WDW in December

...and we bonded with a few hundred thousand of our closest friends.

Click on the picture below to see an album of some of our WDW pics.

WDW in December

Quick Trip to Gig Harbor

We had a chance to drive down to Gig Harbor to go to Tidefest #26 (some of us remember working at the 1st one), see the old house (while the house is still in it's 1960's finery, it is now being turned into a winery) and tool around Tacoma.

Click on the picture below to view more pictures and captions from this trip. Once you see the thumbnails of each picture, click on the Slideshow button to view the pics full screen.

GH

Upcoming Magnet/Travel Opportunities

Whenever we travel to new places, we purchase a souvenir magnet to go into my cubicle at work (see picture @ right). This wall is quite the ice breaker/conversation starter! Below are some upcoming travel/magnet gathering opportunities.

• Florida in December

• Las Vegas in February

• Possibly Spokane in March (but this one really doesn't count)

• Rome in July

• Mediterranean Cruise in July after Rome - See itinerary below
  

Newhart-Inspired Airline Travel

While I'm not going to mention any specific airline here, there was one that I traveled on that was, well, interesting. In fact, it was reminiscent of the Bob Newhart comedy bit called "Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Co."

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=8214&start=0&sid=1665694e03f93c3b223ce38d321dc347

What's a Funicular?

A Funicular is a type of tram or railway that moves people from place to place. We rode one of these to travel up the hill to the buildings at Montserrat.

Sunday in Barcelona

Since it was Sunday, many museums & shops were closed. We visited the Barcelona Church when Mass was in session. We also walked around the Parc de la Ciutadella.

Then, we toured around the southern part of the city & saw some of the 1992 Olympic venues, museums, etc. The southern part of the city wasn't quite as scenic as the other parts were, but it was still a fun day.

On Monday, Lori flies home. Hopefully, her luggage will fly to the same destination this time. Joel will attend and present at the IT Forum conference.

Click on the picture below to view pictures and captions of today's activities.

Sunday in Barcelona

Wine, Mountain Tops and the Sea

We spent the day outside of Barcelona on a tour to a winery, a big mountain/basilica and a seashore party town.

Our first stop was at the Torres Winery. This is the largest winery in Spain. Not being real big wine drinkers, we'll say that this part of the tour was "educational."

After that, we drove to Montserrat. This is a mountain that is composed of magnificent rock formations. There are buildings about 5 kilometers up the mountain. These buildings include a monestary, museum, boys choir/music school, hotel and more. A train/tram took us up to the monestary. This was quite impressive!

An hour's drive from Montserrat was the town of Sitges. This is a resort town right on the Mediterranean Sea that is known for its restaurants, shops and night life (think Bourbon Street in New Orleans or Pleasure Island in WDW). This town was just "coming to life" as we were leaving at around 8pm tonight.

It was a long day & the weather was a bit cooler than it has been during our time here.

On a side note, language has not been an issue throughout our entire time in Spain. The local folks we have encountered has spoken some dilect of Spanish and English. Many have also spoken German.

Click on the picture below to view pictures and captions of some of today's activities.

Montserrat

Gaudi's Modernista-Style Projects

We spent today visiting two of Antoni Gaudi's Modernista-style "projects."

Sagrada Familia is a cathedral that Gaudi began in 1883 and has yet to be completed. There have been artists and construction workers working on this church since it began.

After touring the lower level of the church, we went up into one of the turrets (and no one got sick doing so this time). Click on the picture below to view the pictures and captions from our visit to Sagrada Familia.

Sagrada Familia

Parc Guell is where Gaudi lived and has tons of intricate mosaic sculptures. We did tons of walking today! Click on the picture below to view the pictures and captions from our visit to Parc Gruell.

Parc Guell

Meals in Barcelona

From our limited observations, the people in Barcelona seem to have the following eating patterns:

• Breakfast: Coffee & some form of carbs (pastries)
• Lunch: This is the "big" meal of the day. It's more of an event.
  
• Dinner: Light meal very late at night (tapas, etc.)

It's been challenging to find something other than pastries for breakfast here so far.

First Full Day in Barcelona

Click on the picture below to view photos and captions of our 1st full day in Barcelona. After you have clicked on the picture below, click on the Slideshow button to view the photos and captions.

First Day in Barcelona

Lost Luggage

After an initial delayed flight out of Seatac and racing through an airport to get to a connecting flight, we both finally made it to Barcelona. Unfortunately, my luggage decided to spend some extended time in Copenhagen.

The lost luggage will be delivered to the hotel (hopefully, our hotel) sometime tomorrow.

Fortunately, Sephora is international!

Hotel in Barcelona

There's less than a week to go before we travel to Barcelona!

Here is a link to the hotel we plan to stay at: http://www.hotelrivoliramblas.com/

Picture Taking Across Europe

Click on the picture below to view a web album of us taking pictures of us taking pictures throughout Europe.

Picture Taking Around Europe 2006

Oct 5, 2006 - 21 Photos

Weekend in Paso Robles

A few weeks ago we flew down to Paso Robles, California to see Joe & Ellie's new house.

Fittingly, they now live in the heart of wine country!

We visited the Hearst Castle.

Here's an Elephant Seal sunning himself on the beach at Point Piedras Blancas. At certain times of the year, there are sometimes hundreds of these seals on this stretch of beach.

Next up: Barcelona!

Another Day in London

Today we went on the London Eye, which is basically a Ferris Wheel where riders go into enclosed glass "capsules" and spend 30 minutes going around once. The views of London were spectacular from the Eye!

During our ride on the Eye, we were able to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

Westminster Abbey

Harrods (this was a huge store)

We were able to score tickets to see Mary Poppins (the play, not the movie). This play just recently opened on Broadway & in London.

$50 Eggs!!!

This morning, we went downstairs to eat breakfast at the hotel only to find that scrambled eggs cost approximately $50 per person (no kidding). The eggs must have come from royal chickens. Let’s just say that we chose to NOT eat any meals at the hotel.

Today, we did some touring & lots of walking around London.


We visited the Tower of London
& saw the crown jewels.

London Bridge

Big Ben & Parliament

Buckingham Palace

Piccadilly Circus (we ate dinner in nearby Chinatown)

Channel + Tunnel = Chunnel

According to our itinerary, we were supposed to leave Paris by train to London early in the day. However, there was some sort of train schedule change so we were able to spend most of the day in France.


Since there wasn’t time to go into the city, we visited the Disney Studios park.

We ended up taking the Eurostar train to London in the evening. The train went through the Chunnel which is a long tunnel built under the English Channel. It only took about two and a half hours to travel from Paris to London via this train.

We are staying at the Dorchester Hotel in the Westminster area of London. The Dorchester is affiliated with the Beverly Hills Hotel. It is amazing! It’s a 5-star hotel that is a block and half away from Buckingham Palace. When we checked in, we were given a personal tour of the facilities. The room had fuzzy slippers laid out for us, fuzzy bathrobes and a bathroom that was larger than our cruise ship cabin. We asked for an Internet cable for the room and about 2 minutes later, we heard a doorbell. Our room has a doorbell!

There's no way we would ever stay at a place like this without using our Disney Vacation Club (timeshare) points.

We are pretty tired & are planning to get up early & go on some sort of city tour tomorrow.

French Fries

Day 15: Paris
Today we took the Metro from our hotel into Paris.








The weather was very hot & humid (37c!). We both ended up getting a bit of sunburn; Joel more so than me. We spent the day touring around Paris by bus, foot & Metro.






The city was also in the process of getting ready for the Tour de France.


In all of our travels, today was the first day where the differences in the languages really hit home. For example: in Finnish, there is a word for a room that is hot and steamy that people spend time in. It’s called a sauna. The French also have a word like this. It’s called the Metro.



One other quick distinct that needs to be made about Paris...

- Eiffel Tower
- Ear'fle Tower











Here are a bunch more of photos from today.








As you can see, it was a very nice day.










We think this last one was dressed up for Bastille Day

Cheese with our wine

Yep. Disneyland Paris.

We arrived in Paris last night and got to the hotel. After a quick refresh, we popped into the park for a bit.

After all the deep history, art, and architecture we have experienced over the past 10 days (8 countries!), it is kind of nice to do something cheesy.

This morning we are taking the train into Paris and do more touristy bits.

Peterhof

Day 2 in St. Petersburg
We met with our guide again to go drive about an hour out to Peterhof. This was Peter the Great’s summer palace (because one couldn’t have just one palace back then).

This is a picture of the outside of Peterhof. Peter the Great traveled frequently. The buildings he built (palaces, etc.) were heavily influenced by his travels. Because of this, much of St. Petersburg looks similar to Paris & other European cities.

Peter actually liked smaller houses like the one in this picture, but his wife and daughter liked much larger ones. When a palace was to be built, Peter usually lost out to them on what the size of it would be.

Some of the gardens in Peterhof.






Some inside pictures of Peterhof.








The two of us at Peterhof.











This is the building where the G8 Summit took place. It is actually about an hour outside of St. Petersburg. And this is why we had to scramble to change our itinerary for the cruise. And it was one whole hour outside of St. Petersburg.

The government building built & used during Soviet times. That’s a statue of Lenin out in front. I guess that this was the statue that Fremont rejected.

This is typical of Soviet-era housing. They used one floor plan for all of the housing they built. Today, most the people of St. Petersburg still prefer to live in this apartment-style housing instead of single-family homes for most of the year. Many have small summer houses outside of the city.

The weather changed frequently. Here’s what the city looked like once we had returned from Peterhof.





The city. We liked to play the "name the store" game by trying to decipher the Cyrillic names.





When subways were put into the city, Stalin wanted them to be “palaces for the people.” They are very ornate both inside and out.





Oh yeah... and they are not to be confused with...



And while we are at it, here is one more taste from home.