May 22, 1998 Segovia, Spain - {Pension Aragon} We took a taxi to the bus station, and just happened to arrive and buy our tickets before the luxury bus took off. The wild flowers along the way were incredible. The fields were covered with red poppies, often mixed with lavender flowers, tiny yellow and white flowers. The bus dropped us off a block from the metro which we took to the North station where we caught the Madrid-Segovia bus with 20 minutes to spare. We checked into another family run pension, this one with a second store balcony on the main plaza. Segovia apparently was a military outpost for the roman empire nearly two millennium ago. They built an aqueduct which is one of the main attractions of the city, and is apparently still in use. Currently there is a multi million peseta on going program to fix up the aqueduct which is deteriorating from exhaust pollution. We visited the main cathedral on the plaza with it's extraordinary high arched ceilings. Very cool, however having just come from Toledo, it wasn't nearly as overwhelmingly in grandeur and ornateness. We visited the alcazar (a phonetic translation of the Arab word for castle). We ran out of time before they closed. It's situated on the edge of the hill, Apparently, it's the other Walt Disney castle when Neushvanstein (sp?) isn't pictured in Disney logos.... It's complete with draw bridge, a deep moat, ornamental turrets. The castle has an excellent view of the surrounding countryside. Inside is a very nice armour and cannon museum. On display are many very well preserved plate mail armour suits, including some so small that only a pre pubescent prince could fit into. The had several horses armed in plate mail. The plate mail suits themselves look like weapons where the toes are long and sharp enough to be a dangerous puncturing weapon. The gauntlets are spiked and make brass knuckles look mild. There was a cool cannon museum. which was all about the science of targeting, chemistry of creating the correct proportion of gun powder ingredients, crafting of cannon balls... stone, metal, hollow metal... how to forge cannons, drill out the barrel all in the 16th-18th century. They have books on ballistics dating back to 1590 on display. They had miniature chemistry labs on display which figured out the best combination of chemicals to make the gun powder. Physics labs for designing the cannons taking in consideration, backfire, target location, ideal weight and dimensions of the cannons and balls, etc. This is the kind of stuff Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore labs would have been working on in the 16th century. Later that evening... We had dinner in the basement of a restaurant on the main plaza, which sort of resembled a dry catacomb that could have been built anywhere between 20-2000 years ago. It was a nice setting for dinner. White linens were on every table. Ottmar Liebert played the ambient music. The tuxedo dressed waiters only had us to wait on, so service was excellent. We ordered the menu of regional Segovian specialties which included the Castilian soup, a type of garlic soup always served in an clay bowl, and for the main course, we both ordered the roast suckling pig. This came divided into sixths. I had the front right quarter panel of the piglet, complete with leg and hoof (toes were clean). Sharon was served a side. The mild only milk fed piglet was delicious and extremely tender. This was served with a side of French fries. For desert we again had a local specialty, Ponche Segoviano soaked in Ponche, a Spanish liquor. The wine that came with the meal was a bottle of red which wasn't bad, but didn't add much to the experience. May 23, 1998 Salamanca, Spain - {Hostal La Perla Salmantina} There must have been a thousand sparrows circling around the aqueduct this morning. Since they didn't seem to be doing anything productive except circling, Sharon figured they were doing their morning group calisthenics. Again, we caught a taxi to the bus station, and then took a bus to Salamanca, changing once in the middle at a little farm town called Labajos. Bus is the quickest way to get around besides having one's own transportation. This bus was a nice new Mercedes, that played videos. Today's video was "The Beverly Hillbillies" movie dubbed in Spanish. One drawback to taking the bus is the air inside. These air conditioned busses have been lacking fresh air. The back half of the bus is the smoking section which there are quite a few smokers occupying. After a while the bus fills up with smoke, and the air becomes warm, and then the mild rocking as the bus turns finds a victim who's stomach can't handle it anymore. Today, the victim was a three year old, and was minutes away from making a clean break, when she just couldn't take it anymore. On our way to El Escorial a couple days, there was an adult women, who rushed off the bus just in time to get sick on the sidewalk. The smokey air is the only unpleasantness. It was raining when we arrived, so we hung out in our nice room and took a shower. The place we stayed at in Segovia didn't have enough water pressure for us to take a shower this morning. By the time we were cleaned up, it had stopped raining, and the clouds gave way to a clear blue sky. The cold front had passed through, and the temperature was likely in the upper 50's. Salmanca is a University town. It's the equivalent of Oxford in England in that it's been around since 1218. The cathedrals are beautiful on the outside, and the University has many old buildings making for a nice walk. The plaza mayor is similar to Madrid's plaza mayor in that it's a square surrounded by shops, however Salamanca's was a bit more happening with people while we were there. The town has several streets for strolling along. Being Saturday evening all of the shops except small grocers, bakeries, and tourist shops were closed. However the promenade was packed with people strolling and people watching. May 24, 1998 Salamanca, Spain - {Hostal La Perla Salmantina} Got caught up on laundry, visited a the university museums, old library, and a the old and new cathedral. By new cathedral, they mean 16th century. Salamanca is a nice town with many old buildings around the university. We stopped in a book store, and found a copy of Cervantes' "Don Quixote" in English. We picked up some proscuito, hard cheese, bread and beer, and ate lunch next our balcony in our room. Afterwards we finished reading the book we had been working on this past week "A girl of the Limberlost". May 25, 1998 Barcelona, Spain - {Pension Estal} We caught the 7:30am bus to Barcelona which takes approximately 11 hours. May 26, 1998 Barcelona, Spain - {Pension Estal} We spent three hours touring the Gaudi Cathedral called the Sagrada Familia. It's an incredible cathredral that has been under construction this past 100 years and is still has a long way to go. I'd love to come back and visit it in another 40 years. We hopped on the metro which took us to the cable car that brought us to Montjuic where the Joan Miro museum is located. What impressed me most was that someone can take an art style, and no mater how new or simple seeming it is, with enough persistance can develop it into something others consider worthy of an art museum. Sharon didn't enjoy this museum, however I did more than the Picasso museum. While we were there, about half the museum space was displaying various photographers exhibits. Many of them were surreal photos created in a dark room. I recognize some Joel Peter Witkin photos as the inspiration for Nine Inch Nail music videos and CD covers, and other industrial music artists. His photos paint a dark picture mixing human flesh with decay. I get a sense from his photos that treat human's with as much regard as a left over turkey carcass the day after Thanksgiving. It's a dark diminutive view on life. As we were coming back from our typical late evening tapas dining, to our family run Pension located in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, a British couple, with guide book in hand, arrived straight off their plane from London. While we waited for the the hotel owner to buzz the gate open, they asked us how the hotel was. We told them like it was, that it was nothing special. The owner buzzed us in and we walked up the four runs of stairs to the 1st floor. In English, the British couple asked if they had a room. The hotel owner speaks Catalan and Spanish, the former being the native tongue of this area, and is most similar to a cross between French and Spanish. The owner didn't know what they wanted, so we offered to interpret for them making things a little easier. They weren't picky, just glad to get a room which made things easier for them... Given the time 11:00pm, and excellent location, they were lucky to find a room. Later, Sharon was walking by, and the owner asked her if she would mind interpreting. Sharon listened, and then told the British couple, "She wants to know if you want to take a shower now." The British couple answered for themselves pantomiming taking a shower, by shaking one hand above their head as if it represented shower water, while rubbing the other on their body, meanwhile nodding in affirmation. Had the context of a shower not been at issue, one might have thought them a little strange choosing that moment to show off their coordination with the patting the head while rubbing the stomach trick. Walking down the hall to the shared bathroom at 4:15am, the sound I heard vibrating through the halls made me imagine a heavy set guy with a four inch snout with all his flappy jowls set a vibrating as his mouth at first draws air, and then puckers his lips to form a huge roaring SNGNGNGOWWWW!!!! His roaring snore bored through his solid wood door, vibrating through the hall, likely permeating other rooms in his area, through the reception area, penetrating our door saturating our room. Fortunately their were no breakables poised near the edge of our table or else the sonic vibrations might have set them tumbling. Sharon commented, that she thought it was the loudest snore she had ever heard in her life. In the morning we woke up to an opera as the tenors disguised as building painters and construction workers on the scaffolding, outside our balcony sang all morning while they worked. Fortunately they were all good singers and whistlers. Went to Guell parc. A park commissioned by Count Guell for Gaudi to construct. It's a cute fantasy landscape that attracts tourists, and a lot of local kids. In one particular realm of this fantasy land is a forest of pillars which support a park above. An accomplished acoustic guitarist set up in the center and played intricate Spanish acoustic guitar music. The likes of which I have recordings of Andrew Segovia, and Christopher Parkenings recordings of on CD. The acoustics in this setting were wonderful as sound bounced off the uneven ceiling, and spread columns creating a natural reverb. We sat and listened to him play a few songs, and later bought one of his CD's of which we asked him to autograph. His name was Ernesto Nebuloni. another day... We were walking to the Rambla street when two woman approached us speaking a language we didn't understand. They both had a piece of cardboard which I assume they wanted us to believe was a sort of plate to offer them some handout on. One approached Sharon from the opposite side while the other approached me. I clearly rebuffed the one that advanced toward me. Undaunted she came closer waving the cardboard in front of her still pretending to look for a handout. The cardboard served her as a blinder or distraction such that her victim wouldn't see their wallets leaving their pockets. As she came into my personal space still waiving her cardboard in front of me, I aggressively pushed her away. Sharon behind me did the same to the other woman who had accosted her. Sharon said that her woman was eyeing my pockets. We rambled down Rambla street which our guide book says is the most famous street in Barcelona. It seems to be where all the tourists walk along, Living statues pose, street musician play, and pick pockets hang out. We stopped in the open market where fruits, meats, and seafood are sold. Only the freshest fruit were displayed in perfect piles. The string beans were layered like a brick layer lays bricks, Every peach, apple, orange, asparagus, etc. was perfectly stacked. The seafood stalls had food I hadn't seen before for sale. Tiny conchs, odd barnacle like things, tube mollusks, etc. all fresh, and all obviously still alive as the piles of creatures would move searching for a more hospitable orientation and climate to rest. The lobsters and spider crabs would crawl over the shrimps and clams until the clerk would catch them and move them back to their price tag. While we were walking through this covered open air market, a high school marching band marched with color guard through the narrow isles between the asparagus, conchs, clams, and carrots. They made several passes as the customers, clerks and crustaceans gazed. The spectacle seemed a surreal scene. We turned off at the Casa de Guell, a house that Gaudi designed for Count Guell that is now open for public view. Very cool house. The iron work on this house is incredible. The South face has a unique interesting mechanical window blind system that likely opens and closes hundreds of louvers at a time. We walked down to the bay, and then to the aquarium which boast to be the largest aquarium in Europe with the largest selection of Mediterranean sea life. They also have an 80 meter long shark tunnel. It's a long glass tunnel which a conveyor belt runs through conveying people through a vast tank. Sharks and many other fish swim around and over this people tube which sort of resemble a giant habitrail. This tank as with many of the others are set up to give the viewer a sense that would be comparable to SCUBA diving without the discomforts of SCUBA. In plaza de la Seu, right in front of the cathedral of the old Barri Gotic part of town, a full orchestra set up, It was a beautiful day. We found a seat and listened to their performance, which was excellent. They started with a couple of waltzes, played the theme to "Dances with Wolves", and a few others. After about an hour, they were finished, and then 10 minutes later another orchestra moved in with choir, and played and sang a few Handel pieces with trumpet in full fan fair. It was wonderful. After our day of wandering about, we walked back to our hotel and met some people in our hotel lobby. Jae (25) Montreal, John (22) San Francisco, Dave (23) Philadelphia. After a short talk, Jae says they are heading out to dinner, and ask Sharon and I if we would like to join them for dinner. Thinking some company might be a nice change of pace, we accept, and then stroll around outside until we found a place that looked to be a suitably nice place for dinner. We sat down, and John asks for some water. The waitress brought two bottles of water, which in the typical Spanish restaurant fashion comes in a one liter returnable bottle. Since they are returnable, they don't look nearly as pristine as a use-once bottle might. Jae and John were clearly disturbed by this. It occurs to me as I write this that returnable pop bottles have been out of style for some time in North America, and they may have been too young to remember. Before I could explain to them that it was fine, they were telling the waitress, to take back one of the opened bottles because it was dirty. The waitress who didn't understand English, did so without understanding why, and with effort to please, took it with little hesitation. When another bottle was brought out, I filled my glass as soon as it arrived, and took a long drink before anyone could stop to examine the bottle it was in which was another not-so-pristine returnable. We talked while we waited for our food to arrive. Jae had just come from Munich. She explained to us authoritatively just how unfriendly Munich is. No one spoke to her as she sat in her restaurant. She said, "You would have thought being a single female by myself, that it would just be human nature for someone to come up and talk to me." The waitress brought John his salad. He looked at it with some scorn, and says "this is a green salad?" He set it aside. It had tuna sprinkled in the middle, and he's a vegetarian. I'm not sure why he didn't want to remove the tuna which was in a small pile in the center. He didn't complain to the waitress, and later didn't hold back on paying. I'm not sure if that was only because he didn't speak the language. Regardless, I thought that was big of him to take the responsibility. If one can't tell people what one wants, one can't hold them accountable to bringing it to be. Trying to hold foreigners accountable to one's own customs in their land is ridiculous. Dave and my plate arrives. I quickly take a bite and comment on how wonderful my food is, preempting him from following the tendency of this crowd, and saying how terrible it was. I actually thought it was very delicious and thought it went well with the nice table Rioja Crianza wine we chose. He didn't say anything negative, but also didn't say much. We had a Catalonian spicy sausage, which came with a side of small white beans that had been fried in butter and garlic... delicious. Jae's chicken broth consume arrives, and Jae says, "This doesn't look very clean." She picks up her spoon and dribbles the soup to the bowl looking at it with eyebrows and nose wrinkled. Anyone in the restaurant who didn't understand English but glanced in her direction could read her as being unpleased with the appearance of her food. She did however eat all of it without comment. We talked about travel. This is Dave and John's first trip. John calls this three week tour of his the table of contents tour of Europe where he visits all the big cities. Jae considers this 2.5 month trip the one and only time she'll ever do this in her life. She explains that she's from a conservative home. She's Jewish and plans to marry someone who is Jewish that likely wouldn't approve of her travelling like this. Also, she can't see travelling with someone else for a period of time without getting on each others nerves. Hence, she broke up with her boyfriend so they wouldn't have to travel together. Jae's plate of mussels arrived. She scanned them over and said, "these mussels aren't right... just look at them... I'm from Montreal where I eat mussels all the time, and these just aren't right". In English, she explains to the waitress who doesn't understand English, that she didn't eat them, "they weren't right." Not really getting her message through, she made another attempt. She told the waitress "No Mange" (French for "no eat"). However, She sounded like a South Carolinian with a Berlitz book pronouncing a French word for the first time. This after having just told us she was fluent in French. ("No man jay" rather than "No mon'zhe") The waitress takes them back. Jae's eyes follow the waitress back to the kitchen, and then says, "I think I just got her into trouble... the cook is livid..." Jae reaches over and eats John's salad that John had paid but didn't eat before he dashed out for his evening dance hall appointment. After dinner Jae asks if we mind if she smokes. Smoke doesn't bother me, so I was the last to answer. Sharon, who it usually does bother, says "You're in Spain where everyone else does... Why not?" Dave lets out an unenthusiastic consent, which clued me in that he's not a smoker. As Jae hunts in her large purse she says, "Oh, maybe you're in luck and I've forgotten my cigarettes, .... Oh, here they are." She lights one up. Jae smokes with a method. She lightly exhales part of her smoke, followed by a quick recapturing into her mouth where she then purses her lips, tilts her head upward and to the side, and finishes the puff with a slow long exhale. The bill comes and then Jae says, "uh oh, I forgot my wallet." Dave quickly chimes in, "no problem, I got you covered." Jae starts going over the bill, adding up each item by calculator. Faulting the first time, and unsure of what's what on the receipt, she goes over the receipt line by line two more time until she's satisfied with her contribution. She then helps Dave with his tally. Dave had originally suggested splitting it five ways. However, Jae pointed out that she didn't have any wine. ...our $6 table wine. Feeling irritated and no longer generous, I gently reminded her of the charge for the bread, the 7% IVA tax, bottled water, and tip, which she conveniently missed in her three attempts to add up her portion of the bill. Sharon, eager to get this done with, quieted me, and decided to pick up the rest, which we did. ---- Dave Thompson thompson@pdnt.com www - http://sdg.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~mag/Thompson Net-Tamer V 1.09 Palm Top - Registered