November v Ljubljana!

November in Ljubljana!

Today Is November 30th my daddy's Birthday! Happy Birthday Dad! Miss you and Love you so much! :) Since it is the last day of November, tomorrow is the first day of December and that means there is 25 days till Christmas!!! Also December 1st is my Aunt Debbie/God Mothers Birthday! Happy Birthday Aunt Debbie! Love you!

Here are pictures gathered through different occurrences here in Ljubljana through the month of November!

The Beautiful river in Ljubljana that runs through the city!

Love the architecture in this city! Shine on!

Bridge for Love!

Lock-it up your Love! Love lasts forever!

Driving home one day I thought the mountains looked like a painting in the distance!

Our landlord and his wife are the sweetest! Ljubljana and Slovenia travel brochures, Slovenian Chocolate, and Slovenian Wine! Is there any better gift then Chocolate and Wine!

Park Tivoli my gym is straight ahead in the park!

Park Tivoli in Ljubljana is where the rink is located! It's also a beautiful park with paths and museums!

Missy and I were waiting at the rink for the gym to open at 10 AM one Sunday and a bunch of people were just leaving the club! They close at 10 AM!

Ljubljana Sky! Beautiful!

I have been on an Arts & Crafts kick making paper snowflakes and banners getting ready for the holidays! Its very therapeutic for me to do Arts & Crafts I get lost in them!

Our festive living room with our little 3' Christmas Tree! LOVE!

The first game I was able to watch on TV when the guys were away, Kevin got the game winning goal against Villach! They won 3-2!

Kevin got a Slovenian Haircut at the BTC! Looking good!

Ljubljana at night in the rain on Thanksgiving! The castle was glowing green!

My Thanksgiving dinner in Slovenia with the girls at Foculus! Delicious Pizza!

The game of the Teddy Bear toss last Sunday with all the big headed mascots that sat right in front of us!

Brock scored a goal! Here come the teddies!

It was really cute!

The clean up lasted about 15 minutes! 

Blue Mountains!

Stroll through the park yesterday after lunch at Plato!

Shooting Stars!

Ljubljana is ready for december and so are we! Lets light it up! Can't wait! December is the best month in Europe with all the christmas markets, hot wine on the streets, and some kind of festival going on every night!

Ljubljana Sky last night!

Slovenian Word of the Day:
Nebo meaning Sky

PEACE & LOVE,
Kevin & Amanda

Banana Pancakes!

Kevin has been loving his pancakes on game day mornings lately! So I have been trying to think of different ones to make him! My mother sent me Pumpkin Pecan Pancake mix from William Sonoma, which is amazing, but it sure went fast! So I gave these a try on Thanksgiving morning and he sure loved them! These would be great with Strawberry Syrup, which we didn't have!

Makes about 12 pancakes

Ingredients:
1 Cup flour
1 Tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 ripened bananas

Directions:
1. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. Separate bowl combine egg, milk, butter, and mashed bananas.
3. Slowly combine flour mixture into banana mixture.
4. Batter will be slightly lumpy and thats okay!
5. Heat lightly buttered/oil frying pan to high heat. Make sure it's HOT before pouring batter to make the best pancakes!
6. Pour batter to a size you think is good and flip when the batter starts bubbling.
7. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on each side!
8. Enjoy to Jack Johnson's Banana Pancake song :) (Kevin played this for me when I was talking about making him Banana pancakes!)

Slovenian Word of the Day:
Palačinke meaning Pancakes
(Banana is the same in Slovenian)

PEACE & LOVE,
Kevin & Amanda

Comida Mexicana y CDLC, Barcelona!

Mexican Food and Carpe Diem Lounge Club!

Our second night in Barcelona we went out for an amazing Mexican dinner! The place had great atmosphere, food, margaritas, and mojitos! We did some research to find this place and it was said to be the best Mexican restaurant in Barcelona! The meal Kevin got was the best a chicken burrito, He loved it so much he ended up ordering a second one after a few drinks! :)

Rosa Del Raval! 

Review from online! Wish I knew about this chicken and chocolate thing before hand!
"Rosa Del Raval Barcelona ‘s great mexican restaurant located close to Macba in Raval. They have really tasty sweet mojitos and strawberry/mango margaritas for only 3,50euros, thats anytime of the day. Rosa Del Raval has very generous portions with the food and thanks to Barcelona’s menu del dia options, you can get it for 9euros if it is early afternoon. We recommend the chicken with chocolate, sounds a little weird but it is amazing! Also the burritos are huge!"

The interior was very quirky and colorful!

A steady flow of customers showed that it was a favorite spot for tourists and locals! Very packed for a Tuesday night!

There mostly known for their burritos, mojitos, and margaritas!

The guacamole was fresh and amazing!

Round of Margaritas! I was the only one that tried the strawberry mojito! Loved!

The Group!

The Boys!

CDLC (Carpe Diem Lounge Club)

After dinner we headed to this very high-end night club down by the beach that one of Kevin's friends that plays in Sweden recommended him to check out! We felt very under dressed but had a great time anyway! The dress code is very dressy! 

Websites!

http://www.cdlcbarcelona.com/

https://www.facebook.com/CDLCBarcelona

Private Booths! Very cozy!

Lounging at the club!

"A blend of cultures, an eclectic food style. Sample Mediterranean & Asian cuisines with Arabian & Morrocan touches. Our artfully prepared food, our decoration together with the glamour at night will transport you and enhance all of your senses. Enjoy an unforgettable experience at the Carpediem official ambassador of Dom Pérignon & awarded as one of the Finest Clubs in the world."

Walk out to the beach! Nice spot during the day too!

The W Hotel in the distance! More to see on that soon!

The bathroom sinks! Very interesting design!

Spanish Word of the Day:
Club Nocturno meaning Night Club

PEACE & LOVE,
Kevin & Amanda

Pedralbes' y Plaça d'Espanya, Barcelona!

Monestir de Pedralbes

This part of Barcelona was very cool very old town feel with cobble stone roads and historic Gothic architecture!

Spanish detail!

The Monastery of Pedralbes is a Gothic monastery in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is now a museum, housing collections from Barcelona City's History Museum.

Old Door!

Love how the stone walls are so weathered!

The monastery was founded by King James II of Aragon for his wife Elisenda de Montcada in 1326. It housed a community of Poor Clares, mostly members of noble families. The queen gave the monastery a series of privileges, including the direct protection of the city of Barcelona, through the Consell de Cent. 

Originally the monastery, built in white stone, was defended by a line of walls, of which today only two towers and one gate remain.

During the Catalan Revolt (1640), the nuns were expelled, but later returned. A small number of nuns still reside in the complex. The monastery was declared a national monument in 1991.

The church has a single nave, with rib vaults and a polygonal apse, and houses a Gothic retablo by Jaume Huguet. The façade is characterized by a large rose window.

The pews!

The organ!

The cloister has three floors, and a length of 40 meters, with a central garden of orange trees and palms. It is formed by wide arches on columns, whose capitals are decorated with the emblems of the Kings of Aragon and the House of Montcada.

We all raced up the stairs! to nothing on the other side lol

Palau Reial de Pedralbes

This garden was very beautiful and calm! 

Palau Reial de Pedralbes is a building placed in the middle of an ample garden in the district of Les Corts, in Barcelona. From 1919 until 1931 it was the residence for the Spanish Royal Family when they visited the city. It houses the Museu de la Ceramica (ceramic museum),Museu Tèxtil i d'Indumentària and Museu de les Arts Decoratives (interior design museum). 

The Can Feliu building was remodeled by the architect Joan Martorell i Montells, who built a Caribbean-style small palace, together with a Gothic-style chapel and surrounded by magnificent gardens. Later the building remodeling was given to Antoni Gaudí, together with the construction of a surrounding perimeter wall and the side entry pavilions. Gaudí also partially designed the gardens surrounding the palace, placing two fountains and a pergola and planted many Mediterranean plants like palm trees, cypress trees, magnolias, pine trees and eucalyptus.

Eusebi Güell gave the house and garden to the Royal family, as a thank you for his noble title of Count given to him, in 1918. The house was then remodeled to become a royal palace. The work was done from 1919 to 1924 by the architects Eusebi Bona and Francesc Nebot.

In 1924 it was officially made a royal palace but, with the second Spanish Republic's proclamation in 1931, it became property of the city government, which decided to make it a decorative arts museum, inaugurated in 1932. 

The palace is formed by a central building four stories high, with a chapel on the back side and two three stories high side wings that form a curve with the front facade towards the front. The outside facade is done in the Noucentisme movement style with Tuscan order columns forming two porches, with round arches and medallions and jars on the top. The interior of the building is of many styles both in decoration as in furniture, going from Louis XIV style to contemporary styles.

The gardens were designed by Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, from a design that included, in a geometrically decorative area, lots of the trees already present, a pond with many decorative elements, Gaudi's fountain, bamboo benches, three lighted fountains by Carles Buïgas, the same designer of the Magic Fountain in Montjuïc and many statues such is the one of Queen Isabella II with her son Alfonso XII on the front of the palace, a work of Agapit Vallmitjana.

Plaça d'Espanya

Plaça d'Espanya also known as Plaza de España in Spanish, is one of Barcelona's most important squares, built on the occasion of the 1929 International Exhibition, held at the foot of Montjuïc, in the Sants-Montjuïc district.

The Venetian Towers is the popular name for a pair of towers on Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina at its junction with Plaça d'Espanya in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. There is one tower on either side of the street.

The towers are 47m high, with a 7.2 metres square cross-section. The bottom section of each is built of artificial stone, the main section of red brick, and the top section is a colonnaded viewing gallery built of artificial stone, and topped by a pyramidal copper roof. 

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya is the national museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya. The museum is especially notable for its outstanding collection of romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan art and design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernisme and noucentisme.

Collections in the museum- Romanesque Art, Gothic Art, Renaissance and Baroque Art, The Cambo Bequest, Thyssen Bornemisza, Modern Art, Carmen Thyssen Bornemisza, Cabinet of Drawings and Paintings, Numismatic Cabinet of Catalonia. 

The Museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929.

The Venetian Towers serve a purely ornamental function, to mark the entrance to the exhibition district, now known as Fira de Barcelona, and the start of the grand avenue leading up to the Palau Nacional on Montjuïc. Originally, the towers were open to the public, who could climb the internal stairs to the viewing galleries, but they are now closed.

The Palau Nacional is a huge building (over 50,000 m2) which embodies the academic classical style that predominated in constructions for all the universal exhibitions of the period. Its façade is crowned by a great dome inspired by St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City in Rome, flanked by two smaller domes, while four towers modelled on Santiago de Compostela Cathedral stand at the corners of the so-called Sala Oval, or Oval Hall. 

During 2012, the towers started undergoing extensive restoration work, costing an estimated €700,000. This would enable the removal of the netting which had been put in place around the viewing galleries to catch any debris falling from damaged sections.

Arenas de Barcelona, a bullring - It was built in 1900 in the Moorish Revival style and has been converted into a shopping center.

Spanish Word of the Day:
Jardín meaning Garden

PEACE & LOVE,
Kevin & Amanda