Week 47: Zaragoza (posted by Eliza)

 

On Sunday, May 17, we woke up at 15 minutes to 5 and walked like hobos to the train station where we had a 6:30 departure on our train from Lyon to Nimes where we took ANOTHER train from Nimes to Zaragoza.

Zaragoza had a lot of surprises. I played basketball with a fifteen year old boy named Gio (I even beat him at "Horse" once).  We visited old Roman ruins (Although that wasn't much of a surprise). We visited a very old church funded by the silver the Conquistadors brought back with them from Peru. We went to a medieval palace that was originally Islamic and now is the seat of government for Zaragoza. For some reason, Zaragoza also has an origami museum. 

We also went to a art museum about my dad's favorite artist Francisco Goya. He was born near Zaragoza and they took a lot of pride in him. At the start of his career, all of his paintings were light and funny; but at the end of his career, he painted lots of dark, moody, and scary paintings. That probably had something to do with the fact that he went deaf and his country was in the middle of a war.

Finally, our favorite thing was mostly just walking around on the pedestrian streets and courtyards and watching the world go by.

Week 46: Lyon (posted by Annie)

On Tuesday, May 12, we rode the train from Zurich to Lyon. This was the first time that I had ever been to France. 

Lyon had several big cathedrals that looked like they were out of a Disney movie. Lyon is known for its food so for lunch on the first day we ate a traditional bistro. I had the three cheeses toast.  It was very yummy. 

We stopped to look at the famous Lyon mural that included all of the famous people from Lyon painted on the apartment building. The next day, when we were walking around Lyon's biggest park, it started pouring on us. This was tough because no place to get out of the rain so we got soaked.

Some other highlights included was the rock climbing gym which was fun. In the process, though, we got a few blisters. Jane and I also purchased French skin care. We heard that it is known to be very, very good.

And, of course, there was an art museum. It has lots of cool artifacts from Egypt and cool French paintings. I remember seeing Rodin and Degas' ballerinas, and many more!

Overall, France was great because of the great food and cool architecture. Next up: Spain!

Week 45: Zurich (posted by Jane)

We left Ljubljana on an overnight train and woke up in Switzerland. After dropping our of our bags at the Airbnb, the girls got a lesson on Zwingli and the Protestant reformation. We visited the church where Zwingli preached and a statue of him. 

After our day of exploring we met up with Dad's cousins, the Hofers, who are living in Switzerland. We had a great time catching up over dinner!

The next day we went to a chess tournament with the Hofers and the younger kids also shot some hoops!

We went to a cookout and got to meet the extended Swiss family. At the Hofer family cookout there was a bouncy house, water guns, and a pool! After the party Anne and Eliza got to have a sleep over.

On May 10th, we visited the Swiss National Museum and had day to relax and recharge.

The big event the next day was a fancy dinner with Uncle Paige and Aunt Zyb. Uncle Page is Hampo's brother, and they were traveling around Europe at the same time that we were passing through Zurich.

We had a amazing time catching up with family, but off to France we go.