Barcelona, Day One

We always need a little pocket money in the local currency, so we find an ATM.  This is often an adventure. You never know how it's going to work out.  We've had a year where Sabrina's card got demagnetized (which we figured out after hitting every ATM in Heidelberg). Another time the machine ate the card (travel tip, use a machine that's attached to a bank during operating hours so you can go inside and retrieve the card). And not all machines have English as an option, although you can muddle your way through, high school Spanish helped out this year. I did get 100 Euro from Wells Fargo before we left ( I LOVE the Wells Fargo's in P-Town.  They have the friendliest people and all the benefits of a big bank.  I don't have an account with them but I have my ways to snag the benefits). It sometimes takes all four of us to make the transaction work. This is part of our travel routine and we still get a kick out of this.....plenty of tension....sort of like playing the slots.

We always select a hotel that's right in the middle of things, Hotel Avenida Palace this time. We spend the extra money to have a great location so we don't spend vacation time getting to where we want to be. Now we're ready for some fun and adventure.

We always find something that makes us chuckle. We saw these women all dressed alike, in plain dresses.  Is it a cult? Sister wives? Lovers of burlap?

And then some signs just don't translate well in to English.....like this one.....they sell candy that's packaged to look like pills.....I would guess this is not too good to have around children....wouldn't they confuse medicine and candy?

And this is a bar with a bench you can sit next to Obama and take a photo.  Barack didn't look well.  It was a very poor replica.  It didn't photo well either, so you'll just need to take my word...it was ugly....

 Gin is HUGE in Spain....gin and tonics are THE drink....

Then we finish up and call it a day....

Barcelona Digs

We have our routine when we get to our hotel.  We take a photo in front of the hotel....

We take a photo of the room before we clutter it up with our stuff......

We had adjoining rooms and we ended up with the handicap room.  We had no counter space, which made things very interesting. And we had funky shower doors.  We spent four nights here and we finally had things figured out by the third night.

We take photos of interesting parts of our hotel...

Then we get a decent city map for our navigator, Dave....

Then we're ready to hit the streets.....

The Spanish Adventure Begins

We have friends, another couple, that we've been traveling with for years. We barely see them during the year, spend a couple of weeks together, and still think of them as dear, close friends.  It is so rare that two couples fit together so well, under stressful conditions (this year especially so), and enjoy it so much we do it again and again, year after year.

During the trip we begin discussing our next year's adventure.  Dave has been voting for Spain for years.  He's been the lone vote.  Until this year.  So we're off to Spain.  I thought we were going to Spain in 2008, I bought the Rick Steves' book, and then read it again for this trip. Rick Steves has always been spot on for us....until this year.  As I re-read the book, I just couldn't get in to the whole Spain decision.

We usually begin planning the trip one year in advance, booking the air and hotels about six months out.  This time it seemed we were throwing it together, all last minute. We didn't book until three months out and then didn't meet with the travel agent until about a week before departure.  We missed the trip last year and were not sure it was going to happen this year.  The economy has been so tenuous that we weren't sure it was a wise choice to spend the big bucks on travel.  Then we all decided what the hay, let's do it. If we run out of money we'll just move in with our children and they can take care of us.

We left from SFO and arrived in Heathrow (London) about 10.5 hours later.  We fly United and go with the Economy Plus which gets you 6 more inches of leg room (and plenty of "six inch" jokes).  It doesn't sound like much, but it's HUGE on a long flight. In the past it's only cost $100 extra, total.  Now that United has merged with Continental, it's gone up in price, considerably.  Oh well....

Because United does not fly to Barcelona, we had to claim our luggage in Heathrow and go through customs, passport control, and security.  The four hour lay over sounded like plenty, but we just made it. Seriously.  Air travel is so ghetto now. Absolutely no glamour. And we're four physically capable, intelligent, and experienced people.  The terrorists have won.

Miguel had a terrible time with security during this trip.......He set off every alarm, at every airport, and we never figured out why. He was scanned, frisked, and had all his stuff rifled through.  He maintained a great attitude.  Copping an attitude would have only made it harder.

Travel is fun.  You see all sorts of odd stuff.  In the United Kingdom they say "Mind the Gap" to tell you to watch your step.  They even have T-Shirts, etc. that mock this.

After the layover we flew another 2.5 hours to Barcelona and arrived safely.....a bit tired, but still smiling....

They're Watching!!!!

Grandson #2, aka Baby T, is 13 months old. Keep that in mind.  We just returned from a two week trip and J brought the boys by our house so we could love on them.  Two weeks is forever.  Far too long to go without hugging and kissing on your grandchildren.  They change so much.  When we left, Baby T was hanging on to furniture and taking a step to hang on to another piece of furniture.  When we returned, he's walking all over the place. Able to get in to even more stuff.

We had the remotes on the coffee table (silly us, we usually put them up when the boys are coming over), he reached and picked up one of them, and look what he did...

Try to get beyond the fact that he is so stinkin' adorable....I know that's nearly impossible to do.....because he is so stinkin' adorable....see what he's doing? He's picked up the remote and is holding it to his ear...as if it were a phone!  Now where do you suppose he gets that from?  Here's a hint.......

Photo removed on request (really a demand)

yep, that's his Mama playing on her phone.  Oh, and that's not a roll of fat....that's #3...a GIRL!!!!!! She's not going to like this photo..I'll brace myself for the screaming call (which woke us up from a sound sleep).

Those little babies are watching everything we adults do....especially mom & dad (and G.Ma and G.Pa, etc.).  We all need to become the people we want those little people to become.  And I'm afraid that means putting away the electronics, practicing good manners (living considerately with one another), speaking properly (clean up the language, increase the vocabulary), not multi-tasking, reading our Bible and good books, following the rules (well, most of them) etc., etc.

Did You Miss Us?

We've been traveling and this time, we did not blog while traveling.  It all started out with the thought that perhaps we should not advertise the fact we were gone.  Then we decided that everything of value, that would be us, could not be stolen while we were away from home....we really don't have things that someone would want to steal...and really it's all just stuff anyway.  Then the internet access during our trip was AWFUL (oh the things we take for granted living here in the US, and particularly California...we are so spoiled), so it just didn't happen.

Stay tuned....we're working on some posts for our trip....just trying to make them interesting.

MoMo to Motorcycle

Our oldest grandson was enamored with all things with wheels from the start.  He learned all about motorcycles from his G.Pa's garage.  He called motorcycles "MoMo's" and we thought it was very cute.  He read through all the motorcycle magazines and pointed out the motorcycles, helmets, and every rider was his G.Pa.

There were two motorcycles and he liked his G.Ma's mostly because he fit better on the smaller one.  He no longer asks his G.Pa to take him to the garage to sit on the motorcycle, but he still likes it....since he climbed up, all by himself, without asking (need to work on that one) while visiting this week.

You can really tell how much he's grown too.....

I sure hope G.Pa checks all the switches and dials before he rides.....

He's just too cute...and still doesn't quite fit in to the helmet.....

Late Summer Fun

Our grandchildren dropped by at lunch to play with their toys...when they see the toys, they act like they're new toys.....and I still can't believe Dave allows his garage to be filled with all their toys...good job G.Pa.

We didn't buy them all.....Auntie Donna gets some of the credit.....this is just one of about NINE Tonka Trucks that she donated to their stash.

And please note the totally cool Converse shoes that E is sportin'........