London 1st Return

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London - our short return....

( written by Colin)

Well - after our adventures in Portugal we had a short return to London.. We got back on the 10th of May - The idea was to make sure that we were ready  - had packed efficiently - tied up any loose ends and say some final good-byes..  I have to admit - before we headed back - Kizzy and I both wished we were just headed straight to Canada  Coming back to London felt like it was going to be a bit difficult - extending the goodbyes more that they needed...  Having said that we also had high hopes that we might get to meet Baby Shep - my best friend Matt's baby who was due on the 15th... 

The reality was somewhat different and  apart from missing Baby Sheps arrival by a few days-  much better.

Kizzy got busy ( no rhyme intended..) with tying up loose ends with the charity she is involved with  and I went shopping, sorted out insurance and finances and hung out with my friends.
We spent lots of time with my brother - Rob and his lovely girlfriend Valeria (but strangely I kept forgetting my Camera when we went over there. so no pics of them....)  Love u guys...

So a week catching up with most of the people who  matter to us in London..  Sorry to those we did not manage to catch up with..

I caught up with my good friend Victor.  He was on a mission and we had several bottles of white wine in Covent Garden and wiled away a long afternoon..

Victor

  We hung out with Ceri and Matt.. A nice BBQ with them and some other friends and a lovely Caribbean Chicken.. Ceri makes the best Key lime Pie I have ever tasted !

Ceri and Kizzy

We hung out with Blanche , Gaz  and their kids - Charlie and Martha.. So cute...

Blance, Martha, Kizzy and Ceri

Martha

Charlie

Gareth

 We hung out with  Liam and Sadia.. 

Liam and Sadia

Dinner at Si Mangia

We had the opportunity to spend some time with Kizzy's Mum and brother..

and then we were off.. next stop Canada...

It was an emotional week. Having been away for a couple of months and then catching up with our friends  and family made us realise  even more how much we missed them all and how much a part of our lives they are.  We love you all.

and finally -  a great big welcome to the world from us to Alice Elin Shepherd !  Alice was born in the early hours of Saturday 21st May.  A huge congratulations to proud parents - Matt and Ceri.  We can't wait to meet her in person - but first we will have to make do with a dodgy Skype connection...

There's no place like home! - Part III

Final days

We had about 4 days left by the time we arrived in Lisbon, we were happy with our efforts and looking forth the next leg of the trip. The remainder days were happily spent with my friends. 

Vanessa Moreno, was in Lisbon, she had given birth to beautiful baby boy and on Friday we had the chance to meet up with her and be introduced to Francisco. 

Introducing Francisco Moreno

On Sunday we met up with one of my best friends Raquel for lunch with her family, we'd last seen each other on my wedding day and before that I can't even remember. She cooked a lovely meal for us and we had good laughs catching-up. 

with Raquel and Goncalo

The day followed with dinner with my older brother Claudio and his girlfriend Fernanda at a restaurant in Docas dos Santos.

On Monday we caught up with one of my best friends Aissato and her chatty daughter Maymona. We went for dinner at a restaurant in Colombo. Luck would have it that Aissato's brother arrived from London on that day and he joined us shortly after dinner. I met him first when he was still a baby. Now, all grown up and father to a beautiful baby girl.

Thanks for dinner Aissa

Maimona

with Buba

Since I left Portugal in 1997 this is the longest that I've stayed - 3 weeks. I left when I was 17. I do recall that I strongly believed that if I lived anywhere else I would have been happier. I rediscovered Portugal with Col, I see it now in a way that I've never seen it before, and my love for Portugal never really left me. Now I'm home again. 


We left early morning the following day to London, where we stayed for a week before heading to Toronto, Canada.

A few notes
We arrived to Portugal in the wake of Portugal borrowing money from the IMF and the qualifier to the European cup. When we left we had witnessed the Royal Wedding of William and Kate, the beatification of the Pope John II and the news of Bin Laden's death. Perhaps a reminder that the world is still turning and life does not stop because we are having a career break!


Obrigado Nuno, Raquel, Dina, Ricardo, Nadia, Goncalo, Vanessa, Francisco, Aissato, Buba, Maimona, Avo Helena, D. Rosa, mae, pai, Claudio, Fernanda, Dalila, Tia Maza, Nice, por terem tornado a nossa estadia tao especial. E todas as outras pessoas que de uma forma ou outra contribuiram para que a nossa viagem fosse tao memoravel!

There's no place like home (Part I)

(written by Kizzy)

I can't really start telling you about Portugal, without illustrating the descent of chaos at Frankfurt airport! 

Have you ever been to Frankfurt airport? It's massive. We traveled from Zurich to Lisbon via Frankfurt. I believe we landed in terminal B, our flight departing from terminal A. We had some time to kill, and we headed to Terminal C to access one of the airport lounges we had access to - it took us more than 30 minutes to get there. We then agreed that we would allow 30 minutes slot to return to terminal A. I had a disagreement about these time allowances but in the end we acted within the agreed slot. So far so good. 

As luck would have it on the way back to terminal A we got completely lost - we were running in circles having made full use of the 30 minutes and more.


Col was cursing and loosing his cool. Have you ever seen Col loose his cool? Don't push for it. 

We found a fellow traveller that was in the same situation, it was quite funny really. We had to go through security checks again - massive queue, and at this point Col was convinced that we had lost the flight, and kept going on and on about how he knew this would happen - he can see the future. We ran all the way to terminal A and when we finally got there we realised the flight was late and hadn't event started boarding. Relief. 


Thank God for TAP (Portuguese airlines) and it's 'flexible schedule' - some would argue to be an acronym for Take Another Plane - we welcome your views. 

PORTUGAL

Lisbon

We arrived to Lisbon late at night on 15th April and took a taxi home to my parents flat in Pontinha. We did not have a plan on how to approach this part of the trip. We knew that we were tired and  wanted a few days of rest. Week 1 was about doing nothing just resting, visiting friends and family in Lisbon.

Around day 3 we rented a car from Europcar. We had a minor accident shortly after picking up the car - overlooking his right hand side Col had never driven outside of the UK before and accidentally clipped  the right wing mirror on a parked car.   We were forced to return and exchange the car on the same day - we also realised that Tom Tom's (the GPS) maps were not up-to-date and that stressed things a bit more.  The whole episode left us a bit shaken so we were really tense when we started driving in Portugal. Changing cars was actually a good thing because Col felt more comfortable with the second car a- Renault Megane.

Belem 

I love Belem, embraced by the river Tagus it offers majestic views with a selection of nice restaurants overlooking the river! We visited a few 'must see places' and we were very lucky in that there was a bank holiday and the visiting was free until 1400 - with all free things there are some perils and we did suffer a bit:-

We visited Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, one of the most prominent monuments in Lisbon, and Museu da Marinha in Belem

Took a few photos by 'Padrao dos Descobrimentos' - a monument that celebrates the Portuguese who took part in the Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration, of the 15th and 16th centuries. We did not go in because we were running out of time and we really wanted to go to 'Torre de Belem'

Torre de Belem was a bit of a nightmare, small place and because it was free entry there were massive queues to go from A to B, we wanted to reach the 4th floor of the tower but after queuing for 1 hour just to move from ground floor to second floor we gave up and settled with what we'd seen

Queue to reach the first floor

Queue to reach the second floor

One of the many views from the tower

And of course we had to try the famous Pasteis de Belem.(custard tarts)

I know you were expecting an image of the cake...

I have good memories of school field trips to these venues!

Alfama

We also caught up with Nuno again, who was back from Berlin and made some time to show us to Alfama, where he lives. We did not pick the best day, it was raining heavily. Nevertheless, we made our way clumsily through narrow cobbled streets to a few magical places:-  

an unassuming african restaurant with authentic african cuisine at really affordable prices and a genuine welcoming atmosphere - I need to ask Nuno the name and address of the restaurant

a few drinks at Resto Chapito - School of clowns in hilly Alfama overlooking Lisbon - the school also runs a restaurant, bar and stage area. They were promoting a theatre play they put together called 'Cemiterio' so the theme of the night was that the  clowns were supposed to be dead and they didn't try to make you laugh  - male clown was unhappy and the female one flirtatious...  It really was hilarious. Anyone going to Lisbon should check out this bar..

a few more drinks in student and arty bar Bacalhoeiro in a run-down building full of surprises inside. Nuno also showed us some great places to take iconic photos

This means - "It's so  hard to look after a river when it runs inside us...."

The night was still young and Nuno suggested we went for a few more drinks but Col and I have long retired our party shoes and felt satisfied with our night and welcomed the comfort of our beds.

Great night - thanks Nuno!

Later in the week  Nuno announced that he was renting his flat and heading back to Berlin for a bit longer and before he left he invited us for dinner at his place. A really nice flat he got in Alfama overlooking the red tiles of Lisbon and the Tagus river. It was such a great evening!

The view from Nuno's flat

Nuno cooking dinner

We played with this papermache mask he did

Col and Nuno had a dab at playing music together

and the night went on. Nuno invited us for a bit more of Alfama action but after downing two bottles of wine we were quite looking forward to going home. Also we had set the plan in motion to visit Portugal in 10 days - the adventure began. Look out for part II

Global Village

We arrived to Zurich early on the day and we took the train to Oerlikon, seriously close. Not more than 5 minutes the journey and Mayi picked us up at the station with James.

Our first experience in Zurich was with train tickets. Overall in Europe, we had experiences figuring out the machines to buy tickets, a bit easier in Germany but we were still lost in translation.Very thankful indeed to all the friendly people who spent time with us deciphering the ticket machines.

As Col mentioned we stayed with Dave and Mayi, they have a really nice pad in Oerlikon, very very central. Later on our journey I realised that a very good friend of mine, Maite Torrente, also lives in Oerlikon, unfortunately we did not have a chance to meet because she was away in Spain.

Our stay in Zurich was full of nice surprises like this, my cousin Daniela joined us for a few days, we shared Eli’s singing ambitions, Maggie’s love affair with Sprüngli & Lindt chocalatier, Jame’s sense of fashion at such young age and we were spoilt with Dave’s traveling spirit, who would have taken us anywhere in Switzerland if we said so.

It definitely seemed more than a week. The thing for me that stayed about Zürich I suppose was that everyone was really friendly. We met some of Dave’s work colleagues with whom we had a coffee, and we even met his boss, Rafaeli and his wife. We had a chance to visit both Dave and Mayi’s workplaces and I loved how natural it all felt. I think that there is a real closeness with people there that I can’t quite explain. I believe it has to do with the international environment of it all, you know, everyone speaks almost every language and people come together in Switzerland from all over the world. You don’t have to justify your identity you just are with everyone else, that was really cool.

I couldn’t understand the Swiss-German accent at all, but I tried. The city is quite something, everything is orderly. I couldn’t find a beggar and I did look. It all seemed a bit surreal, I suppose if you’re used to seeing social gaps, it’s hard to adjust when it’s not there. When everything is clean and perfect, everyone looks beautiful and happy.

We were blessed with fantastic weather, apart from one rainy day in St Gallen. Overall we had some great laughs and happy moments.

Note to self – Switzerland is not a tourist destination if you’re on a budget.

Dave, Mayi , Eli and James - thank you for having us, spending time with you in Zurich was great, specially meeting James.

Ana Kizzy

Switzerland

Hi All,

Sorry for the long delay between post.  It has been crazy busy with intermittent internet connections and we frankly just did not get round to it.  Note to self - must update the blog more regularly !

We had a great time in Switzerland visiting with my brother David and his family in Zurich.   This is comprised of his wife  Mayi  or "Psycho Wife"as he fondly calls her....  Below a picture with the evidence.. ;-)

 and here - showing them very much in love.. ah....

Gee shucks...

...along with their  teenage daughter Eli -  our niece- who is growing into a beautiful young Woman..

Eli

....and their  new born James ,who is such a cool and gorgeous baby.. 

James

Theirs is a very international family - just like the rest of the TK's.  Mayi is Cuban and a  former Olympic athlete. She currently works for FIFA developing Women's football around the world.  As such we had the privilege of  a behind the scenes glimpse of the FIFA offices..

Kizzy & Colin @ FIFA

Me  sitting in the room where all the decisions are made!!

We even got to see the the meditation room...

Dave took us out on a few adventures in our time in Switzerland - this allowed us to get more of a taste of Zurich and also some other nearby places...

Nearer to  home - just in the neighborhood that they live there are the most amazing parks and  areas - places that in some cities would be considered tourist destinations - but in Switzerland just seem to be the norm..   So 2 mins walk from the flat and you have a huge tower for no other purpose than for local residents to see the view and a sort of park which is a huge metal structure  with walkways  and covered in foliage... Really cool.

In Zurich city-center itself we went to  a ceremony which marks the start of summer - called the Boogg festival. The rather odd idea of burning the effigy of a snowman on a large bonfire. If it burns quickly then the summer is said to be good and vice versa.   The city center was packed  out and it really was a festive atmosphere. We all had ice-creams and watched..

The crowd in Zurich

The Snowman before..

The Snowman after.

We spent a lovely day in  Lucerne - a  Swiss city - with  views that appear on chocolate wrappers all over the world.

All in all Switzerland was great. It was wonderful to spend time with Dave and Family and to meet little James for the first time.  The only negative - Switzerland is so expensive !!! We spent more here in a week than on the whole trip so far..

We have been touring Portugal for the last couple of weeks and Kizzy is going to update on that part of our great adventure...

Miss u all.

Colin