Amsterdam

Crashed Wesley's work trip in Amsterdam for two days.  

Went directly to Bike City to get our wheels - then out on the town. Fun pubs and lots of fresh Heineken's.  We did a tour of the brewery/museum, Morgan was thrilled to get some merch!

Met up with Pamela Van Reesema for the Van Gough museum on Friday night.  There was a special exhibit "Van Gough at Night" at the museum.  Starry Night and Starry Night Over The Rhone were both there, along with many other night scenes. So amazing to see his work up close and personal.  After the exhibit we ventured in to check out the permanent collection - just a gluttonous amount of Van Gough! 

Perfect weather - beautiful city!

London town

Flew from Barcelona to London on the 14th... a few pics from a walk/tube tour in London.
Look kids: Big Ben, Parliament.

roadtrip..la la la molina!

Amazing surprise snow storm for Easter Sunday! Which also happened to be my entire ski season. Jesse, Morgan and I rented a car which turned out to be a mini van, headed towards the Pyrenees for a ski day...

We stopped for a walk around Montserrat on the way to the mountains. Old monastery built right into a mountain. Chilly. Impressive.

The drive to the Pyrenees was pretty cool - we must have gone through at least six mountain tunnels getting to La Molina. Checked into our hotel and set out for dinner. We forgot every single map in the hotel room so just went with our guts...led us to a little mountain village called Das. Interesting/intimidating street size vs car width ratio. Jesse got us out without a scratch. We ended up eating cheese fondue in a village or town called Alps (which also had rediculously narrow streets).

Thank you again to Khobe and Doug for lending 3 pairs of ski pants and 3 pairs of goggles...necessities for our one day on the mountain. Morgan might have broken her thumb (but was also caught smiling on the mountain). Jesse and I took an afternoon gondola into a complete white out. Everyone made it to 4pm meeting at the base bar for a mandatory beer. Excellent day!

Barcelona

Barcelona was lots of fun - Morgan came to join which was awesome. Gaudi mania!

We attempted to do the open-top tour bus one day. It started raining the minute we boarded. We tried to tough it out on the top deck but it was no use...we got soaked and could not even open our eyes to see the sights. Had to stop for a bottle of wine part way through. Rode the rest of the time on the inside of the bus, not the best view b/c of all the ads painted on the windows. Miserable tour - but definitely something to laugh about once it was over. Not sure I even took any photos that day.

Morgan and I took a walk to Park Guell - randomly stumbled upon a poster for Toots & the Maytals playing in Barcelona on the 8th. We stood in line for an hour and got tickets! Such a cool venue, reminded me of the Great American Music Hall. The crowd was as rowdy as I have ever seen @ a Toots show, bordering on mosh pit. The chant for encore was futbol (soccer) style. So cool.

Jesse has some photos of dinner with Khobe & Doug... and the climbing of the Gato sculpture! Hysterical. They were nice enough to let us use their apartment in Barcelona as a make-shift travel agent. From this office space we planned our Easter holiday to La Molina.

Valencia

Took the 7am bus from Salamanca to Madrid, then the noon bys from Madrid to Valencia. Have been staying at low budget hostels in Spain using hostelworld.com so far. Most of the hostels are dorm style which is different for us after SE Asia and the cheap accomidations.

Found a place to stay in Valencia that is a room in an apartment. SICK views! It is located in the New Valencia part of town - literally just across the street form the City of Arts & Sciences designed by Santiago Calatrava. Amazing modern buildings.

We walked into town from here via the Turia Gardens. There was a cool fountain by the Museo Bellas Artes that changed along with music that played over a loudspeaker. Fun to be in the park on a Saturday when everyone was out & about!

There is a little chihuahua puppy here named Martin! I am sort of in love with him and want to take him with me.

Today we are jumping on the train to Barcelona! The train station in Valencia is beautiful. I am looking forward to train travel after so much time on busses.

Morgan will already be in Barcelona when we arrive! So excited to see her. It is crazy that today is the last day that Jesse and I will be traveling alone together. It has been such an adventure figuring everything out as we go...and somehow we made it! Just 2 weeks left. Time flies....

Salamanca

Enjoying the sunshine in Spain. 2 days spent in Salamanca mostly walking around or hanging in the Plaza Mayor.There are massive birds that nest on the old structures, not sure what they are exactly but it was pretty awesome to see them fly overhead.

It seems that every other store is a meat & cheese shop. Me gustan los bacadillos del jamon y queso!

made it to Spain!

Last few days in SE Asia were spent in Ubud. Lots of culture..and randomly Michael Franti was playing on our last night!
We flew from Bali to madrid..with a 6 hour layover in Doha! Interesting 30 hours of travel.

Madrid was chilly. But beautiful. We went to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza which was fabulous...although my pinky toe that I broke in Ko Phi Phi was not excited to be in a shoe & walking around for 6 hours.

Now in Salamanca for a few days & then heading to Valencia, maybe Ibiza - then Barcelona!

Culture shock to be in Europe but so fun to speak some Spanish and it is beautiful! Our clothes are not exactly appropriate so have to buy a few new things to keep warm.

Looking forward to meeting Morgan in Barcelona!!