¡Hola!
Hope this email finds you well and recovered from the 4th of July weekend festivities. Though we missed seeing fireworks this 4th, we have enjoyed our own adventures since I last updated and are looking forward to the last few destinations of our trip.
Quick note: pictures from Berlin, Munich, Prague and some from Amsterdam (with captions!) are up on my website:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cestory
Or see the link in my last email! Please feel free to forward this email or the picture link to other friends or people who you think might enjoy these updates. Sorry for the lack of pictures from the recent parts of the trip... it is hard to get photos uploaded from external drives in internet cafes, especially when the programs and such are not in English! Ok onto the recent travels...
We had an amazing time in Capri, off the western coast of Italy - especially touring around the caves and crystal clear waters along all sides of the island in a small boat with our faithful "Capitano" Ago, a local guide from Capri. The well-known blue grotto cave was neat, but we really enjoyed the smaller green and white grotto waters. Thomas got some excellent video footage with his waterproof video camera, so you could actually see the deep hues of the water as we swam :) After 2 nights there in an amazing 4-star hotel-like hostel in Sorrento, we headed to Florence. There we toured the city at our own pace, tasting gelato at all the top places in town... Opinion among us was that GROM was the best overall, but it was close! We saw Michaelangelo's David sculpture, the Uffuzi gallery and the Duomo up close. We also got to spend some time with our good friend Laura Pattillo who is there studying for the summer between college years at Washington & Lee. She took us out for gelato, drinks, etc. and we quite enjoyed hanging out at the more local spots with her and her friends.
After Florence, we headed to Venice, the sinking city of isles. It is stunningly colorful and gorgeous at night especially considering it's age. We didn't plan to do too much here - mostly wandered the city, it's markets and got lost on it's back streets. We made sure to check out St. Mark's Square with it's nightly dueling orchestras, and enjoyed a drink from Rialto Bridge watching the black gondolas silently slip by. Getting lost intentionally among the many bridges and back alleys was the highlight for sure... We hit many dead ends, small residential streets, and found a neat hidden church in the middle of town.
We then headed to the Italian Riviera, among the towns of the Cinque Terre (along the northwest coast of Italy). We were only there for 2 nights, but during our full day we hiked the sometimes rough, but always scenic coastal trails from the town of Levanto (outside the 5 main towns) all the way south to Riomaggiore, about 7 miles total we think. It is a beautiful part of the country and the towns are picturesque coastal towns. We hiked early then relaxed on the rocky beaches, had a few drinks and watched the end of the world cup quarterfinal matches in the afternoon. We collapsed that night after talking to our family via Skype, before a long day of traveling the next day.
Finally, we departed Italy via a train to Milan then a short flight to Barcelona on 4ht of July. We arrived in Spain about 6 days ago, and have enjoyed the Spanish tapas, wine, and culture so far. We toured the FC Barcelona soccer complex and stadium, and had a fresh fruit breakfast, and fresh cheese and dried meat lunch from the large farmers market in town. Our last day in Madrid we went to the Sagrada Familia church (crazy modern architecture by Gaudi), and wandered the main "Ramblas" strip down to the coastline and port.
We spent two days in Sevilla, the first of which was same night as the second world cup semifinal! After Spain defeated Germany, we walked to the main square in town where 1000+ young people were dancing, singing and swimming in the not-so-big fountain in the square. As we walked home, we saw old men (who had been drinking of course) out walking their dogs, still wearing Spain jerseys and singing.... this is 1 in the morning no less! All we could do was laugh and agree with them... "Vamos España!" Our second day in Sevilla, we toured the Royal Palace at Alçaraz, saw the Cathedral, and enjoyed a traditional Flamenco dancing show. We also discovered the joys of cold sangria enjoyed with new friends on a very warm afternoon :) (it has been 95 to 105 degrees every day across Spain for the last week or so... thus we now understand and have adopted the Spanish "siesta" whole-heartedly.)
We arrived in Madrid yesterday, and did a bit of shopping, general errands & those sort of things. We ended our evening with a Spanish bullfight at the so-called "center of Spanish bull fighting", Plaze de Toros de Las Ventas, a 25,000 seat capacity arena on the outskirts of town. It was a novice fight, so the bull fighters were less experienced, and for 2 of them it was their first time performing in the Madrid arena. In fact the most experienced one in terms of fights in Madrid (and our favorite of the three, Miguel de Pablo) is only 17 years old! We waved white hankerchiefs to the Presidente asking him to reward Pablo for his valor in continuing even after getting knocked down by the toro during the final third of the fight. It was more exciting than we first expected as the inexperience of the fighters can lead to more than just the usual "faeda" or series of artistic passes. Two of the fighters were actually injured to varying degrees (Pablo finished his fight, but was later declared not able to continue for his next turn). I have one of them on my camera as well... it was quite an experience and one that we all enjoyed as a cultural experience and spectacle that you can experience in very few places.
[Note: An update on the fighters conditions, not life-threatening at all, and some photos [**one or two are somewhat graphic, beware. no blood though**] from the fight can be found here: http://www.las-ventas.com/ click on the link at the very top which starts with "Vuelta al ruedo para Miguel de Pablo en tarde accidentada; Manuel Larios, herido". You can use this translation website to translate short paragraphs from Spanish to English: http://babelfish.yahoo.com/?fr=bf-res ]
We are looking forward to exploring more of the city today, then going on a tapas tour or pub tour tonight to get a feel for the nightlife. Sunday will be entirely devoted to FUTBOL aka the World Cup final match: Netherlands vs Spain. I personally am quite torn as the Netherlands has been my favorite to win (and whose jersey I desperately want!) since the quarterfinals. However we are in Spain and FC Barcelona is one of my favorite club teams to watch... many of their players are on the Spanish National team. We expect to have a good time no matter what and will wear the Spanish colors of red and blue, hopefully finding a large public viewing spot (public park or square) in which to watch the game. After the post-match celebration (or sadness), we will depart very early to the Madrid airport and catch a quick "Easy Jet" flight to Paris.
During our 3 days in Paris, we will get to experience Bastille Day (their 4th of July equivalent), then depart for the final 4 days in Switzerland where we plan to visit Zermatt for the Matterhorn, Raclette cheese and Swiss chocolate! Then onto Interlaken for some hiking/mountain biking, canyoning and other outdoor adventures. We might possibly visit Jungfrau or Lucerne on our last day there. I can't believe how fast the time has flown, but it has been a great ride so far. Thanks again for all of your emails, notes, and such. We love hearing from everyone ... though we won´t have much time to email you back until we return to the USA, please keep sending them as you wish :P
Hasta luego,
Christina
