The Louvre
The Eiffel Tower, taken right outside our apartment. One of the neat things that we got to experience while they were here was a little surprise during dinner. While we were sitting down to dinner one night we heard some music coming from outside, and to our surprise there was a one man trumpet show playing down our street. He was playing songs like Frank Sinatra for almost 30 minutes. It was really neat to experience something that could only happen while living in the center of Paris!
When Keith and Kay first got here we did an early/late Christmas for last year and this year. Chris is wearing a gift that we bought for his dad while in Italy. We got the cheese in the Netherlands.
Our first stop was Seville, Spain. Seville is a beautiful city with an amazing cathedral. Since we have been in Europe we have had the opportunity to see many cathedrals. This one is definitely my favorite!
This is the supposed grave of Christopher Columbus.
One of the reasons why this cathedral is one of my favorites is because of its unique architecture. It was actually built onto an ancient mosque that was built in the 12th century. The finished product today is the result of ancient Muslim and Gothic architecture. The bell tower, La Giralda, was part if the mosque.
Our next stop was southern Portugal to hit the beaches! This is Praia (beach in Portuguese) do Carvalho.
Pic Benagil
All of the beaches in the Algarve are surrounded by cliffs leading to the cold Atlantic Ocean. While we were at this beach we decided to take a swim around the corner… this is what we found! We couldn’t get our own picture of it because the only way to get to this amazing cave was to swim or take a boat. Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t do it justice!
Praia do Camilo
Praia do Camilo
Sand City! Every year the town of Pera has a sand sculpture expo. This year’s theme was “Hollywood.” (Spencer: I made sure to get a picture of all the super-heros for you, the pics are in the slide show.)
Mount Rushmore
E.T.
Chris’s favorite, “The Simpsons”
After Sand City we decided to drive out to the western-most tip of Europe, Cabo de Sao Vicente.
Here we are at the end!
Finally the last thing that we did while we were in Portugal was go to a bull fight! We really wanted to go to a bull fight in Spain, because that is one of the things that Spain is known for, but since it was the end of the season we didn’t want to take the risk of not seeing one at all. The bull fights in Spain and Portugal are basically the same, except in Portugal they don’t kill the bull in the ring; they kill it after the fight. Another difference is that in Portugal they have an extra event where a group of 12 men (with funny-looking hats) line up single file and corner the bull in the ring. (This is after the bull has been weakened by the barbed darts.) After attracting the attention of the bull, the first man in line hunches down ready to take the blow when the bull charges (fortunately the bull’s horns are wrapped up or no one would survive this). As the bull charges the men act as dominos, gathered on the bull to stop him. They did this three times while we were there!
Keith and Kay ready and excited for the bull fight to start! We all really enjoyed the bull fight but I think that it was Kay that enjoyed it the most. (She screamed the whole time like she was at an Elvis concert) At the end of the bull fight the matador goes around the ring to wave at the crowd. As he circles the ring people throw their pieces of clothing down for him to touch and throw back. We almost had Kay convinced to throw her bra to the matador, because she liked it so much! (She settled for her coat, then Chris threw his, then Keith threw his hat)
There are three stages to the bull fight: First the matador comes out on a horse (beautiful horses that are dressed up and manes braided) and sticks barbs into the back of the bull. After there are 3-4 barbs in the bull’s back, the second stage begins when the matador comes out on foot to attack the bull with more barbs (this is the stage in Spain when the matador actually kills the bull). Finally, the third stage is when the 12 men take on the bull to tease it some more. After that the bull is taken back out of the ring. We found it interesting that the way they got the bull out of the ring was to send a herd of other bulls out with it for the bull to trust and then follow out.
This was a video of the third stage of the bull fight. They did this to three bulls. Unfortunately the more exciting ones we recorded on the video camera. The last bull did some serious damage. First, he knocked a guy out, then he beat up another guy, then the guy who got knocked out went back out and got his arm stuck underneath the bull’s horns. Fortunately, everyone lived. But there had to have been some serious internal bleeding and some broken ribs. It is interesting to see the mentality of the bull fighters when someone got hurt, no one called an ambulance or anything they just waited till he got up and then patted him on the butt and said “you’re okay!” We couldn’t believe they put up so much of a fight and put their lives in so much danger being that the stadium was only 1/3 full! It was definitely an experience that we will all remember!
After Portugal we headed to Spain, where we used the Navy Base, Rota as our base camp. From there we visited the city of Cadiz, which was totally boring. Then we went to Gibraltar.
Gibraltar is located on the southern most-tip of Spain. However, the 2.6 square mile territory is actually owned by Great Britain. The majority of the territory is covered by a large rock, The Rock of Gibraltar. Since we were in southern Spain we decided to take a day trip there.
At the highest point on the rock.
There is only an 8 km distance between Gibraltar and Morocco, Africa. The mountains behind us are in Morocco.
There are several hundred monkeys that live on the rock. One myth claims that they came from Morocco through an underwater tunnel. The monkeys are used to the humans. In fact, the monkeys go down to the city below the rock to steal food. Here one of the monkeys won’t let go of Kay’s pants.
Chris standing by the monkey-he said the monkey was acting shady, so he didn’t want to get super close with his back turned. He didn’t even realize they had the same pose!
My favorites were the baby monkeys. When I would hold my hand out they would pull and chew on my nails (they were long) because they thought it was food.
We made the mistake of using a tour guide to take us all over the rock to the various sites. The whole reason I wanted to go the Rock of Gibraltar was for the monkeys. When our tour guide only gave us 10 minutes with the monkeys, Chris being the wonderful husband that he is, trekked back up the rock with me to find the monkeys again. Here we are only half way up (it felt like we were climbing stairs to Everest)! On a side not, someone decided to bleed on the railing for the entire length of the stairs, so we couldn’t even touch the rail!
Amazingly Gibraltar has an airport. However, in order to make space for a runway, they shut down the one and only road going into the territory (located in the center of the runway) each time a plane comes in or out. We had the opportunity to see a plane take off.
Back in Spain with the rock behind us.
Church in Rota, Spain.
The last night that we were there we went to a dinner and Flamenco show. It was awesome-and really intense! One greasy looking guy played guitar with his head down and sang while the rest clapped violently and danced like their lives depended on it. We had actually tried to hit up a free Flamenco show early in the week, but it just ended up being a couple of kids (like a flamenco studio recital type of thing). So we went to a paid show after that. While we were at the show we met some fellow military people there, who just happened to catch a flight from Peterson. They were from Colorado Springs. They were really nice people that took a picture of us and then sent a letter to my parents just to let them know they saw us and we were doing well (I think they might have had experience with seeing their children go as well). It was really nice of them to do that for us!
Dinner at the Flamenco Show.
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9 comments:
Jealous! I totally want to see a bunch of guys get gored by a bull! You could not pay me enough to step foot in that ring :)
Hey Chris! Thanks for the nice comment. Congratulations to you and your cute bride, I can't believe you guys live in Paris! That's cool. Sounds like you guys get to do some world traveling! What fun experiences.
Oh man your trip looks amazing! Oh chris-josh says your dads apron is sexy! Definately made us laugh.
How fun! It's so neat that Chris' parents were able to come visit. And SO neat that you were able to show them around.
My little brother, Quinten, has been stationed at an Air force base in Germany for the last 3 years and has seen a lot of Europe. I've seen some amazing pictures, and would LOVE to see all those things myself someday.
It's so neat that you guys are having all these neat experiences!
Wow! You are making Richard and I jealous. It makes us think of when we did Space A to Spain. We love it there. I hope one day we cn have some of those opportunities of being able to travel most of Europe! And you got to see a bull fight! That's one of the things we didn't get to do. How cool!
Christopher Keith! That apron is GROSS! You big sick. I hope I never have to see you dad in it.
Love the apron! Not only does it have practical application, it also shows an appropriate use of high art! Very nice!
I was not aware that this would turn into a porn site. Please don't let the Colonel have that apron....please.
Great pictures! I passed the Simpson sand sculpture on to a friend. He was amazed. He, too, appreciates the finer things in life...
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