This was a *real* sleep-in. We had been exhausted not only from last night, but the previous 3 nights in Barcelona, where we didn't get to bed before 12am and it was generally closer to 2am. As such, we finally awoke around 12:15pm! Che awoke from the lounge to make us waffles - and boy were they good! Penny had also laid on fruit salad and banana bread muffins - a very welcome change from our usual breakfast of the last 5 weeks! We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the girls - painting and building a "yoghurt machine" and generally horsing around. Mikaley even gave us a guided tour of the backyard and pool - with full commentary. Those two are enough to wear anyone out! We had a few chores to do ... read more

The breakfast plan was the same as yesterday, and then we walked down to meet the bus at the start of the red tour shortly after 9am. The bus was empty, and we got off at the Park Guell stop for the short hike up the hill to the park itself. Amazing, Gaudi was really tripping when we did his work! ;) Colour and wavy lines is his style, and there's plenty of both in the park entrance. The rest of the park is more reserved colour-wise, though the wavy theme is realised in abundance in every bridge, path, seat and structure throughout the park. Seriously cool stuff! We spent at least an hour in the park, before heading down to the bus again via the several souvenir shops. Karina bought a Gaudi bull and a ... read more

A slower day today with nothing but a couple of long train trips with a 3 hour wait in between. I took advantage of the eggs again, and after packing we headed out on the short walk to the train station, this time getting there more-or-less just in time to board the train. The trip to Montpellier was completely uneventful, other than the "musical chairs" we had to play for much of the trip because our seats were faced backwards and Karina gets motion sickness. Fortunately the train was little more than half full and we had no trouble switching to forward-facing seats after each stop. At Marseilles, the train reversed direction and we could return to our assigned seats. We grabbed lunch at Montpellier station, and I then went in search of an English book ... read more

We could sleep in a little this morning, as we had an 8:34am train to catch to La Spezia. Travel day today - 3 trains in all. Karina ate cereal out of my Mets cup again, and I opted to grab something on the way to the train station. After showers and packing, we tackled the stairs again with our bags - exercise enough for the day! We also picked up another half-bottle of Cinque Terre wine - to open on our first anniversary! Only a 10 minute trip to La Spezia, and about an hour wait for the train to Genova. I'd forgotten to buy breakfast in Riomaggiore, so I ducked into McDonalds - fortunately they offered ham and egg on English muffin rather than the disgusting American 'biscuit'. After weeks of European Continental breakfasts, ... read more

Another early start to get out the door and catch the 9:11am train again to Cinque Terre, or more specifically, Riomaggiore. After breakfast and packing we had 40 mins to spare and turned out the lights for a cat nap. The train trip was agonisingly slow, especially because the seats were very uncomfortable and the train was at least 30 mins late by the time we reached our destination - it literally crawled the last 45 mins of the trip. We headed up to the office in the main via of Riomaggiore - a winding street on about a 40 degree incline - and got the keys to the apartment. Turned out to be almost directly across the street from the office. The stairs to the apartment - on the equivalent of perhaps the 4th floor ... read more