End of the World and Tunnels Galore

We are dying to share with you two wonderful "must sees" in Portugal! Our friends, Laura and Paul were just visiting and together we found some great spots to explore. The first one is Cabo da Roca, "where the land ends and the sea begins". This is the westernmost point in all of Europe and was once thought to be literally the end of the world. It was absolutely breathtaking! The pictures do not do it justice!

The other place that we LOVED was Quinta de Regaleira in Sintra, Portugal. OMG! It was so fun! It is a magical palace with beautiful gardens, fountains and hidden tunnels galore. We had such a great time exploring there, we felt like we were in the Goonies. We went through dark tunnels with water dripping on us and the only light was from my keychain. We never knew where we would end up but with every turn there was always a surprise. We definitely plan to go back many more times =)

Rainy Day Project - Recycled Portuguese Bath Tile Mosaic

The other day Graham and I were walking home from the shopping center and stumbled across some beautiful portuguese tiles that had been thrown out. We decided we would take them home and create a mosaic on a rainy day. We had a lot of fun! We also found a scrap piece of wood right down the street from the tile and brought that home to use as the base.

Our steps were:
1. Cleaned the tiles with soap and water and picked out our favorite ones.

2. Laid out a towel on the floor and put our scrap piece of wood down on one side and then we made a shape the same size as the wood with masking tape. In that shape we placed our tiles and moved them around until we got the right design.

3. We then painted the border of our wood with white paint.

4. After the paint dried, we mixed a bag of white cement per the instructions on the bag. Then we had to work quickly!

5. We spread the cement down, combed it with a hair comb and then quickly pressed our tiles into the cement. It took only a few minutes to dry.

Voila! That's all it took! All in all, it took us about 10 minutes to complete the project and about 4 dollars for the cement (we had the white paint already from a previous project). It was a great way to reuse some beautiful tiles that no one wanted anymore and to bring an original piece of artwork to our apartment.

Portimao, Seville, and Granada

Hola! Sorry to keep you waiting for an update; its been a whirl wind voyage traveling South through the Algarve of Portugal and the Andalucia of Spain. Who knew these entire countrysides were void of all native plants and in turn replaced with valuable croplands for export? Portugal's countryside is almost entirely planted with Cork Oak and Citrus.


Spain is quite the same, except instead of Cork thats produced its Olives, lots of Olives. Olive trees stretch over every mountain and into each valley as far as the eye can see. Primarly in the Andalucia region of Spain the olives are collected then pressed into the golden green EVOO.

Seville is famous for the Cathedral and Real Alcazar, a royal palace and garden that was constructed by the Moors and later taken by the Christians. Citrus, Palms, and pebbled paths abound.

Granada's main attraction is the Alhambra, another royal palace built by the Moors in the 12th Century. The Alhambra streches across an entire mountain and contains endless gardens with Jasmine, Cypress, Citrus, and water water everywhere!

We have finally come to rest in Cordoba, Spain where we will visit the Mezquita Catedral before driving back the Lisbon tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for more photos from the 6 hour drive home!