Who Knew?

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Though I am home, this entry will be about the last day in Spain. Any other postings will be summary and maybe some random photos that I want to add.

It would seem that the rain in Spain DOES stay mainly on the plain. We had the very faintest of rain in the time that followed Granada, and most of that time was along the Mediterranean Coast.

When last we heard from our intrepid heroes, they had just checked-into the Hotel Arrahona in Sabadell, just outside of Barcelona. The hotel was clean and adequate. Nothing to write home about. Sabadell was a suburb. I felt like I was in Walnut Creek or Diamond Bar. Somewhat comforting, to tell the truth.

That evening, Daniel and I headed into Barcelona, where we found the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, which was designed by Gaudi. It is a trippy church, inside and out. We were surprised to find out that the church was originally designed in the late 1800’s and it has not been truly finished, yet. The expectation is that it will continue to evolve for at least the next 20 years.

After walking around inside the building, taking some pictures, and looking at the museum downstairs, we returned to the hotel so that we could get a little rest before dinner and such.

Our destination was near some bars that we wanted to check-out, so we also found a place to eat there. The place was quite good, and we had a couple of burgers, which were really very tasty. Can’t remember the name of the place.

Well, we checked-out a place called La Chappelle, which was a nice, narrow bar with a fair amount of activity in it, but it wasn’t our scene. We walked over to a place called Bacon Bear Bar, which was pretty slow (I mean it was a Tuesday night, right?) and we had a little chat with the bartenders, Carlos and Carlos. Lots of Carloses… Who knew?

We headed back to the hotel to get as much rest as possible before a VERY long day.

Wednesday, we had a late check-out and we drove to Figueres, which was only about a one-hour drive from Sabadell. The reason to get to Figueres is because that is the home of the Dali Theatre and Museum. We had a good time, there, experiencing some amazing art. After we were able to tear ourselves away from Dali, we set coordinates for Madrid-Barajas Airport, which was a seven-hour drive from Figueres.

We stopped for dinner halfway to Madrid at a rest-stop. It was OK food and got us to MAD. We arrived at the airport, put the car into a spot at Sixt, then dragged our bags into the airport, where the ticketing line wouldn’t be opened for another hour and a half. After dealing with a couple of rude people, we got to security and made our way through. We got to our gate with hope that we could get a little food, but nothing would open until after our flight took off. So, I consulted with a couple of vending machines to take the edge off.
We flew from Madrid to Frankfurt, where we had only an hour to get to our long flight, so we rushed and rushed, had to go through two security checkpoints, and when we got to the gate, we asked if we could get an upgrade, thanks to a friend who is selling me two system-wide upgrades for Lufthansa (he gave them to me with the expectation that I would pay for them if I ended-up using them). They put us on a waiting list, then we found Eric Tooley, Alex Strife, and Jefferson Malone waiting for our same flight. Apparently Jacques Maitre and Johnathon Atwood were supposed to be on our flight, as well, but Johnathon had a fever of 103, so he didn’t board the flight.

Lufthansa arranged to use the upgrades for us, so Daniel and I were able to fly Business Class from Frankfurt to San Francisco. Which was wonderful. We had to sit separately, but we were comfy and well-fed in Business Class. Yay!

After a very long (and comfy) flight, we arrived at SFO, got our luggage (mine took a really long time), went through Customs, and Nate Cook gave us a ride home (in his cute new car).

I plan on typing-up a summary of my experience, hotels, etc. Some more photos… Hope you stay tuned. ☺

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Photos

Sagrada
Familia.

Judas
Judas' Kiss

Inside
This is inside Sagrada Familia.

Part
Part of the ceiling.

Night
The cathedral at night

Dali
Dali Museum from the outside.

Statue
There's a statue on top of a car... The car has three "people" in it.

Inside
Inside the car.