Warsaw

Arrived, saw the synagogue, ate, got back on the train. We were forewarned by a local on the train that Warsaw wasn't much to see, and after a couple hours we agreed and decided to go to Krakow earlier than planned, which turned out to be in our favor.

Berlin

Berlin is awesome... nothing like we expected. The city is packed with history, museums, and commercial centers. We were very happy that we gave up a day in Brussels so we could enjoy three day in Berlin. Our first day was mainly spent recovering from the nightmare train, but later that evening we ventured out to the Sony Center (in "The Glass Mount Fuji" building) for yet another dinner and a movie (Melinda and Melinda). We went to bed early in our beautiful hostel.

The next day we met in the lobby of our hostel at 10:15 to begin our 8 hour WALKING tour of the city. The owner of the tour company, Terry, met us and quickly walked our "doddling" (as he called us) patoots to the next stop. He told us "If Germany isn't invading their neighbors every 25 years, they're digging holes in the road or making noise... and often doing all three at once" he then proceeded to tell us this philosophy verbatum a few more times before dropping us off at the gorgeous temple to meet our tour guide, Preston. While Preston was from Oregon and lived in Berlin, he tended to speak in a combination of an English and Australian accent. He stuttered and carried a rainbow umbrella the whole day(it didn't rain) ... enough said. Despite the odd tour guide, the tour was very informative and literally walked Berlin. Highlights included Checkpoint Charlie, parts of the wall, Hitler's covered bunker, and much much more. After the scheduled 8 hours, Franki and Denise decided they didn't want to take advantage of the tour company and left early (among other reasons). Nicole and Amanda stayed on for the extra 2 hours and saw museum island and the book burning site. Needless to say that night we crashed.

Our final day in Berlin got a late start. After finally booking our hostel, getting our train tickets and putting money on Nicole's phone we were ready to start. Amanda went to two museums while Franki, Denise, and Nicole ran errands and walked by the zoo. With little time to go in they saw a rhino and three alpacas through the gate. We all met up at the Checkpoint Charlie museum and read stories about incredible escapes over, under and through the Berlin wall. We then went to Berlin's parliment building and took an elevator to the top. We walked around some and then entered the glass dome on the top of the building. The view was incredible and at this point we realized how far we had actually walked the previous day. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and arrived back at our hostel around 11 pm, packed, slept and woke up at 5 for our 6:42 train to Warsaw, Poland.

Brussels/worst night train ever

We left Amsterdam in the morning and made the trip to Brussels. It could have been a combination between us four being tired or the slums that surrounded the train station but we quickly decided our two days in Brussels down to one. We locked up our bags and with our night train tickets in hand (for that night) we headed out into the city seeking Belgium chocolates and waffles. Our search led us to the beautiful and quite impressive buildings, including the town hall and a church. We spoiled ourselves with warm waffles and ice cream among other toppings. We then decided to do a little sight seeing. Amanda knew about a famous statue called Manequin Pis and we set out to find it. We were all amazed at the size of the statue... it was smaller than some of the replicas you could buy in the stores. We then bought dessert at the Manequin Pis Choclateria (real Belgium chocolate). Later we went to dinner and a movie (Monster in Law) and then caught the night train to Berlin.

In our hurry to leave Brussels, we settled for tickets on the night train with no beds. We were in a six person room with two other people and no reclining chairs. We looked rather silly sprawled out on our 4 chairs and the floor (yes... we took turns lying on the floor... that being our most comfortable substitution for a bed). Nicole woke up with a mysterious battle wound on her arm... but other than that we survived the 9 hour nightmare.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam gets an A plus and beats indiana for changing temperature. We arrived in the city in 100 degree, humid weather, but we didn't let that stop us. Instead it was our hostel that set us back a couple hours since we arrived only to be greeted by a post it that read 'be back at 2.' Since it was only 10 am, we bought breakfast from a bakery and took our bags to a nearby hostel and asked them to keep them for us. So thanks to the hemp hotel we were ready to start our day despite not being able to change out of our night train clothes or shower...

Our first stop was the stayokay hostel near Vondelpark to meet up with Denise's friend Evan. Evan and his friend Justin (who happens to be the cousin of one of Nicole's future roommates )accompanied us to the Heineken Experience where we drank beer and learned how to make it. Nicole also had the honor of throwing her own beers at the bars and even beat Evan in a beer throwing contest. After the Heineken museum, we all went to eat falafel and then went to a coffee shop to relax. We split up from the boys to check into our hostel and shower and later met up again at Boom Chicago for an improv comedy show. The show was hilarious and a great end to a wonderful day!

Since it rained through the night, the next day was rather cool and windy. Denise, Amanda, and Franki went to the Van Gogh museum while Nicole went to the Reijldkjdlsfjk museum which housed a lot of Rembrant paintings. We met up after the museums to go on a ferris wheel ride that gave us a great view of the city. After the ride, we went to the Anne Frank House and had lunch. The House was interesting to walk through and is just a historical preview as to what we'll see in Poland. On our way home, we stopped in the red light district, but missed the spectacles that come out at night.

Overall, Amsterdam was fun since we got to hang out with friends, see museums and a show!

Switzerland

Oh how we all love Switzerland! We arrived in Zurich around noon and fell in love immediately. How could we not? Zurich has lakes, mountains, and chocolate!!! Gabi, my (nicole) grandmother's second cousin met us at the train station and we magically fit the four of us girls and our huge packs into a european car! Gabi took us to his apartment near the center of the city, we dropped our packs, ate lunch, and went for a walking tour of the city. We saw the huge cathedral, the church with stained glass windows by Chagall, and commercial center. After the tour, Gabi left us to wonder through the shopping district for the afternoon. We met back at the apartment and Gabi had dinner ready for us. We ate with Dina (the eldest daughter), Gabi's wife, and Dina's friend Sandy. After dinner, we all (everyone at dinner plus deborah (the youngest daughter)) went to the lake and actually went swimming at 9pm. The water was a little cold at first, but we all warmed up eventually (minus franki who gave it a go, but didn't make it all the way in) One would think the day ended here, but instead, we rushed back home, changed, threw up our wet lake hair, and went salsa dancing with Dina and Sandy. The salsa club was great! We had so much fun watching (key words: fun and watching) all the couples dance. We made a debut on the dance floor during the one hip hop song that played all night. Everyone in the club was so talented and really friendly. Needless to say, we were wiped out and went straight to bed after the club.

The next morning we had a later than anticipated start to Lezern. The train ride was only an hour and we took a ferry boat ride across the lake to a tram that would take us up one of the mountains. The scenery was breathtaking and we all felt a little bit guilty for experiencing something so amazing!!!!!!! The ride up the mountain, the view from the top, and the ride down were equally amazing! We were surrounded by mountains, green hills, and even got to see Swiss cows (they are cuter than they smell.) Everything ran smoothly all day long until we tried to get home on the train. It took us awhile to figure out that the train wasn't going to Zurich because none of the trains were running... we experienced the first train strike in Switzerland. Gabi called us to tell us it was all over the news and the whole country was on strike. We eventually made it onto a bus that dropped us off in Zug and then we took another bus to Zurich. It wasn't the most fun experience of our trip, but at the very least, it was a story for the blog... hope you enjoyed it.

That night we saw Leah for a bit who was also stuck on a train earlier that day and then called it an early evening.

Today, Franki and Denise went to the zoo and they really enjoyed it. The zoo was very big and had a large monkey exhibit. Denise was impressed with the zoo and we all know her standards are high. Amanda and I walked around the city and bought rings from a market we happened upon. We also took picture of a couple of the hundreds of bear statues that can be found all around the city. Artists decorated hundreds of plaster bears that sit outside of stores and line the streets of Zurich, they're really cute and interesting. Amanda and I also tried to see an art museum, but the main collection was under renovation. Later, we all met up with Deborah and went for a paddle boat ride a.k.a our exercise for the trip. Now we are getting ready to leave for Amsterdam and it's bitter sweet. I wish we could have stayed here longer.

A HUGE thank you to the Taus family who were more than hospitable to us. They are a wonderful family and we are also so happy that we had the pleasure of staying in their home.

Munich

Since we arrived late we didn't have much time in Munich and decided to go to dinner. We went to a cute little resteraunt with one major perk you got a free slice of cake with every entree. We were also invited to join a table of three American students studying abroad in Munich. There knowledge of the German language proved to be very helpful in the cake selection process. After dinner, we engaged in a serious euchre tournament, did some laundry, and called it a night.

Today, we got up early, enjoyed a free breakfast and had a full day. First, we visited a ginormous castle with a grand entry way and gardens that stretched far beyond what the eye could see. After planning Franki´s future wedding in the gardens, we headed to the English Gardens. Naturally, since it´s the largest park in europe, we spent 45 min looking for it. It´s amazing what you can avoid when you don´t have a map and you translate a sign that says ´park´as a parking lot....

Once in the park, we savored a liter of german beer and pretzles bigger than our heads. We walked for a couple of hours through the park, seeing a chinese pagoda, japanese tea house, and surfers trying the man made rapids.

The weather has been perfect and tonight we plan to go out for real and celebrate amanda´s birthday...

Oh... the trains!

To pick up where we left off... the Motzart Pub was excellent. The food was good and the desert was excellent. The palatzinkys (spelling? a.k.a crepes) where just like Grandpas... mmmm delish!

The next mornign we woke up a bit late for our scheduled 8 o'clock train and the next one left at 10:30 so we made our way to the grocery store to pick up some breakfast. We went back to the hostel to eat and then headed to the train station. We asked what platform our train was leaving from and were happy to see it was waiting for us on platform 7. We got on and settled in for our train ride to our final destination Munich... and the trains final destination Hamburg. As you can probablly guess our trip did not go quite as planned. After being on the train for 4 hours (playing cards, frequenting the food car, and sleeping) we got ready to listen for our train stop. Our train stopped and we were unsure of where we were so we asked a local, who had just got on the train, if we were in Munich to which she replied that our train was not going to Munich. We waited another 45 minutes until our next stop in Nurmeburg and got off. While we were waiting for our transfer train (another hour) we decided to get some lunch. We then got back on a train and headed towards Munich... this time for real. We talked the whole way, avoiding sleep and assuring we did not miss our stop. Apparently we were listening too hard because at the first mention of Munich we sprung up from our chairs and exited the train only to realize that we just got off on a tiny platform that resembled a balance beam with no sign of a large city in sight. A bit worried we asked some people still standing on the train at the door way if we were in fact standing in Munich, when they said no, we hurriedly leaped back on to the train and remained standing until our next stop in Munich. Once again we got off the train and this time had no problems finding our hostel.

Vienna

We met up in the paris airport where we flew to vienna and were so excited to see Nicole and Amanda waiting for us at the end of customs. We took the metro to the area our hostel was located and proceeded to get lost with our heavy backpacks for about twenty minutes... we finally found out that we'd been trekking in the wrong direction and turned around. After retracing our steps we finally found our hostel. We lucked out because we got a new room with a private bathroom. It's a great hostel for an excellent price! We then sat around to catch up for awhile before heading out for a night on the town in honor of Amanda's birthday. We ateat a fabulous restaraunt, on their 7th floor outdoor balcony overlooking the Stephansplatz cathedral. We then stolled the streets before taking a tour via horse and buggy. We enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate at the oldest cafe in Vienna before calling it a night and headed back to the hostel. We played euchre while catching up on some much needed and much missed cousin time.

Amanda and Nicole woke us up at 9 in the morning to start Amanda's birthday day. We went to the market near our hostel and picked up some bread, cheese, and fruit for breakfast. We then headed into town for some birthday cake at a cute pastry shop, were we surprised Amanda with a singing candle and sang happy birthday. Then we caught the metro to Shönbrunn, a castle where different royal families lived. We began our tour in the castle grounds, walking through the gardens and visiting the various ponds and statues. (Don't worry Mommy I took lots of pictures for you in the gardens - Franki) After that we went into the castle and took a guided audio tour. It was very pretty and we've decided that it's a perfect place for a wedding! Amanda and Franki served as our musical entertainment as we made our way to the modern art museum, which was... well interesting. We are now wasting some time before the Motzart Pub opens so we can get our hostel special on some weinerschnitzel! Tonight we plan to have a festive birthday celebration before awaking for tomorrow's train ride to Munich, Germany.

* Franki * A * N * Denise *

Milano!

Back to Italia, but just for two days. It was so nice to be in the country of Gelato and pesto and pizza once again. First of all, a note about the place we stayed in...wierdest hostel ever. This place was reallz cheap and in a decent location, so that´s why we chose it, but our guidebook failed to mention that it was run by a group of socialists and was more like a commune than a hostel. We were put randomly into a room where we shared a loft bed, and there was another young woman there, along with two middle-aged men. One of these guys was nice but talked our ears off, and the other one snored to the high heavens...You have never heard snorring like this...he sounded like he was choking on his nose, and Nicole and I suffered from less-than-adequate sleep for two nights because of this dude.

Aside from that, the visit was nice. We enjoyed the cuisine (as much as we safely could in a two-day period). We checked out the cathedral, a beautiful Gothic building, and walked around the center of town and window-shopped at GUCCI, PRADA, LOUIS VUITON and the like.

Because Nicole hadn´t seen a single cinema-show since she left the states, I escorted her to the movies TWICE, although it wasn´t really my idea. The first night we saw ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, a phenomenal film that we had already seen, but never had experienced in the theater, a huge difference. The second night we saw WIMBLEDON, a cheesy Kirsten Dunst romantic comedy (I know, pathetic, right?) I was surprised that I was enjoying the completely predictable movie from beginning to end, and accredited it to the fact that I haven´t seen bad romantic comedies in so long.

We did try to accomplish the utmost cultural feat in Milan--seeing Leonardo da Vinci´s LAST SUPPER. So we find Santa Maria Della Gratzie, the obscure church where it lives, and were DENIED. They were booked until mid-july, and even though they apparently guide "25 people every 15 minutes" by the painting, they just couldn´t squeeze us in. And to think that was the sole reason I returned to Milan...oh well.

The day before we left, we excitedly worked out the kinks of our intinerary with Franki and Denise, booking hostels and such. Now we are all together, but I will sign off and let somone else right about our reunion in Vienna.

If you are trying to post and you are not a blog member, we are trying to change the settings, but they are in Austrian right now, so we´ll see what we can do.

Much love,
f AMANDA nd

Marseille

We love France in the spring time, we love France in the fall.

Okay, so it's summer, but we still love France. Instead of hopping to many different cities like we were doing in Spain, we decided to chill out in just a couple, and what a grand decision. Marseille was fabulous. We arrived without having booked an accomodation, but at the first hotel we tried had such a nice owner that struggled with us through our language barriers and gave us a very affordable and comfortable room for three nights. One of our first days there, we visited their beautiful Basilica. It stand 230 meters above the city, with a huge statue of the virgin and child perched atop to look over the city. The climb up to the church was tiresome, but totally worth it. At the top, we could see the whole city sprawled out on one side, and the beautiful mountains and ocean on the other. I thought Florence had it all, but after that view I decided it would be JUST PERFECT with an ocean to top things off. We spent the rest of that day exploring the neighborhood Cours Julien, a funky international area where you could find every cusine imaginable. After enjoying an afternoon coffee, we had a bit of an adventure trying to re-fill our phone cards, and with the help of the friendly and considerate Marseilleans, we finally did. We enjoyed a gourmet dinner at a cute, but sophisticated restaurant. I had chicken in a rich peanut sauce, and Nicole enjoyed sesame-baked salmon. Their chocolated desserts were TO DIE FOR...mmmn. We spent our second day at Marseille on the beach, much different from any other we've been to. The beach was made up of teeny pebbles instead of sand, it kind of felt like being at a playground on the ocean. It was relaxing and uncrowded, surrounded by a park with lots of nice green grass. While napping on the beach, we got an unexpected call from our cousin Gabe who said he was in Marseille, ready to meet with us! We immediately left, in an excited rush to see him, and spent the rest of the day just catching up. Gabe makes such a lively addition to our party, and always keeps us on our toes. I personally think we need to write a book of Gabe-isms, to collect all of his courky advice. For example, Gabe believes he can replace shampoo, tooth-paste, detergent, and a dryer with baking soda...he LOVES the stuff and won't travel without it. He also dubbed me "ice-cream willy" and Nicole "Jack-in-the-box." We love our new nick-names. That was the pleasant end to our Marseille visit, Nicole will pick up in Nice.

Au'revoir,
Amanda and Nicole

Nice

Lady luck was definitely shining down on Amanda when she went to buy orange juice from a vending machine at the train station. She put in the euros for the overly priced bottle, pressed #58, and got oj and all of her change back. She repeated the act twice more and shared her free o.j.s with me and gabe. Needless to say, 58 is Amanda's new lucky number.

The train ride from Marsielle to Nice was smooth and quick. Our hostal was close to the train station and by luck (again) some people who were suppose to stay in the tripple wanted our double, so we just switched. The room wasn't the nicest, but it was big and even had a 'changing room' and a bide which also served as the musical entertainment for the evening; I suppose it was competing with Gabe's snoring...

The first day in Nice we took it easy. We walked down the narrow sidewalks of the main street (extremely narrow due to the construction of the city's upcoming tram) and went to a supermarket (the biggest I've seen in a long while.) We stocked up on groceries, made lunch, and took a long nap. When we woke up, we decided to go out and see what night life was like. We walked a long way to the tiny streets by the beach, packed with restaurants, cafes, bars, and clubs. We went to an irish pub recommended in our Bible (Let's Go) since they advertised free shots on Saturday. Much to my dismay, this was simply a myth and the bar tender informed me that Americans only get free shots on the 4th of July. Since I won't be in Nice on the 4th, I told him it was my birthday and I need a free shot. I may have gotten a free shot, but the overpriced beers well made up for the bar's loss. oh well.

Since luck was on our side this day, however, we were able to get a free crepe from a random crepe stand outside a club and amanda, gabe, and I confused a bunch of drunk americans into thinking we were foreigners by speaking Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish all at the same time... silly Americans. They actually believed I was from Spain and Gabe was a Ukrainian who spoke Hindi and Hebrew... Later that evening, we found ourselves on the rock beaches of Nice, trying to burry amanda (at her request) in the rocks... an unsuccessful attempt.

The next day had a late start, but we mosied our way back to the famous rocks... cool, but not comfortable. We found a tiny stip of sand to share and ventured into the crashing waves and crystal clear blue water, but as inviting as the water seemed, it was cold and the tiny rocks beneath our feet hurt way too much. Amanda made it all the way in with her flip flops on. I enjoyed listening to music, amanda read her book, and gabe drank beer... a wonderful, beautiful day! Amanda and I especially got a kick out of Gabe's 2euro bathing suit he got in India. That night, we took it easy and stayed in talking. I love my cousins!

Our second day in Nice was suppose to be spent trying to go to Cannes, but instead Gabe did some laundry and Amanda and I went searching for a tiny restaurant called La Merenda which is acclaimed to have some of the best gourmet cuisine anyone could ever serve. After some time and asking around, we found the hole-in-the-wall place and made reservations (they had to be made in person.) Most of the day was then spent trying to get to the Mattise museum, enjoying the museum, and then walking back into town. The museum was in a lovely chateau and housed a nice collection of works that ranged through his entire career. His most famous works provided a new insight into his work *last two sentences added by amanda* We made it to dinner just in time and were seated right next to a Sweedish couple who were chatting to a younger American couple seated on the other side. If we weren't so sure we were about to be served the best meal of our lives, we might have been bothered by the tiny tables and stools we were seated at, or the fact that our elbows touched our neighbors, or that there was one waiter catering to the same 30ppl. who all had reservations at 7pm... but, the smells from the kitchen and our faith let us be patient. All I can say is... it was WELL worth the wait! We were served a zuchini tempura (good but not extraordinary), amazing pesto, perfectly flavored white wine, veal head in a horsradish and parsley sauce (gabe's choice) and two beef stews with potatoes (both amanda and I ordered this dish.) Everything melted in our mouths and kept us smiling. For dessert, amanda and I had dark chocolate mousse (to die for) and gabe had starwberries in wine sauce. Everyone (our dinner neighbors) was excited about everyoneelse's food and it sparked up conversations. As Gabe said, it goes to show that great food makes for good conversation. That meal goes down in my history book as 'best ever.' 6 thumbs up!

We stumbled around in a 'we just ate the best meal ever' daze and found a pub for gabe to enjoy an after-dinner drink. Amanda and I ordered water and got ripped off royaly, but I was still content from the food and let it slide. We made our way home, stayed up talking, gabe drank too much and fell asleep snoring, amanda stayed up all night and finished her book, and I eventually trained my ear to hear Gabe's snoring as white noise and fell asleep as well.

We woke up this morning and headed to the train station. Gabe could only book a train to Paris for this evening and Amanda and I leave in an hour for Milan. I wish Gabe were coming with us, but he must leave his Ice Cream Willy and Jack in the Box to go off on his adventures. Amanda and I have just one more city before we meet up with Denise and Franki in Vienna! We'll keep you posted!

Barcelona & Adios to Spain

The rest of our day in Barcelona was great. We toured Gaudi's apartment building La Pedrera and ate falafel at Maoz and had gelato at Dino's (two of my favorites!) We walked around the city and I was especially thankful for getting to see Barcelona one last time. Pep, my former Spanish teacher) let us use his computer to empty our digital pictures onto a CD and then we looked up movie times since Amanda was craving some entertainment in English. Unfortunately, it took us forever to get to the movie theater down by the port, so we missed the movie. Instead, we sat by the beach and watched people play volley ball while nibbling on snacks we picked up at the market earlier that day.

Pep invited us to dinner that night, but after a more than inconvenient 'misunderstanding' and overbooking at our hostal, amanda was a little too frustrated to go anywhere. She spent the evening with her gripping novel and a phone call from Bianca and Aunt Dora and I went to Pep's dinner. Much to my pleasant surprise, Pep is quit the chef! He served me and his friend Petrice a four course meal with accomodating wines. I still have dreams about the tart he made and will most certainly demand the recipe. Thank you so much to Pep and his friend for a wonderful last night in Spain.

Right now we're in France (we have been to Marsielle and now we're in Nice) and Gabe is with us! We're having a wonderful time on the beaches and the French people have shattered my stereotype of french people for good. Everyone has been so helpful and kind. I'll let amanda talk about the land of crepes and wine in our next blog entry! Until then...

Night Trains...

Amanda and I left last night from San Sebastian to Barcelona on our second night train. Even though we didn´t have beds, we were hopeful since our seats were said to be ´first class.´Great, right? Absolutely wrong! We shared a small room with 3 other people (an older couple and younger guy.) Our seats layed down and touched so that we had a tiny twin bed between the two of us. We tried to get settled so that we could sleep through the ten hour ride, but knew it would be impossible... Amanda and I have shared MANY beds in our lifetime, this was definitely the smallest. Amanda, dipping into her pharmacy, decided to resort to her drugs... We both took dramamine that thankfully knocked us out for most of the night. Thank the lord for dramamine! Amanda and I still have one more night train ahead of us, but hopefully we´ll be able to reserve tickets (we finally figured out how to do that. You have to make the reservation 76 hours in advance and claim the tickets 24 hours before you need them... what?)

We arrived this morning in Barcelona and I called my former teacher Pep to see if he wanted to meet up and/or house us for the night. His friend met us at a café and let us in his apt. We dropped off our bags, I looked around, and then we both decided to go down the street to a hostal. Our hostal is huge and ok, but there seems to be people still occupying our room... we´ll see I guess. For now, I get to enjoy my Barcelona and do everything I missed (like eating ice cream at Dino´s) and see things I didn´t see before (one of Guadi´s apt. buildings.) Right now, we´re at my former school using the internet for free. It´s funny to be in such a familiar place and feel so touristy at the same time. Even if it´s just for the day, I´m so glad to be back in Barcelona!!! Hopefully, we´ll go out tonight and since we´ve mastered the art of sleeping in chairs, sleep on our day train we have booked for tomorrow morning... France, here we come!

San Sebastian!

Hola amigos! After our short, but sweet stay in Cadiz, we crossed the whole of Spain from South to North. We took a 5 hour train to Madrid and then a sleeper train to San Sebastian. Now, in theory sleeper trains are a great idea. You get to save travel time by sleeping in transit, waking up refreshed and ready for your new city. All I have to say is that it´s good on paper...not in real life. It wasn´t too bad, but far from a restfull night of sleep. We arrived here at 7 in the morning, and unfortunately our Pension was not ready to take us, so we left our stuff and headed to the nearby city of Bilbao, where we had heard of the famed Guggeneheim museum there...definitely worth the hour busride there and back. The architecture of the building had to be its highlight. Built by architect Frank Ghery with amazing computer technology, it was a free-flowing organic form, made of steel, marble, and glass. It was beautiful. Their temporary collection presented Aztec art, and we are experts at it by now. Their small permanent collection was less impressive than we had hoped, but still worth the visit. The content was the 1960s-ish movement of Abstract Expressionism (or "AbEx"), and highlights included works by Rothko. We also loved the ginourmous installation sculptures by Richard Serra. After our trip to Bilbao, we gleefully bummed at the beach, each knocking out a signigicant portion of our current novels.

Today, after doing some laundry (first time, and we needed it...last pair of clean underwear needed it), Nicole took care of booking our tickets to Barcelona on yet another wonderful night train. Her experience at the train station made us seriously doubt the hospitality of Spaniards, as they treated her with total disrespect and attitude. We spent the rest of the day at the beach again, although Nicole forgot her towel and used a make-shift one out of her clothes. We ate popsicles and played in the water...a jolly good time. Tonight we made ourselves a picnic dinner above the ocean as the day moved into dusk.

We´re glad to be going back to Barcelona, if not just for a day, it´s Nicole´s home terf. We are spending the night there tomorrow and then moving along to Marseille, where we begin our French adventure. We are looking forward to it, but admitedly apprehensive about our complete ignorance of the French language. Here are the words we know: Oui, no, crepe, bonjour, merci, and that´s about it. We decided that Crepe is obviously the most important word to know, and plan on using it quite a bit. Hope you are all well.

For the last time in Spain, buenos noches (goodnight, for us at least).

Seville

This will be a little rushed since we´re at an internet cafe that just loves to eat our money... Seville was awesome! The city was a nice mix between real, small town spanish culture with a bigger city pace (for spain.) Amanda and I saw all the sites, including a huge park, the biggest gothic cathedral in the world (home to Christopher Columbus´tomb), and a Christian palace with muslim influence. We also dined on Spanish favorites, such as patatas bravas, paella, and churros and chocolate. The most interesting spanish cultural endevour in Seville was the flamenco show we saw. We were both on the edge of our seats (literally, since we were in the back row and couldn´t see so we sat on the top of our pull out chairs) watching on man pluck at his classical guitar, another sing and keep rhythm, and a couple dance sentually to the spanish music.

Now we´re in Cádiz and spent our first day on the beach (naturally.) The old town is littered with old architecture and tiny cobblestone streets, while the new town has stucco buildings and the nicer beach. Amanda and I read our books, dipped in the ocean, and listened to music all day. Tomorrow we will set out to see more of Cádiz and even the tip of Africa from the southern most part of Spain.

Sorry this is so short, we´ll add more later! love you all!!!