Italy and Greece Pictures

Corfu!

Our first scooter (AKA the crappy one)

Greek pancakes, the best dessert one can have and still call it breakfast.

The Colloseum

Viewpoint overlooking Athens.

Sorry, we had about ten more pictures picked out but they just don´t want to load even after a half hour of trying.

Day 65 (Barcelona)

Hello from Barcelona, Spain!

We have spent the last two nights in Barcelona, our favorite city so far. We got to Barcelona in the middle of the day on Sunday. We got a little spoiled the last few nights in a hotel but we were brought back to reality, sharing a room with 4 other people. When staying in a hostel we have a tendency to try to spend as little of time as possible in our room. So we spent the evening exploring the city a little bit. We ended up spending most of our time on a famous shopping street called La Rambla. The street was full of tent shops and restaurants. We had to try out the famous Sangria. Yum!

Day two in Barcelona, went out to explore some more but I made Simon go back to the Hostel and get our swimsuits as soon as we found a beach. It was a nice sand beach but rocky in the water. It was great, first day that I got a little pink though. Simon got to practice some more of his Spanish when trying to bargin for beer with the locals trying to sell it way over price. Ended up having two beers and a bag of chips for lunch. Dinner was a little bit better, homemade spaghetti and a small salad, which we prepared in the hostel. It was then time to see some real sights and be tourist. We hadn´t spent enough money for the day so we stopped for some Sangria. We ended up going to a restaurant because the owner said he would pay for half because we told him in Spanish that we were poor. Our Sangria was a different color then everyone elses in the restaurant, maybe a little orange juice added.

Day three, there is a large area, which includes the Olympics facilities, capital, and a castle. We spent the morning seeing the area. There was also an area that was built for a festival back in the early 1900´s, which showed the different architecture of all the different regions in Spain. It was nice because you didn´t really feel like you were in the city because it was so green and there was nothing else really around. We then went back to the beach for a few hours. We went to a different part of the three mile beach that lines Barcelona´s central coast. This part was great not so many people selling things, sand also in the water, wind surfers to watch, and some great waves. We had a ton of fun playing in them. Simons first real big wave beach.

Tomorrow we are heading on to San Sebastian, which is in Northern Spain. It will still be on the water but it is suppose to be a little cooler.

Hope everything is good at home. Can´t believe we will be seeing you all very soon.

Kaylee and Simon

Sam!

Looking back through our pics we realized that we randomly happened to stumble apon your long lost twin in Germany SAM! (Click on the picture to enlarge and get the full effect!)

Finally a few pics from Gimmelwald

These pics don´t nearly do the Alps justice (Niether do the 300 others we took that day). (Also, I don´t know why this is in blue and underlined but I don´t want to mess with it, it takes over 5 minutes to load three pics.)

Pics from Spain

View Point overlooking Barcelona's Waterfront (Above and below)

Arch de Triomph

La Sagrada Familia, as you can see it is under continuing renovation as has been the case with 90% of the tourist atractions we have seen throughout europe. In this case it worked to our advantage, whether it was intended or not it lead to our free admission. Easily the most unique place of worship we have seen yet even with a majority of the detail currently hidden.

Day 63 Barcelona, Spain

Tonight we enjoyed the traditonal Sangria to go with dinner. We had to share a dinner to have it though.

In the middle of the city there is a huge park, where it looked like the locals liked to hang out on a Sunday afternoon.

It was beautiful this afternoon and evening walking around Barcelona. We found it to be one of the cleanest cities so far. It is great cuz it is right on the water!

Day 62 (Two months, we can't believe it either), Madrid, Spain

Sorry to get your hopes up again. We are staying in what appears to be a nearly brand new hotel with brand new computers, and yet no pictures again today. We were able to open the pictures on the computer, which tends to be the difficult part, but after giving blogger twenty minutes to upload one picture without success we must once again admit defeat. The more time we spend attempting to load these pictures the more we have to wonder how Andy and Kelsey made it look so easy. Of all the places we have tried we figured that this one was for sure.

After a sleepless night of flying, our flight from Athens took us to Prague, then after a 4 hour layover (attempting to sleep on the metal benches), it dropped us in Madrid. After finding our way through the maze of metro lines (Madrid has 15) we arrived at our hotel and were pleasantly surprised. Exhausted, we got into bed only to decide that since it was already 17:00 it probably wasnt the best idea to go to sleep. We spent the remainder of the evening finding food nearby, using the internet, and watching news on our one english channel. The next morning (Kaylee's birthday) we slept in late before heading out to see the sites and search for an english movie theater to celebrate. After a few hours of searching for a cinema we found one theater that provided english screenings, but not of anything we had ever heard of. Bagging that idea, we went in search of a real traditional meal to celebrate. On our way we encountered a military marching band celebration taking place in one of the royal palaces. Assuming that we were once again too late to get tickets for this cultural event we were about to leave as someone handed us a free enterance. The show was nearly over, but we were still able to get a feel for it. After the show we found an upscale restaurant and sat down to our best meal yet. We ordered a mixed paella, a rice dish with an asortment of seafood, chicken, beef, peas, and pepers. It was very good. Our time in the restuarant was very entertaining because neither of our two waiters spoke any english. I finally got to struggle my way through my first real spanish encounter. It was great, and we think the waiter had a good time too.

This morning we packed up our stuff and moved to the very opposite end of the city. Our first place only had two nights available. It took 45 of metro riding and an hour of walking to reach our new place, Alexor Feria. It was worth the effort. it appears to be brand new, very clean, comfortable, and somewhat spacious. We quickly found a supermarket nearby and bought food for the day. Due to the hotel's distance from the center of Madrid we decided to have a different tourist day and go to the Super Mall around the corner. Not our usual gig, but interesting in its own right. After we are done on the computer our plan is to make a nice salad (in the bag we bought it in) and acompany it with some delectible sandwiches in our room.

Tomorrow we catch a train (at the opposite end of town of course) around 12:00 and should be in Barcelona by 15:30. We have three nights booked at a hostel near the water, with I believe free internet, so if all goes well maybe some pictures tomorow (The suspense grows...).

Simon and