Freedom Fries

dimanche 19 mai 2013

Porto, Portugal

For Ascension this year we decided to go to Portugal. Jaxon's best friend here, Alexandre, is Portuguese and so he was especially excited. "It has always been my dream to go to Portugal," he said. Lucky him, because EasyJet flies there.

We started out in the north, in Porto. We booked a nice little apartment near the beach.

Eva was planning the itinerary with the help of Rick Steve's guidebook.

We ate in the first night. Daniel went out to scout for food.

Among the treasures he came back with was this "best cheese in Portugal." It was really good, Especially the first half. Then it started to grow.

We headed out first thing the next morning to check out Porto. We were bummed when it seemed like the old trolley's weren't working so we had to take to bus. It was only at the end of the day that we realized that it was an hour earlier than Switzerland in Portugal, so we were just waiting before they even started running.

We loved the tiles that decorated so many of the buildings.

Exploring Porto in the rain was lots of fun

Our first Portuguese meal at a hole in the wall restaurant full of locals. Sardines and some kind of really good meat.

Eva loved trying all the new foods.

We went down to the Ribeira district which is right on the riverfront

We are suckers for boat tours. As such we directed ourselves to the docks for the Porto boat tour.

Even the road signs were beautiful.

Captain Jonas was exited for an adventure on the river

The bridges were really interesting - this one I think was built by Eiffel.

Jaxon took a nice shot of us together. He now is our photographer, we just can't wait for him to be our babysitter.

That is real smile on my face, but I think Jaxon's may be forced.

On the old trolley Eva enjoyed the hand holds. yum yum

Jonas expiring on the trolley while looking out the window.

We are also suckers for medieval fortresses on the sea with cannons everywhere.

There was a really nice Sea walk along the coast.

Jonas was not bothered by the cold water and enjoyed running in the surf.

Jaxon did not heed our suggestion to take off his pants if he was going to run near the waves and was surprised by a big one.

Jonas ...

Pants come off and the fun continues

Eva kept a safe distance from the action but loved the watching the waves crash

Back at the apartment, the boys built a fort and Eva wanted in on the action.

dimanche 5 mai 2013

Papillorama

A couple weeks ago we had an overcast Saturday, so we decided to head to the Papillorama, a butterfly house and more in the region. I had to start by this picture because this is how we begin each Saturday adventure--with a trip to the dechetterie. This is where we take all of our recyclables. They are now many, since at the beginning of 2013 they implemented a new policy with the motto: "Make polluters pay!" Essentially, we now pay 2 Swiss Francs for each garbage bag we want to throw in the dumpster. And an extra tax of 70 Francs per year per person to pay for the guards at the dechetterie to make sure that only people from our village are using it. You certainly wouldn't want to allow the general public to take advantage of the services they provide. It is amazing how quickly you realize how little of what we throw away is actually real waste. Pretty much just diapers. so now we go through less than 2 garbage bags a month. Sometimes it getting a little overwhelming trying to store all of your garbage before your next trip to the dechetterie, but it is nice to think that maybe we have decreased the size of our carbon footprint just a little bit more.

Then we headed to the Papilliorama.

Evaëlle had her first experience with butterflies. And bats. And sloths. And armadillos. And probably a lot of other things.

I like this picture because it captures the little brown stripe in her eye so well.

Expo Junior

Last week that had a big indoor exposition for kids at Palexpo. We met up with my boss and her kids and had a great indoor day with the kids-perfect for a rainy day.