Happy Greek Birthday Outing!!

I have a feeling this birthday location might be difficult to top.  Thanks TripAdvisor for helping us plan some new wonderful memories:

Crazy Greek Driving Observations

We had some interesting cultural observations while driving in Greece this week:

You have to yield IN roundabout.  This is absurd and completely backs up the feed roads.  Fortunately, we noticed before causing a massive accident:

There must be some sort of helmet law for motorcycles that requires drivers to carry a helmet.  We saw a bunch of guys on motorcycles carrying or holding their helmet.  It is apparently too inconvenient to wear on your head.  This guy put his in the basket on the back:

No one uses the sidewalk.  There are all sorts of random people on the streets when the sidewalk is completely empty.  Strange.

Speed limits appear to be suggestions.  The max speed is 60 km/hr, but most drivers are hitting 100 km/hr.

Similar to Rome, it appears you can park anywhere you want.  White and yellow lines are irrelevant:

Weekend in Greece

There are a few interesting experiences from Greece.

The landscape is just like you imagine...beautiful beyond belief and among the prettiest that we have ever seen.

Greeks eat dinner late - just like in most of Europe.  We found a lovely restaurant in Argostolion, and found ourselves as the only customers at 8pm.  It was run by a lovely Canadian/Greek women - imagine that:).  A few others showed up around 8:30 or 9:00, but it apparently doesn't get busy until 11pm or later.  Lucky us:

On Sunday, Mara had a tough day.  First thing in the morning, she bonked her head doing a headstand with Jeryn, then 30 minutes later - she was stung by a bee, and finally - she got sand in her eyes at the beach.  All three situations could have easily ended up in an Emergency Department visit, but thanks to Supermom, she was ok:)  and after we made her into a Mermaid:

A couple years ago, there was a major earthquake here.  It disrupted roads, many of which haven't been fixed.  As a result, the drive between Myrtos and Assos takes 45 minutes and contains a couple hundred switchbacks, instead of a short straight 5 minute drive.  The view was easily worth the trouble:

The beaches are stunning, but filled with rocks and pebbles.  They can be a bit painful to walk on, so bring your sandals:

Thanks for coming halfway around the world (literally) to come see us!!  Hope you had a wonderful Greek experience!

A Bank Holiday Weekend in Brussels

Bank Holidays are a nice invention.  I suppose it is like Labour Day or Memorial Day in America.  We made the best of it by tagging Belgium onto the end of a business trip.

Belgium is well known for its chocolate and beer.  We found them both to be quite nice:

It was difficult to determine the preferred language: people speak Flemish, Dutch, French, German, and most speak English.  Pretty amazing to be honest.  At some of the chocolate shoppes, the employees speak seven languages!?

Brussels has a lot of tourists- more than other well known European cities we have visited. We  noticed very large tour groups throughout Brussels.  Jeryn and Mara were stopped several times because of their blonde hair.  

Brussels is also famous for it's peeing statue: Manneken Pis:

Mara wanted her picture with the tourist version of the Manneken.  I hope this sign means that it is 1 Euro for a waffle:

Brugge, an hour by train from Brussels, is a beautiful city.  We ran into some unfortunate weather (in England, they would say this type of weather was "pants").  It would be a nice city to return to in the future for one of the famous boat rides.

As normal, a holiday in Europe equals a lot of walking.  Fortunately the girls are now used to it:)  I think we tend to forget that they have to take about 30-40% more steps than we do.  According to Fitbit, we walked 23,000 steps - so I guess that would be around 30,000 for the girls (or 11 miles/day).  Better than sitting in front of the TV:)

Reflections from two weeks in France

After two weeks in France, I realized a few interesting things:

1. Northern France is pretty.

2. There is a noticeable difference in how people treat you when you are a lone male.  American traveling versus traveling with three cute girls.  I've seen some French stereotypes come true this week.  I caught a dirty look when I asked for my steak medium-well (which is basically raw), and couldn't get into an empty restaurant because it was too "busy" :).  It also might be because I was traveling with a Brit and German though.  Either way, interesting.

3. Spending almost two weeks in a dog food factory made me realize that (a) I miss Lolly, and (b) I'm glad I work with cereal.

4. Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream is awesome (as is the factory)!

5. There are no bread plates in France.  It is customary to put your bread directly on the table.

6. Lastly, there were a couple notable similarities to Italy:

      a. Your change is always put on the counter (not in your hand).

      b. There is a lot of graffiti.  Someone even graffitied my picture:

Portugal Impressions

1. The Portuguese people are great.  They were overall very welcoming and open.  They were enamored with Jeryn's blonde hair.  No less than 10 people came up to her to touch her head over the few days of our visit.

2. Almost every vertical surface in Lisbon is graffitied.  It's likely a result from the 30-50% unemployment rate for people under 25 for the last several years:

Portugal Youth Unemployment Rate:

3. Meals are much much later than America, and the UK.  Dinner usually begins around 10pm.  We were usually the only people in the restaurant at 8pm (accept for some other Canadian Expats).  In fact, most places don't even open for dinner until 7:30pm.  We took this photo out our apartment window at 10:18pm.  People were just starting to gather for dinner.  Notice the people with the baby buggy:

4. The weather and landscape is awesome.  It looks and feels like California or Italy, but significantly cheaper than both.  The trams, suspension bridge, and hills of Lisbon reminded us of San Francisco:

5. Portuguese pastries are incredible.  They are called "Pastéis de Nata", and they are something straight from heaven.  No surprise that the main ingredient is egg yokes:

6. Lisbon is also home to the oldest operating bookshop in the world (established in 1732).  It was great for a look around, but since we don't speak Portuguese we ended up with a local copy of Where's Waldo (Onde Esta O Wally?)

Other area highlights...

Sintra is a 40 minute train ride away (or 3 hours if there is a train strike over the Easter weekend).  There are some amazing sites including two palaces and a castle:

Cascais is similarly about 50 minutes by train from Lisbon (again, subject to Portuguese train strikes).  It is an equally beautiful area with some small and unique beaches cut into the city:

TBT: Circa 2010

Looks pretty good in a bump cap, don't you think?

Clearly not compliant with the hairnet policy though...

Pam Baier: 1951 - 2015

We tragically said goodbye to our mom Pam last week.  She passed away unexpectedly on March 10th from complications brought on by chronic illnesses.  It appears that she passed peacefully in her sleep. 

Thank you to all of our friends and family for the incredible outpouring of support over the last week.  It has come from all areas, and has helped ease the pain from our loss.

Pam will always be remembered for being a wonderful mother to two beautiful and amazing girls, her creative practicality, and demonstrating incredible strength.  She will be forever missed and always remembered.

Janessa and Christina both spoke beautifully at the service.  They both displayed the strength and wonder that would have made their mom proud.

Here is the obituary:  http://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/69933/?fullname=pamela-baier.

First Post of 2015

Winter is dismal in the UK, I suppose as it is in most anywhere you might be reading our blog from.  It usually rains 20+ days during the month, and it is rare to see the sun.  That's probably why our blog posts really tail off after Christmas until the sun starts to show up again.

We have been keeping our simple family blog since 2006.  On average, we have the fewest posts in February.  It looks like this year is no different than the average:

In more interesting news, we were able to explore Lanzarote this month with a cheap EasyJet flight.  What an amazing place.  It is a strange volcanic wasteland combined with some incredible beaches transformed into a full tropical paradise by a bunch of smart and creative entrepreneurs.

One of the most amazing sites is the Timanfaya National Park.  The park is basically miles of dried toxic lava that extends well beyond the line of sight.  There is no vegetation, only a couple roads, and little resemblance of life outside of tourists:


This picture from the bus gives a little context on the size of the volcano craters.  Notice the line of cars in the background that are waiting to get into the park:



The best part of an international assignment is amazing opportunities to experience other cultures and places in the world, that would otherwise be unreachable.

For now, it is back to reality of all the difficulties and challenges that daily life in a foreign world can bring:)

Oh, and by the way, in case you are wondering where Lanzarote is, here's a quick geography tip thanks to Google.  It is 11 times closer to the coast of Africa than it is to Spain, even though it continues to be governed as a Spanish Island: