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Arriving in Barcelona, Spain 10/09

Rob & Jen - Barcelona for 4 days, then onto a royal Caribbean 8-day Mediterranean cruise, a DreamTrip with World Ventures.

Email excerpt to my son Rio, who is now 13 yoa:

"The flight was good, not THAT impressive on British Air, but it was nice. Watched movies, slept, etc.  Then at London Heathrow for a few hours - wow that's a NICE airport! I know you will see it, as it's a major hub for Europe, and we'll be back!   Then boring sleep flight to Barcelona. We then caught a bus to a nearby square after calling the girl with the apartment keys. No problem finding it - of course walking involved, but that's normal for Europe. Once again so grateful we pack light, following our One Bag rule, with just one carry-on bag only per person, plus either a day pack or large purse.

So far the little we saw looks a lot like Rome to me, as far as the shops, streets, cars, etc.  And much in Spanish and English, no big deal. We meant to go eat after we arrived, it was only 9:30 pm, but we were sooooo tired that we just had jerky and pretzels for dinner and went to sleep. And honestly, the dinner was GOOD and  surprisingly satisfying! Meat and bread for dinner, really, just both dried out, ha ha.

We are off for our Segway tour of the city.  Heard it was a blast, I'm excited. Then to an outdoor market nearby to buy some fresh fruits and veggies etc, as we do have a small fridge and 2-burner stove. Oh, and a toaster oven. It's about the tiniest kitchen one can still call a kitchen, it's a stovetop behind the front door with 3 cabinets and a sink, and all appliances you'd plug in (toaster oven, water pot for hot water, coffee pot, etc) are stowed away until you need them because there's NO COUNTER. It's not a room, or even a corner, it's the hallway one walk through when you enter the apt. Literally, if one opens the front door while cooking, the cook will get bonked in the butt by the front door!  Oh, it's just like the sink in our Rome apt, but imagine 2 hot burners where last time we had a little metal counter to put dishes. That's IT. Pretty funny, but it will do the job!.............

LATER SAME DAY:

We did the Segway tour, it was about 3 hours of many things around Barcelona. The Olympics were here in 1992, so they made some nice areas for it along the waterfront. But even though it's on the ocean, and even though it has a beach that they MADE for the Olympics that they still have, it's not at all a "beach" city. No waterfront feel to it at all. Sort of like how there was not "river" feel in Rome... As the tour guide there said, the "city turned it's back on the river and pretended it wasn't there."  Here the ocean view is not really very nice, and there aren't ocean sports to be found other than sailing. No "beach shops," etc.  

Those Segway machines are a BLAST to ride, OMG!!! Lots of cities have them, so we will rent them somewhere in the future. They are like being on a magic carpet. You don't actually have to touch anything to make them go, stop, and reverse, you just lean to do that. Sort of like leaning a bit into ones toes, then back into one's heels, but no more than when you start walking from standing (as he noted, you lean forward to do this). You really only touch one handle to turn left/right. The two handles are just to keep one's balance. People smiled and stared all over town, as here Segways are equal to $10,000, so very few people have one, as you can get a car for that!  In the US, Segways are about $5K. Rob was saying he wants to get one within the first 10 mins. I said, "Great, but nowhere to ride them in Phoenix, just like scooters." They'd be pretty darn cool in San Diego though  :-)  

Then we had gelato, then tapas, which are the little snacks so famous in Spain. It's like we eat at home at times!  A little bit of cheese, salamis,a little bit of bread, a few olives maybe, some tiny sandwiches cut into bite size, etc. Grazing, really. Little plates that you keep ordering until you are full.  It was fun to be in a place that has been open since 1928. Father and son work there. Father speaks Spanish, so we had a lively conversation learning a lot about them. Like in Italy, you can eat standing at a counter, no big deal. I wonder why we don't do this more in the US? What's with everyone sitting down, except at bars, where people stand when it gets busy and no bar stools left.

Then we napped! Still a bit jet-lagged, but gotta hit the market before it closes."

10/7 San Diego

10/7/05
Friday night after his class, Rio and I went on an adventure to the beach and Mexican food, both at his request. It was a beautiful, clear day, so we were able to drive around with the top down. We went to the beach in La Jolla, saw seals from about 15 feet away (photos to come), and had dinner on the outdoor patio at Alfonso’s.

Then we wandered through a few art galleries that had fun, funky art that appealed to Rio, including sculptured dragons (for ten thousand dollars and up), and original Dr. Seuss paintings and drawings. We also explored the La Valencia Hotel, which is a 100-year-old elegant mission-style hotel in La Jolla across the street from the beach. We snuck up the fire escape ladder to get a better view of everything! Rio decided he wants to come back and stay there. Good taste, kid.

La Valencia Hotel, La Jolla, CA
Inside La Valencia, view to beach

Working again

10/7/05
No photo to post yet, but at this moment I am working on my laptop in Peet’s Coffee, a coffee house in the Hillcrest district of San Diego near UCSD. I am here for a few days while Rio does the Landmark Forum for Young People, a course about life. We drove out last night and are staying here together for 3 days, then we will head off to Mexico (again).

Now here’s the amazing, new-millennium part of this… I have a question about formatting of an item in the curriculum I write, so I pick up my no-roaming, no-long-distance cell phone and call one of my goes-to-the-office-every day “co-workers,” and ask him my question. I get my answer, he probably wonders why it sounds loud and echo-y like I’m in a bar, but he doesn’t ask. I have my answer that quickly, and I am back to work. He’s on the west side of Phoenix in a cubicle, I’m in San Diego in a coffee house, and I have access to everything I need.

I don’t know if I did anything to deserve this, but I’m grateful for it…

9/5/05

After I crossed the border into Mexico, where I now write from, I realized this is my sixth foreign country in 6 weeks - Hong Kong, Macau, China (different than HK), Japan (okay just the airport, but it counts), Canada, and Mexico. I know it's kinda silly to say, but I LOVE THAT!!!

I said I was going to create an adventurous life, I have measurement that I'm on track, I'd say!