We left Paris and made it to Fontainebleau!

We left Paris and its hustle and bustle behind us and have made it to the mecca of bouldering/rock climbing...Fontainebleau. This is yet another amazing place, actually the last place, we have scheduled for our honeymoon. We had a great time seeing all of the sights in Paris...the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Rodin's Museum, Napoleon's grave, Saint Chapelle, Champs Elysees, Arch de Triomphe, and some of the best croissants you'll ever put in your mouth! The hotel left a little to be desired, but that's what I've heard about all of the hotels in Paris. We have added some pictures to the slideshow, so make sure to check them out. The city was beautiful, and Katy really enjoyed herself, but I love the country side and forests of Fontainebleau, and can't wait to get some climbing in. We rented a car and arrived here today around 4:30pm. We took a quick break to get our bearings and headed out to the nearest bouldering area, Buthiers. I was so proud of Katy! She hasn't been doing as much climbing lately, but you couldn't tell from how she climbed today! She was a little hesitant, at first, to try some of the problems...but when she did, she looked like a pro! We will hopefully get to climb at 2 different spots tomorrow and see some of the classics that helped make bouldering a worldwide phenomenon.

We made it to Paris

We have made it to Paris, but we can not get internet access in our room:( So we will try to call everyone and let them know that we are safe when we get a chance. Until then...we love y'all!

Canyoning on Katy's Birthday!!!

Today was an incredible day! For Katy's birthday, after one of the best hotel breakfasts in the world, we went canyoning with the best company in Switzerland, "Alpin Raft"...which involved sliding down waterfalls and chutes, jumping into big pools of water, rappelling off into waterfalls, and other crazy canyon stuff! We were expecting it to warm up today, but it was still down in the 60's...and the water wasnt much warmer. After a fun morning in the Saxeten canyon, we came back to the hotel and took a nice warm nap. We were so stiff and sore when we woke up from the nap that we took it easy for the rest of the day. After some real swiss cheese sandwiches, we took an easy hour and a half long stroll up and down the river that flows through the Lauterbrunnen Valley. When we got back, Katy had a great birthday surprise from the hotel...a bottle of champagne and some fresh wildflowers. The Hotel Staubbach rocks! Now we're enjoying the champagne and a couple beers on the balcony. Tonight we plan on having a nice big birthday dinner and crashing hard in the bed after:) We posted some more pictures of Switzerland and more importantly pictures from canyoning on the slideshow...SO DONT MISS THEM!!! Tomorrow we are going to rent some mountain bikes and see the mountain tops and the valley in a different, fun way.

Today in Lauterbrunnen

Today it was raining off and on, from the time we got up, until we got back from our hike...but it didnt stop us from having one of the most awesome days of our honeymoon! We started out with a great breakfast at the hotel and then set out on our adventure for the day. We took a cable car up about 2000 ft to a place called Grutschalp. From there, we hiked about an hour to Murren. Along the way, we passed through incredible high alpine forests with tons of beautiful wildflowers, and it began to snow. About half way through the hike, we went through a gate and into someone's pasture. Up ahead we heard a bunch of bells ringing and continued to find that each bell was around a cows neck. We were hiking right in the middle of about 50 cows grazing on the hillside. They would stop and look at us like we were crazy for not grabbing a bite to eat with them:) We uploaded a video of the first cows we encountered to the slideshow, so check it out. We stopped along the way at Winteregg to dry off for a second, and contined to Murren and had a bite to eat for lunch. After we left Murren, we hiked to the next village called Gimmelwald. After hiking in the higher mountains for a couple of hours, it began to rain so at Gimmelwald we took the cable car down the mountain instead of hiking down. We ended the cable car trip in the village below called Stechelberg. From here, we hiked to an amazing set of 10 waterfalls that were inside of the mountain called Trummelbach. The giant mountains above us are the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau and the glaciers from these mountains all drain into this incredible set of caves and chutes within the mountain. We took a funicular inside the mountain, towards the top of Trummelbach. We had to hike up a long series of stairs to see the top sets of falls and chutes. The incredible amount of rushing water was deafening and it shook the mountain as we were walking along. We took some pictures and a few videos, that we put on the slideshow, to show everyone how amazing this part of our day was. At this point, we were so tired and worn out that we hiked the last 2km back to our town, Lauterbrunnen, picked up some groceries and headed back to the hotel to eat dinner. Even though its only 8pm right now, we are ready to collapse and go to bed.

Tomorrow is a big day, as you all know...our beloved Katy is having her 32nd BIRTHDAY!!! I'm so excited that we can spend it here in one of the most beautiful places we've ever been! We have another fun and adventurous day planned and cant wait to share it with you when we get back afterwards!

When you watch the videos, if you have a high speed connection, click on "view HQ video" above the upper right hand corner of the video to see a clearer and better picture quality.

We Made it Switzerland!

With Italy, and the terrible heat rash I got from the salt water and hot weather, behind us, we arrived in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland last night around 7:30. OH MY GOD...THIS PLACE IS AMAZING!!! We went from 90' weather in Italy, to a cool 65' here in Switzerland. From incredibly beautiful seaside villages where everyone is in a swimsuit, to people bundled up for warmth in a true alpine village stuck right in the middle of some of the biggest mountains I've ever seen...this aint no Gatlinberg:) We can look out of our hotel window and see a 900 ft waterfall with a 10,000 ft snow covered mountain in the background...absolutely breathtaking! We hiked up to the base of Staubbach Falls last night, before it became dark, and then went to the local pub for dinner and a drink. It rained for much of the night, but the sky has just broke and we are getting ready for a hike to see some more waterfalls and mountaintops. We'll post again soon to tell everyone what we are up to, but until then...here is a picture from our room for everyone to enjoy!

ps...we also added some more pictures of Italy and I think a few from Switzerland to the slideshow. Once again, click on the slideshow and it will take you to the photo album. If you click "view all", it might be easier to go past the old photos and click on the newer ones. Enjoy!

Made it to Cinque Terre

We made it to Cinque Terre (and our little village, Manarola) yesterday, after a long day of traveling. Just when we thought we had endured the worst of it, the last 10 minute train ride to Manarola was delayed in a dark tunnel, with us in it, for almost 45 minutes. It was like seeing our dinner at the counter, but no one would deliver it to the table:) Today we had a nice lazy day hiking between Manarola and the next village over, Riomaggiore, as well as, lounging on the rocky "beach" in our village. This place is incredible! I was a little nervous when we were in Milan...it was a real dump compared to what I was expecting. But Manarola has outdone itself! Here is a picture of our village for everyone to enjoy.

Packed up and heading to Italy in the morning

Well, our time in Lisbon is almost at an end:( We are packed and ready for an early rise and plane ride to Italy at 8:30 tomorrow morning. We are going from Lisbon to Madrid, then a connecting flight to Milan. From Milan, we are going to have to catch a couple of train rides to our village in Cinque Terre. We will be in the village of Manarola until the 21st, when we take a train (or two) to Interlaken, Switzerland. Unfortunately, we wont have internet access while we are staying in Italy, but we will post a blog and call everyone as soon as we arrive in Interlaken the evening of the 21st. We love and miss you all!

New Pictures Added to the Slideshow

We just uploaded 28 more pictures, from the last week or so, to the Slideshow on the side. Some of them are fuzzy, due to the fact that the churches and museums don't allow you to use flash. Enjoy!

The latest from Lisbon

We have been busy, in one form or another, over the last week. Katy has been slowly wrapping up her research, finishing up the last samples that will be useful for her data set. While I have been trying to soak up the last sights and places I want to go before we leave for Italy on Wednesday. I went out to the "local" bouldering area again on Monday, and finished all of the routes that I could climb...as my Mom commented, I posted a neat video of a simple climb with great background footage (the tide crashing on the rocks) on my bouldering site. Tuesday and Wednesday I met her for lunch near the museum, and did a little work myself at home...trying to get ahead for the fall semester.

Thursday, I went to the Modern Art Museum and the Gulbenkian Museum. The Gulbenkian is a world famous art museum donated to the people of Lisbon by a gentleman named Calouste Gulbenkian. He became very wealthy throughout his lifetime and had a passion for spending his money on fine art. As the second World War was raging in most of Europe, he fled to Lisbon for safety and found it to be the most welcoming and wonderful place he had ever lived, eventually in 1955 he died here. He felt a debt of gratitude to the people and beginning in 1956, the art he collected for over 4 decades was assembled, from his private collection and the pieces loaned to multiple museums of the world, to form the Gulbenkian museum. This place was truly first class with many example of ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman statues and art. He was also fascinated with oriental art, with a vast collection from Persia, Turkey, Syria, Armenia (his origin), India, China and Japan. Finally, he had a huge collection of European art, including pieces from many of the famous European artists...Rembrandt, Manet, Monet, and Rodin just to mention a few. I'm not too artsy myself, and museums can bore me rather quickly...but as you can tell, this museum made a lasting impression on me. I was so bored in the Modern Art Museum that I took a bunch of pictures, but so fascinated in the Gulbenkian, that I didn't take a single one. Thursday evening, we met up with Katy's buddy from the museum and had a great dinner at one of the many awesome restaurants in town.

Friday, we took a sightseeing tour of Lisbon Harbor, where the Tejo River starts to open up into the Atlantic, by boat. This was a great way to see some familiar parts of Lisbon, but from a different perspective. Friday night, there was a huge parade in town to celebrate St Anthony, the patron saint of Lisbon. We stayed for the first 45 minutes and realized that they had only had 3 of the 23 performances, and didn't think we could make it for the rest. This was a big to do with the locals, because each neighborhood of Lisbon had there own little performance and celebration of where they live. These people are very humble, but very proud of their neighborhoods and their accomplishments and individuality's. On our way home, we stopped off at an outdoor wine bar with a live band performing...OK, the truth is that there was a huge hill ahead of us and this was a good reason to take a break:) The band was very European with the main rhythm being supplied by a synthesizer/computer, with just accents of the bass and guitar...and of course the vocals were Portuguese. Before we knew it, the place was hopping and there were around 75-100 people dancing in the streets and area surrounding the stage. Its was a very fun atmosphere, but eventually we had to face the hill and head back to our apartment. I think I mentioned in a previous blog that Lisbon is the city of 7 hills, but I think they forgot to count a few! Its rare to walk on flat ground around here.

Yesterday, we went out to Estoril, near Cascais and my favorite climbing spot we've mentioned before. Estoril has one of the most popular beaches around, as well as what has been described as an upscale casino. The beach was really nice, but crowded. We rented an umbrella and chairs and spent most of the time lounging and enjoy the day. After we had left the beach and were going to see the casino, I realized that I had left my wedding ring in the bathroom...the shock and dread overwhelmed me. I threw the backpack at Katy and told her to meet me back at the bathrooms as I ran off in hopes of retrieving it. Once I got there, I snatched the ring just before the guy cleaning could pocket it...too close for my comfort! Just for those of you that are unfamiliar...I don't run very often, mainly due to my asthma. This might be the first time I have ran a 1/2 mile since high school gym class:) As the asthma was subsiding, we took a quick tour of the casino (you wouldn't find James Bond in this one...I've seen better on a cruise ship), and hopped the train back into Lisbon. We had big plans for the evening, that I was really excited about...Cirque du Soleil! We got ready, which including some cold showering because we ran out of gas to fire the water heater (our "landlord" gladly refilled it before we returned), and headed out to the show. If you haven't spent the ridiculous amount of money to go see one of the Cirque du Soleils yet...what are you waiting for? You wont be disappointed! One of the deciding factors was that the tickets were cheaper than in the US (45 euro, or about $65 for the same seats that are $125 in the states). When we got there, they informed us that our tickets had been upgraded to the 110 Euro seats because those didn't sell out! We were 6 rows back, almost dead center...perfect way to spend our 4 week wedding anniversary (hehe). The show was incredible, with some of the most talented gymnasts and acrobats I've seen. I really enjoyed the awe in Katy's eyes when I'd look over at her...look like a little kid staring at her favorite Christmas gift she'd just opened! It was really late afterwards and the Metro (subway) stops running at 1am. We caught a wild driving cab ride to take us from the show to the Metro, and had just enough time to make all the switches on the subway and catch the very last metro to our home station...thank goodness! We came in and nearly collapsed in the bed...but what an awesome day!

Today, we are planning on going to a weekly art fair they have in Belem, one of the neighborhoods/suburbs of Lisbon. We'll hopefully get a chance to blog one more time before we leave for Italy, and I'm going to try to put some new pictures up on the Slideshow so everyone can see the sights from this week. Lisbon is truly an incredible place, it doesn't take much to make you want to stay here forever, and its going to be tough to say goodbye!

NEW PICTURE SLIDESHOW!!!

We have just put up almost 100 pictures, that we have taken so far, as a slideshow on the side bar of our blog page. You can look at the pictures in more detail, and even save the pictures to your computer and print them up if you want. To do so, simply click on the picture that is currently rolling on the slideshow, and it will take you to the entire photo album website. There, you can use the arrows to move between pictures and see them in a bigger view. If you find one you want to keep, right click the mouse on the picture and then click "Save Picture As..." and save it to your computer. We hope you guys enjoy seeing more of our trip!

More News from Lisbon

Well, I thought I (Katy) would finally contribute to our blog. I was so sick last week with a stomach virus that we didn't get to do too much. I would drag myself to the museum for part of the day and spend most of the other time in bed. Brad took such good care of me, even figuring out the Portuguese word for diarrhea to tell the pharmacist :) I am happy to report that I am feeling much better. We went to two really good movies, X-men and Star Trek. The theaters were really nice and only 5 euros. On Saturday, we slept late and then went for a long walk around the city. We came across a free jazz festival in one of the city parks and enjoyed some good beer and music in the park. On Sunday, we woke up early and headed for the beach. We stopped in town for some pizza. After we ordered we watched the cook in the kitchen just standing around for a while. Then the cook handed the waiter a plastic bag, he left and came back a few minutes later with plates banging. I guess they must have ordered out and delivered it for us. But it was hot and good, so we couldn't complain. After lunch we headed out towards Brad's favorite climbing spot. Once we hiked the 2 km to the spot and set up our stuff, it started to pour. The look on Brad's face was so sad. So we headed back to town and found a beautiful spot on the water to drink a liter of Sanguira, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. We found some bikes that are available for free and we rode out along the coast. So it turned out to be a pretty good day after all. After we got back to town we were totally exhausted, but we had made plans to go out with one of the other researchers at the museum. We met for dinner in Biarro Alto, which a neighborhood in Lisbon, and were getting ready to go home and we came across a bar that had a Brazilian jazz band playing, so we decided to stop, have a few drinks and listen. We are having a wonderful time and seeing lots of amazing sights. Miss you and will talk to you soon.

This Past Weekend in Serra da Estrela and Covilha

Sorry we haven’t posted anything for a little while...I've been trying to get Katy to post something, so y'all can hear what she has to say, but it just hasn’t happened yet. So I'll tell y'all a little about our past weekend.

We rented a car and headed north of Lisbon to a mountain range called Serra da Estrela, and a little town called Covilha. Covilha is a vibrant college town, right at the base of the mountains. The main road through the town heads steeply up into mountains and leaves the development behind quickly. Of course, I wanted to head here to do some climbing, but there was plenty to see and do besides that. We usually plan a lot of activities in our trips, but this time we just wanted to take it easy and relax a little. Friday, we picked the car up at the airport and hit the main highway leaving Lisbon, the A1. The speed limit is 120 km/hr, or about 75 mph, but it felt like the Autobahn with everyone passing us like we were sitting still. There were plenty of cars doing well over 200 km/hr, or around 125+ mph, that expected us to follow suit...but we didn’t go faster than 150km/hr. This still made it feel like our little car was going to burn up on re-entry:) Despite the local maniacs, the drive was nice and scenic. It took us about 3 hrs to get there from Lisbon, about 275 km away, and we immediately checked into the Hotel Solneve. The hotel was fairly inexpensive (only 38 Euro a night, about the same price as a Days Inn back home) but was one of the nicest places I've stayed...it had a marble bathroom and a balcony overlooking the main town center. We took a quick ride up into the mountains to get our bearings and find the best places to park for the climbing we had planned for the next day. We hiked out into a high mountain desert covered with boulders and a variety wildflowers, a real visual treat. After climbing around a little, we headed back to the hotel, took a dip in the pool to cool off, and had a wonderful dinner at Fernando's, the hotel restaurant. I love the Portuguese food and Fernando's didn’t disappoint! We finished the bottle of wine from dinner on our balcony and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the nightlife below us...I couldn’t imagine a better end to the day!

Saturday, we got up, had breakfast and headed back up to Pedra do Urso, the main climbing spot for the trip. Katy has been so busy with work and the wedding, so she hasn’t climbed much with me lately. I love to go climbing, but it is so much more fun when she goes and we're both rooting each other on to top out. We climbed for about 2-3 hours, until the heat became unbearable, and saw over half of the area we wanted to see...a pretty successful trip. Afterwards, we drove back down into the town and had lunch. After a quick nap, we headed back into the Serra for a sightseeing drive and the evening climbing session. We drove to the highest point in Portugal, Torres, at about 2000m, which had very scenic panoramic views. The road up to Torres was steep and made it feel like we were dangling off of the side of the mountains. The drop off of the road was usually in the 500ft range, but made for great views the whole time. Torres is known as a ski village in the winter, and there were still remnants of snow on the ground everywhere...amazing compared to the +90'F weather back down in Covilha. There were tons of interesting sights to see, but one of the highlights was a holy sight that translated to "Lady of the Holy Star". The image of the Lady, along with a few other images, were carved into the side of a rock face. There were several offerings at the foot of the carving, proof that it is still more than just a tourist stop. The plateau around this area was amazing. It was grassy with a small stream running through it, forming a waterfall that drained into the area of the carving. Surrounding all of this were giant rock faces and boulders with small hiking paths cut in between them...I really felt like I was in one of Indiana Jones' sites, rediscovering ancient secrets. This is one of the most remarkable and memorable places I've had the pleasure to climb and visit. After driving around and gawking at the sights for a little while longer, we headed back to Pedra do Urso and climbed around for another hour or so. We were able to explore most of the rest of the areas listed in the guidebook, as well as, some new areas not mentioned. After finally realizing how exhausted we were, and with the sun setting slowly, we dragged ourselves back to the car and back to the hotel. Once again, we ate some incredible food at Fernando's, and soon collapsed in the bed.

Sunday, we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel, and checked out around 11am. We had to have the car back by 3pm, but we had about an hour or so we could use to sightsee on our way back to Lisbon. About 2/3 of the way back, we stopped in a town called Tomar. In this town was an incredible monastery/castle with very ornate gothic architecture. We didn’t have time to tour the whole monastery, but we were able to walk around the courtyard and marvel at the intricate beauty of the structures. With our rental car time running out, we jumped back onto the highway and headed back to Lisbon, tired and satisfied from an incredible weekend.

I have to say that I have married the most incredible woman in the world to plan all of this, knowing that the focus for the weekend would be on rock climbing:) I felt terrible that we weren’t able to visit the archeological site she wanted to see, but she knew it would have been too much to add that in, on top of everything else we had already planned, and graciously offered to leave that for our next visit. I was so happy to be able to climb with Katy and get the satisfaction of her success on the rock, and not just mine. Rock climbing was one of the first things to bond us and bring us together, and it's always special when we can share it together.

Since then, Katy has been working everyday, except today when she isn’t feeling well:(...I told her that stuff she was drinking wasn’t milk:) She's already feeling better, but I've been taking care of her and nursing her back to normal, as much as possible. We haven’t got any definite plans for this weekend, but I'm sure we'll take in some more incredible sights and we'll blog about it as soon as we can. We have some great pictures from this past weekend, but I have to wait to use her computer to upload them...expect the pictures in the next few days. I was planning on going to Sintra and a 9th century Moorish castle today, but with Katy not feeling 100%, that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Keep the comments coming, and the e-mails and pictures of the baby (from Anne). I cant tell you how bright Katy's face gets every time she sees a new picture...its always the "most cute" or "most precious" picture of the baby yet!!! We miss all of y'all and love sharing our journey with you!