Pictures!!

I am FINALLY uploading some pics! The internet is impossibly slow in most places, so there is only really a completely random selection... We will just have to show everyone the real photos in person!

Looking over at Porto from Gaia, the neighbouring city across the river, famous for Portugal's port. Maja and I first met here in Porto on June 24 (Porto, Lisbon)

Franceshina! A Porto dish... layered bread, steak, sausage, hot dog, bread, egg and a spicy tomato sauce! Not for the faint of heart (Gaia, Portugal)

This beautiful blue tile work was found all throughout a lot of the cities, especially Porto and Lisbon, which has really differentiated itself from other coutries (Lisbon, Portugal)

Doing the laundry (Lisbon, Portugal)

Inside Saint George's Castle (Lisbon, Portugal)

Pasties of Belem - aka custard tarts from the factory that first invented them. SO GOOD! (Lisbon, Portugal)

Friends and fountains (Lisbon, Portugal)

A statue along the port. Notice the San Francisco bridge in the back ground. They say it was build first... (Lisbon, Portugal)

Water toys! (Lagos, Portugal)

On a tour in the grottos of Lagos. These are the Portuguese water dogs of our fisherman driver - he is very proud that Obama has the same dogs, they are hypoallergenic! The fisherman pointed out all sorts of formations in the rocks, with a lot of passion haha - the Sphinx, elephants, oh and banana beach, let's just say there were no bananas in the trees... (Lagos, Portugal)

The grottos (Lagos, Portugal)

One of the streets (Lagos, Portugal)

A small town in the Algarve (Portugal)

The Cathedral of Seville. It is the largest Gothic Cathedral, and third largest church in the world (Seville, Spain)

A hammam (arabic) bath. We did one later in our trip in Cordoba. You switch from warm to hot to cold baths, supposedly good for circulation; you could definitely feel the tingle as you moved from the cold back to the warm bath! (Seville, Spain)

Inside the Alcazar (Alcázares Reales), an incredible building (Seville, Spain)

One of the fountains in the Alcazar (Seville, Spain)

Ruins of a temple (Marrakech, Morocco)

Typical spices, nuts, etc sold at the market in the medina (Marrakech, Morocco)

Somewhere in the Morocco, driving through the Atlas Mountains (Morocco)

One of the stops along the way... (Morocco)

Just chillin (Morocco)

The roads up the Atlas Mountains (Morocco)

Slowly melting... We stopped to look at a fossil museum. It was 50 degrees as we were headed for the desert. Apparently the hottest temperature recorded on earth is 59 degrees! Did we mention that our van was a 15 seater, had no AC, and a window wouldn't open?! Guess the window wasn't a big issue, someone up front said the air felt like a hot air drying being blown right in your face!! We probably drove about 24 hours in our 3 day trip... (Morocco)

Our transportation into the Sahara Desert (Morocco)

Camel riding with our group (Sahara, Morocco)

Taking a break after sitting on a camel for 2 hours... not the most comfortable experience in the world! (Sahara, Morocco)

Climbed to the top of a sand dune to watch the sunset (Sahara, Morocco)

Our camp in the Sahara Desert. We slept out on mats under the stars. The sky was crystal clear, and there were tons of shooting stars that night (Sahara, Morocco)

They love their ham in Spain! A typical meat shop. Many a time we have seen individuals shaving cured ham off of the bone: butchers, servers, vendors, you name it (Madrid, Spain)

The closest either of us got to the bulls at San Fermin (Pamplona, Spain)

The barriers for the Running of the Bulls, held each morning of San Fermin.

All dressed up and ready to go! (Pamplona, Spain)

Watching Spain beat Holland in the World Cup! They showed the game in the middle of a square on huge TVs. This was the first time Spain had made it to the finals, let alone won the World Cup! Just as they won, the nightly fireworks for the festival started overhead. It couldn't have been timed better! (Pamplona, Spain)

During a bull fight at San Fermin. They fight all six bulls that run in the Running of the Bulls that morning. It was pretty hard to watch, we left after the first two. Apparantly later that day, one of Spain's most famous matadors was injured in the scrotum! (Pamplona, Spain)

During the bull fight, we sat in the Sol (Sun) section. This basically means that young Spanish people bring in huge buckets full of sangria and throw it all over you! I think we may have been targets... (Pamplona, Spain)

In the stadium following the Running of the Bulls of San Fermin. All the bulls run down the street into this stadium. People in the crowd were mostly still awake from the night before, and would randomly break out into Spanish songs (Pamplona, Spain)

(Cordoba, Spain)

(Cordoba, Spain)

Outisde the Cordoba Mezquita - Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Cordoba, Spain)

Just my fascination with doorways... (Granada, Spain)

The ceiling inside the Alahmbra, I cannot put to words how incredible this building is (Granada, Spain)

Sierra Nevada Mountians (Granada, Spain)

Pretty flowers everywhere in Spain (Granada, Spain)

Inside a gypsy cave! During the Spanish Inquisition, the king wanted to banish/kill all gypsies, so they dug these hills in the side of the mountain to hide. They are incredibly cool inside - probably a 15 degree temperature change, all natural. This was a fascinating lady we met, who had lived with the gypsies - her husband used to play music with the Gypsy Kings (Granada, Spain)

Portugal!

Hard to believe but it's our last day in Portugal! Hard to bring ourselves to actually leaving this beautiful country... The language is somewhat similar to Spanish, yet so different! I understand that the Portuguese can understand the Spanish, but the Spanish cannot understand the Portuguese to the same extent. Regardo (thank you) goes a long way!

I arrived at the airport in Porto where I met up with Maja, my friend from TrojanOne. After sleeping overnight in the airport (any way to save a few euros! We didn't arrive until late that night anyways, so it really just made sense!)

Portugal was playing Brazil our first day, so we headed out to the town plaza where we watched the game being blasted from huge screen tvs in the middle of the street. Grabbed a beer from a stand, and joined in with the screaming and vuvuzules - what passion! Porto was filled with hours of wandering the old quarter, peering into every house along the tiny narrow streets. Many of the houses were surprisingly abandoned. We went on a port wine tasting tour (I'm clearly not refined enough yet, not a huge fan!), traveled to Aviero, "Portugal's Venice" among other things.

It is surprisingly inexpensive here. 10 euros for an amazing hostel (6-10 beds per room), 2-5 euros for a filling meal (great seafood!), 1-3 euros for a good bottle of wine, 20 euros for a 4 hour train ride (probably the most expensive part). Actually, we cooked a meal for ourselves the other night, and for only 8 euros we got spaghetti, sauce, tons of veggies, breakfast for the morning, fresh fruit, gourmet nuts AND a bottle of wine! Unbelievable!

Next we traveled 3 hours down to Lisbon by train. What a fabulous city! The nightlife there was something else in a certain district. Tiny bars inside, big enough to fit maybe 8 people to order a drink, and then everyone just stands outside on the streets! We met such friendly Portuguese people. We traveled 15 minutes out of the city to Belem, where we had the best. tarts. ever. It was the original bakery where they had been created, and it still stands today. We saw many castles, one in Lisbon from the 8th century, and others in Sintra, a village about 45 minutes from Lisbon (the transportation system is incredible). It was about 10-15 degrees cooler in Sintra, even though it was so close. Weather was about 30 in Lisbon, not a cloud in the sky, while foggy, and COLD in Sintra. Lisbon has a bridge that looks almost identical SF's Goldon Gate Bridge. Apparently it was build first...

We have met so many great people so far, even making plans to meet up again at a later point when our travel dates/locations look like them might coincide. We have had to book a lot of the hostels in advance, at least to get better ones, which was so different from our SE Asia trip, so it's a little easier to make plans in advance.

From Lisbon we spent a night in Cascais, a beach town not too far from the city (was really way too touristy and overcrowded for a mediocre beach). So we headed straight down to Lagos, in the Algarve, 4 hours by train. This is where we are now. And it was highly recommended, and reasonably so, it's beautiful! Yes, it is mainly filled with Australian, English, German and Canadian tourists among others, but the grottos (cliffs) are out of this world. There are beaches everywhere, some crowded, some empty (probably because they can only be accessed by boat!) The contrast of orange/red rock to the bright blue sea could make you cry. We took a little boat tour today, with a very passionate Portuguese man and his 2 Portuguese water dogs (like Obama's apparently!) We couldn't have gotten a better guide, he pointed out every rock and their formations (elephants, camels, skulls etc.), and even "banana beach" which, with two men on it, let's just say that there was no fruit there...

The food here is some of the best. Have been eating lots of fish. One traditional meal we had was called "Francesihna" - heart attack on a plate: layer of bread, then steak, sausage and hotdog, then another layer of bread, then a fried egg, then smothered in cheese and a spicy tomatoey sauce! Surprisingly good!!

We are biking the cliffs in a neighboring town tomorrow. Then it's off to Seville, Spain by bus in the afternoon! From Seville we are booking it over to Morocco, then coming back to Spain for the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, and then spending more time traveling up the coast of Spain, and into France...

I'll try to post some photos soon!

Pippa xx

Last few days in England...

We've come down to Cornwall, and I am spending my last few days here before taking off to Porto, Portugal on Thursday. We are in St. Agnes, on the North Coast of Cornwall, in the Barber family's cottage. There hasn't been a cloud in the sky since we've arrived, and our days have been filled with walks, beaches, surfing, sunbathing and eating! Just had to post a few photos, because it really is picture perfect here. Thinking of you lots Nanny and Bruno while walking around these areas!