Saturday, October 25, 2003

Well, it´s been a whirlwind couple of weeks with the Zuks (Mandy´s parents) around Spain and Portugal. We tried to pack as much in as we could, including Gibraltar and Tangier, and a couple days lying on the beach on the Algarve (southern coast of Portugal). Here are all our latest photos from Europe, starting in Madrid and taking you up to date here in Lisbon...

Madrid








After a hard-working afternoon at the Sofia art museum:




Shopping for gifts at El Rastro flea market:




The Road Trip begins: Toledo, Grenada...



Placa Mayor in Toledo:




Do you think we can get this thing through airport security?




The Alhambra in Grenada, a truly amazing palace:






The view out from the Alhambra:




Typical tiles used at the Alhambra:




The original Sierra Nevadas:


This was the view from our cabin in the mountains:



An old stone bridge:








Gibraltar


There´s the big rock, the only place you can use British Pounds to pay for fish & chips on the Iberian Peninsula:




The apes of Gibraltar:





Tangier



Snake charmer with cobra:




Stalls in the Casbah:






Not sure which category we fit into ;)




Seville






Lagos, Sagres, & Ponta da Piedad



At last, the beach!




Mmmmm, Persimmons:




Ponta de Piedad, a rocky outcrop in Lagos:








Sagres & Cabo de Sao Vincente, the Southwestern tip of Europe:





Posing for the cover of my travel book:




Evora & Sintra


Tour guides in Evora:




A nice long hike up the Castle and palace. (Maybe we should´ve taken the bus?)












Azenhas do Mar, just down the road from Sintra:





Lisbon



This is our hotel balcony right in the middle of Lisbon.




Feeling at home by Lisbon´s version of the Golden Gate Bridge.




Belem Monastary and tower










Andrew with Paulo, Irene & Daniel:




Paulo's Amazing Art:




Daniel, Paulo & Irene's adorable son (playing with our camera):



Tuesday, October 21, 2003

New office ph# in Lisbon


Hi All,

We´ve been having a great time with the Zuks around Spain and Portugal, more updates to the website when we have time. In the meantime,
we´ll be in Lisbon for the next week, so if you feel like calling us (for a very high price I´m sure) here´s the number:

+351 916 285 459

For those of you with SMS, you can text message us.

The updated itinerary is as follows:

Lisbon - Paris Oct 26
Paris - Rome Nov 1
Rome - Istanbul Nov 8??
Istanbul - India Nov 20?? (a new entry, due to budget constraints and weight loss requirements)
India - Thailand Jan? .....etc

Hope everyone is doing well.

cheers
mandrew

Friday, October 03, 2003

Ah Barcelona!!! After getting up hideously early to drive from Bratislava to Vienna (saying goodbye to Susan), spending the day wandering Vienna with our Cousins, taking an overnight train to Milano (with a snorer going at it all night in our cabin), 6hrs to wander the streets of Milan, a 1hr bus ride, a 1hr flight and then another 1hr bus ride, we finally made it to our destination... Barcelona, and it was well worth the effort.

We stumbled upon a great pension in the heart of the city (Placa Catalunya), which coincidentally had an amazing vegetarian cafeteria right next door. We thought we found heaven on earth when the chef gave us a foul look when we asked if there was bacon in the paella. He thought maybe we were crazy and didn´t understand what vegetarian was. Too much time in Eastern Europe has made us a little paranoid expecting to find ham in "vegetarian" dishes.

But that was just the beginning. The architecture, the food, the people, the beach (ah, how we´ve missed the smell of the ocean - 6 weeks away from the sea is really torture) -- Barcelona seems to contain the best features of a few of our favorite cities. But it is expensive! We met up with our friend Laura for dinner at a great Catalan restaurant -- the Catalan Cream is delicious.

Two days was much too short -- we just managed to see a few of the major attractions -- La Sagrada Familia, an amazing unfinished cathedral by Gaudi which was started in 1886 and is still under construction. We also walked around Gaudi´s Parc Guell -- amazing beyond words so hopefully we will have pictures soon. And Barceloneta, the city beach. Plus walking La Rambla and through the old city and markets.

This morning we left Barcelona at 5am to catch a cheap flight to Madrid. Not sure how many more cheap flights we can afford in our sleep schedule ;) Again we managed to find a nice pension right in the middle of town (Placa de Sol), though this time it was with considerably more effort, and we are improving our vocabulary of "Spangles" continuously.

The Zuks arrive tomorrow, and we have a few days of wandering Madrid before we head south towards Sevilla.

Thanks for all the emails we´ve received since our last quarterly report. Keep them coming!

Photos will be posted when we get our act together (maybe sometime soon)

Barcelona


Barcelona: The Gaudi-designed Sagrada Familia, easily the most impressive piece of architecture we´ve seen yet.








Barcelonetta: Recovering from our overnight train ride with the loud snorers in our cabin keeping us up all night!




Out to dinner with Laura, showing us the local Catalan cuisine:




Gaudi´s Park Guell:



Barcelona


Barcelona: The Gaudi-designed Sagrada Familia, easily the most impressive piece of architecture we´ve seen yet.








Barcelonetta: Recovering from our overnight train ride with the loud snorers in our cabin keeping us up all night!




Out to dinner with Laura, showing us the local Catalan cuisine:




Gaudi´s Park Guell: