Another Step Closer !!

There they are !!


We got our packs. While home for Christmas, Melanie and I bought each other the packs for our trip as Christmas presents. Mine is the red one and Melanie has the gray/grayish blue one on the left. I hope you can make out the colours well, my monitor is kinda old and the brightness is going. Anyway we are pretty psyched about getting them as they are one of the most important things to get before going on the trip, next to tickets.


The packs are made by Asolo, I had never heard of them but the packs looked nice and appeared to be nicer than the ones available on a hiking website I was looking at. My pack (the red one) is pretty nice, I got it from the Radical Edge. It has a pocket for a water bag, a built in rain cover, sleeping bag compartment, and a good sized day pack. It is a travel pack and has handles on the side and top, and the straps on the back can be zipped up in a bag to prevent them from being caught in conveyor belts.


Melanie's is a travel pack so has the protective cover as well, and built in rain cover too. Her pack also has a day pack and a removable toiletry pack which is nice, and will save us having to buy one a nice bonus.


We also got some things to take with us on our trip for Christmas as well. I got a nice Swiss Army knife from my Grandmother, a small sewing kit, a couple of good travel books, and a really cool clothes folder from Chad and Heidi that keeps clothes wrinkle free. The clothes folder will come in handy when we are going to the different restaurants that Melanie wants to go to, as the restaurants she would like to go to wouildn't allow dirty hikers to come in.


That's all for now. Hope everybody had a great Christmas and hope you have a great New Year as well.

A Camera for the Trip

Yeah I know my blogging sucks. Excuses, busy, school......

Anyway I recently picked up a camera for my trip !!! I have been wanting a digital camera for a while, and finally decided on one. It is the Canon S3 IS, it is an ultra-zoom point and shoot, and is considered the next best thing to a DSLR, or a camera that allows you to change lenses.

I like the camera alot, it has swivel screen as you can see in the picture. I like the swivel screen as it allows you to shoot at many angles, and when you close it the screen is not exposed and that means less scratches. The Camera also has a strong zoom for its size 432mm zoom on a traditional film camera (that's alot). There are also macro or extreme close-up features and manual zoom as well.

In short I really like it, and as it can shoot pictures that can be printed at a 11x13 size, if I take an really nice pictures they can be framed for really nice decorations. I also picked up a 2gb memory card wich can store 1500 pictures, which is pretty sweet as well.

If you would like to read further about my camera check out the reviews here, and here.

Fourviere Basillica in Lyon

Stunning View From Fourviere Basillica in Lyon

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I am getting there. A milestone, but a long way to go. I hate saving money but it will be worth it when I get there. Two months in Europe is going to be awesome, I hope everybody has been enjoying the blog so far. I know updates have been slow to come at times, but there will be more regular for now on, and much more often when Melanie and I are making our way. Be back with another update soon.

Leaving the Iberian Peninsula and back into France

Back again, well after Seville, we will probably head back up to southern France. I have considered the idea of taking the ferry over to Morocco from the south of Spain as it is only $35 dollars and the cost to stay there would be fairly cheap, but I will worry about that when the time comes. I just want to move on now to other parts of Europe.

The south of France, home to the French Riviera those rich and beautiful vacation spots of the rich and famous, St.Tropez, Monaco, and Nice to name a few. I am sure it will be a beautiful place to visit, if not quite expensive.

Nimes

The first place I would definitely want to take a quick stop in is Nimes, home to one of the most famous Roman aqueducts and one of their most proud architectural feats reaching a height of 160 feet (seen below). The Pont du Gard aqueduct is a world heritage site and has been a tourist attraction for hundreds of years, and was used as a bridge up until the mid 1800's considering it was built less than a hundred years after the time Christ that is amazing. Nimes also has some other interesting Roman buildings, as it is so close to Italy and an area of early expansion for the Roman Empire.

Marseille

Marseille, just the name stirs thoughts of the rich and famous vacationing on the Mediterranean, but once you get past that it is actually an interesting spot. Marseille is Frances most important port, and oldest major cities and was founded by the Greeks in 600 BC and taken by the Romans in the time of Caesar. It has nice museums with many ancient and maritime artifacts, many of which were uncovered after WWII reconstruction.

What really interests me is the catacombs underneath the Abbaye de St-Victor, an old church with a crypt of a martyr killed by the Romans by being ground between two millstones, gruesome. The catacombs are a place where early Christians prayed to St.Lazarus and Mary Magdalene, said to have washed ashore at a near-by town. This being the reason boat shaped cookies are sold during the Candlemas procession in February, luckily they are sold year round to so I can have on (mmmm boat cookie). By the time this is over I am going to know a lot more about the Saints then I bargained for.

There are numerous other places to visit in Marseille, such as the Chateau d'if, where the Count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned, the famous novel. There is also the beautiful Notre-Dame de la Garde, it is only 150 years old, and was built on top of the site of a 13th century chapel. It has some fine marble mosaics, and is topped by a statue of the Virgin and Child a landmark that can be seen for miles as it is the highest point in Marseille.

Anyway you get the picture Marseille is a pretty cool and historic place. It is also home to different culinary dishes, best known is Bouillabaisse, a fish stew flavoured with saffron. The local market is also supposed to be a nice place to go with many local spices available such as rosemary, fresh eggplant, pink garlic, and fresh seafood. On that note, the next place we will have to go is Lyon, the culinary capital of the world, a definite pilgrimage site for Melanie. Hope you like the pictures.

Pont du Gard, you might recognize it from a VW Beetle commercial a few years back.

Marseille

Abbae St.Victor, not to much to see from the outside, at least from this side

Rue de Athens in Marseille

Marseille harbour, notice the Chateau D'if on the centre island

Notre-Dame de la Garde

The nave of the cathedral

The statue of "The Virgin and Child"

A distant picture of the cathedral

August, where did it go?

Well here I am again, once again apologizing for not updating in a long while. This time I will blame things on work, which was busy, and that I had to finish up a paper for my Co-op work-term. On a side not I started my third and final work-term with Parks Canada last week. It is an accounting position, but seems like it will be pretty good. I work in Ardgowan, the home of one of the Fathers of Confederation, I actually have a nice stone mantle beside my desk and a set of french doors in front on me. Anyway want to know anymore let me know if not I will move on.

Seville, Spain

Having stepped into Portugal and experienceing Lisbon, its back into Spain. Seville, is an ancient city, dating back to the time when Greeks held the Iberiean peninsula before Rome did, and it actually has a founding myth that deals with Hercules and his visit to the Hespirides.

The older parts of Seville, is a picture of the romantic visions of Spain that are seen in movies and postcards, flowered terraces, narrow roadways, and hidden plazas. From what I have read this sounds like an interesting city, with unique culinary and historic attractions.

Seville has quite a few treats that from the area, that would be intereating to try. There are polvorones and mantecados, a sort of shortcake made with almonds, sugar and lard; Pestiños, a honey-coated sweet fritter; yemas de San Leandro, made by nuns in the city's convents, and Tortas de aceite, a thin sugar-coated cake made with olive oil. The yemas de SanLeandro sound particularly interesting to me for some reason, which is just a egg-yolk pastry, but is kind of neat in that Nun's make it and you can almost picture it having been made and sold for hundeds of years. I don't know just part of me that wants to connect in some way with history. Seville will definitly be a sweet spot to visit (sorry I had to).

As I said earlier, Seville also has alot of history behind it, with a great cathedral, a royal palace, and bull fighting arena. The cathedral dates back to the 12th century , and has some nice gardens and architecture, the roal palace, known as Real Alcazar, is also an architectural landmark with awesome craftmanship and detail. The local bull rig is a famous arena dating back more than two hundred years, though I am unsure if I would want to wach a fight or not. I know Melanie wouldn't want to but, but there is part of me that would like to watch it just to say that I have had the experience. I guess I will make that decision when the time comes, or maybe we will check out some flamenco dancing instead. Check out the pictures below.

Maestranza Plaza, a bull fighting arena holding up to 14,000 people

The bull fighting ring

The Royal Palace - Real Alcazar

The Real Alcazar's gardens