This ends the current postings to the blog. I may try to upload a few pictures later but that will just be for my practice. No further travel posting will be forthcoming but I will notify you (if you don't mind) of when the blog will be active again. We are headed for Calgary in mid June and intend to do some alpine wildflower hicks so we may post something on that trip. Thanks to those who left comments!
Cheers
Rick and Judy
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Barcelona Good Bye and Return to Windsor
It really is nice to return to a keyboard that is more than 4 inches and I can actually use without a microscope which is what it was like using the hand held that Chris had with him. If you received the first blog from Barcelona and could not decipher it, the problem was using the small screen and some of the things that the keyboard did on its own. Then it would not support spellcheck (or eye check for that matter. I did go back and correct it so if you want to see the actual posting you need to go to the web site.
Our last day was spent travelling the Gothic centre of Barcelona which is the oldest part of town where you can still see portions of the Roman defensive system which and now part of some of the buildings. The Cathedral was very impressive but in general the Spanish Churches are very different from the ones that you see all over Italy. Yesterday I mentioned the waiting for Chris and did not elaborate much on the whole area. It is a great place if you like crowded narrow streets and shops that are on a siesta in the middle part of the day. It was a national holiday weekend and there was wall to wall (or is it building to building in the narrow streets) people.
After just touring around, it was time for the mid afternoon beer in a sidewalk cafe. Only problem was that Judy had some specific ideas - not to crowded (like that was going to happen), in the sun, quiet. After walking for about 45 minutes we settled on the main street with about 8 lanes of traffic! However it was sunny and the beer was extremely cold. Brigitte went to work immediately talking to the people next to us (an oilman(?) U.S. but living in Copenhagen) and her must have overheard us talking about splitting another beer - I could not guess if Chris wanted another - but no sooner had we talked about this that 3 half liters of draft arrived courtesy of the couple! Apparently Brigitte does this all the time - talks to strangers (good for her!) and pets stray dogs but that is another story.
Dinner was near the Gaudi church where there are plenty of restaurants (bars) serving "Tapas(?) which are dishes of food on display and you just order various plates. It was a fitting end to the 3 great days we spent with Chris and Brigitte in Barcelona.
Yesterday we were up early for our 10 am flight. Chris and Brigitte we going to spend the day touring before taking the overnight train down the coast. The Delta flight back was uneventful but we they did have wine available and served both lunch, ice cream and a pizza snack on the nearly 9 hour trip. JFK was backed up and after easily clearing immigration, we were about 90 minutes late getting to Detroit.
I do have to say something about our transportation home. By the time we got to the baggage area (a long way from where the plane landed) our driver and his assistant were already loading it into the back of a beautiful black Mercedes. In fact he had 3 offers for driving jobs from other people while he was waiting for us. Now John was dressed in black and looks like a limo driver! Yvonne the assistant was flagging the luggage and spotted our bags from the name tags. All in all a wonderful pick up. Many thanks to our good friends who got us home in style where we had a chance to share a bottle of wine. But the best part of ending the trip with this limo driver and assistant is getting invited to dinner today! They are highly recommended to anyone needing a lift.
Our last day was spent travelling the Gothic centre of Barcelona which is the oldest part of town where you can still see portions of the Roman defensive system which and now part of some of the buildings. The Cathedral was very impressive but in general the Spanish Churches are very different from the ones that you see all over Italy. Yesterday I mentioned the waiting for Chris and did not elaborate much on the whole area. It is a great place if you like crowded narrow streets and shops that are on a siesta in the middle part of the day. It was a national holiday weekend and there was wall to wall (or is it building to building in the narrow streets) people.
After just touring around, it was time for the mid afternoon beer in a sidewalk cafe. Only problem was that Judy had some specific ideas - not to crowded (like that was going to happen), in the sun, quiet. After walking for about 45 minutes we settled on the main street with about 8 lanes of traffic! However it was sunny and the beer was extremely cold. Brigitte went to work immediately talking to the people next to us (an oilman(?) U.S. but living in Copenhagen) and her must have overheard us talking about splitting another beer - I could not guess if Chris wanted another - but no sooner had we talked about this that 3 half liters of draft arrived courtesy of the couple! Apparently Brigitte does this all the time - talks to strangers (good for her!) and pets stray dogs but that is another story.
Dinner was near the Gaudi church where there are plenty of restaurants (bars) serving "Tapas(?) which are dishes of food on display and you just order various plates. It was a fitting end to the 3 great days we spent with Chris and Brigitte in Barcelona.
Yesterday we were up early for our 10 am flight. Chris and Brigitte we going to spend the day touring before taking the overnight train down the coast. The Delta flight back was uneventful but we they did have wine available and served both lunch, ice cream and a pizza snack on the nearly 9 hour trip. JFK was backed up and after easily clearing immigration, we were about 90 minutes late getting to Detroit.
I do have to say something about our transportation home. By the time we got to the baggage area (a long way from where the plane landed) our driver and his assistant were already loading it into the back of a beautiful black Mercedes. In fact he had 3 offers for driving jobs from other people while he was waiting for us. Now John was dressed in black and looks like a limo driver! Yvonne the assistant was flagging the luggage and spotted our bags from the name tags. All in all a wonderful pick up. Many thanks to our good friends who got us home in style where we had a chance to share a bottle of wine. But the best part of ending the trip with this limo driver and assistant is getting invited to dinner today! They are highly recommended to anyone needing a lift.
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