Madrid

       The train ride from Malaga to Madrid was 3 Hours long.  It was the first high speed Train that Simon and I had ever been on!  When we arrived in Madrid we got off and went to the Metro.  From our metro stop we walked to our Airbnb.  The apartment only had one bed so that meant I had to sleep on the couch.  As soon as we were settled we went to the metro and got on the train towards the Bullring.  Outside there were lots of people drinking and smoking.  There were also people trying to sell us tickets. We told them NO and went to the booth to by our tickets there.  We got seats pretty far up in the bullring in the shade and sun section (the sections are done by shade and sun).  The bullfight was not very good.  Every single bullfighter at least got touched at least once by the bull.  When we were leaving there was a building that we looked into it was the Butcher.  Inside they were cutting up the bulls to be eaten.  The next day we woke up early to go to the Royal palace of Spain   It was awesome there were lots of Incredible rooms with crazy paintings.  Afterwords we went to the armory which I thought was much better than the tower of London (Sorry London).  Afterwords we scootered to the Prado, the big art Museum.  The museum happened to be exhibiting 10 Picasso's from Basel, and a precious relic from a church in Bogotá.  The thing from Bogotá is called La Lechuga it has 1845 emeralds and many more Precious stones as well.  After that we went home and got jackets.  That night we went out and got ox tail to eat.  The waiter said that the tail used to be from the bullfight.  Which we thought was cool since we had just been the day before.  Than we went home.  The next day we got up and packed.  Than we went to a very big park for two hours.  For lunch we headed over to the train station were we ate.  Than we went to our train and got on.  Next Stop Barcelona!!!

End of Bullfight

Royal Palace of Spain

Famous statue of Don Quijote

Nerja - Costa del Sol

View from balcony of our Airbnb

       
       From Granada we drove to the costal tow of Nerja near Malaga.  We got an awesome Airbnb right next to the beach, like literally on the beach!  It was also still pretty hot so we went to the beach to go swimming, the water was the perfect temperature.  There was also great sunbathing.  That night we ate dinner at our apartment.  After we ate dinner we got our scooters and scootered up to the main point and got ice cream while watching the sun set (at 9:15 PM).  The next day we slept in late, when we finally got up we went down to the beach and sunbathed and swam.  At about 3:00PM we came up and ate lunch.  Than we sunbathed on our balcony while trying to figure out how to get hot water in the shower.  A few hours later we walked up toward the main Plaza to get dinner. We found a nice seafood restaurant that was near the water.  We had all gotten sunburnt badly that day so none of us were very comfortable.  Than we went home after getting ice cream.  The next day we woke up pretty early, me and Simon went down on the beach to play while Kara and Eric packed up.  Than we got in our our car and drove thirty minutes to the Malaga High Speed Train Station.  Kara dropped Eric, Simon and I off there.  We went and got on a RENFE AVE train to Madrid.

Alhambra

       We arrived in Granada just before dinner time. We walked up the hill to our apartment.  We had gotten an awesome Airbnb that had a view of the Alhambra from its deck.  We ate dinner and walked up the hill across from the Alhambra to get good view of it.  There was a great park up there with lots of people enjoying the warm night and looking at the view of Spain.  Then we went home earlier than we ever had in seville to get some sleep so we could get up early and go to the Alhambra.  What ended up happening was that Kara got up early and went to get tickets and the rest of us slept in.  The Alhambra was incredible, it had lots of gardens and old castle like buildings. We entered in the 12:30 PM group and stayed all the way to 8:00 PM.

       Alhambra at night with lights from park.

       Far Southern tower Looking back on Alhambra.  Inside the wall there are ruin of some small servants quarters.  This tower is the one that appears in most Pictures of the Alhambra from a distance.

       Well Preserved pillar inside Nasrid Palace with arabic calligraphy in background.  The Nasrid palaces are the most well preserved and famous part of the Alhambra.

       Silhouette foto in room of Nasrid palace with no external light.

Famous fountain with lions in a courtyard of Nasrid Palace.  The lions in this fountain are very famous with nonstop streams of people taking their picture, the lions on display currently are casts of the originals.

       Ceiling in throne room of Nasrid palace, I really liked the lighting in this room.  it also had some of the most elaborate ceilings.

Picture of domed bathroom ceiling.  I think it looks very flat in the picture.

  
       Wooden carved Ceiling in Nasrid Palace.  I liked the way the light came in the side windows.

Closeup shot of Arabic calligraphy on wall of minor palace, very artistic.

       Half doorway off courtyard of minor palace at the beginning of visit (I think Kara only took it cause there is a bird there)

       One of my favorite tile pattern of the whole day!

Expo Milano 2015

Click here for part one

       Last Tuesday we woke up at 5:00 AM to go to Milan.  We went almost straight to the tram which we took to the train station.  We ran from the tram stop to the train which was a special tilting train for international routes.   It is called the "Pendolino" invented by the Italians to go around curves.  It was 6:00 in the morning so we tried to get some sleep, it was too bright.  We finally got there at 10:00 AM.  We walked straight to the entrance which was very convenient to get to.  It was huge and it still had lines.  The employees were just arriving to because it had just opened.  The first Pavilion we entered was the Brazilian one because we had heard about it being good.  It had a pretty long line getting in but we finally got in.  It was made out of a huge net over a garden with buildings on the side describing Brazilian Agriculture.  It took us one hour to do it when we came out it was 11:00  and was getting very hot.  The next pavilion we had read about was Korea.  The Korean one was all about fermentation and how it could save the world although it did not say how.  From there we went to the Kinder sport arena.  I did not think it was going to be a good idea because it was so hot, but we did it anyway after that we had some not very good Pizza for Lunch.  We continued to the UK pavilion which from what we read was the nº1 pavilion it was about bees and had a huge structure representing a bee hive.  We got a lemonade there and kept walking while we ate it.  We ended up going through Israel to get to the tree of life and the Italian pavilion. The tree of life is a large tower that was sort of like the main attraction at the fair, it does a show every hour.  It was going when we passed it so we went to the front and sat down.  But the problem was that right after it finished everyone went and waited in line for the Italian pavilion, and since we were in the front of the crowd we got in the back of the line.  The Italian pavilion was not very impressive to us although it was huge, we thought the line was to long.  We continued past many pavilions that looked like they would be fun such as Japan.  We got to the U.S. which was very cool and was the only pavilion that had their president talking at the entrance!  They also had Michele Obama talking about how the population is growing very fast and we need to do more sustainable farming to get everyone good food.  The pavilion had a huge living wall with Lettuce that could blow in the wind.  Then we went to the American food trucks and got killer burgers although there were not very many people there.  Than we started our walk back to the train station.  On the way back we got awesome Ice cream in the chocolate section then we got on the train home.  The Expo was super fun and there were many pavilions that we did not get to go, such as Switzerland which you needed free tickets to go to which they did not have by the time we got there.  But it was one of the funnest days in the sabatical so far (and one of the hottest).

     

Brazilian Pavilion With Net

UK Pavilion, Beehive Center

Tree of Life

American Pavilion Outside Front

American Pavilion Living Wind Wall

Seville

      

       When our flight arrived from London it was 37 degrees Celsius or 99 degrees ferenheight.  We were coming from London half as warm so we had jackets and pants on.  We went straight to our AIRBNB.  We could not find it so we went to a cafe and got drinks. then our host came and took us to our apartment.  We stayed there and wondered if we could go to the pool but they were still closed because it "summer" yet.  Our apartment was in the old Jewish quarters which ad small shady alleys so it was a bit cooler.  A little while later we went out and walked to the central plaza under the cathedral that was called La Giralda.  From the plaza we walked away from our apartment.  We found a tapas place that looked like it was good but it didn't open until 9:00 and it was only 8:00 so we found  another one and went in we stayed there for about an hour and then went back to the first place.  We got home at 11:00 PM and went to bed.  The next day we got a late start and went to the Alcazar the old royal palace.  It was kind of like the Alhambra but it had more tile patterns that I liked better.  It also had a huge garden in the back.  That night we went out again and got home at 12:00 PM.  The next day was super fun we got up earlier and went to La Giralda we waited in a twenty minute line to get in.  Inside it  was huge like many European cathedrals.  It also had Christopher Columbus's tomb wich was cool.  Later we climbed uptake tower which had all ramps and high ceilings because they use to climb up it on horses.  It had a great view and some huge bells that went while we were up there.  When we went down Kara went home and we went over to the Bullring.  It is unique for several reasons.  One because it is oval shaped, two because it is privately owned, it is also very old (it took 120 years to build).  We went on a tour of it, and went in the museum which had  bullfighting suits and stuff like that.  that night we ate dinner at 11:30.  On our last day Eric got up early and rented us a car to drive to Granada.

Christopher Columbus's Tomb

la Giralda

Seville bull ring

   La Giralda

Night

High Speed Rail

          Last week we were at the train station on a Sunday at noon, very quiet day.  Usually at noon it is very quiet but on a Sunday not.  Normally at the train station there is about one or two international or high speed trains there and while we were there there were four.  An Italian one to Milan that tilts on curves, an Austrian one to Vienna, a French one to Paris and a German one to Kiel.  All of these trains went faster than two hundred km/h so therefore they were high speed rail.  The Italian train was very interesting, because the way to Milan was so curvy they built a train that could tilt itself into the curves and go 35% faster around them.  It was called the Pendolino.  The one in the picture is brand knew it came in March 2015.  The Pendolino is made by the Italians and early ones were known for being unreliable.  The French train is so fancy that the line has a name.  It is called the Lyria.  This train only stops once in Switzerland, in Basel.  We are going to ride it to the Basel airport which is in Switzerland and France.  The Germans run several trains in Switzerland.  One to Münich, another to Frankfurt, also to Berlin and to Kiel.  The picture you see below of the german train is in Münich, because we did not get its picture in Zürich.  The Austrian train goes to Vienna and is by far the fanciest train in my opinion.  We are going to get to ride on the French train and the Italian train soon.  We already have ridden on the German train.  We also really want to ride on the Austrian train.  Sadly the max speed of trains in Switzerland is only 200 km/h because they do not have good enough track.  Also the Swiss have decided that they would rather have more frequent trains than have fewer but high speed trains.

Austrian train to Vienna

Max speed 230 km/h

German train in Münich

Max speed 320 km/h

(on designated track)

Italian tilting train to Milan

Max speed 250 km/h

French train to Paris

Max speed 320 Km/h

(on designated track)

London

        Two weeks ago we started an awesome trip.  Over the course of two weeks we went to 6 major european cities.  We started by waking up at six in Zurich to go get on the train in Basel.  There we got on a bus to the Basel city Euroairport, which is half in Switzerland and half in France (the same with the Geneva airport).  From there we got on a two hour flight to London Stanstead airport.  We had happened to arrive the day after the British parliamentary election, it was also VE day so there were lots of WW2 veterans out taking pictures with tourists.  We saw Big Ben and 10 Downing St.  The next day we woke up late and went to a market for breakfast. After that we went over to Tower Bridge and beachcombed under it and then walked across.  On the other side of Tower Bridge we walked to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels and look at the armor, we spent the rest of the day there.  On our last full day we woke up early and went to the Greenwich Maritime Museum.  The museum happened to be hosting an interactive play that we got tickets to, it was super fun.  Then we walked up to the Greenwich Observatory and went to the museum and got our picture taken on the 0º meridian.  The last day we woke up early and got on the train to Stanstead.  From there we flew to Seville...

Sechseläuten

            Sechseläuten Is one of the most famous holidays in Zürich.  It happens on the third monday in April every year.  First there is a very large parade with all of the cities guilds.  The parade was wicked amazing.  And the guild from our neighborhood was the second biggest after the bakers guild.  At the parade they throw out tons and tons of flowers.  And since we were at the end of the parade we got the most because the people really wanted to get rid of them.  We were at the parade for two hours collecting flowers.  At precisely (down to the second) 6:00 they lit a huge bonfire on fire with a big snowman on top packed with explosives (actually he was made out of cloth but that is how the legend goes).  They time the amount of time in between when the fire is lighted until the mans head blows off.  The shorter the time the better the Summer will be.  Although last year it took 6 minutes and they had a very bad Summer, and this year it took 20 minutes and 39 seconds so it will be a very bad summer.

Click below to watch a video I made of it

Locarno weekend

Last weekend

Last weekend we went to Locarno with my cousin and my aunt.  Locarno is in Ticino were they speak Italian in the southern part of Switzerland.  It was a three hour train ride from Zurich, on the way there we stopped in Bellinzona.  Bellinzona has lots of castles because it is situated in a narrow part in a valley that is the only way to get from Germany to Italy without going over any mountains.  The next day we went on a hike twenty minutes out of Locarno.  We got there on the Locarno regional transport called Fart.  There we took a gondola over a huge chasm to a small village.  It was very awkward at the bottom we were there with another elderly couple and nobody was attending it.  It took a little while for us to figure out that we had to press a green button to make it go.  Everyone had a laugh.  The hike was very nice.  Along the way there was a serve yourself bar and we stopped and bought ourselves some honey.  The next day we went to the thermal baths it was amazing, and all the water was salty.  There was one big bath that had a part outside and inside.  After that that we took the train home the kind of train we were on was a tilting train.  It was a very fun trip.

Picture from beginning of hike, looks like painting.

Bea at the top of some broken stairs(there are lots of old farmhouses there that are falling apart)

Fart Regional transport

Castles in Bellinzona

Outdoor part of thermal baths

Zermatt Skiing

       

           Last week I went to Zermatt, it was a three hour train ride from Zurich.  When we arrived everyone was walking around.  It was a very warm day and we could see the Matterhorn and the skiing lifts very clearly.  We were all very tired so we went strait to our hotel.  In our room we had a perfect view of the Matterhorn from our balcony.  This picture is taken at sunrise from our balcony the day we went skiing.  In the morning the snow was very icy, we got on the 8:30 train up the mountain.  We got out at Gornergratt it was the end of the train line.  From there we skied a couple of kilometers to a gondola and then transfered to two other gondolas and then to a cablecar/tram to the Matterhorn Glacier paradise stop.  That was the highest we went that day at 3883 meters, from there we skied down on a glacier to Plateau Rosa Testa Grigia at 3480 meters.  That is when we crossed the border to Italy.  In Italy we mainly stayed on the same three lifts. I went off a jump and got 1 meter of air and landed.  We stayed there for a while then at three oclock we got on a lift with customs back to Switzerland.  The snow was getting slushy so we skied back to our hotel and returned our skiis.  The skiing was extremely fun and we all got very sunburnt and tan.

Archery

             For my birthday this year I got a bow and arrow.  Yesterday my aunt brought them to me from the USA, this is a picture of Simon right after he has shot his arrow.  Every Sunday morning in Berkeley a guy named Michael would set up archery targets.  I would go up there and practice. He was a very good teacher he would teach you by shooting at coffee cups, then once you got good enough you could go shoot at real targets and then when you were really good he would let you go shoot at a paper plate about a hundred meters away.  I hit it on average 7 times per year.  I have been waiting a very long time for my own bow. And now I get it when i very least expect it! In Switzerland???

Glacier Express

        Two weeks ago we were in the Engadine valley in southern Switzerland.  We stayed in Pontresina, visited St. Moritz, and went sledding in Preda-Bergun.  The sledding run was a UNESCO World Heritage site, becouse of amazing train track.  It had tunnel loops and spectacular stone bridges.  The sledding run was super fun and it had a radar gun where you could see your speed. I got 36 and 33 km/h.  At the bottom there was a very pretty village with old architecture. All the corners of the houses had elaborate paterrns etched into them.  This picture is from when Eric and I were taking the train home. The entire ride was 2 hours long.  The train had panorama cars so that you could see the mountains, we sat in one when we took the train from St. Moritz to Chur. From there home to Zurich on a regular train.

Expo Milano

        Last week I went to Florence Italy with my grandparents and my brother.  We drove all the way there from Zurich.  It took almost six hours!  When we were passing the Milan area we saw some very weird stuff.  First we saw a tower that had a rocket on the top.  My grandfather said that it was taller than the Space Needle in Seattle from when they hosted the Worlds Fair. We got to Florence and went to a bunch of museums and touristic stuff. My brother will tell you that on his blog.  Now back before the trip, Eric had told me that a Worlds Expo was going to be in Milan this May.  So, on the way back we saw this weird train station.   (above) It was then that I realized that the train station and the tower were for the Worlds Expo.  Later on, the drive we saw another tower.  Now we hope we get to go to the Worlds Expo 2015.  Click here for part 2

Liestal

        During the last couple of weeks it has been carnaval in many parts of the world including Switzerland.  We have gone to three diferent parades, I am going to tell you about the Chienbase of Liestal in which giant torches and bonfires are carried down the street.  The parade was amazing, they carried giant torches down the street and carts with bonfires with flames taller than buildings. The fires left trails of coals behind them, and the ground had over two inches of confettion it, but somehow nothing cought fire.  Here is a link for a video I made: http://youtu.be/4zsVBdTF97s 

Caribbean coast

         We went to the Caribbean coast for 13 nights, while we were there we did a lot of different things.  When we got there we stayed the night in Cartagena, the next day we got on a boat out to some islands.  The boat ride was two hours on bumpy waves but when we got there it was worth it.  The sea was warm and the water was blue, it was very nice. And it came with a cook so we did not have to do anything.  We stayed there for two nights and then went back to Cartagena.  We stayed in Cartagena for 3 nights, and then went to Tayrona for 1 night. The next day we went hiking 4 kilometers to a beach to swim and then came back. The next 2 nights night we stayed outside of Tayrona at a nice house.  After that we went up int the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta for 2 nights.  Then we went back to Cartagena for one night, and the next day flew home to Cali.  This is a picture of us in Tayrona.

Tejo

         Up in the coffee country there is a sport that is very popular it's called Tejo.  The way you play tejo is you throw a very hevy piece of stone at a torget up to forty feet away made out of clay with packets of gunpowder in itaround a metal ring.  You play the game in teams if you hit it the gunpowder it explodes becouse of the wait and your team gets two points.  If you get in the middle of the metal ring you get 5 points.  And if no one hits anything the closest one gets 1 point.  There is a picture of me playing Tejo. 

Trucha al Ajillo

       The coffee country is full of small towns, in one of them (the most touristy one) there was a very typical dish. It was called trucha al ajillo or garlic trout.  The day we got it we had been hiking for a while in cold weather and I had hurt my knee.  I was very grumpy when we got there.  We all decided to order the trucha al ajillo besides Simon.  When the food got to the table they served it in boiling garlic sauce that had the fish inside.  When we were finishing my dad asked the waiter how they made it.  She said that she did not know and would ask the cook, a couple minutes later the cook came out and told us how to make it.  She was very nice.  When we left the restaurant we were very happy.

Hummingbird Reserve

          On the same trip as my last post we went on a  very epic and long hike to a hummingbird reserve.  The hike was a 13 kilometers long and at the end was the hummingbird reserve.  In the hummingbird reserve there was a house that had hot beverages and hummingbird feeders.  In Colombia there are something like 200 species of hummingbirds and at this house you could see 10-15 of them.  The one in the picture is the one that I found most fascinating.  We went to the same place again but could not get a good picture.

Coin Toss in Filandia

      On one of our first trips to the coffee country we by chance ended up in a small town that was having its fair.  When we got there the fare was happening there were lots of gambling games the first one we found was called "La Sirena" the way you played was you  would put your coin or bill down on a number and then spin the a arrow in the shape of a mermaid (sirena) and if it landed on your spot you would win triple.  Another one was a coin toss where you could throw 100 peso coins (5 cents) on to a board made out of tiles with numbers on them surrounded by tape.  If it landed not touching the tape you would get however many pesos the tile said.  If it landed on the tape the person running the game would take the money.  While I was in Colombia I had a great time playing lots of games.

Hair cut in Colombia

           Over Christmas we went to Cartagena while we were there we noticed that our hair was long.  The day before we had been walking around and thought that we had seen a old barber shop.  So we decided to go back, when we got there there was a line so we asked them the price to see how much for a hair cut it was 10,000 pesos ($5.00) since it was so cheap we decided to wait. Eventually we sat down to get our cut we all said we wanted our cut like James Rodrigues (Colombian soccer star) the barbers were all male and were very nice.  when we finished they put gel in our hair.  My dad is the only one that has not gotten his hair recut.

Los Toros

       While I was in Colombia I went to my first bullfight, it was amazing despite all the blood and gore.  The bullfight we went to was a especially good one apparently for two reasons, number one was because we got to see 7 bulls and number two because seven ears were given to the bullfighters as trophies for doing a good job.  The reason we got to see seven bulls was because there was a local bullfighter who did bad on his first two bulls so they gave him one more bull to fight.  I was surprised on how interesting it was and what a cultural experience it was.