Welcome to our blog!

Hello Hello!

After several requests, we decided to create a blog about our trip to Europe... So here we wanted to share some highlights of our trip, so you can enjoy and understand better when seeing the pictures....

Here are all the countries we visited for the first time!

Spain
France
Germany
Switzerland
England
Scotland

Duration: 22 days

We have one posting per country and one with the links to the online album. If you want to see it in Google Map all the places we've been to, scroll down and click on the Google Map link. We also posted some videos on YouTube - you'll find the links in the posts of England and Scotland.

On the column on the left you will see all the posts, they are in the order of the places we visited, so you can click on them to read each post.

Do share your comments about each post, and if you have any difficulty with the links or blog, let us know!

As you'll notice, we got a little excited in writing about the trip and in selecting the pictures for the photo album, but we guarantee we narrowed it as much as possible, so you could get a full picture of the trip and could "travel" a little bit with us.

So if you're in a hurry, save this blog for when you have a little more time. Now sit back and relax, and we hope you enjoy!!!

Dave & Kris

9. Online Album!

So... after reading all the posts in the blog, I bet you're anxious to see the pictures, huh???

Click on the link below, and you'll go to the online photo album:

Europe Photo Album

Unfortunately, through this site you can only see the photos online and you can't download any of the pictures to your computer. Soon I'll post here the link where you can download any of the pictures.

Hope you enjoyed and...

8. Best Meals, Weird Things, Cool Things

Best meals:
Barcelona - Paella and Mediterranean Food
Paris - Cheese and Wine by the Eiffel Tour
Ploemeur - Home made food by the Baduel-Crispin chefs!
Germany - none! (well... there's the beer...)
Switzerland - Raclete!
UK - Beer.... and a lebanese restaurant had good food too

Weird things:
- people driving on the wrong side of the road in the UK (never know which way to look!)
- parking in paris (mr. bean's car makes so much more sense now)
- scottish accent
- french fries are not called french fries in France, they're just called "fries" (the french in the name is implied...!"
- french fries are the typical food of all countries in Europe
- there are no "non-smoking" areas in french restaurants
- people in london go to the pub and prefer to stay outside the bar in the streets even with free tables, as it's the only way they can enjoy the few days of sun they have
- unfortunately dressed (in birthday suits!) people in Munich's English gardens

Cool things:
- bike system in Barcelona: rent a bike all over the city, so practical!
- seeing a bunch of kindergarteners take the subway in paris - poor teachers!
- great restaurants at Trocadero plaza, with even a better view of the Eiffel tower
- meeting cousins Elliot & Margot for the first time
- Uncle Pierre's flan, u la la!
- Elliot finally catching his dad on the beach and bringing him to the ground

* to be completed

7. Scotland, the land of funny english speaking people who could just use some more sun

While Dave had to stay for some days in London to work, I decided to spend a couple of days in the land of the kilts.

The hostel in Edinburgh was lovely, and while the people there were very friendly, Scottish people in general seemed a little bit grumpy, probably for the lack of sun and blue sky in their cold and rainy days... Edinbra (as they would say) is small enough to be done by foot, though after 20 days walking, my body was begging for some rest, so I decided to go for the city tour bus again. At night, went to a typical Scottish dinner and show, full of men wearing kilts and playing the bag pipes (Show was called "Taste of Scotland - I definitely recommend it!). My table had the best view and had the company of some cool guys from Australia and New Zealand, which made it more fun. By the way, I challenge all of you to one day eat the famous scottish "Haggis"!!

On the following day, I went on a tour with other 7 people to St. Andrews, home of the Golf. It was a full day tour, stopping at a nearby historical city (Falkland) and a fisherman's village (Crail Harbour). St. Andrews is a lovely town, still cold, though beautiful sky and sun, and nice people. All buildings are really old, though very well preserved, and with the North Sea surrounding the city, just made it a perfect scenario for the most famous golf course in the world: the "Old Course"

Check List:

- Edinburgh Castle
- the Royal Mile
- Haggis
- Palace of Holyroodhouse
- St. Andrews Old Golf Course
- Ruins
- Mary, Queen of Scots' Palace
- First Tennis court in the world ("Royal Tennis court")
- The North Sea

Haggis:

"Haggis is one of those national dishes that is both beloved and reviled by natives, and sometimes horrifies people who hear it described for the first time
Traditionally, a Haggis is made from the lung, liver, and heart of the sheep. These are mixed with oatmeal and a few spices and stuffed into the sheep's stomach. After being boiled, the Haggis is brought to the table with a great deal of ceremony. A piper ushers in the Haggis and all raise a glass of Scotch whiskey and "brrreath a prrayerr for the soul of Rrrobbie Burrrns!" It is then served with "neeps and nips," mashed turnips and nips of whiskey. I think you have to drink a lot of Scotch before you can truly enjoy this dish, but a party of Scots without a Haggis is simply not heard of."

Taste of Scotland Videos:

1. Sword Dance
2. All Instruments
3. Girls Dance
4. Folk Music
5. "Amazing Grace"

6. London - finally, a language we can understand. Well, kinda...

Leaving Geneva so soon after arriving was helped by the anticipation of heading to London. Of course we had to make a pitstop in Paris to grab dave's work things - 7 floors up, 7 floors down once again - but were very grateful for being able to leave so much stuff at Pierre & Angie's apartment (what a life saver!).

While Dave made the attempt to work all week in London, Kris took the time to see the town and rest her feet by taking one of the traditional double decker London

Video:
Change of Guards - Royal Band


Check list:

- London bridge (and Tower Bridge of course, which Dave discovered later was the famous one)
- Buckingham palace and changing of the guard
- London tower
- Big Ben
- Harrods
- Fun local pubs and fish & chips
- Royal Parks - Kensington, Hyde, St. James, Regents
- City tour on the double decker
- Piccadilly Circus
- Fish & Chips
- Pubs

5. A little slice of Switzerland...and Austria?

The train to Geneva was quite uneventful, except for fact that we had not yet touched basis with Richard and were unsure if we had a place to stay that night. We also learned shortly after leaving Munich that we would be going through Austria for a bit, and thus had to pay for our short time in that country (as our train ticket only allowed us to travel in France, Germany & Switzerland).

By the time we had arrived in Geneva, it was night and we had finally caught up with Richard. Over the next day we saw most of old Geneva, enjoyed a night of sleep on a half blown up air mattress (which was fixed the next day!) and got to know all of Richard's new apartment by the lake. The highlight of our time in Switzerland was really in France, where we went to see the Alps and were delighted with fantastic views and wonderful hot cheese meal!

Check list:

- Geneva Lake and 140 mts (460ft) water fountain (right from Richard's balcony!)
- Raclette cheese and potatoes, cold cuts & bread meal
- Alguille du Midi – 3842mts! (12,000ft!)
- Chamonix and Alps, an amazing sight to see
- Swiss watches (to be best bought in Madrid airport…)
- Riding in car with Richard in Geneva...hopefully the Swiss drivers will figure him out shortly!

Raclette:

4. Next Ausfahrt, Germany!

A full day of trains later, we finally crossed over into Deutschland, where we realized that neither one of us understood anything being said....so glad that we would be meeting Luis Henrique later on! Though our hotel was quite a distance from anything remotely close to downtown Frankfurt, we enjoyed the city before heading on the road (in a fun Audi). Luckily for us our 4th member was a nice lady on the GPS who told us where to go along the many Autobahns.

Heidelberg was a our first destination, where we had our first german sausage. Great old town, full of students, architecture and some funky sculptures (monkeys & mice?). We decided to head on to Nuremberg from there, and though finding a hotel was a challenge, we got to see Luis Henrique put his german to the test as he attempted to negotiate a room with a fun old lady who ran a local inn (we didn't stay there).

After walking all over and enduring Kris' tireless need to take pictures of every possible Starbucks, we moved on to Munich. A long, beautiful drive later (where Dave learned how to distinguish between a real speed limit and 'go as fast you can' sign), we arrived finally in Munich. We made our way to the English Gardens, and happily found a biergarten in the middle! The sausages, pretzels and liter beers became our friends, there and later at the famous Munich biergarten house, Houfhas.

A final trip included to Fussen and then the crazy King Ludwig II's castles. We were amazed by the Bavarian alps, immensly enjoyed a horse carriage taking us up to see the larger castle, as well as the tours of the castles themselves. Somehow we joined a group of japanese tourists as we walked through Neuschwanstein, and saw how the german tour guide wasn't happy when the japanese translator decided to give her own personal tour...who knows what she said!

Check list:

- Castles, castles, castles (Neuschwanstein was the biggest and best)
- All the rivers: Main (Frankfurt), Neckar (Heidelberg), Rhine, Isartor (Munich)
- Heidelberg, home of a really old university & cool town!
- Nuremberg, not much to see at trials building, but Altstadt was fun!
- Englischer Garten, Munich & riding on very old bikes!
- Marienplatz, city center of Munich
- Fussen, they dress like the Sound of Music there
- Driving 200+ km on Autobahn, oh my
- Fantastic scenery: Bavarian alps, green fields, thick forests
- Biergartens & liter biers
- Sausages: remember, one is always enough...