OK, it’s not exactly hard to find tapas in Spain. But it is a bit of a challenge for visitors to find GOOD tapas here when they don’t know the secret hot spots. Honestly, we were about to give up hope until we got to Seville. The city’s tapas scene is very competitive and Sevillanos have some pretty high standards.

A bit of research led us to Vineria San Telmo. The amazing little cafe serves up some seriously delicious, extremely innovative tapas that finally made it clear to us what tapas should be. Dishes include mouth-watering creations such as Continue…

We love love love Seville’s insanely visionary Metropol Parasol. Created by German architect Jürgen Mayer-Hermann, the bizarre wooden structure manages to achieve a thousand things at once: it’s avant-garde and traditional, whimsical and serious, sculptural and functional. The complex work consists of six towering parasols composed of interlacing boards which morph their way over roads and restaurants into what is now claimed to be the world’s largest wooden structure. It kind of feels like Seville has been invaded by a giant space-waffle-fungus, but in an entirely good way.

The Metropol Parasol is more than an artistic statement; it’s also highly functional. Obviously, it provides an important source of shade for La Encarnación Square. Perhaps more of a surprise, the base platform houses the Antiquarium, a museum designed to preserve Moorish and Roman ruins discovered on site. And most spectacularly, the entire structure Continue…

If there is one thing that Spain does better than any other place on the planet, it just might be gardens. With the possible exception of Kashmir, we’ve never been anywhere that even comes close.

So what makes Spain better than the rest? It represents that magical crossroads between the lush, contemplative gardens of the Islamic world and the highly structured gardens of Europe. What’s more, as a leading colonial power for centuries, Spain had the ability to collect plants from around the globe. And unlike other colonial powers, the Spanish could actually grow those plants back home.

The palace gardens of Córdoba’s Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos are just one stunning Continue…

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The Mezquita of Cordoba, Spain is unlike any other building we’ve ever seen. Built on the ruins of a Visigoth church between 784 and 987AD, the Mezquita is the largest surviving Moorish mosque on the Iberian peninsula. It’s world-renowned for its stunning arched hypostyle hall and exceptionally ornate mihrab. When Catholic rulers regained control of Cordoba, they cut an enormous chunk out of the heart of the sprawling medieval mosque and constructed a towering cathedral right in the middle of it. The result is a unique mosque-church hybrid with wildly contradictory architectural and artistic styles. We love it!!! And so does Continue…

As I mentioned on our Facebook Page last week, Berlin is THE crossroads for travel bloggers this summer. While exchanging stories and travel tips, we discovered that the whale sharks of Donsol, Philippines appear to be vanishing.

I was stunned.

When I got home, I immediately started researching the claim and discovered that it appears to be true. Apparently, the number of whale shark sightings has dropped dramatically. There has not been much international media coverage on the issue, but newspapers in the Philippines are reporting Continue…