khakis & huge... bottom.

what the rip off

i have to say, london really is super expensive.

on our last night in london at the crowne plaza, we wanted to get online to check-in since the lines at the airport are usually pretty long. unfortunately, they did not offer free internet, and the people at the front counter would not check-in for us. So I had to pay for 15 minutes (the minimum we could buy) of internet at the hotel's business center just so that we could do our business and print out any paperwork.

guess how much i got charged on my credit card.

$11.40! that's the most expensive 15 minutes i've ever spent on the internet! ouch.

Brick's favorite people pics

Post 2 of my favorite pics (other post is 3 below this one), starring the folks who went on the trip!

Disclaimer: some of the associated captions are actually what happened, and some are creative license taken by... me. I'll leave it to you to figure out which is which. Oh, and for the most part, I used people's Spain nicknames, so go here for a refresher course if you've forgotten.

Before heading up on the London Eye, the gals decided to do what I think was a prom pose or cruise pose or something... except for Jamon, which may have been the only picture in two weeks where she refused to pose... heheh.

Pooped from the Mike Pih Diet (tm). In the back you can see the Tower of London.

"So I won't expect a postcard from Trafalgar Square..." You get extra credit if you can name that song!

Ilicito and Ojo Bizarro took a nice picture with Aslan the Lion, who was also hanging out in Trafalgar Square.

You can't tell from this shot, but they're actually sitting maybe 8 feet off the ground - not much of a problem for Mike to climb up and jump off, but Joy had some problems. A kindly English gentleman had to help hoist her to safety.

Ojo, Ilicito, and Jamon climbing the Stairs of Cirith Ungol to sneak into Mordor... or maybe they were just climbing the never-ending spiral staircase at La Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona. While it was fun looking down the staircase and seeing the snail-shell-inspired spiral, the view at the top really wasn't worth the hour+ we spent climbing and waiting. Although, I did get a bunch of great shots for my sermon.

My attempt at an artsy silhouette shot, at Parc Guell in Barcelona. Not quite dark enough.

Jamon: "Where are we? Karen, make a table!"
Gato Negro: "What, again?! [sigh]"
Ilicito: "I am so going to get Mike back for making us walk 5 hours straight!"
Frodo: "This burden is mine, and mine alone..."

Since we had just gone to Mexico and done sports ministry less than a month before going to Spain, Ojo Bizarro still had the jones for soccer, so he, Frodo, and Jamon got a game going with the locals in this Barcelona plaza.

At the bullfighting ring in Seville, we decided it would be funny to feed Jamon and Gato Negro to the stampede of bulls that would come charging out the red doors in the back. They (the gals, not the bulls!) weren't very happy about it.

[Insert caption here... cuz I have no words to describe this]

Finally, a couple of nice shots in the Alhambra to finish off this post...

Esther and Andrea, taken from a second floor balcony.

Joy and Esther in the flower garden.

The staircases had little canals of flowing water, so I got this upward shot of Esther. Too bad there's some dude with a hat on right behind her... no way for me to crop that with Picasa.

Enjoy!

- Brick

Spain as a Resort

Since Spain is cheap, and Britain is nearby, it turns out that Spain is a favorite place for clubs. The warm weather, the laid back people, and good food draw the more wealthy Brits to certain locales and turns the 2-story warehouses in all night parties. I have mentioned to some people that the day I left Sevilla I woke up at 5 a.m. to catch a taxi. I was worried that the streets would not be safe and that no cars would be on the road.

What was I thinking? Party goers were chilling with a beer in hand, sitting outside in the starry night, just talking. This was 5 a.m. mind you. Several taxis were cruising, hoping to drive the party goers home and earning a tip.

dedicated to...

adopt your own virtual pet!

Bob's favorite scenery pics

Here's post 1 of some of the favorite pics off my camera that I took while we were in London and Spain (this one's all scenic shots, the second one will have pics of people). Aside from Joseph, my camera happened to have the best zoom (10x) so I attempted to use this to my advantage in finding interesting shots and angles...

From the inside of the Casa Mila in Barcelona, designed by innovative architect Antoni Gaudi. Among other things, the interesting aspect of this design was placing the light well on the inside of a multi-story building to help natural light reach the lower levels, where the common areas typically would be.

Another shot from the eccentrically designed roof of the Casa Mila, through a window at a mirror.

At the Sagrada Familia, a cathedral designed by Gaudi in Barcelona, one of the facades depicts various scenes from the life, death, and resurrection from Jesus Christ. The sculptures were made off of a layout by Gaudi and created by a more modern cubist-style sculptor with a talent for very expressive faces:

One corner of the Alcazar (I think) in Toledo, with clouds in the background.

Sunset over the Rio Guadalquivir in Sevilla.

Shots from the gorgeous gardens in Alhambra:

reunion!

check out this post for details about our mini-reunion!

whose glasses are these?

ouch...my aching eyeballs.

Where's the VIDEO?

It occured to me that our worldwide audience have yet to see the bull video of Sevilla.

And now for Some Serious News

I know that all the photos of food are great. And I know that I'm the weird one that thinks heavy thoughts even while on vacation. So I'll ease into it with some history of Spain for those who look at the architecture and wonder where it all comes from.

There are 6 major pieces of history of Spain.

First -- Roman Empire. There were fights between Carthage and Rome, but in the end Rome won. By the time Jesus was born, Spain was firmly in the hands of the Roman generals. Southern outposts in Spain became the headquarters for the western portions of the empire, with trade routes stretching north even to Britain.

Second -- Visigoths. As the Empire crumbled, many contenders fought for control. In Spain the victor is the Visigoths, a pseudo-Christian warrior people that took over the Roman outposts. Visigoths left very few architecture as a people, so there aren't that many things left from that era.

Third -- Moors. Since the Visigoth princes were too busy in political intrigue and murders, the Muslim group known as the Moors swept north from Morrocco and stormed all of southern Spain. This group stayed for 700 years (I believe) and has a heavy influence on the southern Spain. The Moors were fighting against the caliphs in Mecca, so they set up a competing mosque for their worshippers.

Fourth -- Catholics. The Moors never took over the very north end of Spain, however, and this meant the Catholic Christians attacked from the north. Queen Isabel and king Fernandid married, creating the greatest Christian alliance in Spain. They swept south and took control of all of Spain. They launched Christopher Columbus, (their descendants) had the cruel Spanish Inquisition to purge Jews and Muslims for both religious and politcal reasons, and finished the reconquista.

Fifth -- In the early 1900s general-turned-dictator Franco took control and ruined the country. Although nominally a fascist, he was smart enough not to engage in WWI or WWII. He denied access to Spain by the Allied forces, but also did not allow Mussolini and Hitler to come into Spain either.

Sixth -- After Franco's death, the people were able to breathe again. The king was reinstated to the throne. Within a few short years, however, he abjugated the throne in order for the young democracy to grow. The democracy is only 40 years old, I believe. Today, Spain is an integral part of the European Union.

So there you go. That is why northern Spain (Catholic) is so different from southern Spain (Muslim). Incidentally, flamenco and tapas are from the south; paella is from the north.

i did it! queso con espinaca paquetito

experiment successful! when's our spain reunion: food nite?
:)

oblivious boblivious

after spending two weeks together, there's sure to be some shots captured of people lost in oblivion**. below is just a sample...

on the metro in madrid, joy eating karen's arm

karen biting esther's shoulder on the metro

bub, sleeping as usual. actually, i think he was awake in this pic, trying to sleep, but oblivious to karen in the background.

andrea and joy kissing bob. oh la la!

andrea as a bull, setting her eyes on her target

andrea sure likes to kiss people...

joseph grinning a little too widely behind andrea & joy before watching the flamenco show

At the Alhambra in Granada. The usual suspects.

**notice how some people seem to always be the prepetrators while others seem to always be the victim of boblivion**

all we did was eat...

when we first arrived in spain, we were on the mikepih diet. it consisted of waking up at 8am with no breakfast, walking for 6 hrs, eating lunch as fast as we could at 2 or 3pm, then walk for another 7 hrs then finally eat dinner at 9 or 10pm. after a few days of starvation, the girls took over... dunh dunh dunh....the end result was:

during our first food adventure in spain, the girls got mike back by making him eat cow kidneys. ok, the girls weren't that mean. we didn't understand the menu and the waitress described the dish to us as "part of a cow." assuming it meant flank, or something of the like, mike went out on a limb and ordered it, and discovered, to his disappointment, that it was not quite what he expected...