Happy Spring! Cherry Blossom in Kenwood

End of the March and the beginning of April is the best time to see cherry blossom.  The best place is around the Tidal Basin in downtown DC.  It can be very crowded there.  The Kenwood neighborhood of Bethesda and Chevy Chase is a good alternative.  Kenwood's cherry trees were planted in the 1930s by the Kennedy-Chamberlin Development company.  According to the Kenwood Garden Club, this area features about 1,200 Yoshino cherry trees along the streets.  We went there a little bit late to catch the Blossom peak time, still, the blossoms and the houses in the Kenwood are very pretty and charming.

Trip to Spain and Portugal- Countryside from Cordoba to Granada

Trip to Spain and Portugal- Around city of Cordoba

 Few photos taken while walking around the city of Cordoba.

Trip to Spain and Portugal- Roman Bridge of Cordoba

Built in the first century before Christ, it is the only bridge across the Guadalquivir River.  We had planned to see it at sunset hours.  Because we miss calculated 1 hour time difference, when we arrived Cordoba, it had passed sunset hours.  We learned that at dusk when the sun lingers on the golden red stone and the sun light shines on the arches of the bridge, it makes most magical image of the bridge! Oh well, still it is spectacular at day lights.  Here are some photos taken in the morning after we have visited Masque-Cathedral of Cordoba.

Trip to Spain and Portugal-(4) Cordoba -Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

Mosque-Cathedral de Cordoba is an Islamic Mosque converted into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century. The original structure was built by the Umayyad ruler Abd ar-Rahman I in 784-786 with extensions in the 9th and 10th centuries which doubled its size and make it one of the largest scared buildings in the Islamic world. Everything used for its construction is exquisite.  Here you  see both Mosque and Cathedral under one roof and learning about its different stages of construction: starting from the old Basilica of San Vicente built during the Spanish Visigoth empire through the primitive mosque built by abd al-Rahman I to rival the great mosques of the East, successive extensions through to the time of Almanzor, ruler of Muslim Iberia under the Umayyard Caliphate of Cordoba, Reconquista of Cordoba by the Christian armies of Fernando III, when the mosque was converted into a cathedral.

We went in there 8:30am and got out 9:30am when it starts service without paying any fees which was the first time for this trip.