Halloween

Well normally I don't get excited about Halloween. It was a working holiday when I was a kid. We usually just went to a handful of the 14 bars in West Conshohocken and we danced or sang or acted like fools and got cash from the bar patrons. Candy was always nice but cash spends anywhere.

But this year we got a video mail from the "Super Pumpkin" aka the Tank, aka grandson Jack. I think he does a very good Rodney Dangerfield impersonation even if it is unintentional. I can't help but laugh out loud every time I see this video. I hope it makes your halloween a little happier.

Barcelona Espana Segundo Noche

In case some of you were feeling that Barcelona sucked. Quite the contrary. The second night we were there we went out for a walk in the Gotti Disctrict (I think that is what it was called). We were going for tapas and wound up in a scenic old (I mean middle ages old) section of Barcelona. Along the way we came across some musicians performing what I believe was some traditional Catalunyan style music. I've attached a video. I also bought the CD which has a bunch of great musical pieces on it. Enjoy the video clip and picture yourself walking in these narrow ally ways among the medieval churches, market places and homes. Great memories and not concerned so much with pickpockets...just kept our eyes open.

Stop thief!

Hemos visto algunos carteristas. That is "we saw some pickpockets" at work today in Barcelona. But let's start at the beginning. We all decided to get up early today but we didn't have to set an alarm. We went to sleep "early" last night around 11:30pm or midnight. Ginny didn't sleep at all and I got up around 6am. Bill, Linda and I went out for a pastry and coffee while ginny tried to go to sleep around 8am. After breakfast I went off to rent a cicycle and Bill and Linda took a walk. If you saw the "trapped in an elevator video from Wednesday night" you will appreciate what it took for me to get myself and the bicycle into that little elevator. I didn't dare leave the bike locked up outside because I was advised that without a lock a bike will be stolen in less than 10 seconds but with a good lock it would take maybe an hour or more before someone took off with it.

In the afternoon we all hopped in a cab and went over to the harbor for a 1 1/2 hour cruise which went out of the harbor and into the Mediteranean Ocean. That was sort of fun but Linda got mareado (seasick). When we arrived safely back on shore, Ginny and I went up Las Ramblas (supposedly a very historic area of town). It seemed a bit more touristic than historic. As we sat and had some tapas, I finally spotted what I thought was a pickpocket. We observed him and sure enough he was wandering through the crowd, meeting up with some other unsavories and then they would go back into the crowd trolling. I got a few pictures of a couple of them but we never actually got pictures of one of them doing the deed. They were always in thick crowds when they were working.

So much for the excitement. Ginny and I took a cab home and we were all getting ready to go out for the evening when it started pouring rain. Ginny and Bill are trying to drain the awning on the deck as I write. I'll update this if one of them gets struck by lighting.

Espana Noche Dos

Wow, Barcelona is great. We all slept in today (that is putting it as mildly as I could). I woke up around 1:30pm and the last to wake up clocked in around 4:30pm. So we all got ready in our good time and somewhere around 5:30 or 6pm we wandered out on the town. We walked to the City Park and checked out the people walking around, took some photos, and then we headed over to the Born district to find the Picasso Museum but before we got there we found some street performers (listening to the CD as I write this), then we wondered into the Iglesia Santa Maria del Mar. Evidently Saint Mary liked the seaside. Then we stopped for some Tappas at a nice little outdoor joint. While Bill, Linda, and Ginny waited for a free table, I ran around the district looking for a digital memory card and a sim card for my cell phone. I got to see a bit of the city but not much, mostly I worked up a sweat (the weather is beautiful but just a bit humid). I took plenty of pictures, some of which I will post at some point here. Found a place to rent a bicycle and generally we all had a good time. I'm really happy that we came here. It exceeds expectations, even though when Ginny and I sat in the park around the corner tonight (around 10:30pm) a woman came up to us and warned that I shouldn't sit with my back pack and camera sitting out. She told us someone would come by and swipe it. So much for me trying to look dangerous and threatening, ha. Hasta Manana

P.S. no one got stuck in the elevator today, hooray or Bravo, Muy Bien

Viva Espana Elevator Espisode

Viva Espana

We (Ginny, sister Linda, brother-in-law Bill) are staying in Barcelona. So far it has been pretty exciting. We landed on the same plane, went out to catch the bus to center city and after Ginny and I stepped onto the bus, the driver shut the doors and we left Bill and Linda standing on the curb getting their tickets! So much for traveling together. They caught the next bus and we saw them at the Plaza Catalunya downtown Barcelona. We weren't at the plaza more than five minutes when the theives scoundrels and pickpockets noticed the touristas and tried to distract us. Lucky for us a woman who was watching this happen came over to us and told us to stay alert that the man sitting behind us was getting ready to steal our stuff. Welcome to Spain touristas, now give us your stuff. So we gathered together, tried to look like we knew what we were doing and we shuffled off to the metro station to get to our apartment. After getting to the apartment and the building manager letting us in, he warned us not to a) hang out at the Plaza Catalunya and certainly not to take the metro from there to the apartment and if we did defy the theieves and muggers, we should never hang out at the end of the metro station (which we had already done). I asked in my best spanish (which was funny because the building manager was Scottish) if he had watched a video of us traveling to the apartment because we had just done every single thing he told us not to do.

So speaking of doing what he told us not to do. He warned us not to all get in the elevator (ascensor) at one time with our luggage because it might not take us all. So 10 hours later after we took our siestas, Bill Linda Ginny and I went for a late night walk to the harbor area and had dinner. We stopped and got some groceries on the way home and around 12:45am we all got in the little elevator (with our groceries) and hit the top floor button. We got as far as 5 and 1/2 before the poor little elevator that could wheezed, coughed, sputtered, stopped and then dropped a few feet. Did I mention that this little elevator had no airconditioning, no help phone and that all four of us took up about 90% of the square footage in the lift? Lucky for us I knew 6 words in spanish some of which included holy crap help us we are stranded in a tiny elevator. I will post the youtube link to our elevator night mare as soon as I can get it loaded.