Valencia Spain - Culture (1/3)

Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and home to Valencia oranges and the America's Cup Port. There is a LOT of seafood there, but some other Spanish favorites include: paella, hortchata and our personal favorite churros (donuts with hot chocolate sauce). The Turia River Park is an old river bed that is now a 9km park: walking, biking, soccer fields, mini golf, lots of play grounds (with a neat over-sized Gulliver), the biopark and the too-cool city of arts and sciences mostly designed by the city's own Santiago Calatrava. Other things of interest were the bull fighting ring, city gate, silk exchange, botanical gardens and the great beach. See the pictures here.

Valencia Spain - Festivals (2/3)

Valencia has two major festivals each year: Falles and the July Fair. We were lucky enough to arrive on the last day of Falles to experience only a few of the 130+, 20 meter high paper-mache sculptures that dot the city. At midnight each one is set alight by a string of fire crackers that burn them to the ground. Last year the largest one cost 600,000 Euro! Kids and adults set off loud firecrackers in the streets and the evening ends with lots of firework displays. There are several activities going on in between Falles and Easter that were interesting, but we were only able to visit the cathedral to see the huge offering of flowers in the square and attend the Easter parade. Different church brotherhoods act out different parts of the Easter story so the crowd can see the progression of events - fascinating! See the pictures here.

Sagunto & Castellon Spain (3/3)

We took a train to visit the near by towns of Sagunto and Castellon. Sagunto is a well preserved Roman settlement from the 5th century B.C. It had some great views and was surprisingly large. After a couple of hours we jumped back on the train to visit Castellon. Neither one of us were very impressed with the town, but it was also almost totally vacant because it was Good Friday. See the pictures from Sagunto and Castellon.

2008 Geneve Auto Show

This was our last opportunity to attend the Geneva Auto Show. WOW is the only word to describe this extravaganza. Thousands and thousands of people were packed into the Geneva convention center to see a huge variety of cars you know and love (Ford, VW, BMW...), cars you could never afford (Maybach, Bentley, Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Bugatti) and cars you have never heard of like (Spyker). We had a great time looking at the cool cars and scoping out the cars we would like to buy when we come home. Check out the pictures here.

Lake Geneve: Montreux-Vevey-Evian

This weekend we decided to take in some locations around Lake Leman (aka Lake Geneva) - the 2nd largest lake in Western Europe. Chateau de Chillon is located right next to Montreux and is arguably the best preserved castle in Switzerland. We decided to eat lunch just up the street in Vevey - the home of Nestle and the city where Charlie Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life. 20 miles up the road is Evian-les-Bains the home of Evian water. We took a nice city walking tour which led us a long the nice city streets and beautiful waterfront. Last stop was Thonon-les-Bains. Thonon is home to Chateau de Ripaille, but unfortunately we arrived too late for a visit. Lake Geneve obviously has lots of great locations to offer and they all have spectacular views of the lake and the Alps. Check out our pictures: The Chateau, Vevey, Evian, Thonon.

Swiss Driving Tour

Time for another drive through small towns in Switzerland. This time we visited Willisau, Sursee, Sempach, and Beromunster. All are less than 45 miles from our apartment and have that small town charm that we enjoy. Each town has their "old town" which usually consists of a church and surrounding buildings that are centuries old, a wall that surrounds the city, as well as the city gates. Of course they each have their own story to tell. For example, in Sempach a crucial battle between the Swiss and Austrian armies took place there in 1386. The St. Jacob chapel perched on a hill nearby the center commemorates the event. A short trip for us today, but we enjoyed the opportunity to see more of middle Switzerland. See the pictures: Willisau, Sursee, Sempach, and Beromunster.

Krakow 1/3: Old Town

Krakow is a beautiful old city with the largest public square in Europe that includes a year-round flower market. The moat has been filled in and is now a park that circles the city and you can see a fire breathing dragon too! The Wawel castle and cathedral grounds have a statue of their national hero Kosciuszko. He was the co-founder of West Point and has additional interesting ties to the US. Poland is 99% Catholic and have lots of churches to prove it. The painter Stanisław Wyspiański has decorated several churches in a very unique art nuevo style. Pope John Paul II was born very close to here and Copernicus attended Jagiellonian University that has been here since 1364. Poland was partitioned for 125 years and was re-established as a country on Nov 11 after WWI was over. Unlike Warsaw, Krakow was not structurally damaged during WWII, but the people suffered greatly under Stalin from 1945-1952. Poland was under Communist rule until 1989 when Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement challenged the Soviets to regain their freedom. Poland is a member of the European Union, but retains their zloty currency until which time their economy is strong enough to withstand the introduction of the Euro. See pictures of Krakow here.

Krakow 2/3: Auschwitz/Birkenau

I was able to take the opportunity to visit Auschwitz/Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) 1.5 hours SW of Krakow. The camp is named after two small adjoining towns that no longer exist. Auschwitz has many brick barracks and Birkenau (5 minute drive by car) contained wooden horse stables that housed around 130k people to be used as camp labor. 1+ million people died here and almost 70% died almost immediately after they arrived. The others died usually within 3-4 months of starvation, exposure, disease, etc.

The museum/memorial was established in 1947. One building containing a gas chamber and ovens can be visited as well as exhibits of peoples' belongings (e.g. brushes, shoes, luggage, eye-glasses, prosthetic devices, hair) that were collected, sorted and shipped back to Germany for resale. Auschwitz is also where Josef Mengele performed horrific medical experiments. Thankfully there were no graphic photos of the atrocities.

Krakow 3/3: Wieliczka Salt Mine

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is one of the oldest salt mines in the world - it's been around for around 700 years. Several large rooms have been converted into churches (one very large one and many small ones). Miners-turned-artists carved religious scenes into the rock salt to create some very beautiful images. Only 1/10 of the mine is open to the public and it took 3+ hours to take the tour, it covers 3 different levels! Krakow was a very rich city in the past due to the salt - it is known as white gold. See pictures from Krakow here.

Garmisch Partenkirchen - Germany

Time for another visit to see the Hubers in Garmisch Partenkirchen! We were planning for a day of skiing, but terrible weather prevented that from happening. Plan B was a short trip just outside of Garmisch to a nearby town called Mittenwald. The town is located in Bavaria on a trade route that was used by the Romans (and also surrounded by beautiful mountains). In the 17th century, Matthias Klotz introduced the art of violin making to the town. Today, there are eleven violin making workshops in Mittenwald. Despite the rain, we had a nice time visiting the museum and walking around this very traditional town. As usual, the Hubers were excellent hosts and went out of their way to take care of us. They have rooms available for rent. If you're planning to visit the region, we highly recommend that you stay with them. They would love to have you! See their web page here. Pictures of Mittenwald here, and our old pictures from Garmisch here.