Home for the holidays!

So now I am going totally out of order! But I had all these photos on my phone and could easily write this post while on the move. Waiting for someone to inspect my old apartment - I've moved! More on that later. 

Christmas!! I flew to OKC on Christmas Day. The airport was surprisingly busy and my flight was packed. The first time I had been in the US of A since February!  A couple of key observations during my layover in Atlanta (and keep in mind I was probably tired by the time I thought these things):

 

1. The bathroom stalls are very impersonal.  Almost all stalls in Europe are full floor-to-ceiling walls and doors.  So there is no space for a curious toddler to crawl under and look at you while you are doing your business. Back in Atlanta it felt like everyone could see my knees.  Weird because I never noticed it before!

2. The whole Duck Dynasty thing has had a much more significant impact on American culture than I thought.  Particularly in the South, where I was my entire trip - Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida. Did everyone always wear this much camoflouge in the US?  Is that a new thing?

3. People are loud. You can hear all their conversations. And they yell at their kids down through the terminals and grocery stores, etc. 

4. In Europe clothing is much more fitted. Sometimes that means tight (and not in a good way) and sometimes it's just more tailored.  But rarely is it too big.  In the US, clothes are baggy.  Baggy jeans, sweats, etc.  The fit is just bigger in general. 

 

Enough of my waxing on about differences - here are some pictures!

 

I didn't actually get to Missouri, but Mom sent this nice one of her with Mimi and Papaw.

Grandpa (aka Dad) with baby Kendall - the newest Strunk at our holiday events!  She was really into that cardboard she is chewing on there.

In fact, Kendall is featured in this year's Christmas pictures because she was the only kid mostly sitting still.  I don't even have pics of Nathan and Gracie because they were never in one spot long enough!  Kendall with Aunt Anne...

Kendall and Aunt Amy!  Look at the little wrinkled nose!! - super cute.

And finally we caught Preston too, but only at Braums with an ice cream cone and he didn't want to put it down for the picture.  That's ok, I love the ice cream there too!

York

So this is out of chronological order, because I just went to York last weekend!  (And I still need to post about my trips from November and December, but never mind that.)  My first day back in London after the holidays in the US a friend invited me on a short girls weekend in York.  York is about a two hour train ride north of London, halfway to Edinburgh.  

We were only there from Saturday noon until Sunday evening but I think we got a good feel for the city!  They have a famous cathedral, or minster as we call them!  (Really, what city in England doesn't?)  

They have medieval walls that surround the old city center.  They are quite impressive, wide and you can walk around them...

Which of course, we did!

York boasts a chocolate factory!!  We visited the shop but more importantly, York had TONS of cake and tea shops.  Maybe more than any other place I've been in England!  We sampled several, especially on Sunday when it was cold and raining part of the day.  Sorry I don't have any pictures of the cakes - we ate them too fast! 

And of course we had dinner and drinks in a local pub - as you do!  A nice little welcome back to the UK.  

Sintra - Palacio Nacional de Pena

Our second castle visit in Sintra was the Palacio Nacional de Pena, or the Pena Palace.  It couldn't have been more different from the Moorish Castle!  The Moorish Castle was medieval, ruins with thick stone walls and not much else.  The Pena Palace was just that - a palace!  It was originally a monastery.  But was used in the 1800s as a retreat for the Portugese royal family when they wanted to escape the heat in the city of Lisbon.  Nice country vacation home!  

This is our first view of Pena Palace, as seen from the top of the Moorish Castle.

The main entrance gate - you can already see the difference in style.  

View back down into Sintra from a patio on the back side of the Palace. 

Because of the way the Palace was perched right at the top of a mountain, it was difficult to get an all-encompassing picture.  So I had to settle for ones looking up from inside the walls.  It was yellow and pink!

 Again, with the tiling detail - here are just a few pictures of some of the intricate tiles that covered large surface areas on the walls of the Palace. 

 I'm particularly amused with this one where one little ceramic knight is slaying another one!

Sintra - the Moorish Castle

My favorite day of our trip in Portugal was visiting Sintra. Sintra is a small village about 20 miles inland from where we stayed.  This area in Portugal is actually quite hilly and even mountainous.  We took a bus from Estoril that followed a very winding road to get to Sintra.  It is an enchanting little town!

The best sight-seeing in Sintra is a series of castles that sit in the hills all around the town.  Our first stop was at the Moorish Castle (also where they finished the Portugal episode of the Amazing Race last fall!). It was built over 1000 years ago by the Moors who came into Spain and Portugal from Northern Africa.  It was truly medieval. And quite a climb up the walls of the Castle, but the views were worth it! This is looking across a section of the Castle and down into Sintra below.

At the back edge of this photo you can see the Atlantic Ocean!

Look!  I made the climb to the top!

And Bruce, Beth and Scott came too!

Cascais and Estoril

We didn't stay right in downtown Lisbon during our stay.  We were hoping to see the city, but also to enjoy the beach and some relaxing in Portugal. So we rented a condo just a little west of Lisbon in a small town called Estoril.  And just another mile or so west is the village of Cascais. 

 

First day on the beach near our condo!  Reunion with friends from home!

 

View up the beach in Estoril - we had dinner just to the left of this picture the first night.

 

This was one of the really nice buildings on the boardwalk by the beach. We never found out what it was!

This was the main square in Cascais, just up the beach.  Again with the awesome tile designs on the ground!

The Race in Lisbon!

The whole point of our visit to Lisbon was to run the Rock and Roll Marathon!  Well, half marathon for me and Beth, while Bruce ran the full.  The day before the race happened to be Beth's birthday, so we had a birthday dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe!

 The morning of the race, Bruce started the full marathon a bit west of where we stayed.  Beth and I took what turned out to be a THREE HOUR journey to the starting line.  First, a 15 minute walk to the train station followed by 30 minutes on the train into central Lisbon.  Then two subway trains took about 45 minutes more to a bus station.  At the bus station we waited 30 minutes to board busses that drove another 30 minutes out onto the Vasco de Gama Bridge where the race would begin. Our bus dropped off a 20 minute walk from the start line, so we pulled up just a few minutes before the race started.  NEVER imagined it would take that long!  

Here is a view of the race crowd on the bridge just before the start!  I know my finger is in the picture - I don't know why I do that, but I regularly photograph my finger.  Sorry.

 A view back towards central Lisbon from the Bridge start...

 Me and Beth getting ready to go!

So there are no more race pictures of us after this - it turned out to be a fairly hot day and we were sweaty and disgusting by the time we finished!  We grabbed lunch and bought dry tshirts at the mall near the finish while waiting for Bruce.  He came running in a little more than 2 hours after we finished and here he is approaching the finish line - still smiling!

It was a fun race and a fun day!  But we were thrilled to get back to the pool at our condo and relax for the rest of the afternoon and evening!

Lisbon - part 2

The western edge of Lisbon is a neighborhood called Belem and it has some of the best sights to visit in the city.  Our first stop (after Portugese pastries for breakfast snacks!) was the Jeronimos Monastary.   

 

Me in the chapel of the Monastary...

 Scott - maybe he is thinking about the meaning of life...the universe...lunch?

The Monument to the Discoveries sits just along the River.  Portugal boasts a wealth of famous explorers including Vasco de Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, Prince Henry the Navigator and Batholomeu Dias.  Many of them started their journeys from Lisbon.  All the famous figures have a statue on the monument and they face west out into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Just adjacent to the Monument is this section of pavement that shows a map of the world and notes the famous explorers and where they went.  It was just recently featured on an episode of the Amazing Race!