Family in Spain!!!

I was very fortunate to have my family spend Christmas here in Spain with me :). Despite not having their suitcases for the entire trip, we managed to see many things and have a lot of fun. We went to Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona. We went to the Prado museum, Reina Sofía Museum of Contemporary Art, Park de buen Retiro, Plaza Mayor and the Puerta de Sol in Madrid. In the declared "world heritage" city of Toledo, we strolled the narrow and windy streets of Spain's original capital city that includes Roman, Gothic, Moorish and Jewish elements. We also took in the natural beauty of the hills and Tagus river that surrounds the city center. In Barcelona, we were enchanted by the surrounding green hills and mountains, blue skies and sun, the sparkling Mediterranean sea, the grand avenues, squares, palaces and monuments and absolutely captivated by the eccentric charm of Gaudí architecture which includes the glorius Sagrada Familia cathedral. Here are some pics from the trip!!!

Mom and the world famous painting "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso on display in the Reina Sofía museum 

Michael at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, home of Real Madrid soccer team

Mom in the Buen Retiro park

Mom, Dad and Michael in the Buen Retiro park

Mom, Michael and I in the Puerta del Sol

Mom and I outside of the Royal Palace

Family in Toledo

Mom, Michael and I by the Alcantará Bridge (built by the Romans)

 Mom in Toledo with the Royal Alcázar Fortress (Muslim fortress) in the background

Mom and I in Park Guell, featuring the architecture of Gaudí

Mom

Family outside of the magnificent Sagrada Familia, designed by Gaudí!

 Mom inside the Sagrada Familia

 Another pic outside the Sagrada Familia!

Mom inside Casa Batlló, a house designed by Gaudí

 Outside of Casa Batlló

 Mom and the arc de triomf

 Mom outside the Palace in Barcelona

Mom with the AVE high speed train we rode in

Kilts, Bagpipes and haggis...welcom to Scotland!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all managing to stay warm during the cold Michigan winter. Well, the final place I visited in Europe was the ruggedly beautiful Edinburgh (pronounced Edinburraah). It is the capital of the Scotland and it situated on the east coas of Britain on the North Sea. You all are probably thinking it must have been absolutely freezing! It usually is but when I went, it wasn't too bitter cold. The sun was out everyday and there was no snow.... at least not until the night before I left when it snowed like crazy and delayed my morning flight back to Madrid. Anyway, Edinburgh is very very aesthetically pleasing and is smaller with less swarms of tourists. Gothic architecture definitely dominates all the buildings here and there are many churches with pointy spires, tall towers and little narrow streets. The best feature of Edinburgh is the Edinburgh Castle which is situated at the very top of a hill that overlooks the entire city. You can even see the North Sea and some of the snow covered mountains in the background. I stood at the top of the castle for several minutes just taking in the truly remarkable scenery. Its the kind of sight that you never thought really existed in the real world. In addition to overlooking the city from the castle, I got to see the Scottish crown jewels and learn a little bit about Scotland's extensive and a little bloody history and the famous or "infamous" Mary Queen of Scots. This lass became Queen when she was just 6 days old! I also was able to visit her old bedroom that is located in the castle itself! It was pretty cool to stand in the actual bedroom of Mary Queen of Scots. In the old town of Edinburgh, We had to climb a really narrow and steep spiral staircase to get up there. In the old town of Edinburgh, there is a famous street called the "Royal Mile" and it goes from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace. The street itself is home to many pubs, taverns, and gift shops selling kilts and wool scarves and sweaters. My friend and I were able to try some Haggis, the national dish of Scotland at a tavern on the Royal Mile. Haggis is sheep heart, liver and lungs minced with onion and spices and simmered inside the sheep's stomach. To our surprise, it was actually quite tasty! I would definitely encourage everyone to try haggis if you ever go to Scotland. Holyrood Palace is the official royal residence of the Queen. It also has served as the main residence for the Royal family in Scotland throughout history. The inside is very ornately decorated with many large banquet halls, lavish bedrooms and tapestries. The Palace is actually right across the street from the recently built Scottish parliment building. The building itself was designed by a Catalan/Spanish architect and it has a very eccentric look to it reminiscent of Gaudí. The last day in Edinburgh, my friend and I took a bus outside of the city into Rosslyn, Scotland. The bus ride itself was a treat because it went through the countryside past really pretty mountains and old scottish villages. Rosslyn is home to the Rosslyn Chapel. The Rosslyn Chapel is famous for having a mix of Christian and Pagan symbols inside including the famous "Green Man". It also is famous for being the secret hideout spot for the Priory of Sion from the Da Vinci Code book. I am a huge fan of the book so it was really cool to actually see and go inside the chapel. Without a doubt, Edinburgh will be on my list of the most beautiful places I have seen. Alright...here are the pictures!!!

Castle hill

St. Giles Cathedral

 The Royal Mile

 The Scots national monument

Walking up towards the castle!

Overlooking Edinburgh!!!

The Edinburgh Castle

Part of the North Sea

More of Edinburgh

Me on top of Edinburgh Castle

Bagpipes!

 Holyrood Palace

Pretty mountain!

 

Scottish Parliment building

Some buildings

Snowy mountain!

 Rosslyn Chapel!!!

Snow!

Awesome Amsterdam!

After I spent a few days in Paris, my friend and I hopped on a high-speed train that took us through the rest of northern France, Brussels, Belgium and finally into Amsterdam, the "Venice" of the north. The city itself is not too terribly large and has a very unique layout. The main centre of the city is built on canals much like the Italian city of Venice. The architecture is very Dutch (obviously) and different than the architecture in I have seen in southern Europe and France. We spend most of the time just walking around in the chilly air, admiring the pretty architecture sparkling with christmas lights along the canal. We also ate some very good sushi and Dutch donuts. Many Dutch people in Amsterdam speak English quite fluently and that was a relief because I don't know a single word of Dutch! Also, the people of Amsterdam are very fit because everyone rides bicycles here! Even in the winter! I really enjoyed seeing a culture that is quite different from Spain. A major highlight is that we went to see the Anne Frank museum, which was very powerful and kind of sad. This museum is located in the very same house which housed the secret annex where Anne and her family hid and lived in during the Nazi persecution of the Jews. It was very nice to see that much of the secret annex was extremely well preserved as requested by Otto Frank, Anne's dad. One side of the wall in the annex where various pictures, drawings and news clippings are hung still remains untouched to this day!!! It was really cool to go through the secret "door" and climb up the "hidden" steep and narrow staircase which leads to the annex. It was also sad to learn about how such an innocent young girl and her family had to live everyday in this tiny living space fearing that the Nazi's would find them. It was very neat to view Anne's original diary where she recorded the experiences, thoughts and reflections of her life in hiding.  Here are the pics of the beautiful Amsterdam!

A canal

Another canal

 Anne Frank statue and I

Pretty Bridge 

More canals

 Here I am in Dam square with the Netherlands national monument in the background

In Leidesplein square

Canal at nightime !

Me!

Oui oui...c'est la vie...Paris!!!

Arc de Triomphe! 

Basilica de Le Sacré Coeur, situaded on the highest hill overlooing Paris!

 Eiffel Tower!

 View from the Eiffel Tower!

 Ice Skating on the Eiffel Tower!! A dream come true!

 Notre Dame!! on the island in the Seine river!!

 The warm and glowing interior :)

 Pretty and reverent lighting!

 Exterior of Notre Dame! Big!

The inverted pyramid at the Louvre and I aka the blade and the chalice! This according to the Da Vinci Code guards over the Holy Grail!

 Louvre entrance!

Mona and I...just posing a picture!

 The outer pyramid!

More of the Louvre!

Bonjour! Greetings to all! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New year's. Well, after spending some great time with my family in Spain, I met up with my friend Bre in Paris, France. Despite being kinda overwhelming and absolutely filled with tourists...it was GREAT!! I mean it is Paris after all. We went to the Monmatre area of Paris where the Sacre Coeur basilica is and Moulin Rouge!!! The Sacre Coeur basilica is located on the highest hill of Paris and it offered great views of the city! From there, we went to see the huge Arc de Triomphe in the Place d'etoile at the end of the Champs-Elysee avenue! It was really pretty especially since the entire area was just glittering with all the christmas decorations! After seeing the arc we strolled along the avenue admiring all the shops. We were pretty tired after this so we heading back to our hostel. The next day, we headed straight for the Eiffel tower and got in line. Since we got there early we waited only about an hour. We climbed the stairs to the second level, this was actually really scary for me climbing up the stairs since you could always see the ground below. We finally got up and too a look at the views and my socks were completely blown away!!! You could see the entire city of Paris and other sights like the river Seine,  Louvre, Notre Dame and Ile de la Cite. After snapping a ton on photos, we decided to go ice skating which was for free!!! Now I have done a lot of neat things in my life but to be ice skating to holiday music when you are up in the Eiffel tower is just downright exhilarating! So we skated along the rink while being able to see the entire city of Paris...soooo cool. After we skated, we went inside the museum and learned a little about the tower. It was built in the 1800s for an exhibition by Gustave Eiffel. The locals of Paris thought the tower was pretty ugly and it was suppose to be teared down but it never was. It now functions as an giant efficient radio tower and is an enduring symbol of Paris. After the tower, we went to the Ile de la Cite, the island in the Seine where the great Notre Dame Cathedral stands. As we were walking along the beautiful river Seine admiring the beautiful buildings and bridges, we could see it in the distance with all the birds flying around it! Immediately, I thought of the Hunchback of Notre Dame movie (one of my childhood favorites) and the gargolyes!! lol We got inside the church and this is one the most BEAUTIFUL CHURCHES EVERRRR!!! Without doubt it 1000% exceeded my expectations and it is soooo different from the Spanish and Italian churches that I have seen. It is also so big and the interior just glows with its dim yet warm light. The outside of the church is also very fascinating because of the gargoyles, spires, flying buttresses and of course the famous bells.
The last day in Paris, we went to the famous Louvre museum. The first thing we saw was the inverted pyramids, also known as the "blade and the chalice" that guards over the holy grail. Yes the holy grail is somewhere under the Louvre...according to Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code lol. This was really a cool moment for me since this is a big scene in the Da Vinci Code, one of my favorite books of all time. Finally we were in the museum after waiting in line and we were making our way to the Mona Lisa. It is locateed in a wing with the other Italian art. It was sooo crowded in the room where the Mona Lisa is. The actual portrait is not that big but I was able to get a good view of it. It was really cool being able to see her and her powerful gaze in person. It was a little surreal! After getting a picture with her, we went to see other art. We saw the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Spinx, Ramses II and even saw the real Code of Hammurabi!!! Very cool!! After, we went into the basement of the Louvre or the "old dungeons". The Louvre use to be a castle long before it expanded into a palace before becoming a museum. It was cool to learn about its past history. Well, this was the last of my adventures in Paris. Amsterdam adventures coming soon!