From izzy@izzy.com Sun Jul 5 08:36:59 1998 Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 14:59:05 -0400 From: Michael Israeli Subject: We made it! v2 Hello, everyone! We are composing this email from our hotel room in Barcelona. Here's what happened so far: We flew from Newark to Copenhagen in "EuroClass" on SAS - this was a pleasant surprise. Apparently, getting to the airport early paid off, because we got that upgrade from "tourist class" which allowed us to have huge seats with tons of legroom. SAS serves good food and wine as well, so it was a nice trip. We got to Copenhagen during a light drizzle, but didn't care because we weren't leaving the airport. The airport there is beautiful but sadly lacking in any kind of anti-sneezing medication which, by the time we arrrived there, Hillary desperately needed. Although she'd taken her usual antihistamine AND some comtrex pre-departure, she was apparently VERY allergic to something on the plane (or is coming down with a cold). She has gone through 6 or so of those little travel sized kleenex packs and is kind of bummed about that. One cool thing about the Copenhagen airport is the existence of a "Quiet Area" for you to hang out in. Also, there were numerous nifty and amusing Sun Microsystems advertisements lining the walkways. Anyway, we got on our connecting flight ok and the flight attendants gave Hillary some medicine which helped a bit. We got to Barcelona on time and due to Michael's outstanding grasp of the native tongue, we were able to find our way to the Hotel Cadovanga via train and taxicab. Kudos to Michael also for explaining to the saleswomnan at La Farmacia that Hillary needed "mas kleenex" :) We walked around briefly in downtown Barcelona, stopped at a cafe for dos coca colas, and tried to do some planning using a map that was 4 times the size of our table. We believe that we managed to tip the waiter (and cab driver, for that matter) correctly; however we have concluded it not going to kill us if we leave a tiny bit too much instead of not enough. Refreshed from our cokes, we returned to our hotel room for una siesta grande. We just recently awoke, and we plan to try to find somewhere to eat some dinner and perhaps we will also look for the cybercafe listed in our guidebook. The weather is pretty nice - there was a quick thunderstorm while we were on the train, but we somehow managed to avoid being rained on pretty much entirely, and it was clearing up and then sunny by the time we finished our walk. We just heard over the AP feed to our cellphone that the FDA has approved a large scale trial of an AIDS vaccine. This is pleasing to us, as we were distressed by the news of the large German train crash earlier today. So far everyone here has been very friendly and Michael has been truly amazing with regard to speaking Spanish to them. Hillary has piped in with the occasional "gracias" but really isn't very much help in that regard. One thing about our hotel: we realized that it is very good that Avi did not come with us, as he would likely not fit into the elevator. Avi, if you come to spain, check out the elevators in advance! This one is pea sized. Well, since all we've really done so far is travel, buy some kleenex and cokes, and take a nap, this is likely an extremely boring email for you to read. Therefore, we regretfully say goodbye at this time, and we'll send another email after we have done something interesting to tell you about. ta ta for now, Hillary and Michael PS: late breaking news! We just downloaded our mail and got Hillary's grades: 2001-Pharm-B 7002-IMD-A 7023-Pub.Health-A 8011-Anesthesia-A! 9001-Med/Surg-B >From izzy@izzy.com Sun Jul 5 08:36:59 1998 Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 15:06:14 -0400 From: Michael Israeli Subject: June 4: en el Eixample Hola! Well, after we sent that email yesterday, we went out for dinner. We walked down La Avinguda Diagonal, which is the big street our hotel is on, and we went to a place called Quasi Queviures, but which goes by the nickname "Qu Qu." It was a lovely post-thunderstorm evening; clear and mild, not too hot or too cold. So, we sat outside in the large sidewalk seating area, and we ordered an assortment of tapas, the little appetizer dishes everyone always talks about when they talk about spanish food. We also ordered a bottle of rose wine, and we sat and enjoyed ourselves for a while until we just couldn't stay awake any longer. Then we headed back to the hotel and crashed at about 1 am. So, today we got up at about 9:30 am and prepared for a day of walking around the city. We had breakfast in the hotel, and met a nice couple from Phoenix, AZ, who were winding up their month in Europe, but were cutting their trip short because they had to rush back to the states to sell their house or something. They helped us out with learning how to make train reservations and they are also giving us their "leftover" French francs :) At about 10:30 am we headed out, guidebook in hand. We took the "Barcelona modernisme" walking tour outlined in our Frommer's guidebook, but since it started somewhere kind of far from our hotel, we figured we would take a bus to get there....that didn't work out. we could not, and still have not, figured out the bus system here. It looks great on the surface, but for some reason the buses we want do not seem to stop at the stops marked with that number. Oh well... cabs are cheap in Barcelona, the cab drivers thus far have seemed honest or if not, at least they are very very good liars. (that's a joke). The cabs are nice clean little yellow and black Fords with blue upholstery. So, we took a cab to the Placa Catalunya (the c in placa should have a cedille under it but I do not know how to type that...) and started our tour. The placa is a sort of a park, or town square. There was a large slate or similar material surface surrounded by a number of benches, and some grassy area with trees, and several statues and fountains. We took some pictures there and we hope they come out ok. We walked from there along the Rambla de Catalunya, which is a tree lined street with very broad sidewalks - typical of the shopping/business/restaurant districts here, because the cafes and restaurants all put out large groups of chairs and tables, and they charge more for eating inside (or is it outside? we can't quite figure it out :)) We looked at a lot of buildings in the "modernisme" style of architechture - many of the buildings in this district (the Eixample) were designed by young spanish architects in the late 19th century, and they are very intricate and colorful and beautiful. We took some pictures of some of these buildings and then we took a break (as directed by our book!) in a small cafe type place called "Cerveceria d'Or". Here we again ordered dos coca colas. Hillary says she is going to try to remember to order hers "sin lemon" next time, because for some reason they always put a lemon slice in the bottom of the glass here. >From there we walked some more - we have a map on which we have marked our route, we can show you when we come home if you are interested - but we saw some cool buildings, with griffons and eagles and flowers and maidens clutching lightbulbs (really!) carved into them. Oh, also of note - the weather today was beautiful. It was probably about 85 degrees F and very sunny! Oh, and hey - Michael just turned on the TV and the Simpsons is on, in Spanish of course. Lisa's voice sounds really weird and so does Bart's. Anyway, in the area not too far from the restaurant we stopped at was something called "the Block of Discord" although we know of no reason why they call it that. One of the buildings here was very cool - we took pictures but they will not do it justice because there were some trees in the way. This was the "Casa Batllo," an 1877 building overhauled by one of these modernisme guys named Gaudi,in 1906. The Casa Batllo is supposed to look like a dragon. Basically, there were tiles - fragmented tiles - embedded into the front of it, and the effect is that it looks like the building has scales. Also, the decorations around the windows and terraces look like teeth, and bones and stuff. There is a tower on the top that is believed to represent St. George, the patron saint of Barcelona. We hope the photos show this building well. We walked on, tirelessly :) to the Quadrat d'Or, which Hillary says is misnamed, because it didn't look very gold to us, but whatever. We saw more modernisme buildings with intricate ironwork on the terraces and lots of flowers growing on the balconies. Then, starting to fade from the heat, we sought a cool respite in a little underground place called "La Bodegueta" on Rambla de Catalunya. This funky little place had a bar behind which were many dusty wine casks. There was a sizable modern refrigerated wine cellar system there near the bar. We sat at one of several small tables near the bar and ordered dos copas de Cava, Cava being the popular sparkling wine of Catalunya which we read about in our guidebook and just had to have. Michael did an excellent job of explaining to the proprietor that no, we did not want una botella de Cava, we wanted dos copas! I think if it had been Hillary talking to the guy we might have gone home with a case of the stuff. Anyway, it was a nice place and the Cava hit the spot. We took a quick photo from the door of the place but again, who knows if this will do it justice... Further along in our walking tour we passed a really trendy and expensive restaurant called "El Tragaluz" which claimed to have Japanese appetizers and therefore got our hopes up with regard to finding some sushi...but no, no sushi there, sad to say. It looked like a nice place but we didn't really stop there. We continued onward until we reached Carrer Provenca (that's a street) where there is a building our guidebook calls the most striking of the modernista buildings - a very beautiful and unique building called, believe it or not, "Casa Mila"!!! (note to the confused: Hillary's mother's name is Mila. The building name has an accent over the A, but it's close) This building is hard to describe. The limestone facade kind of undulates - it's all cut limestone and it is made to look kind of like waves in the ocean or something. We really can't describe it very well. You'll have to check out our pictures. We walked some more, checked out a department store called Vincon which seems to be Spain's answer to Ikea, but on a smaller and more sophisticated scale. We then deviated from our tour a bit, after checking out still more of these really interesting buildings, and we stopped at a place called "Fantapas" where we had some sheep milk cheese and some potatoes with spicy pink sauce. Why did we have a plate of sheep milk cheese? well, because we accidentally ordered it and didn't want to admit it, that's why :) - Hey, Michael is good, but he isn't perfect. It was very good cheese, anyway. Hillary figured out how to ask for hiela for her agua, too. She's picking up some spanish pretty quickly but she is afraid to use it in public. We walked to a small mercado - kind of like the Reading Terminal market - and we bought some fruit there - peaches, tiny peaches which they call by another name here, and one orange colored fruit called a nerido or nerida or something, which had a good, sweet taste to it. Then we walked a long way to the Sagrada Familia, where there is a huge and beautiful church called the Templo Expiatori. This church was first started in 1925 but was not finished. It got interrupted by the civil war and some other stuff. They are working on finishing it up now, using Gaudi's drawings and plans, and they hope to have it finished within the next *50* years. I guess they have union workers on the site, or something... (seriously, the detail on this building is amazing. We are sure it must be very difficult to do this well.) We decided to risk another attempt at public transportation but, still fearful of the buses, went with the Metro instead. This worked well despite some initial confusion due to the million or so escalators you are required to go up and down before you get to where you are going. We took the metro to the "Barcelona Sants" station (estancio) which is not only a metro station but also the main transportation hub of Barcelona, a la 30th St Station in Philadelphia. While there we got a schedule of trains leaving Barcelona for Madrid on Sunday the 7th. We did not make a reservation because we didn't have all our stuff with us and didn't want to make any mistakes. We will probably stop there again tomorrow. Hillary made sure to pick up a few local timetables for Uncle Jeff, though. Hillary thought we should try to take the #27 bus back to our hotel from Estacio Sants. This was the initial recommendation made by the Hotel concierge when we called for directions from the airport - but yesterday we were too tired to deal with it and took a cab. So, Michael said she would have to ask where the bus stop was, since she was the one who wanted to try the bus today. Hillary went up to the tourist office at the train station and tried to say "Donde esta el autobus veinte y siete por favor" and she made herself understood although perhaps less than eloquently. The woman answered her really quickly and of course Hillary couldn't understand a word of it, but Michael did, so we went out where she said the stop was...and it wasn't there. So, Hillary fearlessly approached a Barcelonian woman and tried again with "pardon, donde esta el autobus veinte y siete, por favor?" This woman looked puzzled and said in spanish that the 27 wasn't aqui, and asked us where we wanted to go. We showed her on the map and she helpfully showed us where the bus actually did stop. Hillary was pretty excited about actually communicating with someone in Spanish :) but in any case, we decided after walking to where the bus would stop that really, we weren't so far from the hotel, and so we walked back to the hotel by way of La Placa de Francisc Macia. This may not seem like much, but we had a really good time. We left our hotel at about 10:30 am and did not get back til about 6:30 pm. So we did a lot of walking and we are tired. We will rest for a bit before going out to dinner. We get CNN and a European NBC channel on the TV here, so we are trying to keep up with what's going on in the world also. Hillary doesn't like it when she goes on vacation and loses touch completely with what's happening globally. Other notes: Barcelona seems to be a city that is reasonably tolerant of dogs. We saw muchos perros y perritos while walking around and we heard some barking in the metro station. We saw one gato negro as well, but it seemed to be a stray - although, it was plump, not skinny, so someone was feeding it. People seem friendly and tolerant of Hillary's kindergarten level spanish and Michael's mexican accented third grade spanish. Also, the ambulances here have a different kind of siren, and we were playing a game of judging the location of the ambulancia by the way the doppler effect was changing the sound. Wherever we go, we are geeks. :) We also noticed a place on the way back to the hotel which had a sign advertising la videoconferencia and los telecomunicados, and a bigger sign upon which it proclaimed itself to be "Supermercado Informatico," - the Information Supermarket? Sounds about right for Barcelona :) No superhighways here. We weren't sure what that was all about but we were amused and so we took a picture of it. That's about all we can think of right now. Love, Hillary and Michael >From izzy@izzy.com Sun Jul 5 08:36:59 1998 Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 13:10:32 -0400 From: Michael Israeli Subject: June 5: off the beaten path Hola again! Last night after we wrote to you we took a brief siesta and then headed out to dinner at about 10 PM, as per local custom. We went to a place on el Passeig de Gracia called "Tapa Tapa," and (in a surprise move) we ate some tapas and had a pitcher of sangria, which was very good. We ordered an assortment of tapas and all of them were to our liking. So far, we haven't had anything not to our liking. We found out why we had a plate full of cheese the other day, though. Despite the fact that our berlitz menu guide agrees with us that "taco" means "tortilla full of stuff," it seems that in Catalan, the local pseudo-spanish dialect/language, "taco" means "chunks"! so that explains that. Anyway, we ate and then we had dos cafes - which really turned out to be dos espressos, but that was cool with us. We also had un helado chocolate which was refreshing and really rich and creamy. We entered into a conversation with the couple at the neighboring table when it became apparent that not only were they americans, but they had the same guidebooks that we had and were even ordering the same food! Every place we go, we meet americans... After dinner we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. That's where we stayed until about half past noon today!! I guess yesterday took a lot out of us. When we got up today we decided we'd make our train reservations for Sunday, so as to get that out of the way. We walked from the hotel out to a little place on the corner called the Central Cafe. It was set up with a long bar inside, and the whole front of the place was open, so that sitting at the bar is almost like sitting outside. We ordered dos capuccinos freddos (a specialty of this establishment and very good!) and un xurro, which was actually a whole plate of what they call "Churros" in the states - cylindrical sweet breadlike things. After breakfast, we walked back out to the Placa de Francesc Macio again - noticing that the nearby Rodier store sells the same stuff as the Rodier boutique on Walnut St. We walked back down the Carrer de Josep Tarradella that we walked up yesterday. We stopped at a small shop where there is a soda machine with the cheapest cokes in Barcelona - only 125 pesetas - and Michael got a coke. We also stopped in that Information Supermarket place and asked them to show us on our map where exactly the Cafe de Internet was located - they were friendly and they seemed amused by our desire to schlep all the way across town to get to the Internet place. Eventually we got to the Estancio Sants, and we took a number to be helped at the ticket window. There was about a half an hour wait, during which time we chatted with some girls who are travelling around Europe as well, from Minnesota, Maine, and Calgary. They had been travelling for many weeks and seemed to know what they were doing, so we asked them about navigating the European train system and they were pretty helpful - they pulled out a timetable book they had and looked stuff up for us. When we got to the window, we were helped by a friendly guy who spoke little if any English. He and Michael discussed what we wanted and got everything set up correctly without using any English at all except for the word "smoking" accompanied by a vigorous shaking of the head to say "no!" :) We paid our mil pesetos for the reservation (they require a nominal fee for reservations apparently to avoid the problem of people making many different reservations but only using one of them) and we were on our way. We walked out of the station and went down Carrer Sant Antoni through the Sants district - this is more of a working class type district, from what we could tell. We turned to walk down the Carrer de Sants and we passed lots of small businesses, local type places...shoe stores, bakeries, etc. Then, when we got to El Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, it became more upscale. Before turning onto the Gran Via, we stopped to check out La Placa d'Espanya. This is at the intersection of El Gran Via y Avinguda del Parallel. There is a sort of a monument, with an eternal flame type of thing at the top, in the middle of a traffic circle here. Also nearby was the "Anello Olimpica," from when Barcelona hosted the Olympics. We wandered into the Olympic area to check that out - we took some pictures of a beautiful art museum in there and we also took some pictures of the Placa. On the other side of the Placa is the Barcelona Arena - their version of the Spectrum? It was a pretty brick building and we took a photo of that as well. Then we moved on out onto the Gran Via. We were walking through the area between the Sant Antoni district and the De Eixample and we walked a long way down Gran Via - 2.5 kilometers (that may not seem that much, but realize we had already walked 3 kilometers before that!). While walking down Gran Via we passed some interesting places. We stopped and took a photo at a "Sex Shop" which claimed to be a "general store of sex" - we couldn't go in and check it out because they were on siesta at the time. We saw a "perruqueria de caninos" which we think was a grooming salon for dogs. They sold Iams food there :). We walked past a University (conveniently located across the street from Placa Universitat, where there is a metro stop and a nice park area) - it was another stunning example of old architecture. This was simply a few blocks away from the Placa de Catalunya, where we began our walk yesterday, by the way. Anyway, also near the University was El Bar Estudiantes, which seemed to be full of students relaxing and enjoying themselves. We noticed that there really are not many homeless people here in Barcelona. We have seen one or two people who looked as if they were down and out, but nothing like we see in Philadelphia, that's for sure. Finally we got to the Internet Cafe. We stopped in and had dos bocadillos - un bocadillo de tortilla espanol (tortilla espanol is sort of like a potato quiche, presented here as a few slices of the stuff on some bread), y un bocadillo de salchichon (salami). Of note is the local custom of doing something people always laugh at Hillary for doing in the states....they seem to rub the bread with the cut surface of a ripe tomato, just enough to turn the bread sort of pink, and leave behind the tiniest bit of pulp and the occasional seed. This is done in place of any kind of mayonnaise or mustard and it tastes very good! After we ate we moved upstairs to the Internet area of the cafe and spent half an hour checking email - hillary had to erase a bunch of spam, as well as a bunch of error messages, and it was really annoying. Oh well. After leaving the Internet Cafe we toyed briefly with the idea of riding the metro back to the hotel, but the weather was so nice that we decided to walk as far as we could. So, we walked up Carrer Roger de Lluria towards the Avinguda Diagonal. This was about another kilometer or so. We passed the cafe "Fantapas" where we ate lunch yesterday, and Michael took a picture of hillary standing outside of it. We also noticed the law school across the street from that cafe, which we hadn't really noticed the other day. When we got to Avinguda Diagonal, we observed and went into a small courtyard full of pretty flowers and trees - Hillary is pretty sure that one of the plants was on her poisonous plant test, but she can't remember the name of it. She did take a picture of Michael standing near some of the flowers, though. Oh, btw, we also noticed a few orange trees with actual oranges on them! When we walked out the gate on the other side of this little park, we found ourselves in a little pedestrian mall area - maybe about 50 yards long? - kind of like what Chestnut Street wants to be. We sat on a bench there and watched some local skateboarders making idiots of themselves. Then we continued on our way toward the hotel. We accidentally walked too far, though, and found ourselves back yet again at La Placa de Francesc Macio! So, we went around the block and stopped at a small store to purchase a large bottle of water - boy, were we thirsty! :) Other things - we forget where exactly, but somewhere on our walk we stopped at a small grocery store and took a picture inside. Very picturesque place... We saw a lot more dogs today, too - but we haven't seen any veterinary hospitals! We noticed that all the male dogs were un-neutered - but they do not seem to have a problem with stray dogs, so it isn't that bad of a situation. Mila, Dan, Jason, Jeff, Joan, and Avi: Hillary would like to mention to you that she got an email from Kristen Morris, nee Cooper, today - and Kristen remarked that it has been too long since we last spoke, and she sends her love to the family and says hi to everyone and wants to get together when we get back, as she has recently moved to Wilmington from Virginia. Everyone - we hear on CNN that as of today the trains and taxis as well as the Air France pilots are on strike in France. We fervently hope that this is resolved before we reach Paris!! We assume it will be as we have 3 weeks before we go there. Still, we'd be mas contento if they were not on strike, as it would be one less thing to worry about. Hillary managed to order a coca cola and pay for it and everything and do the whole thing without Michael's help at all. A landmark occasion! We are not sure what we will do tomorrow. Perhaps we will walk around the "Cuitat Vella" area and then go to the Zoo...perhaps we'll do something else. Barcelona is a very very large city and there is simply no way we will cover all of it. We'd be exhausted if we tried. We are also considering taking a ride on the tourist bus, which stops at 17 places along a loop - kind of like the Phlash. Well, that's about it for now. We'll write more when we have more to say! -Hillary and Michael >From izzy@izzy.com Sun Jul 5 08:36:59 1998 Date: Sat, 06 Jun 1998 17:22:32 -0400 From: Michael Israeli Subject: review: Citrus Restaurantus / June 6 / review: La Botiga Hey y'all. We have just returned to our hotel at 1 am on Saturday the 6th (that is, it is very early on the morning of the 6th, not late at night on the 6th). We ate dinner this evening at a restaurant on Passeig de Gracia near the tapas bars we patronized earlier this week - Citrus Restaurantus. This was a very nice, very trendy kind of place. It reminded us a bit of Pollo Rosso as far as decor and atmosphere, but different in that there were tablecloths and of course the style was not Italian, but rather more Barcelonian :). We arrived at Citrus Restaurantus (CR) at about 9:40 PM and were informed that there would be a wait until about 10:15 PM. So, we put our name on the list and went back out to a small cafe called Cafe di Roma, where we ordered dos cervezas y una focaccia primavera to tide us over, as Hillary was feeling a little peckish :) At about 10:10 we went back to CR which was now very crowded in the foyer area - after a short while we were seated at a very nice table. We were given menus which contained loose translations of the *real* and much more formal looking menus given to the locals. These were large notebook like menus containing detailed information in english, italian, french, and german. Using these menus, we decided on a bottle of Cava, which you may recall is the local sparkling wine which we enjoyed the other day at the underground botega. We ordered zucchini with goat cheese and parmesan as an appetizer, along with "Citrus Moussaka," their version of the greek dish moussaka. For entrees we ordered chicken tourenados with mushrooms and lamb stew with baby vegetables. We also had una botella aqua con gas :) The food was all very delicious. The moussaka was exquisitely prepared, very unlike your standard greek restaurant fare but still representative of the actual classic dish. The eggplant was layered with slices of tomato as an upper layer, underneath which there was the usual potato and lamb mixture. The zucchini appetizer was also good. The lamb stew was very rich and flavorful and contained large chunks of tender lamb as well as tiny baby carrots and mushrooms and onions. The chicken was beautifully presented as two rolled up pieces wrapped in some kind of bacon type meat, served aside a mound of minced wild mushrooms with peppers and onions. All of it was delicious and there was more food than we had expected. Plus, the very very solicitous waiter kept bringing us more bread, and the bread was especially tasty. BTW, the Cava we ordered was very good and we've decided we are going to harass the state store people in PA and force them to stock this stuff if they do not already carry it. You might look into this if you are interested. Hillary wanted to find the bathroom at this point and Michael refused to ask the waiter where it was for her so she went up to some random restaurant guy and asked him "habla ingles?" to which he replied "un poquito." She asked him in English where it was and he showed her. Michael thinks this was cheating. She doesn't. Anyway, when she got back to the table Michael had ordered some dessert - Citrus Sherbets - lemon, lime, and "sour pink citrus" which turned out to be a yummy and low pH grapefruit flavor. After all of this, we sat back and mentally figured about how much this would cost us in Philadelphia. We figured for all of that it would be about $120 or so, considering the champagne type wine and all. However, it came to a mere 6000 pesetas, which depending on the exchange rate and stuff should be about $40. What a bargain!!!! If you think about it, we're actually *saving* money...well, not really, but it is amazing how cheap the food is here. Plus, you are only supposed to tip about 10% in restaurants, although we do tend toward the side of too much rather than too little. During our walk this evening we noticed again the Casa Botllo (sp?) - the building we remarked on before which resembles a dragon - in the dark, with the lights shining on it, it is even more beautiful and striking. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a picture of it tonight. We did get the waiter to take a picture of us in CR, but we're not sure if it will come out because he fumbled with the camera a bit. FYI for Mila and Dan - prior to our departure Hillary posted a note to the phl.food newsgroup about the updated menu at Pollo Rosso, and advising readers to check it out, and also mentioning the review in the Philadelphia Weekly. Well, today, she got email from some people who read the review and are going to check out Pollo Rosso. You might mention this to Jon if you feel like it. Question for Joy: Michael and I are arguing about which modern languages are considered "romance languages." Could you please settle this for us by sending us a list? Of general interest - we noticed that Basset Hounds, small terriers, and large mutts seem to be the most popular dogs around here. We have seen many dogs of these types. We have also seen one dalmation, one golden retriever, and one Italian greyhound. Still no veterinarians, though. Oh well. Tomorrow (later today) we plan to ride the tourist bus - only 1700 pesetas for unlimited rides on the bus, which stops at 24 interesting places. You can get off and back on as much as you like. We will probably ride it to the area near the Parca Cuitadella/Parca Zoologica, and get off, walk around, check out the zoo, the park, and the nearby Olympic village, then get back on the bus and check out the north part of Barcelona, which we really haven't seen at all. Then we'll come back to the hotel and pack and prepare for our train ride to Madrid on Sunday. that's all for now. we hope that you are enjoying our travelogues at least one half as much as we are enjoying experiencing the contents of them!! ------------------------------------------------------------ It is now 7pm here on June 6th in Barcelona. We just got back from a very long day of touring many parts of the city of Barcelona that we had not seen yet. Here's the story of our day: We woke up late in the morning and headed over to the cafe which we ate at yesterday. We had dos cafes con leche which turned out to be similar to a latte back in the states. You can't really get a cup of coffee around here. If you order un cafe, you get a shot of espresso. We also had some type of pastry, but I forget the name of it. We sat at the bar, drinking our coffees, and we had some serious doubts about the weather. It was overcast and kind of cool out. Michael even brought an umbrella just in case. By the time we were done at the cafe, however, the sky had cleared up and the sun came out. It was actually kind of cooler today, and it turned out to be a beautiful day, weather wise. We decided that it would be a shame not to see the far north and south parts of the city while we're here, so we hopped on the tourist bus at the Placa de Francisc Macia stop. The first part of the bus tour took us along the route we described earlier, past the information supermarket down to the Barcelona Sants train station. We then drove around it, and got a good view of the Parc Espanya Industrial, which is kind of a plaza with a lot of water and trees and large metal sculptures. We didn't stop there, though. We continued on past the Parc Joan Miro, where Michael and Hillary attempted to take a photo of a very beautiful sculpture, only to be told to sit down by the evil tour guide who seemed to think we were going to fall off the top of the bus if we lifted our butts off the seat by an inch. So maybe that photo won't come out. We continued across the Placa d'Espanya, which we described to you in a previous email, and then drove farther than we'd walked before, into the Anelia Olimpica and up the mountain called "Montjuic," or "Mountain of the Jews." We went past many interesting places here - stadiums, parks, museums, etc...of particular note was the Montjuic fortress, beneath which there is a buried Jewish cemetery, which of course we could not see as it was buried. On the way down the mountain we drove through some striking scenery - many interesting and very tall flowering cactuses, trees, and succulent plants. Hillary noticed many flowering oleander shrubs, and is pleased that her poisonous plant class is coming in so handily. She made sure Michael didn't eat any of the oleander :) After we got down from the mountain we were in the harbor area, where there was a cruise ship docked. Two apparently very travel-weary american women sitting behind us remarked that they were really glad to be off the cruise ship they had been on for the past couple of weeks because they had gotten very fat on the boat! We drove past this harbor area and past a resort/beach area where people were frolicing and enjoying the balmy weather - note that we were enjoying it too, from the open-air upper deck of the tour bus! We drove through the coastal area of the "Ciutat Vella" part of Barcelona, and went through a trendy shopping area where there was an Imax theater. Oh, also - these tour buses are apparently heavily subsidized by KFC and Pizza Hut, because every time they announced a stop, they also remarked on where the nearest one of those places was - often right near the stop! And our bus tickets came with coupons for discount meals at those places (we passed on that...) Also in this area we stopped to see the "Mirador de Colon" - a monument to a general, we think, at the base of the people-watching boulevard, La Rambla. Then we went through Port Vell, which seems to be where the cargo ships come in. We drove past the district they call "La Barceloneta," where there is more trendy shopping, tourist stuff, and coastline, and we went through the Vila Olimpica, which is just behind the two tallest buildings in Spain - they call them the "twin towers" and they are a whole whopping 42 stories tall!! woo. Then the bus made kind of a U turn and went inland a bit, taking us into the Parc de la Ciutadella. This is a very large - about 3/4 kilometer by 1/2 kilometer - park, with beautiful trees, shrubs, and grassy areas, fountains and sculptures, etc. It occupies the former site of an 18th century citadel and houses several museums and the regional parliament building. Also in this park is the Zoo. We got off at this bus stop and walked around a bit. The park was full of picnicking locals and tourists. We went to the zoo (our bus tickets gave us a discount) of course :). The big thing about the Barcelona zoo is they have the *only* albino gorilla ever seen - the only one anyone knows about, anyway. His name is Snowflake, and he has five or six living offspring but they are all the usual black color. The zoo had many other interesting exhibits as well. It was very heavy on the birds - we saw a lot of parrots and many tropical birds like toucans and others that we can't recall the names of but Hillary thinks that some of them were related to the toucan. Hillary thinks Dr. Moffatt would have enjoyed checking out the large aviary. We also went into an exhibit of the rainforest of Madagascar, where there were interesting lizards. Michael enjoyed seeing the marmosets and tamarins with their infants clinging to their backs in the small primate area. So, anyway, we had some sandwiches in the zoo, and took a photo of the statue of a stray dog put up by the Barcelona society for the preservation of plants and animals. there was a poem under the statue, written in Catalan, that we couldn't fully translate but it seemed to say that people should be kind to animals and that if you weren't, you were a big fat loser. When we were done exploring this area we got back on the tour bus. It took us past the Estancio Franca, another huge train station, which was built originally for some world expo or something but is now just another train station. We continued into the Gothic quarter, which had some interesting architecture, a music museum, but wasn't as interesting to us as some of the other stuff we had seen. We did notice a french poodle strolling about one of the parks, though. The next stop was Placa Catalunya of which we wrote before. Today the fountains weren't on. We changed buses here, to get onto the one which goes to the west of the city. The second bus first took us through the moderniste area which we already described in detail, so we won't discuss it again - although we did get another good look at the Casas Botlle and Mila :). We drove on past the Sagrada Familia, getting a better look at some of the detailed carvings, and then drove up the Passeig Sant Joan until we were near the Parc Guell. We disembarked at that stop and after Hillary recovered from practically impaling herself on a waist high pole that was located exactly in the wrong place, requiring Michael to purchase an ice-cream bar with which to distract her from the pain, we walked through the Gracia neighborhood into the park. This was originally supposed to be a chi-chi housing development with homes, markets and schools, but it turned into something very different. Only two houses were ever built here and one is now a museum. The place is designed by Gaudi, the same guy who did many of the other things we've seen, and who also designed the sidewalks Hillary so admires on the Passeig de Gracia. There is in the park a big ceramic lizard, which Michael posed next to for a photo. Also there are many benches inlaid with broken tile in mosaic fashion, and some interesting walkways lined by unique stone carvings of which we took a couple of pictures. We also went through the Hall of a Hundred Columns, but couldn't get a good picture of the beautiful mosaic ceiling because it was kind of dim in there. After we finished walking around this park, we walked back down to the bus stop. We got on the next bus and drove through the La Sarria neighborhood, which our guide told us is the most exclusive quarter, but which Hillary thought was not as impressive as the Eixample, by any stretch. There were many beautiful gardens, however, with lots of bright purple and red flowers we didn't recognize as well as the omnipresent oleander in pink and white, and some orange trees lining the streets. We drove along a main road all the way until we got to the Monestir de Pedralbes-Thyssen, an ancient monastery which is now a museum. It is "the best example of the Catalan Gothic style of architecture," which leads us to believe that the Catalan gothic style of architecture is nothing to write home about. Ooops. I guess we just did. Well, anyway, this very old building houses art and other items collected by a Catalan Queen, by the name of Elizabetta or something like that, many years ago. >From there we drove down to the Futbol Club of Barcelona, where some guys in rugby shirts got off to go look around. They have a big museum of Futbol here, and the largest sports arena in Europe with 150,000 spectator seats. Nearby was a school of Pharmacy and a maternity hospital. Also in the surrounding area was a sculpture garden. After leaving the futbol club we drove along the section of Avinguda Diagonal which is opposite the Placa Francesc Macia from our hotel (that is, it is beyond the Placa, in the part of the city we had not previously visited) and we drove down this section toward the Placa. This is supposed to be the most exclusive business area of Barcelona. We drove past the Hilton, which was a nice black shiny glass building, and we drove past several fancy restaurants, and a mexican place :) Finally we got to the Placa de F.M. and got off the bus, and returned to our hotel. Here we are, relaxing and recovering from our busy day. We will pack our stuff up and prepare for our travel day tomorrow to Madrid. No sleeping in for us tomorrow!!! We got a lot of sun - Hillary has a criss-cross pattern on her feet from wearing her sandals. Michael's freckles are coming out. No sunburn, though. That's about it for now. We hope things are going well for everyone! ----------------------------------------------- It is now 11:10 PM on the 6th, and we have just returned from dinner at La Botiga. This was a charming and very good restaurant located off La Placa Francesc Macio. We were given the *real* menus this time, and had to ask for English translations. I guess Michael is finally getting the local accent down pat! We had fried scallions and seafood stuffed eggplant to start -both were very good, the scallions surprisingly so, served with a Romesco sauce, and the eggplant indescribable really. Then we had tourenados of beef with three different cheeses, and in a surprise move hillary ordered the lamb chops :). Both entrees were served with a very good side dish of potatoes with zucchini. We also had an excellent Rioja (red wine from the region of spain near the French border) and a bottle of mineral water, sin gas (we ordered it con gas, but that's not what we got.) For dessert we had profiteroles with chocolate sauce, and green apple sorbet with calvados. Both were excellent. When we got the check, Hillary noticed that in addition to the items noted above, there were listed on the bill un pastis y un yogurt. She asked the waitress "que es el pastis y yogurt?" and the waitress took the bill away and then came back with it corrected - we're not entirely sure what was up with that - were they trying to rip us off because we told them we did not speak very much spanish? we hope not and think probably not - it seemed that they were having a problem with their computer, but we don't know for sure. Anyway, it worked out and it was only about 6000 pesetas for the whole shebang (that's about $37 or so). We wanted to leave a tip, but we didn't have any change, so Michael sent Hillary to the bar to ask the bartender "puede combiarme esto" (can I change this?) por favor. The bartender said "si, no problema," and made change for her, and we left a tip, and left. Now we are back in the hotel. We are almost all packed up for Madrid - except we have to pack up the computer! Anyway, we're pretty wiped out and we have a busy travel day tomorrow so that's all for now. Love, hillary and michael