Aaron’s Holiday Visit.

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There is nothing like being with family during the holidays. Our time in France has made us aware of this more than ever.

Before leaving for Spain, we took Aaron to the calanques (see pic) and to the nearby islands (see pic) to catch some views.

On Friday, December 26, we took the high-speed train to Lyon, France, where we spent the afternoon and evening seeing some of the sights of Lyon, including a visit to Notre Dame de Fourviere (see pic). In the evening we ate at one of Rick Steves’ recommended restaurants where we started with a meat salad that looked “different;” our digestive systems also found it a bit different. By the way, Lyon, not Paris, is supposed to be the culinary capital of France, but we are not so sure.

The next morning we took a short plane trip to Barcelona. Unfortunately, we spent most of the afternoon in our room due to some fairly heavy rain. By evening the rain had let up and so we headed to one of the most famous streets in the world, La Rambla (see pic), a mile-long street in the old town area of Barcelona. We got about half way down the La Rambla, heading towards the port when, guess what—it started to rain—so, we made a quick flight back to the hotel room, where we played Quiddler the remainder of the evening (thanks to Janet Johnson).
Barcelona continued to have on-again-off-again rain for the next two days. (Barcelona only averages 5 days of measurable rain in the month December—how did we get so lucky?) In spite of the weather, we were able to visit Casa Mila (pic), Sagrada Familia (pic) and Parc Guell (2 pics), all designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi. We were also able to walk the La Rambla several times and visit some beautiful old churches. Of course the sun came out the day we returned to Marseille.

On New Year’s Eve, the three of us stayed up until midnight (something Kathy and I have not done in years) and drank the cava (a Spanish Champaign) we had hauled home from Barcelona.

New Year’s Day was teary-eyed with Aaron’s departure back to cold country. We are happy to report that, in spite of sitting on the tarmac for three hours in Amsterdam (the airlines will remain nameless, but it is famous for the problem—their excuse this time had something to do with refueling—man, those must have been some big fuel tanks), he made it home safely, minus a luggage bag we had sent home with him (that same nameless airlines is also famous for losing luggage). Fortunately, the luggage was found and returned the next day.
We are back to work now and don’t have any grand events planned for some time but we will try to give you some occasional updates.

Best wishes and Happy New Year to all of you. May your stock funds improve by at least 50% for the year.

Kathy and Garry

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Photos

Aaron and Kathy at Calanques
Great day for a walk and what a great view.

Aaron and the Iles du Frioul
Aaron taking a picture of the Marseille from the Iles du Frioul.

Notre Dame De Fourviere
Beautiful catholic church on the hill above Vieux Lyon, Lyon, France.

La Rambla, Bacelona, Spain
The famous avenue La Rambla. Lots of restaurants and street performers.

Aaron and Garry
We are on the rooftop of Casa Mila, one of Antoni Gaudi's most famous buildings.

Sagrada Familia from Casa Mila
The church in the distance is Sagrada Familia, still under construction after 100 years. It was designed by Antoni Gaudi and the picture is taken from the rooftop of Gaudi's Casa Mila.

Parc Guell
This is the Park entrance of Gaudi's park Guell.

Parc Guell (pic 2)
Gaudi's Parc Guell is truly one-of-a-kind. Too bad the weather was not better.