Nice to meet you Al Sace and Lorraine

Ah... France in August.  Not bad.  We are staying in a house (former Prussian Officer Quarters from around the early 1900's) in Strasbourg.  Ginny made all the arrangements (of course) and I made whatever business arrangements that I could prior to coming over.  It is great to mix business with pleasure as I never feel right just taking vacation.  We flew over from SFO to Atlanta to Frankfurt Germany.  Didn't sleep much on the way but I was so glad I got a hard neck brace before flying.  Didn't loose feeling in any limbs while spending 12-14 hours in an airplane seat.  Got to Germany 7:30 in the morning and then went about finding a way to Strasbourg.  We settled on an express bus that only took about 3 hours.  When we arrived in Strasbourg, it was about 31 or 32 degrees...I thought maybe I should have brought a parka....until I figured 32 Celsius is about 91 or 92 degrees F.  So I'm sorry I didn't bring shorts but if I had brought shorts, I probably would have sparked another French American war.

So the first night we didn't go to sleep until about 2:30am which somehow means we stayed up for about 48 hours with a couple hours dozing here and there in the bus.  Then I made up for it.  I slept for 12-14 hours and still wanted another 12 hours but couldn't get away with that.  The boss is on this trip and she saw to it that we got out and about the town to see what is out there.  We had dinner in "little France" which sounds romantic until our tour guide today told us the story of how it got that name.  I'll tell that story when all the kids have gone to sleep and aren't reading this blog.  Nevertheless, we had dinner right on one of the rivers or canals that runs around and through Strasbourg.  Then we took a walk along the river to get a close up view of "little France".  We drove home after dinner which is no mean feat.  You see Strasbourg has probably been around in one shape or another for a thousand years but certainly since the 1300's.  No one back then was thinking "how can we make sure there is room for automobiles in our little city".  I don't think there is a road, street, boulevard, or rue that goes more than three blocks in a straight line.  By law, a street must bend, turn, twist, or dead end within 2 1/2 blocks of a straight away.  Some roads don't connect to anything, you accidentally get on one and find that it has barriers as the other end and it is one way????  I'm sure there is a secret that they keep to themselves.  Oh and another tip the potential traveler to France, they speak French here.  Almost all the words are different from ours.  Oh sure, you can sort of figure out the connection for instance I will pay is something like jais payee but it isn't crystal clear.  I tried for several months ahead of time to listen to French lessons on tape (audio) because I thought  I KNOW SPANISH AND NORWEGIAN, HOW DIFFICULT CAN IT BE???  Now I humbly know the answer to that question.  I was told once today that my French is good but that was after I said merci.  He thought I was thanking him, I was begging for mercy. More to come, we will be here a while.

Happy New Year, I'm starting off by breaking last years resolution to get the annual letter posted by Dec 31, 2011.  Well I'll make a resolution for 2012 to get 2011's letter posted by the Jan 3rd.  I'll have it up here in the next two days.  Meanwhile, I'm spending Jan 1, 2012 in Brooklyn NY getting ready to fly home to Pacifica and the San Francisco Bay Area.

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