A few pictures from Portugal...

Pasteis de Belém in Lisbon

Mosteiro dos Jeronimos

Lisbon at sunset from Castelo Sao Jorge
The grounds of Palacio de Montserrate

Palacio do Pena

Suckling Pig in Mealhada

Tasting ports at Graham's in Oporto

Lunch in Coimbra

Our parents are in town for some holiday fun. This is our (and their) FOURTH Christmas in Barcelona, which is kind of mind blowing. Amazing how the time flies.

We just returned from a three-day trip to Portugal, which was really fun. None of us had ever been there (aside from Lee's quick border crossing on a road trip once). We spent one night in Lisbon, one night in Sintra and one night in Porto. In Lisbon, we sampled Pasteis de Belém for the first time, visited Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, had a great lunch at Pinoquio, and climbed up to Castelo Sao Jorge at sunset, and went on a futile hunt for Fado.

The next day, we started with a hearty breakfast in Plaça Dom Pedro (starting Dad´s day of carbs-only) and rented a car to head off to Sintra. Sintra is a small town up in the hills near Lisbon that is straight out of a fairy tale. We visited the Palacio do Pena (a colorful castle built in the 1850s for the royal family) and the Palacio de Montserrate. Like any Gonzalez family vacation, we sampled the local delicacy - Queijada. We spent the night in Sintra at a place called She-Pine-Tree, which was recommended by a Somnio guest. I would not pass the recommendation on. It´s a big old house run by the grandsons of an artist. The house seems nice enough and full of character, but we wound up being relegated to a barn down the hill, literally. The place was redone, but we lacked heat and clean bedding. Mom and Dad were not too stoked about their tiny bed either. Dinner at the house involved fish cakes definitely not worth the rainy trek back up the hill.

The next day we drove up to Mealhada for suckling pig. After reading this article, I´d been thinking about this for awhile. That said, I might have built it up a little too much for myself. It was delicious, but not magical. I would go back for the homemade potato chips though. After lunch, we drove into Porto, got settled into our hotel and hit up a Port wine tour at Graham´s. Lee and I discovered that we actually enjoy a nice glass of Tawny Port and brought some home to enjoy. We also learned that Graham´s does a large amount of their grape press using feet. The footage of hairy Portuguese men in Speedos stomping grapes was kind of a turn off. We walked around the river area, had a nice meal where apparently Jacques Chirac and Fidel Castro have dined, and called it a night. Woke up the next morning to tour Porto some more, head to Coimbra for a forgettable lunch (at least I´m trying to forget the cockroach) and drive back to Lisbon to fly home to BCN.

That´s the run down. I´ll get some pictures up later. Dad´s on a new photography kick, so I´m sure you´ll see plenty from him.

Doing some demographic reports for 2009. We've now had guests from 71 countries - new ones this year include Slovenia, Serbia, Pakistan, and Mongolia.

Average age this year stayed the same at 31.

A big change has been in where our guests come from -

Last year the top 5 nationalities were US (14%), Spain (8%), France (7%), UK (7%), and Germany (6%)

This year, we've got US (27%), UK (10%), Australia (10%), Canada (7%), and Germany (5%)

Think that says anything about our English marketing and the fact that most of our receptionists are all more fluent in English than Spanish? Thanks to Rick Steve's and Let's Go for the HUGE jump in American visitors.

One of our guests just rounded her bill up by 11.60 EUR in order to "contribute to our next hostel." What a sweet gesture. I was very touched.