Our Favorite Castle So Far

Today we went to a castle about 30 minutes outside of Pamplona with Dani, his mother Sylvie, and his little brother Manuel, or Manu as everyone calls him. This was the castle of the kings of Navarre, and also the castle that Walt Disney is supposed to have based the Disney Castle off of. It was a wonderful castle. It had many different levels and walkways and spiral staircases, and we were able to climb all over nearly all of it! We had a great time with Manu, who is absolutely adorable. The architecture was stunning, and getting to explore the whole castle was so much fun.

San Sebastian

Yesterday Dani took us to the seaside town of San Sebastian, which is about an hour away from Pamplona. He says that many people think it is the most beautiful town in Spain. It certainly seemed that way when we were there! The weather was so nice that people were swimming in the ocean, and sunbathing on the beach. We walked all over the town, and saw the beach where all the surfers went, and the many tourists walking down the clean, picturesque streets. Finally we came to the biggest beach of them all, which stretched a couple miles along the sparkling blue bay that led to the Atlantic Ocean. We walked along the beach, and were able to watch everyone who was out enjoying the day. It was warm enough that I wished I was able to go swimming too! When we reached the end of the beach, we marveled at the waves crashing over the rocks, and the stunning scenery that surrounded us. We walked back into town along the beach, and did a little shopping after sitting in a sidewalk café. As we watched the sun set back on the beach, it was clear that this had been a perfect vacation day.

Pamplona!

We're in Spain! At the moment, we are visiting our friend Dani, who lives in Pamplona. We had quite the time getting here, with a train ride that took 11 hours, but we are so happy to be here now! Hannah likes Pamplona so much she can see herself living here one day. And we are so glad to see Dani again. Our first day here, he took us to a soccer game between the team from Pamplona (Osasuna), and the team that was at the time ranked first in Spain (Levante). It was so exciting to sit in the front row of the stadium and watch some of the best soccer in the world. Pamplona won, 2-0. Being in Spain with Dani is a lot of fun, and Hannah is getting to practice a lot of Spanish! Dani's family is really nice, and it is so great to be able to stay with them. Pamplona is slightly more modern than the towns we have visited so far, but it still has just as much history. This is the city where the famous running of the bulls takes place. It also holds an old fort, and a beautiful cathedral.

Flavigny

While staying with Agathe in Dijon, she also took us to several interesting places in the area. One of these was the town of Flavigny. It was a beautiful medieval town, best known as the place where the movie Chocolat was filmed. It didn't look very much like it did in the movie, but it was still a wonderful place to visit! Not many tourists come there, so it was quiet, and we came on a day when the weather was nice and sunny. We also met several friendly cats!

Dijon

In France, we stayed with Agathe, a friend of Hannah's from Dijon, who has visited Hannah in Vermont a couple of times. She was kind enough to let both of us stay at her house in Dijon for a week. It was great staying with Agathe and her family, who, contrary to sterotypes, are some of the kindest and friendliest people we have met so far! Agathe also took us to Paris, and it was so great to have her show us around. Dijon is a beautiful old french town. She described it as very small, but being from Vermont, it seemed like a pretty large town to us. We were taken around the whole town, which consisted of many nice shops, as well as interesting buildings that dated back to the middle ages. On one of our last days, we went to the highest tower in Dijon, from which you could see the entire town, and even all the way to Mt. Blanc in Switzerland! We had a lovely time in Dijon, and greatly enjoyed our stay in France.

Agathe took us to Paris Sunday and Monday. We had a magnificent time! Here are some photos from our adventures in Paris.

Snapshots of Switzerland

Photos from Hannah's camera.

Gruyére

Yesterday was cold and rainy, so aside from a trip to the mall for some lunch and a game of dress-up with the girls, we didn't do much. Today, Catherina took the four of us to the town of Gruyére,  famous for its cheese. The drive was beautiful, as is all of Switzerland we've seen so far. The town is nestled in between several mountains in the Alps, the peaks of which are just now beginning to get dusted with snow. Catharina wanted to show us how Gruyére cheese is traditionally made, so we drove past the town and up a little ways into the mountains. Unfortunately the tour of traditional cheese making is closed at this time of year since they have already taken the cows down the mountain. It was already too cold even for the cows! So we ran around a bit, trying to keep warm amidst the snow covered hills that loomed only a short distance above us. Although we didn't get to see cheese being made by hand in little straw covered huts, we were not dismayed. There was an entire medieval castle to be seen! Emily and Isabelle were not particularly excited to see a castle, as they are a dime a dozen in Europe, or so it would seem from their lack of enthusiasm. However Hannah and I don't see castles much in Vermont, so we eagerly climbed up the steep hill on which the castle was perched. Inside the castle walls was a bunch of tourist shops and restaurants that had once been a medieval town. After running all over the ramparts with the girls, we went inside the castle, which is now a museam, and climbed all the staircases and looked in all the rooms. After all that running and climbing around we were starving! It was time for lunch. So, Catharina took us to one of the little restaurants in the village, where we had a proper swiss meal. It consisted of raclette for Isabelle, and fondue for the rest of us, finished off with some ice cream. It was delicious, and even though it is now almost dinner time, we are still all pretty full. Tomorrow is our last full day here in Switzerland (until we come back at the end of our trip in December) and so Hannah and I will be travelling into Geneva by ourselves to do some more looking around. Hopefully we will be able to manage it all with out Emily and Isabelle to be our guides and translators!

Walking in Founex

Here is a picture from our first day in Switzerland. We took a lovely walk around the area where Faraday's family lives, and her Uncle Deane took a picture of all the girls. From Left: Hannah, Catherina, Faraday, Isabelle and Emily.

Genéve

 

Emily and Isabelle took us into Geneva this afternoon, where we visited a natural history museum. The train and bus rides were long, so to keep the girls occupied, we let them play games on our itouches. On the walk back from the bus stop, the air was clear enough to view the Alps. The girls had a lot of fun running around the museum, looking at all the stuffed animals. The only real animal in the museum was a turtle with two heads, but it was too shy to get a picture of. However we brought Emily's camera, so here are a couple pictures from today! We didn't get to explore too much of Geneva, but we did see the famous fountain that shoots up several stories into the air from the lake. We might go into Geneva on our own on friday, but this time it was great to have the girls there to interpret for us and to make sure we didn't get lost! We were lucky to have such a beautiful day for going out, tomorrow is supposed to be much colder and rainier, so it looks like it will be more of an indoor day! We will let you know how it goes.

Switzerland

At the moment, we are writing this blog on a computer where everything is in swiss german. Its a little challenging, but its about time we fill you in on our adventures in Switzerland so far. We arrived here yesterday, three hours behind schedule due to fog in london. Luckily, Deane, Emily and Isabelle (Faraday's Uncle and cousins), got there right when we did. When we arrived in Founex, where they live, we went on a walk with the family. Switzerland is so beautiful! Down the road from where we are staying is Le Leman, a huge lake. Across the lake from us are the Alps, and from the plane we could see the snow-topped peak of Mont Blanc. On the otherside of the lake are the Dura, which look more like the kind of 'mountains' we have in Vermont. In between are a lot of houses, and suprisingly a lot of farm land. The main crops we saw on our walk were apple trees, grapes, and sugar beets. That evening, we were so tired we went to bed early and slept for 13 hours! Today, we got up late and decided to take a trip into the town of Nyon, which is a walk and a short bus ride away. Emily and Isabelle, who are only 10 and 8, bought our bus tickets and made sure we didn't get lost. While in Nyon, we visited a castle, bought some candy, skipped rocks on the lake, fed some very friendly swans, and finally stopped at playground. We also saw some roman ruins, but they were all the way on top of a steep hill, so we decided we didn't have the energy to investigate further. Maybe another day! After getting back, we realized that even though it was a fairly short outing, we were exhausted. However after we get some rest, we can't wait for another exciting day with Emily and Isabelle tomorrow!

Also, Hannah didnt bring the cord to connect her camera to a computer, so we cant post the pictures we've taken YET.

A Little Bit About Our Trip

Three days left until we are off! We thought it would be nice to give you guys a little more information about what we'll be doing, so here goes. On Saturday, October 15th, we will be flying out of Logan Airport in Boston, MA at 10pm. We will arrive in Geneva, Switzerland at around 2pm the next day. In Geneva, we will be staying with Faraday's Uncle and his family. On October 22nd, we will be departing Geneva and taking the train to Dijon, France and staying with Hannah's friend Agathe. We will be visiting some really cool places in just the first two weeks! We can't wait to see our friends and family in Europe, but will be sad to say goodbye to our friends and family here. However when we're seeing so many incredible places, seven weeks is sure to fly by!
Okay, time to get back to packing...

Getting Ready

With only five days left to go, its packing crunch time! Fortunately, today we purchased our backpacks from EMS. Faraday got a Osprey Waypoint 65, and Hannah got the Osprey Fairpoint 70. We are so excited to start putting everything we need for TWO MONTHS in them! Both backpacks are luggage type packs, with detachable daypacks.

Looks like we'll be coming home with strong backs, no?