Day 6 - Sete, France
We woke this morning to an industrial fishing port - Sete. I had a much different idea of France in my mind, but once we were on our bus and off for the days' excursion, I began to appreciate the beautiful countryside. Our destination was Montpelier, a medieval city to which I still have found no explanation or real significance, except that it was pretty. The tour started off with Michael stepping in a big pile of dog crap and the whole group having a good chuckle over it. Even funnier, as the morning went on, more and more of our group found piles of their own. Talk about an ice-breaker! It was ironic that the town had severe public smoking restrictions, however, pet owners were not compelled to clean up after their dogs!
The tour was a bit snoozy but we finally had a chance to just sit, have an espresso, and soak in our surroundings in the Place de la Comedie, Montpelier's central square. It was nice to enjoy the sunshine and watch the people. Their public transit made me envious . . . this looks like something I would design!
After our quick stop in Montpelier, we took a short drive up into the hills to the beautiful Flaugergues Castle, a vineyard owned and operated by the same family for ten generations. We were greeted by "The Count," Monsieur de Colbert where he welcomed us into his beautiful estate.
The whole day turned around for me at this point when I entered this peaceful garden and walked through the doors of this castle. The count gave us an in-depth tour of his home and gardens and told us of his family's history and the treasures they amassed over the past, including this Limoge china, hand-painted specifically for their family. By the way, each place setting was a different bird.
We left the castle and walked through a massive bamboo grove into his extensive gardens where he had assorted trees and plants he collected from all over the world. It was so beautiful and lush. Don't I look like I just belong here??
From the gardens, we entered his tasting room where he presented his prized wines and told us about the vintages and as we tasted, he quizzed us on the bouquet, color, etc. I have an unsophisticated palate when it comes to wine, but the whole process was immensely interesting. I admit, however, that I never could taste the "smokey, oaky, woodsy, current, berry" flavors that everyone else talked about. I'm not sure they really did either! I also nearly sloshed my wine over the rim as we twirled our red to aerate it. In any event, the Count was lovely and gracious and of course we had to buy a few bottles! He and his wife were an adorable couple and I felt sure that he would ask me back to stay sometime at the castle. I haven't heard back from him yet!
Another highlight of our day was meeting another great couple - Jackie and Gary from New Yawk (or New Joisy). Shout out here to Jackie and Gary! Michael and I had seen them on the ship a few times and were happy to see them on our excursion - they seemed close to our age and a lot of fun. We were right! Yay, we now have two sets of friends on the ship!
All in all, it was a wonderful day - my first one ever in France! Viva la France!
Day 5 - Rosas, Spain
We woke this morning to the sleepy little port of Rosas, situated on the Costa Brava, Spain's beautiful northern coast and very close to the French border. Our excursion guide today was the dashing Carlos. I nicknamed him Rico Suave. At first his voice was sexy and soothing but as the ride got longer and longer and the history of where we were going got more in depth - old Rico Suave put me right to sleep. I was beginning to dread the day until we parked our bus and walked over a bridge to a breathtaking little village - Girona.
Girona is a
centuries old Medieval city settled by the . . . wait for it . .
. yes - THE ROMANS. During the twelfth century, the Jews occupied a large section of Girona and we toured much of the Jewish quarter. We were able to see some of the original walls of the city built by the Romans and even Arabic baths--not really Arabic, but baths that were copied in the style of the Arabs. I loved the stone work and mosaic cobbled squares.
I could go on and on, but I would probably bore you as much as Rico Suave was boring me! It was all very interesting but a little overwhelming and I felt like I was in a history lecture in college (and some of us know how that worked out - nuk-nuk!) I was anxious to get to the real meat of the tour . . . the city of Figueres and home of DALI!!!
But first . . . lunch. Being the first full day of the cruise, we were all strangers and it was a bit awkward to sit at a large table and make small talk. Fortunately, the gentleman sitting next to me broke the ice when he spoke up with an Aussie accent and introduced himself and his wife. We had an instant connection and amazing conversation and spent the afternoon laughing and talking and getting to know one another. Yay - we had "friends!"
Knowing my love for all things art - you can imagine that the highlight of my day was the visit to "Dali World." In the U.S., "Dolly World" has a whole other meaning, but I am referring, of course, to Salvatore Dali, and our visit to Teatrico Dali, or Dali's Theatre - the museum he designed himself, showcasing . . . himself!
Dali was a narcissist, but I have to give him credit
because he admitted he loved himself and was proud of it. I
particularly favor his surrealistic period, but it is hard not to view
any of his work and wonder what was going on inside his head.
I love that his art makes the viewer think--sometimes it
is ugly, sometimes beautiful, but most certainly it is always thought
provoking.
Dali loved his wife, Gala and her image appears in the majority of his work - either her likeness, or her name. The painting above shows her looking out a window at a seascape, but from a distance you can see Abraham Lincoln. The painting is entitled, "Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes a Portrait of Abraham Lincoln." Oh my gosh, you've gotta love that. The guy was a raving lunatic!
As a lover of random things, I enjoy his work and
the bizarre imagery. It is nonsense, yet it made perfect sense to him, and frighteningly enough, a lot of it makes sense to me.
Sheer brilliance, or sheer madness - who's to say?
And so ends another amazing day - can life get any better????
"Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision."
Salvador Dali
Day 4 - Leaving Barcelona and setting off on the Seabourn Quest!
Leaving this beautiful city was bittersweet, but God willing, we know we'll be back one day. Exhausted after a crazy, whirlwind tour, we slept in late and had a nice breakfast. Last night, we were missing the kids so badly and ended up Skyping with them both for over an hour. The connection was terrible and most of the time they looked like pixelated aliens, but it was so good for my heart to see their faces and hear their voices. When we finally hung up, my husband and I both looked at each other and thought maybe we might come straight home after the cruise instead of staying another 2 weeks in France. WE were homesick for our children! As you might expect, they are fine and I'm sure it makes no difference where in the world we are at this point!
That feeling quickly passed when we boarded our ship and sailed off into the sunset . . .
Adios, Barcelona! Adios Spanish Wine!
Barcelona - Day Three
Today was another amazing day but before I go on, I have to give you a little background. . .
My daughter came home from college last Spring and lectured her father and I about eating healthier, getting fit and taking care of ourselves because she wanted us to be around for a long time. In reality, she was saying, "you guys are getting fat." She lectured us on reading food labels, eating whole, organic foods and exercising regularly. She was a great motivator during the summer and helped to get us "fit and trim" for our trip. She sat us down many a day in front of Dr. Oz and one day he talked about his "Poop Chart." We all died laughing at this episode as he talked about the 7 types of stools and that a "No. 4" was the perfect poop! Here is a link to his chart in case you are curious: http://healthybodydaily.com/dr-oz-in-case-you-missed-it/dr-oz-poop-chart-poop-solutions
So, having a "No. 4" was a big deal and it has become a joke around our house - we are weird like that. As you can imagine (or probably don't want to imagine), after all that healthy eating, we got to Barcelona and forgot all about the organic, whole foods as we devoured tapas and paella and all the amazing dishes of Spain. Yes, you guessed it - no number 4's for us! In fact, there was no number 1's, 2's, 3's, etc! As we walked around each day it got more hysterical until we finally had to stop to find something to get us "moving" again. I was really anticipating a hilarious game of charades when my husband had to go into a pharmacia and try to act out exactly what the problem was. As he began to describe the problem in spanglish, the pharmacist spoke up in perfect english and said, "you need something for constipation." Dang it!
She sent us back with a bottle of "Magnesia Cinfa" and the instructions to drink a capful. That's it, just drink a capful. So two nights ago, that's what we did. No luck. We tried again last night with no luck. By that time, we were in agony and I was trying to decipher the directions on the bottle with my limited high school spanish. We even went as far as using an online translator to try to figure out what the maximum dose was. It became hysterical as we were trying to figure out the directions and then both said "the hell with it" and chug-a-lugged the bottle!!!
And this morning - I am happy to report, "OLE! NUMERO QUATRO!" These are things you don't find in travel brochures!
Okay, enough of that - on Day 3, we spent another amazing day with Sonja wondering the city. This was our last day and she was trying her best to cram in the most important sites. We started with another Antonio Gaudi house, Casa Mila or "Las Pedreras," which means "The Quarry." Guadi took a lot of heat over this design because it was covered in stone instead of his usual ceramic and mosaics. No one appreciated what he was doing until it was finished and his critics could see the true beauty as the design mimicked waves and the wrought iron balconies were like fish nets with various items from the sea intertwined. It is quite beautiful, but also innovated as it was one of the first buildings to have underground parking, and open courtyard for light and lifts.
We toured one of the apartments inside that has been restored to its original condition, but the real surprise was when we went up to the roof to the terraces. I have seen these images before in pictures, but had no grasp of the scope of these sculptures. They remind me of monks or even soldiers and for some reason, even Don Quixote comes to mind when I look at them. Again, there are no words . . .
We really covered ground after Casa Mila as we went through the Gothic Quarter where we saw remnants of Roman Temples and parts of the aqueduct still intact. We strolled down La Rambla where the streets were full of vendors, artists, musicians and every sort of social misfit in Barcelona. It was like a circus - so full of activity!
We walked down the "Manzana de la Discordia or the Block of Discord. It is the most famous collection of modernist buildings sharing the same facade in Barcelona. My favorite one was Gaudi's Casa Batllo - incredible to see and the other two facades pale in comparison.
We had lunch in the marketplace - one of my favorite things to do when I travel to a new city. I love the sights, smells, colors and people - vendors have tiny little restaurants all around the perimeters and we had an amazing lunch. Our server fussed at Michael for not eating all of the meat off of his fish and she showed him how to cut around the bone to extract the tiny piece of meat and then made a show of feeding him!
After lunch, we made our way up to the Olympic Stadium and saw spectacular views of Barcelona from Montjuic (or the hill of the Jews). Sonja took us through the cemetary there where only the wealthiest of families have mausoleums. The more common folk have a box in a wall (complete with a window) where all of the members are buried. The only unfortunate part is that it takes two years for a body to decompose in one of these crypts, so if another family member passes before the two years are up, they are kept in a box somewhere else until the first body is decomposed and the crypt can safely be unsealed. The bones from the previous relative are then shoved aside to make room for the next member! A family pays for this space for a period of 40 years. After that time, you have to pay a yearly rent or you are OUT!
It was a strangely beautiful place - it stretched for miles and was built into the side of the hills of Montjuic. Sonja had us stop to take a picture of this particular gravesite - I didn't feel comfortable but she explained that these "tacky" plots are the tombs of wealthy gypsy families and this one in particular was especially tacky.
But the best one of all was this grave marker we found:
Sonja explained to us that it was the grave of a very wealthy man who had nothing but greedy nephews who sat and waited for him to die so they could inherit his money. This is the translation (according to Sonja) as to what he left on his marker . . .
"My last dying wish . . . F**k You!" Gotta love the irony of it all! Those Spaniards have a sense of humour!
Our day ended with a lovely, late dinner at Casa Calvet, another home designed by Gaudi. We had a fabulous meal and some spectacular Spanish wine. So good, in fact, that I proceeded to play "Yankee Doodle" by blowing across the wine bottle. The guests at the next table were not amused but hey, I felt extra happy to be in Spain and what the heck, it was our last night and I had finally had my NUMBER FOUR!
Barcelona - Day 2
I waited until we got on board our ship to work on the blog because of the dang slow internet in Barcelona. Guess I wasn't thinking about that fact that a "Satellite" internet connection on board is even slower than dial up. I feel like there must be some poor little guy down in the hull somewhere tapping on a telegraph machine to send email messages. So, I don't know how far I will get or how often, but I'll just be sending short messages from this point on. Actually you are all probably pretty relieved about that because, well, admit it. No one likes to look at other people's vacation pictures. Except me. I love it!
Also I accidentally hit a button on my fancy new camera so there aren't many pictures that are in focus so I'll spare you those. Lucky you!
After an insane day of walking the city yesterday, we decided to head into the hills to a place my friend Rita recommended. We found the perfect guide, "Jordi," who is from that area and knows it well. Shout out here to Jordi who is now reading my blog! Hola Jordi!
The hills are actually a massive rock outcropping called Montserrat, which means "serrated" mountain in Catalon. Make no mistake, there is a huge difference between Catalon and spanish and they are quick to remind you at every opportunity.
Isn't it amazing? We stopped in a little village called Minostrol at the foot of the mountains to have an espresso and soak in the view. I can't imagine living there - what a peaceful place. Do you see the single rock just right of the middle standing there? Here is a better view below. . .
It's called, "The Finger." Are you starting to see a recurring theme with my photographs? Kinda remind you of that artsy water company building yesterday????? Anyhoo, Jordi is a mountain climber and has scaled Montserrat many times. Thank goodness I had the wrong shoes on yesterday (even though they were very cute) - otherwise, I believe Jordi would have had me harnessed up and climbing that finger! WAIT - that came out all wrong, but you know what I mean.
Okay, enough of that nonsense - the most amazing thing about this area, besides "the finger" is the beautiful benedictine monastery built into the side of the mountain. We drove a winding switchback road up and up and up and finally came to this beautiful, peaceful spot . . .
In this monastery is the "Black Madonna," which as legend says appeared to shepherds in the caves of Montserrat. She is the Patron Saint of Barcelona and pilgrims come from all over to rub their hand on the "earth" which she holds and pray for her intercessions and grace. I had to download this pictures because of course, with a relic so important as this, my camera failed!
There is also a special treat in Montserrat. Everyday, at 1:00pm, a boys choir sings. They are boys who are boarded and schooled there and their voices are angelic. They range in age from 6 years to 14.
We loved Montserrat - you could actually stay in the monastery and eat with monks if you had time - maybe a trip I will come back and do one day.
From Montserrat, we traveled to the village of San Cristofol, Jordi's home town. We walked the dirt roads and picked figs from trees and grapes from vines and strolled meeting all of his lovely neighbors. I think we were a bit of a novelty in that town of 200 but we had a grand time. Next we wnet to lunch at Can Font in the neighboring village of Marganella where I had my first true spanish Paella. I was not disappointed!
Do you know what these are?
Yes, class. Very good. They are champagne bottles - except in Barcelona, champagne is called Cava. And if you add a winery plus my husband, that equals BIG TROUBLE. Fortunately, this vintner did not ship to the US, so we got off with only purchasing one bottle! Last time we were in Italy, 8 cases of wine arrived at my door about 3 weeks later! I had to give Jordi a hard time over that pit stop.
We ended the day with a drive to the picturesque seaside town of Sitges. We had time for just a quick stroll down the beach and through the city square. I had to look very closely at everyone in this picture to make sure there weren't any nudies!
And here is a mermaid "Voguing" Madonna Style! All in all - it was a great day in Spain - the experiences diverse and the sights were bountiful! My high school/college spanish is flooding back and I am enjoying the Spainiards laughing at me massacre their language. They are so patient and kind and very quick to correct you. Well, Beunos Noches everyone - early wake up call in the morning!
