Blogs from Europe - page 12017

It was market day in St-Jean so we had a walk around and bought cheese and vegetables from some of the local farmers’ stalls. Then we headed into the Pyrenees and the van crossed its first mountain pass, the Ibaneta at 1045m into Spain. Following which we drove west via Pampona and stopped for the night at Burgos, which we plan to explore tomorrow. ... read more

We arrived in Sevilla in anticipation of experiencing the Feria de Abril. While we had heard much about the colour and flair of the city and the festival, it soon became apparent that the festival was not really a tourist event. Like one travel writer describes it "(the festival) is like a thousand private parties that you are not invited to". Nonetheless it was great to be a spectator at times and just take in the granduer of the spectacle. Sevillians love to dress up, and all through the streets of Sevilla were women dressed in their finest undertaking the most mundane of activities. I felt a little uncomfortable staring at times, until I realised that perhaps that was the basis of the event, and indeed the entire city...to parade. Sevilla is a busy, vibrant ... read more

Geo: 52.3738, 4.89095Woke up and grabbed a hot chocolate before heading to the grocery store. I gotta admit - I just like going to grocery stores when I travel. They had a self-serve bread slicer - for some strange reason I found this interesting. Perhaps it was the lack of nutrients the past few days. Tto rectify this, I bought a bottle of orange/kiwi juice and coconut yogurt for now and a Chimay beer for the train ride to Amsterdam. Ate the yogurt back at the hostel with some leftover trail mix from a recent Montana ski trip. The coconut yogurt was WAY better in Italy. Mmmmm ... Italian yogurt ... Took forever to check out of the hostel. Good thing I gave myself extra time to walk to the train station. Also turned out that ... read more

ParisThe Conley Family Hey everyone! My family has been in Paris since the 19th and today is the 22nd. It seems since we have been walking so much that we have walked about everywhere possible in Pris. If anyone here wants to go to Paris, instead of walking everywher on foot I recomend takeng a bike tour with fattiretours.com because #1 biking 10 miles is easier than walking 10, and #2 because they are freindly and for those of you who don't speak french thankfully they speak english because they are a ameirican based company. My family took this bike tour and we had alot of fun. So far it has been kind of difficult trying to learn spanish by going to France, Morocco and Portugal. But one of the good sides of going to those ... read more

Champions One of the funniest and most memorable times in Poland was when Marios parents picked us up from the train station (we were so relieved to see them coz we didnt know where we were and werent sure theyd got the message). They took us to their house and fed us and then on the way to Marios apartment (before stopping so Marios Dad could by us beer!!! and sausages) we were listening to the radio and good old Queen came on. Marios parents dont speak English, and obviously we dont speak Polish, but 'We are the Champions' is apparently international language. There was one perfectly harmonised moment when Freddie was singing and everyone in the car joined in... it didnt last long coz Cherida and I dissolved into giggles. I will never listen ... read more