Another day, another country. This afternoon Josh and I marched off to the Tallinn port and boarded a fast ferry to Helsinki. Finland is country number 35 for me! And it number 36 or 37 or 38 for Josh depending on whether or not he counts his layovers in Copenhagen and Reyjavik airports. I'll leave that up to his conscience to decide.
Here we stumbled upon a newly married couple exiting Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. They released two doves and waved goodbye to them as the flew over the Tallinn skyline.
Above is the Freedom Monument, erected after Latvia gained independence from Bolshevik Russia in 1920. During the Soviet occupation, it was left standing, but Latvians were punished when they would place flowers at the feet of the monument. Today it's base is covered in flowers each day. As a sidenote, the worlds slowest McDonlands is located directly opposite the monument.
Lest you think everything in Riga is about oppression; you can see here what Josh looks like after flying from Australia to Latvia and not sleeping for three days. We spent both nights in Riga at a big beer tent in the central square. I never saw a sign with the name of the place, but you can't miss it. They served excellent Latvian beer at $3 each and Krusovice and Budvar for $4. We saw several bachelor parties cruise through the cobblestones, one group ominously dressing in matching white plastic jumpsuits presumably to allow for the easy removal of spilled beer and/or vomit. The club owners cringed when they saw them coming. Even better than the beer tent is a bar strangely named "Nobody Writes to the Colonel". Inside are mostly students listening to awesome American 80's music and drinking decent Latvian beer in plastic cups for just $2.
Today we caught a cab to the airport and boarded a short Baltic Air flight to Riga, the capitol of Latvia. Riga is the largest city of the Baltics at over 700,000 people. Riga actually has more inhabitants of Russian descent than of Latvian. Josh and I instantly noticed a different look than the people of Lithuania. Designer clothes, high fashion and high heels are de rigeur for Rigan women, while many of the men look like they could be cast in a James Bond movie as Russian mafia goons.
The old town has beautiful Art Nouveau architechture, though much of Riga was destroyed in WWII. Josh and I visited the Museum of Occupied Nations, which was an eye-opening lesson on the recent history of the Baltic countries. While most Americans would simply think of the Baltics as "former Soviet republics", these countries are adamant about proclaiming the 45 years of Soviet rule as an occupation. This museum outlined the horrible atrocities of the Red Army in 1940, then the Nazis from 1941-45, and then the Soviets again from 1945 on. When the Nazis forced the Red Army out of the Baltics in 1941, the people hailed them as saviors at first, until they proved to be equally as murderous as the Russians. Once it was clear that the Russians would be storming back in in 1945, and not the Americans, over 200,000 Latvians ran for their lives, many crowding into rowboats and fishing trawlers desperately trying to make it to Sweden. Those who were left behind lost their property to communism, their religion to forced athiesm, and their language to forced Russian teaching. Many received banishment to a Siberian gulag or outright execution.
We awoke late today to walk around beautiful Vilnius. The bell tower and church pictured above are stunningly white in the late afternoon light. Vilnius has a small old town, easily seen within an hour or two. The people here seem to be the friendliest of the Baltics. When we arrived at our hotel, the clerk couldnt make change for us when we wanted to purchase a few beers from their fridge. Instead she said to take whatever we wanted and just pay tomorrow. This would contrast sharply with our hotel in Estonia where the clerk looked us up and down and after evaluating our grubby, unlaundered, backpack-laden appearance; demanded that we pay for our room immediately rather than upon checkout.
This morning I went for a quick run through southern Liechtenstein, then caught a bus to the train station in Buchs, Switzerland. Two hours later I arrived in Zurich. According to Mercer, the people of Zurich enjoy the highest quality of life on earth. That's quite a statement, and from walking around the city, I think it might be true. The city is sparkling clean, sits by a pretty lake, with a river running through it. There is very little traffic, and lots of green space and bike lanes. This is a world capitol of banking, and I saw hundreds of buisnessmen in designer suits walking around town on their lunch break. They must pay these guys well, cause I purchased the most expensive Starbucks Venti frappucino ever at just over $7.
A nice couple from Sri Lanka took a picture for me with Lake Zurich in the backround.
Whew, what a day. Four countries in one day. Never done that before. 
Click on the following link for some recent news about Liechtenstein: http://www.theonion.com/content/video/liechtenstein_successfully_tests
Barcelona, the center of the anti-fascist rebels during the Spanish Civil War, the home of the 1992 Olympics, the city with no hotels under $400...
The next day we headed into Barcelona by the quick, cheap, and scenic train. Barcelona is a bustling, crowded city! While Madrid seemed somewhat deserted on the Sunday that we were there, Barcelona on a Formula One Saturday is packed! We walked along the tourist trail seeing all the required Gaudi architecture, which is indeed quite pretty and strange. The Sagrada Familia is especially huge and strange, and nowhere near finished. We traversed the length of La Rambla which is kind of like Boulder's Pearl Street except with three times the people and four times the body odor. I still liked it though Lindso was a bit put off by the mass of people packing you in from all sides.
The shopping in Barcelona was the best we had found. As it was our last stop in Spain, we grabbed some Spanish fashion to bring home. After a long day of walking we forced ourselves to a trip up the funicular to Montjuic, the home of the Olympic Stadium. Great views were had there, though we were too tired to actually find the stadium. Time to call it a trip!
Off from Valencia and back onto the highway again today. What should have been a five hour trip, soon turned into six, then seven. A wrong turn near Barcelona, then some white knuckle switchback driving in Andorra had me near the end of my rope. I was ready to run down any Andorran bovine who strayed into my path. Just when the swearing had reached it's apex, our hotel magically appeared before us. Once I shut off all 63 horses of the Citroen, and took a deep breath, I realized we were in a beautiful mountain valley! Andorra is a mini-Colorado, much like Liechtenstein. Lindso and I went for a run on a mountain trail next to a bubbling brook that slowly climed a thousand feet or so. For the first time on the trip we were really out in nature, and it was very nice.
Not too much we can tell you about Valencia. We arrived here late in the afternoon after a five hour drive from Granada. We briefly considered just staying in our boring suburban hotel room
Granada! Fantastic. Our consensus favorite place in Spain. Today we awoke at 7am to get in line for tickets to the Alhambra. Only 7000 tickets are sold each day, and they are all gone by 9am, so we didn't want to get shut out. The Alhambra served as the palace and stronghold of the Muslim leaders of Spain from the 1300's to 1492. In 1492 the Catholic Monarchs Isabel and Ferdiand finally defeated the Muslims, and ended their 700 year reign over Spain. As the last Muslim ruler Boabdil reined in his horse and surveyed the Alhambra for last time and the green valley that spread below he burst into tears. "You do well," said his unsympathetic mother, "to weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man."
Here we are on a cliff overlooking the Alhambra. This spot is especially popular among the large hippie population of Granada. Just to our left, out of the picture, are a couple dozen shirtless people playing guitar, drinking bottled beer, smoking weed, selling beads and necklaces, and juggling.
The fountains and pools in the Alhambra were the high point for us. The Islamic use of water in their architecture is unparalelled. We decided we wanted to recreate this at our house. Now if we just had the mountain of gold and unlimited slave labor that Boabdil had....
Today was a short two hour drive through the beautiful rolling hills of the Andalucian countryside to Granada. We are loving Granada. It has a huge student population, which always gives a city energy and fun bars and shops. The tapas scene here is for real. Every bar serves you a delicious appetizer with every round of drinks. Up til now Ive been annoyed with the Spanish serving size of a standard beer (about 9 ounces). Ive had to request a "Cerveza Grande", (which gets me maybe 14 ounces). Today Lindso made the the discovery of the trip. No matter what size of drink you order you still get the free tapas. So economically, it makes more sense to order the cano (small beer) than the cerveza grande. More free food, for less money. Brilliant!
Everyone knows that mopeds are big in Europe. But most people wouldnt know that even the cops ride mopeds in Spain! I'm not sure how this fellow would go about chasing down a Ferarri, but he had no problem handing out a parking ticket on this occasion.
Today we left Tarifa for a long drive through Andalucia via Ronda to Cordoba. I was excited to see Ronda after reading Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls". In his masterpiece about the Spanish civil war he tells a gruesome story about how the nationalists captured the republican held town of Ronda. They gathered all the republican collaborators in one house, then forced them one by one to walk through a gauntlet of their opressed townspeople who would beat them. At the end of the gauntlet they had the choice of jumping or being thrown off this bridge to fall some 400 feet to their death.
Ronda is a very cute little town, and we enjoyed a short stop here
On to Cordoba. Above is La Mezquita which is considered the pre-eminent islamic building anywhere outside of the Middle East. It was built in 784, and it is remarkable how well preserved it is. 
