Monday, November 24, 2003 01:19 p.m.
Sitting in the dining room at Tivoli. Alternating waves of sun and snow, blow across Torch Lake. The colors are beautiful today, light blue and dark blue with pure whitecaps. Tomorrow at this time I'll be just beginning my journey. I am headed to Spain for 3 weeks, I fly tomorrow. United Express 7597 TVC-ORD
Iberia 6274 ORD-MAD
Arrive Madrid 7:45 AM Wednesday November 26.
I'll update you then....

Thursday, November 27, 2003 05:40 p.m.
That´s 5:40 PM Spanish time. Happy Thanksgiving! So I´m writing from Ronda. I spent about 26 hours getting here, beginning with the car ride to the Traverse City Airport, a flight to Chicago, an afternoon waiting at the Iberia gate at Ohare, a 7 hour flight to Madrid (yawn, I was able to spread out onto the middle 4 seats and sleep tho). A minor mixup that involved dumping us into the departures lounge instead of the arrivals led me thru an unusual tour of Bajras Aeroporto... Then 3 subways across Madrid to Puerta Atocha, the ave (fast train) to Sevilla, a wait at the bus station, and a 2.5 hour bus to Ronda. I walked out of the estacion de autobuses, and directly to the puente nueve, where I met Aaron, sitting on the bridge. 6 PM local time. As scheduled. We succeeded in finding lodging and something to eat, but we headed to bed early since we were both tired. Aaron had come an entirely different 24 hour journey, arriving from Morocco via trains. Today we got a relaxed start, and headed out to check out Ronda´s sights. I was here last year and it is still beautiful. Ronda is situated on some tall cliffs, the sun was peeking in and out of clouds on the waterfalls and foliage. Andalucia spread out in a panorama of orange and olive trees, with mountains in the distance. It is much later in the year now than it was then however, and everything is a bit cooler. I wonder if this whole trip is going to be cold. I have lots of warm clothing, but the prospect of needing to be inside to be warm doesn´t seem like much fun. More castle walls and bridges this afternoon. Not really a lot to remark on. It feels great to have euros in my pocket and be out here on the road. Traveling with Aaron should be a good time, it will certainly add a different dimension than traveling alone. I´m afraid my (poor) Español won´t improve much. We´re going to need to find something good for dinner, to make up for the fact that we´re missing a lot of pie and turkey back in the States today. At the recommendation of the nice lady running our very cheap hostal dinner at cafe-bar Setinil. A good one. Also at her rec, we had a few drinks at Faustino after that. Seen on a ceramic tile "mal por mal, la taberna e mas vale la hospital." Stepping out of the bar, the cold takes our breath away. Made a chilly phone call home to wish everyone happy thanksgiving.

November 28th-
The hostal we´re staying at is very cheap and small, and there´s no heat in the room. Cold. However, the blankets on the bed may well be nuclear powered, because I´ve never been in a warmer bed. Pretty nice for sleeping in general. The only real problem is that it is ridiculously hard to get up in the morning. The floor is frigid. Today we made a day trip to Malaga, on the coast, where things were much warmer. We knocked around the Alcazar and the Castel Gibralfaro, spending some time in the sun, absorbing the warmth. Not a lot more, we did sit on the Playa de Malagueta though, it was nice to see the Mediterranian sea again. We hurried for a 5pm bus, and ended up right back at Faustino for dinner. Cervezas...

November 29th-
From Ronda to Càdiz. More bus riding. We chose to skip the high altitude (and therefore cold) Arcos de la Frontera and Jerez de la Frontera. (That frontera is frontier, when these little towns were the edge of the Moorish empire c.1400). Cádiz has a good hostel in the middle of the old town. It looks like a neat place. We watched an awesome sunset on a pier near the Castel San Sebastian. Bueno! We followed that with a siesta, a great dinner at the hostel, a mean card game, and a serious amount of vino tinto on the roof.

November 30-
More Cádiz. Sitting in cafes, wandering some parks, castles etc. Out for another sunset at the castle. Less sun, but more color in the clouds. Followed by a strange dinner at the hostel, and some fairly serious travel planning.

December 1-
Started today with some internet surfing. All of Europe´s discount airlines. We ended up with a pair of cheap seats to Amsterdam. Departing Barcelona on Saturday the 6th, and returning the 12. That settled, we made our way across the old town and boarded a bus to Madrid. A long bus ride later (nearly 8 hours) we checked in to la Posada de Huertas. Aaron stayed here earlier this year, and it is the same place I stayed last year. A good one.

December 2-
Left Huertas this morning for Atocha, and caught a local train for El Escorial. About a 70 minute ride. Escorial has an amazing church/palace/museum/tomb that is affiliated with the Spanish royal family. It occupied us for a couple of hours. Then, we got a bus, the only one of the day, out to the "Valle de los Caidos" this is a frightful bit of monumental fascist architecture (I imagine that is a bit redundant) It is allegedly a memorial to the Spanish Civil war, 1936-1939, but it was built by slave labor and prisoners of war, and is basically a memorial to Genralissimo Franco. Nobody´s favorite guy. A monumental plaza set high in the frigid hills, where snow was dusting the gardens, a huge colonnade, and a cathedral buried deep inside a mountain. Amazing stonework and deco-fascist bronze and stone sculptures. You have to see the pictures. Amazingly enough, somebody had left flowers on Franco´s grave. I guess I don´t understand quite enough about Spanish history. Oh yeah, the Mountain into which the basilica is bored is surmounted by a cross, something around 150 meters high. Not just anyone can overdo something like that.... Return to Huertas, via la Chueca and El Corte Ingles. Cooked ourselves dinner in the kitchen. Met some interesting people. A Moroccan girl, studying language in Italy, and a woman from Chile who lives in Peru. My Spanish is embarassingly bad, but I try to keep up.

Dec 3-
Train to Segovia around noon. Little bit of internetting and stuff in the AM. Met 2 Oz girls from hostel at train platform, rode with them. Little bit of falling snow on the way up there. Segovia´s beautiful. Aaron and I bought a 6 euro mini tripod, and it´s great. The aqueduct runs thru the middle of town, and it is incredible. Castle. Good one. We had lunch sitting on the roof in the sun. As the sun set and we headed for our train, we got some more great photos of the Aqueduct. I have desktop material for years now... We repeated the grocery experience and cooked a beautiful omelette at the hostel, and ate with some fun people.

December 4-
Had "brekky" with Lisa (yet another girl from Oz) and headed out from the Madrid hostel to the Bus station, for a bus to Bilbao. A much nicer bus than our Cadiz-Madrid bus the other day. About 5 hour ride. We are getting good at this, sitting around waiting then riding. We had lunch at the rest stop, on a bench, in the sun. Bread, cheese, chorizo, water, candy, the usual. I ate a disappointing spanish orange, too. Arrived in Bilbao near dark, got to the hostel without incident, walked around. Took some good photos of the Guggenhiem at night, as well as another interesting building and some bridges. Walked around the old town, had dinner at a place where we were too young by about 25 years. I had a good lamb stew, but I´m really not as patient or tolerant of gristle as I would have to be to really enjoy the food.

December 5-
Arose too early. The hostel has good beds. Hostel breakfast. Packed up and went to the train station. Lockered our big bags. Bought tickets to cross the country. We had wanted the train leaving at 22:45 and arriving in Tarragona around 8. Instead, we had to take one leaving at 19:00 and arriving at 4:30 in the morning. Ick. Anyway, we had a good day in Bilbao. The museum was great, as expected, got to see some of the Cremaster cycle. Bunch of other stuff, and inside that really great building. Lunch was at the restaurant. Once again, the best meal I´ve had in a very long time. Visited the bookstore and succeeded in buying stuff. Headed to the train via El Corte Inglès grocery store, so we had dinner supplies. Long train ride, although they did fold the seats into beds, it is still stupid to have to get up at 4 AM. We were assisted in getting to sleep by a good Rioja. We´ve had quite a lot of that.

December 6-
Today started early, to say the least. After getting off the train, we sat/slept in some chairs at the train station for a few hours. I talked to my sister on the phone at 5 am local time, she hadn´t gone to bed yet back in the States. We walked on the beach at Tarragona, and watched the sun rise over a cloud bank. After a much needed cafe con leche, we headed out to the Aqueduct. Much photography ensued. It is really beautiful, and makes a really good comparison to segovia. The digital camera has turned out to be a really wonderful part of this trip. I can´t wait to share my photos. Headed back to town, and caught the 1hour local train to Barcelona. Now. Headed to the Airport in a few minutes to fly to Amsterdam tonight. I´ll update from there! Cheers!

Sunday, December 7, 2003 08:05 p.m.
Hi from Amsterdam!
Flew here last night without incident, although it felt like Aaron and I have been doing nothing but travel since before leaving Bilbao. Kind of true too. Barcelona from the air was beautiful. Arrived at the hostel in good time, dumped our stuff and headed for a walk. We are staying in the heart of the red-light district, and it is exactly as people report it. Mostly tourists. Pretty impressive in general though.

This morning was beautiful, sunny and clear. Cold. We learned (in Dutch) last night, that the Rijksmuseum is closing for renovations from December 8-20. Today was the last day for a while, and then when they open again on the 20th, it will be just a few paintings in the newer part that they have already renovated. The old part is closing until like 2008. So, our timing is incredibly good. We headed down there today, to be confronted with a big long line. The museum was free all weekend, and all kinds of special events were held in celebration of the closing. Everything from live music: a wandering choir singing silly songs related to subject matter, "That's Amore" in a room filled with italian landscapes, "Always look on the bright side of life" in front of a biblical torture scene. There was also a group called "Da Moppies" singing outside the bathrooms, apparently they are the custodial staff... The museum was crowded, but not too bad, in all actuality. I've seen the Met more crowded. There were lots of Dutch families there, and it was a great time. The art really is amazing, I've got much more respect for Rembrandt and Vermeer than I did before. I still find a lot of the landscapes and still lifes pretty boring, but I think I just don't like _bad_ 17th century painting... Visited a grocery store and found something to eat. We'll probably eat again and head out on the town. Aaron and I are also hanging out with a guy that he met in Spain, happened to run into him on the street. Piccolo Mondo.

Monday, December 8
Today was a bit of a lull during the day, we hung around and checked out the Vondelpark, with a fair bit of internetting and shopping. Mondays start slow here, and we kind of fit right in with that. The most exciting purchase was a scarf. I quite like it, but it has shed unsightly brown fuzz _all_over_ my jacket. It looks very silly. I may have to invest in a lint brush, of all the crazy things. A and I met up with 3 of the 4 urban planners he knew here, he met them in Valencia. They took us round last night, to an Irish pub and then to a Dutch bar with a bunch of different beers. Like 200. Good fun.

Tuesday, December 9, 2003 05:00 p.m.
This morning was a bit chaotic, A did laundry, and then we showered and got our shit together. We changed hostels, we weren't such big fans of the Bulldog, and now We're at the "Flying Pig Palace" seems quite a lot better. Van Gogh museum this afternoon. Wonderful place. Really. Like staring into dreams. Beautiful. This evening we went over to Lasse´s house for the footy match. Amsterdam Ajax (EYE-acks) lost to Brugges. Sucked. We had a great meal however, a traditional Dutch meal, potatoes mashed with cabbage, and sausage on top. cooked in a Dutch oven no less. Back to the pig for a bit more drinking before hitting the sack.

December 10-
Another beautiful but cold day in Amsterdam. We went to the Stedelijk Museum today, modern art. They did a really good retrospective of their collection since the 1960s. The stuff related to historical events (war protests, sit-ins love fests) in Amsterdam during that time period was the most interesting. The bulk of the show was their permanent collection, a thorough but not deep survey of modern art. Naumann, Calder, Picasso, Raushenberg, Oldenberg, and all the other usual suspects were there, but not in particular depth. Good though. Wandered around a bit more. Once more to the Grocery store, we´re becoming regulars there, to get groceries for dinner. It is great to stay some place with a kitchen. Headed out to a jazz club on the Leidesplain with some other people, pretty good, stayed for a few sets before repairing back to the bar at the pig palace. We failed miserably at remaining awake long enough to call Michele´s party in NYC.
December 11-
Different weather today. Suckier. Rainy and colder. Ick. We should have gone to the Stedelijk today instead of wandering around. We also missed our chance for the canal tour. We did go to a great museum, the Maritime history museum. Lots and lots of model boats. Good history of the Dutch East India company and mankinds harnessing of the wind. The rebuilt "Amsterdam" is in port right outside, and you can do a good bit of crawling around the boat. Would have been more fun if it wasn´t so friggin cold. Headed back home to cook dinner, ran our usual running commentary/comedy act while preparing eggs, to the delight and laughter of some girls attempting to not burn brownies in the toaster oven. Emrys and Lasse came over and we played a game of cards (31) before Lasse went home and Emrys took us to a disco. Called Paradiso, it was in an old church. 6¤ admission charge, and about the best time I´ve had in ages. Ages. Really great mixed crowd, the Dutch are some of the most beautiful people I´ve ever seen. They are all very tall. Aaron and I were certainly not among the tallest people out on the dance floor. Good lighting, good music, reasonably cheap beers, hot people, old church, great time. Most fun I´ve had dancing in ages. I really don´t mean to run on about it, but it was fab.

December 12-
I still had club ears this morning when I got up. We got our shit together, stuck it in the locker at the pig. We headed around town do a bit of shopping. I went back to the Stedelijk museum to buy a watch that I saw in the store. It is hard to explain, you´ll just have to see it. Very cool and very unique. The hands are mounded off center from each other and the face of the watch. They make Xs throughout the day. You have to see it. We also picked up some typically obscene AMS souviners, but steered clear of anything too ugly or illegal. Aaron has commented that the best looking thing either of us have seen through a window in Amsterdam is Belgain waffles with chocolate and Ice Cream. We then expertly executed a set of traveling motions that make amateurs heads spin. Grocery store, whirl by the hostel, microwave our apple-turnover-hoobie-doobies, collect luggage, hike to Centraal Station, Purchase 2 train tickets from a cantankerous Ticket dispenser (in Dutch, with correct change only)whirl our way onto Spor 10a, step onto the Airport train, eat lunch, get off at Schipol, check into Easy Jet, head to the plane, wait at the gate, get on, fly to Barcelona's El Prat Aeroporto, and all this expertise grinds to a stunning halt when Aaron´s bag failed to show up on the Turnstile. We waited around did the usual shit and waited a long time for the Cerciana train into Graçia. We walked down the Ramblas to Kabul, and they had beds for us tonight, something we hadn´t anticipated. We paid our full stay, and relaxed. Barca is great, it feels like home. It is much warmer here than in Amsterdam, in the range of 15 or so at night and up to a sunny balmy 22 during the day. Hung out at Kabul, met some drunk Australians and went out to get falafel at 2AM.

December 13-
Barcelona. No sign as yet of Aaron´s luggage. Easy Jet claims to have found it though. Went up to Sagrada Familia, I went in, but Aaron stayed outside, he´d already been twice. Got some good pictures. Walked down to the port, and shot the Frank Ghery Fish sculpture down there, shiny bronze in the sun. Had a really nice savoury crepe at a kitschy place, and wandered along the seafront back home, stopping off to buy a bottle of Rum. Had a nice siesta, and met 3 Americans recently arrived that are staying in our room. Spent most of the evening getting pretty unreasonably drunk. Around 1:30 we headed out, things were much better after we organized ourselves into two distinct groups based on some fundamental preferences. My team headed to a club that was empty, but filling up. Had a great time, but was forced to walk a long way home with a whining drunk boy. Some people´s children.

December 14-
Because of vast world experience, I singlehandedly drank a 1.5L bottle of water before crashing last night,. I avoided a hangover, but was urgently awakened this morning by an impatient bladder. In the good news department, Aarons bag arrived, plus a little extra, a sachet clipped to the shoulder strap, filled with feminine hygine products. Clearly someone else was missing them. SSS felt very good this morning, and we had gotten sufficiently organized to leave the hostel by around noon. We walked up to MACBA, the Barcelona museum of contemporary art. It was alright, but the Meier designed building is definitely the highlight. I got some great photos of that too. He really knows how to use sunlight and shadow in incredibly pure white spaces. We had a picnic lunch around 4, and then a few hours of siesta. Things are just getting started tonight for a bit of whatever we´re doing tonight, but I imagine they´ll work out just fine. Unbelieveable that this all ends shortly. Must enjoy time while I have it...

December 15-
Woke up at Kabul this morning. I assume last night ended alright. It seems like it was just cards for awhile and a single expensive beer before I headed home tired of wasting my time with kids. Got my act together and caught an 11:00 train to Valencia. About 2 1/2 hours according to the schedule, but we were late by about an hour. Arrived in Valencia and locked up my bag at the station. I headed out for a walk. Today's primary goal was to take a lot of pictures of some unusual buildings. Called La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, it is an unusual assemblage of buildings by Santiago Calatrava. The complex is a science museum, a planetarium, an (unfinished) theatre, as well as some bridges and a parking structure. All done in slightly off-white reinforced concrete and steel. Monumental and quasi-organic. Santiago owes our good friend Antoni Gaudì a nice Christmas card. The public spaces were virtually deserted, which made for great photo opportunities, but made the whole thing seem very overbuilt and oppressive. Allegedly it is Spain's second most popular tourist attraction, so the emptiness may have been anomalous. Anyway, the sun was perfect, and the buildings interesting, even if some of the big reflecting pools were drained for maintenance. As the sun set, I made my way up the weird dry riverbed cum city park that surrounds the old town. I took some quick shots of another Calatrava bridge and subway station (he was born in Valencia, he's really a hometown superstar). Headed back to the Train Station and pushed on to Madrid. Back to Huertas, where I met up with Aaron. We did something about dinner and headed to bed.

December 16-
My last day in Spain! Madrid is a great city of the world, and I can certainly fill a day here with no problem. Headed to the Prado this morning, taking in the Manet show. Manet visited the museums in Spain when he was young, and the show was organized to show the influences of Goya and Velazquez on the young Impressionist. Awesome. It is amazing to watch students of all ages sketching and painting in that museum, and wonder if the next Manet is among them. Had a break at my La Plateria across the street, my favorite cafe-bar in Madrid. Renia Sofia is closed on Tuesdays, so I couldn't stop in and say Hi to Guernica, but I pushed on. Headed for a nice walk in the Reitro neighborhood, and did a fair amount of window shopping. Ducked into the Supermarcado at El Corte Inglès for a mid-afternoon snack (they have lots of free samples) and headed back to Huertas for la siesta. Met back up with A, we searched out a snack and did some shopping. I got a pair of cords and two nice shirts at Zara, the stuff is perfect for the kind of dressed up I will have to be at work in the coming months. Aaron got something at H&M, while I just watched people. We went to the grocery, cooked up a great meal back at Huertas. In the evening we went out to wander some more, Christmas lights and all. Saw the theatre that LOTR (in Español, El Señor de los Anillios) is going to play at, they had a big Ring with countdown clock outside. We finished another bottle of Rioja, and I crashed.

December 17-
Just travel. Not that interesting. The usual pains in the ass.
Three Subways across Madrid.
Wait in Line. Wait in another Line. Another Line.
Security.
Duty Free. (mm Baileys)
Wait.
Plane.
9 hours and 30 minutes
Chicago.
Immigration.
Luggage.
Customs.
Change terminals.
Wait.
5 hours.
Plane.
1 hour.
Traverse City.
Drive Home.
Sleep.