when even more leaves came out and it started to grow in thickness as well. The last picture number 4 shows that branch after about six months. We were away for a couple of weeks and when we came back we were surprised to see the tree started to bear figs as you shown in the picture. That was quite a pleasant surprise as we did not expect to see any fruits this year. I am not sure if the fruits will be good enough quality to eat the first year but that remains to be seen. It seems that next year we should have tasty figs coming out of this tree which started as nothing but a leafless branch. I need to point out that no special preparation was made to the soil at all. We just planted that branch and later I used some compost that I prepare in the garden using old leaves and kitchen vegetable refuse. I also installed a sprinkler to the root of the tree so that I don't have to manually water it daily. Other than that the tree is low maintenance and quite easy to grow. Try it out and you will be pleased at the results as I did.

Istanbul Istanbul ...

Istanbul is the only city in the world that falls on two different continents: Asia and Europe. It was the third Ottoman capital after Bursa and Edirne. The picture to the right is that of Hagia Sofia (the holy wisdom), and in front of it is the so called Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet mosque). In Istanbul also there is the famous Topkapi (cannon gate) which used to be the residence of the Ottoman Sultans and their harems. Some of the holy relics contained in Topkapi are: Staff of Moses, sword of David, pan of Abraham, footprint of Prophet Mohammad, keys of the Kaaba, cloak of Prophet Mohammad, his beard hair and his seal. I joined the Fez Travel magic carpet tour which showed us around Istanbul and other cities in Turkey as I will explain next.

Next to the area of Sultan Ahmet mosque and Hagia Sofia there is the remnant of the ancient Hippodrome which was built at the time of Emperor Justinian. To the left you see a picture of the Galata tower north of the Golden Horn (Halci in Turkish). The nine-story tower is about 67 meters high and you can see a beautiful 360 degree panoramic view of the city from the top. Other landmarks of Istanbul are the Istiklal street and the Taksim square which were in the news during last July's failed coup that took place in Turkey. I took a public ferry boat along the Bosphorus and enjoyed the voyage by sea very much. We went under three bridges that cross the Bosphorus. The name of one of the bridges was changed to "The Martyrs of July 15" after the failed coup. Another one is new and was opened recently in August. Other landmarks of Istanbul are the Spice Market "Eminonu", and the Grand Bazaar. The next day we went by bus to Gallipoli where we saw the ANZAC cove and the trenches from WWI. Then from Gallipoli we crossed the sea of Marmara by a ferry boat to a city called Canakkale where we spent the night in Iris Hotel. The next day we visited the ancient city of Troy, but most of its treasures were looted by a German treasure hunter in the nineteenth century. Then we drove to a nice city by the sea called Kusadasi, and along the way, near Izmir, we stopped

to visit the high city "Acropolis" and Bergamo. The next day we visited Ephesus which was built 3000 B.C. from the time of the Hittites. The picture to the right shows the remnants of the library inside Ephesus. There is a nearby town there called Selcuk where the Seljuk Turks of the 11th century ruled before the Ottomans. There is also nearby Sirince which is famous for its wine. In that area there is also the church of Virgin Mary where she is believed to have died, as well as apostle St. John. We visited the temple of Artemis which has nothing left really except one column. The next day we drove to Heriopolis near Pamukkale. There we swam in an antique pool of thermal spring water among historic columns. We stopped at Denizli to buy some towels for the pool first. That area is famous for its Denizli roosters that can crow for 30 seconds, and for its textiles.

Pamukkale's thermal springs have calcium carbonates which gives it its therapeutic effects and its white color. The picture to the left is that of Pamukkale's thermal springs, and its fantastic white slopes made of calcium carbonates. We spent the night in Pamukkale, and the hotel had thermal spring water pool for those who want to partake more of its therapeutic value. The dinner in the hotel was nice and had a big buffet with a large variety of foods and desserts. There were also many tourists in that area especially from the far east and the middle east.

The next morning we drove towards Cappadocia, or the Land of Beautiful Horses. But first along the way we stopped at Konya where we visited the tomb of Jalaluldeen Al Rumi, the mystic who founded the whirling Dervish practice. Near Konya we also passed by the village of Hodja called Akshehir. Hodja was famous for his humorous stories but he was also a philosopher and wise man. We also saw caravan sarays, or caravan depots that were built along the Silk Road during the Seljuk dynasty. Finally we arrived to Cappadocia seen in the picture to the right. It is a beautiful land of wonderful rock formations and where houses and churches were carved out of the mountains. There were also whole cities that were built underground, where early Christians took refuge from the Roman persecution at the time. We spent two wonderful nights in a nice hotel at Cappadocia, and the next day we went on our way to Ankara but we decided not to visit Ataturk's mausoleum there and continued on our way back to Istanbul. I really enjoyed my tour of Turkey so much and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to see the best of Turkey in ten days.

Romulus's Rome

According to myth, Romulus and his brother Remus quarreled about where to found the new city. While Romulus wanted to found the new city on the Palatine Hill, Remus preferred the Aventine Hill. Romulus killed his brother and founded the new city, named it Rome, after himself, and created its first legions and senate. The picture to the right is what remains of the ancient city from circa 750 B.C. when it was first founded on the Palatine Hill. Our guide said it was analogous to today's Beverly Hills in California, a place for the rich and wealthy. While the Roman Forum was its business district. Next to the Palatine Hill you see the famous Roman Colosseum which was destroyed twice by powerful earthquakes, which is why it is missing sections in its structure today ... see picture to the left.

From inside the Colosseum is huge and is under continuous repair. Near that area there are the remains of the place where Julius Caesar was assassinated. It was a good idea to pay extra for a guided tour because it bypasses the long waiting lines, in addition to the explanation of the detailed history of the structure and related subjects. I have to say that Rome was quite hot during the day in August, especially under direct sun light. Prepare to walk a lot in that area to see both the theater as well as the Roman Forum in the Palatine Hill. The Vatican is a separate entity and although it is in the middle of Rome, it is a different country. Its population is about 5 thousand people and it is surrounded by an ancient wall that was meant to protect the popes in the past. The most important structure in the Vatican is the St. Peter's Basilica which is the biggest church in the world, and the most important as well ... see picture to the right.

For my luck a devastating earthquake struck the middle of Italy while I was there, about 100 miles away from Rome. The earthquake shook Rome but I was sleeping at the time and luckily I did not feel it. More than 300 people died and many buildings were destroyed in the Lazio area. The Pope held a special prayer in the Vatican because of the event. I visited the Sistine Chapel which is where they choose the new pope each time, and it is decorated by paintings by Micael Angelo on its walls and ceiling, some of which are quite scandalous, but the pope of the time shielded Michael Angelo from any criticism and kept most of the drawings intact although the bishops of the time wanted to knock down the whole building because of the flagrantly inappropriate paintings. The Vatican museums are full of statues and paintings as well, in addition to maps made in the old times, and other artifacts of significance. It was also a good idea that I joined a tour on that day to bypass the extremely long lines by the walls of the city. Other attractions in Rome are the famous Fontana Di Treva shown in the picture to the left.

Every day people visit that fountain and throw coins in it to make wishes. The government collects daily more than six thousand Euros of coins from the fountain and the proceeds go to various charities that help the poor and estranged women and children. Other important attractions in Rome are the Pantheon, the piazza Venezia, piazza Novana, and the Spanish Stairs. The Pantheon was a temple of the ancient Roman gods. The piazza Venezia was used by Mussolini during WWII and has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in its yard. The piazza Novana is an example of Baroque Roman architecture, and has the famous Fontana Dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers) by Bernini, as well as the Fontana del Moro. The Spanish Stairs is an upscale shopping area where you find the latest designers' collections of clothes and shoes. Don't miss sampling the Italian Gelato, their ice cream made of goat milk and is characteristically sticky and quite tasty. The Italian cuisine is one of the best in the world. I loved their olive oil and pasta dishes with seafood. There is a lot to see in Rome, so plan to stay there at least three days to see all the important historical places. One day for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. One day should be dedicated to the Vatican City, and one day to stroll along the various piazzas (Novana, Venezia, Pantheon, Spanish Stairs, etc.).

San Diego Harbor

One of the attractions of downtown San Diego of course is the harbor area, called the Embarcadero (Spanish for wharf). You can stroll from Embarcadero Marina park to the Maritime museum where there is the Star of India, supposedly the oldest sailing ship in the world. You could also visit the Midway museum which is the longest serving aircraft carrier in the history of the US Navy. Fine dining in the area is abundant, for example try the Fish Market restaurant which serves fresh seafood grilled to your liking. There are also the Harbor Island and Shelter Island which are great places for quiet getaways for people to enjoy a walk or just a peaceful moment overlooking San Diego Bay. San Diego is beautiful.

Aux Champs Elysee

Visiting Paris reminded me of Joe Dassin's song "Aux Champs Elysee". The main pet peeves for me here too was the cigarette smoking which bothered me so much. Everybody smokes everywhere. Restaurants where smoking is not allowed inside, allow people to smoke outside and all the smoke liberally enters inside so you feel you are sitting besides smokers not in a non-smoking area. The iconic Eiffel tower appears anywhere in the city you look. We saw it from our hotel window at La Defense area. The next tallest building you could see from anywhere was the Sacre Coeur cathedral which is built on top of the Montmatre butte, see the picture to the left. The Notre Dame cathedral is the oldest building in Paris and has lot of history in it. The building was destroyed and vandalized during the French revolution, but was restored afterwards and is still suffering major cracks until today. I visited the Louvre museum. It is so huge, and needs at least three days to see everything, but I managed to see the most important things in it, like the Mona Lisa and Napoleon III furniture.

Transportation within Paris is easy and convenient using the Metro system. If you need to go outside Paris, for example to visit the Versaille palace, then you need to take the RER train. Chateaux Versailles was splendid, and full of treasures that tells the story of the kings of France before the revolution, but then Napoleon made himself emperor and royalty returned to France. In the Concorde square I saw the obelisk that Mohammad Ali of Egypt gave as a gift to France's king in 1829. Moving it from Egypt to France was an engineering feat by itself. You can see the obelisk in the picture to the right. What a magnificent scene.

Walking on the Champs Elysee was fun of course, and eating hot chestnuts in the freezing night was nice (called marron chaud, i.e hot chestnuts). Nothing is left of the Bastille castle except some stones. Two famous gardens we saw were the Jardins de Tuileries, and Jardins de Luxembourg. We went to Cherbourg in Normandi also. It was cold, windy and rainy so it was hard walking outdoors, but we saw the Tapestries of Bayeaux that tell the story of how William (Guillaume) the Conqueror became the king of England in 1090 or so. We also saw the structure that Napoleon built near the shore to ward off the British ships from attacking the Normandi shores.

The picture to the left shows a rustic country scene in Cherbourg, Normandi. The area is famous for dairy products and many variants of cheese and butter. As I said it was damp and cold so the trip to Normandi was marred by the weather elements, although it was a great place to visit. Restaurants in France in general are modest and not that great, which might explain why most French people are skinny.

Lo London!

We arrived London on Xmas day 12/26/2015 and as expected it was wet and cold but not freezing cold, just mild cold. The main thing that bothered me in London (and the same with all European cities) was the cigarette smoking. People smoke at the entrance of buildings so that you certainly passively smoke with them each time you pass by a door. Apart from that, I really enjoyed London, especially the double-deck buses and the friendly people. I can say I saw all the major attractions, namely Big Ben (shown in the picture), Trafalgar square, Picadilly circus, Westminster London Eye, St. Paul's church, Tower of London, Buckingham palace, Hyde Park, Harrods, and the British museum. We climbed St. Paul's cathedral all the way to the top of the dome and saw all of London city from above, see the picture to the left.

The main modern building in London is the Shard building, which was built by a Qatari millionaire. Visiting Harrods was an exquisite experience. A ring sells for 1.2 M pounds, and a bracelet that goes with it sells for 10 M pounds! The London tower is another great attraction. The ancient wall of London lies near it and was built by the Romans around 100 A.D. The bridge opens at certain times to let ships pass under it which is a magnificent scene as you can see in the picture to the right.

The food in London is modest at best unless you eat at an Italian restaurant. Picadilly square is vibrant and live at night, especially we were there during new year eve. It is a circus, thus the name Picadilly circus. We spent three full days in London and stayed in Islington which was central to all the major attractions, and lied next to Angel station which allowed us to use public transportation to go anywhere in the city. Unfortunately there were floods in Wales and Scotland at that time so our trip was limited to London.

At Last Amsterdam

I got out of the airport in Amsterdam and headed to the train station which was within the airport. I bought a two way ticket to Amsterdam and took the train shown in the picture to the right. It took about fifteen minutes to get to downtown. As soon as I got off the train I saw the water. Amsterdam consists of a ring of canals that you see every block. The picture to the left below is the first thing I saw when I got off the train. I started walking and at about each block I saw a canal as shown in the picture to the right below.

I went through the redlight district which is notorious for its prostitution and hasheesh among other drugs. They say it is changing and becoming more of a family oriented place but it did not seem to me that way. It was the morning so there wasn't any activity there, but I am sure in the evening that place lights up all in red as the name indicates. It was dirty and trashy, as it seems there was a wild party from the night before. The interesting thing is that one of the landmarks of Amsterdam was right next to it, the old church called Oude Kerk.

I kept walking and I saw a very long line of people and later found out it was for the Ann Frank house, called Ann Frank Huis. There was also the Van Gogh museum and also Rembrandt house. I did not have time to enter any museums so I just looked from outside. The main square there is called the Dam Square, and that is where I had my breakfast. You see a picture of it to the left below. My breakfast was nothing special but interestingly the waitress asked for the money in advance. I said: "You mean this is not free?"

One thing I noticed in Amsterdam was that the main means of transportation was the bicycle. I saw the same thing elsewhere in Europe but it seemed more pronounced in Amsterdam, maybe because the weather was so nice that day. Usually Amsterdam weather is overcast and you seldom see the sun there, but that day was so nice and sunny and mild, so everybody was riding a bike on that day. The picture below is a representation of the bikes that I am talking about.

Well, that concluded my short tour in Amsterdam, I did not have time to do much other than walk for a couple of hours and have breakfast at the Dam square near Madame Tussauds which is a famous wax museum. There is so much to see in the Netherlands, and that needs at least a few days to cover everything, but for me this was it for now. I went back to the airport where I had to get my passport stamped three times because I entered from a wrong gate and finally I made it to my flight gate. Everything went fine until I arrived New York. I had only one hour to take my next flight, which I made on time just about when they were boarding the plane, but my suitcase did not make it to San Diego with me. However, Delta delivered the suitcase to my door the next morning conveniently and promptly.

Hello Ishbilya (Seville)

Seville is the largest and most populous city of Andalusia. Its river is Guadalkivir, the same one that goes to Cordoba as well. Magellan departed from Seville in 1519 and went around the globe with the help of Arab navigators. During the Islamic rule Seville was under the Almoravids and then Almohads. I was mainly interested in the old section of the city, with the Moorish heritage. So that is where I went, namely to Alcazar, an old Moorish palace that is being used now by the royal family and as government offices. Next to the Alcazar is the Gothic Seville cathedral seen in the picture to the right from the neighboring Alcazar. Notably, the tower of thee cathedral used to be a minaret of a Moorish mosque and is called the Giralda.

The cathedral itself is Gothic in structure and is the biggest such church in the world and the third biggest of any church kind. Funny they tell you to take your hat off when you enter but they don't mind women entering with skimpy clothes. Another historic Moorish structure near the Guadalkivir river is the Torre Del Oro, or the tower of gold. I passed by it but did not bother entering it. The third picture to the right shows a typical street around the area of Alcazar. I saw many horse carriages that take tourists on tours in the old section of town.

There are many McDonalds and Starbucks and other American restaurant chains. I walked around and saw a wooden structure that was made by some German architect that is shown in the picture to the right below. The picture to the left shows a building downtown that imitates the Moorish architecture style and there is a cafe below it. The food here is good in general and I liked the tapas dishes which are small dishes that allow you to sample many kinds of food instead of having one large plate of one kind.

My favorite tapas plate was the eggplant one which was made with tomato sauce and ground beef and tasted so good. I walked to to the river and saw people biking there and some were paddling kayaks and canoes. But the temperature was so hot that I could not stand in the sun for long and was constantly looking for shade. I entered the Gothic cathedral as there was mass in session because it was Sunday and spent a few minutes inside. It was quite ornate and full of statues and pictures. The Giralda distinctly showed that it came from a Moorish mosque of the past although its top was altered where statues and crosses were added to give it its Gothic character. I did not have much time to see more than this, so that sort of concluded my Andalusia's tour. I had to return to the hotel and get prepared to return to Toulouse to spend one last night there before going back home.

I checked out of the hotel and filled the car with Diesel oil and then returned it to Enterprise at the airport. The three days cost me 112 Euros total for the car, and the gas cost another 50 Euros more or less. Overall the car had very good mileage. I drove about 810 km total with that car, so the gas cost was quite reasonable. On returning to Toulouse I did not have much time left, I just slept that night and had to wake up at 4 am to head to the airport as my flight back to the US was at 6 am. I took that flight on time and made it to Amsterdam, which was my first stop. In Amsterdam I had more than five hours so I decided to get out of the airport and take the train to downtown Amsterdam for three hours or so. My next blog talks about what I saw in those three hours in Amsterdam.

The Glory of Cordoba

Cordoba! Where do I start. I drove to Seville from Granada, spent the night there and in the morning I drove to Cordoba which was about 1.5 hour away from Seville. What a glorious city. It used to be the most populous city in the world at its glory (over a million people) but now only 330,000 people live there. The first picture to the right is outside the mosque of Cordoba, which is a cathedral now. They call it Mezquita/Catedral de Cordoba. The original mehrab area was left intact as shown in the second picture to the right, whereas everywhere else in the mosque pictures and statues crowd the walls and ceilings. Also there was a grand organ playing music. The Muslims in Cordoba have been trying to get permission to pray in the Mehrab area of the mosque but their pleas were rejected many times by the government and by the Vatican. It took two hundred years to finish building this mosque, as generations kept improving on it and adding details that made it in this beautiful final form. It was the Caliph Al Hakam who ruled Cordoba in its golden age and he built many universities and hospitals and made Cordoba the shining lighthouse of Europe.

The picture to the left shows the Cordoba mosque from inside with its famous double arches with white and red stones. No paint so the colors can last for eternity without the need of any maintenance. Brilliant architecture and beautiful simplicity. The Mehrab area is left alone and is in its original condition as shown below.

Some of the famous characters of Cordoba at the time were Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Sina (Avecina) and Mohammad Al Ghafiqi, and Al Idrissi, and Ibn Maimoun (Maimonides) and Ibn Al Arabi. and many others. You could see their statues all over the city and many streets are named after them. One of the best attractions I saw there was a museum across the bridge from Cordoba mosque. In that museum they showed us how the Islamic civilization shone is Spain. They talked about Averroes, Ibn Al Arabi, Maimonides, and Alfonso the tenth, and gave glimpses of their teachings, and how Cordoba was living in peace with Muslims, Christians and Jews all living side by side learning together and prospering together. The museum also showed how the inhabitants of Cordoba took care of the ecology of their land as instructed by the Quran. They showed the map that Idrissi made at that time and how accurate it was similar to today's maps. Amazing. I was really touched by that museum and considered it the highlight of my visit to Cordoba.

The river of Cordoba is called Guadalqivir, literally means the big river in Arabic, and is pronounced exactly like in Arabic وادي الكبير. The same river extends also to Seville, which I will talk about in my next blog. The streets in Cordoba are narrow and ancient. They are clean and well maintained. They make you fall in love with the historic city easily. I walked along those streets and saw an old synagogue with the statue of Maimonides in front of it. Just like the Muslims were denied worship in the Mezquita, the Jews are denied worship in the synagogue also.

The temperature was brutally hot at this time of the year, so if you want to visit southern Spain don't go there in August but in April or some other time. After 2 pm you can hardly see any people walking in the streets anymore as they take their siesta of the afternoon and then don't appear again until it is dark when they stay up all night after that. I stayed in Cordoba until about 3 pm and the heat was so brutal that I preferred to go back to the car where at least I had air conditioning there, and I drove to the original city that was first built in Spain called Madinat Al Zahra. This city was built by Abdel Rahman III but all what is left of it now are ruins. I saw the entrance to the city but unfortunately it was closed after 2:30 pm and I missed seeing it.

To the left you see a picture of the wall of Cordoba city. I had to say goodbye and return back to Seville as the heat was becoming unbearable, especially after my frustration of not being able to see Madinat Al Zahra which literally means the shining city. The trip back to Seville took about 1.5 hours, and in my next blog I will talk about what I saw in Seville, which is another glorious city from historic Moorish Spain. If you want to see Andalusia then visiting Cordoba is a must, even before Granada. Next to them I would say Seville and Toledo.

The Grandeur of Granada

I booked a flight from Toulouse to Seville, Spain for 200 Euros two way, and headed to the Blagnac airport. Air France charged me 30 Euros for my suitcase, which I thought was outrageous, but on the way back they charged me 70 Euros! The flight took about 1.5 hours and it took me a while in Seville airport to find my suitcase, then I headed to Enterprise car rental where I rented a diesel stick shift car (Siat). I drove directly from the airport to Granada which took about 2.5 hours. I stayed in Melia hotel in downtown Granda near Alhambra for 75 Euros a night. The hotel was very nice and clean, but the WiFi was so slow that it was useless. The next morning I went to Alhambra (see the picture to the right). What grandeur and beauty!

The gardens were magnificent (see the second picture to the left) but the citadel and the palace were incredible. Everywhere on the walls there was itched this sentence: "No victor but God", see the third picture to the left. The main palace is called Alcazar, literally meaning the palace in Arabic, and the high fortress area is called Alcazaba, again in Arabic meaning the high fortress. I can't describe the intricate carvings on the walls inside and the beauty of it all, it is such a monumental work that will last for generations to come.

There was a special entry fee inside the palace itself and that was well worth the price. The fourth picture to the left is in the ambassador reception court of the palace. It was meant to impress you can tell and it is quite impressive no doubt. There was also the lions court area which was as impressive with its lions fountain spouting water in a beautiful manner. History flashed in front of my eyes as I wandered inside the palace looking at the carvings on the walls and imagining the events of history in this unique place.

My visit to Granada was quite worth the trouble although the temperature was brutally hot in August. I enjoyed every second of it. If I had more time I could easily spend a week or two in this city and enjoy every minutes of it, but since I did not have except this one day I had to drive back to Seville in the afternoon around 5pm, and I arrived Seville around 7:30 pm where I stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn hotel some distance away from the old section of the city. My next blog will talk about Seville, which is another one of the famous Andalusian cities of the Moorish Spain.

Toulouse or to Win

I recently had a business trip to Toulouse, France. Toulouse is the home of Airbus, who has recently won the OneWeb project that will launch some 900 satellites in low orbit to provide global internet all over the world. In any case, I got a chance to get out of Blagnac (which is the airport area) and do some sightseeing in the city, and the picture you see to the right is in downtown near Place du Capitole. The tower you see is that of the Saint Sernin basilica, which is an ancient church originally built around 1300. The French cuisine is really superb, as almost anything you eat is cooked in a very tasty way and presented in a very nice way too. The second picture to the right shows a fish plate I ordered in the Capitole square.

Needless to say the taste was fantastic and I really enjoyed eating that dish. Overall the city is full of students and foreigners in general. There is nothing much in the city other than Airbus and the university there. The streets are narrow and not that clean. The river is called La Garonne and has a few bridges that span across it, with some areas on its banks for joggers and bicyclers, but nothing that impresses you. The third picture to the right shows an area by the river bank. Transportation in the city is quite crowded and sort of confusing. We took a tram from the hotel near the airport to downtown, but it did not go all the way as it was supposed to, as there was some construction going on and we had to get off early and take the metro to make it to the Capitole. Same thing on the way back, we took the metro again to the same station called "Arenes", and from there took the tram to the hotel near the airport.

Others points of attraction in Toulouse are: Cite de l'Espace (city of Space), Chateau de Thegra, Jardins du Museum, Zenith, Basilique Sainte Germaine, Dome de la Grave, Palais des Sports, and Palais de Justice. That was basically it for Toulouse. After I finished work in Toulouse I had the weekend to spend so I decided to go instead to Spain and do some serious sightseeing in Andalusia. So the next three blogs are about Seville, Cordoba and Granada. Those blogs are much more exciting than this one as you will see. So read on the next three blogs and see for yourself.

Canyon's Bright Angle Trail

A day hike into Grand Canyon affords an unparalleled experience. You can hike down all the way to Colorado river from Canyon Village, but beware: Grand Canyon is an extreme environment! As park rangers say "going down in optional, but coming up is mandatory." Plan to take twice as long to hike up as it took to hike down. The picture shows a point along the way as we trekked down on Bright Angel trail. We could not make it all the way down to Colorado river, because that could take 6 miles each way and descent of some 3,000 ft. Instead we just made it to about the lower tunnel and close to the rest house which is about 1.5 miles and some 1,120 ft descent. It took us about 2 hours roundtrip.

One of these days I plan to go all the way down to the river, and maybe camp down there for the night and then climb back up the next day. This would be excellent exercise! So we started the Grand Canyon Visitor Center where we parked in parking lot B. We took the blue bus to Grand Canyon Village. From there we took the red line to the first stop at Hermits point, then we stopped at different points which were Trailview Overlook, then Maricopa point, then Powell point, then Hopi point, then Mohave point, then The Abyss, then Monument Creek Vista, then Pima point, and finally Hermits Rest which is at the end of the red line. Each point offered a different view of the canyon, and some offered a view of the Colorado river. The scenes are out of this world, and the sound of silence makes you stand in awe before this natural wonder. We wanted to watch the sunset but we were tired and decided to leave half an hour earlier before the rush hour. We stopped at a famous steakhouse near the park where we had dinner, and as a bonus we watched fantastic views of the canyon on a large screen at the restaurant that showed close up shots taken by helicopter of the river and parts of the canyons that we could only see from faraway. The weather was moderate and little chilly at night, and there was snow traces along the way from Flagstaff all the way to the park. We enjoyed it very much. One could easily spend a few days in this wonderful park to really enjoy it. This was the South Rim by the way. I would like to visit the North Rim one day, and stay there for a week. I wish we had more time to fully enjoy the South Rim, but we had great time in this one day as it is.

Discovery Lake Trails After the Fire

It has been about 8 months since the fire devoured the forests on top of the Discovery Hills. The trails leading to Double Peak park have been closed since the fire last June. Now finally the trails are open again after they replaced the burnt fences, see the picture.

As you can see the trees are growing again. Sections of the old fence are still intact and were kept in their place, but the burnt ones were replaced as is obvious in the picture. It was a blessing that they repaired this trail because it is one of the best trails around. So last Sunday I hiked on it up to the point where the loop starts. The loop is a 10 km trail that goes around through Double Peak Park. I took a right at the loop and reached the top of the ridge where I could see a view of the ocean from there.

The path that I took can be seen on the map to the right. It took 1 hour and 38 minutes round trip and the total climb was 1057 ft as can be seen on the data of the map. It is a very nice climb and the weather was fantastic. The only concern I have now is that recently a mountain lion was spotted in the area. I was encouraged by the many hikers who were on the trail during the weekend which makes it quite unlikely that the mountain lion would come near us humans in large numbers. It is not advised to hike alone, especially that I know that coyotes thrive there as well; I took a picture of one from my window once. Coyotes should not attack humans, at least not adults, but who knows, I heard there are new breeds who do attack humans. In any case, that is why it is advised not to hike alone. So as long as there are many hikers in the weekend it should be safe.

Sound Surround System

My sound surround system has been completed finally, and as usual there were many little hurdles here and there in setting it up, so this post summarizes all the issues I encountered and how they were fixed. It all started with the installed Bose speakers that were already there in place hung nicely on the walls. There are five of them; in the front there are center, right and left speakers, and in the back there are left surround and right surround.

We had a Sony 42" smart TV and an old Toshiba DVD. First step was to buy an audio/video receiver (AVR). I chose the Onkyo TX-NR353 which costs about $430 including tax. This receiver has WiFi and Bluetooth connections, and is 5 channel x 100 Watts. I also bought an active subwoofer, which I chose to be BIC America F-12, with 475 W peak power (150 W average) and 12" subwoofer. This subwoofer has an LFE jack which makes it easy to connect and calibrate within the AV receiver. Setting up the AV receiver was easy. I connected the cable box to the receiver via HDMI and connected the receiver's output HDMI to the smart TV. Immediately I got the cable TV working through the sound surround system. Next I calibrated the sound system by placing the provided microphone to the point of listening on the sofa and running the Onkyo calibration program. Next I connected the FM antenna and set up a few FM channels, and listened to the FM reception on the sound surround system. Worked fine. Then I connected the receiver to the WiFi network, and was able to listen to Pandora and Spotify through the surround system. All good so far. In order to set up the video streaming from the smart TV (such as Netflix, YouTube etc.) I assigned CD/TV setting, and set the Audio Return Channel (ARC) to Auto, so that the TV sound goes through the receiver on to the sound surround system when in video streaming mode. Now Netflix and YouTube sound go through the sound surround system fine. However, there was a glitch in the sound, every few seconds I could hear sound dropout for a second, which was very annoying. I was able to fix this problem by changing the Fixed Mode to PCM in the Source Input of the receiver's Setup menu. No more sound dropout in video streaming. This was fortuitous because I did not have to buy a video streaming device such as Roku-3 or Apple TV. Last step was to connect the old DVD player. I took the video components from the DVD player into the receiver, and out of the receiver to the TV. I took the sound from the DVD sound into the Aux input of the receiver, and assigned this setting to Aux. When playing the DVD player, I chose the input of the TV from HDMI to Video Components, and chose Aux on the receiver. Picture was great and sound came through the surround system fine. I paired my smart phone to the receiver, so I was able to stream music from the iTunes library to the receiver and listen to it through the sound surround system. That completed the installation. A great working system that turns movies from Netflix into a real theater experience.

Biking Through San Elijo Hill

This ride is not flat at all. It goes through San Elijo hill with over 1580 ft. total climb.

As seen the map, I rode my bike from home to San Marcos Blvd, to Rancho Santa Fe, and at about 4.5 miles I turned into San Elijo Rd. which climbs up the San Elijo hill (see the satellite photo), and at about mile 8 I started descending down until I reached Craven Rd. which I took left to Discovery Rd. back home. The total tour is 11.44 miles and took one hour and 41 minutes as is shown in the statistics on the map. It is quite a workout (927 calories burnt in the effort). The map and its details are taken by the RunKeeper app on my phone.

The satellite photo shows the same map with the details of the San Elijo hill shown clearly. The distance up to mile 4 was more or less flat, but then starting at San Elijo Rd. you see that the road goes up the hill. I looked back while riding the bike and I could see the ocean behind me, a view that most houses on the hill can see. San Elijo Rd. becomes Twin Oaks Rd., and it meets Craven Rd. as you see in the satellite photo. The path from Craven Rd. to S. Bent Avenue is more or less flat, then left on to Discovery Rd. which is also flat. Finally I took the Vera Cruz Rd. back home and that has some climbing in it which provides a nice workout near the end of the exercise. Can you see Lake San Marcos within the trip's loop?