Road Trippin' Around Gorgeous Normandy

Of course most of our trip was focused on visiting famous WWII places.  Although, we found a couple places we wanted to visit in between the history places.   Now, I remind you that this post is not in chronological order as it is just about the non-WWII places we visited.  For the WWII post, click here!

On Sunday morning, we headed to Mont Saint-Michel, which is an island in France.  When driving here, you began to see the island when we were still 15 minutes away.  The closer you got, the more of a "Wow" factor you got!  This island is basically built on top of itself...does that make sense?  It is so tall, and everything is just crammed on this small island.  The strangest part about it is that nothing else is around it.  There are just open fields and a few little French houses.  Part of the reason for that is the high tide comes up so far (around the island) that not much else can be around it or it would be ruined. 

On the road to the island.

We had to walk about 2 miles from our car just to get to the island.  There were TONS of people there, as I read online that over 3 million people visit a year.  To put that in perspective, the Eiffel Tower has 6.9 million visitors a year.  Pretty impressive tourist area in such a small amount of space.  Once we got into the city, there were just people everywhere.  We immediately knew we should have came at least an hour, if not two hours earlier.  The island was filled with small shops and restaurants.

 This is the walk to the island.  Just a bit further is where the water comes up to during high tide (or so we thought).

 Gorgeous, right?

The narrow streets filled with people!

In the past, it was able to stay untouched during The Hundred Years War because of the natural high tide defense.  Later it became a prison, but now it is most known for its beautiful abbey located at the very top of the island.  Unfortunately, the lines were super long so we were unable to visit the abbey without staying there for hours waiting in line.  We had too much on the agenda for the day to wait in line for a long amount of time.

 Close up of the abbey

This picture makes me laugh because we took about 6 selfies before this.  A man walked up to us and asked if he could take our picture for us. We must have looked like we were struggling. 

On Monday, we woke up really early to hit the road to head to the city of Eretat.  We were heading about an hour and a half to Normandy's White Cliffs.  We were both secretly crossing our fingers that we don't strike out again with the cliffs like we did just a couple days prior.  To our surprise, we had yet another moment of awe, as this was absolutely stunning!  The tide was fairly low at the time, so we went and walked down by the rocky beach.  Then we started making our way to the arches, stepping over rocks of all shapes and sizes as well as mini-pools of water in between the large stationary rocks.

 The view when we first walked down to the beach upon arrival

 The little pools of water. So pretty. I was surprised to not see any fish or creatures though.

We climbed numerous ladders, went through a mini cave tunnel, and made our way to the arch up close.  It was such an adventure climbing the ladders, guessing where we were going to end up in the end.  The tunnel freaked me out for a bit, as it was dark.  But luckily it was short and just a way to get to the other side of the beach.  There was one spot with a ladder that was resting on the side of the cliffs.  You looked up to see a small path that was basically going vertical up to the Eretat Cliff area where you could walk on top of the cliffs.  It is the only way out if high tide comes...ahhhhh! So scary!

 Small cave area.  The ladder we climbed to reach the tunnel.

 Inside the cave

 The famous arch

Words cannot describe how beautiful this area was, and it made our experience at the Cliffs of Moher run for its money.  It was interesting to see the warning signs around our walk around the beach, as when high tide arrives you could be "stranded" in one of the areas for up to 4 hours.  The tide comes up so far that all the area we walked in would be under water.  By the time we left (about an hour later) the tide was already starting to rise. We wished we could have followed the paths on top of the cliffs (you can get to them in another spot...not the scary ladder above).  I could have spent more time in this adorable city, and on the beach.  The weather was still pretty cold, as you can tell we have our winter jackets on.  But definitely one of the mini-trips I'll remember for a long time.

 One of my favorite pictures

 So much green goo!  We had to be careful walking along the edge (you can see the hand rail behind me) as it was so slippery!

 The ladder leading up to the top of cliffs

 The entrance to the cave tunnel

The safety sign

This pretty much sums up our time in Normandy, France.  We had an amazing time, and I know it was one of our favorites.


On to the next adventure...

60+ Degrees and Sunny...Then Tuesday Came

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you will already know that my mom surprised me and came to visit on Friday.  Jeff and my parents had been scheming since DECEMBER to plan this excursion. My parents and Jeff did not tell anyone, until my mom was on her way over...which I think it a pretty good kept secret! It was very sweet of them to surprise me, and I think I almost ruined it a couple times when I surprised them a few weeks ago.  Everyone who knew, kept the secret well! I am so glad she is over here for 10 days.

Reunited!

So since they had planned it so far in advance, my mom was able to join us on our trip to Lisbon, Portugal.  She came at the right time, given we only have a few big trips left! We left for Lisbon on Sunday morning. Mom got to experience the early to rise, jump in the car, and head to the airport-kind of morning.  It was a longer flight for us, a little over 2 hours, and we were in Lisbon by 12:00PM.  We jumped on the metro and headed to our hotel.  We were able to clean up, and go out to grab some lunch before completely exploring the city.  I officially had one of the worst meals since we moved here.  It wasn't bad in taste, but the pork was VERY overcooked. It was as hard as a rock! Luckily, Jeff ordered a giant dish of paella and my mom ordered pasta...so I was able to eat off of their plates a little as well.

Next, we were off to St. George's Castle.  It was quite the walk up to the area where the castle was located.  We had a great calf workout as all the roads were at an incline. We made it to the top where it had amazing views of the River Tagus, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean.  All of the buildings are so close together, that it looked as if they were all sitting on top of each other.  It was a very European feel, and reminded us of our time in Rome, despite all of the massive amounts of history.  There was not much to the castle, as it was all open and reminded us more of a fort than a castle.  Now, I remind you that we have visited some extraordinary castles (like our Edinburgh Castle visit), so our standards are set very high.  It was great being able to walk up & down the old stairs and see a new scene from each side of the castle.  We especially enjoyed the random peacocks that were walking around the area as well. And we even found a few cats!

 Right in front of the castle. It overlooks the river and all of the beautiful buildings.

 In front of the main entrance to the castle

Love this shot! The red/orange roof tops were beautiful!

After our visit to the castle, we headed down to the water's edge.  It was a beautiful view, especially to see the 25th of April Bridge, which is almost identical to the Golden Gate Bridge.  We walking along the board walk enjoying the 65 degree day.  Sorry, family/friends back home...I don't have much of a filter on my blog posts! We grabbed a famous Portuguese custard tart (or Pastel de nata) which is a must when visiting Lisbon.   As the three of us were sitting there enjoying it, we were trying to compare it to something we had already had before.  We decided it was a mix of flan, sugar creme pie, and a dab of lemon inside.  They were about the size of a cupcake.  Very tasty, and we all agreed we were shocked we didn't grab another one during our time there. Check out the Pastel de nata link for a visual, as I forgot to take a picture!

 In front of the arch that leads into a plaza area right next to the water

Down by the water (obviously)

We cleaned up, and headed out to a fantastic Portuguese restaurant, called Restaruante A Gina which was hidden back in a side street.  Right when we sat down they brought us bread, a cheese and pork spread, and fried potato peels.  We were chomping away, trying all the local appetizers.  For our main courses, Jeff tried the famous Portuguese cod, I gave pork another shot, and mom tried a chicken dish.  All were large portions with lots of potatoes, vegetables, and fantastic rice. We tried some of the house white wine, and debated on this traditional dessert that locals around us were enjoying.  We gave in, and tried the "custardy" cake that was drizzled with honey.  Pretty similar to the photo here.  I wasn't the biggest fan, but Mom and Jeff enjoyed it.

 My pork on the left and Jeff's cod on the right.

We headed out the next morning all ready to take on a full day of sight seeing, walking, and embracing the culture.  The three of us went off to explore a bridge Jeff and I learned about when visiting the Tower Bridge last month.  They had various bridges from around the world, and they were beautiful.  The Aguas Livres Aqueduct was used a long time ago to bring fresh drinking water from the mountains into the city. Unfortunately, we were unable to walk across the bridge because it was closed, but we were able to view it closely and take a few photographs. If you're reading in this in hopes to visit Lisbon, it is a must...but just go on a Tuesday.  

 The HUGE bridge. My mom and I even were able to see it from the plane.

 You can see how big it is with Jeff next to it

We got so many great pictures. It is awesome to have a third person to travel with, so we can continually rotate who is taking the picture!

We were pretty annoyed, as this was just one of many attractions that were closed on Mondays.  This made it difficult for us to plan our activities, given we flew in on Sunday and were flying out on Tuesday.  We made the best of the poor planning, and saw what we could! We walked around the city, up/down the steep roads.  We found a viewing spot to see the castle and buildings across the city.  We finally made it to a wonderful spot for lunch where Jeff and my mom enjoyed pizzas and I got a fantastic chicken sandwich.  We were off again, heading to the metro station.  We saw the ferries used for public transportation to a town called, Barrerio.  So...why not take the ferry across the river to see the other side? It was about a 15 minute ride to the other side. It was enclosed, so we weren't able to get the best pictures. But we had a great view of the bridge, Lisbon from afar, and it was fun being out on the water.

The view from the one open window on the ferry. You can see the bridge and Christ the King monument to the left.

After we arrived back on the Lisbon side,  we went to a church (no pictures allowed) and enjoyed a beautiful park. My mom was able to have her first European gelato experience.  We found this great place near the park that had an array of flavors to choose from.  My mom got strawberry & pineapple, I enjoyed raspberry & after eight (chocolate mint), and Jeff enjoyed strawberry & cheesecake.  Amazing.  It didn't seem like we checked off much from our to-do list during the day, but we covered a lot of ground walking around and just enjoying the simplicity of the city.  The night ended with some tapas, which we were able to try a few new dishes.  We even got my mom to try squid!

 They had a few swings hanging from the ceiling instead of chairs!

 We loved the tiles, although you can't see much of them in this shot. Everywhere you went the tiles on the ground were in a different pattern.

 The yellow trollies are all over the city. Both locals and tourists fill them up at every spot. 

 Giant tree in the park

We found another great viewing spot during our walk around the city.

The next morning we woke up bright and early so we could get to the sights early since we were flying out in the afternoon.  We finally rode on the famous yellow tram we had been seeing around the city.  It was about 20-25 minutes on the tram (or from what I remember).  It started to rain while we were on the tram, so by the time we got off...it was pouring.   Not only was it raining, but the temperature dropped, and we were freezing!  We grabbed our umbrellas and trucked through the rain to see the last few sights.  The Monument of Discoveries was beautiful, although we didn't appreciate it as much with the rain falling sideways and soaking us in the process.  We walked along the water side in attempts to make it to the Belem Tower.  Unfortunately, the pier ended...so we gave up. Just like that.  We walked across the street to visit the Monastery of Jeronimos instead. It opened, and we were able to walk around the grounds for an hour or so.  It was quite and pretty, but there was not much to it other than beauty.

 Monument of Discoveries...in the pouring rain.

 You can see how hard it was raining by just looking at Jeff's poor, wet jacket

Not sure if you can tell just how hard it is raining. Maybe our faces say it all...

 The rain stopped, and we headed to the monastery

 Inside the monastery

We grabbed some breakfast, and made our way back to grab our bags then head out to the airport.  When asking my mom about her time in Lisbon she said, "I enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful tiles on the streets, and I loved the desserts.  Most importantly, it was great spending time with you and Jeff."

 Somehow I forgot this picture when I published it yesterday! One of my favorites, too!

On to the next adventure...

 

We Bought a Flat in Barcelona!

....Just kidding, although if I had to pick a place to own a vacation home...Barcelona would be the spot! We had an amazing time.  This city was the best of both worlds, great history & architecture as well as the beach.  We took advantage of both!

We got to Barcelona around dinner time on Wednesday, well I should say America's dinner time (6 pm).  We found out dinner time in Barcelona is from 9-11 pm! We actually were able to eat around that time due to being so busy throughout the day and evenings.  On Wednesday night, we were able to grab our first round of tapas: patatas bravas (potatoes with a cheese sauce), peppers, & chicken.  It was great! 

We, well I should say, I, woke up on a mission on Thursday.  This was the first trip that I really prepped for and did my research.  It helped that a few of our friends over here gave some suggestions, so from that I made an itinerary.  I know what you're thinking...poor Jeff. I eventually calmed down once we checked a few things off of our "to dos".  We were able to see this place called Casa Calvet, and to be honest we could barely find it because the building didn't really stand out from the rest.  Jeff laughed that I even had it on the "must sees". If you're reading this, and planning on going to Barcelona, you can definitely leave this one off of your list. I'm not going to even waste blog space by putting a picture up! hehe

We headed towards La Monumental (former bull fighting stadium), which was fantastic.  There were not many people there, so we were able to take advantage of the stadium and even stand in the middle of the bull ring.  La Monumental no longer does bull fights, which completely bummed Jeff out. We ended up getting some great pictures and really enjoyed our time there.  This was one of Jeff's favorite places we went while in Barcelona.  He has his eye on attending a live bull fight at some point. Yikes!

The outside of the stadium.  The blue & white parts of the building are made of small tiles.  Amazing!

Jeff inside the bull ring.  

Thanks, Sis for letting us buy the camera.  We took advantage of the self-timer & new settings.  We love it! 

After the stadium, we attempted to go to a flea market, but it wasn't open...so we headed onto the next destination which was Arco del Triunfo.  This was a beautiful monument in the city that we snapped a few photos of before heading into a park.  Grabbing lunch was up on the agenda, so we heading through the Gothic Quarter  and stopping at a local market to grab something for lunch.  The markets were amazing & everything was fresh.  The fish were a little too fresh, if you know what I mean.  Because it was so crowded, Jeff and I made a plan to meet outside with our items of choice if we got separated.  Good thing we said this, because the minute I smelled the fish...I quickly moved away from that area.  I think Jeff ended up with some sort of meat & pepper skewer and breaded spinach.  I came out with a chicken & cheese pastry and a strawberry juice.  We ended up heading back through to get some more fruit.

 Well this is a first...just a peacock walking around the city.  The zoo was close by, so I was convinced it escaped...

Now, do you see why I ran? This AND the smell...not cool. 

Can you believe I'm still only talking about Thursday? We accomplished so much at this point! We headed back towards the hotel to get some sun at our rooftop pool! Before the pool, we saw Casa Batllo, which was so creative! This building has to be one of the best pieces of architecture in the city.  We opted out and didn't go inside, but I'm sure when we live there we will have time to do that. Am I right?  The pool was so relaxing, and definitely a great way to unwind after a long day of walking the city.  We got cleaned up and headed out for, yet another, round of tapas. We tried a few other types including some sort of pork, grilled vegetables, patatas bravas (Yes, again!), guacamole, and Pa amb tomaquet. Pa amb tomaquet was a Catalan specialty.  You were given bread, tomato, garlic, and olive oil.  You rubbed the garlic and tomato on the bread and drizzled olive oil on top. Really yummy!  

 Casa Batllo...one of the many Gaudi pieces of "art" throughout the city. 

 Pool time!

Our little oasis! 

Now...Friday. 

So, since I "planned ahead" I obviously checked the weather before we left for Barcelona.  Planning a beach day didn't seem odd at all as all 5 days were in the mid 80's with zero clouds.  Little did I know, the forecast changed and we woke up to the sounds of thunder and rain.  After getting ready and eating breakfast the rained stopped, so we started our trek to the beach.  We walked through the city, stopping in/out of a few shops, markets...and feeling a few rain drops here and there.  At the time, it wasn't looking pretty for our beach-filled day.  We got to the beach, with dark clouds overhead, and just enjoyed the fact that we were sitting beach-side.  The rain came back, and within a half an hour...beautiful skies again.  We really lucked out because due to the hiccup in our morning, the rest of the day was beautiful and the beach wasn't that crowded. We got some sun, enjoyed some reading, had a few beers, and played around in the Mediterranean Sea. 

 Before...

 After...

We didn't leave the beach until around 6:30 or so.  We headed to the Flea Market to look around.  They had this club-type atmosphere at the very top of the multi-teared market.  Jeff grabbed a piece of pizza and a beer. I think he needed that to get himself through the flea market with me.  Poor guy. After the market, we got cleaned up and went to a Flamenco Show.  This is something I really wanted to go see, and once again Jeff was a trooper and went with me.  It was an hour long show where local performers would dance and sing.  I loved it!  Their costumes were amazing as well as their level of speed when moving their feet.  It was definitely a different experience for us, as we don't normally take advantage of shows and things like that while on holiday.  

It wasn't just an ordinary flea market. This place was huge! 

 Palacio del Flamenco   

Look out for another blog post to summarize Saturday and Sunday. Phew, I'm tired.