KTMusings

In the last 15 days Christine and I have ... Been to 2 countries and 8 cities. Spent 24 hours on a plane, 8.5 hours on a train, and 5 hours on a bus. We also spent time on a boat, a cable car, 2 tourist buses, taxis, and two different subway systems. Read 12 books (6 apiece) and watched 6 movies. Drank an unknown quantity of wine. Stayed in 7 hotel rooms. Took appropriately 1,500 pictures ... which will be posted soon!

We love Barcelona. And it's been raining all day. Yesterday we got in and dropped our bags at the hotel and found a coffee shop (my request after waking up at 415). Then took the metro up to see Sagrada Familia. We then spent time walking around the Gothic Quarter and seeing the Barcelona Cathedral, then walked down to the port. There was a boat show going on and we picked out the one we wanted :) It started raining on us, so we came back for a little siesta. We headed out again and finally found the Picasso Museum, but the line was crazy long. So we did some shopping instead. Last night we went to dinner at a place called The Attic, which was recommended to us. Food was fine, but service was horrible. Today we woke up to rain with a forecast of the same all day. We went out to pick up pastries and ate them at the hotel bar with coffee, then went back to the Picasso Museum. Line was at least as long today, but it was a good indoor activity. I really only saw people from the le...

Took a cab for almost 30 min to get to the aeropuerto in Granada...trains are definitely easier to get to in the city. But, our flight to Palma was speedy and uneventful. Checked into our hotel and then caught a hip-on-hop-off bus around the city to see everything. The cathedral here is an impressive sight! Very windy in the afternoon but we sat outside for a late lunch after sightseeing. Back to the hotel for a siesta and showers and then out for sushi, since we were both craving it. We then went out to check out the Mallorcan night life ... first stop was an Irish pub with an American band playing, which was interesting. Turns out the clubs were all closed on Wed nights, so we stopped by a few other bars including one that looked fun cause we saw everyone dancing inside, but turned out to be a crossdressing bar. Today was rainy most of the day and since we had a beach day planned we've been laying low. Walked to a restaurant near the hotel and ate a late lunch inside (we were ...

Late viewing of the Alhambra Tuesday night...our tickets were for 10:30pm. The palace was all lit up and it was sort of magical walking through it at that time of night. Took lots of pictures but will have to see how they turn out once I can put them on my computer - hard to hold the camera steady for those long exposures. We were up early on Wed to go back to the Alhambra, this time our tickets were to see the gardens and grounds. Spent about 90 minutes walking around - everything was beautiful and smelled fresh and earthy!

Long travel day today...left the hotel at 9 to walk back into Spain (really the weirdest thing to just walk across the boarder w hardly a glance at our passports, especially since when we were on the boat yesterday we overheard that a Spanish warship was in Gib waters and Harvey said the two countries bicker about that a lot ... and flights coming into Gib cannot fly over Spain, so they have to fly way around and the come in over the water). Anyway, took essentially a city bus (with our luggage in the seats next to us) from La Linea to Algeciras. Grabbed coffee and toast at a cafe, then caught our train from Algeciras to Granada at noon. Arrived and took a taxi to the hotel. The views today were gorgeous, prettier than anything we've seen thus far. Also, Granada is much cleaner and prettier than the other cities we've been in. Sadly we don't have much time to explore. We have tix to see the palace at the Alhambra tonight (no time tomorrow before our flight due to how tix ...

Monday we spent the day on the Tomboy, a 43' yacht. And not just on the boat, but steering it and winching sails in and out :) We got to the marina at 10 and met Harvey, our skipper. He was a Kiwi, so we chatted a lot about NZ. He made us a cup of tea and some lemon cake while giving us the safety briefing and asking what we wanted to do for the day. Turned out it was just the 3 of us for the day, so we got to decide what to do and be very active in the day. Once we got out of the marina we tacked around the bay trying to find dolphins, to no avail. Then Harvey brought up slices of watermelon for us all and we headed to the Spanish coast and anchored for lunch ...homemade lasagna, fresh salad, and garlic bread. Amazing. Then we snorkeled around there for a while. Lots of small fish, spiney shellfish, and two giant sea slugs. Back on the boat to dry off, then headed back into the bay and found dolphins! Really a great day ...perfect weather and lots of fun. We had (unanimously vo...

Hello from Gibraltar! We are watching City/Arsenal while sitting outside w a Stella and a pizza. Pretty stellar Sunday evening, if you ask me. Today we set off for the cable car to the top of the Rock, missed it and decided maybe we'd walk to Europa Point first...well, at one point we ended up walking into a gated neighborhood without realizing it. Once we got to a dead end we retraced our steps and discovered the gate we (unknowingly) walked through was now securely closed behind us. So...we ended up having to hop a fence. There were 4 little kids on a balcony watching us. Once we got over I heard them say "theyre breaking in" and I wanted to yell back "no, we were breaking OUT!" Once back on public roads we got back to the cable car and took it to the top. Saw Algeciras, Costa del Sol, and Tangier! And tons of monkeys. Christine loved them, I was freaked out by the signs they posted saying that they bite :) From there we walked to St Michael's Cave (rem...

Since I'm using Christine's computer tonight (instead of typing updates on my phone!), I thought I'd take a few minutes and put down my general thoughts about Spain: * it's more run down than I thought - not sure if that is a result of their recession and poor economy lately, or if that's generally how it is ... * the police officers were very present in Madrid. Not in a bad way - very out of the way, but often present. In obvious places like at the Real Madrid / City game and the protest/strike at the train station, but also in busy plazas during the day. They were all *incredibly* good looking, so we didn't mind seeing them everywhere :) * everything here really is shifted by several hours (~4) - we eat lunch in mid-afternoon, then go clean up, and have dinner around 10. Last night we went to the flamenco show and then out for a drink and there was a couple with their toddler who was out at 12:30am. Crazy. * more desolate landscape than expected - ever...

Wow, long travel day today. We got up and had coffee in view of the Seville Cathedral again. Great poeple watching - must have been some weddings going on, lots of people walking by all dressed up. We then caught a bus to La Linea, the border city by Gibraltar. It was a 4 hour bus ride ... we sat in the second row of seats, which was nice, but 4 hours on a bus was long ... arrived in La Linea and walked up to the Passport Control center into Gibraltar ... and barely got a glance from the security worker. Very anticlimactic :) Once in Gib we crossed the airport runway (seriously, look up Gibraltar on Google Maps - the runway runs right across by the border and straight into the ocean!) and then walked a couple of km into town to our hotel. Never saw a taxi. Luckily, it's slightly cooler here, so it wasn't horrible. (Me, runway, The Rock) Our hotel is right near the city center, so we walked around and bought a converter for our electronics (we have them for Spain, but th...

Hot and humid here. Did some walking around earlier - bought bus tix for tomorrow, saw the Plaza de Espana, Univ of Seville, and the river. Sat and people watched near the cathedral over coffee, bought a bit of jewelry, had gazpacho and wine on the plaza near our hotel, then came back for a swim. We're all cleaned up now and heading for dinner and then a flamenco show! My Spanish is still pitiful, mostly because every time I start ordering something in Spanish they start speaking English to me.

Today we spent a little time by the pool in the morning, then showered and got to the bus station. We had a short train ride to Sevilla and decided to splurge on a taxi once we arrived since it is Hot and we had about a half hour walk (through confusing Spanish streets). Our hotel is cute and very quirky...its made up of old Jewish houses they've connected together. Check out the view when you open the door to our room ... I threw on a dress (to be cathedral appropriate and as cool as possible) and we made the short walk to the Catedral de Sevilla ...which is massive!! Pics won't do it justice. We walked around the whole thing, then went inside. Largest gothic building in the world, third largest church in Europe. From there we went to Alcazar palace and walked through there and the gardens. Then some tapas... Stopped at a grocery store for a bottle of wine (we got upgraded to a suite with robes and decided on a movie and wine night in tonight) and fruit (joy!!). We've b...

Took the train to Cordoba on Wednesday morning. After checking into the hotel we walked down to see La Mezquita and crossed the Romano bridge for beautiful views of the city. Spent an hour by the pool at 7pm, then cleaned up for dinner. We found a cute place for a bottle of wine and some fish.

It's not every day that your morning run takes you past a palace, but we went for a short run Tuesday morning right by Palacio Real, the cathedral, and with beautiful views of western Madrid. After getting ready we did a hop on hop off tour to see more of the city...turned out to not really be worth the price, but we stayed on again until we got to the Prado museum. We spent a few hours walking around in there. Then stopped for a salad for lunch before heading to another museum, Reina Sofia...which it turns out is closed on Tuesdays. We were disappointed because we'd heard good things about it. BUT, because it was closed we had great evening... We decided to walk back to Plaza Mayor to have a drink and people watch before heading near the stadium to catch the Real Madrid / Manchester City football game. Well, I think all the City fans in town had the same idea! It was like a huge tailgate party in the plaza. We sat to have a drink and watch. There was a table of guys behind u...

Today we slept in until 10, which felt great! Then headed to the metro (after another Starbucks run) and went to the train station. We walked in to find police in riot gear and heard lots of cheering. Turns out the train workers were on strike. I felt like I was back in Madison at the capital building :) After much trouble, since there were no people working ticket counters, the machines were only in Spanish, and the machine didn't like our chip-less credit cards, we bought two tickets for Toledo, but they didn't leave for about an hour and a half. So we sat and read for a while, saw a crazy pool full of turtles, and people watched. Train ride itself was uneventful, caught a cab up into the city and spent a few hours walking around. We stopped for a late lunch, then walked back to the train station. Ride back also uneventful (I took a 20 min nap :) ) and took the (now very busy) metro to our hotel about 8. Showered and went to dinner, sat outside near Puerta del Sol for great p...

Last night we did a bus tour of the city (our guide was not very informative, and mean) but we ended at the Madrid bull ring to see a fight. The place wasn't that busy, but she said they were young matadors. I took about 200 pictures, I think. First, they all walk out and around the ring. Then the matadors took of the capes that matched their outfits and all put on yellow and bright pink ones. Then they let out a bull...he'd make a charge at one of the matadors, who would run and hide behind cutouts in the walls of the ring. Then a rider on horseback came out (horses wear a sort of armor), attract the bull, and stick him with a long lance. The bull still fights, but is not as strong. Matadors attract him again, and these helper guys come out and run in front of the bull and stick him with two sticks, a couple of feet long and colorful. This is repeated a few times. The bull is now bleeding profusely, but still running after the matador's cape. After many more minutes, the m...

Arrived on time, got our bags, navigated 3 subway lines, and surfaced directly across the street from a Starbucks! Got coffee, found the hotel, dropped our bags and just walked a big loop - Plaza del Callao, Prado, Plaza Mayor, Plaza de Oriente. Just checked in and are going to shower and then head to our tour at 3. Tour ends with the bull fight. Beautiful weather today.

I heard from someone that Spain is a great destination if you suffer from allergies, arthritis or respiratory illnesses due to their weather (and apparent lack of allergens). My eyes are so red and swollen from allergies right now that I've made a decision ... if I am truly allergy-free over there, I will not be coming back to Madison until after the first snow fall! (I'm only slightly joking)

This is to share my attempt at learning Spanish, but mostly to test out the new Blogger app for my phone. I've been enjoying Rosetta Stone, but not putting in consistent time learning, so the other key to my speaking Spanish is also pictured...I hope with some wine and a pretty smile I'll be able to find someone who understands my poor attempts at espanol (prob #1 of typing on my phone...no tilde) and takes pity on us. :)

Part 2 of my 5 year Epic Sabbatical is going to commence in just over a week! For those who want to follow along at home, I present: The Intinerary. Saturday 9/15: Today we fly! Christine and I are flying MSN > ATL > MAD - nice to only have one connection! Sunday 9/16: We arrive in Madrid at about 8am local time. We plan to get to the hotel, keep ourselves awake, and then join a city tour in the afternoon. The tour ends with tickets to a bull fight - I'm very excited about that! We stay 3 nights in Madrid at the Hotel Preciados Madrid . Monday 9/17 & Tuesday 9/18: Two additional days in Madrid. During one of them we are planning to take a day trip to Toledo. Also planning to check out the Prado museum and Real Madrid football stadium. Wednesday 9/19: Traveling by train today to Cordoba to see the Mezquita and bazaars, maybe see some flamenco dancing. Staying tonight at the Hotel Cordoba Center Cordoba . Thursday 9/20: Train again today, this time to Sevil...