Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn!

For Easter I went road-tripping in Germany with Aline and Amaury.  We touched 5 countries between Friday and Sunday (inclusively): Netherlands, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium.

Friday afternoon we drove out to Cologne, where we enjoyed local Kölsch beer and some delicious pork-food. Amaury still holds that this is the best thing we did.

Moholt at the cathedral in Cologne - that thing is HUGE!

Amaury vs Pig

The next day we drove to Koblenz, where the Rhine and Moselle rivers meet. The junction is called the Deutsches Eck (German Corner), and there's a cool monument there. From Koblenz we followed the Mosel river west to Trier (hometown of Karl Marx), and the windy river valley road was beautiful (see time-lapse clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYouDcvWda0&feature=youtu.be). There are vineyards up the sides of the valley, but the slopes are so steep there that they have to have carts on rails to take you up the hillsides to work on the grapes. From Trier we proceeded south to Freiburg (in the Black Forest) for dinner and some sleep. We stayed in a hostel that was like a Berkeley Coop that had just been repainted white - a strange yet mildly familiar atmosphere.

Monument at Deutsches Eck

Manhole covers in Koblenz have the city seal: a boy throwing up.

Eating sausages by the side of the road. Amaury in love.

 From Freiburg we drove up into the Black Forest to the city of Titisee, which is on a lake ("see" in German). The lake was frozen, and the forest was snowy, and hiking though the hills around the lake was AWESOME. We also stopped at a cafe to have some Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake)!  After the forest we drove up to Strasbourg (our one French stop), then North to Luxembourg city, a route which took us through the lovely town of Bitche.

Black Forest wandering

Passing the city of Bitche

In Luxembourg we started the day by wandering through the craft market, a special holiday event that happens the day after Easter there. The city is a cool mix of old and modern buildings, since they're now a big banking hub but like to hold onto their old-timey-ness. The old city is up above a river valley, and there are big walls built into the valley to protect the city. We wandered through the valley along the base of the wall; it's a really nice park these days.  From there we went north to Beaufort and Vianden, both of which have castles open for visiting.

Along the walls in the valley in Luxembourg (City)

Castle at Beaufort

Hangin' out in the Beaufort Castle

Castle at Vianden

Alex in the castle at... uhh... well, a castle someplace...

Ah, but all good things must come to an end! We drove north from Luxembourg through Belgium and back into the Netherlands. However, as an Easter treat it was sunny back in Delft!

If you're going to San-Fran-Cisco...

Actually, I didn't go to San Francisco until almost the end of my trip, but I was CLOSE for a bunch of the time!

First I spent a few days up in the Bay Area with Lisa and the Ol' Blu Haus Crew.

Pizza place with someone I'm always happy to see :)
Oh, and Lisa.

Moholt is disgusted by this abomination

From the Big C.  Oh, how I miss CA some days...

Ice Skating at Embarcaderro plaza

Blu Haus!  Unite!
(Mack had just left :-/ )

Then I flew down to San Diego for some Mexican food.  Oh, and to spend the holidays with the family...

Moholt rides a pinata back in San Diego.
Risky Business, if you ask me...

Musical Broder

...Oder Broder...  Some call him... Tim...

Tim sleeps through Christmas; I finish the Sagrada Familia.
He'd fit in in Catalunya.

Ashly back from Japan!  Yay!

Of course, any trip to California is not complete without some camping time and some desert time. Brian, Ines, Kat, Justin, Lisa and I went to Death Valley for a week to cover both these needs - it's the lowest, hottest place in North America, and the landscape is just spectacular.  I posted pictures through facebook (here: Alex's Death Valley Photos)  Sorry to send you to another site, but I don't want to upload everything again...

Then it was back up to the Bay Area again to reconnect with some friends and meet some new ones!

Bryson rode all the way around the US, but this is his
first appearance with Moholt!

Dinner with Dora.  She's an excellent Oxacan cook.

Classic Sather Gate Pose

Funemployment...

A beautiful farewell to California... How I'll miss you.

 The California Trip was a wonderful month of sun in the middle of winter.  I filled it with friends and time outdoors. To all who were there, thanks for a marvelous time. To all I missed, I'm looking forward to seeing you when I come back!

Spain Recap!

Oh, my!  Let's do a brief recap of Spain in photos, then we can move on to the present!

(1) Montserrat! 

Cable Cars to the monastary

Scary climb among the old hermitages

Beautiful vistas

Dramatic canyons with half-naked Greeks

(2) Bojan's Birthday

BYOP (bring your own penguin)

 (3) Granada (& Malaga)

Alhambra Architecture

Alhambra Gardens

Moholt hiking in the Sierra Nevada foothills

Excellent hike through the ORIGINAL Sierra Nevadas!

Darth Vader stalks the streets of Malaga

(4) Departure

A stop at La Pedrera (Gaudi's work)

Packing up the bike!

And that's it!  I was there from September to December, and it just flew by!  ...Sort of... Spain is a funny place, and people tend to just take it easy a lot, so nothing really "flies by" except in memory. Good times, easy classes, fine weather, and a great bar called Lizarran (there's one in Gilroy, CA, btw...) 

From there it was back to Delft for a few hours of sleep then back to the US for the winter holidays!

Bem-vindo a Lisboa! (With Brian!)

The last week in September Brian came to Lisbon (Portugal, not Iowa)  for a conference.  Marcio and I decided to take the opportunity to go check out the city! And see Brian, I guess...

Lisboa Arrival!

Take another look at that picture!  Do you see the MOOSE!  Moholt left me at the end of July, but he's BACK!!!  He's a little bigger now, since he grew older and more mature over the course of his Spirit Quest.  I believe this is natural.

Lisbon is a cool city, and we stayed from Wednesday to Sunday.  We arrived and  met Brian for dinner Wednesday then wandered the town Thursday.  Lisbon is a really cool city, since it's a big, urban capital, but it's split into semi-autonomous neighborhoods, giving it the feel of a set of smaller cities clustered together.  We started in Belem (the west part of the city) and saw St Jeronimo Monastery (where Vasco da Gama is burried!), the Monument of Discovery, the Tower of Belem (at the entrance to the port), and  Pasteis do Belem (bakery where they created - or at least perfected - pasteis do natas - see picture below; I ate 3...). From there we headed into the main city and saw the castle, the old convent, the pantheon, and all the squares along the main drag of Lisbon.

Moholt with Pastéis de Nata

Monumento do Descobrimento 

Moholt at the Tower of Belem. It used to be
out in the river, but it´s sedimented in now...

Vasco da Gama!

Alex & Moholt in a castle overlooking...the Golden Gate? 

Friday we went to Sintra, a city in the forested hills just north of Lisbon where the nobility would spend their summers, with all the Berkeley folk from the conference. It's full of palaces, estates, and an old Moorish castle.  We visited the palace on the highest hill (Palacio Pena) and the Moorish castle and tried Travisoras do Sintra (it means "pillows", but they're actually pastries!) before heading back to Lisbon for the night.

Moholt fears Triton's Portal

Palacio Pena

The Crew in the Moorish Castle

Saturday we went to Sintra again, but this time we skipped the touristy palaces and hiked about 20 km through the forest to Cabo de Roca, the western-most point in continental Europe (Ireland beats it by just a little.  And Iceland, but that doesn't count... And I guess Greenland is officially part of Denmark, but everyone knows that's a joke...  whatever).  The view from the cliffs was great, and it was neat to see real swell again (on an Ocean!  not just a silly Sea.)

The Crew at Cabo de Roca (looking west)

Alex & Brian at Cabo de Roca

Moholt making sure he's at the REAL western-most point

Beautiful rocky coast

------------------ BACK TO BARCELONA ------------------

Sunday Marcio and I flew back to Barcelona so we could make it to Monday class, but Brian stayed one more day in Lisbon before coming to Barcelona to visit!  We went to Park Guell (Gaudi's work) Monday afternoon and climbed the hill behind it, from which you can see a lot of Barcelona.

Park Guell - find the moose!

Tuesday we walked all over the city. We circled from Montjuic through Gothic/Ramblas then the beach and finally back up to the house through Eixample.  Long walk.  Wednesday we went to Ciutadel Park then up to Tibidabo, and you can REALLY see all of Barcelona from there!  On the way up we passed Av. Tibidabo 32, of Shadow of the Wind fame. :)

Fountain at Ciutadel Park

Brian 1, Pig 0

Brian is in Apostolic Thinking Position

Moholt and Christ the Redeemer (on Tibidabo)

View from Tibidabo (you can see Park Guell, the Bullet,
the Sagrada Familia, and pretty much the rest of Bcn.

On Thursday Brian packed up and left for Lisbon, whence he'll catch a plane to SFO.  Adios, Mr. Brian!  And now I have to start my thesis for real....