Europe 2018/19

Paris

We flew into Paris with Kim, Adam and Mirabelle and Todd flew in the following day. We stayed two nights in Paris and the next day we all boarded a train to Annecy for Christmas. To see the photo gallery of each trip click the arrow at the right of each photo. Hop on and we’ll do some sightseeing!

Annecy France

We’re boarding the train for Annecy where we’ll spend the holidays together. It’s a beautiful small French village on the border to Switzerland, with lots of walking paths bordering pristine Lac d’Annecy, which is one of the largest lakes in France. The lake sits among snowcapped mountains and is known as the cleanest lake in Europe.

Waiting for the train to Annsey with all our gear.

Love the train ride!

Exploring Annesy

The perfect sized Christmas tree for our place.

We had a perfect vantage point from our window to watch the Carousel and the light show of the Nutcracker on the side of the City Hall.

From beautiful flowers to delectable goodies!

Kim in the window picking out our Christmas Eve dessert.

Look who’s so happy Todd was with us!

The canal was full of colorful moored boats and swans to feed.

Todd…our amazing chef prepping for our Christmas dinner.

Lake Annecy with wonderful colors and reflections.

Our place looked down onto the Square where there was lots of action, and the snow covered mountains in the background.

Todd was good at sharing!

Scotland

After Christmas we took a flight from Geneva to Scotland and headed to our B&B which was near where Kim and Adam were to shoot a wedding. After the wedding Ron and I we drove to the Isl. of Sky, where we spent one night and had time to do some sightseeing.

Singing to Elon on our drive to Geneva airport to fly to Scotland.

TaaDaa….Flower girl ready for the wedding!

Two lane road? Narrow roads were typical along with trying to remember to drive on the opposite side.

Drive through the Highlands

Our Scotland house

Isle of Sky Idrigill ferry landing

Wonderful stone huts at The Skye Museum of Island Life. Built 100 years ago and now a museum of life during that time.

Notice the sheep on the near vertical drop!

Our B&B where we stayed in the tip top dormer.

Cannery Islands

Our next flight was to the Cannery Islands and our first few days were in Tenerife, which is one of the larger towns. After a few days we flew to LaPama, which was more laid back and had the vibe and scenery of what we had envisioned the Cannery Islands to be.

Botanical Reserve in the town of La Orotava where the butterflies were plentiful.

Georgous Liceo de Taoro Cultural Center

Unusual balconies with wonderful architectural details.

Our B&B in Laguna

We found this cafe after driving hairpin turns all the way up from the sea to the town of Camino de Las Barras.

Detail in the stone work….amazing patience to build this wall!

Notice the hairpin turns….

Our wonderful cozy stone B&B on the South end of LaPalma Island.

Colorful streets and wonderful stone work on the sidewalk in Santa Cruise de La Palma.

Our B&B was in the center of the photo with vineyards surrounding us.

I think we’d like to stay a month at least!

Believe me he had goosebumps, but he had to feel the black sand between his toes!

Sintra

After a few days we flew to Portugal and stayed in Sintra, which is where the King went in the summers and royalty followed.

Here we are at Quinta da Regaleira Mansion and garden. It is a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance built in 1912 by an Italian opera-set designer. You can see the influence of theatre everywhere. Children’s imaginations would keep them entertained in the garden for hours.

We climbed every turret and walked for 3 hours over acres of grounds.

Fantasy castle Pena Palace was built in 1800’s for German Prince Ferdinand.

Notice the intricate details and the unwelcoming gargoyle.

Queen Amelia

The King and Queens bedroom walls are covered in 19th century tiles done by a personal friend of the King.

Detail of the tiles.

The family’s private chapel.

Countess Edla’s Chalet was built for Ferdinand’s second wife. It was designed by her and inspired by Swiss chalets.

The exterior details are cork and the wood siding is actually painted to look like wood grain….over the top labor intensive!

Interior photos of the chalet with incredible colors and patterns.

The background is actually cork and the white is stencil that has been cut into patterns. The artist must have had eye strain!

Cork background with stencil.

Detail where you can see the cork and paper stencil. Amazing amount of work on hundreds of square feet of walls and ceiling!

Love the symbol of the crown on the porcelain.

Love the tree reflection and the ducks own private tower!

Fun coffee shop painting that I got in on too!

Must be the wine he’s talking about!

Recognize most of these?

Evora

Evora has been a cultural town for 2,000 years and we enjoyed watching generations gather to catch up on their daily lives. It was a great location because our B&B was close by so we could absorb the culture.

A ritual gathering in the Square that would have been fun to ease-drop in on.

The tiny village of Monsaraz had charming stone streets and colorful pottery where we spent the afternoon.

Can you imagine placing these center stones?!!

Nazare

Then we traveled to Nazare a famous surfing hot spot. On the way we stopped in Batalha and the Monastery of Santa Maria, which celebrates the battle of Aljubarrota and Portuguese independence from Spain. The Monastery also houses the famous double sarcophagus of King Jalo I and his English Queen.

Monks build the abbey in 1178 and lived there until 1834.

The monks would pray, meditate and connect with nature within the beauty of the gardens.

Here in 2012 a record breaking 80’ wave was surfed by Koxa, which put the town on the surfers map.

The boats are displayed on the beach as a museum of the fishing villages past.

The custom of wearing black after their husband dies is still practiced by the older generation, and honored through the rest of their life.

The custom continues of drying mackeral on racks in the sun.

Our B&B…beach ready!

Lisbon

Our next two nights were in Lisbon where we found friendly people who spoke excellent English. We did three of Rick Steve’s walking tours in the downtown area, that he just so happened to recommend doing only “one” a day…..but we only had the one day….so who counts…we did “three” of the tours! It was so amazing to see beautiful tile covering the exterior of buildings with eye catching patterns on their sidewalks and great graphics on the walls around town.

One way to get the wheel barrel up the hill!

Notice the nautical theme.

Paris

Kim and Adam invited us to their place the morning we arrived and Mirabelle excitedly greeted us from the balcony above. Our four days were filled with exploring and sitting in Cafes drinking espresso and taking in the scene before we flew home.