Breckenridge Snow Sculptures

Budweiser puts on the annual snow sculpture competition in Breckenridge every year and this year the artists truly did an amazing job.Team Colima, Mexico:
Submission: “Bucéfalo”

Bucéfalo is a horse who has a free, indomitable and resistant spirit, just as the snow does with its whiteness, purity and beauty.

Team USA, Wisconsin:
Submission: “The Rut”

Every spring the bison begin to enter breeding season. By mid summer “the rut,” as it is called, is at its peak. Bulls have grown more belligerent as the season has progressed. Fierce battles of dominance often take place when one bull refuses to stand down. The victor wins the right to mate while the vanquished must move on often wounded and bloodied.

Awesome day on the slopes. The weather was absolutely perfect. A high in the mid 30's & sunshine. This was the best day of skiing so far this year for me. Pictured are Ron, myself, Cory & Brent.

European Vacation

I traveled to Europe to meet up with my brother, sister in law & nephew. The 4 countries I traveled to on this trip were Spain, Portugal, Holland & Belgium. It was a great trip and one that I will remember forever. Being exposed to new cultures was quite fascinating. I especially loved Seville Spain, Lisbon Portugal & Amsterdam. It was the coolest thing ever being in Amsterdam and watching people ride their bikes everywhere.

Spain

Let's get this vacation started. Here are Jeanne & I outside the Westin Palace in Madrid. Beautiful hotel right in the heart of Madrid.
Beautiful tree lined street in Madrid.
Here is the bull fighting ring in Madrid. Isn't it beautiful? I wish the bull fights had been going on while I was there. I want to plan a return trip to Spain to experience this.
Here is one of the countless Olive trees that we saw. You would not believe the amount of Olive groves throughout Spain. They are EVERYWHERE.
Here is a shot of Toledo. This is a quaint little village about an hour south of Madrid. Thank goodness our car was small. You would not believe the tight spaces that we had to fit through on this trip.
Picking an olive in the olive groves of Spain
Mitchell, Clark & I with Toleo in the background.

Clark & Jeanne overlooking the town of Toledo


Here we have an old lady in the town of Toledo. We are all evil I guess. She waddled like a penguin and we started making fun of her as she was walking up the hill. The sad thing is we passed her in the street & were talking about her moving so slow. Well, we came to a dead end and the lady caught up with us. You just had to be there because we couldn't contain our laughter. I only wish the video was longer.


Here is a neat shot from the foyer of the Hotel San Migurel in Cordoba. Cordoba was probably our least favorite city on this trip. Check all of this meat out. It was fantastic along with the cheese we ordered.
So I've already mentioned how many olive groves we saw, but I was even more surprised to see all of the orange groves. Oranges everywhere.
Jeanne & I overlooking the bridge in Cordoba that was built in 1 AD. Pretty spectacular.

Portugal

This is a small fishing village called Tavira on the coast of Portugal. It was absolutely beautiful here.
Notice the tide out in this picture. In the morning all of these boats will be floating in the water.
Castelo De Sao Jorge in Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon was incredible. It reminded me a lot of San Francisco the way everything is built so close together. It even has a bridge that looks exactly like the Golden Gate Bridge.Outside the entrance to the castle in Lisbon.Overlooking the bay in Lisbon.
Mitchell and I enjoying dinner at a place in Faro, Portugal.
Jeanne, myself & Mitchell in Faro, Portugal. This was a neat little city where we spent one night on the trip.

Seville, Spain

Here is the Hotel Alfonso that we stayed in while in Seville. Talk about beautiful. It was built for the worlds fair in 1929 & is absolutely stunning. It is part of the Westins Luxury hotel brand and it definitely was.
Here is a view of the courtyard. You can see Mitchell & I on the balcony to the left & Jeanne on the balcony from the right.
Here I am enjoying a bottle of champagne that was complimentary of the hotel. We definitely lived it up while on this trip.
Horse and buggy in Seville. So you all know what a horse nut I am. Well let me tell you this, I have never seen such beautiful horses as I did in Spain. You would not believe the amount of horses and buggy's in this city. Seville is one of those city's that I could see myself easily living in.
Here is a shot from the horse and buggy through one of the many parks in Seville.



Here is a video of the horse and buggy we were riding in. Talk about fun. You get an idea of how tiny the streets are in Spain.All of us in the buggy outside of the Spanish Square.A better view with the horse and buggy included in the picture.This was really cool We went to a show to watch Flamenco dancing which is very popular in the Adalusia part of Spain.



Here is a video of the Flamenco dancing towards the end of the show. Very cool watching this.Italica Archaeological Complex. This was very cool as I've never seen an actual Roman Ampitheatre. They let you walk around this and even on the floor. You can imagine just what it must've been like back in the year 53 when this city was built.So as I'm walking around underneath in all of the chambers I couldn't help but think of Russell Crowe as Maximus in Gladiator. It was very neat seeing all of the holding cells, gladiator room & so forth.

Rock of Gibraltar

The Rock of Gibraltar - the most famous rock in the world.

Gibraltar is situated at the southern end of Europe with a land frontier to Spain on its northern front.
It rests at the crossroads of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

The stretch of water that separates Gibraltar from north Africa is called the Strait of Gibraltar and throughout history has played a strategic part in battles fought and won to control the western Mediterranean seaways.
Clark & Jeanne with the rock in the background.
Notice how absolutely blue the water is. It was incredible around this. It is so neat to look across and see Africa in the distance. An 8 mile boat ride will have you in Tangier in a matter of 30 minutes.
So here is the little bastard that stole my almonds. We pulled up to him and he was sitting there so quietly. I rolled the window down & threw him out an almond. I turned to get another almond from my lap & heard a thump. The monkey had jumped onto the window & came halfway into the car & stole the almonds right out of my lap before I knew what had happened. Jeanne and I were like what the hell??? It was over before we even knew it. So I got mad and opened the door & came towards the monkey to get my almonds back and he went "Woo" with his mouth. Can you say, exit stage left??? I got my ass back in the car & it was a good thing I did. We went a little further down the road & came to another group of monkeys with people around. This one group was wanting to get back in their car, but there was a monkey on it. The guy tried pushing the monkey off & when he did another one grabbed his arm & bit him. We had to stay in the car & lure the monkeys away where they could get back in their vehicle.



Here is a video right after the monkey had stolen my almonds. As I mentioned in the previous post, we had to lure these monkeys away from the other peoples car. Well the car we rented was one of those that has a full glass top sunroof. So we could see the monkeys crawling all over the top of the car. Then something hilarious started happening. We had a Wild Kingdom segment on the top of our car as they started having sex. We all started dying laughing & everyone who was around did too. It was HILARIOUS.Looking out over the Strait of Gibraltar. This island is controlled by the British.

Arcos De La Frontera, Ronda & Granada

Here is a view of the village we stayed in called Arcos De La Frontera. Our hotel was at the top of this cliff & on the overhang. It was a neat little town.
Enjoying our best meal of the trip in Arcos De La Frontera. The place was called Mama T'tina and it was great.




Here is a video of the Festival of Children that took place in Arcos De La Frontera. This was really neat to see as these streets were tiny and all of these people crowded the streets for their chance to get some candy.


Beautiful shot of the gorge in Ronda, Spain. Amazing countryside here.
The Alhambra Palace in Granada. This was a palace & fortress of the Moorish monarchs in Granada. Very cool with all of the Muslim architecture.
A great view of one of the many courtyards.

Amsterdam

I loved the city of Amsterdam. There was a huge difference as soon as you get off the plane. It was nice being in a country where they spoke fluent English. What a treat when you walk out to catch a taxi & they are all Mercedes. My kind of town :). The coolest thing about Amsterdam is that everyone rides bikes. I could not get over this. There are bikes everywhere. Young people, old people all riding their bikes. Such a neat thing to see. The canals and the architecture are very cool as well.Here is the Hotel Pulitzer which we stayed while visiting Amsterdam. It is part of the Luxury Collection with Westin as well. Beautiful hotel which sits right on the canal. Right out the front door we were able to catch a canal ride which was great.
Here is the Anne Frank house/museum. This was quite the moving experience. The most eerie part for me was being able to look out the windows that she did while being cooped up in this house for more than 2 years. The saddest thing is that someone turned the family in for hiding out & they were all taken to concentration camps. Anne Frank died a month before the war was over. Very sad indeed. This was the highlight of my trip to Amsterdam.
View of the canal from the hotel
Here we are on our canal tour on the boat called the Tourist. It was built in 1909. Winston Churchill toured Amsterdam on this very vessel in 1946. Neat huh?



Here is a short video of the canal ride in Amsterdam.
Here is our captain Victor. Great tour guide. Here is Rembrandt's house which is called Rembrandt's Corner. This house was very beautiful on the inside & they teach you all about his very different techniques of art.
In Amsterdam they call these buildings the "Six leaning ladies". Notice how the buildings are all leaning.
Here is the cathedral where Rembrandt is buried which is right up from the hotel we were staying in.Quite the difference between horse & buggy in Amsterdam to Spain. All of the horses here were draft horses.Hanging out at the hotel bar in Amsterdam. I introduced Jeanne to my favorite drink on this trip. None other than Grey Goose & tonic. Ahhhh!!!!!! She loved it.