Photo Friday: Remembering Christmas in Switzerland

Remembering Christmas in Switzerland last year:

Beautiful hand-painted ornaments in Adelboden.

Snowing on an alpine cabin.

Christmas tree at Maison Cailler chocolate factory in Broc.

Decorations in the medieval town of Gruyères.

Our happy group at Our Chalet in Adelboden.

The Rooster of Barcelos

We put up our Christmas tree last weekend and proudly featured this year's newest ornaments in the front and center.  We collect Christmas ornaments when we travel, something that symbolizes where we visited, so this summer we got a Spanish flamenco dancer and a ceramic Rooster of Barcelos, the symbol of Portugal.

Do you know the legend of the cock of Barcelos?  I wasn't familiar with the story until we traveled to Portugal this summer.  Read it in the photo below.

If your reading glasses aren't within reach, here's the text:

At a banquet given by a rich landowner in Barcelos the silver was stolen and one of the guests was accused of the theft.  He was tried by the court and was found guilty.

In spite of the overwhelming evidence against him he still protested his innocence.  The magistrate granted the man a final chance to prove his case.  Seeing a cock in a basket nearby he said, "If I am innocent the cock will crow."  The cock crowed and the prisoner was allowed to go free.

Photo Friday: Christmas Shopping in Zurich

Remembering the various little street shopping stalls in Zurich last Christmas . . .

Such great memories for these eight girls.

This is my Photo Friday link-up post to DeliciousBaby.com.

The Moment of Delight

The Beautiful Cliffs of Lagos, Portugal

The beaches of Lagos were added to our Portugal trip itinerary the instant I saw them in a photograph on the cover of Frommer's travel guide.  The spectacular volcanic rock formations that dot the water and form caves and grottos along the shore under clear blue skies had me at hello, and after a fun and memorable two days there in July I still wasn't ready for good-bye.

We drove to Lagos by rental car from Tarifa, Spain, via a very scenic route through the Andalusian white hill towns of Vejer and Jerez de la Frontera and a drive by the outskirts of Seville.  By late afternoon we dropped our bags at our hotel in Lagos, then hopped back into the car to check out the beaches a few blocks away.  We eagerly pulled into the first dusty road beach turnoff we found, parked the car, and ran towards the cliff to see the view.  And the view was a gay, nude beach.  Oops!  Shoo, shoo, everybody back in the car.  (Avoid this faux pas with your children by checking AlgarveUncovered.com before you go.)

Sooo . . . a little farther down the road we pulled over again, and walked out to the rocky precipice to view a magnificent sight of craggy outcroppings, sandy beach, cloudless skies, and clear blue Atlantic Ocean.

The 124 miles of coastline in the western Algarve region of Portugal are known to be some of the most beautiful in the world.  I won't disagree.

We were most excited to take a boat ride into the grottos and around the coastline the next day.  There are several locations along the beach where one can catch a grotto boat and the companies' prices and tours are competitive, so we just followed this barely comprehensible sign:

It's supposed to say, "Trip to the grottos."

We walked down into an enchanting cove at Ponta da Piedade (Point of Piety) to board a 4-seater powerboat for 10€ per person.  The tour was one of our favorite activities on our trip and we considered it very inexpensive for what we got.

I love this photo so much I wanted to use it as our Christmas
card, but decided the life vests looked too dorky.

The boat ride was about 40 minutes long and the driver cruised all up and down the shoreline, pointing out incredibly magnificent formations and entering lots of caves.

After the boat ride we walked around a bit to explore the rocky headland of Ponta da Piedade, which protrudes south from Lagos.  Its sheltered coves, colorful cliffs, and rock pools of aquamarine waters are dramatically beautiful.  This beauty must have something to do with why it's called Point of Piety and why this monument is displayed on the bluff:

There is a little tourist train available for about 2.50€ per person that circles around from the Lagos marina to Ponta da Piedade.  It's good for a ride to the beach from downtown.

The difficult decision we had to make next that morning was which gorgeous beach to spend the rest of the day relaxing on.  We finally agreed on Praia da Dona Ana (Dona Ana Beach) and think it was a fabulous choice, don't you?

Dona Ana Beach in Lagos, Portugal

Necessities of an Older Traveler

As I approach the age of 50 kicking and screaming, I reluctantly admit to having to change a few of my travel habits.  Actually it's been more like gradually adding new travel necessities to my suitcase and day pack:

Reading glasses - It all started with reading glasses.  How annoying to have to fish these out of the bottom of my purse while walking on the Champs Élysées just to glance briefly at my Paris city street map!  A grave inconvenience and new to me, since I never had to bother with vision correction any time before in my life.

Magnifying mirror - Related to the nuisance of vision correction is the need to tote along on one's travels a magnifying mirror of large enough size to apply makeup.  The one I use at home has a suction cup and adheres to the wall mirror in the bathroom.  It is approximately the size of a dessert plate and is just about as inconvenient and breakable to pack as one.

Earplugs - Aha!  At least this one's not attributable to my growing old, but to my husband's growing old, as his snoring is getting worse and worse.  Eventually I might have to add "enough money for separate hotel rooms" to my list of travel necessities.

Moleskin - Why yes, I did carry a small bit of self-stick moleskin to cover the occasional heel blister caused by arduous hiking through the Alps as a spry, young backpacker in Europe; but now I plaster the soles, toes, corns, and bunions of both my tired, blistered feet with rolls and rolls of Dr. Scholl's moleskin-plus every morning on vacation before heading out just to stroll the streets for coffee.

Friction block stick - Band-Aid's Friction Block Stick was the travel product du jour for me last summer.  Reduces rubbing on skin not only from shoes, but think also friction from clothing in other nasty areas of the middle-aged body such as chicken wing arms and less-than-firm thighs.

Spanx - I'd rather not talk about it.

Extra pillow - Whether needed for lumbar support while driving, or neck contour while sitting, or between-the-knee cushion while sleeping, I sure as hell didn't need to pack this suitcase space filler when I was young.

Small portable flashlight - That's right, don't want to fall and break a hip while fumbling through an unfamiliar hotel room to the bathroom at night.  Okay, maybe I'm not that old yet, but I have rammed my bare toe into a suitcase in the dark enough times to warrant my always sleeping with a travel flashlight next to my bed now.

So, these are a few of my favorite things.  Join me in a few years when I've added orthopedic walking shoes and a day of the week pill dispenser to my must-have travel accessories!

Photo Friday: Wine and Cheese

Still in food mode after a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, I present my one and only Food & Wine-magazine-worthy photo taken in Spain last summer.  I did not stage this photo.  These items were actually sitting exactly like this on a counter in the kitchen of a tiny mom-and-pop restaurant in Arcos de la Frontera.  I'm not a foodie by any stretch of the imagination, but I think this is so cool.

This is my Photo Friday link-up post to DeliciousBaby.com.

I Am Thankful

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the wonderful, diverse people we have met, learned from, or merely encountered on our travels in Europe:

Antonio, our gondola driver in Venice.

Anna from Finland who taught us to build an igloo in Switzerland.

The wooden shoe carver in Gouda.

The violin player in Budapest.

Beefeater in London.

Woman on her way to a wedding in Seville.

A lonely matador in Madrid.

A precious toddler in Bavaria, Germany.

Our waiter in Seville.

Beautiful little girl in Tarifa, Spain.

H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G ! !

The Best Flamenco Deal in Town

Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus has got to be the best deal in town for flamenco dancing.  Just think about it:  you're in Andalusia, Spain, so a flamenco show is a must-see.  You prefer a smaller, authentic venue rather than a big, commercialized stage performance.  You don't want to have to pay for an expensive dinner for your whole family or even for a minimum drink order.  And if you have young children, you're not sure they can sit through the standard two hour flamenco show.

Welcome to the beautiful, affordable entertainment at Casa de la Memoria in Seville.  The traditional flamenco performance we attended in July was a sensational, captivating experience for our whole family.  The shows are entirely acoustic and take place in a small, enchanting gypsy den in the Barrio de Santa Cruz every night at 9:00 p.m. for one hour.  It is an intimate setting with folding chairs circling a small wooden stage.  No alcohol, drinks, or food is served.  Tickets are 15€ for adults and 13€ for students.  In my research I found no other flamenco show at this price nor less than two hours in duration.

Since seating is limited to 90 spectators per show and often sells out, we visited the sales window a few days ahead of time and purchased our tickets.  The staff in the small office speaks English and conveniently accepts credit card payments.  A calendar of nightly acts featuring various flamenco styles is posted in case you have a preference.

Our Monday night show began with the flamenco singer alone on stage, whose deep, sad songs set the tone for the folkloric tradition of the dance.  His rhythmic hand clapping, called palmas, set the tempo and accentuated the entire evening's performance.  He was then joined by a talented young acoustic guitarist.

Manuela Ríos, flamenco dancer in Seville,
smiles at the end of her performance.

When Manuela Ríos, our show's fabulous flamenco dancer, entered the room we were taken aback by her profound seriousness and her intensely emotional facial expressions as she danced.  (I was actually afraid at first that my 13 year old son might burst out laughing, as kids sometimes do out of embarrassment during extremely solemn occasions, but he didn't.)  The deep, dark mood of traditional flamenco comes from its roots as an artistic expression of the sorrow and despair of the conquered peoples of Andalusia during the Moorish occupation.

The mood lightened dramatically when Manuela's partner, Juan Diego Fernández, joined her on the platform.  Juan Diego's percussive footwork is mesmerizing and the two of them together are magical.  I highly recommend Casa de la Memoria's flamenco show for family entertainment.  My son, daughter, husband, and I truly enjoyed the evening and continued tapping our feet and clapping our hands well into the night back at our apartment.

{The audience was asked not to take photographs until the last 5 minutes of the performance, so most of my shots are of two very sweaty dancers.}

I Like Donuts

Photo by Douglas Wray

Surely you've seen this clever analogy, above, float across your Facebook feed by now.  

So, in the interest of promoting useless personal information via social media and speaking of liking donuts (which I do, tremendously), I thought I'd share what my daughter and I found at a pastry shop in Seville, Spain:  a donut cake and donut gelato.

Really?  I thought donuts were strictly an American fat-fried, sugar-coated, artery-clogging confection.  I certainly knew there were more refined versions in Europe such as the Berliner (German), the Beignet (French), and the churro (Spain), but these American, glazed, dough-ring replicas really caught us by surprise!

This is my Photo Friday link-up post to DeliciousBaby.com.