Home Sweet Home

(Wandering through a castle in Portugal)

We arrived home on Tuesday morning after 18 hours of flying and 5 hours of driving in the snow with a late night pit stop at my mom and dads in La Grande. We called them from a gas station late in the evening to tell them we would be stopping in around 2 am for a snooze. They were great and left the light on for us, much like Motel 6, but nicer (and cheaper too). We went grocery shopping early the next morning, which was quite a treat to have English labeled familiar foods to pick from and then drove home slowly with snow packed roads. We arrived home at 10:30 and the kids were back in school at 11:06. We were ready, and most importantly of course, they were ready.

We spent a couple days adjusting back to our schedules as Spain is 9 hours ahead of us. It wasn't uncommon for us to pass out at 6pm and then up again at 2:30 in the morning watching movies before getting ready for school and work. I have worked the last 3 nights and actually feel better then usual, probably because I have been awake during the night the past 5 weeks. Anyway, the sun is shining, snow is glistening, and calling me out for a run. Looks like winter is officially here and I am happy to welcome it back.

BaRcELoNa

(Tob looking at a map outside the city, leading us to Melissa's twin street)

After the futbol game we headed to Barcelona, a city of 1.5 million people give or take. Tob has a family childhood friend, Melissa who happens to live there and offered us a place to stay while we were in the area. The first email we received from her gave us her neighborhood, street address, and cross street. I told Tob to email her and ask her for exit numbers and what not because Barcelona's not smallish so much, but he thought better to google search her house and honestly it looked fairly straight forward in a nice area right outside of the city. So we followed our own directions and ended up finding the street but not the cross street or any reason to believe it was in the neighborhood of Gracia. We stopped a nice woman who tried to help us find the house and then had to give us the bad news that we were in the wrong spot and send us deep into the middle of the city. She was very friendly and we were happy to have someone who knew where to send us though.

(Nojah with the tile lizard in front of park Guell)

Within an hour or so we found her house and a parking garage and an email from her giving us directions :0) and that her housekeeper would let us in about 4:30. When her housekeeper got there she left her key at home and had to run back and get it. We felt so bad for her, but we sat and had coffee and Popsicle until she returned to let us in. Tob called Melissa and she recommended park Guell so we headed there for the afternoon until she got home. This is a famous park that started being built in the early 1900's by someone who went bankrupt and then eventually the city bought it. Anyway, it was pretty cool to walk around although it got dark. Lots of tile and neat architecture to look at and open space for the kids to kick around the soccer ball. A couple days later we returned in the daytime to check it out as well.

(a little too much time spent together makes one go crazy)

We went and had dinner with Melissa about 9 that night and she gave us the lowdown on how Spain works which was nice. We had a lot of questions she was able to answer for us. The most important thing is you only have pastries or something small for breakfast (Spaniards don't eat much breakfast and of course we do, most important meal of the day right?) Cafeteria's and bars may open about 10ish along with shopping stores and then everything closes EXCEPT Restaurants from 1400-1600 and if you don't eat during that time she said you don't have a prayer of getting a decent meal until 8pm. Wow, we thought everything closed during those hours but we were wrong. Everything does close but the restaurants open. We kept trying to find food before 1400. Yikes we had it all backwards. I think we have eaten well, despite our lack of knowledge though.

(Nojah checking out the Olympic Museum)
Our second day in Barcelona we headed to La Ramba (a famous street) where they have street performers, animals for sale, art, flowers of all kinds, and markets with meats, veggies, fruits, and dead full skinned rabbits. Then we spent the rest of the day wandering around the Olympic grounds and checking out the museum.

(Tob and I making out in front of the stadium)

Anyway, everyone is ready to go out for the day and here I sit blogging in my jammies, so I had better wrap things up. We spent 2 nights with Melissa and then headed to Stiges on the Mediterranean coast where we have been playing at the beach for 2 days. We will stay here one more day and night and then make the big push back to Madrid. It's been an amazing trip and Lex just said to me this morning it feels like we have been gone only a couple days. I think it has gone by fast and we have all had a wonderful time but will be ready for our own beds, our own food, to see our family, friends and animals and get back to regular life.
I also hear we are coming home to some snow. :-)

I don't have any pictures downloaded yet for today but I had a minute to write a quick note. We have had the "silver bullet" our new ride for about 3 days now and love it. The only downfall of course is now learning something new. For example finding hotel rooms isn't easy. It doesn't seem that difficult until you actually try and do it. Our first night we spent 2-3 hours driving around near zaragoza trying to find a reasonable rate on a room and for the first couple hours couldn't even find a hotel (it was dark although i feel like that shouldn't matter) then when we did drive out of town we stopped at a truck stop and they were going to charge us 50 euro's for 2 twin beds until they found out we had children and the price sky rocketed up to 100 euro's, so we moved on. The next place Tob forgot to mention he had a family staying with him, although they didn't ask and said he could pay 50 euro's in the morning. This was a classy truck stop joint as well, but at that point we didn't care and just piled into the room, shared our 2 twin beds and then tried to sneak out after Tob paid in the morning. We don't know if they would have charged extra if we had mentioned it but didn't care to ask. The next morning we decided to head out early and find a hotel room in Lleida where we planning to catch a futbol game. We were told to look for hostals because they were cheaper but that turned out to be kind of a joke. We found 2 hostals but they didn't appear to be open and then one hotel that would have cost us an arm leg and both our children so after 6 hours of walking around this city we opted to drive out of town and see what we could find. We had children in tears fearing we wouldn't be able to stay for the soccer game which was the next day, however we luckily found another cheap hotel just out of town connected to a car sales place and again with 2 very small twin beds. The twin beds worked ok in Thailand when our kids were 4 and 6 but now that they are 8 and 10 it's a bit more difficult. Oh, well, we are happy to have a place to stay. It's not like we can just pull over and sleep where ever we want anymore.

So now that we got the whole campervan figured out we are done and have to figure out the hours of restaurants, cafeteria's, bars and how the hotels work. By the time we have that figured out we should be ready to board the plane and head home. :) Today we got up early and went to a Lleida futbol game which was very cool. It was fun to watch all the old men get their panties in a wad over the game. They also had all the little kids leagues honored before the game and there were kids from 16 years down to what looked like 3 year olds. So cute! It was sunny and a great day to sit out and watch the game. The kids had a blast. After that we had lunch at domino's per the kids request and NOTHING is open on Sundays as we have learned especially between the hours of 14-1600. After our belly's were full of pizza we headed to the park where Nojah played soccer with boy about his age and Lex wandered around being Lex.

Anyway, a little bit of rambling for you all to read. I wish I had more picture for you but I left our european converter in the "classy truck stop" hotel and now we have to charge everything in the car and the computer is close to death. Hope all is well at home. I think we have 7 or 8 more days and are headed to Barcelona tomorrow to visit Melissa and see the cit

Pork leg with hoof anyone?

Shopping in Portugal

Hola all,

Tob and I have spent the day at a campground outside of Madrid cleaning out “Fantastic” organizing and packing up all our stuff. The past week hasn’t been too bad with the beast but it has been a stressor for Tob so we are excited to make the drastic change and trade this in and pick up our teeny tiny Europmobile tomorrow afternoon.

For the next 10 days it will be hostels, hotels and restaurants. We are going to TRY our hardest to find a soccer game to take the kids too. There is one in Zaragoza on the 13th or 14th and then plan to head to Barcelona and visit Melissa (one of Tob’s family friends). She has been generous enough to offer us a place to stay for a night or two while we are there. It will be nice to have someone who speaks both English and Spanish to bounce all of our thoughts and questions off of. There are a lot of things we wander past and just wonder why??? And now we have someone to ask, if we remember our questions of course.

Regarding food our kids aren’t always the most daring food tasters (especially nojah) but they have done a little better this trip and have enjoyed some new favorites. We have enjoyed cracking and eating nuts (except for the chestnuts we recently purchased) although we were brave and tried them again roasted from a street vendor and thought a little more highly of them, but walnuts and almonds are our favorites. Tob and I both have fond memories of my grandma and his grandparents having nuts and a nutcracker when we were little and visited their homes. We hope to instill this tradition at our home and have more nuts available for the kids when we get back. Another family favorite is Olives, green olives, black olives, olives with seeds, but not directly off the tree. We all LOVE THEM. We have eaten lots of pasta and sausages (mostly wild boar). Grocery shopping was a bit of a culture shock as I remember back to walking through our first (Supermercado) 3 weeks ago thinking what in the world are we going to cook and eat? With having 4 plates, 4 bowls, one nonstick scratched and chipped pot and frying pan and then one other pot we didn’t have a lot of options for gourmet cooking however I think we have done pretty well. The kids love Nutella which they have had at home (thanks to Gma Teri) and have eaten many a nutella sandwich here as peanut butter is a rarity. Another thing we have noticed regarding produce here are things are fresh and not mutated to ensure the fruit is larger or comes seedless. We have thoroughly enjoyed the plump grapes from local grape vines even with the seeds. One last thing we will miss when we leave Spain will be the pasteleria’s and panaderia’s. Fresh bread and pastries in Spain are quite the treat.

Anyway I should probably get my dirty children to the showers and dinner made. I think after that there are card games to be played and journals to be written in. We are loving our time together (most of the time anyway) and are looking forward to phase 2 of our trip. Hope to update everyone soon. Adios for now!

The Chamberlain Family at a Museum in Portugal

Portugal Continued....

We entered Portugal at the northern border towns between Verin and Feces (yes fecesJ, although I am sure it’s pronounced differently here. I was a little disappointed we weren’t stopped by any border control to stamp our passports but most importantly we knew we were there. We were enjoying the mountain scenery with elderly people strolling about up and down the roads when I rolled down my window to enjoy the breeze. Shortly after rolling down the window we noticed the distinct smell of gasoline and how it continued to follow us as we drove down the narrow windy road. I was getting a little nervous that we may have yet another problem when Tob finally said in a fowl tone “I bet that guy didn’t put our gas cap back on.” Sure enough we stopped when we were able to and found out he was indeed right. No gas cap and gasoline leaking down the side of our camper van. After a few moments of exchanging words we decided it was best that I just didn’t talk and that is exactly what I did the entire 200km back to Spain. We drove all the way back to the gas station and were lucky enough to get it back even though it was about 10 hours later. So we wasted ½ a tank of gas and were back right where we started. That night we contemplated even going back into Portugal since we didn’t have a guide book or an ingles/portugese dictionary and would have to wing it. However winging it is what we do so the next morning we were on the road via a different route into Portugal for a 2nd attempt at this country.

We drove to a town called Aveiro on the Atlantic coast and parked “Fantastic” for a couple days while we enjoyed evening walks, learned a little Portuguese, played soccer in the sand, swam in the ocean (well the kids did anyway),ate ice cream and wore shorts for the whole day (because it was WARM) . It was relaxing and much needed as we had been in the camper driving and under stress the past couple of days.

While staying at the campground we got a dose of doing a what doing a whole load of laundry by hand was like and close to 1 ½ hours later we finally had it wrung out enough to put it all in the one working dryer.

After a couple days in Aveiro we headed down towards Evora. Not having a guide book or any idea where things are in Portugal we were trying to go where we were recommended by friends and to a few places we learned about on the internet. While driving to Evora we drove past and stopped at a monstrously huge Monastery in Batalha. It was a great find. We walked through the Cathedral and looked at tombs of the kings buried there in the 15th century. It was getting dark and we had already been there an hour so we didn’t pay to go in the monastery/museum portion of it but I am sure it would have been impressive. We did however hit the supermercado on the way out and bought some grapes and chestnuts. It’s chestnut season here and they have festivals with chestnuts and they sell them so they must be good right? Uh, wrong. I bought .42kg of Chestnuts (castanha’s) and peeled them tasting the most bitter nut I have ever tasted. Tob and the kids felt equally as dissatisfied with these nuts as I and wondered what to do with the rest. For now they are in a bag tucked away.

We ended up driving pretty late that night parking behind a small gas station where it sounded like people were having drag car races all through the night. We got up early and drove to Evora. The scenery was pretty along the way but Portugal hasn’t impressed me as much as Spain has. However there have been a ton of Olive and Orange orchards along with hillsides and mountain sides of grape vines. Once in Evora we parked outside a Roman aquaduct and entered the part of town surrounded by castle walls. Once inside we went to Evora museum which happened to be free because it’s Sunday J The museum had numerous coats of armor displayed and paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries. After spending a couple hours in there we tried to go to the chapel of bones but unfortunately it was closed for the day. Most things are closed Sundays or open only a few hours. We walked around within the castle walls and then outside to a park where the kids enjoyed playing for an hour or so and Tob and I drinking café. It’s been a relaxing day and there is still much to explore so we will probably stay tonight in Evora and finish exploring this city tomorrow before heading back to Espanha. We have 4 more days with “Fantastic” and then we can compare it to the rest of our trip with a car rental/hotels and hostals.

Portugal

Ok, seriously how cute is this? We headed to Portugal yesterday and then realized the gentleman who pumped our gas in Spain failed to put our gas cap back on so we had backtrack 200km about 2 1/2 hours to retrieve it. Lucky for us they still had it. Tob was not pleased. Anyway we weren't sure if we would just stay in Spain and head south or return to Portugal and we decided to give it another shot and are very glad now that we did.
Not long after crossing the border earlier today we ran across this sign. I think it's adorable. There are elderly people who walk EVERYWHERE in Spain and Portugal and they should have signs saying watch out for them. I love it. Anyway we are camping on the Portugal coast right now in Aveiro and hope to just stay here and relax for a couple of days. We have spent a lot of time driving the last week and need some down time and I can't wait to dig my toes into the sand after a good nights rest! Remember to watch out for the elderly! boa noite

Pico's De Europa

We spent 2 days in Pico’s de Europa national park this past weekend and unfortunately it rained (no poured) on us the entire time. Despite the rain it was gorgeous. I have to say Spain has some of the most beautiful mountain ranges (scenery) I have seen in my lifetime. We drove briefly along the northern coast line and spent the afternoon in a coastal town called Ribadesella and then found our 2nd camp ground we stayed at that night. As soon as we pulled in the campground and parked the kids said “um mom/dad there is a leak” and sure enough water was dripping at a steady rate from one of our cupboards and lights. I cleaned everything up while Tob dumped the toilet and hooked into electricity and placed a pot below the drip which seemed to do the trick. We played games that whole evening in the camper and got up the next morning to take showers do laundry and head on through the park. We had French toast for breakfast and after was when Tob noticed the propane was out and you have already heard that story so I will skip the details J. As for the leak it has now stopped raining, hence it has stopped leaking but we will be ready the next time it starts to drizzle.

We drove through a few village towns and then stopped in Potes to look around and eat. They had a large market that was fun to roam through. The kids bought swords and Lex was promptly poked in the eye. We bought fresh walnuts to crack and eat and a few postcards. We ate lunch at a pizzaria that had no pizza because the power was out, probably due to the weather. After lunch we drove to the Covadonga an amazing place set back in the mountains where Pelayo ( a knight) and his small army were able to fight off a Moorish army back in the 15-18th century’s sometime (ya I know big range, we are driving and can’t remember the details) Anyway, there was a monastery and a beautiful cathedral to wander around. After the Covadonga we continued on through the park. The roads were narrow with rock walls extending out into the road on blind corners and waterfalls pouring over the road flooding it in places. The river below was raging with high muddy water. After we went through the canyon we headed up 5000 ft of narrow steep highway until we were sure we would be driving straight over the snowy peaks. There was a huge sigh of relief from the driver when we reached the summit and were still below the snow line. We passed one car where the husband was driving and the woman was literally covering her eyes. This mountain pass made rattlesnake grade in the dead of winter look like a joy ride (for any of you familiar with the pass from Wallowa county over to Lewiston and Clarkston. The road may have been crazy and tense but now looking back well worth it since we are still alive.

Photo's

Here are a few photo's for those of you who don't have facebook. We were lucky enough to park somewhere where we have 3 bars of service, wahoo. Anyhow, we are headed into Portugal this morning. So above is a picture of the bull. These billboards are along the roadside throughout Spain.

Our first night in Spain we watched men with horses and sticks and bull chasing and what not.

Nojah and Alexyss in front of a Cathedral in the Covadonga

Family photo 5 miles into the pyrenees mountains

A hike through national park de Ordesa

Playing around at San Juan De La Pena
It's believed to have held the holy grail at one time.....and we didn't find it.

I was practicing for a sheep herding position. I think I can do the job.

The kids and Nala at the hobbit sized post office in Torla.

Torla, a town at the base of the Pyrenees mountains. My new dream home.

and finally the kids off to school.
Hope everyone had a good halloween. The kids didn't get to trick or treat because it was raining. They were planning on running around the camper multiple times trick or treating but instead we played a family card game of phase 10 late into the night and gave them candy each phase they won. It was a good night. Miss you all!! Thanks for all your comments. We love hearing from you while we are gone!

Not our style

November 2, 2010

Over the past 3 or 4 days we have come to the conclusion that campervanning/motor home renting, autocaravaning, or whatever you may want to call it simply isn’t our style. As I said earlier we have the freedom to roam, but what I didn’t mention is in limited area’s. We have had to stay out of large cities for the safety of both ourselves and others. If not you may find yourself driving down the sidewalks of Leon avoiding little old men with canes. I am going to refrain from telling all of you whether or not that actually happened or not J We have just come to the conclusion with our previous travel experiences that a campervan may be a bit too high maintenance for the Chamberlain family.

Our biggest struggle over the past 2 days was trying to find propane. We ran out the day before yesterday and thought we would be able to get another canister at a gas station, after all they have plenty around here. If you don’t have a camper or haven’t had any experience with them then you ought to know that you depend on your propane for not only heat, but cooking, as well as keeping your fridge and freezer cold when the vehicle is turned off. Our food going bad was of course our biggest concern so we drove and drove to gas station and gas station and gas station looking for propane tanks and found that either they didn’t carry them or they were out. We stopped at probably 8 stations who clearly had tanks and said no hava butane”. We finally stopped driving in circles trying to find propane at about 2230 and stayed in the parking lot of a Repsol station (one of their gas stations). We ate nutella sandwiches and went to sleep emotionally and physically exhausted. It had been a LONG day of driving.

Today we woke up and continued to search for propane as we are driving towards Portugal without much luck for the first couple hours. At this time we decided to stop and have breakfast in Astorga. We parked down below town and walked up through the streets and outdoor markets looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately restaurants don’t open until 1100-1200 in most towns to eat and the majority of places open are bars, YES bars, but of course nino’s y nina’s aren’t allowed in there if they are under 16. Go figure. There have been a few times I have thought of leaving them outside while I go in and enjoy the morning festivities and drinks, holding my wine glass up high grinning from ear to ear, talking loudly. Now I understand why they need a siesta between 1400-1700 each day. Well, instead of joining the bar flies we walked around as a family and went into a beautiful 15th century cathedral while service was in session which was cool to watch. Men in white robes blowing smoke on each other and the crowd of people hugging and shaking hands, praying and what not. The cathedral itself was spectacular. Across from the cathedral was a palacio Episcopal (Bishops Palace) designed at the end of the 19th century after a fire had destroyed the first one in 1887. The palace wasn’t open but was another spectacular site from the outside. After walking through town and waiting for everyone to wake up and open their restaurants we stopped at one to eat. Note to self a ½ order of a Spanish omelets could feed an entire army, which is why she may have been a little surprised I ordered it for just me. We ate as much as we could and took the rest to go. We played a little friendly soccer game in the park until Tob’s elbow met Lexy’s forehead, ate our melted ice cream from our freezer and headed back down the highway. Within an hour Nojah had to use the bathroom facilities so we stopped at a gas station with FULL propane tanks J Thank goodness Tob won’t let the kids pee in the bathroom unless it’s night (he really doesn’t like a full toilet) or we may still be searching. Anyhow, we are now headed down the hwy and plan to stop driving earlier today to work on journals, kick back and relax and enjoy our evening.

PS. I am writing as we are driving so by the time I am able to upload these posts it may be a day or two later. Also I know I haven’t posted any pictures and I will when I can but I have been posting them on my face book as it is quicker to download and share. I think most of you are on face book and can hopefully see those.