Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, and The Netherlands

We have been to Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Porto, Vigo, Islas Cíes, Paris, Fontainebleau, and Antwerp. We have swam in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. We went to a castle that was used for more than 8 centuries, some of its occupants were Napoleon and Marie Antoinette. We saw the original Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum, along with the Arc of Triumph and Eiffel Tower. We have been the to Diamond Museum and learned about the production and origins of more than 80% of the world´s diamonds with an estimated $40,000,000,000 USD in export value.

Arriving at the France/ Spain border on a night train from Marseille, France. We had 30 minutes until the next train for Barcelona left so we decided to go watch the sunrise.
Sunrise over the small border town of Porto Beau, Spain. We rented bicycles while in Barcelona. We rode around the tourist infested streets and even got off of the beaten track into some interesting neighborhoods.

A Dali painting of Quijote.

A painting of the Trojan Horse by Dali.

We craved american junkfood and ate at Burger King.

The busy city of Madrid.

A beautiful marble table inside the Prado National Museum in Madrid.

The Royal Botanic Garden in Madrid... we stole a tomato from the king's garden!

A night view of Lisbon, Portugal old town from on top of "the elevator" structure.

The streets of Lisbon are covered in tile work, in amazing intricate designs.

The view from "Lisbon's Poet Hostel", we slept the best here all summer.

A beauitful evening sky with a monument commemorating some old famous dead guy?

We had a lovely dinner and this was our view! I ate atlantic salmon and Gordon had swordfish.

Some Portugese Grandpa's remeniscing at a train station.

A view from our boat tour that we took in Porto, Portugal. There are a ton of bridges designed by some famous people, one of them being Mr. Eifel (the same guy who did the tower in Paris).

A majority of the older buildings in Potugal are covered in this beautiful porcelain tile work.

Camping on Islas Cies off of the coast of Vigo, Spain just north of Portugal.

Sunrise over the Atlantic, looking back at Vigo

Sunset near our campsite in Islas Cies.

And then on to PARIS!

In front of the Louvre Museum, the famous pyramid.

A trip to Paris is incomplete without having taken a picture of the Mona Lisa.

Yes, we can be SCARY too! This was a display at the Louvre of a SE Asian cultural piece.
What is this structure called again? The Arc of Triumph, we missed the final stage of the Tour de France coming into Paris by just a few days.

And then there is the third most important tourist attraction in Paris- Jim Morrison's gravesite!

Some giant doors inside of some old Catholic church- knock, knock- anyone there?

Walking to the Notre Dam Catholic Church where a saint had just passed away and there was a special service being held for him- some spectacular singing filled the insides.

One of the beautiful stained glass windows inside of the Notre Dam.

There are people everywhere!

But eventually we did find a nice little town in France that was not loaded with people, Fontainebleau.

There are some interesting mini-motorcycles in France.

The following series of pictures are of the old castle that was occupied for more than 8 centuries, some of its occupants being Napolean and Marie Antoinette.

Gordon stealing from the King of France... in front of the stairs where Napolean gave his goodbye speach before he was exiled.
The streets of Amsterdam.


A nice balck and white of the canals.



One might think the Mafia could afford more than this bicycle as a mode of transportation?



The streets of Antwerp.

A dog attacking a fountain in Antwerp, The Netherlands. He went at it for about 20 minutes and then finally became so bloated he had to vomit up all of the water to walk properly.