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...

 

Walking With Scholars

After our time in Bath, we headed to a town in between Bath and Oxford, Swindon, to stay for the night.  We ended up having a little extra time, so we went to see the new Hunger Games movie.  We laughed, as we remembered we saw the last movie in England during our time looking for houses last November. We joked as we now need to come back to England to see Part II.  We woke up on Sunday morning to drive a little less than an hour to Oxford.  We walked around the city for a bit enjoying all of the beautiful buildings.

Our weekend of famous authors continued as Oxford was known to house C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe) and J.R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings). These authors, along with a few others met at the pub, The Eagle and Child (The name of the pub is based on a famous myth).  They used to meet here to discuss literature and writing. Oxford was also known to house Alice Liddell, who inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 

 

Up next was a tour of one of Oxford's most famous libraries, Bodleian Library, which many of you will recognize as one of the places Harry Potter was filmed. The Divinity School was the first part of the library tour.  Our tour guide spent literally 30 minutes talking about the ceiling.  Each little piece the architect created had a story behind it.  Although it was beautiful, I think our tour guide might have spent a little too much time telling us about these details. For the Harry Potter fans, this room was used as the hospital in the first two movies.  In real history it was used as a school house that approximately 40 students attended lecture all taught in Latin.

Next on the tour was Duke Humfrey's Library, and no picture were allowed here.  Although, I would click on my link, as it is very impressive.  In Harry Potter, it was used as the Hogwart's Library.  The books were so incredibly old, and some were chained to parts of the desks as they were not allowed to leave the library.

We headed to Radcliffe Camera next, as it was another library in a separate building.  No pictures inside as well.  It was a more modern library, and the inside would be something you would see in a library in the states. Although the outside was pretty impressive, as it was a stand alone cylinder building. Students still use this library and other parts of the Bodleian Library.

Radcliffe Camera

 Not our best selfie, and I hesitated to even put it on the blog.  But hey, you have to have proof that we actually visit these places, right? Behind us is the Tower of the Five Orders, which is special because the detail is on the inside for those people of the university, rather than showing it off to the townspeople (boring old building on the other side facing the city).

We walked around the city, snapping photographs of other beautiful buildings and sights.  

 

The Bridge of Sighs on the left and a beautiful college building within the city. 

I'll end my post with HAPPY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR as this will be my last post of 2014, as we have travels in our future. Have no fear, 2015 will bring many new adventures, countries, and excitement! Until then.

On to our 2015 adventures...

More Pasta, More Pizza, More Beer/Wine, and More Florence!

After a quick train ride, we made our way to Florence, Italy.  I was really excited to head here, as I came here with some of my study abroad friends about oh, six years ago.  We got into Florence in the evening (I think...timing is starting to blur together).  Our hotel was one of our favorites, as it was near the train station, had a balcony with a great view, and great breakfast.

 You can see the Florence Cathedral and a few more churches from our balcony!

Panoramic view from our room. 

We walked around the city, took a few photos, and headed straight to Piazzale Michelangelo, which was where one of the replicas of The David stood.  I remembered this area during my time there with friends because we were lost for a long time, and all of a sudden there was this amazing view and The David was lit up.  It totally changed all of our moods.  So I knew I wanted to take Jeff back to that spot as it was breathtaking at night.

 Sunset at the Piazza 

One of the replicas of The David

Getting good use out of the self-timer...although we normally look pretty odd to people passing by: "Why are they smiling at that post?"

We were able to enjoy the scenery, then walk back towards the city centre for dinner.  On our way back down we kept hearing some popular music being played in a small park area.  We decided to check it out.  A young woman and man were playing/singing on a small stage. The audience was drinking, eating, and enjoying themselves at these quaint tables in this park.  We grabbed a couple beers and enjoyed the music. Jeff and I were enjoying ourselves so much that we sat their for an hour or two (or more?).  Shocker...I was losing track of time. Anyway, this ended up being one of our favorite times in Florence because it was relaxed and we could slow down the tourist mode we get into sometimes.  Afterwards, we grabbed a quick dinner (sandwiches & pizza) and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, Jeff had tickets to see the real David.  I decided to not "waste" the money, as I had already seen the massive statue.  I walked around, stopped in shops, and enjoyed the city while he went in there for about 30 minutes.  Jeff said he enjoyed himself, and was surprised that you could take photos.  I had told him that I was not able to take pictures when I went there 6 years ago, and now apparently you can.  So no pictures of the both of us, but Jeff got a few selfies with The David.

 Over 13 feet tall. 

Jeff's selfie with David

We decided to head to The Florence Cathedral.  It was a free entrance fee and extremely crowded.  Although it was absolutely beautiful, our experience wasn't the best as there were people everywhere.  You were dodging people, and trying to take pictures at the same time.  Jeff opted out of climbing the duomo, and I had already done it before.

Beautiful!

We decided to head to the market so I could do some shopping next! I had my eye on a new bag...surprised, anyone? and a maroon scarf that I had been looking for locally.  I ended up with a brown multifunctional leather bag and a maroon scarf.  I was pretty pleased with my purchases and got the prices down pretty low. Wahoo! 

[No pictures here...but I'm sure you'll see them make their debut in future posts!]

Next on our agenda was visiting a plaza area, grabbing lunch, and heading to yet another church.  Lunch was one of my favorites during our time in Italy.  I had a potato filled tortellini with meat sauce, and Jeff enjoyed a penne dish.  We also enjoyed a bottle of wine, which it and the rest of the food came from a local farm.  We really enjoyed that experience as it was a quaint place with great food.  We found the 2nd replica of The David in the Piazza della Signoria as well as a statue of Zeus or it might have been Hercules. We just went with Zeus...

 Another replica of The David

 Spending time in this busy square

Zeus or Hercules? We are overruling and saying Zeus!

We went into our last church in Florence, Basilica of Santa Croce.  It was beautiful, as they all are in their own ways.  We especially enjoyed the courtyard area.  Jeff and I sat down and enjoyed the area and the beautiful day.

 Basilica of Santa Croce

 Pretty impressive entrance, right?

The courtyard area

We headed all the way back towards our hotel to see a fortress called Fortress da Basso.  At the time, we thought this was the "fort" that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married at...now looking into it. Not the same fort. Whoops! It was a good thing they didn't get married here, because the fortress was not well kept.  We couldn't even enter, so we found a park nearby to enjoy instead.

 Outside of the fortress

 The park near the fortress

We headed to one of the most famous bridges in Florence afterwards, the Ponte Vecchino.  It is most famous because it still has functional shops built into (onto it?) it. What makes it even cooler is that all the shops are expensive jewelry stores.  It is amazing to see it from afar, as you would think the buildings would just fall into the river.  Also, walking through the bridge you don't realize you're going over water...just feels like another street.  We walked over this bridge to see the palace, Pitti Palace, which unfortunately closed about 10 minutes before we got there.  It was so massive, I could only take a picture of the entrance.  Now I have found out that the fortress where Kim and Kayne got married at was right behind this palace. THIS makes more sense now. Mystery solved. We actually saw this fortress, Forte di Belvedere,  from our view at the Piazzale Michelangelo the night before.  [End of tabloid rant]

 The famous bridge, Ponte Vecchino. No jewelry purchase this time. Florence was only meant for me to buy bags and scarves. 

We grabbed dinner on our walk back home, and headed to bed.  We had yet another early day of train rides to get to our next destination....

Onto our next adventure...