Toledo, Spain

We have moved on from France, and have now entered Spain. It is so beautiful here! The buildings here are ancient. The cobblestone streets are hardly wide enough to accommodate a person, let alone a car! The mazapan is very tasty indeed, and today we were lucky enough to have good weather. Today, our main plan was to see the Cathedral Of Toledo, which we did. It was massive, and even had several works of art composed by EL GRECO in the interior.
Enough with the talk. Here are some pictures!

As you can see, the scenery is truly fantastic. We will certainly post more pictures when we take them!
Caio!
-The Puffin

Stop number 2: Lourdes France (for Easter)

Lourdes attracts more Catholics to this holy place than any other pilgrimage sight in the world. We feel so lucky to have been there on Easter Sunday. We started our day with mass, then we visited the sacred grotto where the Virgin Mary made 18 appearances to Saint Bernadete. We collected some holy water from the spring. One of our favorite events was viewing the full-sized stations of the cross on the side of the mountian. We hope you enjoy our pictures.
-Mr. Puffin

The Basilica where we attended mass

We waited for over an hour to touch the stones and water in the grotto.

 

 Mom was captivated by this golden crown.

 

 Another, a closeup, of the golden crown.

So....the immaculate conception is a liquour store. We thought that was hilariously innapropriate. 

Stations of the cross, with life-sized sculptures.



Pictures

Well, unfortunately, today was our fourth and final day at Paris. Lourdes, here we come! Until then, here are some pictures of Paris.
Sincerely, The Puffin

 ...284 steps to the top of this arc, with a beautiful view of the city.

 We all loved seeing this original work at the Louvre by El Greco.

 A store named in Nina's honor!

 THE Mona Lisa!

Crepes, smothered with nutella. Our favorite treat. 

C

repes while out and about, dinner in tonight.

Notre Dame

Hi! This is Nina. We are all still marveling over the beauty of Notre Dame. Right now, Mom is gazing at a statue of Notre Dame, waiting for confession to begin (the backpack is ironic! :-) ). I am sitting next to her, staring up and the seemingly impossibly detailed designs on the cathedral walls. Statues and candles are everywhere. There are even two sephulcres (sepple-cures? sepple-kers?). Kind of creepy, but still beautiful. Until next time, au revioir!

Lets go!

Not quite around the world, but at least headed to Paris. Getting ready to seal up the aluminum tube, and head out at 550 miles per hour for the next 7 and a half hours.  Gotta love business class.  Next stop Paris...

Progress in PARIS

Hello! This is Sara......aka, Mr. PUFFIN. No pictures so far, unfortunately. Just jetlag, nutella crepes......and poodles. WHAT IS WITH ALL OF THE POODLES!? Anyway, the time here is 7 hours ahead of that in PC, so our entire family is trying not to snore right now. We're staying is a medium sized, fifth story appartment in the heart of Paris, just STEPS away from the Notre Dame cathedral. Well....goodbye until next time.

Hi, it's me again! Mr. Puffin! We've added a few pictures, they're on the homepage. We've done so much in just a few short days, it's hard to imagine it all! Well, we've finally gotten over the jetlag. It's hard to believe, but tomorrow's going to be our last day in Paris! We're going to Lourdes after that. (Did I spell that right???) To all the teachers back in Park City, I wish I could be in school right now! Truthfully, I would much rather be at school leaning than.....out here learning. You all are just such great teachers!
Miss you!
-The Puffin