Christmas in Portugal

Calvin's birthday is 2 days after Christmas. Poor kid. I always feel sorry for those kids who get the "combo" gifts. But I was proud of Michael and Cristi for giving him completely separate gifts and making his day special...or at least trying to.
Since I was going home on that day, the Gerecke's decided to take the kids and me to a town that was on my way home. The city is very old and built inside the walls of a castle. It has different festivals throughout the year and we were going for their Christmas festival. As you can see in the fun family photo above, Calvin didn't love every minute of it. I don't know if it was the fake snow and snowmen behind him or the music coming from the ice skating rink just behind me. As we walked by I noticed that they were playing Alice Cooper's "Poison" as the children skated around the ice. I am pretty sure that was my favorite part even if Calvin wasn't enjoying it.

Even if the snow was fake, there was still sledding. It looked really fun and Henry did it a couple of times while Lily worked up the courage to do it herself. Once she did, she loved it and was really disappointed when we came back to try to do it again but it was closed because it had started raining...cold raining.
Before we left the kids really wanted to visit Santa's village so Michael and Cristi stood in line with them to enter the 3 building village. They were herded into building number one and quickly realized it had NOTHING to do with Christmas but was a "global warming" seminar. They had to go through 3 different 10 minute videos talking about how we need to take better care of the earth. I wish I had a picture of their face when they came out. I thought Michael was going to punch the jolly elf dancing around getting people to come in to see the show.
I know this story is full of the down side of the day, but all in all it was a good day. About 10 minutes away was a town famous for pottery. I got to go shopping there where I bought a TON of pottery very nice pottery for 21 euros! That was worth the freezing cold tour of the castle-town!
When I told my Spanish friends that I was headed to Portugal for Christmas they were excited for me. They all told me how pretty the city I was going to was and wished me well. However, they could not send me off without warning me about Portuguese driving. They told me that the people really drive fast and that I should be careful. I HAD NO IDEA! I crossed the line from Spain to Portugal and within a few miles I thought I had entered the Indy 500. The speed limit was still posted at 120kpm (75mph). I felt like I was flying going that fast since I really only drive in the city and rarely get above 80kph (50mph). But then I was getting passed like I was sitting still so I decided to speed up. After all, it was a 6 hour drive and the faster I went, the faster I would get there, right? So I did a little mental calculation and decided that the 150kph that I was comfortable with was okay. People were still passing me quite quickly, but I felt like 150-160 was a good place to stay. I didn't think about how fast that was until a couple of days ago when I looked it up. I WAS GOING 93-99 MPH ALL THE WAY HOME! I wasn't scared at the time. It seemed fast, but not bad. Now that I know how fast I was going, I feel like I might pee my pants! I am also worried that my dad is going to read this and get on a plane to come and bust my butt!
BTW, I saw only one accident. There was nothing left of one car and the other was pretty darn smashed up. Everyone on the highway slowed down for a bit after they passed it but within 5 minutes, it was business as usual!
(As a side note...I can't figure out why blogger is underlining and putting that last section in blue font. I can't make it stop.)
(Now I can't figure out why when I post it, the last section is pink and you can click on it like it is a link to something. So confused.)