Dear all!

Summer is definetely behind us, but what a summer we all had! So sunny and warm, like our whole year has been. Boss never managed to put more pictures in here, big boss is still going throug his big files, what a work! Anyway he has just started his own blog were he is adding pics and my boss has started her own jewelry- blog as well. We are still in Finland, not quite sure where to head, no plans so far! My boss will wake this blog up, when we hit the road again :)

In case you wanna check my familys new blogs they are...
www.photoaart.blogspot.com
www.pearlfox.blogspot.com

And thanks for following us!

Home sweet home - Oma koti kullan kaunis

Ystävät rakkaat! Viikko sitten palasimmekin kotiin ja vauhtia on riittänyt kotona! Pihahommia, autonkatsastusta (joka muuten ei mennyt läpi, p**kele), asuntoauton tyhjennystä, siivousta jne, mutta on ihanaa olla taas kotona! Mokkulammekin löytyi ja mahdollisti pääsyn myös nettiin :). Yhteenvetoa matkasta ja sen kohokohdista kuvineen on tulossa myöhemmin. Ihana ja onnistunut matkamme kesti 11 kuukautta ja kilometrejä kämpperin mittariin kertyi reilu 24.000. Nyt olisi siis aika tilailla autoon huoltoakin :)! Pysykää kanavalla, tarina jatkuu, kun pomoni on päässyt taas ajan tasalle!

Days in Holland

In Holland as you can guess from the windmills.


Kids has grown so much again, we had a wonderful afternoon in a playing park with them!

The twins

My boss took a course to make glass beads. She bought the equipment too that she can continue to make them as home. The flame gets as hot as 600 c!

Some of the beads she made

Bracelet she used only her own made glass beads and some stones and silver. On the right this beautiful silver piece with beads. She bought the silver already from Morocco and used also Moroccon beads with stones and silver (all her favorite materials in both!).

Still in Holland and we have been enjoying our days. Sun has been shining, we have had very cold days and very hot days. Boss has been making many jewels and she cant wait to get her equipment and start making own beads at home! You can create such a nice beads and of course unique! Needs quite some practising, but she will enjoy it, I'm pretty sure of that :=). We still havent reserved our tickets back, but soon anyway we will be back..

Some more days in Portugal and driving, driving and driving!

Fatima (more in the text)

Candles and people could leave letters to the Lady of the Fatima

Porto and an original mailbox!

On the left pictures you can see all Port supplier houses and the right is opposite side of the port houses

Porto town

Port wine barrels and tasting glasses

Sampling :=)

What is this??? We could avoid the winter the whole way, but in northern Spain we found snow (high on the mountains though...)brrrr-rrrrr!

Picos de Europa

Driving in the clouds

After Lisbon we saw still some places before our arriving Porto. Fatima was one of them. We heard about this place first time in Morocco from another tourist, and we were told that it is similar as the Lourdes in France, even bigger. Of course the name Fatima catched us, since it is in Morocco a very popular women name and we found it great that there is a village in Europe who carries this same name. So of course we needed to check this place out. At the end it was nothing as big as Lourdes. It had a quite big park with one older church and with one big modern church.

The story goes back to 10 May 1917. Three children were amusing themselves by building a little house of stones and suddenly they saw a brilliant light and they thought it was a lightning and decided to go back home. They started to walk and another flash lit up the place. They saw “a lady more brilliant than the sun”, from whose hands hung a white rosary. The Lady told the three little shepherds that it was necessary to pray much, and she invited them to return to this place five consecutive months, on the 13^th day at that hour. The children did so and the 13^th day of June, July, August, September and October, the Lady appeared to them again. At the last apparition on October 13, with a 70.000 people present, the Lady said to them that she was the “Lady of the Rosary” and that a chapel was to be built there on her honour and that is where the church is today and its 15 altars are dedicated to the 15 mysteries of the Rosary.

We were in Fatima just the week before Pope was coming there and they were expecting 300.000 people to come!

In Porto we stayed couple of days - which was enough. Not so nice city as Lissabon, but good to see once and learn something from Port wines (of course!). We visited one port- house and sampled their products, to learn the difference between them and naturally bought some with for later purpose, hah!

From Porto we drew at once in the border of Spain, spent few nights in North-Spain, visited the Picos of Europa, which is the big natural park surrounded with beautiful mountains. The route was about 150 km and lovely to see! From Spain we drew to France and drew everyday about 400 km to reach Holland and that is where we are now, staying with big boss parents and their pets, of course!

And the plan is to be back in Finland after few weeks…

Hyvää äitienpäivää / Happy mothers day!

Kukkia kannan, kukkia poimin, kauneimmat kukkaset Äidille annan! Runo 8-v :)

Ihanaa äitienpäivää äidilleni sinne Suomeen :)! Emme kerenneet sinne täksi päiväksi, vaikkakin tarkoitus olikin olla takaisin huhtikuussa, juodaan äitienpäivä kakkukahvit sitten kesäkuussa :).

Rakkaudella, tyttäresi


Ja äidille Hollantiin..

Lieve moeder, we wensen je een leuke moederdag toe! Nog een paar dagen en dan zijn we weer in Nederland....Kusjes!

Groetjes van je zoon.

Weeks in Portugal / Viikkoja Portugalissa

In Portugal we have seen many pictoresque small villages, these pictures were taken in Monchique, our favorite small village in Algarve.


Alleys in Monchique

I would have fit so well with this beetle, look at those wooden skies :)

On the left one of those spots were we stayed few nights. On the right see the fisherman fishing on the rock!

More fishermen living on the edge..

beaches..

and more beaches..

Left Porto Covo (all houses were painted with white and blue) and the light house of Sagres.

Storks had nests in most incredible places

Storks

Storks and my boss goes rock! Hard Rock cafe in Lisboa.

Lisboa and one of it´s tram (specially made only for this heavy up and down hill)

Trams..

Night life in Lisboa

Castelo de Pena

We have seen so many almost empty beaches where to have walks and really taken advantage on them! Walks and sand slipping through your toes, can´t get better! Big boss was even that brave that he had a swim in the Atlantic coast the other day, brrr! In a campsite we have stayed only few nights so far, the other time boss had a huge hill of laundry to do and the other nights where in Lisbon.

We liked Lisbon very much, it´s old houses, the big “up´s and down´s” to walk, those funny little trams and it had quite a relaxed atmosphere (reminded us little bit like Amsterdam, all though there were no canals). There is a good buss connection to the town from the campsite and most clever is to buy a 24 hour ticket for public transport, so that in this way you can use the trams and busses as much as you like and it gives you the possibility to see much from the town. We still saw way too little and could easily go back there (even just for a city holiday, which my family usually avoids). Portuguese kitchen we haven´t had a chance to try yet, since they seem not to have vegetarian dishes and so far we have eaten in Indian and Thai restaurants if we have had a lazy day in our camper kitchen. Most places we have stayed one or two nights but we haven’t had a high speed on in here. Many times we have driven less than 20 kilometers per day, leaving one place but then again behind the next corner there is a place where we want to stay a night. The coast line of Portugal is perhaps the most beautiful coast line in Europe, you just can´t get enough of it! Algarve (the southern part of Portugal) is in general very beautiful in every place, but when you come to west coast (Atlantic coast) of Algarve, it gets really peaceful. This time of the year the whole Algarve is quite peaceful, but in high season the south coast gets really busy from tourism.

On this point we have been about a month in Portugal and our next destination will be Porto, the town from port wines, cheers!