3 Countries in one day with parents and George

Yesterday I left the girls at the airport and hoped on a plane to Switzerland to meet my parents! Little did I know how hard it would be to find them in the airport. I felt so lost and it turns out there flight didn't arrive for an hour after I thought. I thought they were waiting for me for an hour and I felt bad making them wait. We are staying with a family friend here and I also didn't want to make him wait. I finally was able to connect to wifi and Dad had left me a message as to which terminal they were in. I finally found Mom and was so relieved. Dad and George had gone looking for me, and came back shortly after. It feels so great to be with my parents again :)

Someone had fun with this statue

 And so we were off, George drove us into Zurich for a little sight seeing and a nice walk along the waterfront. Here you are suppose to be able to see the alps, but unfortunately we just had to imagine it, so foggy we couldn't see anything. With this view it kind of reminded me of Burlington waterfront.

These are the mountains your suppose to see

New Country new flags

Once we felt like we stretched our legs enough we hoped back in the car and headed to Basal, Switzerland where George lives. He made us amazing grill cheese and tomato soup for lunch, then we took naps until dinner time, which we were again treated to delicious pad thai, and French wine.

We relaxed for the rest of the night and let my parents jet lag kick in. Today we woke up and had a relaxing morning with coffee and French toast, with peanut butter and maple syrup, if you haven't tried it you need to!

Dinnertime

Grocery store in germany

Swiss Chocolate

Then we were on our way to explore this side of Europe. First into Germany to do some grocery shopping with everyone else, since Easter is tomorrow, and the store will be closed both Sunday and Monday. So it was very busy. After we drove into France into a small town called Riquewihr which was an adorable wine town full of vineyards, and cobblestone alleys. Here we found a really cute restaurant and I tried cordon blue, and French fries (real "french" fries haha). We admired the details of the restaurant  After we walked the streets and checked out the vineyard. It was such a different town then I am used to seeing. Still touristy but nothing like I am used to, this was on of my favorite towns.

France village

Riquewihr France

Sight seeing

We made it back to Basal and wanted to check out the Tilley museum, which is an engineers paradise of junk thrown together to preform different tasks, but ended up just checking out the gift shop because it was closing soon.

Tinley Museum

Swiss Fondu

Fancy Dinner 

Now we are back home, and plan to have Swiss fondu and French wine for dinner. And hopefully eventually make it into downtown Basal.

Last day with the girls

Today was our last day together traveling for spring break here in Europe. We decided to stay around here in Lisbon. We ate our final hostel breakfast and ventured out to the streets. We went to a viewpoint over Lisbon, then to a church to check out the paintings. Afterwards it was lunch time we went to an all you could eat sushi bar which I wasn't terribly excited but it was actually quite delisious and they had lots of fresh fruit :) yumm

View Point

Coolest street in lisbon, dedicated to the elders that live on it

Later we made our way to one final castle overlooking Lisbon. Here we found lots of stray cats and peacocks! Such an interesting combination but absolutely beautiful. After waiting patiently for the the peacock to open up its wings, it never happened and we moved on.

Castle lookout

Peacocks!

Castle play time

We wanted to check out this last church in time before it closed. We made it in time for a Maundy Thursday service (Thursday before easter). We decided to stay for the intro and what a cultural experience it was. I have never been in such a formal service before the guys proceeded down the center aile while the choir sang. Everything was in Portuguese and we were pretty tired so we only stayed for about half hour.

Church time 

We were determined to find a traditional Portuguese place for dinner. And that we did, Frances and I both got cod and Kristi was brave and tried some sardines, which as expected were very salty.
We found our way back to the hostel in the rain for the final time and packed up and called it an early night because we had to catch our taxi at 4 am.

Lisbon portugal

After arriving in Lisbon we took a taxi to our hostel. I don't get why taxi drivers insist on driving so fast around sharp narrow corners here in Europe. Upon arriving at our beautiful hostel with a kind staff we were apparently a little bit of a suprise to them. They did not have sheets or a room for us so we got upgraded for free for a night to a 4 person room. But we had to wait almost 2 hours for our sheets. I think they had to dry them with an iron....

After finally getting some sleep we were ready to explore lisbon. Well actually went to Belem a small town outside Lisbon. We took a bus there and went to the Monastery which was beautiful. After walking around the gardens and getting rained on we made it to the fort castle like structure near the water. We went to the top to find more wind and amazing views of the beautiful port side city.
Inbetween we went to the famous pastery shop in belem and ordered some quiche and egg tarts! They were delicious. Portugal is known for there egg based products.

Inside the monastery

Monastery from the ouside

Famous, now I know why

Most delicious egg tart!

Cool structure on the waterfront

Fort Belem (we went to the top)
It was really windy

At 6 we decided to head back to the hostel to clean up before dinner. But unfortunetly we got off at the wrong bus stop and wondered inner Lisbon for about an hour trying to find the plaza our hostel was in before relizing we were on the wrong end of town. So we got back on the bus and made our way back.
We were quite hungry at this point so we asked the hostel front desk what she recommended for food close by. And see walked us there :) so friendly. We all loves our dinner and may just be going back to try the salmon all the reviews raves about.

I got the duck

Afterwards we walked next door to try the Portages known shot, Ginjinha. Which is cherry liquor in a edible chocolate cup. It was devine.

Ginjinha 

We found our new room in the hostel and stayed in from the rain for the evening.
Today we are off to Sintra and Cascais. This will be our final day trip on spring break together. And potentially the most expensive... I thought lisbon was supose to be inexpensive?

Last days in madrid

Sunday we slept in a bit and decided to join in on the walking tour of the city. We learned alot about the buildings we have been passing for the past few days and got to learn some new things too. For example how the walls of madrid have been moved 2 times now and we walked down the marriage alley. We also learned about a statue that you have to slap his butt before you leave madrid for good luck.

Madrid

The first day in madrid was relaxing and entertaining. We enjoyed strolling around the busy streets and exploring some of the famous sights. We got lucky again the fact that our hostel is right in the middle of the city.

We ate some complementary breakfast which consisted of mini baggetts, toasts, cereal, and coffee and tea. We were pretty satisfied, so we headed out into the city with no plans. Which is unlike us. We stumbled upon the royal palace right intime for the changing of guard ceremony, and the gardens, then we found an egyptian temple. After this it was lunch time already. We were on a mission to find sandwiches to eat in the park. But ended up sitting at a restuarant and eating. It was quite delicious, i had a smoked salmon and avocado salad.



Afterwards we finally tryed curros and chocolate at a chocolateria. They were delicious. Then we went to a little park where there were many street vendors and walked around, I purchased some suviniors here and then we loundged on the grass for a bit.
Afterwards we headed back to the hostel for real nap time. Kristi and I slept for over an hour, while Frances showered and worked on her blog.

Later around 9 pm we met up with 2 of Frances friends from high school that are studying in Madrid for the sermester. They took us to the market and we were able to try so many different kinds of spanish food. We had black paella, small 1 euro sandwiches, some seafood dip, and a white sangaria which was delicious! Afterwards we headed to the "ham museum" where we all shares small ham and cheese sandwiches. And to finish it off we went to the famous chocolate and curros place. It was great meeting up with the guys. They gave us great advice for things to see and do the next few days.

Today we went to the prado art museum. And again I was overwelmed. The art work was fantastic and we actually only saw one floor, little did I know we would be back 2 more times to see the other floors. (This museum was free for students!)
After the museum we went to an all you can eat resteraunt and the food was delicious. We ate more paella and lots of other traditional spanish cuisine. After eating way to much we ventured to the royal palace. We went inside and I was amazed once again! This palace had such elavorate ceilings paintings and curtains. And of courae chandelers. Unfortunetly you are not allowed to take pictures inside though.
Afterwards we headed back to the egyptian monument in the park to warch the sunset. We're still pretty full from lunch. Might be an early night.

Segovia daytrip

Today we went to Segovia a small town outside Madrid. We were supose to catch the train at 10:15 which according to the women at the front desk of the hostel was only a 5 min, subway ride away. It took us about 20 minites though and we missed the train, and the next train was full. So we opted for option B take a bus. So we got back on the subway were a saxiphone player tryed to saranade us. And found the bus station just in time. We were able to purchase our tickets and hop on at 11. And we were off!

Segovia is famous for its aquaduct in the center of the city so that was our first stop. It was quite amazing to see. Then of course lunch time. We found an amazing resteraunt located in a little plaza and couldn't have been more satisfied with the food. We had no idea what we were ordering because they didn't have english menus and the waiter spoke very little english. And so we choose by pointing and were plesantly suprised to fine out that a half bottle of wine for each of us was included in the meal. So naturally we had to finish it all. I stuck to the white wine and stayed safe by ordering salmon as my main meal.

Beautiful church

FAVORITE restaurant

Delicious salmon

Aquaduct

Castle inspired disney cinderella

You can see the snow on the mountains

Afterwards we made it to the castle just intime for it to start raining. We took a tour of the breath taking rooms and went to the top of the tower, all 150 stairs.

It stopped raining just as we made it to the top and a rainbow was shinning over the city :)

WOW, yes this is real

... 250 steps..

Cinderella's castle

After we walked down (all 250 steps) to get a different view of the castle. It was fantastic. Then we ventured back to the bus stop and we are currently on the way back to Madrid. All in all a fantastic day, especually because the forcast called for rain.

Toledo daytrip

Today we took another day trip from madrid, to a small town about 45 minutes away called Toledo. It was really beautiful and somehow we lucked out on weather again. We arrived around 12 and walked from the bus station into town. We just roomed around for most of the afternoon. Following the touristy crowds and taking pictures of what others were taking pictures of. We ended up grabbing some delicious calzones for lunch and eating them infront of the cathedral. Then we went into the cathedral that was absolutly beautiful! Afterwards we roomed the streets some more and searches for the Greco Museum. We found it at the perfect time 2 pm, meaning it was freeee, and you could actually take pictures in this museum.

Toledo

Casually making friends

Lunch 

The church

Beautiful signs

Art work in Greco

Greco

Across the bridge

Meet my new friend :D

Afterwards we headed to the bridge to get a different view of the cathedral. It was beautifull!
Then we decided it was about time to start heading back to the bus.

Last days in Barcelona

So sad to be leaving. We are on the bus from the airport in Madrid to our hostel right now. The last day in Barcelona was amazing weather and no way did any of us want to leave.
We went to bed pretty early and sadly never went out for a night on the town, but we were okay with that. Too tired from sightseeing everyday all day, you can't do it all.
We got up and finished all the goodies we had purchased at the awesome grocery store called Carrefour. They had amazing gronolla, for cheap. So Kristi and I purchased a box to take to Madrid with us, and I am currently munching on some now. We packed up our things and Sean let us store our luggage for the afternoon in the hostel. And so we were off, one more day in Barcelona. We decided to finally go to the Picasso museum that we had walked by three days in a row. It was amazing to see his collections. He had such an interesting mix from different periods of his life. After about an hour I couldn't be any more amazed, museums are exhausting, we were all ready for a nice lunch.

Can't take picture of art.
So take pictures of yourself.

So cool!

And that we found, at a cute restrurant on a touristy street near the museum. Here we got a 3 course meal for 9.99 euro. I got a salad, some pizza, and cake for dessert with some coffee. It was exactly what I needed although France's duck, and Kristi's lausanga looked pretty good too.

Duck

I think this my only salad on the trip
So delicious

Creme brulle that tasted like FIRE!

After fueling up we decided to finally make the trek to guell park. The famous park that was inspired by Guadi. Here we found LOTS of tourist on a sunny day. I actually think I got kind of sun burnt. There were several street musicians and vendors up and down the streets some were more interesting then most. We enjoyed strolling around taking pictures and people watching. The funniest part was the leopard print guitar player. Which I have a short video of.

Barcelona

Picnic in the park
Creeper photo

Being artsy

New love 

Tile work was gorgeous!

More Gaudi inspired work

After the park we went back to the hostel to grab our things, but not before a quick stop at McDonald's for a nice cool mcflurry. After grabbing our things we headed to the aerobus, and got to the airport with plenty of time.

Security was a little bit of a struggle for me because my backpack lock didn't want to come undone. So I stood there struggling for quite some time because I wanted to take out my camera and iPad for security, but I finally decided to go through without taking them out and see what would happen. Nothing it was fine. But my bag was still locked shut. Haha so while we ate dinner I tried and tried again. I finally decided to go to airport security to see if they could cut it off for me. And they were able to get it open the lock is trash now but, it was quite the little event. The flight went fast and we found our luggage and the bus with ease. But not before grabbing a happy meal.

Happy Camper

Madrid HERE WE COME!