Paris at last May 15, 2008

We got to Paris late today, about 9 p.m. Paris time (which is the same as Barcelona time, by the way) and broke down and paid the 46 euro for a taxi because lugging around luggage in metros is bad enough when you’re an expert on the system, as I like to think we had become on the Barcelona system. We just weren’t up for a new metro with luggage at 9 p.m.

The taxi was a Mercedes Benz E Class taxi and C couldn’t help but ask him if he cost more (he didn’t). Our hotel is the St. Louis Bastille in the 3rd ardonissment in Paris. We are very close to the city center and walking distance to the Rex Theater where we hope to be seeing Willy (Nelson, that is) tomorrow.

We checked in and then headed out for a late dinner. We walked past tons of nice places and finally settled on a little pizza joint where we were the ONLY patrons. The waiter was super friendly (as has been everyone in Paris so far, but it is still early) and did the most awesome trick with my wine glass. I wanted to ask him to do it again but he spoke little English and speak nearly NO French. It was the best food we’ve had thus far. A bartender from NYC living in Barcelona for the last three years confirmed our suspicions – the food in Barcelona is seriously lacking. There seems to be this whole attitude of imitation — you can get hamburgers or Madrid-style tapas at any restaurant but it’s all just okay.

Anyway, there is this huge market right in the middle of the street, right across the street from our hotel. The friendly hotel guy says it is a nice, big market with flowers, clothes and food. It looks really long from the empty tent stands that are still standing and he said it will be open tomorrow. Looking forward to exploring that and checking out a Willy show in Paris, not to mention drinking some great French wines and having some more really good food.

Our new hotel doesn’t have free wi-fi so I will post as often as possible but pictures will have to wait a little while as they take a while to format for the blog and I don’t want to have to wait on getting that done to let you guys know what’s going on.

Loving Paris so far, I think C is really surprised by how nice everything and everyone is, though we are still in a bit (okay a lot) of culture shock.

Talk to ya soon.

Love, C&K

Mas Barcelona May 13, 2008

Yummy

Me blocking the panaroma from Park Guell.

The long trek to Park Guell

at Park Guell

A nice view, whichever way you look.

One of many views from the Tres Cruces hill atop Park Guell.

So Barcelona is a gorgeous, sprawling metropolis with the best subway system I have yet to wander. There are colors, letters and numbers to help you find your way to anywhere in the city with ease – let’s just say I love it! We failed to trick our internal clocks and slept until 1:30 p.m. Barcelona time today! Disgusted with ourselves we got up and on our way as soon as we realized we had wasted most of a day. We did our best to make up for lost time and I think we may have actually succeeded. We headed first for some fuel, and by fuel I mean food.

Food was grilled pork chops for me and a quarter chicken for C. Good stuff topped off with an espresso that was totally yummy. Then we went straight up to the prettiest place in Barcelona so far – Park Guell. It was originally designed by Gaudi (the same guy who envisioned Sagrada Familia over a hundred years ago) and is like nothing you have ever seen before. It was a quick trip up the metro (aka subway) and then a short block straight up the steepest six blocks you have never seen. He He He. There was escalators on several blocks making the trip much easier and as the weather was perfect today it really wasn’t bad at all. There was a panoramic view of the city, which sprawls all the way from the mountains to the sea, from all sides atop the “Tres Cruces” hill. C took video, but we recently discovered our new camcorder is not compatible with Mac’s (I know, I know – what kind of crap is that?!) so the video will have to wait. We took lots of pictures though, before wandering around for a couple of hours through the park. Gaudi originally intended for the park to be a community of high-end home (aprox. 50) that were one with nature. He was only able to complete one before the failure of the financial backing and so that is all that currently stands, known as the museum of Guadi. The architecture that is there is so unlike anything you have ever seen it is truly hard to explain. I will let pictures do most of the talking but let’s just say there are mosaics and “trencadis” (park benches covered in pieces of broken ceramic,” and an entire forest of columned tree trunks.

After Park Guell we headed took a short bus trip through traffic and then back pedaled to our metro stop where we headed to Plaza Espana. It was a magnificent statue surrounded by lively round-about that faced a large cathedral on one side, the naval academy on the other and a university on the other. You could see the 1992 Olympic park from there, too. It was so almost overwhelming – bustling with motorcycles, joggers, Mercedes Benz taxi cabs, mopeds, cars, pedestrians and tourists, of course. After a walk around (and about a million pictures) we ended up heading over to La Rambla.

La Rambla is the most famous street in Europe, or so some say. It reminded me a little of Sixth Street in Austin, a little of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Fran and a little of the charming areas of Little Italy in NYC where you eat on the street, out with the crazies. We had dinner here, at Pizza Marzano – complete with a bottle of the house rose and baked goat cheese. It was awesome.

Back to the metro to head to the hotel, C found a closer metro stop to our hotel and we got lost for a quick second but found a park right across the street we didn’t even know was there. Only in Barcelona are people are the dog park with their dogs at midnight! Everyone here seems to have a dog, only one though, and they take them everywhere. Some people tie them to this little hooks the city installed next to popular stores (the hooks say in English translation “I’ll wait here” and have a little picture of a tied up dog) or just ride their bike down the street with them dutifully trailing behind. I’ve never seen so many Benji dogs in so little time.

Well, the camera is officially dead (I don’t know why – I only took 130 pictures today?!) and so I’ll add the pictures in the morning before. We’ll be enjoying our complimentary (meaning you already paid for it so you’ll feel guilty if you don’t eat it) breakfast before heading first thing back to Sagrada Familia to get a peak at the inside.

After we plan on hitting up Olympic Park where I’ve heard rumor the local artisans sell their homemade wares.

Thanks to everyone who has commented – keep up the good work and I’ll try to do the same!

Muchos Gracias! K&C

Beautiful Barcelona May 12, 2008

We made it in to Barcelona this morning at about 10 a.m. Spanish time, our flight was about 40 min. late. Unforunately, we didn’t get much sleep on the plane last night and though it was the middle of the night Austin time it was morning time when we arrived. We took the Metro to our hotel’s closest stop (this was easy, peasy – I feel like a metro expert!) but then walked aimlessly for at least 30 minutes, hauling all of our luggage on cobblestone streets.

The first native person to try to communicate with us asked us where our umbrella was in Catillion – it took her several hand gestures to finally get it across to us. This says so much about how everyone has been so far: super friendly, helpful, hospitable – kinda like us Texans used to be, you know?

Tons of people offered help but it was finally the balding, pudgy 50ish ambulance driver sitting in his truck casually smoking a cigarette that looked on a map for our hotels exact street number and pointed out the fact that we had twice walked in the right direction…only half a block not far enough!

When we got here, finally, the front desk guy was nice and spoke good English (though my Spanish has improved ten fold in as many hours and I am once again conversing in actual sentenances – yea me!) Our room is tiny but clean and held an unexpected delight – a bidee! We have yet to figure it out and even took some video of it in case our friends back home didn’t believe us.

We spent the afternoon wandering the nearby streets, having tapas on an outside patio and getting our first glance at the majestic and awe inspiring Sagrada Familia. The lines, or as the Europeans say “queues,” were quite long and so C suggested we get up early and be the first there tomorrow to see the inside and we think you can even go all the way up!

After a visit to the Starbucks by the Sagrada Familia in a failed attempt to trick our internal clocks we headed back to the hotel for much needed nap time for Mr C and picture upload for me. Now we’re off to explore the night life, the dinner offerings and whatever else we may happen upon!

Will post more soon – miss and love you all MUCHOS!