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On Saturday afternoon, we left my parents' house to visit my uncle and other relatives from my father's side of the family up in the mountains, litterally. As I tried to point out the wonderful vista's of the mountainside, Christine scolded me to keep my eyes on the roads and the twists, turns as we headed up the steep mountainside road.

My father's town in the distict of Paredes de Coura, is well known internationally for having a summer rock festival (aka woodstock) in the mountains, the festival was actually going on while we were there, many established and up and coming bands and musicians perform there in August, a must do next time we visit.

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After leaving Lagos (tony reluctantly), 300km later and 3+ hours in the car, we arrived in Cascais. Cascais is an upscale suburb of Lisbon located about 30km from the city along the coast , it borders Estoril , known for its Casinos. Cascais is very much the upscale suburb with a beautiful marina, a beach and of course the requisite castle is there too.

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After leaving Cascais, we headed up another 400km towards my hometown of Moncao, Portugal which is at the northern border with Spain(Espanha). It's a 4+ hour drive and about 25Euros (around $34 USD, did I mention tolls are expensive! ) later  in tolls , but we made it. We arrived in Moncao via the neighboring town Valencia, from there is was a 6km to my parents' home. 

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  Hi, everyone.  So, we decided to stop or take a detour...instead of going to straight to Seville, we stopped in Madrid.  The train ride was about five hours.  Madrid was very hot.  Our hotel was very close to center of Madrid.  Everything was within walking distance.  The Prado Museum was near us.  We decided to jump on the tour bus.  This one was not as nice as the one in Barcelona.  After having visited and toured Barcelona, Madrid pale in comparison.  Barcelona is South Beach of Miami.  If you have been there, then that is Barcelona.  The architecture in Barcelona is very detailed and ornate, especially Sagrada Familia or any of Gaudi´s work.

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Our second day in Barcelona, started with a light breakfast and then it was off to the center of town,  Passeig de Gracia  plaza,  from there we decided to take a tour bus the Bus Turistic to get a quick and complete tour of the city. This is just like those buses (double decker)  you see in the city  all the time. While it was early  morning there we  already a bunch of  folks already in line, but ample supply of buses ment the wait was only 10 minutes. These buses run by the TMB (the equivelent of the MTA in New York) , are very well staffed and plentiful plus they make a killing for 20E/pp I gather they probably handle 5 to 15 thousand riders a day!

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On Tuesday, we met up with Celine and Laura. We had our picnic lunch on the grass at an incline of Sacre Coeur. Afterwards, we decided to explore the inside of Sacre Coeur. You have two options of getting up to Sacre Coeur: a lift or the old-fashioned climb the steps. In photos, Sacre Coeur looked more gray than white. It must be due to years of pollution and dirt accumulation.

We walked to see the Opera and Lafayette Gallery which is pretty much a mall of sort, but it is very nice. (JUMP to PHOTOS)

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On Monday morning, my aunt Christiane and Nathalie saw us off at St. Pierre De Corps station. Tony and I were in comfy seats and traveling in style, while poor Pierre, he was in "steerage". LOL. We headed back to Paris on the TGV. I was knocked out for the bulk of the ride home and even when we got in, I was so drowsy.

As soon as I woke up, we were off to the Louvre. The Louvre was like a maze. It was not straight forward like the Metropolitan in NYC. Depending on where you enter the floor, you can go around and around and still not find an exit or finish the level you're on.

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