Sunday Evening in the South of France

We made it to Carcassonne, a charming walled city in the South of France. I am writing from an Ibis hotel, a twin hotel to Motel 6 owned by the same parent, Accor. Our second floor room smells overwhelmingly of bug spray so we’ve had our window wide open for the past few hours since checking in, hoping to clear it out before bedtime when closing the window somewhat may mask the noise of a room right above a busy intersection.

Let me finish up with the story on Granada by cutting and pasting Mike’s words from a message he sent to our sister-in-law, Maryann, who has been sending us wonderful e-mail messages of support and advice. “Alhambra was spectacular! Our guide was worth the price as he gave us a history lesson on the Moors, Christians and Jews and the struggles in Spain as their history evolved. It was most illuminating to say the least. The detail on the mosaics was astounding and when you picture all of that in colorful red's greens, blues and gold it must have been overpowering at its pinnacle. I would have like to see the gypsy's caves however we just did not have time. Apparently some of the caves ( which are free for the gypsies have facades built in front of the cave with Jacuzzis, bathrooms bedrooms etc in the cave itself. They are rented out at a very high price. Caitie was a bit ill with a sore throat and terrible cough so she wasn't her talkative spry self but Deanne got to mother her with hot tea and staying up most of the night. She was much better when we went through Alhambra as walked a good 5 miles throughout. We had dinner at a fabulous Moroccan restaurant with the most outgoing guy we have met. He took a liking to us as we kidded him more than most others would. When we were leaving he took our picture and gave us his personal email. It was the most fun dinner and one of the best in a funky little Moroccan area of Granada.

After we dropped Caitie we brought back the rental car and saw that there was a train to Barcelona in 20 minutes so without hesitation we jumped on the train and headed north with no reservations. We had a bit of struggle getting a room but after an hour or of calling around (our computers would pick up no wireless networks in the train station unlike the hours of free internet we had in Madrid’s train station). We found a wonderful room here at Amistar Hotel in the city. Unfortunately it is raining today, the rain we have seen since we have been in Europe. We are going to explore the city on the hop on, hop off bus and then it off to France tomorrow. We only have 10 days before we meet Caitie in Florence so we are getting pretty excited for her. She doesn't appear nervous at all. With the website Facebook all the kids have met one another virtually as there are only 60 freshmen at NYU Florence so she has already been communicating with a boy from San Antonio and is looking forward to meeting him in person. I think she is tiring of living in one place in Alicante and is ready to move on. The girls live on a shoestring budget so they were more than happy to pick our pockets at the nicer restaurants!! :) They forgot we were on a budget also :) however we decided beforehand that these few days we would make up for with fruit dinners :) It was wonderful to see her again; she is looking so tan and so European! She could be mistaken for a Spaniard or Italian. Which of course she loves”.

So, how was Barcelona? It was raining. Not Seattle rain- that nice polite drizzle that makes us laugh at out-of-towners that bundle up in rain gear and umbrellas. No, this is lightening and thunder, black skies, drenched in a minute no matter the rain gear, rain. The first whole day we had there I took a long walk and spent a few hours on the hop on/hop off bus while Mike caught up on CNN and e-mail correspondence. The city was vibrant with crowds of people walking the popular spots like La Rambla and the port. I have heard from some of our younger friends, like Biko and Jonny’s girlfriend, Megan that they loved Barcelona and it is easy to see why it appeals to young people. During the days the streets are full of shops, outdoor restaurants (deserted in the rain), outdoor performers, etc. At night the clubs go all night, with most not opening until after the dinner hour ends at about midnight. For me, the crowds were not as attractive, although I enjoyed seeing the outdoor animal/pet markets where they sell birds, rabbits and turtles on the main pedestrian avenue. Check out the pictures and see if my shock at seeing these animals on sale in this crowded public place shows.

My favorite part of Barcelona, other than the luxurious hotel which Mike described… (huge bathroom, mini-fridge, CNN and free internet all wrapped up in a hotel I would not have thought twice about when I traveled to Europe for work) was the Gaudi designed Sagrada Familia cathedral. This church, begun about 100 years ago and still under construction is breathtaking. So different than all of the churches we have seen so far. Gaudi was a genius. His buildings are humorous and light rather than solid and stable. They catch the light in creative ways and mimic nature in their shapes and designs. The columns inside the cathedral, rather than the solid square stone of historical design, his turn stone into slanted tree trunk looking pillars sitting on the back of moving turtles. How do slated tree trunks hold up the ceiling of a cathedral? The statues that tell the life of Christ are squared off rather than rounded, making them look like they are carved of wood rather than stone. All in all, I loved its creativeness. They are quite proud of their Olympic park, so I toured the football stadium and water sports areas, but it wasn’t significantly different than other sports facilities and not nearly as fantastic as the Gaudi buildings.

This morning, after rising at 6:30 to catch our 8:45 train from the distant train station that caters to the French trains, we went outside to see an even more dramatic rain. The words of Liza Dolittle in My Fair Lady were obviously only meant to teach articulation and not geography, as this Spanish rain was not falling on the plain, which two days early we saw was dry and parched. After we checked out, we asked the sweet woman at the front desk to call a taxi for us, which she very agreeably did. After hanging up without speaking she shrugged her shoulders and told us she got a recording which meant that their were too many requests for taxis so they turned off their phones and we needed to stand in the street to flag a tax down. Our street, a main drag heading into the Sants train station has lots of taxis on it, so we traipsed out to find a taxi to get us to the station in the hour we had before departure. Mike waited with the bags (OUT of the rain) while I stood on the center divider of the boulevard to find a taxi, which after ten minutes we did. This guy was having all kinds of trouble getting the defroster working. The windows fogged up so badly that we had to pull over several times to hand wipe the inside of the windshield – each pull over adding to the incessant ticking of the meter. He missed several green lights due to his swearing at the defroster, most of which was lost on his audience. We understood the drama of his problem, and shared his desire for a great, roaring release of stress with an explosion of language equivalent to kicking the defroster around the room. Shortly before our last turn into the train station the defroster kicked in and we made the last quarter mile with clear windows. We figure the defroster problem cost us a few Euros, but overall, flagging that cab down was cheaper than missing the train.

I have no idea who runs the train between Spain and France. We left from a particular station dedicated to French destinations, with a Spanish crew. At the border, the crew changed and when our tickets were finally stamped we were in France in the hands of French crew. The countryside on the trip north from Barcelona is beautiful. We frequently saw glimpses of the beaches and beach towns along the northern Spanish Mediterranean coast. The rolling hills at the coast hide the fact that most of the crossing between these countries is the mountainous Pyrenees. Our three hour trip was largely spent reading and admiring the coast and farmlands that we passed. After departing in Narbonne we scurried to buy an onward reservation to Carcassonne and were pleasantly surprised to see how luxurious the French trains are compared to the Spanish and Portuguese trains. We had only a short distance to travel, but the first class train was a great way to pass the time.

We arrived in Carcassonne to find no information desk and no taxis. Mike suggested we ask directions across the street at a hotel, a successful strategy if you are ever stuck in a country in which you don’t speak a word and you don’t know how to find your hotel. They gave us a map with a highlighted walking path and ten minutes later we were at our hotel. We are in the new town very close to the bridge that crosses the river into the old town. The gated old town sits majestically up on a hill. We walked over there this afternoon, but turned back at the onset of rain. We had time to visit a bakery for dinner sandwiches and a small market for our sparkling water, wine and CocaColaLight. Susan, so far, after one glass of the local wine, I vote French over Spanish hands down. I bought a wine labeled this town and it is better than anything I tried in Spain. I have to admit that the French sandwich is better, too. The bread is the same (after all it is a white baguette) but the fromage sandwhich uses brie cheese which is way better than the sliced swiss of the Spanish queso sandwich. In case you wonder about cheese sandwiches.

Mike is watching game shows that look like “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” in German and a French million dollar pyramid, alternating with sports like soccer and golf. Let’s hope the rain stops soon, as these games of guessing what is happening as they speak are tiring.

So long, Deanne