The Bell Tower of Cadiz Cathedral
I don't know how many popular tourism objects in Spain's Cadiz there are, but the Cathedral of Cadiz and it's bell tower should be among them for sure.We visited Cadiz for couple of hours in June 2016, arrived here from El Puerto de Santa Maria by the ferry in the morning and left afternoon. There is a small entrance fee - EUR 5, which gives access both to the Bell tower and access to the church, audio guides are available as well. There is no lift to get up to the bell tower. The total height of bell tower is about 40 meters.Cathedral of CadizTried to apply the panoramic photography above. Not the best result, but somehow framed (fit) whole building in one frame.Cádiz Cathedral …
Postcards from Cadiz
My latest trip to Spain took us to the sunny and astonishing city of Cadiz. In today's Piece of Life series - a fraction, os simply Postcards from Cadiz.Square in CadizCádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of Cádiz, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.White arch in CadizCádiz, the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain and one of the oldest in western Europe,has been a principal home port of the Spanish Navy since the accession of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.Cadiz, SpainSituated on a…
Port of Cadiz Bay
We used Port of Cadiz Bay (Puerto de Cadiz) twice - first for entering from El Puerto de Santa Maria, second for leaving back to, yes you re right, back to the El Puerto Santa Maria again.At Reina Victoria pier in Cadiz-City Basin, there is a metropolitan maritime station from Cádiz, that attends to the passengers between Cádiz, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota, with modern catamarans. It has it access from Sevilla square and it is five minutes walking from the center of the city.Inside terminal buildingPassengers leaving Port of Cadiz Bay terminalPuerto de CadizSee more: http://www.puertocadiz.com/opencms/PuertoCadiz/en/
Castle of San Marcos (El Puerto de Santa María)
While waiting for our ferry departing for Cadiz, we had a chance to visit a local fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria). I made some interesting photography here. One of the first tourism objects I noticed in El Puerto was Castle of San Marcos.Castle of San Marcos (also Castillo de Alfonso X El Sabio) is a medieval castle located in El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain. The castle was erected as a fortified church by King Alfonso X of Castile. It was built on the site of a mosque of which the wall of the qibla survives.Front view of Castle of San MarcoThe castle was declared a national monument on 30 August 1920 and is currently…
Ferry from El Puerto de Santa Maria to Cadiz
The other day we arrived to El Puerto de Santa Maria just for one reason, we had red in some travel guide, that if approaching from Jerez to Cadiz, a nice option to have is to take a ferry leaving El Puerto and connecting with Cadiz.It took us some time to actually figure out where the terminal building is located and to find a free parking space for our rental car. Once we found both, we had some free time before ferry departing and luckily we got a chance to see a local fair, see Fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria.Yachts (boats) at Bay of CadizTerminal Maritima El Puerto de Santa MariaFor a timetable please visit: B-042 - Cádiz-El Puerto de Santa MaríaA bullWhile you are waiting for…
Fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria
Right, its time to continue our latest adventures from our latest Spain trip (visiting region of Andalusia). In today's Piece of Life series a trade fair in small town of El Puerto de Santa Maria.We left Jerez early in the morning and followed by the advices on the internet decided to get to the Cadiz today, and one of the options was by making a stop at El Puerto de Santa Maria, from which a ferry departs to the city of Cadiz.We arrived around 10:00 AM at El Puerto de Santa Maria, searched a while for a free parking lot and got one a bit out of the city center next to the matador and bull statue. Matador and bull statueThere is some arena actually behind this statue, but forgive me -…
Campsite 'Miera Osta' near Pāvilosta
I'm a huge admirer of Latvian seashore town of Pāvilosta. I guess I first discovered it just last year. This Summer we spent many trips to Pāvilosta and vicinity - just by doing nothing - wandering around. The other weekend we found a new road end and decided to give it a try - at the end we were met by the campsite Miera Osta located near white sand Baltic seashore, some 240km from nation's capital Riga.Tree houseKids will enjoy this, and you can actually rent this tree house for about EUR 50. I had a chance to met with the owners of Miera Osta, and I was told that because of campsite being located at the nature reserve, it is forbidden to dig a well (for example) or have an…
Gravel and Crushed Stone For Foundation
This Summer I will need a lot of gravel and crushed stone for home remodeling tasks, mainly for foundation sealing works.Some time ago (while digging a pond), I negotiated a few cubic meters of gravel from neighbor, who was sealing surface of the road meanwhile, it turned out that neighbors' gravel was not ideal for foundation as it consisted from clay particles, and we decided re-use clay/gravel for rock garden instead. I had no chance but to look for other source for gravel and crushed stone. I found a gravel quarry and ordered a load of gravel and crushed stone. Today I got the delivery. Cool. Pile of gravel and crushed stoneIn total it's about 3 cubic meters of gravel…
Sponge Cake With Wild Berries
Here comes another post on food blogger series, and again I must admit I'm not the original creator of following sponge cake, my better part is.
Sponge cake with wild berries
Really cool cake, here is photos and cooking directions:
Biscuit dough:
4 eggs, 4 tbs. flour, 4 tbs. sugar
Cooking directions:
Separate egg white form the egg yolk. Whip egg white to hard foam. Separately whip yolks with 4 tablespoons of sugar. Fold into the egg yolks Whipped egg whites and flour. Bake for about 10-15 minutes in 180-200 degrees. When done baking cut into 3 equal parts.
Cream: Sweet cream with vanilla and sugar.
Between the layers of sponge smear…
Digging a trench around existing foundation - Building a bathroom from scratch - part 4
Here comes another update on building a bathroom from scratch series in project home remodeling. The thing is - the house we got didn't pamper us a lot, and so for example I had to install new supporting beams, not to speak about changing a roof, prior to before ever dreaming about having a bathroom. OK, I had a vision about a bathroom once we replaced roof last year, but to actually feature bathroom, we have to build many new things, among them - completely replace old and rotten wood beams with AAC blocks.Sealing old foundation is one of the top priorities before building new AAC walls. Today I took the shovel and started digging:Searching for a basementAnother reason I wanted to dig…
Concreting Foundation For a Garden Pizza Oven - Part 2
This Summer I excelled in concreting works, the major concreting works involves concreting stone wall inside our rural country house and concreting house foundation (more on that in upcoming posts from home remodeling series)In spare time from major home reconstruction works this Summer we decided to build a cool and fancy garden pizza oven, connected with a water supply (sink) and electricity - making a cool outdoor kitchen with a lot of space for not only baking pizzas but doing some other exciting things.Some time ago I built a foundation form using old clay bricks from chimney we took down inside house. It took me some 2 weeks before I continued works on garden pizza oven, and today I…
Forest Mushrooms - Penny Bun & Red-Capped Scaber Stalk
A few days ago I reported a photo story with a harvest of mushrooms from our backyard, then we gathered fungus called Slippery Jack, in today's Piece of Life series - a harvest from deepest woods of Courland (Latvia), meet Penny Bun & Red-Capped Scaber Stalk.And again, those mushrooms were actually gathered by my better part and not me. I was actually drilling holes in a stone wall meanwhile:Penny Buns and Red-Capped Scaber StalkRed Capped scaber stalk or Leccinum aurantiacum, is a species of fungus in the genus Leccinum. It is found in forests of Europe, North America and Asia and has a large, characteristically red-capped fruiting body. In North…
Beam Strengthening on Stone Wall - Building Bathroom from Scratch - Part 3
The never ending story with my adventures on home remodeling and building a bathroom continues. In todays part 3 I will tell you a brief photo story how I strengthened a beam on the stone wall.See part 1 and learn more how I actually concreted this stone wall, while in part 2 see how we actually installed first bearing beams above bathroom ceiling. I'm of course talking not only about bathroom, but about a stronger and stable house as well (as bathroom will be built later into this space)Tonight I didn't sleep, I was thinking all night along on how should I will replace outer wood walls with AAC blocks. Previous day I had bought masonry drill and special glue for concreting bolts (left from…
Mushrooms in backyard
The other day my aunt visited us at our country house, we spent some lovely time together, and while somewhere in the woods near Akmenrags lighthouse we hunted for chanterelle fungi, should I mention we found just enough to make a barely pan of sauce? The day my aunt left, my better part went for mushrooms again, this time at our backyard:Our backyardYes, the veggie garden in the boxes and skew barn as well. Wait, there is a rock garden also.Here is the catch from nearby pine coppice:Suillus luteusCommonly referred to as slippery jack or sticky bun in English-speaking countries, its names refer to the brown cap, which is characteristically slimy in wet…
Akmenrags Lighthouse
Akmenrags Lighthouse (Latvian: Akmeņraga bāka) - a lighthouse on the Latvian coast of the Baltic Sea, located to the south of the resort town of Pāvilosta.I first visited Akmensrags Lighthouse in the mid Summer of 2016 together with my aunt - we made a lovely excursion with her around Courland. Akmensrags lighthouse is located some 11 km south of the Pāvilosta, the road is not in the best shape (Breakstone road)There is a small museum/kiosk/ information center located in front of the lighthouse. When we approached lighthouse some people from kiosk asked what are we doing here. It seemed they enjoyed their loneliness and forgot that Akmensrags…
Another morning, another beatiful mist
It seems I have a new tradition - for the second year in the row I have captured beautiful morning mist in our country house backyard.Alright, previous year my beloved did the shooting while I was dreaming about roof works. This time I couldn't sleep (as I was thinking of upcoming bathroom remodeling works), and I noticed - a mist. In our backyard. See it for yourself:Mist over our pond and neighbors meadowFew things have changed this year: we have freshly dug pond and neighbor have packed hay into plastic packages.Mist in our backyard territoryFew things have changed in this scene as well - first we have a new roof, second constructions works still continues, but instead of roof laths this…
Cats on The Rocks
Recently I featured a post about how we built a rock garden in the front of our country house. I reported a lovely sunset just shortly. In today's Piece of Life series - little creatures who enjoys the most of our new rock garden. Meet our lovely cats Tiger and Richard.Cat on the rockA nice observation place for planing an attack on...birds? Or at least a try.Cats on the rocksDouble attack?Cat on the rockAre you shooting me?
Red Sunset in our Rock Garden - Cool Evening Mood
This Summer spoiled us with a lovely sunsets, but one of the most empathic had been observed in front of our house at rock garden. Red/Orange Sunset at Rock GardenSee how we built this rock garden a few days ago.Country house during sunsetThere is still a lot of to do, and it will require a huge investment to completely remodel/rebuild this house, but evenings like this breaks it even.Sunset over pondYup, we dug this pond as well a few days ago.
Beam Replacement for Old house - Building Bathroom from Scratch - Part 2
Here comes another update on home remodeling works - building a bathroom from scratch. After I successfully concreted stone wall it was time to install new beams. For this side of house we did not had any beams installed (ok, they were, but they were rotted, as the roof was leaky, see how we changed a roof)A while ago I ordered beams at local sawmill (beams are 20cm X 20cm) and about 4 meter long. Today I called to the father and son (these guys are helping me out this year), and it was the matter of chainsaw, chisel and a little bit of math. Some stamina was required as well to lift those beams up.Installing beamsI didn't experimented with light paint photography today, so…
Our neighbor - Fox baby
For the second year in the row we have one small and lovely neighbor - baby fox. Once we met him at the bus stop, looked amazing - fox going to the city, the other morning bad farmers had mowed crop fields and baby fox seemed very disappointed.Today we met our friend, just wandering on the road.baby fox on the roadI wish I had a telephoto lens attached, to capture a lovely portrait, as the fox didn't seemed scared or so, just wandered.road and the foxPiece of Life after all!