Visiting continental Europe around New Year’s may be tough since it can get pretty cold. That’s what happened to us this year when we went to Vienna. It was cold, -3C, -5C,… every day but not extremely cold. The problem was that we wanted to visit many places so we were trying to be outside as much as possible. But being outside for more than an hour was not possible…the temptation going to a cafe to get a piece of cake was too much 
Pictures are available here.
It never rains in Lanzarote until we got there last November. We spent a few days in the island relaxing, taking surf classes, visiting this amazing island…and it rained every day. The Timanfaya park is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. It feels like you are in another planet.
Pictures are available here.
We went to Almeria for the Spanish Sailing Champ. A good sailing spot with strong winds and good weather.
In terms of food, we’d recommend a couple of places:
Pictures (a few of them) are available here.
Claudia got some press coverage in glamorous West Lafayette, Indiana.
Pictures of the trip to Japan April/May 2007:
We’re writting from the Park Hotel at Shiodome in Tokyo. The first thing it surprised us when we got here was the high-tech toilete in our hotel room. The toilete has a heated seat and built-in bidet. It’s interesting to see the contrast in the city. Almost every man wears a very classic black suit with white shirt but young people wear the most fashionable outfit ever. It’s a very modern city but you have beautiful parks with old shrines in the middle of it. People (mostly men) finish work very late but it looks like everyone is sleeping the morning commute. It’s a very crowded city but we’ve hardly seen babies or strollers in the streets. Nikko is an amazing place full of shrines and nature but near the JR station is quite crappy and we couldn’t find a decent place to eat. In Tokyo, however, we enjoyed several restaurants, in particular, a delicious meal at Toricho in the Roppongi area (thanks David for the tip about this fantastic place). If you go there order the “omasake” course, it is a 14 meat and vegetable yakitori.
Pictures are available here.
On October, we went to Valencia for a long weekend. My brother and I sailed in the Spanish Cup at El Saler. This is a nice spot on the south of Valencia. We didn’t have much wind and we had some trouble with big waves breaking on the beach. At the end of the Cup my brother was 3rd (great result) and I was 17th out of 50 boats. Lots to improve on my side But races were in the afternoon so we had time to visit Valencia: the old town, Oceanografic, and the America’s Cup area where we visited the Spanish Challenge. Valencia is a nice city. We recommend it for a weekend.
Pictures are available here.
Camprodon’s Valley is one of the most beatiful areas in the Pyrenees. We spent the weekend staying at Hotel Grevol in Llanars. We did the following tour on Saturday: VallTer 2000 (Ski resort), Setcases, Beget, Camprodon, and Llanars. On Sunday we visited Sant Joan de les Abedesses and Ripoll.
Pictures are available here.
Bulaternera (Bouleternere in French) is located in the north of Catalonia (south of France in the map), half an hour from Perpignan. We spent last weekend there with Nora, Maia, Caterina, and Angel. It’s a beautiful area. Prada, Sant Miquel de Cuixa, Vilafranca de Conflent, Tourinya… all of them are beautiful places but there is an amazing town, called Eus, placed on top of a mountain, which I highly recommend.
Pictures are available here.
We visited the New Jersey shore, Atlantic City, and Philadelphia last weekend.
Pictures are available here.
I was in Singapore last week and it was great. I went there for the annual conference on derivatives organized by ISDA. Singapore is a very international, clean, humid, hot, and fun city. It is one of the main financial centers in Asia so it attracts a lot of international people from everywhere. People are very nice. We visited many places and they always treated us very well. The weather is pretty much the same the whole year. It is very warm and humid so we spent “some time” at the beach and at the swimming pool
Pictures are available here.
We have been in Boston for the last three days. It was my first time there and I really liked it. Boston has all these English style houses that I think makes it the most European city of the US. Beacon Hill, the eastern neighborhood close to the river (with plenty of italian restaurants), and the Harvard area are really beautiful. It was very cold so walking around was hard but yesterday it snowed a little bit and the city changed its appearance completely. It was nice as well.
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We went to Six Flags yesterday We went to the park located in New Jersey. I wanted to go to all the attractions but the fact is…that I got very, very dizzy after experiencing the Scream Machine 
This was the second roller coaster of the day, after beginning the day with Superman Ultimate Flight. I couldn’t do much the rest of the morning.. but I was able to have fun with the karts they have by winning a fan of Real Madrid
It’s worth mentioning the halloween atmosphere they have. It’s very impressive, specially at night.
Pictures will come soon.
We went to Newport on Saturday. It was beautiful. We recommend it. The only problem is that we couldn’t find a place to stay We were hoping to find something but it was impossible. So if you plan to go, make a reservation 
The day was great. It was clear and sunny but not hot. People can smell sailing in Newport. Do you know the name of the main street in Newport? Americas Cup Avenue. The America’s Cup is the greatest sailing competition ever. It combines innovation, history, and the most skilled sailors competing for the cup. Newport held many America’s Cup races during the beginning of last century and it’s where the center of operations of the historic New York Yatch Club is located.
When we were driving through the bridge getting into the town we saw hundreds of sailing ships. But Newport is not only sailing, there are plenty of amazing houses built in the beginnings of last century. Some of the houses are in front of the ocean. Most of the beaches are private but we went to one in the ocean side that was very pretty.
Pictures are available here.
Some pictures are available 