Valleta, Malta

This was an incredible stop. Malta is a grouping of islands in the Mediterranean Sea. It is often associated with the Knights of Malta, or the Knights Hospitaller which were charged with the defense of the Holy Land. The fortifications on the isle are from the 1500's. Coming into this port was like stepping back into time. Just look at this view taken as we were pulling into port.



We jumped on a Maltese bus. Dean was in love with the old versions of the bus and was disappointed that the bus we took was a newer model.



We rode to a tiny village called Mdina, the Silent City. The only cars allowed in the city are those of residents. It was amazing. Tiny little streets like this. (And look at how clean they are!)



Here is another shot in front of a cathedral in Mdina.



The countryside was beautiful. They recently had brought in the harvests. The fields were separated into plots, each surrounded by a low wall of stones.



Back in Valleta, we visited the Barrakka Gardens. The Knights used to practice their maneuvers here. And then we visited another cathedral, St. John's Co-Cathedral. This cathedral was one of the main cathedrals used by the Knights and the floor was covered with tombstones like this.



Towards the end of our time in Valleta, we got hit with a rain storm. It poured rain! We had an umbrella but it didn't do us much good. Valleta is on a hill so the water runs down the street to the ocean which meant as we walked back to the street that the water ran down hill with us. It was like a waterfall coming down some of the stairs. But it was all part of the adventure. Here is a view of a street in Valleta taken from the Gardens. This was before the rain but seeing the slope of the streets may help you envision walking down these streets in a downpour.



I really need to read up on more of the history of this country. It has been a player in many different wars. And I was very impressed with the people here. They were very gracious and everyone spoke English. English and Maltese are both taught here. And I was most impressed with the fact that there was no graffiti and the streets were so clean. That says a lot for the people I think. Dean and I would both like to visit here again and stay for longer than a day.

Barcelona, Spain

I tried to update you from Europe but the internet connection on the ship was so slow, it just wasn't worth it. Dean and I are now safe and sound and updating you from the United States. I am still breaking these posts into chunks just to make them more manageable for you and me.

First of all, maybe I should explain why Dean and I took off for 12 days to Europe when the stock market was crashing and we had already blown our life savings in Russia just a few months prior. Close to My Heart offers cruises/trips to its consultants that achieve certain levels of sales, etc. during the year. I earned this trip with Close to My Heart. The Paris portion was an add on (with free airfare why not take a stop in Paris) but since we used the subways and buses and bought museum passes, we did Paris very cheaply. It was truly a once in a lifetime trip that we have been looking forward to for several months. I feel very blessed that I had a good year with my Close to My Heart business and was able to earn this amazing trip. And now, on to Barcelona.

We left our cute little chateau at the Marriott Vacation Club in Paris at 4:30 am Saturday morning and flew to Barcelona, Spain. Wow, what a contrast in cities. Both are beautiful. But both are very different.

By the time we made it to our hotel and grabbed something quick to eat, it was late morning so we took a train to the monastery of Montserrat above the city. Beautiful place. You can see the monastery here. We took a tram up which was a little nerve wracking for Dean but not as bad as the elevator up the Eiffel Tower he says.



We didn’t expect a small city at the top of this hill but there it was. Shops, restaurants, a church, the monastery. There was even a hotel you could stay at here. The church was amazing. There was a wedding going on so I felt like we were intruding (along with a few hundred other tourists). Here we all are in front of the square.



If you proceed up the stairs and through the arches behind us, you will find this.



And if you go inside, you find this.



Beautiful isn’t it? The wedding party was up at the front.

Here is another view of the monastery from the top.



Barcelona is a partying city. We walked down Ramblas Street and it was packed with tourists and locals. This is in the Gothic part, the older part of the city. The little side streets are so narrow. Along this street there were bird shops, flower shops, sidewalk cafes, street performers. We got our picture taken with one.



We found out some of the people traveling with Close to My Heart were pick pocketed on this street while taking pictures with one of the many street performers. Either we got an honest one or we just got lucky. We were pretty careful.

We walked what seemed like miles to get to a recommended restaurant called Freeway. We got there at 8:15 pm, starving and tired. Dean said it was the first time I had worn out before he had on a vacation. We found out the restaurant didn’t open until 9:00 pm. So we waited. It was worth the wait. It was a big buffet. You chose your entrees and they cooked them right in front of you. After eating, we headed back to the hotel about 10:30 pm. The locals were just getting started but we were exhausted.

After a few hours of sleep at the Fira Palace Hotel, (we had some partiers in the room near us), we were up for a tour of the city. We saw some of the homes built by Gaudi and also the Sagrada Familia (hope I’m spelling that correctly). We didn’t have time to go inside this amazing, still in progress, cathedral but it was beautiful.



My favorite stop was the next one at some gardens designed by Gaudi above the city. It was beautiful and calm. There are no straight lines in Gaudi’s designs because he believed everything should be fluid as though it were alive. This garden had some great examples of that as well.



Here is another example—the porcelain was taken from various factories and it was all discarded and broken materials that they pieced together into mosaics.



And from the garden we were off to our ship. Enjoyed Barcelona. Wish I could have seen more. This cruise was very much like that--too little time and too much to see.

Paris Day 3

Paris has been an absolutely amazing city. Maybe it’s because I speak some French so I feel a little bit more comfortable. Maybe it is because I have dreamed of coming here for so long. But it is beautiful. And the French have been so nice. I think it’s a myth that the French are rude. We’ve been treated very hospitably.

Day 3 was every bit as eventful as Day 1 and Day 2. We started the day bright and early and jumped on the Metro. We’ve been riding these a LOT.



We headed out to Versailles and it was beautiful. The only down side was that someone had decided to host a modern art display in the palace so some of the rooms had these odd modern sculptures. It didn’t quite fit the baroque feel of the rooms. We toured the palace and would have loved to tour the gardens but it was so cold and windy and sprinkling rain so we decided to have lunch and head back into town. Do I look cold in this picture?



We did take a few minutes to wander around the streets near Versailles. LOVED this too. Quaint beautiful little shops. We found a “chocolat” shop and oh, my goodness! Janette took a picture of me in this shop that I will have to get from her later and post here. I was in heaven.

Back in town we went to the Musee d’Orsay. I LOVED this museum. I could have spent a lot more time than we had there. I saw Van Gogh’s, Renoir’s, Whistler’s Mother, Monet and so many more beautiful paintings. I have to admit, because of time we skipped over the really modern stuff by Picasso and other artists. But I hope to come back to this museum someday to spend more time.

This is the Chaumes a Cordeville by Vincent Van Gogh.



And this is a view of the Musee D'Orsay on the banks of the Seine River.




We walked along the Seine River and visited the Place de la Concorde. Here are Lit and Tracy Liu at the Place de la Concorde. A lot of people lost their heads here in the French Revolution.



We then walked down the Champs Elysees. There was an aviation exhibition here by EADS Defense and Security (Blake and Dad, maybe you recognize this company). We walked two miles to the Arc d’Triomphe. We were running short on time and a storm was coming in so we didn’t climb to the top of the Arc. We’ll have to save that for another trip.



Our hotel was right by Disneyland Paris. It about killed me not to have time to go inside. But we did walk through the Downtown Disney shops and got our picture taken by the gates. I’ll have to save this for another trip someday. Here are Janette Jones and I just drooling to go inside.



Dean and I have put Paris on our “return here someday" list. It really has been an amazing trip!

More from France...

Read the previous post for day one. I guess I've taken too many pictures that are too big. But I can't help it. I'm in Paris for goodness sakes.

My favorite part of day two was Notre Dame. Here we are at the top of the cathedral. Look at that view behind us!


And, while at the top, here's the bell. This BIG one, the one that I'm sure Quasimoto rang.


And while we really didn't see Quasimoto and he didn't really say hi, this guy did.


We also visited Sainte Chappelle (sorry, no good pictures) and then of course the Eiffel Tower. We were there from just before dusk to dark so we got to see it in the daytime and at night. Here is one shot.


This is from the top of the Eiffel Tower This picture is dark of Dean and I but look at that rainbow in the background. How amazing is that?


We are all really tired and have to leave for the airport for Barcelona Spain at 4:30 am tomorrow so I'll post on Day 3 (today) later. So from France, Bonne Nuit!

Quasimoto Says Hello!

Bonjour from Paris! Oui, Oui, mesdames et monsieurs, Dean and I are here in Paris, France with our friends, Tracy and Lit Liu, Janette and Kelly Jones. Other than stepping on Ratatouille in a Paris street (I won't expound), we have had an amazing time. I highly recommend Paris to everyone! And as far as the Frenchmen go, I haven't met a rude one yet, and that is after spending three days riding the metro. We have seen so many sights! Here are just a few.

We visited the Sacre Coeur. And watched the sun go down from the top of these steps.


We ate crepes here (and I had a run in with Ratatouille in the street nearby--story for another day). So yummy!


Tracy and I bought scarfs. When in France...oh, I guess that's Rome (we'll be there next week!). Not only were we fashionable, we were warm. It's in the 50's, windy and rainy here.


We saw Mona Lisa...
...here at the Louvre. Da Vinci code anyone?



My picture limit is full for this post so I'll have to start a new one because I'm barely on day two and I haven't even gotten to Quasimoto yet.

The Epic Rag Doll Scene

Last Friday, Christian's band, The Epic Rag Doll Scene, had their first gig together. It was at That Music Store in Highland so it wasn't a huge venue but they had quite a few people hanging out to hear them. Let me paint the scene, high schoolers coming and going, dancing, hanging out in the front. Moms and Dads lining the chairs along the back wall. The two support systems--friends and parents. Heaven forbid the two should mingle ;-). But it was a lot of fun. Christian really is an impressive drummer and his bandmates, Trevor and Skyler, did a great job as well. Below is a picture. The quality stinks because it was taken with a camera phone. I considered taking the video camera or my digital camera along but somehow, that didn't say subtle. That said, "Somebody's mom is here" and Christian probably wouldn't have appreciated the humiliation. So we'll settle for this grainy photo. And did I say, Christian is a really good drummer? Well, he is.

Sunday Night and a Sleepover

I really don't like Sunday nights. It's not that the weekend isn't great, it's just that Sunday night means the end of the weekend. It means that tomorrow, the rat race of the week starts over again. I admit, I don't loathe Sunday nights like I did when I worked full time. But I still can't quite convince myself that they are something to look forward to either. So here I sit, late at night when I should be asleep, working on this blog. This is also a typical Sunday night for me--staying up late because somehow, it prolongs the weekend a little longer. And makes me tired and grumpy the next morning.

Kristina had her first sleepover this weekend. I have to say, she has made some darling new friends and I am so grateful to them and their moms for their patience with her. I know that everyone worries when their children go to school, especially at a new school in a new place. Will they make friends? Will they adjust well? But when you add in the fact that the new school is in a whole new country with a different language and a different culture, the worry is a bit stronger. But as I listen to Kristina and her friends laugh and giggle and communicate to each other in a mixture of English, sign language and just plain silliness, it warms my heart. This little Russian girl is going to be okay.

Here are Kaylee, Madison and Kristina.



Funny story--Madison and Kaylee are both tiny little sticks. We all went to Carl's Jr for dinner. All three girls downed quite a bit of food for such tiny things. On the way home, they were laughing in the car and Madison said, "Oh, it hurts to laugh when your stomach is so full." When your waist is as big as my wrist, of course it does. Okay, maybe you had to be there but I laughed out loud when I heard this.

These three even tagged along (in their pajamas) to hear Christian play this weekend. His band, Epic Rag Doll Scene, had their first gig on Friday night. But I'll post more on that tomorrow when I actually have a picture to share with all of you.

For now, I'm off to bed. Monday has to come sometime.