Barcelona

We love Barcelona. It is a great city. You must come here and visit. It has everything for everyone. The day we got here we went to our new hostel to check in and drop off our bags and then, since we didn't have anything planned, we headed off to the beach. Since it's close to the ocean, Barcelona feels a lot cooler than Madrid did. The beach was great and relaxing. The next day we went for a 'Ramblas Ramble' where we walked down the historic Ramblas Street.It is filled with flower vendors and animal vendors and people that dress up in crazy outfits and don't move all day or they'll put on a show if put some money in their bucket. When we had lunch, we sat at a square and watched an old man lure in some pidgeons with bread and whack them with his cane (yes, he was in the same spot the next day).

Since the beach is so relaxing, we went to lay out...and then headed out for a night on the town. We went for a walk through the gothic section of town and stopped at places full of sweets (suggested by Rick Steves). We had the best chocolate ever from the oldest chocolate shop in Barcelona. We also had churros that we dipped into a cup of hot chocolate that was really more like hot pudding!! We also tasted this sweet, refreshing drink that was made out of a 'chupa' nut. The drink was chupa nut, sugar and water...very good, though it may not sound appealing.

After the sweet walk, we had dinner and then headed to the beach with ALL OF BARCELONA!! It was the celebration of San Juan (?) and everyone -I mean perhaps a million or more people go to the beach and set off fireworks and celebrate. They are all out there until 6 a.m. or so...people camp out all night long. It was crazy fun!

Not knowing that it was going to be a national holiday, we had planned on going to a couple of musems today but they were all closed. So, we went on another historic walking tour of Barcelona (which was really interesting), did laundry, and went to Montjuic, which is where the Olympic stadium is. We got to go in and see where the games were held and just walk around the park and take it all in. We went up the hill a little farther and saw a castle that was built in the 18th century by the Spanish government to keep an eye on the city and watch out for revolts. The view from here was incredible, as it was atop a cliff.

Well, thats all so far from Barcelona. Tomorrow we leave for the Cinque Terre, and we couldn't be more excited!

Madrid

Over the last 2 days, we´ve been exploring the great town of Madrid. The first thing that surprised us upon arrival into this city was the heat....not that we weren´t expecting it, but it is much more hot in Madrid than it was in Paris or London. Summer baby!

We are staying at a great hostel in the center of the city. We are about a 5 minute walk from the main square, Puerto del Sol. During our time here, we´ve seen a lot of the city. We visited the Prado Art museum, the Royal Palace, and had several a siesta in a great local park. Last night, we did a ¨tapas tango.¨ In Spain, they have these things called ´tapas´...they are little finger foods...a small appetizer. Around 8 p.m., all of Madrid comes out, and begins to hop from place to place to have drinks and tapas. They do this for about 2-3 hours and then proceed to have dinner around 10 or 11. The streets are packed! We had such a blast doing this. Madrid has the best tapas around, apparently. We enjoyed some chorizo, fried shrimp, and a few other local favorites.

Tonight, Mark and I experienced our first, and most likely last, bullfight. We thought, ¨Why not? We´re in Madrid.¨ It was quite the experience. We bought really cheap tickets...around $6 a piece. These got us seats at the top of the stadium with a grand view around the circular stadium. It is really this dramatic event. The matadors process out to a live band... they are all in their fighting get-up, and then it´s fightin´time. Oh man...it is rough to watch, that is all I´m going to say. Pretty brutal, but cultural. We stayed for one fight, which lasted about 20 minutes...hence the cheap tickets...we didn´t plan on staying long. We met a guy from CA who was giving us history on the bullfight...one was enough for us.

Tomorrow, we head to Barcelona. Everyone keeps telling us what a great city it is....we can´t wait. On the 25th, we´ll dive into Italy...until next time...much love!

Paris was grand!

This will be a short post for now...we´ll try and update again soon! Paris truly was an amazing city. Among our many adventures, we had so much fun trying to converse in French. It was almost a daily occurance to sit by a major site (Eiffel Tower, etc.) and share a baguette and a bottle of cheap wine! We loved everything about the city. We did all of the typical ¨touristy¨stuff there was to do - climbed the Eiffel Tower, took and boat cruise down the Seine, saw Notre Dame, Saint Chappele, the Louvre, the Orsay, Sacre Couer Basilica, Napoleon´s tomb, and many other things. We stayed in our first hostel which, despite not much sleep, was very fun. We had several great roommates from all over the world - Scotland, Brazil and the States. We met up with some local Parisians who are co-workers with my uncle Paul. We had an apertif (appetizers) and wine with them, and enjoyed Paris with the great locals! What a trip we´ve had so far. We just arrived in Madrid- we took the overnight train from Paris. We are on our way out to go see the Prado and perhaps a bullfight! We love you all! Thanks for following us in our adventures.

Au Revoir!
Mark and Sarah

LONDON! Wow what a city! Hustling, bustling, and full of energy. We've been having such a great time here. ON our first day here, we went up from our hotel in Victoria and walked to Buckingham Palace - (the TUBE (subway) workers were on stike so it was either take the bus and sit in traffic- so we walked). There was hardly anyone at Buckingham Palace so we just wondered around and went over to Green Park which is adjacent to the palace. I couldn't think of a better way to fight jet lag. We then ventured to our first pub and got a couple of pints and took in a Rugby game with the locals, which was a ton of fun to experience (they get quite into it).
The next day (thursday) we went on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour and saw the town. We drove by were J.K. Rowling lives when she's in town, as well as a host of other amazing places. We went to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone (not the language learning software), along with a bunch of other world history, which was really cool. Then we took a boat tour on the Thymes over to the Tower of London (which we took a tour of on Friday). We then stopped by a grocery store and picked up stuff for a picnic and we then met up with some friends from Denver, who are also traveling over here, for some more pub action.

Today (Friday) was also a busy day. First we took a walking tour to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Taking the tour was WAY better than standing there waiting, by ourselves. If we hadn't of takent the tour, we would have only seen about 5 minutes of the action . On the tour, we saw so much more! Then we went over to the Tower of London for our tour. We had the FUNNIEST 'Beefeatter' tour guide in the world. To become a Tour guide at the tower you have to serve 22 years in the military. It is really a privledge and honor to do this job. He was great, yelling at other people to be quiet that were walking by our tour and just making it really fun and enjoyable. Then we went to Westminster Abbey for their Evensong service which was AMAZING (it's £15 each to take the tour of the Abbey but the service at 5 p.m. is free). We heard a great choir sing (which Sarah loved) and we saw where Issac Newton is burried.
It's been a great trip so far, we'll update again soon.
Cheers from London!

p.s. don't forget to mind the gap! (what they always say when getting on/off of the tube)

Off we go!!!

Hey all!

On Tuesday, Mark and I will be heading off to our 6 week tour of Europe. We are excited beyond belief!! We've been doing a lot of planning and packing, and we are excited to see what Europe has in store for us!

We hope that you enjoy following us along our adventures.

Ciao!

The Finchies