Catching Up

Castle in Toledo as the sun was setting. You may not be able to tell from this photo, but that is Mick Jagger in black, waving at the crowd. Closest we will ever be to the Stones.

Crowded beach in San Sebastian. This is what happens when the sun comes out after several days of clouds/rain.

Hazen's first attempt at surfing. He looks happy because he hasn't gotten in the water yet. Later he was disappointed that the topless girl in the background had her arms up.

Unfortunately we saw our first non-woman nudies. For some reason Aub picked a spot right next to them.

Cathedral in San Sebastian at night.

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. We didn't go in, not into modern art.

Versailles Palace just outside of Paris. It was too big to fit all in one picture.

Notre Dame Cathedral. We didn't see the hunchback.

Found the hunchback, or maybe the gargoyle.

The Louvre. What a beautiful place.

Hazen's impersonation of the Eiffel Tower.
Getting artsy with the pictures. Had to try out the black/white.

We have been pretty busy lately. Since our last post we have been to Toledo, San Sebastian, and Bilbao in Spain and Paris, France.

Toledo was a nice little town close to Madrid. We went to a museum that housed several El Greco paintings. He is a great religious artist, painting in bright colors and elongating heavenly figures. We visited a couple different churches, one that had the tomb of the Count of Orgaz. El Greco was brought in to do a painting on the church wall to capture the events of the Count's death. It was a masterpiece that made this small church worth seeing.

Our next destination was San Sebastion, a small coastal town in norther Spain. We were especially excited for this stop on our trip since it was one of Hazen's dad's favorite spots when he visited Spain several years ago. Arriving in the area it was clear to see why. There was so much green! It was not like any other part of Spain we have seen. It was almost like being home. There were several beautiful beaches that we did get to enjoy for a short period of time while the sun was out. The beaches on one side of the river were for swimming and the beach on the other side was for surfing. Of course Hazen had to try it out. He "learned" to surf from watching the travel channel. Turns out he could have used a few more lessons. He decided to stay close to the beach since the guy at the rental shop said that the rip tide was bad and would take him out to sea in a hurry. That might have been his mistake since he was right at the place where all the waves were crashing. He took wave after wave in the face about every 10 seconds. He was completely exhausted and his head was throbbing after an hour and he rented the board for 2 hours. Took the rest of the day pretty easy. It was only a couple days later when the sun was out again that he thought he needed to try it again. He must have learned from his mistakes because it went much better and was even able to ride a couple waves.

We did a day trip from San Sebastian to Bilbao. We weren't there very long but did a nice walk around town. Tried to use a bathroom next to the Guggenheim but I think the bathroom used us. Hazen walked in to a blast of water in the face as the bathroom was cleaning itself off. Stupid high-tech toilets.

We took another night train that was from San Sebastian to Paris. This one turned out to be much better than the last, and we didn't even have to pay the higher price for first class. The seats actually leaned back and there was a foot rest that raised up. We got much better sleep than on the previous train. We could tell this by how tired we were the next day. We didn't feel the need for the 3 hour nap when we arrived as we did the last time.

Paris has been wonderful. What a beautiful city. We had been told by other travelers that it was very dirty and they didn't enjoy it much. Our expectations weren't very high which may be why they have been exceeded. The Eiffel Tower is HUGE! You can see it in the distance anywhere you go. Until you have to walk to it, you don't realize how far away it is. It takes forever to get there when it looks like it's right in front of you. The Notre Dame Cathedral had a very intersting exterior. The spire on the cathedral we learned was added much later and didn't seem to fit with the rest. Versailles was everything we imagined, plus way too many tourists. We originally planned to go inside the Louvre but decided we weren't big enough fans of art to appreciate it.

We had a very hard time trying to find a place to stay in Paris. We finally found a hostel that looked like it was further out of town but still accessed by the metro. We were sold. When we arrived we found out we had to first figure out the metro system (google the Paris Metro and see what we mean) and then try to find our hostel without a map. We were able to find a bus stop with a map and were on our way. When we arrived we realized there was definately something different. It turns out we are staying at a Korean hostel. Last night there was a Korean from Virginia Tech who spoke english but he is gone now. Basically we are the only ones who speak English. Luckily we are able to still communicate a little as a few people know some English words. Breakfast and dinner is included here and it is ALL Korean. We are not really use to eating so much rice; even for breakfast. Hazen has spent most of the evening with a group of guys his age trying to learn Korean and Japanese drinking customs. Very elaborate and they are quick to correct him. The drink of the evening is Soju a traditional rice liqueor in Korea. Definately a unique experience that we were not expecting.

We will be up early tomorrow to head to the beaches of Normandy. There will be a small train ride to the town of Bayeux, followed by a bus out to the beaches. The following day will be a long train ride to Munich, Germany. We can't wait for the beer(mostly Hazen) and brats. Hazen's quote was "Germany without beer is like ". Our friend Katrina from Bellingham will be in Munich at the same time and we will hopefully be meeting up with her. We can't wait to see a familiar face. So on that note, we still have plenty of trip ahead of us if you have decided you can't stay away from us and want to meet us over here somewhere. We would love it.