Skywatch#130 Silhouette of Philip IV

Silhouette of Philip IV at Plaza de Oriente 

The statue is located at the east side of the Royal Palace of Madrid, Spain.

Philip IV of Spain (Spanish: Felipe IV; 8 April 1605 – 17 September 1665) was King of Spain (as Philip IV in Castille and Philip III in Aragon) and Portugal as (Portuguese: Filipe III). He ascended the thrones in 1621 and reigned in Spain until his death and in Portugal until 1640. Philip is remembered for his patronage of the arts, including such artists as Diego Velázquez, and his rule over Spain during the challenging period of the Thirty Years' War. (source wikipedia)

 

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Skywatch#129 Different Skies and Different Timezones

A few years ago, a friend told me that when I get the chance to travel through continents, I should look out for what she called the "timezone sky". She saw it while traveling from the Philippines to Canada and said that it was really beautiful. Not sure if it's her own label but her explanation was that the sky  looks quite different when crossing timezones.

I love taking photos while airborne. Not only do I feel like I am in heaven as what most people say, I also like how the colors of the clouds change constantly. The favorite time for me is during sunset or sunrise when an array of kaleidoscope of colors change within seconds.

The above photo was taken while we were on our way home from London last year. As can be expected, London was covered with clouds.

More than 30 minutes after, the sunset blue hour started and pastel colors started battling over the blue-black color of the skies.

I never got to see what my friend said years ago about the "timezone sky" and so I stayed awake most of the 17-hour trip to home from our Europe trip just to try if I could see it.  When I saw it, it did not disappoint.

This was no ordinary sunset or sunrise colors I thought when I opened the window shade. Before that, I watched about 5 movies on the plane just to try to see if I could catch this. This should be the "timezone sky" my friend was talking about. Checking out the time, I realized that we must be somewhere between Europe and Asia. How cool is that!

 

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Skywatch#128 Dark Clouds Over Big Ben

A friend said that London's weather is almost always unpredictably gray. Meaning, London would always have gray clouds and intermittent rains hovering above but in a few lucky moments in a day, blue skies would peek out to tease and then, it would be back to gray clouds again. I definitely agreed with the observation as can be seen in the photos below: We started our day with threatening gray clouds over London but we kept to our itinerary for the day. As we went from one place to the other, taking photos here and there, I took photos of the Big Ben in a span of a few minutes. The photo above shows dark gray clouds over Big Ben but.. in a few minutes, blue skies are peeping out to tease.
 

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Will Travel

Source: FastLoanTree.com

When I came back from my Europe travel late last year, my mother asked me when will I ever stop traveling. My answer was, "Never." I will save, I will take credit, I will work hard for it and I will always plan for a travel at least once a year.

There is something about traveling that is quite addicting. There is so much to learn, to see, to experiment and to explore when traveling that it is like being young and bold again.

Not surprising, my mother caught the travel bug last year when I took her with me somewhere in the northern and central Philippines. She was amazed of what she had seen and experienced that she was asking when would be our next travel again.

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Save And Travel

Some people think that one needs to be filthy rich to do some traveling. With this mentality, a lot of people have given up their dream to travel to some distant land because they thought they could not afford to do it. Sure, to travel means to spend some money but there are several ways to save for one's dream travel. I am no millionaire but my friends and I have found a way to get to places we wanted to get to by just saving, strategizing and planning. People get jealous that we could get to places we wanted to get to but it takes a lot of discipline, will power and careful planning and strategizing before we could get to where we want. Taking out a loan helped a lot along the way but saving did more. For long travels, I saved for years. The first one was my first China travel. I saved for five years and most of which were done through the Pag-IBIG Fund's Pag-IBIG II program. The said program offered higher dividend rates than most if not all saving institutions. The rest of the expense for the said travel, I saved little by little. So, one needs not to be filthy rich to get to Spain or France or just even to Boracay or Sagada. One just needs to save and work hard. The destination awaits, excitedly.

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Last Minute Bargains

To minimise the headache of searching for your next family getaway, it makes sense to book holidays online.

Why? Because searching and booking through the internet is one of the quickest ways to find the holiday to suit all of your requirements. It saves time and money as you will be able to search quickly through thousands of resorts to find the one which is most suited to you and your travelling companions, as well as by the amount you want to spend.

There are many ways in which to search for your holiday. As the internet has become so advanced it has meant that by modifying the search box on the travel agents' website, you can see a list of results that will offer you a seemingly tailor-made holiday. During the search, filter the results by the things that matter to you - such as your chosen destination, desired holiday date, star rating of your hotel, board basis and also any additional requirements such as kids clubs or adults only. This will ensure that the list of hotels presented to you will be the most suitable. You can also narrow it down by price to make sure that you are right on budget.

Another great way to find a holiday to match your budget is to snare a cut-price package. The best way to do this is to book last minute holidays with Thomas Cook. A little trick is to decide when you want to go away, and then search through the website a few weeks before the departure date and look at the deals best suited to you. You can leave booking right up to the last minute to really catch a bargain, but if the location and facilities are important to you, especially if you are travelling with youngsters, it may be worth keeping your options a little more flexible.

There are plenty of different ways to find the right holiday - it's just a matter of setting out your priorities and budget, doing your homework, and choosing the one that best fits your wish list.

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