Sunday, August 22, 2010

A trip to spain...




Albeit a bit later than planned, here's a whistle-stop of our recent trip. First stop the Costa Brava, and...

...our villa, complete with bougainvillea and swimming pool. Our days were spent swimming, lying in the sun, reading, lying in the sun, swimming, and...
...exploring the region's incredibly ancient villages and towns...
The very pretty Besalu even had an impressive miniatures museum. After a wonderful week exploring, and doing lots of nothing-much-at-all, it was time to drive to...
...Barcelona, where we successfully negotiated the downtown traffic and made it to our fab hotel with only one wrong turn! A new town meant copious map-reading for Mu, and copious photographing for Turtle.
We took a bus tour of the city (in the scorching heat), and viewed the Sagrada Familia complete with cranes...
...strolled Park Guell (in increasingly searing heat)...
...we spent hours exploring the narrow streets, and viewed art installations...
...discovered many a shop with wonderfully intricate interiors, and found (according to the boys) the world's largest meringues...
...we viewed Gaudi's buildings, discovered ornate entrances...
...embraced the concept of siestas and tapas, and...
...the boys waited patiently while we shopped. We visited the..
...L'aquarium Barcelona, complete with an underwater walk-way and impressive hands-on displays. Then before we knew it... 
...it was time to say adiĆ³s and head back to Portland.
For more photos hop over here or here.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Personalised metro maps...

Travelling with 'map-mad boys' comes in very handy. Less than 24 hours after arriving in Paris we were being 'guided' to each 'destination' by the boys and their 'destination-specific' maps. Initially, the maps were rather basic (see above), but it wasn't long before they became more complex (see below)...
...before morphing into full-blown concertinaed versions, with logos! Note the smiley face on the 'stylised' Eiffel Tower.

A trip to Paris...

First stop Chicago, where we used up the four hour layover riding the subway.
Next stop, Paris! While there we explored the Jardins du Palais Royal...
...rode the (uber-efficient) metro...
...Turtle photographed everything in site & Mu developed a taste for limonade...
...we visited the Arc de Triomphe & ate macaroons from Laudree...
...viewed the Louvre & the Mona Lisa, & took time out in the Jardin des Tuileries... 
...and we scaled the Eiffel Tower (in the rain), before...
...collapsing into bed with a dolphin, Cushie, and a bear wearing headphones and an iPod.
More photos here.