Last night Will suffered from a bout of heat exhaustion and had a rough couple hours so today was very measured in terms of activity, siesta and sun. After hanging around the pool for a bit in the morning we drove to Pylos – 6 km for lunch – local sausage, chicken souvlaki and tiny grilled fish – again the kids loved that they were chewing fish eyes and brains Pylos has a cute harbour but is not really a draw. Then we drove another 10 km to Methoni – we swam in the ocean on a lovely beach right beside – the Venetian castl3e from the twelve hundreds has the sea on three sides and a massive moat on the other. Then back for a late siesta and a swim. This area of th Peloponnese ... read more

Marika, Will and Kim recently became Greek citizens and yesterday had a lovely drive through their second country (they of course maintain their Canadian citizenship). We drove from Athens over the Corinth Canal and diagonally across the Peloponnese peninsula. We stopped at Mycenae – Agamemmon’s citadel. While the area had Neolithic settlements about 5,000 years ago, the Mycenean civilisation about 3,500 years ago. In Homer’s Odyssey, Mycenae was founded by Perseus who slayed Medusa. This is where the classic tragedy of Elektra and Orestes and Klytemnestra took place. We drove down and peeked at Greece’s former capital,. Nafplio then drove through rain and wind through the Peloponnese mountains through Tripoli and then down to the South West corner of Greece sticking out into the Mediterranean. Our resort is the jewel of the region. We were greeted ... read more

Breakfast in Barcelona, lunch in Munich, afternoon snack over Slovenia (according to the pilot) and dinner in Athens. Will, Marika and I took the Germany detour to Athens thanks to booking through points, while Kim flew straight to Athens and hung out with a very close family member, Despina Meimaroglou - first cousin of Kim's father and Despina flew to Ottawa to come to Kim's and my wedding in 1999. (Despina is an artist of international reknown - lots of multimedia stuff - I have spent some time experiencing her work online over the past months and highly recommend it.... (http://www.meimaroglou.com/ ). So the guy beside me in the airport in Munich asked Marika where she was from. I then asked where he was from - Chicago - we talked about Chicago since I was there ... read more

We went to the Sagrada Familia today - we thought all the fuss was about the outside of the structure. David Pepper recently flipped me an email from a friend of his who had just visited the Sagrada which began "When was the last time you spent 3 and a half hours in a church?". Little did we know... They had audio tour devices both specifically for children and for adults. The ones for the kids were perfect and appropriate and engaged them both for a couple hours. There is no way to couch this - I have little to nothing to do with churches in my life. I expected it to look inside like ... well - a fancy church. I walked in, looked up, said two words which I hope the kids never hear ... read more

Our apartment in this leg of our Barcelona visit is way way over the top. It is almost part of Iberia's most famous building - the Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudi. It is right across a park from the entrance to the Sagrada - the rooftop terrace looms over the Sagrada. Really quite surreal. The little park below our living room has sections for a dog park, a children's play area and a pond which from our apartment reflects the church. The apartment has four balconies - one off of Marika and Willl's bedroom and one off of our bedroom - and one off of each end of our living room. Great sized bathroom and kitchen. Yesterday was a travel day from Lisbon and the rest of it was looking in awe at the Sagrada - ... read more