Happy 2008

Dalai Lama was asked…

„What surprises you most about Human Kind?”

And he answered:

“Mankind...Because they lose their health to get money, then, they lose their money to get their health back.

And because they keep thinking so anxiously about the future, they forget the present in such a way that they end up not living the present neither the future.

And they live as they would never die... and die, as if they had never lived."

Think about it and make it different in this new year! Live every day as if it were the last one! Enjoy your life every day, take care of your health, love and make yourself loved, and above all,

BE HAPPY!!!!

Big Kiss&Hug

BECA

Dear Friends,

I'm sending this message just to show you some pictures from Switzerland:

Putchi playing in the snow

Well... I couldn't resist... ;)

I will send some more pictures soon...

Big Hug...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Christmas is a time in which our heart is supposed to be filled with joy! That's what we wish you, much joy and happiness. We wish you love and health and a very good time with those you love! Be sure we are one of those who love you. Even though some of you are far away, you are close in our hearts!

Merry Christmas and a very very good 2008!!

Your friends

Betinha and Zé

Nicolinas

Nicolinas Celebrations have its origins on the religious devotion to Saint Nicolas, who might have lived around III and IV century. It's a common belief, that he might have been a Bishop from Turkey.

Pilgrims from different parts of the country and from abroad, who came to the city (Guimarães) to worship Our Lady of Guimarães (Patron Saint of Portugal until XVII century), or who were passing through the city going to or coming from Santiago de Compostela, may have brought this cult to Guimarães, due to their worship of St. Nicolas.

St. Nicolas is the Patron Saint of the students. The legend says that 3 children where tore up by an innkeeper and as St. Nicolas approached them he brought them back to life. May be that’s why we see representations of St. Nicolas together with 3 children at his feet.
Initially the celebration to honour St. Nicolas in Guimarães were exclusively of a religious nature. However, as time passed profane expressions began to be included in the celebrations, such as: songs, dancing, etc, since they represented a way of breaking up with the hardness of daily life.
This cult, developed amongst the people, was later taken over by the students, who set up a chapel to honour St. Nicolas (between 1661 and 1663) in the Church of Our Lady of Oliveira. That’s were they settled their association.
At first the celebrations took place on St. Nicolas day only, that is, on the 6th December. On that day in the morning, the students would take part in a service and in the afternoon the celebrations would change to a more profane nature with traditional games. However, after some time, they would realize that one day was not enough for the celebrations any more and the 5th December began to be included in the celebrations. Later on, the festivities would be extended and would last 8 days, starting on the 29th November and ending on the 7th December. Nowadays that’s the period in which the celebrations take place. During these days the students have several “activities” that are part of the celebration’s structure.
Nicolinas Celebrations are considered to be the oldest celebrations of Guimarães and represent an unattainable statement of Guimarães’ cultural heritage.

We have been to one of the activities (as usual), the best known, called “Pinheiro”, that means pine, and which takes place on the 29th November.
This activity consists on a procession, where a pine is taken to the square where the celebrations take place. The procession starts at midnight, with a parade of thousands of people playing their drum, either alone or as a group. Together, playing the drum all the time, people take the pine to its destination. The pine is pushed by bulls.
Prior to the parade there are the “Ceias Nicolinas”, that is, Nicolinas Dinners. They have been being created as a get-together dinner by groups of former students, who see each other only once a year, on this day, with the purpose of marching together through the streets of the city remembering past days.

I don't know really how it was possible, but, we managed it to forghet our camera :(
So, unfortunately, there are no pictures about it this year. However, since we have youtube, all our problems are solved :)

This is, shortly, how it looks like on the 29th November in Guimarães...every year ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME62BjTSvCg


This one is from this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul-wN0GakNw

tara tara pum, tara tara pum
tara tarataratarataratara pum

tarataratara pum, tara pum, tara pum
tarataratara pum, tara pumpumpum

All night long, yeah ;)

Me and my Dog on the Mountain

Dear Friends,

One week ago, Me and my Dog went for a 20 Km walk on Gerês mountain (Portuguese National park).

Below you can find some pictures.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to reach the top of the mountain. After walking 7 Km two nature guards forced us to go back again because we were entering on a protected area... :(




During the walk we found a snake... was quite difficult to take a picture of the snake with Putchi in my hands... he was very impatient to know a new friend... ;)


I hope you enjoy these pictures,

Zé and Putchi

Putchi's first shearing...

Poor Putchi had his fur sheared...

Well...this is how he looked before:




This is during...




And this is after...

Well...ok...could be better... but come on...he is still cute, isn't he?

Holidays 2007

Well, here is a small (very small :D) photographic report about our holidays this year. We went by car. Oh, WE means the two of us plus Putchi...there were some other ladies coming...but they were not brave enough for such an adventure... lol

In this map you can see our routes... each colour means one stop.

Here are the labels we had to stick on our car to drive on motorways in the different countries.

For the statistics we have the following data:

• 19 days
• 10 countries (including Liechtenstein...please...let me count it ;p)
• 20 different nationalities found on our way -> we found cars with the following country labels: A, RUS, D, CH, CZ, E, F, FL, H, I, L, NL, P, PL, RO SK, SLO, BG, TR and FIN
• 7105 km
• 5 cities, 4 of them capitals, 3 of them Danube cities
  

Departure from Guimarães: 15th August

After a night in Saint Gaudens, near Tolouse we arrived in Switzerland, more precisely in Wald - Zürich. -> 16th August - 20th August

This is my parents' vegetable garden. Here you can find everything eatable... ;P



A view from Wald, my hometown for 17 years...



This is Putchi's new friend... well, actually not really... Putchi is a "chicken"... :D

These pictures were taken during a walk we took through a wood close to my parents' house.

Time to move on to the next stop: Austria-> 20th August - 25th August (including Bratislava and Budapest)

1st we had a stop in Salzburg, to visit Mozart's brithplace.

"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart represents one fo the vertexes of the history of world music. His musical production gives form to the technical, compositive, and expressive conquests of the 18th century: from the Baroque and Rococo to Classicism and early Romanticism. Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756; at age six, he visited Vienna for the first time with his family and played for Empress Maria Theresa. In 1779 he was engaged as court organist in Salzburg, where he remainded until 1781 when he left his native city for Vienna. In the capital, he met his wife, Constanze Weber, and composed several of his most famous works: The Marriage of Figaro, Così Fan'Tutte, and The Magic Flute. In 1787 he was named court chamber musician. Mozart died suddenly on 5 December 1791." - In: VIENNA, A complete guide for visiting the city

After some hours we moved on to Vienna:


This was Mozart's house in Vienna.


There are plenty of statues of famous people, composers mainly.

Strauss and Schubert... and Me...lol

"Johann Strauss was born in Vienna in 1825. His father was an acclaimed musician and court orchestra conductor; Johann debuted as orchestra conductor in 1844, to enormous success. He was in competition with his father from the very beginning, and after his father's death he succeded him as conductor of the music for the court balls.

Johann Strauss is acclaimed as the world's formeost composer of waltzes; he varied the formal structure of the waltz, adding the introduction and the coda. His best-known piece is An der schönen Donau ("The Blue Danube"), composed for the Wiener Männersänger-Verein at Carnival 1867. Strauss also wrote many operettes; the best known, still incluided in many contemporary repertoires, are: Die Fledermaus, Der Zigeunerbaron, Eine Nacht in Venedig, and Wiener Blut. The composer died in 1899 in Vienna." - In: VIENNA, A complete guide for visiting the city

Goethe


The guy there on the back is Mozart ;)



And empress Elisabeth...better known as Sissi

The next day we went to the cemetery to visit Mozart's grave. I wonder how they managed it to find out were he was buried, since he was thrown into a common grave ;p !

This is at Schloss Schönbrunn - The summer residence of the Hapsburg. It is perhaps not the most beautiful of the Austrian castles, but it is undoubtedly the most famous.

Later on we went to visit Mr. Beethoven

"The Society of Friends of Music building (Musikverein), [...] has been the center of Viennese musical events. The heart of this large building [...] is the Grosse Musikvereinssaal (1742 seats). The acoustics of the hall are impeccable and its decoration is magnificent. [...] It is from this hall that the famous New Year's Concert given by the Wiener Philharmoniker is broadcast." - In: VIENNA, A complete guide for visiting the city

We have been there. As we are not Richy-Rich, we decided to go for the cheapest concert tickets... :D We were not able to see much, due to the place of our seats, and mainly, in my case, due to the guy sitting in front of me...2m tall or so... :/ However, we enjoyed the music very much and we found it very intersting that they were wearing those suits of Mozart's time.

After 2 days visiting Vienna, we travelled to Bratislava to have a look around there... Arriving there, we immediately found a P+R, where we parked our car...funny name they have for car parks... Parkovisko... lol

This is the main cathedral of the city: St. Martin's Cathedral


And on the top of the hill we could visit the castle - Pressburg


Someone had a 12% beer at lunch... ;p
Well, but the "pasta"...just wonderful!!!


Bratislava is a small city and has not very much to see. Still, it was very nice to have been there.



On the next day it was time to go to Budapest

After one hour searching for a place to park our car, we finally managed it to go and see the Church of Matthias. Unfortunately they were renovating it...so we could not see it very well...

Next to the church, there was the Buda Castle

After lunch we spent hours looking for a church. Eventually we found it, but they would not let us in due to a concert... :/

Worth seeing was as well the Parliament

These two monuments are on the Pest side of the city... the Castle and the Cathedrel on the other side of the river are on the Buda side... together it makes: Budapest...

And that's it about Budapest...

Once more the day came to move on. It was time to say goodbye to Vienna, where we stayed during all these days, as usual, in an Etap Hotel... ;)

So, we moved on to Prague -> 25th August- 27th August

This is the Staromestký orloj - Old Town Astronomical Clock. The astronomical clock shows the years, months, days and hours, the rising and setting of the sun, east and west, the moon and the signs of the Zodiac. The figures of the apostles appear every hour in the clock's window, while the skeleton makes the bell ring.

On the top of the hill of Malá Strana (The Lesser Town) we could find St. Vitus' Cathedral.

The guards... funny how they manage to stay there for hours without moving!!!

This is the Building of the Nationale Nederlanden, which the people of Prague call "The Dancing House".

On our way through the streets of the city we found Kafka's birth house... For those who don't know him...well...he's a kind of a mad guy. In the guide it says that he is a man whose literary works have disturbed several generations. I agree with it... I was disturbed after reading just some short-stories he wrote... I can imagine the rest...lol

On the back you can see Karluv Most - Charles Bridge. It is an exception work of medieval building (the guide says so) and it is decorated with figural statues of a high artistic standard.

The 27th August arrived, what meant that we had to leave Prague. We advise everyone to go and visit the city. It is very beautiful and very well preserved. 2 days are not enough to see it properly, so we hope to manage to go back one day... who knows :)

After Prague some more days in Wald - Zürich to rest ;) -> 27th August - 31st August

During our stay, we had dinner with Conci (a friend) and after that we went to her's to see her boyfriend's pets... uuuaaaaaa

From 31st August to 2nd September we stayed with Peter, Debbie, Grace and Lara in Piègut-Pluviers - France.

Visiting Mr. Donkey

Yiiiihaaaaaaaaaa!!! I belive I can fly... :) Some guys are too "chicken" to go on the trampoline... Personally, I want a thing like that when I have my own house... but well... let's think about the house first ;)

And that's it. On September 2nd we took the car, once more, and drove home... It was a nice time, we had the chance to see beautiful places, to learn a lot about different cultures, to visit some friends. I can't help asking, as our friend Nelly does, "why do all good things come to an end"... actually I would add: "quickly to an end"...
Well, as said, this is only a small photographic report. If you want to see the rest of the pictures, feel free to visit us. We are always looking forward to have our friends with us ;)

Cheers mate