Well, it is almost time for us to leave Barca and make our way back to Texas. The last day or so, Dave and Michael have been "under the weather" with some kind of minor bug. They are resting in our lovely apartment (trying to ignore the non-stop construction going on in the apt building right next door). Jack is taking good care of them by venturing alone to the mercado, where he used his knowledge of Spanish and his ability to make Euro change to procure breakfast pastries. Maria decides to brave the rain and get a closer peek at [View Full Entry]

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Today we finally got some of that legendary Spanish summer heat. We decided to take a trip to Parc Guell, a wooded and hilly 30 acre park in the north of Barcelona (that was intended to be a gated community a century ago). The Parc features a number of structures designed by Antonio Gaudi. Antonio Gaudi was a engineer, architect & artist who lived in Barcelona in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and whose work is part of the "Catalan Art Nouveau" style. The buildings he designed are very unconventional, and feature curved (rather than straight) lines, bright colors, [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we went to Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona, one of the world's biggest and most popular football clubs. It was packed with visitors from all over the world. (And Bruce Springsteen fans hovered outside the grounds, awaiting a concert by Springsteen that evening.) Barcelona is the club for which Ronaldinho played until a few days ago. The stadium seats almost 100,000 people, and they offer a nice self-guided tour with audio guide. There is also an excellent museum describing the history of the club, which (we hadn't known) is closely tied to the Catalonia independence/autonomy mo [View Full Entry]

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This year in Spain we stayed in Barcelona and there was a chocolate muesem. They had really sweet chocolate sculptures like horses pulling carriages and the FC Barcelona logo. We got to see people make the sculptures. There was also a Barcelona stadium made out of chocolate. By mich@el $pence [View Full Entry]

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We did a lot of walking around our first couple of days here in Barcelona, almost all of it intentional. Our very nice apartment is located not too far from the Placa de Catalunya, a large, central square that divides old and new Barcelona. We took a walk on Las Ramblas, which runs south toward the harbor. It used to be a medieval drainage ditch along the outside of the walls of the old town (Barri Gotic), but is now a pedestrian friendly (crowded) area with outdoor bird markets and flower sellers, and shops with outrageously expensive souvenirs. We also saw [View Full Entry]

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On Sunday, the boys and I left Dave in Edinburgh to finish up his teaching gig; we flew to Girona, Spain in Catalonia (North East), which is not too far from the Pyrenees in France. We stayed at a new Express Holiday Inn in Salt, a town on the outskirts of Girona. When we visited the nearby mall in search of dinner (7:30pm) we were surprised to find all the shops closed. We inquired at the hotel desk, and discovered that actually the shops had not yet opened for dinner! So, we took an short but exciting drive to the Las [View Full Entry]

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I am going to continue on my car blog. I have got a few more pictures I would like you to see. Most of these pictures I took on top of double decker buses so they are slightly from above. The silver car is a souped up MG convertible, they don’t have MG in the u s a . The black convertible is a Porsche boxter, the black BMW is a m6 coupe. The smallish black one is a smart for fun.my favorite car is this pink Chrysler 300C limozine with stars on it, we saw it on the way back [View Full Entry]

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On the boys' last day in Edinburgh, we decided to attempt to “summit” Arthur's Seat, a forbidding mountain that looms menacingly over Edinburgh. Maria declined to go, citing "shopping fever", and calling our attempt "sheer madness." 11:13 am: We depart base camp, catching the #27 bus downtown, and switching to the #35 to Holyrood after securing provisions. We opt not to bring oxygen, as the summit is only about 1000 feet above sea level. I would come to regret that decision. 11:43am: We begin our ascent using the traditional "western route" along Salisbury Crags. Howeve [View Full Entry]

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Here are some videos from street performers on the royal mile and some videos from Camera Obscura. The street performer was an American magician. The second one put a sword next to my neck, shook my hand, patted me on the head, and saluted me. Camera Obscura is a place with lots of optical illusions. [View Full Entry]

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