Day 9 - El Dia Final

The last day that we spent in Spain, I woke up on a train. I do have to say that I'm pretty lucky that I am able to sleep sitting up, but a 9 hour train ride when the train car smells like g-funk is never fun. We got into Madrid some time around 9 am and my first thought was "I need a Coca light." And I tell you what; having a soda explode all over you first thing in the morning is always pleasant.

But maybe some jamon flavored chips would make me feel better. Mmmmm...bacon.

Our first stop was to see the Madrid Temple. I was sad that it was Monday and the temple was closed, but we did get to freshen up a bit there. And that's why I pay tithing. ha.

And after some major drama at the train station, we made our way to the town of Segovia which is about an hour north of Madrid by car, but by train, it took us 3 hours. The picture below is so not mine or Scott's or Deb's, but this is a picture of the castle in Segovia. And now, Rapunzel is going to pop her head out of the window and let down her hair.

Inside the castle there were a bunch of suits of armor and the things that always stike me about armor are these:

• How does one get the armor on?
• How does one fight with all that crap strapped to them?
• Chafing?
  
• Why was a 7 year old wearing it????
  

Check out this view. Doesn't it look like a painting? Estupendo!

I think that by the time we saw this castle, we were a little overdone on castles. I mean - they are beautiful and all, but you can only take so many of them for days in a row before they all start looking the same. And you might notice that I'm wearing the same clothes that I was wearing yesterday. Stop judging me. I slept on a nasty train.

The entire town was just so beautiful and picturesque!

By the time we got to the Plaza Mayor in town, the sun was setting and we were getting hungry.
Check out their gothic cathedral right before we went to dinner.

And then this is after, thanks to Scott's really nice camera.

We went to a restaurant that the cab driver had recommended to us called Las Cuevas de San Esteban. Random name for a restaurant, but hey - ratatouille was on the menu and so were croquettes of jamon y queso. Perfect way to end our Spanish adventure. Here's Deb with the ratatouille, looking hot as usual.

One of the coolest things about Segovia is their Roman Aqueduct. It was used until the 1960's I'm pretty sure - isn't that crazy? The city of Segovia got their water from a contraption that was built over 2000 years ago! Crazy! And just because I want you to see what this place looks like during the day: Here's a pic of the aqueduct during the day.

"How come ever time I turn around my aqua aqua-duct is coming down?"

And of course we had to have a little desert. And maybe it started raining and we needed shelter.

This is the last picture of the three of us together on our trip. Seriously, we had some really good laughs on our trip. We talked about everything you can imagine and even drew an org chart for each other of our respective peeps. I mean - you get to know a lot about people when you travel with them so you might as well get a flow chart so that you know when/what/who/why. And I do have to say that nothing I learned about Scott or Deb was negative. Such great people. We each had our respective roles. I was the planner, Deb was the accountant, and Scott was the idealist. Each of us needed for sure.

Ok so now on to actually having to think about something in which to blog about. :) Adios pero viva Espana!

I Say Lisboa, You Say Lisbon, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Remember that one time that I went on a mission to Portugal? Oh wait a second. I wish! Don't Deb and I make great looking companions? Some of the young women walked up to us and said "Sisters?" which I absolutely loved. Attending church in a country where I don't speak the language was a really cool experience. Everyone there was so nice and of course a member of the bishopric asked me if I knew the Elder Zundel that had been there a few years before. I don't know him, but I have to say my friends, I sure do love my last name. Zundels are so dang cool. {claytons, i love you too - don't worry}

We met some really nice people at church; especially one guy named Antonio. When he was introducing Scott to the elders, he said to Scott "Ask them 'Who's your daddy?!'" To whoever taught him that - good one. Of course we all had a good laugh except for Antonio. I mean...I would never do anything like that to anyone - right Sil?

After church we made our way down to Belem, which is an area of Lisbon. Here we are in front of the monastery - look how ornate it is!

Since it was Palm Sunday, there were palm branches at the end of every aisle in the church - it was so beautiful!

And I just had to post this picture since I think it is so awesome. The tomb of Vasco De Gama is here in Belem and here are his fake statue hands with a beautiful painting in the background. Nice work, Scott.The monument to the Explorers was across the street and in front of it, there is a huge beautiful mosaic on the ground. Here's me and Deb blowing the ships home with the West Wind.

And here's a picture of the entire mosaic from the top of the monument. We were kneeling down right by Alaska in case you are wondering. Isn't that awesome?!

And now, a picture of us with Lisbon in the background.

And if you're facing the other way, this is what you see. Oh yes, this looks quite a bit like a picture that would be taken right by my house, no? The bridge is indeed red and I'm too lazy to see who copied who with the whole Golden Gate Bridge thing. So whoever had the idea first, good job! I like it. The thing that looks like a cross is actually a "Christ the Redeemer" statue like the one in Rio de Janeiro.

We couldn't find jamon y queso in Portugal quite like we could in Spain - but what we did find in abundance here are pastries. Seriously, just looking at those is making my mouth water. These are so famous that they can be found all over Brazil as well.

Pasteis de Belem anyone?

I swear that we took every single mode of transportation possible while we were on the trip. Seriously - car, bus, cable car, boat, camel, minibus, metro, train...and is there anything else available for us? A bunch of old ladies were on this cable car and got mad at us for some unknown reason when we got on the car.

Here we are at the Castle of Sao Jorge. Have you ever heard a peacock scream? There was one up in a tree outside the castle tower and we were walking underneath it when it started to scream. Click here if you want to hear it for yourself. (please note that in this video, the peacocks were 4 houses away, so you can only imagine when it was in a tree right above us). Seriously, it was like a banchi in the tree yelling "HELP ME!" and it scared me to death. So we walk more towards the castle and a bat flies right over my head. The cats inside the castle were totally freaking my stuff and then as we're looking out at Scott, I see some type of very large feline walking into the woods behind him. I totally felt like I was in some type of animal horror movie.

Deb was insistent on the fact that she wanted to climb a castle wall. I could have cared less, so here we are.

We eventually made our way to the Oriente train station that night in Lisbon to take an overnight train back to Madrid. On the way over, Scott realized that he had accidentally purchased a ticket for the wrong day, which put him out over 60 euros. Yikes. Needless to say, he was a little stressed about getting everything taken care of. Scott and I met last year when I went to Duck Beach. One of the nights that I remember most was when someone taught us the "Dip dip dip" game. To try and make Scott feel better about his current situation, I tried playing "Dip dip dip" with him. Obviously it didn't make the situation any better, but I do believe that it made us all laugh.

And tomorrow is our last day and it was one of my favorites, of course. Dippity Dippity Dip.
dip
dip
dip

Ghost Town

And here we are at day 7.

So you know that part in Grease when Frenchie is telling Sandy that Danny is an "amoeba on fleas on rats"? From now on, I'm going to tell people "He's a flea on the dog on the accordion on the metro in Lisbon."

I've seen a lot of crazy things on a metro before, but never like this.

We took the train to Coimbra, which is a town comparable to Oxford since it is the educational center of Portugal. Not a whole lot like Oxford, but whatever. Coimbra used to be the capital of Portugal until something that I don't know about happened and the capital became Lisbon. And we figured that we ought to go check out at least one college town on our trip and see what the fuss is all about. And first things first - time for pastries. A couple things about this photo...

1. There is a huge gold palm tree in the middle of this pastry shop.

2. I was able to use my extensive Portuguese vocabulary and ask for a knife, or faca, for you Portuguese speakers out there. I was so proud of myself!

Next on the itinerary - act like you're in a photo shoot for Scott.

"And that's when he said 'She went to get a huge pizza?'"

This kid got the memo about red pants AND posing for Scott. Awesome.

Have you ever been to/in Rexburg during General Conference weekend? Being Coimbra the Saturday before Semana Santa was very similar. Seriously - no one was there.
And just to prove it to those who care, I did my duty and lit a candle for a certain friend of mine (since it is tradition) in the name of Evita Peron.

Then we went to the old monastery next door to get some lunch.
Tienes Jamon y Queso??

And here's Deb going into the confessional.

The only other time in my life that I rode a finiculare was in Capri, Italy. You know the song...but did you know that its a mode of transportation? The song is about as random as that video I just linked to. Kind of a ripoff for a 2 minute ride up the side of a hill (3 euros each!) but it was fun and you hardly see these things!

At the top of the hill we arrived at the University. And there was "wall art" everywhere. In our tour book, it said to look for this one specifically. Click here to read up on the G8 in case you don't know what it is. I'm here to educate, people!

Since there were no students in sight, I don't know if we got an adequate view of what Coimbra is like on a normal day, but here's a picture that may tell you a bit about town. Seems like a party town to me!

Hello red door!

This was taken at the bottom of the Street of Broken Ribs. Ironically, Scott almost broke a rib walking down the hill.

Our last stop before dinner in Coimbra was at "Portugal Dos Pequenitos." Basically, it was a kids park of Portuguese sites. They have all of their major monuments in kiddie size! Here are are pretending to be Alice in Wonderland and growing out of the house.

Isn't Coimbra beautiful at night??

Only 2 more days before going home. It was at about this point that I was beginning to think about how I could live here permanently. Seriously.

Have You Seen Sintra?

Good morning Portugal! Our cab driver dropped us off at a bus station in Elvas, Portugal. I mean - when there's a town in the world called Elvas, how can you pass it up? For good measure, Deb and I ate a jamon y queso so that we could leave our mark on the sleepy town.

So we hopped on the bus and rode for 4 hours to get to Lisbon. I would show you pictures from the bus ride, but I was sleeping so I didn't even see most of it myself. Sorry kids. We checked into the Lisbon Marriott, got our bearings and headed to Sintra, a little town just about 20 minutes north of Lisbon. So if you ever go to Portugal, this little town is a must see! So picturesque and very quaint! At the top of the very large hill in town, there is an ancient Moorish castle that makes you feel like Gargamel will start chasing after you any second..

And just underneath it is the National Palace - with these two very odd cone things on it, which - come to find out, is where the kitchen is. I just like to think of it as being extremely feminine.

One Grecian Urn....
trickle trickle trickle

Everything in Sintra looked like a fairy tale. Even higher up than the Moorish castle is the Pena Palace, which was the home to the royal family of Portugal before they were run out of town in the 1930s and killed (at least I think that is what happened.) And here is a picture for you.

I'm glad that wikipedia had a good picture from a distance because when you're walking up, this is the first glance you get...

Hello, Disneyland! This place was a lot like Hearst Castle - meaning that someone had way too much money and built pointless (but cool!) things like this:

Or this.

Ahoy, Matey!

I wish I could think of more witty things to say to you about Sintra, but nothing all too exciting happened that day. I think that Scott saying "I think Steph needs a Coca Light" explains a lot. So Scott and Deb went out that night on the town in Lisbon and Steph was asleep in bed at 9:30pm. Yay for sleeping. For those who know me well, I'm the worst faker EVER, so when I'm tired and grumpy, I have a really hard time hiding it. And this grumpy pants needed some sleep and some clean clothes. And to close this post, I'd like to thank the laundry service at the Lisbon Marriott for helping a sister out.