On Thursday we flew out of Granada up to Northeastern Spain to visit Barcelona! It is very different from every other Spanish city we have visited. First of all, the common language there is not Spanish, but Catalan (a combination of French and Spanish of some sort). It seemed odd to be in Spain and not speaking Spanish! Our first glimps of Barcelona was walking down the popular "Las Ramblas" street. This street was unlike anything we've experienced before.... it was an outlet for human talent. Apparently this is where the art of street performing began and they were sure creative. [View Full Entry]

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Ding, ding. Phase 2 of our European adventure began last Sunday as the Sparta group took off for home. We spent the rest of that day with Sarah, Vanessa and Whitney in Madrid. We discovered the perfect Sunday morning activity.... row boating in el parque del buen retiro (like Central park of Madrid). There is this huge pond in the middle of the park and you can rent a row boat, so we did. Team Beckstrom boat beat Team Aquafest boat in a race around the pond. The rest of the day included paella for lunch in the plaza mayor and [View Full Entry]

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One of Spain’s most beautiful towns, Toledo, was our next stop on our way through Spain with our Sparta group. We were there for about 5 hours, enjoying the medieval streets and the great views that this city provides. The town was just completing their large Corupus Christi celebration so we got to see the reminents of that. We went through the cathedral of Toledo which is the 10th largest in the world. There are 80 some churches in Toledo so that is how the phrase ¨Holy Toledo¨was coined. We also got to see some of their famous swords. Some of [View Full Entry]

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One of the great adventures of this trip with the group was getting to go on an excursion down to Morocco, Africa. We took our bus to the border of Spain, then a ferry to cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Africa. Then bus again to get through the border patrol. This was very interesting and seemed a bit chaotic. We all had to get off the bus and get checked to make sure we didn’t have Swine flu. No one did. ☺ There were cars being unloaded and checked out. People were all over the place going back and forth. [View Full Entry]

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During the second half of our tour with the students we saw a lot of Andalucia and also some of Castilla y Leon and Madrid. They cannot go back home and say they didn’t see much of Spain! In Andalucia we were treated to a hotel within walking distance of the Mediterranian which is always nice. We were able to swim and enjoy taking in some rays! After some solid disfrutando in the MED we made our way to Sevilla. Sevilla is one of the most picuresque cities in the Spanish speaking world. Many white buildings, small medieval streets and a [View Full Entry]

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Hola de Espana! Well, we have been in Spain now for a solid week and a half. We have been touring with a group of students from Sparta high school through Madrid and the south of Spain and we have been so busy we have not really had time to blog. So, our mission now is to get you caught up on what we have been doing so far. We left for Spain on June 12th and arrived at mid day on Saturday June 13th. The travel here was very smooth. Our flights were on time and we made it here [View Full Entry]

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We arrived on the Emerland Isle on Sunday night. After a few flight delays we were wondering if we were going to get here, but we did. No overnights in the airport like last year! We took a bus to Galway on Monday and belive we have landed at one of the most festive places in Ireland! If it wasnt obvious by our huge GREEN plane with a countdown to St. Pat's day, then it was here in Galway. That was very evident to us last night as we were sitting in an Irish pub listening to an awesome Irish band [View Full Entry]

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We have been in Munich for 3 days now and it certainly has lived up to it´s claim as one of the most fun cities in Europe. Probably our favorite activity was taking a 4 and a half hour bike tour around the city where we learned a lot about the history of Munich and went to a biergarten which is a must while you are in Germany. The bikes we took out were pretty interesting. Imagine your first bike, complete with back pedal breaks, and triple it in size. Apparently you never forget how to ride a bike, but learning [View Full Entry]

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We went to Berchtesgaden.... we hiked.... a LOT.... it was BEAUTIFUL... we stayed with a German family.... enjoy the pics! [View Full Entry]

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Guten tag! We arrived in Austria on Monday after a busy day of travel. We had breakfast in Paris, France and lunch in Munich, Germany and we ended the day with supper in Salzburg, Austria. The Austrian food we had was very hearty and delicious, and fun to try and pronounce. Schweinsbraten (Pork and dumplings) for SJ and a solid weinerschnitzl for Andy (deep fried pork)!! Salzburg is a very small city compared to where we have been and it seems very calm and not busy. Yesterday we explored the city, which included finding the pretzel stand that sold huge doughy [View Full Entry]

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