With the Barretts – Adventure Near & Far

8 Things to Do in Sitges, Spain from AlltheRooms – With a Bit of Lagniappe from WiththeBarretts

I received an email from the lovely folks over at AlltheRooms. They had seen our post about Springtime in Seville (which you can find here) and wondered if we were familiar with Sitges, Spain. It so happens that we are.

A charming, beautiful seaside town just south of Barcelona, Sitges really should be on your itinerary for travel in Spain.

The AlltheRooms blog put together a post about The Top 8 Things to Do in Sitges, a couple of which I confess were new to me. I didn’t know that they did up Carnaval in Sitges, for instance. And I wish we had known about Museu de Cau Ferrat when we were there. House museums are our favorite, and we would have paid it a visit, for sure. I guess we’ll just have to go back.

So, go check out The Top 8 Things to Do in Sitges on the AlltheRooms blog.

Then, come along With the Barretts for a bit of Sitges lagniappe: Continue reading “8 Things to Do in Sitges, Spain from AlltheRooms – With a Bit of Lagniappe from WiththeBarretts”

A Photo Journey Along a Trail of Portuguese Tiles

One of the first thing you notice in Portugal, whether you’re in Lisbon or the Algarve or anywhere else in this wonderful country, is the tile work. While not necessarily unique to Portugal, the extent to which the Portuguese use tile as an integral feature of their architecture is, at least in our experience, unmatched. Today’s post is a photo journey along a trail of Portuguese tiles (not too many words but LOTS of pictures – the way Debra likes it!). We’re so glad you’ve decided to join us!

The cladding shown on this building is typical, reflecting an attitude of “Why paint when you can tile?” Continue reading “A Photo Journey Along a Trail of Portuguese Tiles”

Rheinfall in Switzerland – Travel Lagniappe

Lao Tzu was dead-on when he said, “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” So, when during an atypical (for the Barretts, anyway) driving trip in Europe we saw some signs for Rheinfall in Switzerland (which, by the way, is the largest waterfall in Europe, according to both the Wikipedia site and the Swiss site dedicated to the falls), we decided to check it out.

At the risk of rendering the rest of the post somewhat anticlimactic, let’s go ahead and take a look at the massive rush of water:

There’s more, so don’t go away just yet. Continue reading “Rheinfall in Switzerland – Travel Lagniappe”

Just a Taste of Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I thought I’d give you a little taste of some new adventures coming in the not-too-distant future. So, here is a shot of one of the seemingly endless photogenic spots in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a lovely spot on the Romantic Road in central Germany.

Markusturm Hotel - Rothenburg ob der Tauber — Markusturm Hotel – Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Stay tuned!

Best –

Dan

Glass! – 19 Pictures from the Seattle Chihuly Exhibit – Travel With the Barretts

While in Seattle a couple of weeks ago visiting our son and precious daughter-in-law (who are expecting our 1st girl grandchild!), Debra and I took in the Chihuly Exhibit at Seattle Center, right at the base of the Space Needle. If you’re not familiar with Dale Chihuly, you can find him all over the Internet – and installations of his work all over the world.

Seattle Chihuly Exhibit

Chihuly’s work with glass remains his forte (in my opinion). The Seattle exhibit is a melee of colors and shapes – a fantastic surreal fantasy, at once familiar and alien.

This post is about the pictures, so I’ll be kind of quiet. I’ve not included our customary watermark on these shots; I couldn’t figure out how to do that without insulting the images. I trust that if somebody wants to use one, they’ll give appropriate attribution.

So, here we go. Please enjoy the Seattle Chihuly Exhibit. Continue reading “Glass! – 19 Pictures from the Seattle Chihuly Exhibit – Travel With the Barretts”

A Brighter Home, a Brighter Mind: How Natural Light Keeps Us Happy and Well – Guest Post

Dan here. Today, we have a special treat: a guest post from Eliza Cochrane of Carlen Glass, located in lovely Dublin, Ireland. She has a post on the benefits of natural light. If you’re a regular on With the Barretts, you know that lots of natural light in living spaces is important to us. We appreciate Eliza sharing and hope you enjoy her post.

room with natural light

I recall a few weeks ago, a brief spell of troubled sleeping. I would go to bed early every night and, after about four hours, would “waken” into a light semi-conscious drift. I’m not sure what caused the spell — though it probably had something to do with the increasing temperature of the summer nights — but there was one morning in particular that struck me as peculiar. On what was perhaps the hottest night of the year, I decided to sleep with the windows open and curtains drawn, to let a draught in should it come. I woke naturally — again, after a few hours of what should have been groggy sleep, only this time to the in-pouring of brilliant sunshine.

And not only did I feel fine, I felt great.

Experience Backed by Research

The experience was so strange to me that I decided to do a little research on natural light and the human body for an explanation: I quickly found out more about the natural sleep-wake cycle, and the regulatory hormones of this cycle. Continue reading “A Brighter Home, a Brighter Mind: How Natural Light Keeps Us Happy and Well – Guest Post”