On the Road in Spain

It's been a whirlwind of a spring. We haven't posted anything since March (though most of you follow us through facebook these days), but we have been busy. We fly home to see Rob's brother get married and then Erika followed her stint in Taiwan with another trip to Cape Town. Rob joined her and we enjoyed a fantastic road trip along the Garden Route on the southern coast of South Africa. Once home, we settled in for the rest of the spring, summer, and our last remaining time in Amsterdam, which is just flying by. In May, we took advantage of our last big trip in Europe and headed to Spain.

We started in Madrid, where we very quickly assimilated into the culture, enjoying many afternoon naps and gorging on tapas. At one point, Erika thought Rob would figure out a way to eat ham at every meal. Between meals, we visited several museums and walked through the city. We stopped for a drink in the beautiful Plaza Mayor and people-watched. While we spent most of the time completely enthralled with Flamboyant Fat Spiderman, we really enjoyed the locals dressed as Chulos and Chulapas, who were equally adorable, whether they were 6 years old or 80. The outfits are worn in celebration of St. Isadore and the beginning of the bullfighting season.

After a wonderful night of tapas bar hopping with some Spanish friends, we headed to Seville. A gorgeous city (with more amazing food), Seville is lush with beautiful gardens and home to a beautiful cathedral and an old Moorish palace.

We finished our time in Seville with a traditional Flamenco show, which was a little bit touristy, but totally worth it anyway. The singing, dancing, and guitar playing was incredible.

We pushed south to Cadiz, a sun bleached city said to have been founded by Hercules (how cool is that?!). While Cadiz was lovely, we had more fun in nearby Jerez de la Frontera, which is the heart of the Spanish sherry country (the word 'sherry' is a deviation from the word 'Jerez').

Cadiz

Needing a break from a few days on the road, we stopped in Estapona, a little beach town on the southern coast. We enjoyed a day in the sun, a quick trip to the spa, and some of the best seafood we've ever had. After the nice break, we moved north to Ronda, stopping first in the beautiful village of Grazalema.

Grazalema is one of several Pueblos Blanca, or White Villages, which were established high in the mountains by farmers who were trying to avoid gangs of bandits. All the buildings are painted white and the villages look stunning beneath the craggy rocks. They're also a pain in the neck to get to, hence the whole avoiding the bandits thing.

Ronda is famously built on two cliffs with a massive bridge connecting the two sides of town. The bridge is quite beautiful, as is the view of the valley below.

For the last day of our trip, we stopped in Cordoba to visit the unbelievably beautiful Mezquita, a massive mosque-turned cathedral that dates back to the 10th century. Filled with stunning Muslim architecture and design alongside Catholic altars and imagery, the Mezquita is an amazing departure from most of the Giant European Churches we've seen during our time in Europe.

Finally, we spent one night in Toledo before flying home. Toledo is an ancient city, built on a hill, and the streets are so narrow that some buildings have had parts of the walls scooped out to allow cars to navigate. Naturally, we thought it would be a good idea to drive to our hotel, so Rob got first hand experience driving through town.

Our trip to Spain was an incredible experience and a great last big trip before we move home. And now, here's an elephant standing on its trunk:

Hong Kong

In the footsteps of Erika’s grandfather, Erika’s work with her firm has provided the opportunities to see parts of the world we may not have otherwise explored. While the travel has its hardships, particularly for a pair of happy newlyweds, we know we’ll be able to look back on these years with fond memories.

The most recent escapade took Erika to Taipei, Taiwan where she spent about 8 weeks overall working her tail off. Even with all of that, she was able to see a bit of Taiwan and make it over to Hong Kong a couple times to check out her grandparents old stomping grounds and visit a friend that moved there from Amsterdam. Rob was even able to make a trip out East himself to see a bit of Taipei and then was able to spend a few days in Hong Kong.

The first trip to Hong Kong was over Thanksgiving weekend where Erika helped her friend Tina put together a proper Thanksgiving spread…with the turkey complements of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (it's in that tin).

Tina just so happened to live within walking distance of Grandma and Grandpa's old apartment on Tregunther Path so, on the last day in Hong Kong, Erika took a stroll up the “hill” (ah-hem – just short of a mountain). More than halfway up the Peak Tram, at the top of the vast and beautifully constructed cityscape, and at the base of the greenery that makes up the remainder of the steep Peak hills which reign over Hong Kong, it was apparent right away how Grandma and Grandpa could have called this home for so many years and it was nice to share in a bit of that history.

Both weekends in Hong Kong were filled with good eats (this was also true for Rob’s later visit to Hong Kong). It seems that you just can’t go wrong with food in that city…between dim sum, champagne brunch, secret kitchens and places you simply get a good feel about…there is great food lurking behind every street corner.

Overall, Hong Kong was quite the city and it has one of the most stunning skylines we think we’ll ever see. Whether you are looking at it from above…

Or below…


It’s a memorable one.

There is more to come on Taiwan and Bangkok which capped off the Eastern part of Rob and Erika's journey abroad.

A Swiss Christmas

We celebrated Christmas this year with some friends by taking a trip to Switzerland. Rob's friend Don joined us and our Amsterdam friends, Brent and Ruth, for a week of skiing in the mountain village of Engelberg.

After an adventuresome day that included hours of flight delays and a race to catch the last train to town while lugging skis and suitcases and relying on Rob's ever-declining command of the German language, we arrived at our rented apartment around one o'clock in the morning and crashed. Of course, all the travel induced stress was forgotten when we got our first view of the mountain:

Engleberg is not a large resort, but the runs are very long and there were enough of them to keep us busy. One of the big draws to this part of Switzerland are its many fantastic off-piste (off-trail) runs, and while we decided we weren't up to the challenge, we certainly contemplated it:

The weather was a little harsh this year and throughout the week different areas of the mountain were shut down due to insanely high winds. Still, we skied plenty and filled our time with other activities. There's always apré ski:

Or a night time, torchlit snowshoe trek on the mountain:

Or Swiss Fondue:

While Ruth and Erika wowed us with many delicious meals, we had Christmas dinner at a nice restaurant in town. We had a wonderful time and felt so thankful to be able to share such a memorable Christmas with friends.