European Vacation - Optional Elements

 We established yesterday that a European vacation will include visits to at least one castle and one cathedral/really big church.

As I consider it, there are three optional elements.  The first would be ancient ruins (usually Roman).  On the island of Mallorca they are currently excavating an ancient Roman city.  They have uncovered a few larger homes, a forum and an amphitheater (my current facebook profile photo).

Throughout Mallorca's history, they changed hands quite frequently, so not only are there Roman ruins but also Arabic ones.  We visited an Arabic bath house and gardens as well.  This bath house dates back to the 11th century.

Bath house 

The second optional element of a European vacation is an art museum.  Mallorca does have one.  We did not visit it.  (If one hopes to enjoy an art museum from time to time, one must not subject one's teens to every art museum in Europe.)

Optional element three is a historical rich person's house aka a mansion or manor.  Mallorca did have a rather nice one called La Granja.  The building and grounds date back to the 10th century and at one time it was a monastery.

La Granja not only had the typical displays of old furniture and pretty grounds but also demonstrated some of the working elements of local food and cloth production.   There was a yarn dying workshop, looms, olive and grape presses.

A strong stream runs through the grounds of La Granja.  This water powers a few water wheels which in turn power some of the equipment used in cloth and food production.   Kyra really liked the waterfall and took numerous photographs of it. (I'm very grateful for digital photography - she would eat up a lot of film).  I am invariably drawn to the arcaded terraces.  Thus I picked this photo instead of one of the waterfall ones.

If you come to visit we are prepared to show you a castle, a cathedral/really big church, a manor, and an art museum.  As for ancient ruins, we don't have anything local but we could suggest some in France, England, Italy and Spain.

European Vacation - Required Elements

 Allen and Kyra have come to accept that no matter where we vacation there will be two things they always do on a vacation.

1.  We will visit a castle.
2.  We will visit a cathedral/really big church.

It is inescapable.  As loving parents we do give them a break though.  Usually we only visit the biggest castle and the most renown cathedral.  After a while all the stained glass begins to blur and  so much historical furniture one can look at.

Mallorca's castle was an interesting short visit.  The castle was circular in shape.  Thus the courtyard was circular.  I found it quite pretty.  From the top of the castle we had some lovely views of the capital city of Palma and the Mediterranean Sea.

Options for cathedral/church visits abound.  We visited the cathedral called La Seu. It was built over almost a four hundred year period beginning in the early 1200s and finished in the 1600s.

It was surprising to encounter such a large cathedral on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.  We couldn't imagine that there was such a significant population on the island of Mallorca to support such a massive building.  And yet there it was and as cathedrals are a required element, we visited it.

Tomorrow - optional elements of a European vacation...

Our European Vacation

Disclaimer - It is my intent to share information, my thoughts and in general let you know about my life here in Belgium.  I wish to share not brag.

Over the next few days, I'll be blogging about our recent family vacation.  In many ways it was similar to vacations we have taken in the US, except this time what is close to us is Europe.  So - if this is coming off as bragging, I kindly request that you don't read this blog for a few days.  In case you think life is glamorous here, I'll remind you I do not have a garbage disposal, the toilet lid falls down on me every time I sit, it is cloudy most days and because my washing machine is small, I'll be doing laundry continuously for three days to recover from this vacation.

And now on with the show..

All Saints' Day is observed in most of Europe as a holiday.  In the kids' case, as a week break from school.  So with a week off of school, our choice was to travel.

Allen's cross country season finished with the European championships held in Heidelburg Germany on Saturday, October 30th.  He traveled there on the team bus and Kyle, Kyra and I followed in the car Friday evening.

Allen competed Saturday afternoon (separate blog).  We then started our drive to Barcelona which was our cruise port.

We did a week long Mediterranean cruise which stopped in Naples, Rome (sort of), Pisa (sort of) and two small towns in France.

The picture is of our cruise ship taken through a window of a fortification in southern France.

We docked again on Sunday morning and then drove for over 13 hours to get home in time for the kids to return to school on Monday.

We had a great time and made some wonderful memories.  The most remarkable things weren't so much what we saw but what we did together.

All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day, also known as Solemnity of All Saints or Hallowmas.  It is a holy day on the Roman Catholic Church calendar but many Protestants observe this holy day too.  On this day we remember the saints who have gone on before us, particularly those who have died within the past year.  We give thanks for their witness for the ways in which their lives glorified God, for their faith lived out in our midst.

Who are you thankful for this day?  Whose faith has had an impact on yours?  And if you aren't sure about God and Christianity - I'll simply ask, who do you miss?  Whose love made a difference in your life?

Now to get a bit less reverent -
In searching for a link for All Saints, I came across an interesting little nugget.  I knew that in the RC (Roman Catholic) calendar that All Saints was a day of Holy Obligation (meaning church attendance on this day is considered a must).  I did not know that if you live in the United States it is not a holy obligation if All Saints falls on a Saturday or Monday (you're off the hook this year).  Also if you live in Hawaii it isn't a holy obligation no matter what day it falls on.  Are Mondays, Saturdays and Hawaii somehow special?  How does living in the US versus living in Europe or South American make a religious observance optional when for others it is obligatory?


In Europe the kids get a week off of school for what is called the All Saints vacation.  I'm guessing the Catholics will be observing mass today (it is a day of holy obligation here).  I'm also guessing that most people will ignore this holy day completely.

Honestly I struggle with this.  Here in Europe there a many churches that sit empty or exist mainly as tourist attractions while society as a whole marks the dates on the Christian calendar - All Saints, Christmas, Easter, Lent (the kids get what is called a Pre-Lenten break).  From my point of view these are all mostly empty observances.  I think I'd prefer that the church calendar be ignored all together rather than be used as a calendar for school breaks.