Switzerland

For our midterm break Heath and I chaperoned the high school ski trip to Les Collens, Switzerland.  We got to spend a week snowboarding in the Alps in exchange for watching the kids at night.  The students were enrolled in a ski camp and their counselors were in charge of them during the day and organized the night activities.  We helped out and dealt with any behavior problems, which there weren't too many.  

We returned without any serious injuries, although I did get a black eye.  Heath is now capable of doing just about any run on the mountain.  I, on the other hand, can now link turns.  Les Collens is in the french part of Switzerland so I used my very poor french to order hot chocolate and ask for help on the button lifts.  The button lifts are my nemesis.  I highly suggest taking a valium before attempting them on a snowboard.

From where we were you can see the Matterhorn on clear days.  Very Exciting.  Just like Disneyland.

No, not the Matterhorn

Us with the Matterhorn.  It's the one on the left behind the cloud.

Cordoba

While in Seville we took a day trip to Cordoba.  Famous for having a beautiful mosque turned church.  It was the one day that we had sunshine the whole time and it was warm enough to eat ice cream on the steps of the mosque.  Cordoba is very touristy and you have to run away from the gypsy palm readers but if can get past that it has a pretty little old town with an alcazar and small synagogue.  Both of which were closed when we were there so we had to content ourselves with the church.

Like the church in Seville, there's an old minaret turned bell tower and orange tree filled courtyard.  What was amazing about this one was that despite the stark difference between the moorish mosque and the church basilica they built in the middle they actually blended very smoothly.  The mosque was one large room of arches and nooks with intricate designs. The basilica was build on top of the many arches and comes up to a domed roof that filters down light.  The mosque part is darker and the light is warm like candlelight.  The basilica is cool white and bright compared to the shadows around it.  Despite being smaller and not as ornate as the one in Seville, there is something about it that makes up for that.  

 

Real Alcazar

The Real Alcazar is the moorish royal palace in Seville.  Maybe my favorite part of the entire trip.  The interior of the palace has ornately carved roofs and pillars with walls covered in decorative tiles and mosaics.  You can picture it filled with low divans and cushions.  I could happily live in the Alcazar.  That's saying a lot because most palaces aren't actually that livable!

If the interior is beautiful the gardens are even more so.  I cannot begin to describe the peace and tranquility that covers the gardens.  The gardens are set within huge walls and although there are busy streets just on the other side it's impossible to tell.  The walls block all thought of the outside world and you're left in this place that is absolutely perfect.  The gardens are a series of courtyards built around descending fountains.  There are benches and hidden nooks where you could spend the whole day undisturbed.  Beyond the structured gardens there is a wooded area that is made up of tall trees and mossy grass.  Here too you find small fountains and benches as well as peacocks that roam free.  The prevailing sound is the humming of doves broken only by the soft calls of other birds.  People walk the gardens in silence reveling in the beauty.  I spent my time there imagining all of the history that must have taken place inside the walls and wandering around in a sort of trance trying to take it all in.  I hope you enjoy the pictures but they don't come close to actually being there!

  

Heath and his favorite fountain

Seville

Go to Seville!  Seville is absolutely beautiful!  I was completely blown away by the Moorish architecture in Seville and Cordoba.  It rained on and off while we were there but that didn't stop us from having a great time.  Seville is just packed full of life.  In Spain most people don't have dinner till about 10pm.  It was a little hard for us the first day but we soon got into the rhythm of staying up late and sleeping in.  We weren't impressed by the tapas though.  The best food we had was from a Lebanese kebab shop.  While in Seville we went to the art museum that focuses exclusively on Spanish artists including Velazquez.  It's in an old monastery with beautiful tile work.  Although after a while there's only so many paintings of Jesus dying on the cross that one can take.  

The entire city is covered in orange trees.  We were lucky and the oranges were ripe.  I've since learned that Seville oranges are only ripe for two weeks of the year and that they're used for marmalade because they're bitter.  We couldn't understand why people weren't picking them and eating them until we actually tried one.  They look great though!

One of the highlights of any trip to Seville is the cathedral.  It used to be a mosque until the Moors were pushed out of Spain and they converted all the Mosques to churches.  It is one huge room that has a basilica in the middle that was added later.  Behind the alter there is a huge wall of gold coated sculptures.  There's no way my pictures can show just how amazing the sight is with the candles playing across the gold.  Left from when it was a mosque is the courtyard filled with orange trees.  The bell tower use to be a minaret.  It's big enough for a horse to climb up the ramp.  It's the largest gothic church in existence.  

We also went to the Plaza de Espana which we still can't figure out exactly what it is.  The building has a tiled tribute to each Spanish state around the courtyard.  They were really cool.  

  

We spent New Years Eve in Seville.  We started the evening at a Flamenco show.  It was in a small courtyard of a hotel.  The fifty or so people there sat around the edges and in the middle was a small stage.  The was a singer, guitarist and two dancers.  Besides the Alcazar this was my favorite part of the trip.  The artists were amazing and the show felt so intimate.  It made me wish I'd spent more time exploring different types of dance rather than only ballet.  After we went to the Irish Pub.  Sad I know, but besides a few restaurants it was the only thing open.  They had a DJ who played mostly American songs and then every so often a random European hit that none of us knew.  We ended up staying and dancing till late with a couple we met at the bar.  Christian is German but he's studying at St. Andrews in Scotland and he's the spitting image of Prince Harry.  People actually came up to him throughout the night to ask if he was the prince.  We hung out with him and his girlfriend Lisa all night and it ended up being a great New Years!

This last picture is for Cole.  We thought of you one afternoon when we gorged ourselves on Churros y Chocolate.  You would love it!  Actually I can't imagine anyone not liking them!  At the stand they fry up the churros fresh for you so they're warm and crispy.  They them wrap them up in newspaper and serve them with thick hot chocolate to dip them in.  Amazing!

 

Lisbon

Lisbon is an interesting city.  The downtown is reminiscent of Paris or Prague with Art Nouveau store fronts and cafes.  It has all the shops you find in England or any other city for that matter.  When you get out of the main shopping district the city morphs back into what I imagine it's looked like for the past century.  The buildings are piled on top of each other on tiny winding streets that ascend up around the hills.  Streets interlock with courtyards and in the Alfama quarter the streets are too narrow for much more than a scooter.  Lisbon is a simple city full of normal everyday people.  The restaurants are small family run affairs hidden down little alleys with offerings of beef or salted cod and carafes of wine for 3 euro.  After a week you get tired of salted cod.  It doesn't quite fit in with the rest of Western Europe.  Somewhere along the way it was left behind.  We stayed in a little apartment near Graca square and the saturday flea market.  We were lucky to be near the 28 tram which takes you down to the shopping district, although Lisbon really is a walkable city if you don't mind the hills.

The tram is similar to the ones in San Francisco and riding it made us think of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland!  It bumps and lurches, speeding down the hills and struggling up the other side.  The majority of people who take it are tourists and little old ladies clutching their shopping and the seats in front of them to keep from spilling out into the aisles.  

We spent most of our time exploring the city, including the castle and reading our books in one of the sunny squares.  One night we stumbled upon a small Fado restaurant.  Fado is the Portuguese version of the Blues.  It's sung in small restaurants with a few accompanying guitarists.  Most songs are about the pain and hardship of life.  Throughout dinner different singers would come in and sing a few songs.  They must all have their rounds.  Some were dressed for the occasion, others looked like they'd just wandered in off the street.  

Maybe the most beautiful part of Lisbon are its streets.  They're made of square cream cobblestones polished smooth by everyone's shoes.  When the sunlight hits them they turn gold.  It looks like you're walking down a bright shimmering gold path.  The light is beautiful.

Apart from exploring the city, Heath and I celebrated Christmas here.  We cooked in on Christmas since everything was closed.  I made a chicken curry and we opened presents.  I gave Heath tickets to the guinness premiership rugby game and he got me a gift certificate for a massage and a pair of nice gloves.  We definitely missed everyone.

Faro, Portugal

For the Christmas holiday Heath and I went to Portugal and Spain.  We landed in Faro which is in the Algrave in the south of Portugal.  Imagine beautiful pristine beaches and old colonial towns.  We were lucky that the two days we spent there were filled with sunshine.  It wasn't warm enough to go swimming, but it was sunny enough to go to the beach and read our books while soaking up some vitamin D.  Compared to England this was a luxury!  We'd happily go back!  Here's a few pictures of the beach.

Snow and Kilts

We just returned from Inverness, Scotland for a wedding.  I know the pictures of Heath in a kilt have been highly anticipated!  We took the train up on Friday and stopped for the afternoon in Edinburgh.  The castle was amazing.  It's where Mary Queen of Scots was born.  We really only had enough time for lunch and a tour of the castle before catching our train up to Inverness.  The wedding was in a little spa town called Strathpeffer.  Durning the winter there's not much there besides an art show and a chocolate shop.  Needless to say we went for hot chocolate because it was freezing!  Heath wore the tartan for that region of Scotland which was a lovely green and purple.  The English are all allowed to wear the Stuart tartan because that's the tartan of the last Scottish king, James I, who became King of England after Elizabeth I.  As we're not English, Heath wore the regional tartan.  There's a lot more to kilts than meets the eye and we struggled to get Heath in his.  First you put on the shirt and bow tie.  Then you put on your knee high socks and shoes with the tartan garters around your calf.  Don't forget the knife that goes into your right sock!  Next you can put on the kilt it's self that weighs tons!  Then you have to figure out the belt and sporran!  The sporran is the purse like thing that goes around the waist.  Traditionally it's made out of seal fur and they can get quite pricey.  It was nice because I didn't have to carry a purse for a change.  Lastly you don the vest and jacket! Quite an ordeal to get dressed!  The legend is true as well- You don't wear underwear under your kilt.  One just hopes they dry clean those rentals!

The wedding was so much fun!  The band played a mix of southern and ceilidh music because the bride and groom were from Georgia and Scotland.  Ceilidh dancing is the traditional dancing of Scotland.  It's like square dancing but it's actually lots of fun.  The band played until late and we danced the whole time.  We felt like old people when we retired after one.  The scotsmen were just dipping into the whiskey when we went to bed.  All and all if you ever get invited to a Scottish wedding I highly recommend you attend!  Make sure you wear a kilt though!