My Travels

Headed out to Shanghai via United Airlines . On this particular trip, I was looking forward to pleasant temperatures similar to home. This time of year, Shanghai's hot and humid summer temps have passed. The fall is actually quite pleasant being in the 60s and 50s with no humidity. I was cracking up that all the Chinese people on the plane were already suiting up in parkas. For some reason, I assumed that the Shanghainese can weather colder weather given that the winter months rival NYC weather. You don't hear New Yorkers exclaiming how cold things are yet....except this year with superstorm Sandy. I used the last of my global certificates for this trip and was able to confirm upgraded seats a few weeks before. I was actually surprised that the flight was not 100% occupied. I didn't anticipate that there would be empty seats in each class. Mental note: choose the rear facing seats as that is less likely to get chosen in business. It would have been nice not to have a nei

Headed out to Chicago for a personal business trip. It was a quick in and out type of affair but I was able to stay at The Tremont Hotel . Unfortunately for me, Chicago weather decided to turn on the full charm in my brief stay. There was a wind storm when my United flight was landing at the airport which made it turbulent at the end. I believe it also caused delays in and out of O'hare Airport .    The wind storm made the day pleasant if you were walking around the streets of Chicago. It was a very balmy 65 degrees when I popped out of the L train ( CTA ). By the way, there is a handy smartphone/tablet application which I used to navigate the L trains. The weather was only for the day as the temps dropped fairly quickly once the sun set and it started drizzling. The next day, the high was 38 degrees with chance of snow flurries. Talk about mercurial weather. I was not sure what I would find at The Tremont given the various online reviews. It was so mixed. I did find th

I came up to Santa Clara for a personal business trip. It was a quick trip but I did stay at Candlewood Suites Silicon Valley/San Jose.  The hotel is an extended stay type. Not my typical choice for hotel lodgings but I did find the experience serviceable. The room was spacious and the kitchenette was well designed. There was a strong bleach smell in the bathroom but I did feel confidence that the bathroom was clean. :) The hotel doesn't have transportation despite being right next to the San Jose International Airport . There is a free city bus shuttle that runs around the airport and ends at the Amtrak station. Conveniently, the hotel is right next to the Amtrak station. The downside of being next to the train tracks is that the rooms are not as noise insulated as it could be. If you're a light sleeper, ask for rooms that is furthest from the tracks. The one perk I liked about Candlewood is that there is a DVD collection available for all hotel guests. I guess that mak

 My last full day in Barcelona! Going out with a bang!!  Exterior La Sagrada Familia Interior La Sagrada Familia  Interior entrance area La Sagrada Familia  Ceiling of La Sagrada Familia The plan was to head out to La Sagrada Familia at the crack of dawn. Well, I didn't manage the crack but it was within the first hour of opening. The line was still around half the block but the line was moving faster than the previous day. Outside, La Sagrada Familia looks amazing. It was hard to know what to expect inside but I was blown away from the design inside. The main room was designed to look like a clearing in a forest. The building pillars mimicked tree structure to give that natural design. Gaudi never completed the church design in his lifetime.The city has revitalized itself to complete the work. There are parts of the cathedral that is under construction and off limits to the public. It is slated to be completed by 2026. The fact that in today's ti

After the walking tour, no visit to Barcelona would be complete without seeing the La Sagrada Familia. After breakfast headed out to the cathedral and found a line that formed around the block to buy tickets. And when I say around the block, I mean all four streets around the cathedral. As hinted, La Sagrada Familia is extremely popular with tourists. After waiting for 30 minutes with little movement, the group opted to return after buying entrance tickets online. Ticketmaster sells tickets and buyers go through a separate entrance. More on this debacle later.... Walking around La Mercat Since La Sagrada was a bust, trekked back to the La Mercat to buy ham! I flirted with the idea of buying more but restraint kicked in. Ham in hand, wandered back to the hotel. After depositing the pork, went out to the beach and swam in the Mediterranean Sea enjoying the last days of summer in Spain . The waters were not as clear as Hawaii but still clean looking. On the beach, there are numero

After breakfast, I took a page from the Lonely Planet Spain on a recommended day walking tour. The tour was supposed to last around 2 hours but it took most of the day. The walking tour focused on the old city center and will bring you to most of the major attractions Barcelona has to offer. In the 3 mile tour, the highlights was the Mercat La Boqueria, Palau Guell, the exterior of Barcelona Cathedral and the Picasso museum. Starting point of the walking tour The Mercat La Boqueria was great, it was interesting to see what kind of produce and meats are avaliable. I'm a fan of mangos and tried some in the markets. It was suprisingly sweet. I say suprisingly because I haven't had good fruit except in Asia. I'm beginning to suspect that America just doesn't get good exotic fruits. I also scoped out the market for a vendor to buy Iberico pork to bring home. I've been eating Iberico pork all week and this was going to be my souvenir. :) I came across Mas Gour

Since I was leaving for Barcelona on Vueling Airlines in the afternoon, spent a leisurely morning walking around the city shopping district. The number of shops and restaurants are incredible in this area. Customer service; however, doesn't seem to be in as abundant as evidenced at the cafe I randomly sat in for a light breakfast. I wasn't interested in buying much but I did opt to buy a paella pan given the amount of paella I have consumed thus far. If you are a shoe shopaholic, this is your nirvana. Never have I seen so many shoe stores all lumped together in one area. Before heading to the airport, grabbed a gelato on a cone. I will say that the cones used here are more of a wafer like consistency rather than the waffle cones I'm used to in the US. At the bus depot in Seville There is a 2.4 Euro airport bus that runs every 25 minutes. Given the size of the group, I opted to go via bus. It was an easy bus trip and security was simple to get through. Unlike B

The biking was fun the previous day but it also wore me out! After another light breakfast, wandered over to the Catedral de Santa María de la Sede . According to my Lonely Planet Spain book, this is the largest church of its kind. Given the amount of detail and care given to these Catholic churches makes me think the Church was pretty wealthy in its day. Either that or there were alot of Spaniards with little to do in those times. The workmanship is impressive. It is rumored that the tomb in this cathedral belonged to Christopher Columbus. There is a debate whether or not the body inside is truly Christopher Columbus but I will choose to believe it is so. Exterior of the cathedral Stained glass inside the cathedral Christopher Columbus tomb inside the cathedral The cathedral's tower is known as the Giralda. It was cool to be able to walk up and see the city views from the top. Giralda View from Giralda - bull fighting arena in the dis