6 Months, 15 Countries, 2 Parents and 1 Two year old

Photos: Paris, France

ccandj6monthsaway — Tue, 5 Nov 2013 16:52:00 GMT

Paris, France

ccandj6monthsaway — Tue, 5 Nov 2013 16:49:00 GMT

We left Luxembourg City on a quick train ride to Paris. We decided to try to negotiate the public subway system right off from the train station, and did pretty well, making it to the apartment without getting too turned around. We rented a nice little apartment for five nights only a few blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. Although a little outside of the main tourist area, the subway system was so convenient that we went everywhere we wanted throughout the large city of Paris.

The first night we had dinner at a recommended place just down the street - and yes, the food just keeps getting better and better. We took a walk over to the Tower and caught the end of the blinky lights show where the E.T. just seems to glitter and sparkle.

Day two we did our own walking tour of Paris, starting with a daytime view of the Eiffel Tower. (Oh, and found another amazing playground in the park around the E.T. that entertained Jackson for an hour before we finally pulled him away). The E.T. is quite impressive and we decided to make an entire day of it later in the week rather than risk going up that day and being disappointed with the expected rain. We walked on to the Palais de Chaillot for some great photos of the E.T., and then on to the Charles de Gaulle Circle and Arc de Triomphe. The Charles de Gaulle Circle which surrounds the famous Arc de Triomphe is billed as the largest traffic roundabout in the world with twelve avenues exiting off of it. It is truly amazing that buses, taxis, motorcycles and bike all vie for space smoothly with no evident lanes and no apparent rules of the road. We stood and watched for 15 min, shaking our heads in awe that no one crashed. The Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his victories, is a large square arch with intricate statues of battle and conquest on each side, as well as names of his generals and won battles on the inside walls. We climbed up into the viewing platform for a great view of the Ave de Champs Elysees. The tomb of an unknown soldier from WWII is also within this structure with a flame that is lit every evening. We walked from here down the Champs Elysee, past the Place de la Concorde Obelisk (3300 years old and once stood in front of the Temple of Ramses at Thebes) to the Louvre.

The Musee du Louvre, although something we intend to view in the future, was not something we were willing to tackle with a two year old. We were well aware that it is not really possible, even when dedicating a solid day to seeing the art, to feel satisfied with the Louvre in one day of viewing. That, combined with the additional knowledge that Jackson was completely done with “mineums” and that we could not take the backpack carrier in with us, and we didn’t even consider going. We saw it briefly from the exterior as it began to pour rain at the end of our “walking tour”. We will be back some day without the child to see all of the fantastic are that this building contains. We ducked into a little café for a snack and then waited until the rain let up a little for the best dinner ever! I can’t even remember what it was now, but my taste buds were very happy! (Why did I used to think I didn’t like French food? Who couldn’t like French food?!?)

Knowing we had only four nights in Paris, and not having had a break from 24/7 parenting, or any adult time together in several weeks, we decided to trust in a childcare service and hired a babysitter for the night so that we could grab a few cocktails and do a little dancing. Unsure of how Jackson would do with a stranger (rather than a grandparent) to watch him, we built up the idea of “Nanny Dale” for two days. When she arrived, Jackson immediately handed her a book and waved goodbye to us. Apparently, he needed a break from us too. He liked her so much, that we hired her the following night as well and actually had our first dinner alone in over four months. He only had positive things to say about her the next morning, so no regrets from any of us.

Day three was dedicated to visiting Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris. It is truly spectacular! At this point, we have seen so many cathedrals and churches in Europe. Notre Dame deserves its label as one of the greats! It is grand and imposing inside with the largest rose stained-glass window in the world. Inside are relics such as artifacts from various popes, religious jewels and what is claimed to be Christ’s Crown of Thorns. The landscaping outside is filled with blooms, warming up this large grey church with gargoyles and flying buttresses. Just next to Notre Dame is the Pont Neuf bridge in which lovers have placed locks – thousands and thousands of locks. We have also seen this before, but I’m fairly sure that no other bridge is as weighed down with as many locks as this particular bridge. Chris questioned how much longer the integrity of the bridge will last with all this additional metal. Impressive in its own right. We walked across and over to the Pantheon, built in 1750, which now serves as a crypt with tombs of Voltaire, Rousseau, Marie Curie, Victor Hugo and many others.

Our final day was spent going up into the Eiffel Tower. We got lucky again with weather and were able to stand in the very long line, take the two elevators, and go all the way up to the top without any rain. The views from the third (top) level at 324 meters was amazing. We recaptured the same photo that Chris’s parents took on one of their trips 43 years earlier (pointing down to the base from the top – a great perspective). It was so wonderful to spend most of our last day in this iconic structure. When we came down, we had lunch at a little café on the Seine, and then walked along the river. On the eastern end of the Seine is a small version of the Statue of Liberty. Neither of us have ever been to New York and seen America’s version, but since it was a French gift, the small one here was just fine.

Overall, Paris was as expected: beautiful. It rained most of the time we were there and we were freezing in our limited cold-weather clothes, we still enjoyed it immensely. We purposely chose to have a short trip here so that we can return one day without our son to truly enjoy this romantic city as a couple. We will make sure to keep that plan!

Although we loved Paris, we are both feeling very done with Europe. We have seen too many churches, museums, castles and western “culture”. We need a shift and boy are we going to get it, as we board a non-stop to Ha Noi, Vietnam…

Photos: Luxembourg

ccandj6monthsaway — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 22:01:00 GMT

Luxembourg

ccandj6monthsaway — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 21:58:00 GMT

So Luxembourg is a small country that lies directly between Frankfurt, Germany and Paris, France. If you draw a line from Frankfurt to Paris on a map, it almost goes directly through Luxembourg City. We had 7 days before our flight out of Paris left for Hanoi, Vietnam. We figured that 7 days in Paris with a 2 yr old would be kind of like going to the fair and not riding on any of the rides, so we chose to cut our Paris trip down to 4 days and spend 3 nights in Luxembourg City. Although we had never actually met anyone who went to Luxembourg on vacation, the guidebook made it sound pretty good. When we arrived at the train station in Frankfurt, we discovered that you can’t actually take a train directly to Luxembourg City. This should have been our first clue that we should have just gone straight to Paris. We ended up taking a short train ride to a German border town and then got on a bus to Luxembourg City.

Luxembourg City (three nights)

The weather turned rainy on our last few days in Germany and it continued to rain when we arrived in Luxembourg. We were able to book a really nice hotel right in the “Old Town” of Luxembourg City. It was expensive, but we wanted some place nice to stay after all of the running around we did in Germany. Turns out that the nicest part of our trip to Luxembourg was the hotel room. It’s not that Luxembourg City is not nice. On the contrary, the city itself is very modern with lots of great restaurants and shopping. Problem is that it is all very expensive. The old town part of the city was built on a bluff overlooking a winding river, but as we’ve said before – we’ve sort of already seen this layout and are over it. We happened upon the changing of the guard ceremony at the Grand Palais (which was sort of neat) and the end of a Sunday service at their Notre Dame (which a few days later we compared to the real Notre Dame – not even close). There are some cool views and some nice strolls to be had, but when you stack it up against the rest of Europe, it just does not compare.”

At this point in our trip, we had already surfed some of the best waves in the world, climbed Mayan Pyramids, seen sharks, rays, and giant sea turtles fight over fish scraps, visited countless castles, fortresses, and other cool monuments in Europe and seen some of the Swiss Alps. You start to get a bit jaded after all of that, so I am sure we did not give Luxembourg City the chance it deserved.

One of the most interesting things (for Christy, not Chris) was the elephant statues that were scattered around town. There was apparently an upcoming charity auction benefitting elephants that was entitled the “elephant parade”. Not sure how that related to Luxembourg, but coming across elephants around every corner was kind of fun and made for the most interesting pictures of the three days.

It rained fairly constantly while we were in Luxembourg, so we spent an inordinate amount of time in the hotel room. We even watched a movie on the computer for the first time in 4 months. One night there was a concert right outside our room – which started rather scarily with some form of German slash metal (at 4:30 pm), but ended rather nicely with some reggae (11:30 pm). The rest and relaxation was great and it was probably a really good idea given that we were headed to Paris next. The food in Luxembourg was very good but, once again, expensive. If you like to shop at designer clothing stores (which we don’t), than Luxembourg City is a great place to go. If not, it is a little boring.

Oh well, you don’t find a winner every time out. On to Paris….

Photos: Switzerland

ccandj6monthsaway — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 22:57:00 GMT

Switzerland

ccandj6monthsaway — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 22:27:00 GMT

The day after Chris’ Dad, Greg, arrived in Munich, we rented a car and drove down to Lucerne, Switzerland. Greg and Carol had greatly enjoyed it here and returned a few times while they lived outside of Heidelberg. Greg had a role in the planning of his time with us, so when he mentioned going to Lucerne, it sounded great to us. The drive consisted of mostly autobahn, with amazingly long tunnels built through the Alps that stretch on for miles. However, the drive was relatively short and in only a few hours, we were in the lovely little town of Lucerne.

Lucerne / Luzerne

On the trip we have stayed in hostels, guesthouses, hotels and private apartments. We tend to use Booking.com or AirBnB.com as these seem the most convenient and thorough way to find a good place. The one problem with airbnb is that you are not dealing with professionals, and therefore you tend to end up with some confusion about the “check-in” process. This was one of those bookings. Given that we do not have a phone, only access to Wi-Fi when available, we arrived with no way to contact our host and poor directions through email about obtaining the key. So after over an hour of searching desperately for a Wi-Fi connection (the town was closed down in the afternoon), we stopped a nice lady who let us borrow her phone to call our host. The key was under the seat of her bicycle outside the apartment (well of course!). The apartment turned out to be wonderful and short walking distance to the “Old Town” portion of Lucerne. We got settled and headed out to dinner.

Unfortunately, the rain from Slovenia and Germany continued during our time in Switzerland, with only a few breaks. Therefore, our first impression of Lucerne was somewhat lack luster. There is a famous covered bridge (Kapellbrucke Chapel Bridge) across the river that runs through town and into Lake Lucerne (which during a clear day, we later found out, was very pretty!). We had a nice dinner by the bridge and went home. Nothing too impressive.

Interlaken

Day two we drove down to another lakeside town called Interlaken. We had lunch on the main promenade, bought some true Swiss chocolate and drove back to Lucerne. Again, due to the rain, we were unfortunately disappointed. We could imagine that the rolling hills, waterfalls and lakes area is beautiful when the weather is good, but we just had a hard time seeing it. The best part of the day was a stop for gas on the way to Interlaken. The gas station was attached to a great playground with the longest tube slide I have ever seen (that did not contain water and empty out into a swimming pool). After several attempts, resulting in chickening out, Jackson finally went down the slide with both Chris and I and loved it (prepping him for the following day’s activities – keep reading…).

Mt. Pilatus

Day three we took a tram (actually two) up the side of Mt. Pilatus, the main mountain that looks down over Lucerne. The ride up was fun, climbing higher and higher with increasingly beautiful views of Lake Lucerne and the surrounding mountains. We lucked out with timing, as when we started it was fairly overcast, but after about an hour on the mountain it cleared up and provided a wonderful view of the valley. Greg had been to the lookout and hotel on top of Pilatus a few times before and reported that this was the best view he had ever seen. We hiked up a little further to the lookout and were rewarded with clear views to the Swiss Alps – a few I even caught on film! It was so amazing to be up above it all, I only wish I had a better camera! We had a few warm drinks and headed back down the mountain, stopping half way to play on a gigantic inner tube slide (dry) Chris spotted. The head adrenaline junkie tested it out a few times before he let Chris ride it, saying over and over “oh that’s too fast” and then adding a layer of rug to slow things down. When it was ready for amateurs, Chris did a few runs. The whole time Jackson was yelling “Jackson do it all by himself”, wanting a ride too. Chris finally put him on his lap and they went down together, all of us expecting Jackson to be crying by the time they reached the end. (Not our best parenting decision). Nope, he was laughing and cheering, asking to go again. He rode down a few more times with all of us – even Grandpa Greg. Note: Greg also did a small zip-line with Jackson in the kid’s playground on the other stop up the hill. Go Grandpa!!

Later that day, Chris and I were able to get out and explore the city while it was clear. We finally saw the attraction and why it is described as so beautiful and “little Miss Popular”. We walked along the fortress wall and up into a few towers, allowing us to appreciate the lake view and quaint architecture. We sat along the Lake at sunset and then met Greg and Jackson for one of the best dinners of our entire trip. Cheese fondue and steak, followed by chocolate fondue for dessert (yum!!!)

Lucerne is very much like many other European cities we have seen (castle wall, old town, river promenade, bridges). But the lake and the surrounding mountains/alps make it a stand out! I am personally grateful that I was able to see part of Switzerland, as this is where my mother’s family was from and somewhere I would now like to return to explore more.

Although Chris already blogged about it, we left Lucerne to go back into Germany with Greg for another four days. Our next blog will be from Luxembourg City.

Photos: Germany

ccandj6monthsaway — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 04:24:00 GMT

Germany

ccandj6monthsaway — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 04:22:00 GMT

Christy has written all of the blog entries up to this point. Since the visit to Germany was extra special for me and because I feel a bit guilty about leaving all of the work to Christy, I (Chris) am going to author this particular entry in our blog.

When we planned our European portion of the trip we started the process knowing that we wanted to visit, Spain, Croatia, and Germany. The other countries were added later either due to proximity to the big three or because they were on the way from one of these countries to the other.

Germany was chosen for two main reasons. First of all, castles are cool and Germany has some of the best. Second, I was born in Germany 42 years ago. My parents lived in Germany from 1969 – 1971, care of the US Army. Although this was not a voluntary choice, it was much better than the alternatives of either Vietnam, jail, or Canada. My family moved back to the US about 3 weeks after I was born and up until this trip, no one in my family has been back.

Germany is a pretty big country and there is a great deal to see. Although we spent a total of 8 days in Germany, we really only got to visit a handful of its famous attractions. Fortunately, my father was able to join us for part of this trip which meant that we had a guide for the home coming portion of the visit.

With 42 years of buildup, I thought that it was going to be hard for the actual Germany to meet my expectations. As it turns out, I was wrong. Germany was way better than anything I had imagined.

Munich

We started our trip in Munich which turned out to be an excellent decision. Munich is an awesome town with a great old town, good food, good beer, and in close proximity to many great attractions. Although Munich is also home to Octoberfest, our visit was about three weeks early and we were not able to attend. We managed to find an affordable hotel within the old town so we could walk or take their subway/train system all over town. As it turned out we were only a few blocks from the Glockinschpiel which is located on the new town hall. Although this is now being called the second most over-rated tourist attraction in Europe, it is pretty cool to see the little figures dance around at the noon hour.

The food in Munich was also some of the best we found in Germany. Our first night in town we had a dessert that is now at that top of my all-time favorites. It is called Zwetschgenbavese. Basically, it is a French toast sandwich with plum sauce filling that has been deep fried. It is served with melted vanilla ice cream sauce and a touch of chocolate sauce. It tastes even better than it sounds. I also really liked the 12% Alcohol Beer which gets you there that much faster. The Radler Beer was also super tasty.

Using Munich as a basecamp, we took two separate day trips. The first was to the town of Dachau, a suburb of Munich. Dachau holds the distinction of being the first and one of the most famous Nazi concentration camps in Germany. In 1968, the German government opened the Dachau memorial museum at the site. This was a brave move as many Germans really wanted to put that part of their history behind. The Dachau memorial was redone less than 10 years ago, so things are fresh and there are many new exhibits. Although the site is mostly a museum, many of the original buildings along with the original security wall, gates, and crematoriums are still intact. The exhibits and the museum are extremely honest and open with regard to the treatment of prisoners. Although Dachau was not an official “extermination camp” thousands of prisoners were killed or died at this site at the hands of the Nazi government. Growing up we all learned about the holocaust and the history during WWII. Seeing the location first hand really makes this history become real. Although we spent at least 6 hours at the site, we did not feel that it was something where it was appropriate to take a lot of pictures. We did however take a picture of the entry gate every prisoner used when entering the camp. On the Iron door the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” are welded into the gate. This translates to “Work Will Set You Free”. We debated about posing in front of the gate for this photo, but I thought it was important that we documented its existence for Jackson to show him when he gets older and learns about WWII in school.

After the very sobering day at Dachau, we chose to see one of the places that I have wanted to visit since I was a small child, the Neuschwanstein castle. For those people my age, this was the castle used to film the movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the castle that inspired the design of the Disney Castle at Disneyland. As a kid, it was especially cool to hear from my parents that they had actually visited this castle in “real life”.

The Neuschwanstein castle is located in the Bayern region of Germany which is a couple hours west of Munich. We chose to rent a car in Munich and drive to the Castle. As an avid car lover and someone who genuinely loves to drive, I can tell you that it does not get much better than putting an Audi A4 into 6^th gear and cruising at 110 mph down the freeway. Especially when you get passed by others doing 120 – 140 mph. The German Autobahns are still an engineering wonder and one of the true great driving experiences left in the world that are fun, safe, and legal. (Note to self…..you need to own a German made automobile at some point in your life.) After getting off the Autobahn, we found the back country roads leading up to the Castle to be some of the prettiest we had ever seen. We were also treated to almost perfect weather that day as it was sunny and clear but not too hot.

It is hard to describe the Neuschwanstein castle with words. Check out the pictures and then multiply the coolness by a factor of 2 as they really don’t do it justice. This is something you need to see and experience firsthand. From the perfect mountain lake to the amazing waterfall to the fact that you can see a really cool castle from this castle, the Neuschwanstein did not disappoint.

The castle can best be viewed from a bridge located above and behind the castle which spans an amazing waterfall. At the bottom of the hill is a picturesque lake and another Castle, the Hohenschwangau Castle. The Neuschwanstein castle was built for King Ludwig II at the end of the 1800’s. Unfortunately, King Ludwig died before the castle could be completed. Hohenschwagau was King Ludwig’s childhood summer home and also dates to the 1800’s. By German standards, these are two of the newer castles but also some of the most spectacular. The Neuschwanstein castle was built for show and opulence although it would have also made a good protective fortress. We do not have any pictures from inside of either castle as picture taking is forbidden. The inside of the Neuschwanstein castle is in some ways even more spectacular than the outside. The decoration, detail, and opulence are unbelievable. Although the Hohenschwangau castle is not as famous, it is not to be overlooked. We visited this area for a few hours one day and really wish we could have spent more time and maybe stayed at one of the hotels in the small village below the castle. Due to time constraints we were also not able to visit King Ludwig’s other castle, the Linderhof Castle. Needless to say, we will be back some day to spend more time.

The day after Neuschwanstein, my father flew into Munich to meet up with us. This was to be our last night in Munich which also turned out to be Friday night. Dad wanted to go back to the famous Hofbrau House Restaurant for dinner where he and my mother ate several meals back in 1970 - 71. Dad said that the Hoffbrau House looked exactly the same, but was a bit disappointed that there is now a Starbucks and Hard Rock Café across the street.

After having some German food and drinking an entire liter of beer, we tucked my Dad and Jackson into bed and headed out for a much needed night on the town. Along with all of the other great attributes, Munich also has a fun nightlife. We managed to find Kultfabrik which is located in an old warehouse district of Munich. Kultfabrik is a collection of more than 30 bars, lounges, and night clubs. It was something right out of a futuristic end of the world bad 80’s movie. Kind of like taking every dance club and lounge in San Francisco along with a few dive bars and cramming them into the American Steel facility in Oakland. Although there was too much to choose from and much more bad than good, we managed to find some good dance music and some fun lounges to hang out in for the night. Kultfabrik is the kind of place that can induce FOMO (fear of missing out) more than any other place I can imagine other than Saturday night at Burning Man.

The next day, we packed up the rental car and headed Southwest toward Switzerland. We spent three nights in Lucerne before heading back up North to my birth place, Heidelberg, Germany. We will write a separate blog for Lucerne.

Black Forest

On our way to Heidelberg, we chose to get off the Autobahn and drive through the famous Black Forest. According to our guide, my Dad, the Black Forest gets its name from the fact that the trees are so dense and just the right color, that the forest actually looks black from a distance. We did not get very many great pictures of the Black Forest as it was raining most of the day and you just could not get a good perspective. The Black Forest is huge and you could spend an entire week driving the back roads that wind through it. Along with the beautiful scenery, the Black Forest is also known for Coo-Coo Clocks, ham, and cake. We stopped in a great little town called, Triberg for lunch where we looked at hundreds of clocks and sampled the ham and authentic Black Forest Cake. You don’t want to smoke around the cake due to the fire hazard created by all of the alcohol in it, but it was pretty good. We also managed to find the largest Coo-Coo Clock in the world which is just outside of Triberg.

Heidelberg

I was born in the same Army Hospital where General Patton died. It is/was located in Heidelberg Germany. Heidelberg was the US Army headquarters for all of Europe from the 1950’s to 2012. A week before our visit, the hospital and all of the other Army buildings officially closed for good. Sadly, this meant that we could not actually go inside the hospital or tour any of the facility. We did manage to find the building as it is located along a fence line.

The town of Heidelberg dates back to the medieval ages and is mostly famous for its castle, waterfront, and University. The old town of Heidelberg is absolutely beautiful. After hearing about this place for 42 years, it was a pleasant surprise to have the real thing exceed my expectations. We found some really good food in really unique settings and had a great time exploring the narrow streets which are now mostly blocked off to traffic. The Heidelberg Castle sits part way up a hill overlooking the town. The castle itself is in ruins but is really impressive. The Necker River flows through the town and is spanned by a stone bridge. We only stayed in town two nights but were able to spend almost two full days exploring. It was a really special experience to have my father along on this part of the trip. It was fun to hear stories from when he and my mother lived and worked there in the early 70’s.

My father was scheduled to fly out of Frankfurt after our visit to Heidelberg, so we made our way North. On our way to Frankfurt, we stopped in the small village of Heddesheim. This was the actual town where my parents lived during their time in Germany. It is located a few miles outside of Mannheim where my father was stationed. After a lot of driving around and some help from some really nice locals, we managed to find the old apartment building. As it turned out, their old landlord still owns and lives in the building. He is now in his early 90’s and was not home at the time of our visit. This is unfortunate as it would have been an amazing reunion. Our last day in Germany, we dropped off my Dad at the airport and drove to the train station in Frankfurt. Our next stop was Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

Germany is now on our short list of places we want to return. Aside from not being able to manage the language, at all, and the fact that things were pretty expensive, there was not anything about Germany that we did not enjoy. It is also one of the few places we have visited where I would actually consider living at some point in the future.

Photos: Salzburg, Austria

ccandj6monthsaway — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 22:31:00 GMT

Austria – Well, really only Salzburg

ccandj6monthsaway — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 21:49:00 GMT

We left beautiful Bled in Slovenia and made the even more lovely train ride through the Austrian countryside and mountains to Salzburg. We had a few days to kill before we met Chris’ Dad, Greg, in Munich so thought we would spend some time in between in Salzburg. Our four days there it was mostly raining off and on, but we found a few nice breaks to go out and explore. The city is beautiful, and we have begun to realize that over time people have formed the major cities in beautiful settings near water. Obviously there is a practical purpose for this (water supply), but there is also an aesthetic that we believe has occurred, where people find a value in living near water for its beauty. Salzburg is another city that is divided from City Center and Old Town by a wandering river (the Salzach) and also has a medieval fortress on the towering hillside.

Our hotel was an interesting combination of modern hotel and hostel. It had washers/dryers as well as a kitchen you could use, but the rooms were definitely hotel rooms with stone bathrooms and maid service. Nice, although a little out of town. We quickly figured out the local bus lines (we’re getting quite good at public transit at this point in the trip) and headed into town twice a day for sightseeing and food. Speaking of, the food is getting better the farther north we go into Europe. Chris is also liking the Zitron beer! We’re not headed to England, so we should continue to enjoy the food through the rest of the month. (Sorry to any Brits reading the blog.)

The first day we decided to head out of town to Berchtesgaden (technically in Germany, but closer to Salzburg than to Munich) in the Bavarian Alps and up to the “Eagle’ Nest”. This was the Alpine lodge that was built for Hitler as a 50^th birthday present, although it is said he spent little time here due to his vertigo and dislike of heights. There is no Nazi memorabilia here, as it is now just a restaurant and tourist site. But there is a little eerie feeling that happens when you walk through the stone entrance into the long tunnel that takes you to the center of the last part of the hill. Here you catch an elevator straight up into the lodge: the perfectly well-protected entrance. It is clear why this site was designed as a “special” place for the dictator, as it affords the most amazing views over lake Konigsee and the Alpine mountain ranges (giving a very “King of the World” feeling). The process to get up to the Eagle’s Nest was more complicated than we had planned. As usual, we tried to travel cheaply, so we took the train and bus. However, it was unclear upon our heading out for the day that you take a train, transfer to another train, catch a bus, then transfer to another bus for the last ride up the hill. (Wash and repeat for the ride home in reverse). So all in all we spent several hours making the trip there and back. It would have been much easier to rent a car and after all the various fees, probably about the same cost. Advise to all – just rent a car. We spent so much time in transit, that we didn’t have enough left over to see the “Dokumentation Obersalzberg” – the museum with history of the area, including more details of Hitler’s reign in this area. Despite being a little rushed for the long day, we enjoyed the Eagle’s Nest quite a bit.

Day two we decided to do a little climbing and schlepped our way up to the Hohensalzburg fortress on the hill overlooking Salzburg. We were going to take the funicular, but the cost was 22 Euro a piece, so we decided we’d walk. However, once we arrived at the top, we realized that the fee included entrance into the fortress and we should have definitely shelled out – we were both so tired of packing Jackson. Oh well – we needed a little exercise after eating all the good food and desserts the last few days. The fortress (not sure why it’s called this instead of “castle” but ok) was built in 1077 and remains one of the best preserved buildings of its kind in Europe There were beautiful staterooms inside, which were very Middle Eastern in design. This was rather surprising to us given that we had recently seen the Muslim architecture in Southern Spain and didn’t realize there was that much cross over with Germanic culture. We spent several hours viewing the museum, torture chambers, war rooms, and grounds of this lovely “fortress”. The hike down (which was so much nicer than the hike up) also gave us great views of the city, including St. Peter’s Church, with it green domed spires (some of my favorite pictures). Next to St. Peter’s are the Katakomben (catacombs) dug into the side of the cliff, which were fun to poke around in too.

Day three was pretty rainy, so we put on some hats and walked along the river shopping in the street stalls. If only I had space in my luggage! The only thing I bought was an anklet. I have started collecting anklets from each country we have been to (I am up to eight – having not thought of it until our second country). It was a nice relaxing day and Jackson got to play in the puddles. We are starting to feel the chill a little, having cooled off a lot since Croatia. Moving north tomorrow, we expect to stay cool for a while, as rain is in the forecast for at least a week.

Our last day in Salzburg we walked to the hillside across from the fortress for another view of this beautiful city. We stopped into a collectibles store, where Jackson got another toy car – he chose a white Fiat over the silver Mercedes Gullwing Chris was pushing him towards – oh well, he’ll learn one day the error of his ways. This is now his prized possession! Although in 24 hours he has manage to break off both bumpers, crack the windshield, smash the headlights and break the door from dropping and crashing it so much – the lady in the “collectibles” store would be horrified. We also visited the Friedhof St. Sebatian cemetery, where several of Mozart’s relatives are buried. Salzburg is where Mozart lived most of his life, and where there are still many classical music concerts all over town. We didn’t view any of the museums/houses dedicated to him – viewing these graves is the closest we came, as apparently Mozart himself is buried in an unmarked popper’s grave somewhere.

So that was Austria. We didn’t really have extra time to see Vienna, Innsbruck or more of the Bavarian Alps. But we both agree that another tour of this combined with Switzerland is in order at some time in the future. Off to Germany…

Photos: Slovenia

ccandj6monthsaway — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 02:15:00 GMT

Slovenia - Yes, that's right, Slovenia

ccandj6monthsaway — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 02:10:00 GMT

So the general question we got while planning our trip was “Slovenia? Where is that and why are you going there?” The honest answer before going was: It’s between Croatia and Austria, both of which we wanted to see, so we might as well spend a few days there to break up the traveling. The only thing on the itinerary was the Karst Caves, which I saw in a travel guide and thought would be cool. Come to find out, we thought Slovenia was amazing! As unimpressed as we were with Croatia, we were pleasantly surprised by Slovenia – it’s beautiful! Who knew?

Ljubljana (three days)

We expected Slovenia to be very Eastern Block in appearance and were so surprised when we arrived in Ljubljana to find a beautiful capital city, similar to any small Western European capital. There is a rolling river separating the Old Town and the more business-oriented city center. The river has walking promenades on both sides with cafes, restaurants and (due to us arriving during a festival), small music stages with live performers. There are wonderful water fountains and sculptures throughout the town, and a huge daily market in Old Town with fresh fruits, veggies, purses and clothing.

Similar to other cities we have visited on our trip, the main attraction is the Castle that sits upon the dominate hill in town. The castle has been turned into a tourist attraction and events center rather than ruins, having been resurfaced in most places and having retained only a few original walls. Slightly disappointing as castles go, but the tower allowed for a great view of the town. We met a brother and sister from Tahoe traveling Europe for the summer, so spent some time talking with them. A fun few hours and there was a great museum inside that provided an overall history of Slovenia. Jackson most enjoyed the funicular ride up and down the hill, and didn’t fare too well in the “mineum” where he had to be held and not be too loud.

Culturally, Slovenians appears to identify more with Austrian than Yugoslavian culture, and do appear to be much more so than Croatians. They actually seem to look down on Croatians a little as less European. The food is an interesting international mix of Austrian/German (bratwurst), Italian (pasta) and Hungarian (goulash). Definitely an improvement in the food – and I haven’t even gotten to the best part (Bled Cake, to be described in detail later on). I have a general rule to try as many local dishes as possible while traveling. I kept seeing horse meat on the menus and read about it in the travel guide. So, our last night in Ljubljana there was “foal steak” on the menu, so I had to try it. It was much better than I thought it would be. Very tender, only slightly different in favor than beef steak. It was likely greatly improved by the tasty truffle sauce on it. Overall, I liked it. We also attached a "lovers lock" to the local bridge - a custom we started noticing on the bridges in Croatia, but was fully explained to us in Slovenia.

We took our day trip out to the karst caves of Postojna on the second day. We just missed our train and opted to rent a car for the day. This was a nice turn of luck, as we were able to see both the caves and the Predjana Castle in one day. The Postojna Caves system is the largest cave system in the world. It has been a tourist attraction since only a few years after it was “discovered”, over 200 years ago. We rode a small (think cave miner’s sized) train down several kilometers into the mountain and underground, where the river once ran and carved away these caves. Truly felt like the center of the earth, but instead of being hot it was cold and humid. The caves contain thousands of amazing stalactites and stalagmites.

Just 9 km up the road was the Predjama Castle. We have seen many castles so far, but really enjoyed this one. It is built into one of the massive caves of the area. Set 123 meters above the ground and under an overhanging cliff, it is a small 12-16^th century castle (added on over the centuries) that is plain but beautiful! Obviously built for safety at the end of a valley and in the rock cliff, it is not lavish, but unique and possibly the most interesting castle we have seen so far.

We left the capital city to travel by train through the lovely landscape of Slovenia to the small village of Bled. Oh, a note on the trains. We have noticed that the concept of waiting in line is non-existent in both Croatia and Slovenia. This was most noticeable on the trains, where people push and shove and have no sense of you being the next aboard (even when carrying a child on your back and a bag in each hand). We saw one lady struggling to get off the train, only to fall and knock down three other people Slow down people, you’ll all get there.

Bled (3 days) – the perfect honeymoon spot!

OK, so we’re not on honeymoon, but this village is absolutely wonderful! We kept saying “idyllic”, “picturesque” and “beautiful”. There is a church on a small island in the middle of the large lake, on which the town surrounds. There is (another) castle on the rock cliff overlooking the emerald green lake. Swans play in the lake and there are views of the Austrian Alps from up near the castle. There is just a peaceful and quaint feel to this little town. Despite this being heralded as one of the most touristed towns in the country, we were there just at the end of high season and found it low key and rather vacant.

We spent a day biking around the lake – Jackson’s first bike ride. He was so comfortable that he fell asleep midway. We also rented a swan row boat and Chris (with a little help from Jackson) rowed out to the island.

We spent part of our last day hiking out to Vintgar Gorge and waterfall. The waterfall itself wasn’t that impressive, but the hike was pretty. We walked along a swirling river by way of a narrow suspended walkway that cantilevered out from the rock.

So a note about the dessert here. There is plenty of pastry available in Slovenia, but we were blown away by the local specialty “Bled Cake” aka kremma rezina – a layer of vanilla custard topped with whipped cream sandwiched between two layers of flaky pastry. We were only there three days and ate Bled Cake four times – YUM!!! Jackson liked it so much that he began to order it himself when we ordered meals: “and cake” he would tell the “waitard”, and be rather insistent the next time the waiter arrived if he hadn’t been acknowledged: “and some CAKE?” Chris and I agreed with his choice!

Although Slovenia is a little out of the way, if we are again in northern Italy or southern Austria, we might return, as it is truly a beautiful country. Maybe next time we will have our good friend Gessica with us to help guide us in Italy. (Missed you Gessica!)

Photos: Croatia

ccandj6monthsaway — Mon, 2 Sep 2013 02:06:00 GMT

One of two Eastern European countries on the trip

Croatia

ccandj6monthsaway — Mon, 2 Sep 2013 02:03:00 GMT

Dubrovnik

We had little info to go on when we decided to go to Croatia. Our friend Kevin had been twice and recommended it, but we never really had specifics about why he liked it so much. But we put it on the list and here we are. We arrived about 8:30pm and were quickly informed by our host/cab driver that it was the hottest day so far this year. If we thought Spain was hot, Croatia was HOT! We were also informed that our guesthouse apparently had a “water issue” in our room and put us up at “my girlfriend’s mother’s home, very nice accommodations, you will like”. And luckily, we did like, as it was much closer to the Old Town than my original booking and 10 Euro cheaper (which makes me happy). We made the most of the evening cool off by heading into Old Town for a late dinner, and getting our bearings. “Old Town” is the common term used when the original town was a fortress behind a stone wall that has since been turned into the tourist attraction. Despite the hordes of people during high season (with buses and buses of tourists daily), it was remarkably lovely. The wall and the lookout towers are lit up at night, and the Old Town is blocked off to traffic and all pedestrian pathways. The larger city of Dubrovnik runs along the scraggly Croatian coast, making for little coves and inlets with beautiful views.

We headed to the beach our first day to escape the heat. Beaches are all pebbles and a sand beach is non-existent – at least we couldn’t find any. It was a nice day of playing in the water and walking along the coast cliffs.

The second day we did some needed catch up on sleep, laundry and shopping. Luckily we hadn’t planned anything too touristy outside as it was also the day it chose to rain. The thunder showers (including rather large hail stones) rivaled any of those we experienced in Central America. But it cleared up in time to go back out for dinner.

Day three we “walked the wall”, which was a two hour process of hiking up and down stairs of the wall that surrounds the town. It afforded great views of both inside and outside the wall and the ocean, and although hot, was well worth it. Visually it was so beautiful and we began to understand what our friend enjoyed about Croatia.

Day four we spent again at the beach, but this time in the Lapad section of town. This was the area where our original guest house was located and I remembered why I had booked here. There was a promenade that runs several blocks with shops, restaurants, cafes, etc. and had a great vibe of fun and vacation. It also had Jackson’s fantasy fun zone – a ton of slides and other play equipment, including 12 “baby cars” all in one location. He was actually a little overwhelmed and although talked about riding on the cars, helicopters, horses, he would look stunned and almost paralyzed when he actually rode on them. Too many choices!!!

The food, although good, was not as amazing as we had anticipated. Given that Croatia is across the Aegean from Italy and they have a love of seafood, I had expected more depth of flavors which we did not seem to find. Seafood was plentiful, but fairly plain and everything in Croatia was overpriced. We were hoping it was just touristy Dubrovnik, but we soon found out it was all of Croatia. We were later told that Croatia is the most expensive European country to visit – who knew?

Culturally, the first thing we noticed was that the women are incredibly tall. Everywhere you turn there are 6’2”+ women who then wear 5” heels, causing them to hover over both Chris and I. They are also very thin and usually quite pretty. I’m guessing modeling and basketball are both well represented by Croats. The other thing that I personally noticed, and am still having a hard time with, is that this is the land of aerosol hair spray. For anyone who knows me well, you understand that my hair, and thus my hairspray, is very important to me. I was able to come to grips with the curls in Central America (and I have planned for them again in Southeast Asia), but having aerosol hairspray instead of pump is just not acceptable. My greatest concern came when I used said hairspray as effective insect killer in our room, but it did not work to hold my hair past a 5mph breeze. Well, I guess I will keep looking (although as I write this, I am actually in Austria where there is still nothing but aerosol to be found).

Split

The port of Split is north of Dubrovnik approximately four hours on the bus. There is train service, but we were warned that it tends to take more than twice as long by train, so we didn’t bother. The bus ride was beautiful, along the coast and fairly comfortable. The odd thing about it is that there is an area of approximately 10 miles along the coast that belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We entered a passport check (where I got a B&H stamp), stopped for a potty break, and then exited the country five minutes later (again going through a passport check in case we picked up any locals at the rest stop). I shot one photo of the coast, which not surprisingly looks exactly like the coast of Croatia.

Split is similar to Dubrovnik in that it is very touristy and has many yachts and cruise ships docked nearby. They are also both quite historic. However, in our opinions, Split is the nicer of the two. The “old town” here is actually the inside the ruins of the Roman emperor, Diocletian’s retirement palace of 300 AD . This area was ruled by the Romans for centuries and there are quite a few ruins still visible. In the middle of the palace walls here is one of the most well-preserved Roman ruins: the Temple of Jupiter. Similar to Dubrovnik, the inside of the walls are blocked to traffic and we strolled around for parts of each day we were there. We also did a tour of the caverns below the palace, called the Basement Halls, which was both beautiful and a little creepy.

We also spent part of a day going out to Salona where there is a large complex of Roman ruins. Dubbed as “the most interesting archaeological site in Croatia” by my guide book, we thought it important to check it out. Not overly impressive, and due to the sweltering heat we didn’t last too long wandering around looking at “a bunch of foundations of what used to be buildings”, as Chris so thoughtfully put it. The remains of the amphitheater, which was used as a gladiator arena were interesting though. We enjoyed the ruins in town better and wouldn’t necessarily recommend Salona to others.

We stayed at a great little apartment with the owner’s mother living downstairs. Although she could not speak a word of English, and we did not speak more than “thank you” in Croatian, she was very hospitable and kind. She offered us drinks and fruit and appeared to really enjoy having Jackson for our three days there.

Having had enough of the heat, we opted to go out to one of the many Croatian islands. We initially were going to go to Hvar, but did a little more research and found that it was probably too much of a party spot given the third traveler in our group. So we chose the town of Bol on Brac, took a ferry, and cooled down.

Bol (on Brac)

Bol is a great little town! Although it still had its share of yachts, it was more relaxed and less crowded than what we had experienced so far in Croatia. We spent five days here on the pebbles of one of Croatia’s more photographed beaches Zlatni Rat. We had dinner our first night overlooking a beautiful sunset right on the beach. I had one of the best meals in all of Croatia (steak grilled over real wood flames) and actually got a little chilled (thank God). Everything was an easy walk away and the little seaside promenade area was a nice step down in pace from over-touristed Dubrovnik.

We liked Bol quite a bit. Jackson found another great play area, this time with toddler-sized electric 4X4s on a dirt track. (How fun!!!) Although he never quite got the steering down, he definitely understood getting it moving with the gas pedal, and we took turns helping him steer.

We have noticed that both Chris and I are feeling a little soreness and back pain in recent weeks and finally realized that Croatia is quite hilly and we are packing Jackson around more than normal. He’s becoming a heavy little guy. The coast of Croatia is beautiful because of the cliffs that jut out and the little towns that lie at the water at the bottom. But the climb back to your room is a doozy!

After five days of “relaxin’ in the sun” (Jackson’s term for sun bathing) on an island, we needed to get moving to make our way up to Germany in two weeks (where we will be meeting Chris’ dad, Greg). We knew we would have a few long travel days so we decided to break it up by staying two days at our next stop, Zadar.

Zadar

Our apartment in Zadar was inside the “old town” walls this time. Great location, although it was very noisy being right on the main shopping strip. We struggled to find good food, despite some recommendations and were glad we were only there 36 hours. The main square where we stayed had more Roman ruins, right out in the open square where people were sitting on them, which was a little odd after seeing most ruins roped off.

The one thing we really enjoyed was the sound-and-light spectacle of the Sea Organ and Sun Salutation. This is an artist installation along the promenade at the water that moans and whistles as the sea waves push through the organ. The second part of it stores wave energy and sunlight during the day to create a light show at night on hundreds of multilayered glass plates. It reminded us of a Burning Man light show, which was just what we needed the week before all our friends head out to the desert to play without us.

So that was Croatia. Overall we thought it was OK, but not sure we’ll be back. Maybe if we had spent more time on the islands (of which there are over 100) we would have enjoyed it more. We are glad we saw it and added it to our list of travels.

A Little Side Note

We are now over halfway through our trip and are looking back on all we have seen so far. We are both shocked at how quickly this long vacation is moving by, and also feel it has been forever since we were in Nicaragua. Traveling is both easier and harder for us and Jackson. He has gotten used to moving frequently and looks forward to the new room, new keys and has become a great traveler on buses, trains and taxis. Eating out most meals is the one source of true stress with a two year old, as he is not patient with waiting over an hour at a table, even if entertained. He is a good eater and willing to try anything we are re: local foods. Thanks to Carol, we are now eating ice cream/gelato almost daily, which is a treat for all of us. We do better on days we have naps. But there are always days we don’t get one, when we drag him to another museum or pack him in the backpack carrier for a little too long. Chris and I both worry that we are setting patterns of behavior that we won’t be able to undo – like providing a cell phone with entertainment at most meals to quiet him down (how do you foster ADHD again???). But we are attempting to minimize his discomfort without spoiling too much, so that we all enjoy ourselves a little more. Are we glad we are doing this crazy thing that no one else we know has ever done? ABSOLUTELY!!! Is it a lot harder than if we had done it three years ago as a childless couple – a second ABSOLUTELY!!! We now both feel comfortable with the idea of living abroad, but both know this may not be a feasible thing given our professions. It has opened our minds about other cultures and other ways of living than what we have known in our lives – which really was a goal of the trip from the beginning. Even with the small difficulties and frustrations of traveling with a small child, we are excited about the next stops on our itinerary and what the next 10 weeks will offer us!

Photos: Spain Part II

ccandj6monthsaway — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 01:59:00 GMT

Seville, Granada and Barcelona

Spain - Part II

ccandj6monthsaway — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 01:49:00 GMT

Seville

Given that we had pre-purchased tickets to the Alhambra in Granada with only a few days ahead to spare, our time in Seville was short. We arrived early evening and were pleasantly surprised, again, by the location of our “hostel”. I use quotes here because it was a very nice hotel room, located two blocks from the beautiful Giralda Church in the prime Barrio Santa Cruz neighborhood for a very very inexpensive price – not exactly a typical “hostel”. I did my research on this one, but damn, I’m good!

Seville is the home of tapas, sangria and flamenco dancing. We enjoyed much of the first two, but were unable to catch a flamenco show in our two brief nights. We strolled around the first night, eating Bull’s tail (Toro) – the local delicacy (quite delicious!), in respect for the tradition of bull fighting here. Bull heads are also in all the restaurants. The other main event we missed was a bull fight – but neither of us are too broken up about that, as Chris’ brother reports it is pretty brutal! The first real day was spent in the Giralda Church which is said to be an “icon of Gothic architecture” and the world’s largest cathedral. It was stunning in both size and beauty! It also houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus, which was pretty cool! Our second day we spent some time in Alcazar Castle (which is a small version of the Alhambra, which we saw two days later) located in the same square as the church. There is still a huge Moorish influence evident in Seville, and the Alcazar Castle is a good representation of the mosques and palaces that were present for centuries in the area.

Although we were warned repeatedly not to go to Seville in July or August due to the heat, we did seem to be acclimated somewhat better than most of the tourist we saw, as we were not melting quite as rapidly. However, Jackson may have felt it a little more than Chris and I did, as he was quite cranky those two days compared to the week before. Or he might just be two.

Quick review: great Tapas and we would have loved to stay longer.

Granada

The only reason we went to Granada was for the Alhambra Palace – a 13^th century structure with grounds and other buildings on site that date to the 11^th century. The area was Muslim controlled for 800 years and Granada was the capital of the Muslim world for much of that period, making the Palace the icon of political power and opulence. Truly amazing and beautiful architecture – my pictures do it little justice. So ornate and rich in design, with layers of color and texture. The day was somewhat marred by our failed attempts to have Jackson ride/sleep in the backpack carrier, as no backpacks were allowed inside the palace (no accidental brushing up against the 1000 year old hand-carved tiles that lined the walls, ceilings and sculptures). So he was held, for the entire 2+ hours we were inside (thanks to Chris, as Jackson wanted nothing to do with me holding him).

The town of Granada was fine – we didn’t explore much as we were only there for 36 hours. The one thing I enjoyed outside the Alhambra was a local graffiti artist who painted all over town, down alleyways, on overpasses and on every spare wall there was. Very pretty murals and faces with a distinct style. I never found out if he/she was “known” or viewed as a menace, but the art was fun to spot as we took busses, cabs or walked around town.

Now, out of this heat and to the beach…

Vera Playa

After several short hops through areas and a lot of travel, we decided to plant ourselves for a five days on a beach in southern Spain. We picked Vera Playa outside of Almeria due to the lack of summer tourists and the laid back vibe. The water was slightly warmer than Peniche, Portugal, making our beach days a little more enjoyable. So nice to just relax again before we head on over to Barcelona. We did just that, relax and nothing more, as there really isn’t anything to do in Vera Playa except lay in the sun. Our condo complex had a nice pool, as well as one just for kids, which Jackson enjoyed. The owner of our condo was very nice, and he and his girlfriend took us out to dinner in the neighboring village of Mojocar one night. Great couple from Madrid who added a nice level of adult conversation to our child filled vacation. Jackson really liked them too and would run up to meet them when he saw them around later in the week. Rather than take the 11 hour bus from there to Barcelona and waste an entire day, we flew another short hop and landed in Barcelona in time to look around and have dinner – with one complication…

Barcelona

The flight was great, short and easy, with a 30 min cab ride to the beautiful flat we rented for the week. However, as we exited the cab, Chris’s phone hit the ground for its final time and was done! We kept saying how much we were reliant on his phone for GPS, tracking bus schedules and keeping us and Jackson entertained at various times. We have even felt somewhat disappointed in ourselves that we could not have more freedom from this electronic device while on our extended vacation – we almost chose to leave it at home. But we really needed his phone! Our flat happened to be two blocks off of Paseo de Gracia, the major shopping area of town, and there was an Apple store about five blocks from us. I guess you could call it lucky (it could have happened in Ometepe, Nicaragua), other than we spent the rest of the day and half of the next getting a new phone and having it synched in with the Cloud. My big issue was not with the phone, but with the flat itself. Beautiful, open, remodeled, perfectly located… with deafening construction on the adjoining wall from 8am to 6pm. I love sleep, especially when my son is on a schedule where he is waking up at 10 each day and taking 2-3 hour naps in the afternoon. Not possible, not even with earplugs. And the worst part was feeling guilty for having searched so carefully for the perfect spot for Chris’ mother, Carol, to spend her one week with us only to not be able to sleep. I searched the next morning for an acceptable alternative, but with such short notice there was none. So, we both decided to let our issues with our entrance go and begin to enjoy the wonderful city of Barcelona.

Barcelona is fabulous!!! I would have loved to stay three weeks instead of one. Everyone says it is all about the architecture, which frankly, neither Chris nor I have ever been that into while traveling. But you just can’t escape the magic of Gaudi’s buildings and the general Modernista style throughout the city. It’s breathtaking! We waited to see the sights until Carol arrived and acclimated a little to the time zone.

Our first day out with Carol we spent mostly in Guell Park, an experiment where Gaudi was commissioned to create an entire community for the wealthy filled with Dr. Suess-like homes, playful paths and gardens, and intricate mosaics.

Day two we took a double-decker tour bus around town to see what there was to see and decide the rest of our trip. Not the best use of time, but a good way to rule out areas and get an idea of all there is in Barcelona. It was also nice to ride around instead of walking in the very hot city, as it is just too large to walk the entire thing.

Day three we went to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s “masterpiece”: an ornate church that has been in construction for over 100 years and is estimated to go another 40 before completion. There will eventually be 18 towers, but for now there are only a handful which look like melting candles from afar, but are detailed sculptures of religious meaning. The exterior is incredible, but the interior is also beautiful in its grandeur, having elevated this church to “basilica” status due to the extravagance and beauty. Chris wrote: “Very inspired by the artistry, science and nature captured in this building and others by Gaudi”. Casa Batllo and La Padera by Gaudi were also beautiful and completely different in feel, as they were remodels to existing homes/apartments rather than his own creation from scratch. The amazing thing about Barcelona is that the city decided to beautify by hiring architects and artists to remodel certain buildings in the 1920’s. Since then, they have both modernized and continued the unique feel of the art by adding facades that are lovely, creating an entire city of beauty.

We spent a day going out to Figueres, a small town that is known for one thing – Salvador Dali. We visited the Teatre-Musea Dali, in which he lived and is entombed, including viewing most of his life’s work. I wasn’t really a fan before, we went because Carol liked him, but I think I am now. Most striking to me was Dali’s emphasis in his works of people being hard on the outside and soft and confused on the inside. He used eggs and Spanish bread to represent this human feature. His struggle with human unconscious was also quite profoundly represented in his work. Overall a nice train ride out of the big city for the day.

We ate wonderful food, including black paella and tons of tapas. Carol was kind enough to babysit a few nights, allowing Chris and I a few needed nights out on the town. We went dancing two nights and met some nice people with whome we hope to stay in touch! We had a fabulous time with Carol, and were so happy to have her there to share our experience of Gaudi, Dali and Barcelona – and our bottle of port from Porto. She left early our last day and we squeeked in one last sight - the Palau de la Musica Catelonia, where there are still intimate performances inside a concert hall filled with amazing mosaic and sculpture. We are done with “Western” Europe for a month, but will be reentering when we go to Austria. Off to Croatia…

Photos: Portugal

ccandj6monthsaway — Tue, 6 Aug 2013 07:09:00 GMT

20 days

Portugal

ccandj6monthsaway — Tue, 6 Aug 2013 07:05:00 GMT

Porto

Despite our initial plans to “overland” it from Madrid to Portugal, there just isn’t a convenient or even slightly direct way to get to Porto, Portugal. So we opted to treat ourselves and fly. However, I was bound and determined to travel on the cheap when available, so we took the train from the airport to the nearest stop to our B&B instead of a taxi. The one problem with that was schlepping our bags and Jackson all the way up hill during one of the few heat waves Western Europe has seen in quite some time. It was really, really hot – and this is coming from people who just came from Central America.

Although our B&B was out of the main Ribiera (riverfront) area, we were so happy to stay there, and was almost worth the trek. The owner, Augustine, was the nicest man I think I have ever met. Porto is where port (sweet dessert) wine was developed, and Augustine had a bottle waiting for us when we arrived. He even left us an extra bottle to take with us (and share with Chris’ mom, Carol later in our trip). His wife also baked cake (I think daily) and seemed so joyful in sharing it with us. But most of all, they enjoyed Jackson – apparently they are grandparents in training with no grandchildren to dote on. Augustine performs opera at local churches and would sing to J in the mornings during breakfast, as well as bring out instruments for J to play with. His wife even fed J one morning when we were struggling to get him to stay in his seat at the table. They gave us rides to the beach and to the train station when we left (both way across town).

Porto was somewhat unexpectedly pretty. It is on the Douro River and the bridge across it was designed by Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower). We explored the riverfront, having dinner there three out of four nights, and even did a short river cruise (although I wouldn’t necessarily say it was worth the money). We did some port tasting, which was well worth the money – as you get much more per tasting than we are used to in California. In addition to being the home of Port wine, Porto is also full of churches and is one of the main areas that was conquered by and then retook their town from Napoleon. Most of the churches are gilded inside, but the best was actually the small Santa Clara church where Augustine performs, as it was one of only a few that allowed you to take photographs and had free admittance. Porto’s Cathedral (Se’) was beautiful and the town tower was the first of many we will be climbing[CS1] in the next few months.

Jackson’s favorite part of Portugal so far has to be the “baby cars” that are in every grocery store and bus/train station. You all remember those mechanical rides that were outside big stores like Kmart when you were a kid – well they are everywhere in Portugal, and we can’t seem to go by one without him getting so excited I think he’s going to explode. We figured we are doing the majority of what we (the adults) want, that we can spoil him a little and do a two minute ride for him when we find one. Oh yeah – there was also a carnival ride for him at the waterfront – happy happy boy!

Lisbon

So right off, I have to say – we like Lisbon! Easy train ride from Porto and there you are, in a city so familiar to San Francisco, yet so much more. It has a bridge that looks like the Golden Gate, but positioned where the Bay Bridge would be in the city. It is hilly with pockets of distinct neighborhoods. There is great shopping, food and nightlife. Of course, S.F. does not have an 800 year old castle in the middle of it like Lisbon, so in that way, Lisbon wins! My planning for where to stay here was very last minute and we ended up on the middle of the “partying” neighborhood of Bairro Alto, a 6x6 block pocket of town dedicated to having fun late into the night/morning. It was great in that we were able to get a taste of the fun, but we were a little envious of the non-family tourists who could truly enjoy all it had to offer. Our private room in the hostel was surprisingly beautiful and large and sealed up well from the noise of the street. The hostess, Lucia (an actual paid model who moved to Lisbon three months ago) made us breakfast and was so very sweet to Jackson.

We spent a day at Castelo de Sao Jorge, originally an early Iron Age fort, later inhabited by Moors and lastly by Christians - quite a history! It was our first, but again not our last, European castle and quite fun to explore. Another day was spent in the suburb of Belem, known for their custard pastries (which being a cream brulee and cheesecake fan, I enjoyed more than Chris). We also saw a gigantic riverfront statue and the impressive Monestary (Mosterio dos Jeronimos), which houses the remains of Vasco de Gama.

Our three nights extended to four due to a desire to see more of the city and make a day trip to Sintra, which is described as “like a fairytale”. However, the morning of our last day there was an incident… Just after breakfast, Jackson went running down the hall of our hostel and tripped over himself, as two year olds do, right into a large decorative glass vase holding flowers, rocks and sand. Neither came away intact. After two hours of trying to stop the bleeding, get a bandage on and clean him up (as he truly looked like a horror movie victim), we spent the afternoon in a pediatric clinic getting three stitched to the middle of his forehead. The stitches were far more traumatic than the fall itself, due to it taking three of us to hold him down while the doctor did the stiches. After all that, Jackson did surprisingly well, playing with his sleep monkey (who also got a new little band aide on his head). First real injury out of the way, and given the size and how well the vase shattered, we consider ourselves lucky it wasn’t more serious!

A day to recover and rest for all of us and then on the Peniche.

Peniche – the surfing town with no waves

Have you ever been to North Shore in Hawaii and there were no waves? Well that was our experience of Peniche. An international surfing community, Peniche is touted as the best surfing in Portugal. However, the waves were a sad 0-2 feet the entire six days we were there. Chris only bothered to rent a board three days, it was so flat. We stayed in a great hostel (Peniche Hostal, go figure) and enjoyed the company of the friendliest group of people – most of whom were also there to surf. We have been missing social contact and have decided to stay in hostels whenever possible to meet and interact with other travelers. Despite the lack of surf, we went to the beach daily. The beaches are beautiful with wide, white, soft sand and we both worked on a great tan. Jackson made sand castles and practiced his soccer skills on the beach. Because of the great people we met, it was our best stay so far, but the little town of Peniche and its sister town of Beleal were both rather depressing. They were unlike any beach town I’ve ever been to, with sterile apartment buildings right on the sand and an Eastern block sort of feel to the entire area.

One part of the Portuguese culture that we didn’t quite understand until we got to Peniche was their use of “appetizers” during meals. Unlike most restaurants (anywhere else we have ever been), when bread, butter, olives, etc are delivered to the table when you sit down, you have to actively refuse them or you are charged for them (yes, that’s right, charged for butter). It’s fine when it’s only a couple of euro, but when it includes 15 euro worth of items that you didn’t order or ask for it becomes irritating. Our first night in Peniche, we were beginning to recognize this trend and selectively chose our first offering. We then ordered one entre to share, but were later charged for two because they doubled the order on one plate (again we did not ask for twice as much food). Frustrated with this custom, we ate Italian the next night, but returned to the fantastic seafood and local cuisine later on in Portugal where it did not appear to be such an issue.

Rather than chase the waves (which were poor that week throughout the coast), we decided to stay put and move less over the next week, skipping southern Portugal all together. Scheduled in a day back in Lisbon (to have the stitches removed) and then overnight to Evora before leaving the country to travel back into Spain.

Evora

Most people do not venture east of Lisbon to Evora when traveling to Portugal (of course, not many Americans seem to go to Portugal at all). It is a quaint little town which was one of the few hold outs against Moorish invasion and control in the country. There is a very well preserved Roman ruin right in the middle of town (Temple of Diana), which apparently was used as an internal structure for a later building, helping to keep it from weathering for several centuries. In town is also the Capela do Ossos (Chapel of Bones), a room off the main San Francisco church that was built using thousands of bones from the local cemetery as well as those from then nuns and monks of the parish. It was originally used as a contemplation space, but now is just a tourist attraction. Fascinating, beautiful and a little creepy all at the same time.

Although this is all nice, the main reason people go to Evora is to see the prehistoric Megaliths outside of town. These are structures and rock placements (think early Stonehenge) that date 5000-6000 years old, into the Neolithic Age. Our wonderful guide, Mario, was a true archeologist and excitedly shared the history of the tomb (called a Dolman) and stone circles used for astrological understanding (called Cromeliques). The most impressive was Cromelique dos Almendres, which consists of 95 granite monoliths with some symbolic markings. Interesting, but arguably not as impressive in appearance as Stonehenge.

We were only in Evora 24 hours and then returned to Lisbon (for the third time) to transfer out to Spain. Traveling between Portugal and Spain is not easy, causing us to spend way too much time researching bus and train schedules, connections and even feasibility of travel to certain areas. Within Portugal the public transportation has been fantastic, and we hope that the rest of Europe “connects” between countries more easily. Due to Jackson’s accident, travel time and extension of stays, we again simplified our plans and didn’t make it to the southern coast (Sagres, Lagos, Faro). Our next trip we will do more there and also tie in southern Spain where we are off to next… by bus.

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Photos: Spain - Madrid

ccandj6monthsaway — Thu, 1 Aug 2013 08:49:00 GMT

Spain - Part I

ccandj6monthsaway — Thu, 1 Aug 2013 08:47:00 GMT

Madrid

OK, so I’m running about four weeks behind in my blogging – having too much fun and putting too many things on the itinerary to keep up with writing. Sorry it’s so late, but here it is.

We made the three-leg flight from Belize City to Madrid (via Miami and London) fairly smoothly. We all slept a little and Jackson was a pretty good boy considering all the travel. We thought we were going to miss our connection in London, rushing through the airport (or as fast as a couple with six pieces of luggage and a child strapped to their backs can rush), only to have the flight thankfully delayed an hour.

We found our little hostel, which was situated perfectly in the Huerta district of Madrid, which was completely by chance. We went immediately back out to do a bit of exploring before an afternoon nap. However, we had so much fun wandering, finding a playground for Jackson only two blocks from the hostel and drinking Sangria in a lovely plaza, that we didn’t end up back at our room until 9pm anyways. We were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to adjust ourselves and Jackson to the time change, but we all slept in until 11am and were ready to take on Madrid the next morning/afternoon. Our first breakfast in Europe was at 1pm – aaah, now that’s vacation!

Our first day was spent wandering around and spending a little time at the Contemporary Museum of Art (Reina Sofia). We opted for this over the Prado Museum due to concerns that Jackson would not make it for several hours in the backpack carrier looking at “fine” art. As it was, he made it about 45 minutes before meltdown started. We enjoyed Picasso’s Guernica (in shifts) which was his protest against the German bombing of a small town during the Spanish civil war. Quite a powerful piece and different from most of his other work in that it is all black, grey and white. We also learned some useful information for future museum visits: get Jackson his own audio guide, as he stole ours and we didn’t get to listen, but it helped keep him occupied temporarily.

Our second day we went to the Palacio Real, a grand 1700’s palace of King Filipe V. Again it was a difficult time for Jackson, as he was only able to enjoy so many lavishly decorated rooms until he was bored. We couldn’t let him down due to there being ropes to keep people out and not actual barricades, so he would attempt to just walk right under them to go sit on some 400 year old furniture – eeeks! Not a happy day for any of us. However, despite all the adjustments to living a more “cultured” life of travel than in Central America, we are loving the food and the faster pace of a European city!

Day three was spent again with a leisurely lunch, more wandering around the city, and exploring Madrid’s version of Central Park: El Ritiro. Lovely lakes, gardens, and the only known sculpture/fountain in Europe that celebrates the fallen angel (aka the Devil) – see photo, it’s quite lovely. El Angel Caido is apparently at exactly 666 meters above sea level for a nice symbolism to the statue. We also made it back in time for both the boys to get a well-needed haircut after almost seven weeks on the road.

The thing I am enjoying most in Europe so far is the timing of things. The day starts late and ends very very late. Dinners, even with small children, begin about 10pm and everyone is up until well after midnight. I felt a little guilty our first night out, as we went somewhere very touristy (Plaza Mayor) and there were no other children. But the next two nights we stayed a little more with the locals and there were children everywhere. Jackson is enjoying the frequent playgrounds and slides – there seems to be a strong focus on family here and making time for your children, which is unexpected for me given how young and metropolitan this part of the city is. We just happened to be in town the week of Gay Pride (although flew out to Portugal Sunday morning before the parade), so there was a fun crowd in town during our brief visit.

We are moving on to Portugal, but we’ll be back in Spain in 20 days. So far we are liking it very very much!