Colburn's Travels

On a very short stop to see the virgin Mary shrine in fatima.

# posted by Roger @ 12:38 PM 0 Comments

In Sintra, Portugal just outside lisbon. Very impressive.

# posted by Roger @ 12:07 PM 0 Comments

This monolith was from 6000 BC. And claims to be the first public structure in Europe. The stones were placed in accordance with the equinox. It is believed to have been used for both religious reasons and as an observatory. 

# posted by Roger @ 7:50 AM 0 Comments

Cork is the bark of the tree. They strip the bark off the tree and mark the date. Then it will grow back, but it takes a long time to grow back.  Poutigal is the largest producer of cork in the world.

# posted by Roger @ 6:48 AM 0 Comments

Gross

# posted by Roger @ 5:25 AM 0 Comments

This is the first hotel that we have stayed at that has a church in it.

Now we have seen churches that used to be mosques, churches made of bones, the biggest Gothic church....

# posted by Roger @ 5:22 AM 0 Comments

This entire chapel is made from skulls and bones.

# posted by Roger @ 12:16 PM 0 Comments

In Evora, Portugal.  World heritage site that is also our hotel for the night.

# posted by Roger @ 10:46 AM 0 Comments

View looking to the east.

# posted by Roger @ 11:38 AM 0 Comments

The south west most part of Portugal...Sagres.

We have now been to the north east most and south west most part of continental Europe.

# posted by Roger @ 11:16 AM 0 Comments

Diff between owning and renting.

Really needed it after 10+ countries.

# posted by Roger @ 9:39 AM 0 Comments

Just south of Tangiers.

# posted by Roger @ 7:33 AM 0 Comments

Roman city from 200 ad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volubilis

Very few people here and we were allowed to walk everywhere.

# posted by Roger @ 9:20 AM 0 Comments

The kids learning the traditions. Rebeca really liked it.

# posted by Roger @ 10:53 AM 0 Comments

Royal palace in Fes, Morocco.

One of the 10000 small streets in the old Medina town of Fea.

# posted by Roger @ 7:55 AM 0 Comments

We celebrated Halloween in transylvania, so what better place to go for Thanksgiving than Morocco. Anyway, we spent the day driving from the town near the ferry to arrive in the city of Fez. Now we are ready for our traditional Moroccan meal at our hotel.

# posted by Roger @ 2:23 PM 0 Comments

Traditional Morrocan meal at our hotel.

# posted by Roger @ 2:16 PM 0 Comments

Took the ferry from Spain this morning. We will be here for 3 days.

The gas stations have nice play areas.

# posted by Roger @ 9:17 AM 0 Comments

Pict 1
The monkeys of GIbraltar. Rumor says when they go the British go. Churchill flew extras from Africa just in case. 

Pict 2
The airport in Gibraltar has the main road going through it. They have 4 flights a day when they obviously close the road down.  

# posted by Roger @ 2:05 PM 0 Comments

Looking across to Ceuta,  a Spanish posession in Africa from a Gibraltar, a United kingdom possession in Spain. Think about it.

# posted by Roger @ 11:39 AM 0 Comments

The cathedral is in the Guiness Book of World Records to be the largest cathedral with the most space, but looking at it, it looks smaller than others we have seen in Spain.

# posted by Roger @ 7:16 AM 0 Comments

First rainy day we have had. The weather has been excellent...even places we have been (i.e. Estonia) now have snow.

Alex loves his Spanish / English dictionary. Says thank you for getting it for me every few hours.

True story: Eric got one of his vocabulary wrong. Nomads probably live in Trains, Tents, or Apartments. He picked apartments...don't know why :)

Rebeca likes that her name is finally spelled right here in Spain...only one R.

st of the places we have been (i.e. Estonia) now have snow.

# posted by Roger @ 7:13 AM 0 Comments

Lost has a new meaning with "Gina" our GPS navigation. We named her sice she seems a part of the family and limits the argueing while driving. Normally we have used her only while driving, but since we don't leave anything in the car to tempt thieves, we happened to have "her" on our walk. Roger thought she was wrong, by the way.

# posted by Roger @ 12:09 PM 0 Comments

Us the largest Gothic church in Europe.

First cloudy day we had had in a while.

# posted by Roger @ 11:28 AM 0 Comments

I really like the idea of automatic Bicycle rental.  Drop one off...pick another up.

Also it was intersting to see our horse in traffic

# posted by Roger @ 10:41 AM 0 Comments

As you can see it is a converted mosque from the year 756.

# posted by Roger @ 10:09 AM 0 Comments

These ruins were recently discovered near corodoba.

We have been surprised by the strong Arab influence and by the desert like climate of Spain. A lot like Arizona. 

# posted by Roger @ 7:30 AM 0 Comments

On a beautiful sunny day...again.

# posted by Roger @ 7:59 AM 0 Comments

About 30 min away from Madrid where most ex monarchs SR buried.

# posted by Roger @ 11:10 AM 0 Comments

Royal palace.  Madrid, Spain.

# posted by Roger @ 6:36 AM 0 Comments

Parallel parking in Madrid...and they claimed it would not fit.

Actually our car is 2.2 M. Most lots are 1.8 M. Yesterday we spend an hour going from lot to lot scouting and marking a map.

We are glad we did because the first lot claimed 3M but that was only at the entrance...it was 1.8M inside??? Finally we found one near the train station. We may have to resort to taking off the car carrier off in order to park. And lugging the thing into the hotel!

# posted by Roger @ 2:09 AM 0 Comments

Inside of one of Spain's most impressive sights...a moorish palace from the 13th century.

# posted by Roger @ 10:21 AM 0 Comments

How do the people in the second floor stand up in this crooked ceiling?

We arrived in granada and had many problems parking our car. Had to back up narrow hills out of 4 places because we thought we would fit in the same height as before. Usually the backing up was with one of us outside guiding and lots of cars having to back up as well and with audiences. It felt like a stunt from the amazing race show. The streets are extremely narrow. By the way our new word for scratch is "granada."

# posted by Roger @ 3:23 PM 0 Comments

At the beach on the way to Granada.

# posted by Roger @ 8:23 AM 0 Comments

Bull fighting the kids.

# posted by Roger @ 5:52 AM 0 Comments

Finally met with aunt Mary, uncle Fred, and Shannon.

Beautiful day in the birth place of bill fighting on the top of big plateau.

# posted by Roger @ 5:29 AM 0 Comments

In school as we wait for cathy's aunt and uncle.

# posted by Roger @ 9:19 AM 0 Comments

image/jpeg

# posted by Roger @ 5:53 AM 0 Comments

Just entered Spain after spending the night in France.

# posted by Roger @ 2:48 AM 0 Comments

Just entered Spain after spending the night in France.

# posted by Roger @ 2:14 PM 0 Comments

We toured a castle that had a beautiful view of this very pretty town. Slovenia is called the Switzerland of eastern Europe and it is beautiful. We also watched a video on the history of Slovenia that had Alex's dream headphones. (You turn the dial for the language you want.) Slovenia had a 10 day war to break from Yugoslavia in 1991. The official currency is the Euro. The Italian border is 30 minutes away and the border between the two countries is disappearing in two months. There were lots of Italian tourists and we met someone at the restaurant who lives in Italy, but grew up near Petosky, Michigan.

# posted by Roger @ 4:22 AM 1 Comments

When we entered Bulgaria the kids asked if it was true in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that kids weren't allowed. We had no maps, no GPS, and it is already dark. We found our way across and are now in Serbia. Plan to stay in Belgrade...hope we find a room.

# posted by Roger @ 1:37 PM 0 Comments

We got to the border between Romania and Bulgaria and were surprised there was not bridge across the Danube...we looked for while :). We are on a ferry now. We did not have to wait long.

# posted by Roger @ 11:08 AM 0 Comments

Labels: Romania to Serbia

# posted by Roger @ 2:47 PM 0 Comments

The real Count Dracula castle in Transylvannia. The kids were scared and telling each other to be quiet so not to wake him, since he is up all night, he must sleep during the day. They stayed close and kept their hoods up to hide their necks. But like anything else it is just a tourist attraction. It is for sale for $100M.

# posted by Roger @ 8:35 AM 1 Comments