Barcelona

Not many trips have been as hyped up as Barcelona for us. Every time someone asked where we were headed, they said said. "Ohhh, you are gonna love it!" And we did.

Opting to stay in El Born, the cultural neighborhood of small alleyways, bars, museums, and just steps from the Picasso Museum, we were in a great location.  The beach was a short stroll away, and while the water was too cold for a swim, the beach was full of sea glass and the girls wadded in anyway.  This beach would be amazing in the summer months, full of eccentric people and lots of sun.  We also were next to a great park and the Barcelona Zoo, which made for great walks.

Perhaps the pinnacle of the trip (or the underlying purpose) was to hit up the absolutely phenomenal brew pubs in the city.  Brewdog (the UK brewery) has a home here and served up many exciting brews for mom and dad and provided fun games for the kids to stay busy.  Best of all, the bartender will pour you a shot of Tactical Nuclear Penguin, a brew clocking in at 32% ABV. For the price of a bottle, you will be glad to just try this in small doses.  Another fine establishment is the all-vegetarian food-serving place called Ale & Hop. With a nice combo of Spanish products and imports, the friendly staff was always ready to find the next gem.  But the star was BierCab which we frequented multiple times. Delicious tapas backed up 30 beers on tap from some diverse and unique places.  But the real plus was the bottle shop tied to the pub. For takeaway, one can purchase a wide-range of beers from some of the world's best breweries, including The Lost Abbey, Mikkeller, Stone, Rouge, Ale Smith, and The Bruery.  The catch was Westvleteren 12, often rated the world's best beer, and to my knowledge, sold only at the Belgian monastery where it is brewed in small packs with an advanced reservation.  They also had Samuel Adams Utopias, but at 300 Euros a bottle I just couldn't pull the trigger. The staff was amazing, took great care of us, gave our girls shirts and key chains, and me a bottle opener. It is the best beer place we have been to.

With the beer done, we move on to the rest. Of course, there is sangria a plenty here, and this interesting drink called tinto verano which is red wine with a mix of soda, like orange pop. It that doesn't tickle your fancy, have a Gin Tonic, which the city is passionate about. Forget about that garbage you pull out from the dusty cabinet once a summer, blow off, splash with something you bought at Wal-Mart, and add lime to. No, this is an art form. You must select your gin and your tonic, and the varieties of each are overwhelming, and the two are mixed delicately and deliberately. It is quite refreshing, and had it been warmer out, we may have had them all of the time.  But what we did frequent many a time was Ma Mai Ne in the Passeig del Born. With 40 kinds of hand-made mojitos on site, you cannot go wrong, Certainly have the traditional lime and mint, or roll with a Kiwi to try something new. But if you want some fun, try the Spicy Mango or, the absolute best of all time, the Cookie. Ya, that's right. Cookie mojito. Amazing.

By now you are seriously lubed up but don't forget, this place is passionate about food.  With some top-end restaurants, you can't go wrong, unless a budget is in your vocabulary. Tapas are everywhere and I must say that most places are reasonably priced.  The menu del dia will greet you with a main, beer, and desert for about 7 Euros, a steal.  Recommended to us was Tlaxcal in El Born which served up beef tongue tacos that were the bomb. Then we caught wind of a Mexican place named El Pachuco, a hole in the wall place with epic drinks and the best food outside of Mexico, though you wouldn't know it by looking.  The nachos are extreme and should win some kind of award.

We didn't just eat and drink the whole time. There were some sites spliced in. The free-to-visit 13th century Cathedral of Barcelona is a splendid site but everyone knows nothing holds a candle to La Sagrada Familia. 120+ years in the making, this shrine to the heavens continues to climb higher in the image of Gaudí. Like the Taj and Angkor Wat, you can see as many pics as you want, but this site cannot be felt until you stand in its shadows.  And while the outside is unarguably spectacular, the inside is amazing as well. The colors of stained glass reflecting off the walls cannot be duplicated.

Speaking of Gaudí, we headed to Park Güell, though we opted not to pay to walk among the artistic benches. Rather, we hiked up the mountain for a gorgeous view of the city from on high. Great trails lead up the peak and it was amazing to be free in nature in the middle of a modern city. This was, perhaps, our most enjoyable day, though we walked more than we probably ever have there.

Justin headed to the famous Camp Nou to see FC Barcelona, probably the world's best soccer team, win a game. But to complete the tour, the family all came back to visit the stadium during a non-match day as part of the Camp Nou Experience. With everything from Champion's League trophies to fake pictures with Messi, this place has it all. You can spend as long as you like admiring all of the awards this club has garnished or you can move on to see the visiting locker room, press areas, and the field. For fans and non-fans alike, it is a really well-done production worth spending an hour or two of your city trip. 

While the nightly Magic Fountain show did not appear to be a thing when we visited, we did spend some time on Montjuic to see the 1992 Olympic venue. A trip into the stadium and around the grounds offered some unique architecture and views of the city. It is amazing that the Olympics took place on this hillside. 

Barcelona did not disappoint. We hope to be back, perhaps in the warmth of summer. 

Make your own scrapbook design

Christmas in Poland

We arrived in Krakow, Poland after an overnight flight with our friends, The Jettners (from South Africa/Saudi/Michigan). As a special Christmas treat, Justin hired a limo for a surprise and the group drove around town in style, sipping champagne. We ended at the Christmas Market in the main square, a village of stalls basked in Christmas lights across a square smelling of roasted meat, mulled wine, and with every trinket imaginable. After getting our fill of food, drink, and shopping, we headed out for a Mexican dinner, perfect for Poland.

Day 2 dawned with a trip to Park Wodny, an indoor waterpark.  We then celebrated Ari's birthday by going to a natural history museum (some live animals), and dinner at the recommended Del Papa. The next day we visited the Rynek Underground, a museum of a partially preserved medieval city under the town square. Our evening capped off with a trip to Maze Krakow, an exciting role-playing game where you are locked in a room.  You have 1 hour to find a bomb, disable it, and get out of the room. Using clues and items in the room, you must unlock doors, enter codes, and find secrets. It was like being in National Treasure.

Auschwitz was a haunting day. Sarah and I left the kids back and went on a tour, learning all about the atrocities of what people can do.  We saw whole rooms of luggage, shoes, pots, glass, and combs collected from victims.  The most disturbing was the one with human hair (no pictures allowed). More than a million people were killed at Auschwitz, and many of those at the largest camp Birkenau.  We elected to skip this second and more graphic portion of the tour having been distressed enough by what we already had seen. As the Nazis destroyed all of the gas chambers hoping to cover evidence in the final days of the war, we only saw a reconstructed crematorium.  Many women, children, and the elderly all arrived by trains after days of cramped, cold travel and were told they were going to shower. Instead they were gassed to death.  After walking around, we decided that these people were perhaps the lucky ones, as the survivors were subjected to horrible work conditions, malnourishment, medical experiments, and torture before eventually scumming to conditions, disease, starvation, or execution. Pictures shows people surviving perhaps 2-3 years like this, but many dying within 1-3 months. It was an atrocity never to be repeated.

Aside from many trips to the Christmas Market, we also found some great places to enjoy a beverage.  Beer Gallery is a fun little place with lots of Belgian beers.  Another amazing place we found was the House of Beer with a display wall of bottles acting as a menu. On a chance, we passed by the T.E.A. Time Brewery which sported a fun bar above an underground tavern. For another taste of the microbrew scene we headed to C.K. Brower, a cool looking bar with about 5 beers of their own.  I have to say, we were quite impressed with the level of craft brews in Poland. Another exciting option is the Wodka Cafe Bar. With more than 100 types of vodka on hand, you can sample any number of them for very cheap. Good luck.

On the way out of town we checked out the Wieliczka Saltmine, an underground network of caves carved out by 100+ years of mineral mining. While the history was exciting, perhaps the highlight was the girls being able to lick every wall in the place. We headed south to the mountains to visit Zakopane, Poland's Winter Capital.  Unfortunately, there was no snow. That did not stop us from doing everything we wanted, just a bit abridged. Our base was the beautiful Aprtament Glaumor 1, one of the better places we have found on booking.com.  Hitting the outdoors, skating is skating, and public rinks have bad ice no matter what. But when you get to do it with the mountains as a backdrop, it really doesn't matter the weather.  We also went dog sledding. With no snow, we actually went dog carting.  After meeting the dogs and getting to play with them a bit, we learned all about them. Then the dogs were hooked up to a cart and we took turns going around a small track with them pulling.

A similar experience was our trip on a horse-drawn sleigh. Large carts were pulled by horses and we ventured into the woods at night, Many stars glistened overhead and we stopped at the halfway point to have a drink - tea with vodka. We carted back, sipping wine from bottles and keeping warm, until we reached a lodge.  Nestled into a wood cabin with sausages roasted over a fire, we were entertained by traditionally dressed men playing instruments around the fire pit.

Skiing was in serious jeopardy with the weather but bits of machine-made snow coated the lower slopes of the hill, enough for a few days of ski lessons for the girls.  By the final day, Taelyn was going up and down on her own.  We also found some sleds and hit the slops for good winter fun.  While it wasn't ideal to miss out on snow at Christmas, we really lucked out by not having weather that was too cold to stop us from doing outdoor activities.

Personalize your own free digital scrapbook

On the way home we had a long layover in Berlin.  We embarked on a whirlwind tour, heading over to Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, and the Berlin Wall.

Germany - Oktoberfest

Would you believe it? Another trip to Germany. This time it was for the marathon. It just happened to be a big coincidence that Oktoberfest was going on at the same time!

We arrived in Nuremburg, the closest point for the race and spent a few days at Five Reasons Hostel & Hotel, situated within the walled city and overseen by the Imperial Castle. Hikes around town were greeted with great food and drink, especially at Hausbraurei Altstadthof, Café Wanderer, and BarfüsserBrauhaus.  We ventured deep into the underground caves to see the city below the city.  We also headed out to the Nazi Rally Grounds and Memorium of the Nuremberg Trials to get a taste of the significant history of the city. Such amazing and horrible things happened here and it is good to see that these sites haven't been destroyed. We learn more from being able to walk around than from stories or books.

The weekend concluded with an ill-advised marathon in a small, neighboring town. It was one of the prettiest races I have done.  But soon we were headed to Munich, with the running behind us, and a new kind of marathon looming ahead.

Oktoberfest is one of the world's most amazing events and we were drawn back. With kinds in tow this time, we opted for daytime visits on weekdays, making it easy to get a seat and less likely to run into any problems. Of course, we all showed up in authentic lederhosen and drindl. Arriving on Monday morning around 11, we had our choice of tents. Opting for a place that is famous for chicken, we rolled in and sat down to the butter and herb roasted goodness that is Bavarian Hendl. Of course, we had to spot some pretzels as well as a great litre of brew. Seeing no reason not to bounce around and check out the other atmospheres, we went on to the next tent and the next. From Spatan to Hacker-Pschorr, to Hofbrauhaus we roamed.  The girls stopped for a gingerbread cookie which they demolished.  We lost Sarah for a bit but she resurfaced and we made our way home, job well done.

The next day we headed back for round 2, but this time meeting a couple we worked with in Doha. It was family day so the rides were half price.  With the promise of carnival rides, we got the kids back in for food and alternated rides with another tent and so on. Even at half prices the rides were expensive (and cheesy). But some tents had kids' areas and all had music so we were all entertained. Towards the afternoon we decided that Justin would go to the Bayern-Munich football game with Mike. We went and witnessed a historic game with Lewandowski scoring 5 goals in 9 min.

With Oktoberfest done and dusted, we rolled south into the Bavarian gem town of Fussen.  This is fairy tale kingdom and on the following day we went to Neuschwanstein Castle and
Hohenschwangau Castle and learned the history of King Ludwig II. These castles are amazing to see and provide great views.  After the castles we headed to a brewery.  Dinner and a few lead to a fine game of putt-putt out in the fields below the castle. Our base was the lovely Hotel Fantasia, a repeat stay and one of our favorite lodgings in the world. It is like its own fairy tale castle and garden at the base of the real castles.
Our final stop on the way out was Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a German town in northern Bavaria known for its medieval architecture. Half-timbered houses line the cobblestone lanes of its old town. The town walls include many preserved gate houses and towers, plus a covered walkway on top. One of our favorite sites in this town is a medieval crime and torture museum, complete with swords, masks, and other devices. At night we joined the famous Night Watchman tour. A guy dresses in a holocaust cloak and wields a giant ax-like weapon as he wanders through the streets describing life as it was in medieval times. It is really a fun addition to a great, classic city.

Personalize a picture slideshow

Paris and Brussels

Though we went for the marathon, it wasn't all business in Paris. We posed in front of the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and The Louvre for pictures on a cold and windy day. We also headed to Disneyland Paris for a flair of the magic, European style.  It was pretty much everything we remember Disney being, if not just a little smaller, but by arriving early, we never had much waiting to do.

The day before the race the girls ran their own race. At 1.2km, this was the farthest they had ever had to run. Facepaint and music pumped them up, but at the last minute Kaelia had a meltdown and cried. Taelyn took off and finished well.  Kaelia cried and slogged most of the way before rallying.  Finally, the reason for the visit, the marathon: Justin took off with another guy and they talked and ran together for 20 miles.  Since he wasn't in prime shape, that was the limit, and at 22 miles Justin did some damage control to bring it in, albeit slowly.

With the running nonsense out of the way, we headed by train to Brussels - the land of beer, chocolate, and waffles!

One unique stop was the Atonium, a large, metal structure that has information inside. Built for the 1958 World Exhibition, the Atomium is shaped on the model of an elementary iron crystal enlarged 165 billion times.  We didn't go in, but pictures in front were odd enough. Adjacent to this was Mini Europe, a crazy miniature replica of many of the buildings of the continent in scale size sprawled out on some putt-putt course looking land.  After a walk through here we ended in the water park for some slides and fun.

Most of our time was spent hunting out great beer spots.  We frequented Delirium, a popular one and perhaps the place with the most beer in the world (over 3000). We tried the Chevalier or "yard" of beer at the Raven and hit up places that were hundreds of years old. Amidst the hanging marionnettes at Estaminet Toone as well. We had fancy ones and good food on the plaza in front of the Grand Palace.

The girls had fun doing a city scavenger hunt and looking for the famous peeing statues. The most famous, Manneken Pis is of a boy peeing into a fountain. He has a sister, Jeanneke Pis, is squatting just in front of the Delirium Cafe. And the last, Zinneke Pis, is a dog on a street corner.

Slideshow personalized with Smilebox

India and Sri Lanka 2015

This free digital scrapbook customized with Smilebox

"Your flight is full. We have bumped you to a later flight. It leaves at 1:30am but you will go direct to Delhi rather than to Sri Lanka, layover 8 hours, and then arrive at 6pm." is what we were told on arrival at the airport. Looks like hours of sitting in the airport. 20 min later a man says, "Sorry, that flight is full. We will put you on the original flight." So it goes in Doha.  So after many pre-flight cocktails, we boarded the plane for the 5 hour journey to Colombo. Arriving in Sri Lanka, we had 8 hours to kill, so we found a hotel in the airport allowing us to sleep, shower, and hangout instead of spending a day in the airport.  It made the flight to Delhi manageable. We arrived in New Delhi to a twinge of humidity we had long since forgotten coming from our mild, Middle Eastern winter.  Making our way to our private driver, we sped in and out of traffic while people flashed headlights at each other in both directions.  While lines painted on the road only seemed to serve as a general guideline for the direction of traffic, we did not experience the chaos and gridlock that we had come to expect from Indian traffic. That is, until the side streets.  Much like the later-mentioned Taj, one can only comprehend traffic when in it.  Bumper to bumper is an understatement but when 3 lanes become 7 and people creep forward inches apart on either side, it is a whole new definition of packed.

Our trip to Delhi was short, keyed in on just a few events.  First, we saw our friend, Faze and toured her school.  She took us to Old Delhi and we boarded bicycle rickshaws for a tour.  Poverty met productivity at every turn.  The city was not completely awake though many people hustled up and down the often one-lane road.  Cows ruled street corners, bicycles, scooters, and tuk-tuks were everywhere, dogs and goats roamed without restraint, and people sat in mud and on the street. One of our most memorable stops was the chili market.  We sensed it 100m before we got there.  Climbing the narrow stone staircases, we began to exert short, rough guttural coughs.  Our eyes began to itch and our noses ran like faucets. Our climb ended with a view of the central courtyard of the market.  All around people (all males) went about their daily business, cleaning their garments and washing themselves with water from jugs.  Some were naked and took no notice of us white folk touring through their homes.  Stall after stall held not more than a tone slab with a blanket on it and various amounts of chillies packed in burlap sacks.  It was a taste of local living I have not seen rivaled in any other country.  We ended our tour with a trip to a dress shop where the girls each picked out their own special Indian outfits.

Sarah and Faze having margaritas in India

Delhi briefly visited, we woke early the next morning for a long car ride to Agra.  After inching through the local traffic we opened up into the outskirts of the city and saw green countryside which expanded our perception of India.  Hours later we inched again into Agra and leapt out to buy our tickets.  I negotiated with a guide and we had a wonderful tour of the Taj Mahal.  Each place we stopped our guide pointed out the amazing symmetry of the building and surrounding structures. Quite impressive was the attention to detail in symmetry, the inlaid stone colors, and sheer size of the building built so long ago.  One of those buildings you see photographed so many times, the Taj is one that you would think would just be so-so when you step up to it.  However, it is anything but. The Taj exceeded our expectations in every way.

Our girls opted to wear their Indian dresses to the venue.  Our guide asked us early on if we minded if people took pictures of the girls.  We asked them and they shook their heads. The guide said something and about 5 guys walked away.  We hadn't realized they were all standing around us to take their picture. Throughout the tour, we were asked many times to let the girls have their picture taken.  We would take a shot of the girls in front of the Taj, and then the next 5 minutes would be other people shooting the girls in the same pose.  They were mobbed but enjoyed the attention.

Fast forward to our flight from Chennai to Sri Lanka.  We had just spent the day visiting a school in Chennai and headed to the island.  Sarah sat on the isle while I say one seat over on the other isle, the two girls inside on my row.  I heard a women coughing being Sarah. Annoyed by the sound and potential germs being spread, I glanced back to watch her violently convulse and vomit all over herself. As she spewed forth I lunged to push Sarah forward as she had her headphones on and couldn't hear the build up.  Puke sprayed her armrest and coated the isle.  Then, for some unknown reason, she started wiping it off.  Flecks were flung on my cheek and shirt.  I yelled for her to stop but not before the man next to her was coated.  I scrapped it off my shoe and counted the seconds until I could get to the washroom to clean.  Rather than apologize or ask for help, the moment the plane touched down she stood in the isle.  Not wanting to get coated, we squeezed in further until she de-boarded. To add insult to injury, we had to buy a second visa for Sarah once arriving. It was not a pleasant couple of hours. Add that to a 3-hour drive to the resort.

Our beach resort in Sri Lanka was very nice.  Palagama Beach Resort on the west coast of the island proved to be a rustic beach cabana with a flare of niceties.  Each room had an outdoor shower and palm leaves for walls. There was no AC and occasionally the power would go out for a few hours making it fairly warm at times.  There was an infinity pool and a beautiful beach, full of shells, sand, and crabs. Our daily breakfasts were buffets of eggs, waffles, and a mixture of local fare that was both plentiful and tasty.  Lunch and dinner were joined with local beers and cocktails while the children swam and played with the dogs and cats on the property. Joined by another family we worked with, this was a great few days of beach time.

One evening Sarah and I joined our friends for Salsa dancing lessons.  A movie was on every afternoon for the children.  The kids got down on the ground with some locals and learned how to weave palm leaves (which pretty much made up every wall and ceiling to the place).  But the highlight had to be the dolphin watching tour.  We saw hundreds of dolphins. They would come up along the boat, come at us, and go away from us.  There were flips and dives.  It was an amazing encounter.

While we didn't to Sri Lanka justice on this trip, we know we will be back.