You can't really get a feel for a country from the air. Trains are good, but they're limited in terms of where they can take you. A car and a driver is of course the choice of the wealthy. But Greyhound must have known something about tourists when they started spinning their wheels so many decades ago. These pictures are from our tour of Spain, Morocco, and Portugal during the first two weeks of July 2008. They're the best of the over 700 I shot but not as good as being there. The whole journey was 17 days including the airplane ride from Miami to Madrid and back on a spacious bus with 44 fellow travelers, some great folks from around the globe. The trip starts out in Madrid with (obviously) the Botanical Gardens. Enjoy.

History is everywhere, slathered on like mustard on a hot dog. In truth, most of it goes right past me; I'm there for the scenery, so my notes are a bit sparse or perhaps I was just overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. From Madrid, we drove south to Toledo for a visit to the Jewish Synagogue and our first shopping opportunity. Toledo is where, 40 years ago, I bought a mace. You know, the steel ball with the spikes hanging from a chain. Nasty toy that still hangs in my office for those odd moments. They do some beautiful work with gold stamped onto iron here and make some magnificent weapons that harken back to the days of knights on horseback. The last 4 on this page are from the drive leaving Toledo for Granada.