Sitges Spain

Hola from sunny Spain! I've been sick for a few days but the warmth and sunshine has really helped. We are in a little town about half an hour from Barcelona. It's very dry here, they have only had rain once in 3 years, and mountainous but it is beautiful. There are cacti and flowers blooming everywhere and oh... did I mention dogs! We are at the top of the valley and there are many dogs in the valley that bark at everything! A good science lesson about how sound travels.
Anyway...we went to the beach today since I still wasn't 100%, not up to running around Barcelona. The kids went wave jumping- crazy because the water is cold!! Mike went in too, after his run, yes Mike ran - another amazing thing (he is really missing his bike). We walked along the shore, read and played in the sand. At the bottom is the little house that we are renting, and a picture of Josephine and me doing homework on the balcony. It was a great day.

Carcassone

The day and life in the castle at Carcassonne

Today was our first day at Carcassonne castle, yes we are staying at another castle! Just one word describes this castle, WOW! Carcassonne was a fortified castle and Wavell was more of a palace for King’s and Queen’s.
Carcassonne was first a Roman fortification then later on became a medieval fortification! People were afraid to attack it because of its walls and turrets. It was attacked by the crusaders because the people living inside were Cathars whom the pope didn’t like. The crusaders defeated them because of the siege. There is more history but you are not reading this blog for history you are wondering what we are doing, right?
Well I, okay we, found all about this castle on our tour! We went on a tour of the ramparts and of the castle and this interesting French guy give us a tour in English. The castle was actually in horrible shape in the 1800’s till the French gov’t realized how much of an attraction it would be so they rebuilt it and we are happy about this.
We are staying inside the castle at the Youth hostel, however we are paying big bucks for it. The breakfast they are serving leaves something to be desired.
Okay getting back to the tour, we saw a huge theater that can hold up to two thousand people and is full during the festival during the spring. Also they hold jousting tournaments in July and August, all this we missed oh well, we avoided the crowds though!
When we got to the castle it was 25 c and the day of the tour it was only 12! Egads the weather followed us. We were planning on staying a few more days however we want warmer weather so we are leaving tomorrow, to go even further south.
Tonight we went into town to get a few pictures of the castle at night however they we wish that we had taken some pics the night before from a different road. However here is a picture of the castle at night. Oh another fact is that everything shuts down early now that there are not enough tourist around, drats.
This area, again would be a wonderful area to go riding in!
We met this two guys from Quebec earlier in the day and it was nice to talk to some folds from Canada. That night we shared a meal with them since Jane had overdone it with her cooking!

Ta ta for now, Mike, I am writing this blog from Spain!

Day of fortunate events

Today was a day filled with a series of fortunate events. First, we went to the Font-de-Gaume, one of the only remaining caves where you can see original prehistoric painting, and a very nice French women offered to translate the French tour for us! The actual guide wasn’t too happy but she kept on translating saying he was selfish to deny us the information. Yea!!! A French person stood up for a tourist – we along with 2 Americans were really grateful. The cave was amazing!!!! Yesterday’s cave was a reproduction (don’t know if Emy mentioned that) where as today we experienced the darkness, dripping stalagmites and cramped spaces, and or course the REAL THING. The paintings were 15, 000 years old and a real miracle that they are still there for us to experience. There were bison, deer and horses run around the walls of the cave. Many of the painting were also etched in and showed perspective. According to the guide it took many years before these painting were classified as works of art, but you can really see the skill needed to paint the animals on rock that look so life like. The second fortunate thing was that when we exited the cave at noon, the clouds had disappeared, there was blue sky and the temperature was 15C!!! It’s been about a month with no sun….hard for people from sunny Manitoba! Number three was a GSP miracle. We realized as we were driving to Carcassonne for the night that the cigarette lighter stopped working and our GPS said low battery. We can not live without our GPS – if our marriage is to survive we must have it! Mike figured it was probably a fuse so we went in to the next town to find one. We phone the Renault dealer and there happened to be one, it was open until 6 (another miracle since it seems that most places are closed at 4) and the GPS survived long enough to get us there. A service man fixed it in 5 min! The last fortunate thing is Carcassone, not the game the place. We drove up the hill and saw the fortress lit up – the girls shouted, “Cool”. It is a complete 12th c fortress with cathedral and castle and the youth hostel is inside its walls. Can’t wait for tomorrow to explore.
Jane

An almost disaster

Today we went to the cave paintings. (Lascaux is the cave name) We got there and figured out that there are no tours in english! But we had already bought our tickets and we thought that maybe we would get a sheet of paper or an audio guide but soon it became apparent that we wern't going to get anything. We went around the caves for an hour (It was supposed to be fourty minutes) It was annoying because we couldn't understand any of it. After the dissapointment and waste of money we were a bit depressed, we saw some people from the U.S. and told them that it was in French but they had already bought tickets. They were actually the only people on the tour so we asked the tour guide if we could go with them. He said yes and we got an english tour! The caves were very interesting when we could actually understand something.

Then we went to a castle! Yes I know too many castles but this one is differant! It's a medival fortress not a palace. Actually we didn't get to see it because it was closed for remebrance day. So instead we did a self guided tour around a medival town until our map was soaked then we went back to the car and drove back to our tiny hostel.

In the medival town we found a wonderful street does anyone recognize the name? You have to wait till tomorrow till you get the pic!There is also a town however we never made it there. Too much rain

Bye!!!! Emily. XD

Another unfinshed castle...

This blog post starts a day before the title suggests. I just wanted to comment on the Lippizaner Stallions. They were absolutely spectacular, what with their flying lead changes and hopping on their back legs. They were all stalions, because if one was a mare, all the guys whould pay more attention to her then their work! All the riders where guys too, mabye for the same reason!
Next day, we left Vienna, and drove to a town by Salsburg, where we stopped for lunch and to see the market. I had half a kabab and some fries. Then we drove for two minutes to the boat you had to use to get to the caslte. One had just left, so we had to wait half an hour for the next one!! When we finnaly got to the island the caslte was one ( A lot like Harry Potter!) it was a two kliometers to the actual castle (I'm running out of battery, better make it shorter!!)Then we had about 20 min until our 45 min tour. So, we looked around the gift shop until then. Our tour seemed very short, and King Ludwing II's bed room with the first ever night-light was being renovated!!! He had a hall of mirrors, like Versille, heating, an indoor swimming/bath pool, and a table thatcould be lowered into the servent's quaters. In total, he lived there nine days and had two 8-hour baths!!! After the tour, we drove to Munich and stayed in the same castle. (He planned for 70 rooms, and only 20 were finished, becuase the money ran out!)

Josephine

Knights in Jeans, and Auschwitz

Today we went shopping! Mom finally bought boots ! When we went to go buy jeans ( since hers got a hole in the bumb!) at the market Mom asked where she could try them on, the sales person responded by saying "Here" Mom was totally shocked who ever heard of trying on jeans where tons of people can see you?! We all laughed very hard as Mom pulled off her jeans. Of course none of us looked, that would be rude! After that incident we walked around for a bit and Dad left for Auschwitz. We went into St. Mary's Basilica and saw the biggest alter in Europe. It was huge!!! n the outside there were 12 panels depicting the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. On the inside there were 6 other panels along the sides and in the center the ascension of Mary to heaven. Then we walked back to the castle and on the way we met a knight and we took some pictures with him. Josephine stabbed him with his fake sword. It was fun! the dragon is a resident of Wawel Castel, he spews flames every 2 min!

Emily

Auschwitz
I went to Auschwitz to see the concentration camp and I am saddened to see the place! The girls did not visit Auschwitz they decided to stay in Krakow. The camp was interesting and sad place to see if one can say it that way! I took a mini bus out to the camp and got there an hour before the tour started, so I went around the camp and visited a few of the blocks on my own. I was surprised to see so many people out to visit on a rainy day. You were not suppose to take pictures inside the camp however everyone was taking pictures there so I didn't too bad taking some. They had the same saying over the gate at Auschwitz as they did in Dachau, which was work will set you free, yea right!
There was not as much to read in the rooms as there was in Dachau, however there were more reminders here of who inhabited and died there than at Dachau so it was interesting to see the difference between the two. However what happened at both were not good to recount.
At 3pm we all watched a movie about what happened there then we met our tour guide there were suppose to be 4 of us, but I was the only one there at the time so I had a private guide and she told me so much that it over whelmed me with facts and figures. One interesting thing is that the reason why they pick this place to create the concentration camp was because it was a Polish military base before hand with was in perfect condition and thus they didn't have to do a lot in the beginning to create the camp. But after a while it was transformed into a huge camp.
I could go on for ever, but I won't, all I have to say is that we should never forget to remember those that lost their lives there! And to fight those that don't believe that it never happened, like the president of Iran who belives that it was a good thing. What an idiot.
Mike

Krakow

Hello,

Time after time on this trip we have be over whelmed by the generousity of others, and in Krakow it happened again. We are staying in our "cousin's" (long story) apartment within the walls of Castle Wawel. It is awesome! This morning we got up and just walked 10 steps to Poland's most famous Cathedral, it was a jewel! We spent an hour in the Cathedral admiring the statues, altars and it's famous bell that weighs 14 tonns and is only rung on special occasions. Our cousin then arranged a guide for the Castel itself, where we learned about the rich and confusing history of Poland. Did you know that Poland was not on any maps for 120 years! It was a very rich country during the 14th century but many wars and occupations later, it was devastated. After a quick lunch we headed off to the salt mines. It took a little longer than anticipated as we learned a new bus system and tried to figure out the right place to get the bus after being misdirected several times. The salt mines (source of Poland's great wealth in the 14th c) were amazing. It is now only open for tourists to see how the mine worked, the statues carved by the miners and only Cathedral that is underground. It also has a concert hall, bar and banquet room. You can even get married in the Cathedral for the small fee of 1000 euro and hour! Fortunately, there was a squishy elevator to take us up the 130 m back to the surface. We then headed back to Krakow to Miroslaw's apartment where he made us a HUGE Polish dinner! We were blessed today!

Jane