Odds and Ends

Or everything ends well that ends oddly.

Due to internet restrictions (like in not existing in places) I never got to share many of the wonderful twists and turns of our vacation adventure so buckle your seat belts or get some caffeine I can't tell what you will need to get through this.

First of all when we went to pick up the rental car they didn't have the dinky model we had booked and instead we got a nice size Puegot that was automatic (not that common in Europe apparently) and it had a built in GPS. We had a our GPS with us although our confidence in it's abilities has been shaken thoroughly. Now we had dueling GPS. Yes, cue the banjo music. The car one had a nice English accent and ours apparently hails from Detroit constantly "Recalculating" in a some what miffed tone of voice. At any moment I expected it to break down and say, "No the OTHER right! Ding Bat!" Add to this that Billy and I are both oldest children and were armed with three maps, and two guide books. Oh did I mention that we both have iTouches with downloaded maps?

That's right, "Bring It GPS" and you better be right!! So where we might have been playing highway games like "Slug Bug" (if you don't know this one don't get started). We instead had a running dialog with the GPS units, albeit somewhat one sided since even though you can make them talk they definitely stick to their "talking points". Most of the time they agreed....with each other....not necessarily with us. It did add some interest at times and coming into to a large town and trying to get through it or around it they were definitely helpful. At one time our GPS went missing for a day (we found it hiding behind a box on a table how did it get there??) and we were down to the English lady pleasantly telling us to take a "Half Right" turns here and there. Not bothering to chide us when she had to "Recalculate" and I have to say I missed the uptight one just a little.

Up at the top is a picture I took on the Costa do Morte (Galician for Death Coast) hopefully you can see that it shows Leslie Howard (yes the star of Pygmalion, non singing version of My Fair Lady). It turns out that about a year before D-Day he went on a secret mission to Spain to get them to agreed to not enter WWII on Germany's side he was shot down on his return on the coast by a German war plane. Who knows maybe he accomplished his mission because Spain never entered the war.

Now last but well, OK probably least...you get my observations on bed pillows and bidets.

First the bidets we never saw one in France but in Spain every place we stayed including the Casa Ruals had bidets in the bathrooms. They are very useful and particularly handy if you are doing a bit of laundry!

Beds pillows are a separate topic and know some of you just sighed in relief....didn't you? Growing up in the ole US of A I thought I knew what a bed pillow should be, a nice puffy rectangle. In France they are square puffy bits, and in Spain they are long tube like affairs meant to go directly across the bed to be shared by all or in our case both. I am not sure what it means except that I noticed IKEA in all three places so one thing it means it that they have to make at least three different pillow shapes.

We are finishing up here, one more tasty French meal and we catch the night train to Paris hopefully getting back to Seattle by 10 pm Sat. It has been amazing trip and fun writing this blog thanks for reading! Cris

PS We only have about 3,000 pictures to show YOU. Just giving you a heads up ;-)

Got Storks?

We are back in Toulouse so I thought I'd update my Blog! While we were in Spain I did not have great internet access and in the the little town called Covarrubius we were high and dry web wise. Of course that was when we discovered that our bank had decided to protect our money ....from us! At one point desperate for web connection we went to the town library, very coolly located in the tower keep, where the lady running the place kicked the local boys off one of the computers so that we could activate family members to plead with the bank for us.

This picture was taken from our bedroom window that looked out on a little church built in the 11th century. Much to our surprise there was a family of storks looking down on us. Stork nests on top of churches seems to be pretty common in Spain we saw a couple of them.

We spent two nights in this little Medieval town, 40 Km outside of the big city of Burgos in Castle Spain. We came from A Coruna where you hear the constant cries of the seagulls and the pounding night life and it was really nice to have piece and quiet. The hotel we stayed in was family run although we only met one person of the family because the rest were on vacation! Each room was named for a historical figure and we stayed in the one called Atanagildo, who was the first Visigoth King of Spain to die of old age!

Every afternoon at about 5:30 pm all the residents of the town meet at one of the two local bars (including the one at our hotel) and drink and play cards for a couple of hours until dinner. The days are hot but it has relatively high elevation so the evenings cool off quickly.

Since the town really is old they don't have to go all "Ye Olde" to attract tourists and most of the tourists are Spanish. We went on a 14 Km walk that they have outlined in the tourist center and had a great time walking through cherry fields and to another town and back. At the end of our hike we put on our bathing suits and cooled off in the river. The people in the town have piled rocks in the river creating a small dam which in turns creates a lake for swimming and it was a perfect way to cool off.

So that we would be ready for lunch at 2 pm. Yes, you read that correctly. Even in the small towns the bars don't open until 6 pm and dinner before 10 pm is considered eating early. On the up side it does give you time to down a couple pitchers of Sangria and take a nap before dinner ;-) !

Ah.....A Coruna!

No one parties like the Spanish!! Even the Spanish seagulls keep late hours and you can see them and hear them wheeling through the sky lit by the city as late as 12 pm.

After that who knows what they are doing because that is when the night life really picks up. Of course we eat at the early bird special hour of 9:30 or 10 pm. ;-)

A Coruna is beautifully situated at the middle of an istmus that creates a harbor on one side and a beach on the other. At the end is the old city where every thing is cobbled there are no cars and some of the old walls for defence still exist.

Today we went to the Archiology museum which is housed in a old fort. They had exhibits of inhabitants from 1000 years before the Romans. These people were Celts and Galicia is still Celtic. (After all, given the weather who else would what to settle here!) Then we had an early lunch at 1:30pm and decided to enjoy another aspect of Spanish culture the Siesta! Eat then nap, it just seems like the right thing to do.

The eating here is all about the seafood, specially the octopus. Every restaurant has octopus and squid on the menu. I of course am pro octopus in the way that octopus would approve of....I don't eat them, but there is plenty of other food and the local beer is fantastic and very affordable.

The weather here has been fantastic! Warm but not HOT and we have been swimming at a local beach just two blocks away every day. The water is still on the cold side, 64 F, but it is clear and blue. We plan to spend one more day here on the coast then we are headed to the interior for 2 days then back to France!

Even though this city is off the beaten track it is a wonderful place to vacation. Museums, aquarium, and miles of great Tapas bars, just remember to bring ear plugs if you plan to sleep before 3 am!

Picos de Europa!

Here is a picture of the Parador at Fuente De(Spain's national hotel chain) you can see the Picos directly behind and those black lines in the sky go to a cable car that we took to the ridge that you see behind the Parador.

When we got here we arrived under cover of gray sky and fog it was impossible to see the ring of peaks that surrounded us. Cool and gray
it looked like polar fleece time.

However this morning dawned clear and cold with blue sky and sunshine and we jumped at the chance to ride the teleferico (box hung on a cable) to the top for a ramble at 2000 meters. We walked the 6 mile round trip and saw the high alpine region complete with cows (with bells), sheep, and horses. No unruly alpine meadows here! Every edible plant was closely clip to the ground making a very even cover for the hills and valleys.

The Parador is wonderful. Great room with a great view!

Foiled By Fiesta!!

San Vicente del la Barquera, Spain is a beautiful Atlantic coast town set along the rolling green foot hills of the Picos de Europa. Our hotel is situlated along the edge of the harbor with views looking out to the Castle on the hill across the estuary. Directly below the hotel.... was what looked like a small carnival,"Oh look", I said " we are so lucky we are here for the Fiestas de Ntra. Sra del Carman!"

It is small fiesta, just a few rides for the children and a couple of
stalls. But the highlights are giant grills set up to cook thousands of freshly caught sardines and two stages with live music!
For a small town the line for sardines at 10:30 pm, was impressive.
7€ got you a baguette stuffed to the gills (literally) with grilled
sardines plus a generous supply of the local wine from wooden casts set out for self service.

The music was loud and and varied from folk to Tejano, so cool, so
colorful and did I mention loud? When we got back to the hotel we
asked a few questions and guess what the music lasts until 3 am!!

Back in the room I tried ear plugs and head phones but to no avail
while Billy dosed off like he was listening to lullabies!

Lucky me it is a two night fiesta! I wonder what the Spanish word for
"sleeping pills" is???

Leaving "TheBig Easy Bake" (Oven)

Here is an example of what Toulouse is made of. In fact it's historical nickname is "la Ville la Rose" because the city glows red from all the brick work.

My new nickname for it is, "The Big Easy Bake" because when it gets hot it stays hot which probably expalins why the town is beginning to empty out. The French are almost religious about taking their vacations. It is quite normal to find everyone gone for the month of August but in Toulouse I think folks like to get a head start. Already in the main market many of the stalls were shuttered for the next month or so.

These last 3 weeks have been great! Summer full on and if it is hot in Seattle when I get back then I will have had some nice heat training! However it wasn't particularly interesting. I mean how many stories can one endure were the heroine is blissfully stuffing French vocabulary into English sentence structure?

The upside is that I can now conduct myself with the barest minimum of words and people will blather on in French to me (some of which I understand) and I can pass with the appropriate facial expressions and a well place word or two. However it if gets to a word or three or four that is when the wheels come off the bus ;-) I will confess that it is weird "pour ma" to be "that quiet girl" who doesn't talk.

Oh, some of you out there, I know, are saying, "I hope it lasts! I hope it lasts!" All I can say is I wouldn't count on it.

Our next act will be to follow the exodus and act French and go on vacation! Well technically Billy is going on vacation and I guess I am just staying on vacation. We are going to Galicia, Spain. Vacation destination from Toulouse (at least for pilgrims) for almost 2,000 years and now the home of that famous coqillage wearing Saint James!

We are going to try something new this time. We are going to rent a car BUT not spend the whole time driving like pilgrims on crack! In fact we already have hotel reservations and are going to have a base in a couple places to explore from.

Then it is back to Toulouse for one night then the night train to Paris, metro to CDG airport, catch our flight and hopefully I'll be chatting up the checkout people at QFC by 10 pm July 31st!

In the meantime if I have an internet connection I will up date both the blog and FB. For now I'm off to practice mangling the Spanish language! I guess I will start with "Habla usted Ingles?" Or if desperate, "How about that World Cup?!?"