Marin's arrival on December 12th quickly moved the household into seasonal celebration. In Sweden we celebrate St. Lucia Day (Dec. 13th), children dress in white frocks and headdresses and deliver sweet treats (cinnamon buns),early in the morning. It is to congratulate and celebrate getting through the shortest day of the year. (Slight discrepancy there, haven't figured that out yet).With her jet lag, we delivered her buns and strong coffee to her bed, and our first St. Lucia day began. Our next door neighbors were kind enough to invite us to a St Lucia concert their son was singing in. The concert was held in a beautiful church downtown and the costumes and music were lovely! Later we all came back to our apartment for wine and hor'douvers.
December 14th was our day for travel. Around noon we headed for our bus to the airport, and then on to Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is a magnificent city! It rivals New York in size and has no shortage of things to do. Marin and I always start our city explorations with Chad's favorite, the "On and Off" bus. After getting a feel for what there is to explore, we hone in on our interests. This trip we agreed should be centered on architecture and with that we discovered Gaudi! We hit most of his works in Barcelona, but we made a deal. We are planning to return to the city in twenty five years when the Sagrada Familia is complete, and see the rest of his works outside the city. Any joiners?
We sat on pins and needles as one flight after another was canceled to Lisbon, Portugal. The blizzard had hit London, and planes were getting caught in Northern Europe. Just as we were about to give up for the night, and find a place to nap. One plane made it through, and the second leg of our trip was on- Lisbon, Portugal.
Lisbon does not rival Barcelona except for it's aquarium.(Certainly we could never miss checking them out in the cities we explore). The economy in Portugal is really struggling. What better place to Christmas shop? Marin quickly learned that by trying to convince me not to buy something, the prices immediately fell by 30%. It was like magic! We returned home with four leather purses, three knit sweaters, two silver earrings and a parrot in a magnolia tree.. All made in Portugal! We had done our part to help out.
Portugal is a beautiful country once you are out of Lisbon. It has a hilly countryside, totally green as we toured it. We were lucky and hit it during the rainy season, which made the landscape colors vibrant and rich. At 65 degrees, you don't care if a few raindrops fall. It was a stark contrast to our white Stockholm at -8. But as Marin reminded me, it just didn't feel like Christmas. So with Christmas gifts in hand, we happily headed back to the best Christmas land of all, Stockholm Sweden!
Lisbon, Portugal A peak at the downtown area
Gaudi's Park Guell Barcelona, Spain
The Washer Women, an arcade column
Santa Maria Del Mar, attended Messiah
Obidos, Portugal,our final adventure
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