Guten Morgen!

Europe has thankfully become a yearly tradition for our family. June came around and off we were again, even though in the mist of a huge move and busy like we've never found ourselves before, to that side of the globe that I find so full of history and mysteries. Our itinerary for 2010 included a quick arrival in Zurich, Switzerland, and then off we were to Southern Germany, Austria and Czech Republic -  we had 25 days and were aiming for 20 cities. My mom and my brother also joined the fun this year and traveled with us for 2.5 weeks :)

Our port of arrival was Zurich, Switzerland - but that being said forget all about day 1. By the time you get to the hotel and digest the 6 hours difference with two young kids, you're dead already. I'm not sure how but we still managed to walk around a little and take a taxi boat ride around lake Zurich, but that was it. On day two we walked around Alstadt (old town), took a guided bus tour , and walked along Bahnhofstrasse (fancy shopping street) both ways, stopping for pastries at Sprungli (yummy!!). To me, Zurich is all about business and lacks that ease and laughter that we found all around Europe, but besides all the seriousness of the people and the town, we still managed to have a great time!!

     Day 3 is when our trip really began. We rented a big van and off we were to Southern Germany, or the Bodensee region. Our bags were filled with excitement, summer outfits, matching Brazilian t-shirt for the boys (to be wore during Brazil's games at the worldcup), one pair of sneakers and one crocs for each member of the family. Instead, all we got for days on end was very cold weather (in the 30's) and rain every morning, afternoon and night. After a couple of days of braving the streets with our poor layering and shoes, I went shopping for umbrellas, rainproof boots and proper winter outwear for the family :) Ended up having to buy an extra luggage for the first time in 10 years of travels towards the end of our journey, but that's the cost of doing business as my hubby would say!

Our first city in the Bodensee was Konstanz. We walked around the main street, bought our first set of umbrellas and a rainproof jacket.

From there we took the ferry to cross Lake Konstance and landed in beautiful Meersburg! We did some art and craft shopping, strolled around main street and visited the Meersburg Castle. At the entrance of the castle there was a medieval soldier at the door collecting the tickets - and Bernardo felt he wasn't dress appropriately for the occasion. After a quick shopping at the castle store, he puffed his chest, put his 'bad face' on and went back to say hello to the man at the entrance - from one armored man to another :) He also could hear his princess Victoria asking for help throughout the castle.... but looked all over for her with no success :(

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more!

Cartagena de Indias

After a full year of having Cartagena on my travel list, we finally made it to Colombia with a sick Miguelito, a curious Bernardo and anxious mom and dad! Besides Miguel being sick the whole entire time, that place really lived up to our expectations - from the people, to the beautiful restored walled city to the amazing food, we had a great time!! 

 

 

The hotel was also amazing - a 400 years old monastary converted into a beatiful hotel. After a long stroll downtown with the kids Bernardo would start asking to go back 'home'. "Home Bernardo? Do you want to go back to Miami?". "No mommy, I want to go back to Sofitel, door number 319". Or - "mommy, when are you going to get me a perrito"

Where he learns these things I would also like to know.... but in the mean time, we are sure having fun and grateful of having the opportunity to take the kids around and show them different cultures and parts of our small world!

Til our next travels......

xoxo

Mariana

Paris!!

As I mentioned before, although I've always been sure Paris was a very romantic and beautiful city, for being so popular it never topped my own travel wish list. I like to think that the more secluded places are the most memorable... but oh boy was I wrong!! Everything about Paris took me by surprise: the monuments, the architecture, the history, the gardens, the patisseries, the bike tour... it is all so magical!

We started and finished our 4 days in Paris with the Eiffel Tower. Our Parisian apartment was just 2 blocks away from the 'yellow elevator' as Bernardo used to call it and we couldn't have asked for anything better. There's something about seeing the tower in person that makes all the images you had in your head completed null. To me, it was pure MAGIC. Seeing my kids run (or crawl) up and down Champs de Mars without any idea of how huge of a scene they had behind their back was even more magical... because believe me or not their sparks was even brighter than the Tower at midnight!

Another magical moment for us was the bike tour - thank you Big Fat Tours! We quickly put our fears aside - mine of not being able to balance my big butt on the bicycle, hitting my head on the floor and taking my kid with me; and Chiquito's of being forced by his lovely wife of doing something he really did not sign up for - and were loving every single moment of it after a few minutes on top of the cruiser. What a treat!!! The only draw back was my tiny little shirt pocket... it looked like a handy little thing to put my lenses cover in until I saw my pictures... urrrrrgggg!!

Last but not least and totally worth of sharing. As you may imagine, while in France we've visited numerous churches in every little town that we've been too. In every one of these churches, Bernardo used to ask daddy for some coins to donate to the church so he could light a candle - and they we prayed the "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer. When we finally got to Notre-Dame, the lines to go inside were humongous and the silence inside was just broken by the sound of feet sliding across the nave or by hundreds of people praying in whisper. Bernie, again, asked daddy for his coins and off they went to buy their candle. Daddy puts the candle on the stand, lights it up and tells Be: "now we pray son'. Be quickly and LOUDLY responded: "no daddy, now we sing: happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you....." SOOOO funny!!

Miguelito, although only 13 months, also had his share of memorable moments. As you might have noticed, I LOVE photography, and thus my little one first official word, besides mommy and daddy, is 'cheese'!! So we are on top of the Eiffel Tower and Miguelito cannot see a single camera, mine or yours, that he will put up his picture perfect smile and scream 'cheese' from the top of his little lungs. What makes this so funny? He only has 2 teeth, peaking at you like a warm welcome on a cold day!!

Here some of the pictures from our 4 days in Paris.


Rue de Montessuy, our home away from home

On the cruiser during our bike tour.... I warned you, but go ahead and laugh!!!

Miguel saying 'cheese' to whatever camera crossed his path!

Miguel trying his first steps in front of the Eiffel Tower

Luxembourg Gardens with its pretty wood boats...

Be sipping his cappuccino at Luxembourg Gardens

Batobus boat ride... and please try to convince this little man that it's time to get off the boat!

Champs Elysee Avenue

Sacre-Coeur - 3 metro lines later to just enjoy it for a few minutes before the rain got us off guard

I guess we were not the only tourists strolling around Paris...

Inside the Louvre Museum's famous pyramid

One of many pretty flower shops in France

Be enjoying some good music at Saint Germain Des Pres - we even bought their CD!

Last shot of Paris, and could not have been any prettier :)

C'est la vie II

Okay, it's time to finish telling you about our trip to France before we go on to our next adventure (surprise, surprise!!).

But before I do that, let me go back and pay homage to the prettiest carousel we've seen to this day: in Avignon. To our luck, the carousel was in the square right in front of our hotel, and Bernardo and Miguel went crazy! We started buying 2 tickets at a time and ended up buying in bulk, 'cause these kids would not step off of the spinning horse. Fred and I used to take turns inside with them, afraid they would get dizzy and hit their heads on the floor, but they could not be more pleased... while me and Chiquito were dying for the darn horse to stop so we could go seat on the bench outside and look at anything but the carousel, at least until our heads stopped spinning :)

Now, homage paid let's move north! From Lyon we drove to the Loire Valley, and let me tell you that athough the drive was long it was not tideous in any way, shape or form! Every 5 minutes I used to scream of joy and squeeze Chiquito's arm so he could stop and let me take pictures. We drove through miles and miles of the most beautiful farms and fields of wheat, lavender and sunflowers! Too bad I could not manage to get really close to the lavenders and sunflowers... but I did get close to a field with all those gigantic hay rolls on our way to Chenonceau's Castle

The castle was also the prettiest and most interesting we've seen in the Loire. The history, the women, the kitchen, the grounds and the meal we had at the restaurant were all lovely!

Next day we went castle hunting again... first to Azay-Le-Rideau and then to Villandry. This time I got lucky and went inside a wheat field... oh so pretty! There's something about raw nature that maybe only the smell of wet earth on a rainny day can beat!

Here is Villandry's pretty gardens:

Paris I'll leave to a brand new post... too much to tell about that magic city!