write about my vacation

may be following this goal or interested in this topic (writing about vacation travel), I thought I’d mention that I’ve posted twenty pictures that I took in Barcelona last summer.

Each has a small caption and/or other information about the photo.

They’re in the “Take 43 Photos of Signs” thread! grin

Some notes toward my personal “Highlights of Barcelona”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona):

At the Cathedral complex:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_Cathedral)

- the church itself (art and architecture)
- the cloister garden (with pond, geese, and turtles)
- the plaza in front of the church

Antoni Gaudi and his architecture:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudi)

- Casa Batllo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Batll%C3%B3)
- Sagrada Familia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Familia)
- Parc Guell and home within park where Gaudi lived (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Guell)

Surviving traces of the Romans, Middle Ages, and Renaissance:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciutat_Vella)

- section of Roman aquaduct by cathedral
- walls, gates, and buildings of the cathedral complex 
- the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barri_G%C3%B2tic)

Double-decker city-bus tours, especially:

- Montjuic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montju%C3%AFc)
- mountainside gardens
- Agbar Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_Agbar)
- green parrots nesting in the palm trees

At the Placa Catalunya:

- terrific little ice-cream shop
- El Cortes Ingles department store
- "The Rambles" between the plaza and the harbor

How important “the basics” are:

- comfortable hotel with air-conditioning (!)
- good restaurants (Catalan, Spanish, Italian)
- pleasant little coffee shop across from the hotel

Things I never expected to find:

- street/music fest in a non-tourist neighborhood
- antique market held in the cathedral plaza
- pet shop with Bengal kittens for sale (!)

(Photo, aerial view of Barcelona from: http://www.galeon.com/formulasana/index.htm)

Some of my personal highlights… (smile)

• swimming in the Gardon River, and floating under the largest, best preserved, and most famous of the Roman aquaducts, Pont du Gard (while thinking to myself, “I’m swimming where the Romans swam”)

(http://www.pontdugard.fr/)

• buying artisanal produce — fig preserves, wildflower honey, fresh croissants, and perfect large white peaches — at the Tuesday market in the small, remote town of Castelnou (“new castle” in this case meaning built in the 12th century!)

(http://www.frenchwayoflife.net/fr/ville.asp?v=Castelnou)

• driving into the French Pyrenees on an astonishing road seemingly made up exclusively of hairpin turns (from sea level to an elevation of nearly 5000 feet in two hours!), enjoying the coolness of the mountain meadow when we stopped for a break at the top, and marvelling at the Gorges de Galamus on our way down the valley of the Aude River

(http://www.sunfrance.com/montagne/index.php3?id_gmenu=8697&langue=en)

• staying overnight in the spectacular walled medieval city of Carcassonne, and walking about it very late at night and very early in the morning, in order to see the town without tourists there

(http://www.carcassonne.org/)

• hiking in and about the scenic Cathar fortress town of Minerve, and having the great good fortune to receive a remarkable tour of the ancient church there

(http://www.sunfrance.net/villages/index.php3?id_gmenu=1481&code_menu=vilcar6minervois&langue=en)

• walking through the medieval town center of Lagrasse, including its unusual roofed 14th century market, and touring the 12th century abbey facing the town across the Orbieu River

(http://www.lagrasse.com/)

• “discovering” the remote and beautiful little town of Saint-Guilhem le Désert, enjoying drinks and snacks in the town square under an enormous plane tree and touring the ancient church (also where, in a single-room bead store, a Frenchwoman with perfect English made friendly chat with me as I picked out “treasures” to bring home!)

(http://www.sunfrance.net/villages/index.php3?id_gmenu=1481&code_menu=vilcar6hl&langue=en)

• enjoying more white peaches, this time quite small but very juicy and perfectly ripe, from a family’s small roadside fruit stand on the way to the coastal towns of Narbonne-Plage and Gruissan-Plage, and making photographs in the field of sunflowers just opposite the fruit stand

(http://www.sunfrance.com/mer/index.php3?langue=en&id_gmenu=575&code_menu=mer-stat-invl3&id_art=742#a_742)

• olive tasting (and buying a variety of terrific Lucques de Bize olive products to bring home) at the L’Oulibo Olive Growers Cooperative, founded in 1942

(http://www.loulibo.com/)

• tasting wine (before choosing six bottles of the wonderfully heady stuff to “import” for ourselves) from the vineyard Château de l’Hospitalet

(http://www.gerard-bertrand.com/gbertrand_hospitalet.php)

South of Frankfurt (the airport I flew into and out of) I visited friends in and near Karlsruhe and Bruchsal, and made a day-trip to Idar-Oberstein.

North of Frankfurt, my itinerary went through (listing major cities only): Koeln (Cologne), Oberhausen and Bochum (in the Ruhr region), Goettingen (at the edge of the Harz Mountains), the beautiful and historic town of Hildesheim (between Goettingen and Hamburg), Hamburg (in the north), Sankt Peter-Ording (on the North Sea coast), and an overnight stop in Muenster (North Rhine-Westphalia) on the way back to Frankfurt. Again, I was fortunate to meet with wonderful friends, both old and new, and to enjoy seeing a wide variety of sights. I especially won’t forget the time spent playing boardgames, or seeing Beauty and the Beast in Oberhausen and The Lion King in Hamburg.

(I was mostly able to avoid World Cup fever, although once there was a long slow traffic jam resulting from people headed toward a game being played in another city, and on another occasion the game was on tv as background to our conversations.)

After France, two of us went on to Catalunya, where we got to know our way around Barcelona (five days) and enjoyed Girona (two days): again, excellent company and conversation, really good food, and wonderful memories! smile

Five of us gathered in the little beach town of Narbonne-Plage, for a wonderful time together: great company, good conversation, wonderful meals, and some sightseeing as well. Such wonderful memories!

smile

I had a wonderful time but arrived home very tired/jet-lagged. (I’ll write again when I feel a bit more caught up on things.)

All best wishes to 43T-folks!

My job ends Monday and my travel will begin on Tuesday! grin

I hope to be able to come online a few times while travelling and write a few lines to let the folks back home know how it’s going—that’s what Internet cafes are for, right?

Best wishes to all 43Things folks! I’ll write again when I can, but whether that will be before my vacation, while I’m gone, or after I get back, I can’t say for certain!