Thanksgiving with the family!

So we had talked with Heidi´s dad Ed about meeting up with us on our trip in Malaga Spain during thanksgiving. Ed, Laurie, and Eric were all going to come out and meet us there. They had already bought their tickets when we left. We had no idea that Kjersti, my Mom, Scott and Shelby were coming as well.

The day they arrived, we were waiting for them at the hotel. We were looking up the road towards the way they would have to walk to get to the room. We didn´t see them, so we decided to go on a walk and check 0ut what the hotel had to offer. We had walked around the entire area, and started heading back to the rooms. Then we saw Ed, Laurie, and Eric standing up on the walk way carrying a lot of bags. We ran up and greeted them. Then they lead us to their room. When we stepped in we saw 2 out of place faces, and 2 more jumping out from behind doors, yelling. We were so excited we didn´t know what to do. Heidi started crying and my face felt like it was about to explode. I was actually speachless. All I could say was that this was crazy. Probably not what they expected to hear. I just wasn´t prepared to see everyone.

We all hugged then started to put our lugage away. Everyone was pretty tired that day and so we didn´t do much except exchange stories. We all went to bed around 8 pm.

Here is an excerpt from my journal on Nov. 19. The second day they were there.

We woke prettyearly today and ate eggs for breakfast. Then went to the frond desk to see if we could rent a car. We came back to the room and had a meeting. We layed out all the things we wanted to do that week. We all decided that today we would tent a van and drive out to Tarifa. It was highly recommended by the receptionist as a ¨Surf spot¨and a great city to walk around and explore. So that got us all really excited.

Eric was going to drive while Heidi and I navigated. Everyone pilled into the van around 11 and we were off. Tarifa was about an hour and a half away. Past the Rock of Gibralter and over some hills. When we finally aproched the rock, and Kjersti saw it we were all in denial. Until we actually saw it. It was huge. Just a big rock on a small paninsala. We took a lot of pictures as we drove past it.

When we got to Tarifa we went to a Super Market called Lidl. We bought some lunch food to eat out on the beach. Then we drove down to the beach.

We walked down and out onto the beach. It was a very long beach and a long walk to the water. We found our spot, layed out our towels and started making our sandwiches. It was blue skys with some cloads, and the wind wasn´t blowing too hard. After eating a bit, we wnt over to the water and felt how cold it was. We wanted to swim, but the Atlantic was colder then we had imagined. Not as cold as the Puget Sound, but still cold. We took some pics and videos of us running into the water and back out.

Then Heidi, Eric and I went to Tarifa´s Info Booth to see what we should do because everything was closed. we still wanted to surf, but it didn´t look promising. We got some maps then went back to everyone on the beach. We all decided to walk through the town while the locals took a siesta.

It was a small, walkable town with many winding roads and a wall surrounding it. There were also some lookout points that looked like small castls that we climbed. Everyone was taking a ton of pictures and having a lot of fun just walking around. We walked a little spread out as peoples interest pulled them away from the group, we even lost Ed and Scott, seperatly.

We climbed some castle walls and saw Africa (Morocco) across the water.

When we were by the main road out of the port, we saw a green cop car chasing a sedan. The cop car passed the sedan, then slammed on it´s brakes. The cops got out and told the men to get out of the sedan. Then they opened the trunk of the car. I couldn´t see what was inside but it didn´t look like the driver wanted to show the cops. Shelby and Mom then told us how they had heard that the Green cops were bad and the Blue cop were good. We guessed the green cops were a nation wide security, not local. We kept walking and found a small store on the side of the road.

We bought some yams from the small shop. The owner was really nice, eventhough he shoed off the little kids gathering around his store.

The city was a nice break from the tourgroups and crowds Heidi and I have been surrounded with lately. On our walk back to the van, Mom had to pull out some money from a bank atm. Everything was going fine until we asked for a recipt back. Then the atm froze with her card inside. So Mom and Scott stayed back while we walked back to the van. When we got to the van we could see over a dozen people kite boarding on the water because the wind had picked up.

We drove out and picked up Mom and Scott. On our way out of Tarifa, we were stopped in a traffic jam of some sort. We tried to figure out what was going on but we couldn´t see anything. When we drove another 200 meters we could see some green cops blocking the road. They were checking everyone in the cas that passed, searching for someone.

At the front of the baricade were two cops, both with M-16s. We swerved passed them, then we were stopped by one of the cops. The cop took a little bit to look through our 9 person van, but when he was done, he let us through. We turned around another cop car and saw two more cops. They were holding out a spike strip. Ready to throw it at any moment.

We made our way past the barricade and drove by the mechanical windmill and the Romanesque bridge. We were now heading to Gibralter. We all didn´t have our passports, but we were going to try and see how close we could get to the rock.

We parked at a Mc Donalds by the border, we used there bathrooms and Scott and I got Mc Flurrys. Then we walked to the boarder. We took pictures of the Rock and were glad that we could at least see it this close.

We left and bought some more groceries for a big spagetti dinner, filled up the fuel tank on the van and went home. We had a really good diner, then played catch-phrase for a long time. Shelby loved the game so much she wanted to play it for the rest of the trip. Then we all went to bed later then we expected.

(Sorry for whatever spelling and grammer errors you might find, I was trying to type fast)

To be continued...

Barcelona

This is the inside of the Segrada Familia. The pillars are tree branches ans the roof is the canapy of a forest. All Goudi design. We want to come back here when the church is finished because the archetecture is so original and interesting.

Here is a picturte ot two spires viewed from another spire across the church.

At Park Guell sitting on the longest park bench in the world over looking the rest of the park with it´s ¨gingerbread-like¨ buildings.

The pillars are holding up the bench we were sitting on it that makes sense. It was originally designed so that underneith the upper park would be a covered market but now it´s just a cool empty space filled with kids. This mosaic lizard is in every souviner shop.

Here´s a more complete view of Park Guell- only the coolest park we have ever seen!

A good view of La Sagreda Familia (The Sacred Family) Church. The spires on teh left and right are the two sides of the church, the left side being the oldest and most famous. They haven´t even buit the center ones (5 more I think and the front and back of the church ´don´t exist yet. There is supposed to be a total of 18 spires upon completion ( construction started 1882 I think!)

It is late and we are tired of blogging. Sorry. Here are a few pix to wet the appetite. You´ll just have to hang in suspense for the stories.

Here is the older, most photographed side of La Sagrada Familia. The facade is the nativity scene.


Barcelona´s beautiful beach.

This is a common site inside any place you go to get groceries. So much meat, hanging from everywhere and anything.

Barcelona is a very lively city, there is always something going on and always people walking around. We stayed in a very central area called Catalonya Square. We were about 1.5 km from the beach, and to get there we would have to walk down La Rambla.

La Rambla is the main road that eveyone walks up to orient themselves when they come to Barcelona. It is filled with strollers, newspaper stands, road side entertrainers, pick-pocketers, and Three card Monti scamers. We would frequent this street a lot not only because it was our road home but because there was always something going on.

Heidi was starting to feel pretty sick when we arrived, but we managed and were able to see everything we came to see. We visited Park Guell, which was supposed to be a nice neighborhood where the wealthy and well to do could live. It was designed in the usual Goudi fasion, he was the architech chosen by Guell. The neighborhood never came about but a cool park did. The only house that was actually finished was Goudi´s. Go figure.

We ate lunch there while sitting on the world´s longest park bench. Then looked around the park for while.

To Be Continued...

Lyon, Charmonix, Montpellier (Nov. 9-12)

Lyon is a hub of transportation for France. So we went there on our way to the south of France. We stayed there for 3 nights and made plans for our trip, up to the point where we will meet family in Malaga, Spain.

The receptionist at our hostel had a real attitude, and the bartender was the most flamboyent human being I have ever seen. He even wore a belly shirt one night and danced his way around the building instead of walking. This was probably the most akward place/time we have spent anywhere so far. We were in transition the entire time. The hostel wasn´t that hospitible for people to just sit and relax and the staff was hard to put up with.

Ex. I was sitting in the lobby (which keep in mind is filled with cafeteria tables and horribly uncomfortable) trying to journal. It was only 8:30, but the lobby/club was rocking. There were strobe lights and a disco ball, and some lights that would randomly blind you with different colors every now and again. It was just me and the bartender. I got tired of the unexpected shots of light in my face and the incessent, horrible 80´s music that never made it´s way out of Europe. So I went up to him and asked him to turn off the strobe light. He gave me a weird look and pulled a step ladder out for him to reach the off switch. He didn´t like me from there on out.

On day we decided to take a train to a town called Chamonix at the base of Mont Blanc. We wanted to hike around and explore the French alps while we were there. The town was a 3 hour train ride away but we had our Eurail passes so that didn´t mater.

The views from the train were great, almost like hiking, but without the joy of knowing that few people have ever seen this territory. We walked around Chamonix in the snow, the first snow of the season. We had pizza and tried to stay warm by frequenting the over-inflated clothing stores in the village.

We went back to the train station only to realize that we had missed the last train to Lyon by 1 min. My watch is set to Switzerland´s train station time, the correct time. That train station was 3 min fast, and the train was 2 min late. So we went to the info guy and he said there was no way to get to Lyon, where our pre-paid bed was that night. We have learned, that at times like this you need to really push people into helping you. So we started pushing. We finally got it out of him, our way to get back to Lyon.

So we got on the correct train heading to Geneva, Switzerland (Geneva is a French collinized city in SW), where we would have a connection to Lyon. No problem. When got to Geneva, we went to the info lady to ask where the train was because it wasn´t where it should have been. She also had the French attitude the Nicolas told us about and started talking to us with a real attitude. I told her to ¨Calm down!¨ (I think I am part French) She said, ¨Am I speaking crazy English?¨ I said, ¨Yes¨. She then told us that we needed to catch a bus to Lyon, not a train. Then the guy working next to her, with deciet in his heart said something to her in French, really fast. She then laugh and turned back to us. She said, go straight for 500 meters on the main road outside. 500 meters... Okay. That is about a quarter of a mile in some direction where her hand was pointing and by that time we only had 10 min. So we started running as usual.

We didn´t see a bus stop for a really long time, and we only had 4 min left before it left. So we started running back to the Train station taking the back roads to scan for the bus. We ran all the way back to the station and right outside the Main back doors of the station there was a bus. I decided to ask the driver where he was going. He then blew the smoke out of his lungs and said ¨Lyon¨. Just what we were looking for. So we got on and quietly cused out the lady at the info box.


We got home from our French Alps adventure at 11 pm and decided never to take a train for leisure again.

We wanted a night train to Barcelona from Lyon but it didn´t exist so we went to Montpellier in the evening and left the next afternoon for Barcelona. It is definily a livable place and very international and filled with college students. We would have stayed longer if our schedual allowed. The day we headed out to Barcelona I caught a cold and it was just a rough day.



In Montpellier. David pointing to the business on the street that so perfectly depicted how we were feeling that day.


Our hostel in Lyon was right below this magnificent church.


In Charmonix, enjoying the only snow that we will see until Winter ´08 back home. This place was a really cute resort town.


We spent one late morning at a park infront of that huge church on the hill over looking Lyon. We made REAL mimosas with oranges and our beloved juicer and REAL French Chanmpagne. Eveyone was jealous!

Paris, the City where romancers go to romance

It may be a lame title but I am running out of ideas.

Paris was a ton of fun. We stayed in a bad hostel but the city is really nice and the weather was good, for the most part. First day we went to the Eiffel Tower and glided straight to the top. It was blue skys so we had a great view. We spent a lot of time up there and we were able to really orient ourselves to the city with a map and the view.

Then we walked around for a really long time, just exploring the city. We made our way to the Notre Dame, where quazie moto spent the majority of his cartoon life, swinging from gargoyal to spire, always watching his clock. We climed up it and had some awesome photo shots where I had a hunchback and I was making my way out of the bell tower. Too cool for words (I guess you´ll never get it since we can´t find the picture).

We then took pictures from the top of Notre Dame. We had a really good view of Paris during the sunset with the clouds in the background.

The next few days we met with a friend named Nicolas. We met him in Jerusalem and have kept in contact since then. He showed us around the city through all the back roads that we wouldn´t have seen other wise. He also told us a l0t about the people in Paris. They all seem to be very politically charged. There were numerous protests and marches the entire time we were there.

We saw models getting there picture taken at an outdoor photo shoot and we saw a musician making a music video in front of Notre Dame. The city always has something going on.

We also went to the Louvre one night. We didn´t give ourselves that much time there because we didn´t think that we would want to be there all that long. We had just gone through Italy, coming from Athens and Jerusalem. If anyone has done that before they would know that, at this point, we have seen the oldest, tallest, biggest, most important, most photographed, smallest, hardest to build, most significant whatever you can think of and we didn´t think we would be that inpressed with the Louvre. But we were. It is definatly something to see if you are ever in that area. I haven´t been to the British museum or the Museum in Berlin, which I have heared are really nice as well, so if you like museums, definatly see those three.

But back to the Louvre. They had so many artifacts from all over the world, from every time period. I really liked the Mesopotamian artifacts because they were the most foreign to me. We saw the Mona Lisa of course but that was a little let down. It is small, and you really can´t see it from where they allow you to look. It is better to look at it in a book.

We spent about 3 hours there but the last 45 min were spent running to make sure we didn´t miss anything before being kicked out at closing. When we go back to Paris, I will visit it again and spend more time there.

Most all our pictures from Paris have mysteriously disappeared and we really don´t know what happened. All we have is of the Eiffel tower which was only the first couple hours of our 4 days.

So happy to be here!


Up at the top to enjoy the first and last sunny day during our visit. It was perfect.

Bacharach, Koblenz

Bacharach was so cool. We showed up late because we caught the later train from Amsterdam. We got there when the sun was down and no one was out in the town. Once we got off the train, we still had a 15 min hike to the top of this hill which our Castle/hostel was occupying. On the hike up we passed an awesome shell of a gothic chuch that never saw completion. It still looked cool so city decided to light it up at night for the ambiance.

When we got to the top of the hill and saw our castle we were re-energized and were really excited to be there. We were given our own dorm room because we arrived so late. The next morning we were given a really good breakfast with cheese and milk that came from the local cows.

Then we wondered around the town and cought a train to Koblenze. We did this so we could see a lot of the Castels that are purched on the hills surrounding the Rhine river. We spent some time in Koblenze and ate at an authentic German resturant. (They aren´t authentic if they advertise that they are) I had some crazy mixture of meat that was rapped together as a sausage, and Heidi has some very hearty potato soup.

Then we cought a train to Paris and...

This is the old, blown out church that we walked past on our hike to the castle. It was all lit up in orange glowing lights and was so eerily beautiful. It´s just a hollow shell.

Our castle view of the Rhine River. The summer postcards are prettier but we thought the fall colors looked really cool.

The view of our accomodations from the town below.