Greetings from Germany!

Sean and I arrived safe and sound in Hanover to meet Jo and her parents, after the train from Amsterdam. We were greeted by Jo and her dad Chris, who made us a beautiful sign. It was wonderful being on the receiving end of a welcome party!

We spent Saturday walking around the beautiful town of Celle, where Jo and her family live. From spending a few days in Amsterdam in a hotel room with just Sean (sprinkled in with visits with family and friends, both old and new), it's a nice change to be surrounded by family in a beautiful vibrant house!

Saturday we spent the day walking around the town of Celle with Jo, Audrey and Chris. We walked through the market and to the French gardens, around the castle in Celle and up the tower. There were some memories of walking the stairs up the castle tower in Segovia, though I'm sure that there were more stairs in the church tower... My legs felt like jelly after! The view from the top totally made it worth it! We had a delicious lunch at a lovely tapas restaurant followed by an amazing nap in the afternooj back at the house. Oh travel life!

Today we are headed to Potsdam to see the castle and the bridge from the movie Bridge of Spies, then off to Berlin for a couple days. Should be cool! Oh, and we spent some time on the autobahn going over 180 kilometers an hour. It was pretty darn cool!

On our way into the Celle market:

The houses in Celle are exactly how I pictured when I think of German houses! 

The oldest house in Celle:

In the French garden:

View from the top of the tower:

Driving on the autobahn:

Familiar faces and new ones in The Netherlands

The last couple days have been relaxing but with a purpose. We have been walking absolutely everywhere, which is a great way to see the city! Other than taking the train to Rotterdam we haven't used public transportation. Our visits with Julian, our former student, and Esmiralda, my mom's cousin, were wonderful! It was so great to catch up with them. With Julian we toured around the markthal, which is a huge food market. The building itself is really unique, with windows all the way up the tall ceiling and apartments along the outside. We checked out the cubic houses, which I hadn't seen since I was last in Amsterdam 20 years ago! Afterwards we saw Esmiralda for dinner at a great Italian restaurant named Vapiano. We both ordered pizza which was ready in no time! Poor Sean's pasta took forever though. Thankfully he was a good sport about it! It gave me time to talk with Esmiralda and reconnect with my relatives on my mom's side. I had last seen her 20 years ago too, so it was nice to catch up and talk about the family.

Sean and I later visited a few bars in Amsterdam including a fun hells angels biker bar in the red light district (sidenote: the bartender was awesome and the toilet paper was lovely and soft. I told him so. He seemed happy to hear the positive review). We also checked out another fun bar and met a nice couple from southern Spain who didn't really speak much English. They seemed happy to meet other people who spoke Spanish, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to practice!

Yesterday we visited Carlotta, our student from Italy, who is also studying here. It was wonderful to catch up with her and see how well she is doing. From there we walked to my cousin Rosa's house for lunch. She lives in an awesome house in old Amsterdam with 4 other people who are all in their 30s and work. They work together to get groceries, make meals and share expenses. It's a really cool system that allows people with similar interests to share a living space without spending a ton of money. A couple observations about Dutch houses that I had forgotten: staircases seem to be really steep with small steps, and the shower is often separated from the toilet, which is pretty practical if you're sharing a house with a few people!

Last night we went back to the bar where we met the Spanish couple and met an Australian couple. We walked around and had amazing burgers for dinner. Another successful night! Sean is always a lot of fun to travel with. Chatty Cathy as I like to call him enjoys chatting up random people and he has a fantastic sense of direction so it's always a good time!

This morning Sean found a delicious poffertjes (mini pancakes) restaurant for me so I could reconnect with a childhood treat that is very dear to my heart. The staff were super friendly and the Poffertjes were amazing, so a great way to start the day!

We are headed out soon to take the train (first class! Whooooaaaaa) to Germany to visit Jo and her family for a week. At this point we have been travelling for a week and are coming up to the halfway point. It will be great to see her and her family, but at the same time it's sad to know that we are already halfway in and will be winding down soon!

Some photos of the last few days:

In front of Amsterdam Central station:

With Julian and the cubic houses in Rotterdam:

With Esmiralda in Rotterdam:

So much delicious cheese! 

One of the many canals in Amsterdam:

From the Rotterdam port:

So many bikes! And you can park in layers too! 

With Carlotta at Bagels and Beans, a popular franchise (eating here reminded me that North Americans are all about spreads on bread... Butter, cheese, whatever...it's more about the plain bread here!) 

Delicious poffertjes for breakfast and the best cappuccinos we have had in Amsterdam! 

Last day in Spain

Sean and I are currently on the train on our way from Amsterdam to Rotterdam for the day to visit Julian, our former stufent from Colombia, and Esmiralda, my mom's cousin (I'm not sure what that would be to me. My second cousin? I feel like there is maybe some once or twice removed in there?) (side note: I definitely didn't research how much it would cost to get from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. It would have been wayyyy cheaper to rent a car for the day!)

Yesterday we spent part of the day relaxing, then we walked around on our last day in Madrid. We will for sure be returning to Spain! We had such an amazing time visiting with Ana and her parents. The food and drinks are also significantly more affordable than Amsterdam so far. Oh and also friggin delicious. See below for some food porn!

We arrived in Amsterdam late last night, took the taxi to the hotel and walked around. Sean found an amazing hotel that's in a great location. The architecture in Amsterdam is incredibly unique and beautiful, and it's wonderful to connect with a country that means so much to me and my heritage.

Iberian ham needs to be on your list of foods to eat. Seriously. Delicious, fatty and salty, but not too salty.

Cheap beer and food included? Yes please. 

Sean walked about 20 minutes for these coffees. It's not easy to find a takeaway coffee place! Sitting and enjoying your coffee is totally a Spanish thing. Walking around with your coffee to go is not. Like definitely not. 

So. Many. Olives. 

Wee fishies named boqueron. It was a bit of a challenge to figure out how to enjoy them without eating the spine, but it was worth it! 

Blood sausage, mini baguettes, stuffed eggs and bites of pepper and cheese (so spicy Ana's eyes instantly started watering) 

Ana removing the spine off her fish like a BOSS! 

Day tripping in Segovia!

Today was an amazing and action packed day! We had a delicious breakfast of eggs, fruit, cheese and more delicious ham (seriously you need to try Iberian ham once in your lifetime. It's thinly sliced salty dry cured ham made from black hooved pigs who eat acorns). Then we hit the road for Segovia, about an hour from Madrid.

When we first arrived, we were blown away by the amazing aqueducts, built by the Romans over 2000 years ago. It is made up of 166 arches over 17 kms that are held together by gravity.

We walked through the Jewish quarter and passed by the cathedral, which was built in the 16th century, on our way to the Alcázar de Segovia, an amazing castle built around the 12th century originally as a fortress. It was an inspiration for Disney's Cinderella castle. We had a great workout climbing the 152 stairs to the top of the tower for a breathtaking view!

Some photos of our day :)

Walking around on the way to the Alcàzar. I love the cool narrow streets!

 From the top of the the Alcàzar tower  Definitely worth the walk!

 The aqueduct! Sean and Jorge are at the bottom to show how enormous it is!

Hi guys! We hope this message finds you well. We have been following on facebook all of the damage that has hit Ottawa. We hope that you are able to handle everything while the power is down. Fingers crossed the power comes back soon!

For news from our end, Friday night we had a layover in Halifax for a few hours so we stopped in and had a pint and a snack at the bar. Afterwards we chatted up some super cute Scottish lady from Aberdeen and talked about Outlander (side note: after reading Outlander I have a secret obsession with Scotland). She said she met the cast, told a few stories and had photos so she showed us. The photos were awesome but looked like a MUCH younger version of the lady we were talking to). Her accent reminded me of the Scottish grandma Wonky Donkey video! (https://youtu.be/Yskf94MYM1I)

We stayed on a few hour layover in Glasgow, which was awesome! We got to try a Scottish breakfast, which had not one, not two but THREE types of pork for breakfast! It was much needed after a long flight!

I bought melatonin for the flight hoping that it'll help get back to the new time zones. Sean and I bought got a decent sleep on the plane, so yay for that!

From Glasgow we flew to Madrid to meet Ana and her parents Jorge and Mar at the airport. It was so wonderful to see them, and to be on the receiving end of a welcome party! They took us to their apartment in Madrid to unpack a bit, shower and have lunch, which was a delicious spread of various Spanish deliciousness.

After an hour or two we left for their house in Logroño in northern Spain. The scenery on the 3 hour drive there is absolutely fantastic! Lots of rolling hills, sunflowers ready to be harvested, grapes and trees. It's been very dry so most of the grass was brown, but that added to the beautiful contrast! When we arrived in Logroño we relaxed and then headed out for dinner, which consisted of restaurant hopping for tapas and drinks. Every stop was delicious! We had chorizo sandwiches, tuna, cod, Spanish omelets and mini baguettes of ham and cheese. The town is celebrating San Mateo, so it's a party on the streets!

Today, Jorge, Mar and Ana took us to Haro to a winery. We got to learn more about the history of wine in Spain and also about this particular winery, which was build in 1879. One of the coolest things (there were many!) was touring in the wine cellar and visiting what they called the wine cemetery, which is where the wine bottles are the oldest and covered in the same mold as penicillin. It was kinda cool in a gross way!

After sampling some delicious wine, we headed to Enzaray to visit the shop where Ana bought "Mo", our precious mohair blanket that we love so much. They still had the old weaving machine in there!

We had more amazing tapas for lunch, then headed to Burgos to see the cathedral. It was so amazingly beautiful! The architecture reminded me of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris only not full of crowds!

Here are some photos!

At the winery:

Tapas at Enzaray:

Cathedral in Burgos:

On our way to Madrid!

Helloooooo! Thanks for joining us on our adventure! This time we are leaving for a two week trip to various cities in Europe. We are currently waiting at the airport in Ottawa, connecting through Halifax and then flying to Glasgow. From there, we are rushing to catch a flight to Madrid to meet our friend and former student Ana, to spend a few days with her and her family. Then it's off to Amsterdam from Tuesday night to Friday early afternoon to see two former students and two of my family members. From there, we take the train to Celle, Germany, to see our wonderful former student Jo and her family for a week. I'm not quite
sure what we will do, but I have no doubt it'll be full of laughs and good times I'm hoping to get some full seat breeches while I'm there!

Packing on a trip is always a challenge. How many shirts, sweaters and pants will I need? Will I go out somewhere and need fancy clothes? How many pairs of shoes are too many? Where did all of the travel sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner go that I have been swiping from hotels for years? I feel like it's further complicated when travelling by two. Our luggage is full of souvenirs for our friends, which takes up a lot of space, so Sean and I are sharing a suitcase. It then becomes a negotiation... Do you need that many pairs of pants? Are you packing your charger? Do you need that many pairs of shoes? I only packed two pairs!!

It's all worth it, and we have no doubt we will come back with more fun memories!