Lisbon, Portugal
After leaving Asia, we came to Europe. We got to Portugal and we went into a big apartment that had tons of beds. There was a knock at the door and someone said ‘a package for Mady and Jade’ but it was Gabe! Gabe and Nora are our friends from Toronto, along with their parents Carolyn and Richard, they came to surprise us in Portugal. WE HAD NO IDEA they were coming!!
We travelled with Nora and Gabe and their parents for 10 days. It was a lot of fun. Here are some of the places we went:
Porto, Portugal – We went to a very old bookstore that inspired J.K. Rowling to write Harry Potter.
Sintra, Portugal – This is a beautiful town with a castle at the top.
There is also a famous well, it was spiral and about 100 metres down, with a staircase on either side of it.
Lagos, Portugal – We travelled to the south of Portugal and visited places along beautiful cliffs. We went to the cliffs and looked over. There were people fishing on the top edge of the cliffs!! My Dad didn’t like the height bit very much.
We climbed down to an extraordinary beach. Millions of years ago it was under the ocean so you could see fossils in the rocks of the sea life that lived there.
We had a great time with our friends, Nora, Gabe, Carolyn and Richard. But sadly, they had to go back home to Canada.
Our friends, Marie & Brian (whose cottage we visit every summer) were visiting Portugal at the same time. We got to visit them too!
Alhama de Granada – Spain
We left Portugal and went to Spain to see our cousin, Ariella and our Aunt Maggi and Uncle Geoff.
They live in Alhama de Granada. a small but beautiful town that has pleasant people and entertaining activities. It also has gorgeous canyons.
Ariella says some of the festivities you can find here are Carnival, Candaleria, and processions. The processions are part of Easter and happen for 3 nights.
One thing we did was visit the Granada Science Centre. We saw a real whale heart (Mady) and got to be in a real conversation as we walked around the museum with a girl robot (Jade). We visited the Biodome and watched a bird show.
We interviewed our cousin, Ariella Norris Jones (age 10) about her town in Spain.
What are your favourite things about this town?
‘My favourite thing about this town is every summer they open the pool and they’ve got the fair and they do a show about dangerous birds (like vultures, owls, etc.)”
What would you change about the town?
“I would change that when they do parades for Easter (the procession), they need less instruments, because it is very noisy and it goes on until 1:00 in the morning.”
Describe this town in your own words: “festive, weird, funny”
What is your school like?
“My school is very small and sometimes there are only 10 kids in a classroom, there are two floors, the first floor has a cafeteria and kindergarden classrooms. On the top floor there are the big kid classrooms for 1 to 6 grades. We have one patio for the kindergardeners to play on and one huge patio for the big kids, and a gym (underground).”
When we are not here, would you speak Spanish with your parents?
“No, we speak English.”
How do you feel about being mostly English in a Spanish world?
“When I’m in English class at school and we are doing a test, I finish in 5 seconds and everyone uses me as a dictionary.”
Tell us about your pets?
I had 4 ginnea pigs – 2 died – this is Nibbles and Twixie – Nibbles is a curly-haired ginnea pig and Twixie is a short-haired. They both eat lettuce and cucumbers and Twixie eats mostly hay, but Nibbles likes to eat anything (ie. Tangerines)
Easter: We woke up Easter morning and drove to a lake and met my cousins’ best friend, Gabriel. We had a picnic lunch, played games, and then had to go on a walk as they said the Easter Bunny was coming. We walked all the way to a dam where they keep all the water out and we walked back, grabbed our baskets and started running for candy. We found eggs in bushes, under rocks, in branches of trees and everywhere. (P.S. It was April Fools, so we had to be careful to not eat a rotten egg covered in chocolate – like my Dad did).
Karate in Spain: We visited Gabe’s karate class. The counting was the same, some of the moves were the same, but their katas were different, as were some of their fighting skills. They practice Shotokan Karate, it was interesting seeing a different type of karate. They have different belt gradings – starting with white, then a white and yellow belt, before getting a solid yellow belt. Sometimes when they were fighting they would jump in the air, twirl and kick. They had great balance, as they did it without falling over. Another thing different from our Dojo is they were divided by age groups. It was cool because I could meet new people in a familiar way.
Parents Corner: Thank you Carolyn, Richard, Nora, and Gabe for joining us on our trip. We had a great time. A huge appreciation also to Carolyn for organizing accommodation and activities in Portugal! And for taking some of these pictures.
Thank you to Mags, Geoff, and Ariella for being such wonderful hosts in Spain. For anyone interested in cycling tours in Spain and Portugal, check out their company: www.cyclingcountry.com.