Spain and Beyond

Daily Lorena: Girl Time!

Drew has jumped off to Switzerland to play in the snow with Cory for a week, and I have found myself in Barcelona for 10 days. My good friend, Anna, who lives in London now, arrives today to join for a 4-day whirlwind tour of Barcelona. I haven’t seen her in about 10 years and it’s so good to catch up. Last we saw each other was in NY we think, and she had a Swedish accent (she is from Sweden), and now she sports a lovely English accent – how fun!  Around and around we go, wandering the old streets and stopping randomly at anything that piques our interest. We run into a political protest parade, and weave through the end of a running race. We enter a beautiful Cathedral (La Catedral), and lunch on tapas and Verano Tinto (summer wine similar to Sangria), where we pay based on the number of toothpicks we have left on our plates. We come across a sweets festival and carefully choose a chocolate delicacy. We bask in the sunshine with a nap on the pier for siesta. We have late afternoon tea in a cozy place in El Call, a medieval Jewish area, and then find ourselves another cozy restaurant in the Barri Gotic area for dinner. Drew has left his camera with us, so we get to go a little crazy taking photos (although I know Drew will be sooo pleased when he has to download and process them all). It was a fabulous, full day and I admit that I am quite fond of this enchanting place that is Barcelona.

Daily Drew: Anticipation

Today was another early day. I slept okay, but not well, even with my headphones in to drown out the snorers. I packed up and headed off to the hotel to find Cory next, then off to the airport once we determined that, amazingly, I actually had everything I needed. At the airport we spotted the shuttles to our destination, but we also spotted a sign saying “we do not sell tickets here”. Hmm, okay, to the internet then: “we do not sell tickets within 12 hours of departure. Please call this number.” Okay…called and they said that the people at the airport can actually sell the tickets. So Cory headed back to the stand and lo and behold the lady walked Cory down 50m to an airport official who could make the transaction (I still don’t understand why they can’t sell tickets directly…). But anyways, off to Argentiere we went, the land getting more beautiful as we continued up and into the mountains. We were dropped off at the Hotel La Couronne where we checked in and found some awesome caramel candies at reception (of which we devoured more than our fair share). After dropping our gear off it was only 2:30 and we weren’t sure what to do so we started waking around town, and then Cory had the idea to rent some bikes to go explore. After popping in a few shops, we were directed to a shop down the street, where we were able to grab some bikes (think old school front suspension mashed to death bikes). The guy who rented the bikes was kind enough to show us a map and possible places to go, although he didn’t know much about biking in the area, so we decided to go up to the pass via the road and down into Switzerland. We arrived at the first village and saw some walking trail signs, so off we went to explore some more and found some great biking on the hiking trails with great signage so as not to get lost. We had a blast trying to head out to some waterfalls, but came across too many rock paths and snow, so we stopped hike-a-biking and headed back down through a different way and home via the road. All told, about 2.5 hours of exploration and about 20-25kms of fun. Returning the bikes, we got a recommendation for a restaurant up the mountain so we hiked up about 20 minutes, finding it nestled along the road in a grove of trees. Apparently we were the first ones there, so we got a choice of tables and although I understand a few of the things on the menu (it was all French), the waitress was kind enough to chat with us for about 5 minutes explaining what was available to eat. Cory had a toasted bread with melted cheese, a cream sauce, and mushrooms of the forest, while I chose a baked dish of eggs, potatoes, ham, and cheese. Both were superb. After hanging out there eating dinner and watching the other patrons as they arrived, it was nightfall and we started making our way back down the mountain in the dark; a slight moon was out and it wasn’t too cloudy so thankfully we were able to make our way back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.