Ronda

Christmas day, we decided to drive up to the mountains to a town called Ronda. Ronda is spread out on either side of a huge 360 foot gorge. A beautiful stone bridge spans the gap between the two sides of town. It was definitely worth the twisty turny (and sometimes nauseating) drive through the mountains. Sorry for the lack of people in the pictures, the scenery was just beautiful.

Nearing the top of the mountains, almost in the clouds.










One of our many 'breathers' on the way up. We had to get out and get some fresh air.



Very narrow streets.



The old bridge, not nearly as impressive as the new bridge. Although it's not very new by American standards - built in the 1700's.



The ancient Moorish bridge.



Ancient Moorish baths.



The long-arm shot.



The 'new' bridge.





Part of the old wall.



We stood on that point!



Matt outside the bull ring.

Merry Christmas (Eve)!!!

Merry Christmas from Spain! We're celebrating Christmas here with Matt's parents and it's absolutely wonderful. It's been a little bit windy and cool, but nowhere near what the weather's been like in Prague. There's not even the slightest chance of snow here (not with 60 degree weather). Today, we visited the UK territory of Gibraltar. First, though, I'd like to show you a picture of the darkest day of the year in Prague. It was exactly 4:15 on December 21 when I took this picture. According to the Almanac and other fun sources (like my professor in college), we'll be gaining a couple of minutes of daylight every day until summer, until the sun rises at 4 something in the morning and doesn't set until almost 10.



Our villa...



The view from the front garden...



'The Rock' passport control. Pedestrians on the right, cars on the left.





At the southern end of Gibraltar, looking at Africa (Morocco) in the distance.



The 'apes' were not really apes, just monkeys that the Arabs brought over years ago. They wander around and just stare at you as you take their picture. Yes, I was actually that close (no zoom, I promise!)



In St. Michaels's Cave. Lots of stalactites and stalagmites.



I thought this picture of Matt looked kind of scary...



Looking up...



And and a performance hall, inside the cave!







Inside the Great Siege Tunnels, where they held off the Spanish and the French. It was a little windy where I was standing (see Mama, he doesn't take silly pictures just of you!).



Back outside the tunnels. Behind Matt is the cliff facing where they would shoot the cannons out of (how's that for grammar?).



Main street in Gibraltar. We had fish and chips. Yummy.



That's all for now. We'll be taking it easy tomorrow but hopefully we'll get out and see something beautiful. Merry Christmas! We miss you all!

Calleigh Paige is Here!

Okay, actually, Calleigh arrived last Tuesday, December 9 and I'm just now getting to post but that's okay. For those of you who are wondering, Calleigh is our new niece, born to Matt's brother and sister-in-law, Jason and Robyn. She looks a lot like her Mommy (in my opinion) which is very lucky for her!



Big brother Tyler holding his baby sister



One pretty (after delivering a baby!) and happy Mommy



Proud Papa

Random Post

I know, I haven't posted in a while and I haven't been very good at taking pictures either so this post is a random collection of thoughts and pictures from the last couple of weeks.

This picture was taken outside of our friends' house in western Prague. It had been a couple of days since it snowed and we were out there getting all the yummy food ready for our upcoming Thanksgiving feast. Snow was still on the ground out there because it stays quite a bit cooler that far out from the city center.



This is Matt, completely stuffed on Thanksgiving. Apparently we're becoming light-weights because neither of us could eat as much as we usually do on Thanksgiving (not that we didn't eat plenty of food). We had turkey, sweet (and I do mean sweet) potatoes, cream corn casserole, green bean casserole (my fav!), 2 kinds of stuffing, spinach casserole, rolls, an apple pie and 2 pumpkin pies. Yummy!



And here are our friends (American and Czech), clockwise from about 1 o'clock: Will, his wife Rachel (team members; sorry Rachel is a little blurry, she turned her head as I was taking the picture), Rachel's mom Sandra who was visiting from the states (mainly to meet her new baby granddaughter), Andrea (Czech), and her boyfriend Patrik (also Czech). I didn't get any pictures of the kids or Matt and me, oh well.



And finally, another interesting cultural tidbit from the Czech Republic. St. Nicholas' Day (Svaty Mikuláš) - kind of like our Santa Claus - is celebrated on December 6th, but the real festivities are the evening before. The tradition goes: St. Nicholas (Mikuláš), the Angel (anděl) who represents the Good, and the Devil (čert) representing the Evil walk the streets, stopping children and asking them if they were good in the past year. Most kids say yes and sing a song or recite a short poem. They are then rewarded with sweets, candy or other treats, which are handed out by the Angel. Bad kids would be put in the Devil's sack and taken to hell (yikes!), or would only get a sack of potatoes or coal instead of candy, but that doesn't really happen. Nowadays, kids and teenagers also dress up as one of the three characters. Typically, parents bring their kids down to Old Town and wander around for a few hours. Parents will also give their children gifts to celebrate the holidays. Here's a picture of some kids we saw in the mall Friday evening.

First Snow

Our first snow of the year! Just in time for Thanksgiving. Although, I'm not sure it's suppose to last until then. What I do know is that it's suppose to be below freezing until at least Tuesday. Brrr! Some of the Christmas decorations (giant trees and lights) around the city are up already and they've also opened up some of the outdoor Christmas markets. We're going out today to take some pictures of the city so I'll be posting those soon. Normally, I'd be rolling my eyes at Christmas decorations this early. And I definitely would be boycotting Sunny 99.1 until a few days before Christmas for their incessant 'all Christmas music, all the time' this time of year (I know, I'm usually a grinch). But there's just something about having snow on the ground that makes it seem more 'Christmas-y' right now, so it's not bothering me that bad this year. So enjoy the snow!

And the Forecast Calls for Snow!!

Okay, so this is not snow in my flower boxes, but it is sleet. It looked just like someone dumped a box of rock salt out. But the forecast for this weekend does call for snow! I can't wait to see the city with snow! Okay, okay, I know I'm a little too excited but I can remember exactly 4 times it snowed my whole life in Houston, so let me be happy about it for a little bit.



In other news, we have done exactly nothing this week because Matt has been sick with a stomach bug. We did get some antibiotics last night, though, so hopefully he's on the road to recovery. It did give me an excuse to make my homemade chicken noodle soup, though.

For Your Monday Enjoyment...

My dad really liked the stairs...



Although his ascent was followed by a conversation about Advil and a muscle relaxer...

Our new place and Dad's Visit

This weekend my dad hopped over from a business trip in England to see how we're living in the big city. We showed him the sights and he bought us dinner. A nice exchange, I think.



The view from Vyšehrad (vee-she-hraad) which means "high castle".



Standing on the river under Charles Bridge



At the doors of St. Vitus Cathedral



Matt and my dad, giving up at Ambiente (one of those Brazilian meat-fest type restaurants). They had just flipped their 'all you can eat' cards from green to red.



Matt's last bite, which I'm pretty sure was the reason for not one, but two doses of Pepto later that night.



Another view at Vyšehrad.





The Leopold Gate at Vyšehrad.



Dad found a car he likes...


And now, our new pad!!!



The view from our balcony.

And here's a video tour. It's kind of like MTV cribs. But not.