Spain and Beyond

A Tale of Two Stories

Daily Lorena: Colors…Textures…Aromas…Tastes

Today was another exploratory day for Anna and me, starting off with a walk on the beach followed by a beachside lunch. Anna found the seafood paella she’d been craving, and I had some tasty salmon and veggies. We walked around the streets and metro’d it up to various places in the city. We targeted a delightful open-air fruits and veggie market (Mercat de la Boqueria), and having just filled our tummies with gelato, we followed with a fruit drink; mine was blackberry and coconut – yum. The colors combination of all the drinks together in a row were too pretty to resist. Another of our stopping points was a Gaudi house (Casa Batllo), and we could tell when we found it by the sheer number of tourists swarming the area. However, they were charging something like €27 to get in, and we just couldn’t stomach the blatant rip-off commercialism happening, so we continued on our way. I’m sure it was amazing, but there is plenty else to see in Barcelona too. Back to the pier we went, mostly to use the bano for .65 and then to hang out for a bit before a Flamenco show. This was Take II of my Flamenco experience, and I was really curious as to how our first one in Granada would compare to this one. I loved the dancing in the Granada show, but I was not fond of the singing/music at all. It was one guitarist and one singer, and I didn’t think the singer was all that good. However, it was definitely a local’s Flamenco, and this one in Barcelona was a tourist’s Flamenco. This one had two guitarists and a person that played something that looked like a box. There was still one singer, and a female dancer and a male dancer who danced one song, but then went into the band. I thought the overall music was better at this show, although the music style is still not my cup of tea. The female dancer was better in Granada, although they were both good and quite intense. They worked up a sweat. We sat in the first row and were worried that sweat droplets might be flinging into the audience, but we came out unscathed. We arrived home, delighted to find that the little box considered “internet” finally arrived. Beggers can’t be choosers though, and I’m glad to get a ‘hit’, no matter how slow. I know. The addiction is bad. But I also need it for work tomorrow!

: A beach jungle gym

: Anna!

: We asked a random person to be our photographer for us. He turned out to be a real photographer.

: Seafood paella by the sea

: Our lunchtime view.

: The trees are starting to bloom and they really smelled pretty

: Loved the diamond windows completing the diamond pattern in this building

: Some fruits that I had never heard of were in this beautiful mix.

: Lots of spices

: The expensive Spanish spice, Saffron, which is the key ingredient in paella.

: Yummy colors, yummy fruit drinks

: For my designer friends – a three-dimensional shoe made out of letters

: Casa Batllo, by Gaudi

: Nice choice, bird.

: Another Gaudi building

: Flamenco performers

Daily Drew: The Journey Begins

We were to meet Phillipe, our French guide, at 9am down at breakfast, so after a quick shower and packing up, we meet our two other companions for the trip: Dellon, a lumberjack from Canada, and Justin, a software developer from San Francisco. Phillipe showed up eventually and outfitted with our missing gear: climbing harness, boot crampons, and ice axe. However, after handing out the gear, he asked us if we all had ski crampons – the two others did, but Cory and I did not (we thought he was supplying all the crampons necessary…), so we said we’d go look for some when we picked up our skis from the ski shop (we dropped them off for a tune and wax after biking). Arriving at the ski shop, we found our skis, but they didn’t rent ski crampons for our skis – Cory uses the Marker binding system which apparently doesn’t have easily found compatible crampons and my skis were just too fat for what crampons they had. So, off to another shop, and another shop! We realized we just weren’t going to find ones made for our skis so we met up with the rest of the group and figured we’d just use our boot crampons and boot-pack it where crampons were needed with our skis on our back. Arriving at the lift, Phillipe started handing out even more gear (when will it stop?) of three pairs of ropes, so I grabbed one to haul up with me as I still had room in my pack. Up the lifts we went (two gondolas) to reach the top of the Argentiere Glacier and what a view it was – peaks in all directions on a beautiful sunny day. After taking some photos and getting our harnesses on, skied down the glacier a bit, Phillipe guiding us and letting us know about the crevasses and snow bridges found in the area. We reached partway down the glacier and switched over to skins to skin up the glacier to our stop for the evening: the Argentiere Hut. Welcome to the Alps – these are barely “huts” in the sense of the word that we in Colorado are used to – this place had a full on kitchen where they cook for you and it houses 91!!! people. Very different from Colorado. We tossed our gear and settled down for some lunch – since they cook for you, I ditched my granola and trail mix and opted to split a huge omelette of eggs, potatoes, ham, and cheese with the guide and Justin. This thing was massive – it came out on a silver platter and was a good foot and a half long, 8 inches wide and 4 inches tall – massive! Suffice it to say that it definitely filled our tummies for lunch. We then had a quick avy chat and a how-to on boot crampon usage, then lazed about for the rest of the afternoon, chatting the evening away before dinner. Dinner came – a three course meal of vegetable soup, lamb chops in a cream sauce with prunes, and caramelized custard. Bon apetit! It was the best meal I’ve had so far on our entire journey. After some cards with the guys, lights out were a little before 10pm, so we headed off the quarters to sleep. And that’s where my journey took a turn for the worse. Around 10:30pm, I started feeling queasy, with hot and cold spells, headache, dry mouth, and not being able to sleep. Granted, some of this was due to the rest of the guys in the quarters snoring and tossing and turning and it being about 100 degrees inside, but, I tossed and turned the entire night, not getting a wink of sleep.

Drew KilzApril 7, 2014April 15, 2014 Argentiere, Barcelona, France, Spain 2 Comments

One Day, Two Cities

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.

: It’s a political parade this time! Drew will be so sad that he missed it.

: street entertainers

: Ouch. Even with a helmet.

: Anna and Tapas!

: The tapa selection.

: Could this be the wedding cake of choice?

: No, I think THIS is the one! It’s only a little bit taller than me.

: Afternoon siesta on the pier.

: Old town Barcelona

: Beautiful outdoor wall decoration

: Coffee/Tea time

: So many soaps, all smelling delicious enough to eat (almost).

: This little boy loved popping the big bubbles

: Music filled the streets

: Loved the colors. Too bad they were closed.

: Funky street artwork, just hanging out on the corner.

: And dinner.

: That’s the moon peaking above the buildings

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.

Lorena FoxApril 6, 2014April 16, 2014 Argentiere, Barcelona, France, Geneva, Spain, Switzerland 3 Comments

Drew’s Trip Begins…

Daily Drena: His Gaudiness

Waking up to a bright sunny morning at 8am was brutal, but I had lots to do today. First was making a list for I needed for my trip to Switzerland. “Hold on”, you say, “I thought you were visiting Spain?” Well, basically, Cory, a friend of ours from back home was planning a hut trip along the Haute Route of France and Switzerland. And he invited me along at the last minute about a week ago; did I mention he was flying out the next morning? So, after initially dismissing the possibility, it took root in my mind as we hadn’t made plans for the following week and I thought, “I can do this…”. So within the next 8 hours, Lorena and I figured out how to pull it off: first, ask my boss for the next week off (a vacation from my vacation), then figure out what gear I need and organize a friend at home to perform a scavenger hunt for all of it (thanks Chris!!!), pack it up, and leave it at the door for Cory to pick up on his way home that night. Luckily, I’m organized enough that I knew where almost everything was, minus my ski bag, which I had Chris crawl all around under the house, but then he found it in the garage, whoops! I was up until 4am to make sure everything was organized and found so hopefully this trip is worth the lost sleep! Okay, so back to the list: That took a little while as I had to compile what I knew Cory was bringing for me, what I had in my possession in Spain, and what was leftover. Thankfully it was a small list, mostly consisting of things I could grab at the grocery store, but we needed to hit a sports store for some odds and ends.

The list completed, it was time to tackle the shower over the toilet oddity. Yes, the shower is literally on top of the toilet. After some contortions (I’m thankful I am a skinny guy), I was able to mostly shower, only bruising my shin on the toilet and turning the water off once. However, after drying off, the bathroom floor is still super wet, so if you need to use the toilet you better be wearing some footwear! Oh, not to mention the accidental turning on of the shower with my elbow while using the toilet with clothes on … An interesting experience, but I think I prefer having enough space in the bathroom to allow a separate shower stall…

So we went shopping and wandered around the city next. We stopped by the Sagrada Familia (Gaudi’s famous church that has been under construction for over 100 years) on the way to the sports store. I had a few things to get here, one of which was a hat/cap for when it was hot out. After trying on the same cap multiple times and Lorena bursting into laughter every time, I decided to purchase it anyway – it was lightweight and functional, albeit not too fashionable. Next we just wandered at random, looking for interesting things in the city. As part of this journey, we came across a number of pelequrias (haircut shops), and I decided to get a much-needed haircut. No English, two shampoos (they shampoo, then cut, then shampoo, then dry as part of a standard haircut), some brief interaction in Spanish, and I emerged sans most of my hair. Both of us slowly getting over the shock of me having such short hair, we headed off to Gaudi’s Park Guell next. We were surprised that part of the gardens (a UNESCO world heritage site) weren’t free, but walked through the section that was free. There were a billion people in the area, and it definitely wasn’t a park to relax in. But there were some interesting cavelike structures made of rock with listeria growing up them.

Having spent the entire afternoon exploring Barcelona, we went to the grocery before home to pack, eat a quick spaghetti dinner, and rush out of the apartment at the last second to head to the airport via metro & train. I arrived with plenty of time (the airport was super dead) for my flight on Swiss airlines. Now, not only was my ticket fairly cheap, but onboard I was given a sandwich made of cheese produced in northeast Switzerland (it was delicious), a handful of Swiss chocolates, and a drink. All on a flight that was only an hour and ten minutes long, left early, and arrived early. Color me impressed. I arrived in Geneva around 10:00 pm and found my hostel for the night after wandering around lost for a little while.