Lisbon, Portugal

I had a business trip to Lisbon last week, so Nicole and Mason decided to tag along for the free hotel room. On Thursday and Friday, while I slaved away, Nicole and Mason explored Lisbon. Lisbon is an interesting city that is kind of a patchwork of very new and very old sections, and is quite different than the other European cities we have visited. On Thursday they visited the brand-new Oceanario, a huge aquarium that sits in the bay in front of Lisbon. On Friday, they explored the "old town" of Lisbon, where Mason was seronaded by a midieval minstrel.
After work on Friday, we moved up the coast from Lisbon to a smaller resort town called Estoril. After relaxing on the beach until near sunset, we grabbed dinner with some traditional Portuguese seafood stew and a bottle of Vinho Verde (Portuguese green wine).
On Saturday, we hopped on a bus and headed inland to the town of Sintra. Sintra is a beautiful town that is built into a lush, green hillside. Sintra is the former home of Portuguese royalty, and has an incredible amount of mansions and castles. Perched on one hill above the town is a Moorish castle that is over 1000 years old. Above the Moorish castle sits the Pena Palace, an 18th century castle that is like something out of a Disney movie. The palace used to house the Portuguese royalty, and the rooms inside are so well preserved that it seems like they just moved out. See the Our Pictures link on the right to see the pictures of the Palace (unfortunately, no pictures are allowed inside the castle).

Paris, France

Ahh, Paris...with a two year-old. After many months of helping Mason build "big towers" with his Legos, we (along with my Mom and Paul) took Mason to the romantic City of Light to see the most famous "big tower" in the world. Paris did not disappoint any of us, although trying to see it all with a two-year old in tote is not something I would recommend to the average traveller. We pretty much did it all - the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Rodin Museum, a Seine River Cruise, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacre Coeur Basilica, while along the way eating heavy French cuisine, unbelieivable French pastries, and changing a dozen diapers (one of these things is not like the others).
In the above picture, Mason was signaling "touchdown" in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. I didn't have the heart to tell him that that the "real Notre Dame" football team got trounced by Michigan the day before. He just seemed so happy, I didn't want to ruin it for him.
On Sunday night we ate at a very traditional French restaurant called L'Auberge Bressane. While Mason was completely fixated on my glasses for some reason ("Daddy, glasses, right there. Right there, glasses," as he pointed his stubby little finger about one inch from my face), I decided that dealing with a two year-old boy is very similar to dealing with a drunk friend. Both are loud and obnoxious, and often beligerent. Both have trouble walking, and tend to fall on their faces occasionally. Both have incredible emotional swings, laughing hysterically one minute and crying the next. Both are apt to be fixated by something completely ordinary, like my glasses, or a motorcycle, or a dog eating a flower. While I pondered this thought, Mason managed to pull a large picture frame off the wall behind me and it came crashing down on the back of my head. Luckily it didn't break, but the whole restaurant stopped conversation to look over at our table. After that lovely incident, I poured the rest of our wine bottle into my glass. If you can't beat 'em...

Chamonix, France

Hurry up and snow! We've never been more excited for winter to arrive in our lives. Today we saw a little glimpse of what the Alps have to offer in Chamonix - Mont Blanc, France. Chamonix is at the base of Mont Blanc (the highest peak in the Alps), and was the site of the first ever winter olympics. The village itself is surrounded by mountains, and what looks to be at least a dozen or more ski resorts.
We finally had a forecast for mostly clear skies, so we got up early and drove the hour-and-a half to Chamonix to see the Alps from the top. Two tram rides took us up to nearly 13,000 feet at the top of a sharp rocky peak called L'Aiguille du Midi (aiguille means needle in french) that sits just below the peak of Mont-Blanc.
The tram station at the top of L'Aguille du Midi is absolutely incredible and so are the views. A tunnel built into the peak leads to an elevator that takes you to the top of a tower built on the peak for panaromic views. From the top, you could even see the Matterhorn, which is about 40 miles away. See our pictures on Shutterfly.
Mason had a great time at the top of the mountain, but having him there was slightly stressful, as he had no fear of the heights whatsoever. He became a very popular subject of Japanese tourists, many of whom turned their cameras from the peaks to focus on Mason. When Mason would take off running across the observation deck, the Japanese tourists would let out a squeal as if they thought Mason was going to jump four feet over the railing and fly off the mountain. At one point, Mason was surrounded by abut 6 Japanese tourists with video cameras capturing his every move. We figure that Mason will either be the next pop-culture icon in Japan, or he might be the subject of a Japanese documentary on poor parenting.
We passed on taking a gondola ride from the top of the peak, across a glacier to another mountain peak that is actually in Italy. The gondola goes for over 3-miles, 1,300 feet above a glacier, and is suspended between the two peaks with no ground support! It was getting cloudy, so we decided to pass on taking the ride. We weren't scared - really.

Annecy, France

This weekend we decided to drive into France to a town called Annecy, which is about an hour drive from Lausanne. Driving into Annecy, we had a little of what Americans refer to as "deja-vu" and what the French call "haven't I been here before?" The town itself is very similar to Stresa, Italy as it is located right on a lake and surrounded by the Alps. Annecy's old town area is filled with pedestrian streets that follow the river as it flows through from the lake, and to Nicole's delight it also has quite a bit of shopping. However, we weren't here to shop, we came to do some biking. We didn't ship Mason's Burley 4,000 miles for nothing!
So, after struggling to get out of the apartment before 10 a.m., and then getting stuck in traffic in Lausanne and again in a small one-stoplight town in France, we finally reached Annecy at noon all fired-up to start our day of biking. We reached the bike rental store and found out it was closed until 2 p.m. for lunch. We had packed a picnic to bring on our bike ride, so we ate our lunch in Annecy in a waterfront park and waited patiently (depending on who you ask) until 2 p.m. At 2:00, we rented our bikes and I pedaled back to the car as fast as I could to get the Burley, only to realize that we had forgotten to bring the arm that connects the Burley to the bike. Quite fruststrated, I pedaled back to the bike shop again, where the French lady working the shop got the laugh of her day. "So you bring zee trailer all zee way from zee US, and you didn't bring zee arm?!" Preserving some dignity, we informed her that the arm was not left in the US, that we had only left it in a differnt foreign country, but I think she was still amused. Luckily, they had a bike trailer for rent. Not so lucky for me, the thing rolled about as well as a brick and weighed more than our car.
The bike ride was very nice (other than the struggle with the trailer). We biked for 44 km rountrip up the lake shore and back on nice, paved paths. Mason enjoyed watching the parachuters who jumped off the top of the nearby mountains and flew across the lake before landing towards the end of the bike trail.
After the bike ride, we walked around Annecy and ate at a fondue restaurant in the old town. Nicole enjoyed the fondue much more than I did. Melted cheese on bread seems more to me like an appetizer than a main course, but Nicole thought differently. Mason didn't care what we ate, as long as we stopped at one of the glaciers afterwards for gelatos (which we did).
Despite the problems during the day, we really like Annecy and will definitely return another time before we leave.