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La Almudena Cathedral
Santa María la Real de La Almudena Cathedral, Madrid, Spain
The Almudena Cathedral is another place that should have appeared in our Madrid on a Budget post. The church has no set admission but asks visitors for a 2 Euro donation. It’s well worth the price.
Sunset on New Bridge
Shannon and Puente Nuevo in Ronda, Spain
One of the easy things to love about the world outside the U.S. is how old everything is in comparison. We Americans date our existence as a nation to the year 1776. A lot has happened since then.
Magical Madrid, a Surprising Budget Destination
One of the most shocking things about Madrid is how affordable it is, especially for a major Western European city. Compared with places like Paris, London, and even some of the surrounding cities in Spain, Madrid struck us as an absolute bargain.
The Fountain of the Fallen Angel
Sculptor Ricardo Bellver’s 1877 statue was inspired by a passage in John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”
We’re big fans of the unusual and the unique. If it happens to be taboo, too, then all the better. As one of the only public tributes to Satan anywhere in the world, Fuente del Ángel Caído (Fountain of the Fallen Angel) in Madrid’s Buen Retiro Park scores on both counts.
Rising an appropriate 666 meters above sea level, the statute of an angel bound by a snake, hair seemingly ablaze, falling backwards from the heavens is a striking sight. Even more so when the clouds cooperate the way they did on our visit.
But when our camera unexpectedly failed while shooting Lucifer, we decided we had lingered long enough.
What is it with Waterfalls?
Niagara Falls
Waterfalls never lose their allure. We’ve seen dozens of them across the U.S., from mighty Niagara in New York to McWay Falls in California’s Big Sur, one of the few in the world to pour directly into an ocean. And yet we never tire of them. In fact, we still seek them out.
Everywhere Once 