Tobin Family Sabbatical

The Last Morning of the Last Day

2010-06-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

We've known it was coming for a while, but I am nonetheless surprised to find that it is the last day of our family sabbatical. Tomorrow, we board the plane for Washington DC, and on Tuesday we will be back home in Santa Cruz. We've enjoyed our short time in London, doing the best that four weary travelers can do with a city that is big, loud, full of people, and overloaded with attractions. We've done a walking tour and hit all the main sights, had the Tower of London Experience (i.e. the visit that costs 50 pounds), visited Hamley's Toy store (our first stop, in fact, at Jonah's urging--and, yes, it met all of his expectations), and seen two shows, the wonderful, engaging Billy Elliot, and the longest-running show in London, The Mousetrap. These were perfect choices for our family. Billy Elliot has a great story, an amazing cast of actors, singers and dancers, and a feel-good message that keeps you smiling as you walk out the door after the upbeat finale. I have always been a fan of musicals and this ranks right up there as one of my all time favorites. The Mousetrap is a fun and surprising murder mystery, which we all really enjoyed from our second row seats. Great ways to wrap up our adventure. There is so much more to do and see here. London is definitely on my list of places to return to. As for photos from this part of our trip, I know we have some, but they have yet to be downloaded. I will try to add some over the coming days, for those of you who are still interested.

Today, we will do a little shopping, visit the British Museum, and enjoy the beautiful weather (yes, we FINALLY got some!) as we wander around the city. Tomorrow, as our plane lifts off from Heathrow Airport, we will carry with us not only 5 worn and heavy pieces of luggage, but 5 months of amazing stories and memories, and four full and very happy hearts. Thanks for following us. We will see you soon!!

Forty Shades of Green

2010-06-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

As we near the end of our adventure, we're slowing down a bit on the sightseeing. However, during the week we've been in Ireland, we've already driven over 1000 kilometers (on the left side of the road, I might add), so maybe we haven't slowed down that much. After our overnight ferry crossing from France, we started our Irish tour with a visit to the Blarney Stone to get the gift of gab. Jonah was hoping this would enable him to talk his way out of his remaining school work. Unfortunately for him, I kissed the stone too, so I was able to talk him right back into it.

Jonah does his part to try to get the gift of gab

From Blarney Castle, we proceeded to Callan, the ancestral Tobin town. After all the old bridges, churches and towns we've seen in our nearly 5 months of traveling, it was a different experience to see some with a real family connection and to know that our kids' ancestors walked these same roads.

The ruins of the old cathedral in Callan and the bridge that still spans the river today.

We've since driven both the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula loop, and thanks to Rick, we were able to avoid chains of massive tour busses on the narrow, winding roads. Did I mention that I'm driving on the left side? We visited the Rock of Cashel, a number of stone ring forts, the Cliffs of Moher, and the Burren--several quintessential Irish sites. The weather has been a bit cool and quite windy, and, of course, we've had some rain, but the landscapes are magnificent. The hills truly are, as Johnny Cash said, 40 shades of green.

The Rock of Cashel

Ring fort on a rainy day Just a few of the 40 shades

Cliffs of Moher

In addition to our sightseeing and learning about Irish history, we have picked up a new pasttime--pitch and putt. I'm not sure if this is something that exists in the US, but I think it may be the equivalent of par-3 golfing (well, not for us . . . ). This has been an interesting and humbling activity, but the scenery is fabulous!

This week, we will drive across Ireland and end our time here with three days in Dublin. Then, it's on to London for 5 days, and back home, via Washington DC, where we will spend a long weekend visiting with Tom's family. As the end of our trip draws near, we find ourselves thinking of our lives at home--our friends, our home, our cat, our legos. We are excited to be reunited with the people and things we have missed, although it's hard to imagine the end of our adventure. Jonah and Sierra are both working on writing their reflections on our experiences (OK, it's not a voluntary activity, but they're reflecting nonetheless). Perhaps some day I will have my own reflections to share. For now, I think I'm blogged out! However, as Tom noted, a picture is worth a thousand words (or at least 5 megabytes), so I will try to keep posting some of those until the trip is done. Thanks to those of you who have followed along over these months. It's been fun sharing our stories and knowing that there are actually a few people out there who want to read them. We love you all and look forward to sharing more stories, and slideshows (short, I promise!) upon our return.

The Pull of the Moon

2010-06-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

Our last two days in France were spent in Loquirec and Roscoff, on the northern coast. We were SO thankful finally to experience some nice weather. Sunny skies and warm breezes have done wonders for my spirit after the weeks of cold and rain. Along with the beautiful weather, we enjoyed some down time and relaxation, before heading off to Ireland on the overnight ferry. We had a picnic lunch and took a nice hike along a point covered in pink granite rocks in all sorts of interesting formations.

Later, we returned to the beach across the street from the B&B where we stayed. The tidal changes here are incredible. There is at least a half mile difference in the shoreline here between high tide and low. All the boats that are floating in the water at high tide are left stranded on the beach at low tide, hopelessly leaning on their sides. We saw a dramatic demonstration of the tidal changes when we took a short ferry out to an island off of Roscoff. We boarded at the pier where the cars parked, noticing as we left a very long bridge that went from the pier into the water. The bridge to nowhere! When we returned to Roscoff, the purpose of the bridge became obvious, as our ferry motored up to the end of it and let the passengers off. It is hard to really capture it in photos, but here are a few examples.

Medium tide The same spot at low tide Part of the bridge

A Firsthand View of American History

2010-06-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

This week, between Memorial Day and D-Day, we visited several WWII sites during our time in the Normandy region of France. The kids have not studied this war very much in school, so we welcomed this opportunity to give them some information and perspective on this landmark event in US and world history. Here in Normandy, the focus, understandably, is on D-Day and the Normandy invasion, certainly a turning point in the war. Without a firm foundation on the war, the kids were a bit adrift during our visit to the Normandy Battle Museum in Bayeux. Fortunately, in their bookstore we found a primer on WWII, which we purchased on the spot and read in our car during one of the many rainy intervals that day. Yes, it was still raining.

Newly armed with a little perspective on the war, the next day (sunny!) we headed out to visit Omaha Beach, the American cemetary, and Pointe du Hoc. While our visit to Omaha beach was relatively benign (it looks a bit like Manresa--a long, wide, beautiful stretch of sand and sea), the subsequent visits were quite sobering and truly brought the horrors of war to life for our family. The American cemetary, with its visitors' center and somber, orderly, expansive grounds, is a profoundly moving place. The film of several soldiers' surviving relatives recounting the lives of their loved ones before they were prematurely ended by the war brought me to tears. Even having seen the bird's eye view of the cemetary grounds in that film, I still felt a catch in my throat as I came over the ridge and saw the sea of simple white crosses covering the acres of perfectly manicured green grass. Anyone who is not affected by the news of war casualties should spend an hour walking through one of the many spots that mark the final resting place of those who served and made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. As we left the cemetary that day, our drive was marked by the most prolonged and profound silence that we have had in our 5 weeks of driving through France.

Omaha Beach

A small slice of the American Cemetary at Bayeux, where over 9000 American soldiers who participated in the D-Day invasion were buried.

After leaving the cemetary, we drove to Pointe du Hoc, where the American forces first attacked on D-day. This strategic location that was so key to the Allied success in that operation has been maintained in much the same condition as it was following the attack. The area is riddled with bomb craters, destroyed bunkers, and rusty barbed wire, which all serve to make the destruction wrought by war even more clear. After these experiences, I believe our kids will have a more empathetic and visceral understanding of US history and the realities of war.

Pointe du Hoc bomb craters

Obelisks

2010-05-31T00:33:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that obelisks aren't just in Egypt they are also in (top to bottom) Italy (2nd pic ) and France (3rd pic) the fist pic is in Egypt. The Italy one is stolen and the France one was a gift. By Jonah

Stalactites, castles, and Paris

2010-05-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

Normally, on an afternoon as lovely as this in Paris in May, we would all be out enjoying the sights and sounds of this great city. Sadly, however, both Sierra and I have been struck by a rather nasty cold and here we sit, in our cozy apartment on our computers. We did manage to rally this morning and climb up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower, then take the elevator to the top (and both of us were VERY thankful that the only way to the top is via that elevator), but an afternoon outing was a bit more than we could handle. Believe it or not, it is actually quite hot here today, so Tom and Jonah headed out to the science museum and we're sure they'll survive without us for a little while.

Before arriving in Paris on Saturday afternoon, we had a couple of fascinating experiences that I would highly recommend to any family traveling to France. The first one, last Thursday, was a visit to the Gouffre de Padirac, in Rocamadour. In contrast to the Lascaux-style cave-drawing caves, this is a stalactite/stalagmite cave--one of epic proportions. I have never been in a cave of this sort (the one we visited in the Sierras with our friends several years ago was nothing like this), and I must say it was breathtaking. We made our descent on stairs through the massive hole in the ground, to a depth of 103 meters, and onto the path running through the cave. After walking several hundred meters and enjoying the already amazing sights, we reached the spot where the cave river demands that visitors are ferried along, gondolier-style, to the other side. We enjoyed this part very much, although even a non-French speaker such as myself was able to interpret that our French speaking guide made the exact same jokes on the way in and out. Once on the shore at the other side, we followed our tour guide as we marveled at the vast open space, clear, beautiful river and ponds, water and lime-made natural dams and waterfalls, and stalactites of every shape and size. The only disappointment about this visit is that they do not allow photographs to be taken inside the cave. If they did, I imagine Sierra might still be in there. We had to get some photos off the web just to show a glimpse of the experience we had (it's not actually us in that photo, but you get the idea).

Our other unusual and very interesting experience before arriving in Paris, was our visit to Guedelon, a medieval-style castle being built right now almost entirely using 13th century building techniques. Begun in the late 90's by a dedicated team of enthusiasts, this castle will be completed over a 25-year time frame, providing jobs for 50 people, and an educational experience for thousands. It is fascinating to see the work being done and to try to imagine what life was like hundreds of years ago when the considerations that go into the construction were matters of life and death, not simply issues of historical accuracy. If you don't think you'll be able to make it there in person, I recommend checking out the website, which has lots of great photos and information: www.guedelon.org. Very cool place.

Despite our sickness, we have managed to hit the top three sites in Paris so far, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and Luxembourg Gardens. We have strolled the streets and found our favorite local patisserie (very important). We have lots more on our list--too much, in fact, to complete in the few days we have left--and we hope that the weather and our bodies will cooperate so that we can enjoy the many opportunities this city has to offer.

Provence, Toulouse, and the Dordogne

2010-05-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. Can I really fit all three of these regions into a single blog post? I think I will need to be concise, as I have obviously fallen behind in the last two weeks. The schedule is so packed, it's hard to keep up!

For those of you following our weather woes, I am sorry to say that they continued relentlessly until about two days ago. Rain, hail, thunder, lightning, wind, and cold weather. Many, many dark threatening clouds on a daily basis. NOT what we were expecting from the first 17 days of May. However, I am happy to say that things seem to be improving! Today, it is actually warm and sunny, as it was yesterday. Monday wasn't so bad either. Not particularly warm, but it didn't rain. Perhaps there is hope for May yet. Of course, once the warm spring weather is here to stay, we'll be on our way to the rain and cold of Ireland. Sigh.

In the last 11 days, we have visited all of the following places: Mougins, St. Paul de Vence, Gourdon, Grand Canyon du Verdon, Augines, Rustrel, Rousillon, Buoux, St. Remy, Arles, Les Baux, Nimes, Escalquens (small suburb of Toulouse where we spent a wonderful weekend with our friends the Alberts), La Roque Gageac, and Les Eyzies, plus the town where we are currently staying, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Would you like to hear a little bit about each of those places? I didn't think so. Suffice it to say that we have seen: tons of fabulous scenery, many castles (both free standing and built into hillsides), old forts, quaint old walled cities, ocre cliffs, the monastery where Van Gogh painted many of his finest works, many ancient Roman ruins, good friends who we don't get to see nearly often enough, a park with life-sized scenes from prehistoric life, and prehistoric caves (both real and extremely well reproduced).

We have hiked a lot, gone canoeing twice, shopped, played petanque and volleyball, taken many pictures, run through several rain storms, seen a falconry show, launched a trebuchet (Jonah), had lunch in a creperie populated entirely by Rick readers, visited museums, and, well, you get the idea . . ..

That "super short" slide show I've been trying to create of our whole trip just gets longer and longer. Maybe I shouldn't mention that. I don't want to deter anyone from wanting to spend time with us when we return home. Here are a very few of the hundreds of photos of the last 11 days.

Just a couple of the many beautiful sights in the Grand Canyon du Verdon.

Paddling our way from the crystal clear lake to the Verdun River

The remains of the chapel at Fort de Boux Jonah prepares to launch the trebuchet

Roman ruins in Nimes Our wonderful friends, the Alberts

The Pont de Gard

On Saturday, we head to Paris, where we will spend one week. Then, we have one more week in France before we leave for two weeks in Ireland and five days in London. Our adventure is going to be over before we know it!

The Cote d'Azur

2010-05-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

This week on the French Riviera has been full of amazing sights and scenery. So many sights and so much scenery, in fact, that I already have trouble keeping it all straight as I flip through the photos of our adventures (quite an old-fashioned image that conjures up, huh?). Over the past week, we have visited Nice, Ile Sainte Marguerite, Antibes, Cap d'Antibes, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Cap Ferrat, Eze, and La Turbie. Thanks to Tom and Rick, we've enjoyed many beautiful hikes, charming towns, crashing waves, awesome museums, and late, late lunches (OK, we didn't exactly plan it that way, but with all the sights and scenery, lunch usually didn't happen before 3:00).

We saw two of our favorite museums of the entire trip this week, the Picasso Museum in Antibes, and the Chagall Museum in Nice. The visits to these museums inspired artistic musings in all of us. It remains to be seen if those inspirations will ever translate to canvas, but it's nice to dream. As Chagall said, "In art as well as in life, anything is possible, provided there is love." Luckily, we have a lot of love, because some of us (Lauren and Tom in particular) will really need it if we're going to create some art.

This morning, we leave for the Grand Canyon du Verdun, where we will enjoy some hiking and green space. Hopefully, we won't be enjoying any snow, but with the weather as it's been, it is hard to predict. Our next two weeks will find us moving around quite a bit, seeing many sights, visiting some old friends in Toulouse, making our way to Paris. Internet availability will be spotty, but we will post when we can! In the meantime, here are some photos of our adventures over the last week.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

2010-05-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

These following images are LOST IN TRANSLATION some are better than others

This is a post by JONAH

A Tale of Two Cities

2010-05-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the preparations for the film festival. It was the recovery from the tempest of 2010.

Both Cannes and Nice are in utter states of disrepair right now. Walk along either the Croisette in Cannes or the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, and all you see are construction vehicles, cranes, piles of wood, dirt and sand, and swarms of people furiously working. In Cannes, the frenzy is driven by the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, which starts in less than a week. Stages and platforms and tents are going up on every possible inch of real estate to accommodate the movie stars, producers, directors, fans, and paparazzi. Movie posters are being hoisted onto the facades of luxury hotels. Fancy cars line the streets. Every person with blonde hair, expensive clothes, high heels, and sunglasses could be a movie star. OK, so that's every person here, but still . . .

In Nice, on the rocky shore of the Mediterranean just 34 km to the east, the workers are in recovery mode. The storm earlier this week left a path of destruction all the way up the beach, over the railing, and onto the Promenade and the street, decimating the many restaurants housed along the shore beneath the Promenade. The people cleaning up from the storm are literally tossing chairs, tables, awnings, and heavy equipment into huge piles of rubbish destined to be carted away by cranes and dump trucks. The national guard is out, entire sections of railing have been removed, and the mood is quite somber. The shore of this city stands as a stark reminder of the power of the ocean and the havoc it can wreak.

Never mind what I said about May . . .

2010-05-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

We awoke again this morning to the drum of rain on the roof and skylights. It has rained more in the last three days than in the entire rest of our trip (not that I'm complaining . . .). Some of you may recall that I said, on more than one occasion, that "you'd want to be everywhere in May." Well, I suppose this is what I get for dissing all of those other months. OK, February, March, April, and June, I'm sorry. You can stop punishing me now. I love you all too. You're fantastic. Way better than May, in fact.

We thought, here in Cannes, that we'd be warming up the paparazzi and autograph hounds for the film festival and dining on ocean-view terraces in the waning hours of the warm, sultry evenings. Instead, we found ourselves hunkered down in a traditional Swiss restaurant the other night, eating fondue and raclette. Quite an experience for all of us. I'm sure our faces were amusing to see when they brought the half wheel of cheese over and hooked it up to that ancient work lamp. Jonah voted this his second best dinner of the entire trip, after, of course, the insane pasta in Chamonix.

During the few breaks in the rainy weather, we have made the effort to get out and be seen on the Croisette, hobnobbing with the movie stars, you know, the usual pre-festival activities. It was great seeing George especially--it's been such a long time. He's looking as good as ever. We haven't had the chance to catch up with Brad and Angie yet, but we're hoping to do lunch with them before we head out of town.

George always seems much taller on screen. In fact, he's just an inch or so taller than Jonah.

I'm still not sure how Sierra fit those boots into her small suitcase.

Jonah was so happy to see his bud Chewie again! It seems like it's been light years.

Tour de France

2010-05-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

We've been gone from Barcelona for less than a week and have already done so much I can't keep track of it all. Right now we are in Cannes and it is raining, providing a little break for some blogging! I hope everyone caught Jonah's post. After he posted it, he got caught up reading through my earlier posts. It made me smile to hear him laugh several times. And, it seems to have inspired him, as he says he plans to post something else soon.

Thanks to Tom's careful planning, our own tour de France is off and running. Before it officially kicked off, we did get the chance to see the Dali Museum in Figures, Spain, which was quite a wild adventure. We also spent a night in the lovely coastal town of Roses, where we even got to play some beach volleyball on a court with a net! Very exciting for the volleyball fans in the family (3 out of 4--Jonah did reluctantly play along, however. He's working on his sets).

Our own Mr. Yellow, enjoying the beautiful beach in Roses.

One of Dali's grand projects, viewed through the special viewer at the top of a very strange staircase.

After leaving Roses, we drove into France, where Sierra and I were relived of the job of family communicators/interpreters (a job for which we are both fairly ill-equipped---especially me), and Tom, the fluent French speaker, took over. I'm fairly confident now that we won't run into another situation where I think the guy just told me a table will be available in about 5 minutes, when, in reality, he told me that all the tables are reserved and they probably can't accommodate us. Our first stop in France was La Ciotat, on the Mediterranean coast. After being Rick-less (Rick Steves, that is) during most of our time in Barcelona, we are happy to be carrying his book again to guide us in our travels. La Ciotat, unfortunately, was not Rickommended. However, because we had trouble finding a place in the nearby city of Cassis, which he loves, we had to settle for sleeping in La Ciotat and taking a day trip to Cassis. We agree with Rick that Cassis has far more charm than La Ciotat and we enjoyed our day there immensely. The drive over along La Route des Cretes was magnificent and would have been enough to keep us happy for the whole day.

Once in Cassis, however, things did not start out so well. As we arrived in town, we remembered that it was market day, which made parking nearly impossible. After nearly getting our new leased car wedged in a crowded parking lot, and failing at another effort to secure a spot when a flock of angry French drivers were barreling down on us, we finally found a temporary home for our little Peugeot. I was sweating and grumpy after that, and may have even spoken a non-blog-appropriate word or two. Luckily, we found a delicious lunch at the market and I had pretty much recovered by the time we finished enjoying our picnic on the beach.

We then headed over to our primary destination in Cassis, the calanques. For those of you unfamiliar with the term (as all of us were prior to this trip), calanques are Mediterranean fjords formed, in part, by the movement of glaciers. Rick promised that we'd find the hike along the calanques breathtaking, and he was right. The water was many incredible shades of blue and green, the flowers were in full bloom, and the rain showers that threatened to dampen our fun dissipated just as we set out on our hike (after a 10 minute interlude in our car to allow a small squall to pass). Enjoy these amazing photos by Sierra for a little taste of the beauty of our walk.

That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned for the next leg of our Tour de France, coming soon!

This is for you David Tobin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-05-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hello peeps these are cute animals from Greece.
The first one is a donkey from the island of Kea.
The second one is a kitty from Porto Fira Suites in Santorini
The third one is a dog from somewhere in Santorini.
The last one is a puppy from Santorini, there was a brown one too but my picture was blurry. It ran away before I could get a good picture. By Jonah Tobin

P.S. sorry about the blank space on the right, blogs do weird things.
P.P.S. This is for you too Mimi.

Saying goodbye to Barcelona

2010-04-27T03:57:00.000-07:00

Today is our last day in Barcelona. We have had a fabulous time here and there is much we will miss (and a few things we won't). The casual, easy-going way here suits us all very well. There has been lots to see and do, and we have many highlights from our time here (and about 2167 photos--thanks Sierra and Jonah!).

Sierra has enjoyed having her people take care of her.

Some days, Barcelona looks a lot like Santa Cruz.

We've been going at a slower pace the last week or so, enjoying the good weather and lots of time on the beach. Much more, in fact, than we ever spend as a family while we are at home in Santa Cruz. Funny how that works. Living in the city for 8 weeks (first Florence, now here) has been fun and easy, but we are looking forward to a more peaceful (and hopefully less smoky) stay in our travels through mostly smaller towns in France.

Sierra gives some volleyball coaching to her somewhat reluctant student, Jonah.

Here, in no particular order, are some of our favorite things from our time in Barcelona:

Picasso Museum (don't trust any guidebooks that say it's somewhat disappointing--we all loved it--especially his many riffs on Velazquez's Las Meninas)
manchego cheese
La Boqueria
the many gardens of Montjuic
Miro Museum
anything and everything Gaudi, especially Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, and Casa Batllo
OK, and La Pedrera too--what can we say, we love Gaudi!
playing volleyball on the beach

tapas (well, two of us loved them, one of us didn't care as long as they had cheese, and one of us did not like them because he never got enough food)
El Born
the clean and efficient metro
Las Caracoles
all the action and activity outside our door (except at 2 a.m.)
the abundant blue and green sea glass on the Barceloneta beaches
the fountain show at Font Majica

El Vaso de Oro
morning bike rides up to Montjuic (you've just read Tom's contribution to the blog)
Spanish classes at Enforex
churros y chocolate

While we are traveling in France, there will be either more posts to the blog, because there will be so much more to share (thanks to Tom's amazing and exhaustive trip planning), or fewer because of less access to the computers and/or the internet. However, I can guarantee that there will be at least one blog post from someone other than me (I know, you're thinking "finally!"), because Jonah wants to please his big cousin David and his Mimi, both of whom wondered why he hadn't posted anything. And once Jonah posts something, Sierra will undoubtedly want to chime in as well, right Sierra?

Lots of sun in Barcelona--finally!

2010-04-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

I am thankful to report that we are finally experiencing some of the weather we anticipated in Barcelona--warm and sunny.

Tom shows us how he feels about the change in the weather.

Last week was quite cool, drizzly and dreary. Luckily for us, the timing was fairly good, as Sierra and I were in Spanish classes all week, and Tom was toiling away vigorously on trip planning for the balance of our trip after Barcelona. Jonah got lots of school work done and enjoyed several visits with his good friend Keith, who was here in town with his family for the week.

The awesome Spanish student. No basico for her!

Having not taken classes in . . . ahem . . . many years, I wasn't sure how it would go being a student of Spanish. However, I really enjoyed my time at Enforex language school, and Sierra did as well. She, of course, was several levels above me, but each of us felt that we learned quite a bit, and we were especially appreciative of the opportunity to practice speaking Spanish. The week was intense, with classes for 5 full hours each day, but rewarding. We actually considered signing up for another week, but decided that there were too many other things we wanted to do before we leave Barcelona the middle of next week. Now, looking at the beautiful day and great forecast for the week, I think we made the right decision. We wouldn't want to be suffering spring fever after only a week of school.

The middle of this past week also marked the middle of our sabbatical. It's hard to believe we are now more than halfway through our adventure. We have seen and done so much in the last 2 1/2 months, and have so much more to see and do in the 2 1/2 months that remain. We've had a couple of very minor hitches here and there, but overall, I think we can all agree that it has been an amazingly wonderful experience so far, allowing us to experience so many different places and cultures and to enjoy a level of family togetherness that is so elusive at home.

And, having said all that, Tom and I are going on a date tonight and Jonah is as excited about that as a kid on Christmas.

The view from our balcony yesterday morning during the Curso Bombers 2010. That was one huge road race!

The beautiful sights at one of the many amazing gardens at Montjuic.

Gaudi and Grandparents

2010-04-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

We had a great time this past week with my mom and step-dad in town. The first couple of days were pretty low-key as they adjusted to the time change. We visited Montjuic, including the castle at the peak and took in the fabulous views. We also went to the Chocolate Museum, and everyone enjoyed eating their "tickets" for dessert that evening. We had to abandon our plans to go to the Picasso Museum when we realized that "free first Sunday" equals line lasting for many blocks. We finished that day, Easter Sunday, with a Catelonian tradition, La Mona--a cake traditionally given to a god-child by his or her god-father on Easter All agreed that la mona looked much tastier than it was.

Tom and Poppy proudly display La Mona that they hunted down after a vigorous search.

After that, it was a veritable Gaudi-fest! For those of you unfamiliar with this icon of Catelonian architecture, Gaudi was the prolific leader of the Modernism movement in Barcelona. His most famous and recognizable work is La Sagrada Familia, which consumed Gaudi in the final years of his life and remains unfinished to this day, over 100 years after it was begun. You may have seen photos of it and heard it referred to as the "drip castle," which seems apropos from the outside.

Once inside, we were captivated by the posts and ceiling, mimicking a forest of palm trees, and the colorful and geometric stained glass windows. Even more fascinating than the cathedral itself (which will be a sight to behold when it is finished in 30 years, and I plan to see it in person), was the exhibit on Gaudi's philosophy of how architecture must relate to the natural world in all its elements. His work is certainly crazy to look at, but he clearly was a genius in his understanding and application of science, nature and math to his projects.

We continued to marvel at Gaudi creations over the next few days, including La Pedrera, an enormous wavy structure originally built as an apartment and office building, and Palau Guell and Park Guell, both of which were commissioned and funded by Gaudi's primary benefactor, Eusebi Guell.

While we loved La Pedrera, especially its undulating roofline covered with human looking towers, Park Guell was our favorite spot of all, with meandering paths, aqueduct-style ramps replete with cozy sitting spots, the large open gathering space upheld by a forest of palm-like columns, and the gingerbread-looking castles and mosaic dragon at the entry.

Our wonderful time together this week flew by much too fast and we are now suffering grandparent withdrawal! The coming week will be light on blog posts (unless I add some more pictures from last week), as Sierra and I will be spending 5 hours each day in Spanish classes! Ack! It's been many years since I've been in school and estoy un poquito nerviosa!

One of the amazing views from Park Guell

2010-04-03T00:49:00.000-07:00

The weather in Barcelona has been beautiful so far and we've enjoyed several walks and runs along the beachfront. While our apartment has some quirks (more on that in a moment), it does have a fantastic location, right across the street from Port Vell and La Rambla del Mar, shown in this photo:

It's a ten minute walk to the beach, and there's always plenty to see along the way, including various street performers, impromptu concerts, and the same guys selling knock-off Gucci and Prada bags that we saw in Florence, and Rome, and Athens. Do you think they're following us?

The thing Tom has been missing the most on this trip has been his bike. Now that we're in one place for several weeks and the weather is warming up, he decided to buy one for our stay in Barcelona. He started with Craigslist, but that didn't quite work out--and none of us were that surprised when the guy with the black bike for 45 euros didn't show up to meet Tom on the Ramblas at 9 p.m. the other night (but we were all very thankful he didn't get mugged). So, we headed out to the Diagonal Mar mall, where we got Tom a lovely orange bicycle for a birthday present.

It matches the few throw pillows and the lampshade over the table in our otherwise very somberly decorated apartment, so we're thinking of setting it up in the living room to provide a splash of color.

Speaking of color, we had a chance to visit Mercat de La Boqueria the other day, and we found one of our hometown favorites, padron peppers!! Despite the teeming crowds of tourists, I'm sure you could hear our squeals of excitement several stalls away. Although they can't possibly be as delicious as those grown by James and Heather, we are still happy for this little taste of home.

La Boqueria is an amazing place to visit, even if to just gaze at the rainbow of color laid out before you around every corner.

Back to the quirky apartment mentioned earlier. We were so excited when my mom and step-dad, Jim (lovingly referred to as Poppy by kids and adults alike), joined us yesterday, and we have lots of fun things planned for our week with them. However, we were a bit concerned that all plans would have to be abandoned when Poppy became trapped in the bathroom yesterday afternoon.

Mom and Poppy arrived at around 11 a.m., after having flown through the night from New Jersey, and they made a valiant effort to stay awake and lively in the face of overwhelming exhaustion. Finally, they succumbed and took a short nap late in the afternoon. Mom popped up after 20 minutes, took a shower, and joined us in the living room, looking lovely and refreshed. Poppy took his turn in the shower next. As the rest of us were happily chatting away, we were suddenly assaulted by the sound of furious jiggling of a door handle, followed by loud pounding. Now, you might think we'd be surprised by this, but it was actually quite a familiar sound. You see, this same problem had happened to Jonah several times in this particular bathroom. In Jonah's case, it the jiggling and pounding would typically be followed by yelling and screaming. Luckily, Poppy didn't get to that level.

It seems that there is some misalignment or catch in the hardware that occasionally makes it very difficult to open the door. We sent Jonah down the hall to tell Poppy the trick about how to get the door open--just push it very hard while simultaneously turning the handle. This trick has worked for Jonah every time, but Poppy did not experience the same results. After about 2 minutes, Jonah said "well, I guess it's not working" and returned to his computer game, leaving Poppy stuck in the bathroom. Fortunately, the rest of us had a bit higher level of concern about Poppy's predicament, so we sent Tom down the hall to get him out. After 5 minutes of jiggling and pulling, they decided they needed another strategy. Tom got his Friends of the Uffizi family card out from his wallet (that card is truly amazing on every level) and tried a burgler-style extraction. No luck. Then, he got his multi-tool (we knew that would come in handy--although we didn't predict this precise need for it) and tried to dismantle the hardware. This worked to get the handle off the door, but not to get Poppy out of the bathroom. Poppy, meanwhile, was trying to MacGyver the inside of the door with some dental floss, toothpaste and the shell of a Tylenol gel cap. This went on for a good 20 minutes. I guess I should say a long 20 minutes. At this point, we all agreed that I should phone the apartment rental company to report the emergency. I did and they promised to dispatch their top guy at once. Meanwhile back in the bathroom, all the benefit of the nap and shower was rapidly dissipating, and Poppy was starting to sort out where best to place the towels on the floor for his night's sleep. Tom was continuing to wrestle with the handle, but we were losing hope. So much for those delicious tapas we were going to enjoy for dinner.

Suddenly, Tom caught the right angle with what was left of the handle and the door opened. Poppy emerged, not quite as refreshed as he'd been 40 minutes earlier, but still smiling, buoyed by thoughts of spending his night in an actual bed. Shortly thereafter, our superman appeared, sans tools, ready to kick the door in. I think he was actually a bit sad to learn that we'd already gotten the stupid thing open. While he examined the wreckage, Poppy bonded with him and got his life story, and the rest of us finished up our glasses of wine (not the kids). Superman left, and we all headed out to Taller de Tapas. YumMY, were they good!! We're SO glad we got Poppy out of that bathroom.

On to Barcelona, but first . . .

2010-04-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have arrived in Barcelona and are happily adjusting to our new environs. It is a beautiful and lively city and we are enjoying seeing the signs of spring burst forth on the trees right outside our windows. We are just across from the port and have had fun exploring the waterfront and the beach. Tom has gone this morning to Carrefour, the European version of Costco, to buy a bike, after our neighbors told him they found some there for 89 euros (about the cost of a week's rental). We'll see if he comes riding back in a couple of hours or returns on the metro empty handed, but he has certainly been missing his bike, so we hope he has success.
Sierra hasn't had the chance to download any of our Barcelona photos yet, but I know the fans like photos, so I will share a few more from our visit to Boboli Gardens on our last day in Florence. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some Barcelona shots.

Rome and Saying Goodbye to Florence

2010-03-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

Our other adventure last week was a day trip to Rome. Now, those of you who have been to Rome (or lived there!) might be thinking, a DAY trip? Are you people crazy? Well, perhaps we are. We tried to pack in the top highlights, realizing that there is so much more we would like to see if we had the time. We did make it to the Sistine Chapel (fortunately with the line-skipping passes, or we never would have seen anything else), but found the Vatican grounds and museum extremely difficult to navigate.

Once we left the Vatican, we took the metro to the Spanish steps and had lunch there. Then it was on to the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, the Forum, and the Colosseum. Sadly, we arrived at the Colosseum too late to go inside, so we had to settle for the views from outside. We gave ourselves a mediocre grade for our tour of Rome. We'll just have to go back another time and do a better job!

Trevi Fountain is back there, but not so easy to see through all the tourists. This is about as close as we could get.

Back in Florence, we enjoyed our last two days. We revisited the Duomo, meandered the streets, now much warmer and more crowded with tourists, returned to our favorite gelato spots (Gelateria De Neri and Santa Trinita Gelateria, for those of you planning a trip to Florence any time soon), took in the amazing views from Piazzale Michelangelo and had our last dinner at our favorite restaurant, Trattoria ZaZa (highly recommended!). We look forward to returning to this beautiful and vibrant city in the future.

Siena and Cinque Terre--LOTS of photos!

2010-03-28T01:54:00.000-07:00

Our last week in Italy was a busy one, with trips to Siena, the Cinque Terre, and Rome. We also saw an opera! Today is our last day in Florence. We are excited about our upcoming time in Barcelona (including visits from the grandparents and one of Jonah's friends), but we will miss Florence. We have had a wonderful 3 1/2 weeks here.

Our day trip to Siena was fun. The literal and figurative high point was our climb to the top of the tower at City Hall in Il Campo, the center square of the town. We were warned (by Rick Steves, of course!) that the climb is narrow and the lines are long, but that "the reward is one of Italy's best views." Fortunately for us, we found only the third part of his statement to be true. Yes, the steps are narrow in places, but as there were absolutely no other people on them at the time, it didn't matter. We were able to easily climb to the top and enjoy the view for more than 30 minutes, despite signs at the bottom warning that there is a 15 minute time limit. As we finally prepared to descend after a blissfully peaceful and beautiful stay at the top, we were greeted by the sounds of a large, exuberant group of students on their way up. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect.

One of the amazing views from the top of the tower.

The kids liked the little turnouts on the way up to the top. Notice the graffiti on the wall that says "non-violenza." A policy we are trying to enforce daily on this trip between the loving siblings.

Tom stayed up at the first landing to get this shot of us down in Il Campo. Despite appearances, there were actually quite a few other people there at the time.

The Duomo--Siena's imposing and ornate 13th century gothic cathedral. A beautiful church, full of sculpture, painting, stained glass, and the vivid and remarkable Piccolomini Library.

Jonah the energizer bunny waits while the rest of us make our way up the steps.

The next day, we broke out our Italy railpass again and hopped on the train to the Cinque Terre, blissfully ignorant of the train strike that was taking place that day. We were a bit confused by how many trains were canceled, and our train was running about 10 minutes late, but we got there just fine, and were surprised to see the notice of the train strike at the information desk in La Spezia.

Our day in the Cinque Terre was one of my favorite days of the trip so far. The weather was perfect, the scenery was incredible, and everyone was in good spirits. We have so many amazing photos of that day, it was hard to narrow it down to the ones here. If you notice that some people appear in the photos more often than other people, keep in mind that some people much prefer being photographed than other people. And, while it's hard to capture the majesty of the Cinque Terre on film (does that phrase still work? should I say in pixels?), I think our two photographers did a pretty fantastic job of it.

How could I miss these?

2010-03-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a very long and wonderful day in the Cinque Terre. I hope to post photos of our recent adventures tomorrow. Until then, here are a couple of Jonah that I missed in my last post.

Random Trip Photos

2010-03-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

We've had a little down time this week so I've been looking over the photos from the trip. Here are a few of my favorite funny ones.

Why bring just one Jonah when you can bring two?

The day Tom ordered the 4 euro size of gelato when 2.50 was the largest size they had

Feeding the poor guy a pretzel

Jonah the winter ninja with his icicle sword

Pisa and Lucca

2010-03-20T01:26:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we took a day trip by train to Pisa and Lucca. Our adventure got off to a rather inauspicious beginning when, after cruising along comfortably for 40 minutes or so, the train came to an abrupt halt and we were assaulted by the smell of burning brakes. We sat, and sat, and sat. And sat some more. Finally, after about 15 or 20 minutes, the ticket taker came to our car and made a lengthy announcement. In Italian. Luckily, we were able to catch him before he moved on so we could ask for an English translation. "Train crashed. With a horse. Get different train at the next station." Soon, the train began moving slowly toward the next station, and continued right on through. Hmm. Weren't we supposed to get a different train there?

We did stop at the next station and we all piled off the train. Then we stood on the platform listening to a litany of instructions blasted over the loudspeaker. In Italian, of course. Despite our lack of proficiency in Italian, all four of us were able to decipher something about the train to Pisa and 70 minutes. Then something about the train to Pisa and 90 minutes. Assisted by a kind Italian gentleman who took pity on us in our obvious befuddlement, we shuttled around with the hordes of people waiting to go to Pisa. Suddenly, the train was there and we all crammed in as best we could. I had visions of one of those European concert stampedes, but we managed to get on without injury. 20 minutes later, we were in Pisa, just an hour and 45 minutes later than scheduled. (For those of you worried about the horse, we watched carefully out the window as the train began moving and didn't see any evidence of a mortally wounded horse, so we decided it must have survived the crash and been able to continue on its way).

Pisa, aptly described by Rick Steves as a "tourist quickie," doesn't have a lot to offer other than the leaning tower and the "Field of Miracles" but the tourists (us included) milk it for all it's worth in the photo department. It's quite entertaining to watch the tourist ritual involving holding up or pushing over the tower repeat itself endlessly along the perimeter of the field. Like this:

Comparing the masses of people in the photo queue with the smattering of people up at the top of the tower, it appears that most visitors opt to forego the climb at 15 euros a pop. We decided to skip it as well. Jonah was refusing the climb on principle anyway, indignant at the rule that requires all children under the age of 12 to hold the hand of an adult the ENTIRE way up and down. "That's the stupidest rule in the entire world," he was heard to mutter multiple times throughout the day.

We did enjoy a nice picnic lunch on the green grass, however.

After our lunch, we returned to the train for the short ride to Lucca. For those of you unfamiliar with Lucca, it is a small city in Tuscany completely surrounded by one of the largest, most impressive fortified walls you've ever seen.

The wall is so large, in fact, that it currently serves as a wonderful city park, complete with a walking and biking trail.

We loved our few hours in this quiet town. We strolled the streets and popped in to a couple of churches as we made our way to the bike rental shop on the other side of town. When we arrived, we handed the woman Tom's drivers license and off we went with our four bikes. No deposit, no multi-page liability waiver, no oversharing of personal information. No helmets either, but we decided it was ok for the mellow cruise around the ramparts.

Lucca is definitely a town not to be missed. We wish we'd had more time here, as we've heard that there are many good restaurants, in addition to the cultural sites and lovely outdoor spaces. Very nice little break from the constant activity in Florence.

Jonah brought along his pedometer for our adventure today. Step count: 22,854.

Venice

2010-03-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we ventured out to Venice for the day. We enjoyed the easy and comfy train ride there and arrived by 11:30. The day was sunny, but colder than anticipated by about 10 degrees. We started out at the campanile of San Marco, where we enjoyed the view, but not the 32 euro price tag. At least at the Duomo you get to climb a lot of steps---here, an elevator!

As the kids have grown a bit weary of churches and museums, we limited ourselves in that regard, preferring to spend our time wandering amongst the narrow streets and canals. We were surprised and entertained by the relatively large number of young kids on scooters and roller blades in this town of rough streets and many, many bridges, most of which begin and end with a long set of stairs. Despite being lost for much of the afternoon, we were able to locate at least 4 stores selling legos. Luckily, Jonah already got a new lego set the day before (at a huge Florence toy store, where Sierra happily purchased a volleyball), so we didn't need to stop in those shops. We did, however, stop for some gelato artiginale, despite having gotten some of that the day before as well (and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before . . . well, you get the idea).

Sierra took over 450 photos in Venice, so I did not bother to sort through to find the best canal shot, but here are a few with our smiling faces in them. Tomorrow, we will head to Pisa and Lucca for another set of adventures.

Sun!!

2010-03-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

We were so thankful for the return of the sun this weekend. Finally, a chance to eat our gelato outside on the bridge, rather than huddled in some corner of the gelateria, freezing!

It's hard to believe we've already been in Florence for over a week. Tomorrow, we will hop on the train for a day trip to Venice.

Notice Sierra's new coat, purchased last week at the mercato.

More Egypt Photos

2010-03-12T23:30:00.000-08:00

Here are the rest of the Egypt photos that I'm going to post (of the many hundreds in our collection). After this, I will move on to Greece, and by the time I'm done with those, maybe we will actually have a few Florence photos to share. The weather has not been very good so far in our time here, so we have no outdoor photos and cameras have been prohibited in almost every church and museum we've visited. But there's hope--I see the sun peeking through the clouds!

Here the kids are with Haisam, our Egyptologist who filled our heads with an unbelievable amount of information.
We miss him!

The giant crowned falcon looming over us is Horus, Jonah's favorite Egyptian god, the god who protects all the others (and the likely subject of a 6th grade report next year).

Felucca ride on the Nile.

One More

2010-03-11T23:59:00.000-08:00

One more picture for now, more tomorrow.

More Catching Up--Egypt

2010-03-11T23:55:00.000-08:00

Today, a little photographic reminiscing of our time in Egypt, where it was warm and sunny. There are so many photos to choose from of that part of the trip. I may have to post them in batches. Today's submissions are a study in perspective.

Catching Up

2010-03-11T00:39:00.000-08:00

Well, I think we've finally worn the kids out. It's 9:00 and they're both still sleeping, despite the loud and relentless traffic noise right outside their window. Time to take advantage of the free computer and get caught up on posting photos from our trip. Words can be interesting, but photos are always much better.
Since we've been complaining about the cold here in Florence, I thought I'd start by going back to the beginning of our trip, when we were REALLY cold. Here are some of our favorites from our time in Chamonix, France and Kandersteg, Switzerland, over a month ago. I apologize in advance for the problems I always seem to encounter when posting photos on this blog--duplicate photos, text over photos, and mismatch of text and photos. I haven't found any way to control these things, unfortunately. Suffice it to say, these are all from the Alps portion of the trip, including the glacier, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, sledging, and curling. Next time, I'll post some from the warmer parts of our adventure.

Lauren and Tom go to the Italian grocery store

2010-03-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

Attempt #1: The guy who checks us into our apartment tells us there is a supermarket just around the corner and across the street. We go to check it out and stock up on all our necessities for our 3 1/2 weeks in Florence. Turns out that "supermarket" may be a bit of an overstatement. They have 3 boxes of cereal, a liter of milk, some cans of beans, and a refrigerator case with something that appears to be some kind of organ meat. The rest of the store is dedicated to wine and every kind of alcohol under the sun. Hmm. Maybe we should stock up on that.

Attempt #2: Our art history teacher, a lovely young woman who lives and works in Florence, tells us that there is a Coop market relatively near here, and points it out on the map. We are happy--we shopped at a Coop in Kandersteg and it wasn't huge, but it had everything we needed. We set out in the morning to stock up on everything we'll need for our 3 1/2 weeks in Florence (sound familiar?), and tell the kids we'll be back in about an hour or so. It's snowing and it takes us an hour or so to get there in the first place (including our stop to buy the Friends of Uffizi pass, another story in itself). We walk in and must look like kids at Disneyland for the first time. The aisles are endless and half the city is in the store, and they're all in a hurry. We go to get a cart and are temporarily perplexed by the coin operated cart system, until an old woman offers us her cart for one euro. We're not sure if we've just been ripped off, but we're just happy to have a cart. We saunter into the store, only to be yelled at in Italian. We don't know what she's saying, but clearly we've gone the WRONG WAY. Who knew there was only one right way? We walk back to the proper entrance and begin our adventure. The wheels on the cart are all multi-directional and I'm finding it a bit challenging trying to drive the thing in a responsible manner. Plus, I have to keep dodging the older folks with their wheeled baskets which they are pulling around behind them like small plastic puppies. After 45 minutes or so, we have managed to purchase the 7 items on our list, along with a number of other things that caught our eyes (well, we're hungry at this point--it's practically lunch time!). We get in line, pay for our items and leave the store with 4 bags, 2 of which weigh about 3 pounds each and 2 of which weigh about 10 pounds each. Tom takes the two 10 pound bags. Maybe he's being nice, or maybe he figures it will make up for the workouts he's missed in the past month. We find the C2 bus and are very happy to get seats, especially as it becomes more and more and more crowded. We can't really see where our stop is (even if we knew for sure where it was), and we're not positive the C2 is actually the correct bus, so we get off a bit prematurely and walk the remaining half mile home through the snow. When we get back to the apartment, we find that the small bottle of laundry detergent we cleverly bought to avoid waste is actually bleach, and the good deal we got on the 4 rolls of toilet paper was actually for 2 rolls of paper towels. Next time, we're bringing our Italian phrasebook.

2010-03-09T05:27:00.000-08:00

We made it to Florence, finally, on Sunday evening. So far, it has been very cold. Today it is raining. Actually, looking out the window, I see what the weather folks on the East Coast refer to as a "wintry mix." Not exactly what I was contemplating when I imagined being in Florence. It really does not lend itself to much gelato eating--terrible! Fortunately, we are here for a while and do not need to rush to see (or eat) everything in just a few short days. The weather can't stay this way for 3 weeks, can it?

The Tobins in Greece

2010-03-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

A little summary of this part of our trip:
Jonah: looking for the nearest Lego store or the next Greek kitty
Sierra: looking for the nearest Greek restaurant or the next fabulous photo opportunity
Tom: looking for the nearest Greek history lesson or the next Ouzo

Lauren: enjoying the view

2010-03-05T01:27:00.000-08:00

Santorini is a beautiful place, even in this off season surrounded by cranes, power tools and lots of people working to get everything in shape for the tourist season rush. Today is our last day in Greece. We will certainly miss this place. Florence is our next destination and we're excited about that, despite the forecast for light snow upon our arrival! We will have our memories of Greece to keep us warm. Like this one.

2010-03-01T23:04:00.000-08:00

Here is just a small sampling of some of our hundreds of photos from the Egypt portion of our trip, including some desert photos, the Nile cruise, and Luxor Temple. More to come, if Sierra ever finishes her hours of sorting.

2010-02-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

After Cairo, Athens has been an oasis for us. It is clean and the air is clear, it's not ridiculously crowded, the people are friendly and generally stay out of your face, and the food is delicious. We have enjoyed seeing the antiquities, especially the Acropolis, which we can see from our deck and from the windows in the hotel restaurant. The new Acropolis Museum is amazing in its architecture, especially the third floor, which mimics the Parthenon with modern steel columns and original and replicas of the scenes from the building. We had dinner at two delicious restaurants, the first thanks to the recommendation of our cab driver, John--from Jersey! Today, we took a lengthy bus tour to Delphi, where we saw the remains of the oracle and surrounding temples and agora, plus another museum. The kids have tolerated the many museums so far, but were happy this evening at dinner when I promised them a museum-free week. Early tomorrow, we leave for the island of Kea for two days, followed by three days on Santorini. Other than the transitions, this week promises to be a low-key and relaxing one, so I truly hope to get caught up on some stories on the blog, and especially on posting some photos. They number in the thousands already, so it takes some effort to ferret out the blog-worthy ones, but Sierra is on the job. Check back soon!

2010-02-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

We're in Luxor now, waiting at a hotel before we leave to return to Cairo this evening. We have had lots of fun adventures here in Egypt so far. Two days remain before we head on to Greece. Internet is spotty, so I will just share one story from earlier this week. Hopefully in the next few days, I can return to post some more stories and photos. For now, here's what happened to us on the way back from our desert safari. We're driving back through the Egyptian desert after an overnight camping trip. The sun is rising and the temperature is climbing. At 10:30, it is already 85 degrees. The odometer on our car reads 446,000 km, but since it hasn't flipped one km in the 7+ hours we've already spent in this car, I'm pretty sure it has been disconnected. Our driver is the Egyptian equivalent of a surfer dude. We already stopped once on our way out to the desert to fix a flat tire, and the driver was fiddling mysteriously with the lug nuts this morning. We're not wearing seat belts because, well, the car doesn't have seatbelts, and it seems that Egyptians only use seat belts when approaching a government checkpoint anyway. We are barreling down the highway on our way back to the oasis, still 70 miles away. The Egyptian music plays loudly on the stereo and our driver is singing and clapping his hands. Or dancing. Or undulating. Suddenly, we hear an explosive thump. We all sit in stunned silence as the car screeches and grinds to a halt, while the left rear tire careens across the desert like a giant rubber tumbleweed, followed in quick succession by the hub cap and the brake drum. Not a word is spoken as our driver hops out to extract the jack and begin elevating the rear of the car and our guide sets out across the desert to retrieve the abdicating tire. We drag ourselves out of the car, certain that we will be here baking in the desert sun for hours. Much to our surprise, only 10 minutes pass before our rescue vehicle appears. He is the "big boss" of the desert camping experience and, apparently, he suspected we may run into a bit of transportation trouble, so, unbeknownst to us, he drove 10 minutes behind, just in case. Our guide says "OK, we will go in this car" so we jump in while our first driver and a growing horde of his buddies continue staring at the broken vehicle, shaking their heads and yelling at each other in Arabic. As we get into the rescue vehicle, I can't resist taking a glance at its odometer. 460,500 km. Hmm.

2010-02-14T01:16:00.000-08:00

We're back in Geneva today, watching the snow fall and preparing for the next chapter in our journey. In a few hours, we head to Egypt, and try to adjust to temperatures 80-90 degrees higher than those we've become accustomed to in the last week. We had a great time in Kandersteg, where we all experienced a number of things for the very first time in our lives:

a tour of a genuine Swiss cheese cellar and tasting of rare and yummy mountain cheese
two rounds of curling (which we won!)
a four-mile downhill hike (or, for some of us, roll) in near zero-degree weather
riding a sledge down an almost half-mile toboggan run

We've loved our snowy adventures and look forward to what lies ahead. We'd love to share the photos, but we seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties in that regard (seems to be a Blogger-based problem--hopefully they will fix it soon). We'll be back soon for some more reporting!

2010-02-09T00:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a fantastic day out on the winterwanderweg (winter hiking trail). They have a mind-boggling system of cross-country skiing, winter hiking, and sledging trails in this town, all machine cut, marked, and beautifully maintained. Yesterday, we walked up one of these trails to the gondelbahn (love these words!), where we rode up to the top of the mountain and hiked down to Lake Oeschinensee. It felt a little odd walking through the downhill ski runs on our way out to the lake, but that's how the wanderweg took us, and we soon realized that we were not the only ones. As we descended to the lake, it got colder and colder, to the point that our fingers, toes, noses, and hair were all frozen. At the bottom, it was about -20 degrees. (Sounds so much more dramatic in Celcius, doesn't it?). Once we began the climb back up from the lake, our extremities began to thaw and I no longer worried about returning home without a big toe on my left foot.

The sights and scenery on our walk back up to the ski lift were magnificent. At one point, we heard a cracking sound and looked up to witness a large and powerful avalanche on the mountain above us (fortunately, not directly above). The photo doesn't quite do it justice, but the fact that it stopped every hiker, skier, and sledger in their tracks attested to its magnitude.
It will be hard to top the beauty we witnessed on this hike, possibly my favorite day of the trip so far.

2010-02-07T11:54:00.001-08:00

Correction to yesterday's post: the pasta was not awesome, it was "insane"

2010-02-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

Today we successfully made our first transition, from Chamonix to Kandersteg, Switzerland. With at least 150 pounds of luggage (yes, we know Rick Steeves would not approve, but, hey, we're out here for 5 months!), several inches of new snow on all the streets we trudged through, and 4 train changes, we weren't sure how it would go, but it was surprisingly smooth sailing. Nary a complaint was heard.
Kandersteg is a beautiful little town in the Swiss Alps, and we were happy to find our apartment to be warm and cozy despite the very cold and snowy surroundings.

Some reflections on our time in Chamonix?

Favorite meal: Jonah--the "awesome" pasta with butter at the restaurant on our first day; Sierra, the lunch that appeared in the photo in our last post; Lauren, the fondue at Le Monchu; and Tom, the tartiflette at the Grand Montets ski slopes.
Funniest moment: When we walked out behind our apartment looking for the trash cans, only to discover that they were in exactly the spot where we had been dropped off by the Alpy Bus driver on our arrival (and from where we hiked several blocks through the snow trying to find the apartment)
Most surprising thing: That there is no noise ordinance whatsoever in Chamonix and it is, in fact, quite common (at least outside our apartment) to walk through the streets every night of the week yelling and screaming, until at least 4 a.m.. Yes, I know this has been mentioned previously, but we still can't quite believe it.
Cheese. Lots of cheese.

2010-02-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

Today we ascended over 12,600 feet via one of the world's highest cable cars to L'Aiguille du Midi, where we marveled at the panoramic views of the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps. The scenery was well worth the effort of dragging ourselves out of bed this morning (yes, those partiers are still howling every night, from 10 until 3, at least) and the frozen fingers and toes when we got to the top. The photos can hardly do it justice, but we've included a few so you can get some sense of the beauty.

After we returned to Chamonix village, we hopped aboard the Montenveres train to the Mer de Glace--"Sea of Ice"--the largest glacier in France. Before descending into the glacier itself, we stopped for lunch at the Hotel, where Sierra enjoyed this delicious French lunch. After lunch, we boarded the telecabin for the short ride to the 334 steps down into the glacier. It was incredible to look across the valley and see the blue ice glowing in the distance, and right before our eyes as we made our way down the stairs. At the bottom, we entered the tunnel and made our way into the magical blue world of the glacier, complete with unusual human touches including different colored lights and full rooms carved into the ice. While those things caught our eyes briefly, we were most struck by the natural beauty and enormity of the ice. As we made our way back up to the telecabin, it was disturbing to see the signs indicating the previous reach of the glacier and to note how dramatically it has receded in only 20 years. The photo here shows the glacier meandering through the valley, moving at the incredible rate of 1 cm per hour. Tomorrow, I hope to post more photos from our visit to the glacier.

2010-01-31T12:35:00.000-08:00

We're in Chamonix and all is going well so far. We got dropped off here late yesterday morning by a shuttle driver who became increasingly grumpy about our uncertainty as to our precise destination, and who ultimately dropped us in a random spot on a narrow road where we had to schlep our stuff quite a way through the snow. Luckily, we were all in good spirits! Spent the rest of the day yesterday checking out the town and getting settled in, renting skis, having a typical French meal (i.e. one that lasts 2 1/2 hours). Today we hit the slopes at Le Tour, which proved to be worth the long, windy, crowded bus ride. The scenery was fabulous and the skiing was perfect. Tomorrow, we will try another ski area that promises more chairlifts and fewer "teleskis" (pommel lifts). Every moment has been an adventure so far, including our 90 minute trek around town this evening to find all the ingredients for our dinner. We're still a bit jet-lagged, but it is primarily due to the rowdy partiers in the street outside our apartment at all hours of the night (no exaggeration). Our happiness and sense of adventure are certainly overcoming the minor inconveniences so far.

2010-01-29T11:22:00.000-08:00

Wine and yummy paninis in Geneva for our first dinner of our trip. Lots of snow falling from the sky and much more in the forecast. Not a bad start to our adventure! Now, if we can just get a good night's sleep . . .

2009-12-20T15:04:00.000-08:00

We're enjoying the holidays, getting ready for some skiing, and trying not to panic that all of our plans are not in place yet. Stay tuned, friends! There probably won't be any posts until February, when we are on our way. Happy New Year all!

2009-12-05T15:42:00.000-08:00

Enjoying the Christmas season!

2009-12-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

We're in planning mode now. So much to do and only 8 weeks to go!