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...