A Warm Welcome

As I write this it is just after midnight in a brightly coloured hostel lobby and Michael Jackson is just singing away over the speakers. We just arrived back from a delightful birthday dinner...we took the opportunity to splurge on a real meal out at a nice restaurant for my birthday today. (This is Mel, p.s.). Anyway, we arrived in Madrid this morning at 9 AM after traveling many hours in a sleeper car from Lisbon, Portugal. So I truly rang in my birthday with style...some Mars bars, a bag of chips and some peach iced tea (which they still make in Portugal!) in our private little sleeper car. It was a good time for sure. We were in Porto and Lisbon, Portugal before heading to Madrid. I have to say that Portugal was my favourite country thus far...I know I say that about every country, but I really mean it this time. The people are soooo kind and hospitable, the weather is warm all the time, every city seems close to a nice beach. It was a fantastic place to be and I would definitly like to see myself making it back that way. When we arrived in Porto, Portugal, we were suprised by our accomodation. For 50 euros a night we stayed in a great guesthouse with two bathrooms, a huge kitchen, two bedrooms, right in the heart of the city, a 5 minute walk from the port. It was fantastic...if anyone is ever heading to Porto, stay at the Taipas guesthouse. Fantastic! and the kindest people will welcome you. We spent a day at the beach, swimming in the Atlantic ocean which was still completely bearable. It was absolutely amazing to be swimming in ocean waves again. I loved it!! From Porto, we took the train to Lisbon, where we explored their slick cobblestone streets and the beach which is just a mere 30 minutes from the hostel we were staying at. We went to church Sunday morning which was quite the experience. According to the website, the 11:30 service was supposed to be in english but we got there and everything was most definitly in portugese. I guess this was a special service, we found out after. The pastor came and talked to us early in the service, finding out we were from Canada and knew absolutely no portugese...he proceeded to announce our arrival to the rest of the congregation. Almost immediately two people from the congregation that knew some english came, sat with us and helped translate the service for us. Such kind, sweet people. That was true hospitable worship. They sent us out with blessings and promises of prayers and many invitations to return. I might just have to take them up on that:) After church, we spent the day wandering around in plus 29 degree weather until our train left for Madrid at 10:30 PM. So that's a bit of what we have been up to over here in the south. Hope all is well with you...whoever it may be that is reading this...

A Whirlwind Tour

It has come to our attention that our last post on this blessed forum was way back at the A&O hostel in Dusseldorf; Oh how we have fallen behind. So then, I (Mel) would just like to let you in on a bit of the adventure that has been our last twoish weeks....We left Dusseldorf and traveled north to Amsterdam, where we proceeded to find that half of King's had followed us there. Seriously, it felt like a school reunion....playing a sort of dutch bingo with everyone we saw. We left the city as soon as we got there to find our campground outside the city limits. We found it and loved it! We stayed in the coolest (in the most literal sense of the word) cabin. Great times were had. After this stay we headed back into Amsterdam and spent a little time in the city over the weekend. Also, some good times. From Amsterdam we trekked (actually we took the train) south to Middleburg where we stayed with some of the sweetest people in the world. Johann and Elly, relatives of Monique's, took us around the city, did our laundry, fed us, gave us beds to sleep in, taught us a little dutch. They were fantastic! While there, we visited Belgium via this great little tunnel that went right underneath the canals and the North Sea. Very cool. After staying there for a few rainy days, we decided that it was time to say our goodbyes and move on. Never an easy thing to leave such wonderful company. We took a train, once again, down the beautiful city of Paris which had much to offer us. We thought about tackling Paris in a day but soon realized that was completely unrealistic. I have to say that Paris has been one of my favorite cities so far. There is sooooo much to do, so much history and it's absolutely beautiful. It would help if I could speak a little french though. Oh man, so many stories to tell from paris...maybe I'll let wanda grace you with those. So many adventures in just three days. We went to the Eiffel Tower 3 times, did the Louvre, Chateau de Versailles, Arc de Triomphe, Jewish history museum, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of the Middle Ages, Notre Dame...saw a lot, have A LOT of stories to tell from Paris...ask us sometime. I have to say this...finding your way into any of the museums is a feat in itself in this great city. You can ask us about that too. We left Paris this morning and are now staying in a quaint little hotel in Caen. Tomorrow we are going to Juno beach. We've studied up on the events of D-Day and are ready to pay tribute to our great Canadian troops. It should be a good day. Well, I'm going to leave you now but be sure to stay tuned for some great stories. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to tell them all here...wanda does a much better job and so I'll leave it to her. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all...I'll have you know, we had a most delicious thanksgiving meal brought to us entirely by McDonalds. Our extravagant purchase of the day. So, HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND ENJOY YOUR TURKEY AND PUMPKIN PIE, CANADA....so lucky!