Bingo Chair Travels

Vistadome to Aguas Calientes

2011-05-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, now it is getting real. We boarded the train around 3:30 for a slow 1.5 hour ride to Aquas Calientes, the tourist town that has sprung up outside of Machu Picchu. More than once you didn't want to look to your left as the train was on the edge of a shear drop into the raging Cat 5 white water river below.

The views were great - no chance of train narcolepsy, but let me just right now publicly apologize to everyone that had to listen to me go on about triathlon training. We were seated amongst a special interest tour group for photographers. If you put all their lenses together it would have easily run the length of the train. I hope to never hear another word about f-stops or the difficulty of getting the right lighting for landscape photography.

Peruvian Steak Sandwich

2011-05-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

This was our introduction to Peruvian "just in time" dinning delivery. We ordered sandwiches for lunch and the next thing you know the waiter is running across the square to a bakery and coming back with the rolls. A few minutes later his little nephew was sent off to the market for tomatoes. Since then we've seen the pattern repeated over and over. Today at lunch the kitchen was so small that every time someone ordered a beer, somebody had to run to a little store a couples doors down and bring them one back.

[Steak sandwhich with grilled onions and guacamole ~$3]

Ruins at Ollanta

2011-05-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

This morning we explored the Inca ruins in Ollanta. But first we had to figure out our ticket strategy. There are ruins various places in the Sacred Vally and there is a S/130 ticket valid for 10 days the covers them all. From our guide book we thought we could get into the ruins here with a single admission ticket. But that is no longer true. However there is a 4-site ticket for S/70 that would get us in and to 2 other places on our list. Unfortunately it is only valid for 2 days and since we leave for Machu Picchu this afternoon that wasn't going to work. We had no choice but to spring for the full ticket. Now we'll probably feel semi-obligated to go to a bunch of museums in Cusco that we wouldn't otherwise, just to feel like we got our money's worth.

We hired a guide for the ruins which turned out to be a good choice. He was knowledgeable and funny. He usually works the Inca trail but hurt his knee playing soccer so was doing this instead. I wasn't sure climbing up and down these ruins was all that good for his knee either.

After our tour, who should we run into - the ladies from Lima. Isn't that always the case? So

far Jan has run into her seatmates on her Miami-Lima flight, we've run into people from tables next to us at restaurants the night before and people from our train.

Ollantaytambo

2011-05-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

This little town is beyond precious. It has a square and four cobblestone streets running back from it towards a mountain. The streets are narrow (no cars) with an open stream of water running through them. There are stone walls on each side that go back to Incan times.

Originally each block would have been one property, but now they are a bit more subdivided. When we got to the terrace in front of our room it was another Santorini moment. We were happy to just sit and take in the view until it got too cold and it was time to search out some dinner.

The Hills Are Alive...

2011-05-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

...with the sounds of Andean pan-flute music. We had about an hour flight to Cusco around lunchtime on Taca Airlines. Could they please start flying RDU to Fort Lauderdale - nice new Embraer 190- no checked bag fee, lunch and a beer included. Driver met us at the airport and we left immediately for about a 1 hour and 45 minute ride to Ollantaytambo. That would let us start to aclimate to the altitude but not be as high as Cusco.

The ride was stunning. Snow capped Andes mountains all around. Unfortunately I had a bad case of the taxi narcolepsy and had trouble keeping my eyes open. You couldn't drive right to our hotel. You could get close and then had to go up some stone stairs and down a cobblestone street. The driver took our bags and I just had my backpack. When I got to the top of the stairs, I wasn't exactly out of breath but definitely knew I was a bit more winded than I should have been. [Ed.note: We've now been at these allitudes for two days and it has really turned out to be nothing. Every once and a while you do something and just go whew, I felt that. But you take a breath and it passes. On a scale of 1 to 10 it has been a 1 or 2 at most. We'll see how it goes when we return to Cusco which is a good bit higher.]

This is news?

2011-05-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

We've basically been in a news void for the last week, not reading any papers or watching the news on TV, but somehow two stories have come to our attention: the earthquake in southern Spain and Ashton Kusher will be replacing Charlie Sheen on "Two and a Half Men". Really? Sigh.

The Mall So Nice I Went Twice

2011-05-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Since it was so close to our hotel, I took Jan to the mall for the sunset. We had our first Pisco Sours - the national drink of Peru.

Monestary

2011-05-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

After getting Jan her first grilled chicken, we did a little more around the plaza on our own. Walked up to a park where the've excavated part of the city walls that has views out into the mountains and then a tour of the Monistary The last 15 minutes we spent under the monestary wandering around in the catecombs.

Half the time I'm crouched over trying not to hit my head and just thinking how morbid it is to see the skulls and femers of 500 year old monks layed out in artistic arrangements of concentric circles, when the guide brings up earthquakes. It's a recurring theme on tours here and you do see signs around for "Earthquake Safe Zone". I turned to Jan and said, "I've got 1/2 a bottle of water and one protein bar if we're burried alive, what have you got?"

Plaza Mayor

2011-05-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

As we were leaving the hotel, the ladies were sitting in the courtyard studying their map. We knew they were planning to tour the Plaza Mayor this AM as well. So next thing you know, to spare them another ride in a cab with only 1/2 a steering wheel, I'm giving them instructions on how they can use the Metropolitano bus. Not that I'd ever used it yet. At breakfast we'd mentioned two different walking tours at 10 and 10:30, but they thought they'd do it on their own.

The bus got us exactly where we needed to be. We waited a bit and it wasn't looking like the 10 AM guide was going to show, so plan B. Then a family approached us and asked if we were waiting for Lima Walks. Yes. They were too and he had just called them to cancel. There had been some confusion in the back and forth emails and he thought there weren't going to be enough people. The family moved here last summer from Devner and the wife has taken a couple of his tours and said he is very good. So we were all feeling a bit disappointed. But since they had phones, we decided she should call and see if he could come anyway since we were all here ready to go. He agreed and said to give him 20 minutes.

We went to get a soda and explore a little while we waited and ran into the ladies from our hotel. I asked if they'd used the Metropolitano - they did and it was wonderful. So given my newly validated expertise as a travel consultant, I pitched them again on joining our tour letting them know how the guide had been vouched for (Full disclaimer: I had a hidden motivation, if we got the number of people on the tour up to 5 the price dropped from $20/person to $10/person). They agreed to join so now we were up to 7 adults and 2 kids - I should have earned a commission!

The tour was really good. He was incredibly well informed. It was part history and part architecture. Lima is known for all the balconies on the old houses. So I can now point out the a Colonial vs a Republican vs a Neo-Colonial balcony at 50 paces. There were palaces next to tenemants. We stopped in front of the oldest continually occupied house in (I'm going to say the New World, I forget exactly). It was built for one of Pizarro's consorts and is still lived in by her descendant (the eight grand Marquesa-of-something-or-another) some 500 years later. Not that Peru has royalty anymore. But there are apparently 8 familes with Spanish titles that still use them.

One note to tour guides everywhere: If your tour ends at lunchtime you are obligated to have at least 3 recommendations for nearby: one something quick, one moderatly priced with local cuisine, and one with something unique (ie. view, atmosphere or famous specialty). While helpful, "You could try the restaurants over here, but I would suggest not eating at any of the restaurants over on that street." doesn't cut it. Given how skinny the guide was it was clear that history, not food, was his area of interest.

Public transport

2011-05-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

We got around Lima mostly on foot. You need to be careful with cabs as nothing is regulated. You have to negotiate the price up front (like I know how many soles it should cost to get from the mall to our hotel) which I think would get tiresome. You also need to pay attention to the condition of the cab you're bartering for. Some ladies from our hotel had a local work over a couple cabbies until she got them a ride for 8 soles. When they got in the car, it only had 1/2 a steering wheel and no seatbelts.

Today we needed to get from Miraflores to downtown for our walking tour. Lucky for us the brand new Metropolitano bus system was only a couple blocks away. It works like a subway with buses. There are dedicated lanes down the middle of the freeway and there are named stations. When the bus pulls in sliding glass doors open on the station and the bus and you walk on just like a subway. It was great. Our 20 minute trip cost only about 60 cents.

Security

2011-05-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

There is a serious police presence everywhere. I keep thinking they must be expecting some protesters as there are full riot squads with shields and armored assault vehicles about, not just a friendly constible on the corner. And this is even in Miraflores. There was a security guard in every isle of the grocery store Saturday night, but Sunday was a bit less extreme. However, I'm not sure how effective all these police and private security teams are when half the time you see them, they're texting. (Until I atually take a photo of some security guards, please enjoy this shot of an office building in Miraflores. Note the open windows. Unlike in the US, all the glass highrises here seem to have windows that open.)

Grilled chicken

2011-05-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

They are really into grilling here and you smell it everywhere. I can't begin to tell you how awesome this chicken was. We're going to be eating lots of potatoes here as they have thousands of varieties and it's where they originated (not Ireland). They serve a variety of sauces with them and it varies by restaurant. Here they were all good: pesto, aoli, and sone really hot pepper relish which not knowing that is what it was, I should have sampled in a smaller quantity - lesson learned.

Larcomar

2011-05-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

On the way pack from the tour you could be dropped at your hotel or a couple other sites. Who would believe I chose the mall! But it is really cool. It's 3 open air levels, under a park, built into the side of a huge cliff over looking the Pacific. Watched the sun set than back to the room.

Pachacamac

2011-05-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

I was pretty sure a tour of the ruins an hour outside of town weren't on Jan's list so I had the hotel book it. Walked back from Huaca Pucllana, picked up a sandwich on the way and had a quick lunch on our patio. A van picked me up, stoped for a few other people then drove us to the "meeting place" where they would shuffle us around to different vans for different tours. Where was the meeting place? In front of the ruins I'd just walked back from.

Very good tour. Drove along the coast, rounded a mountain and then, there we were in the desert. 3mm of rain per year. And this is where they chose to build a city for 70,000? At the entrance we stopped for a bathroom break and the guide said, "8 minutes please - English time." New York lady would have liked him, he kept things moving.

An Aussie girl got the whistle for stepping up on some stones she shouldn't have. She needed to be taken down a notch anyway as she was a bit pushy. I kept wondering what part of laid back Australia are you from? Too bad Jan wasn't there for it, we're always picking out who is going to get the whistle.

Huaca Pucllana

2011-05-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

Right here in the heart of Miraflores they have uncovered some ancient ruins. It was about a 20 min walk over and a nice hour tour in English. There was a couple waiting when I got there and she was fussing a bit about how they kept saying 5 more minutes, then 10 minutes for the English tour when she heard them tell me 10 more minutes. I said something to the effect of welcome to Latin time and she said, "I know and I can't stand it. Even European slowness drives me crazy. I'm from New York, can you tell?"

Yes.

Miraflores - Endangered Species

2011-05-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

We're staying in the upscale Miraflores section of town. Some miscellanous observations from my first day:

The economy must be doing ok here. They are building like crazy. On every block there is at least one 8-12 story condo building going up replacing some wonderful older home (sad).
There are tuk-tuks (motorcycle taxis like in Thailand) everywhere here except Miraflores, where they are banned (too loud I suppose).
Traffic is insane, but no surprise there. People just gun it with horns blaring through innersections where there aren't traffic lights. There was a wreck just outside the hotel tonight, fireman and police where getting ready to leave just as I was walking up.
Where there are traffic lights with pedestrian signals they all have timers counting the seconds for both the "red man" and the "green man". The times however are goofy, like red 51 seconds followed by green for 17 seconds.

Arriving in la Madrugada to Lima

2011-05-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well here we go again, starting the 2011 blog before finishing 2010. Midnight flight from Miami - 5 hours later landing 4 am Lima time. Not much sleep. I was glad I checked a bag as both flights had packed overhead bins. That was until I waited 40 minutes for it to finally show on the belt. It got down to just a few people still waiting. There was supposed to be a driver outside customs for me, but no dice. Plenty of cabbies ready to step in but I called the hotel first. Good thing I went on line and wrote down the phone # on my layover. I could hear the desk clerk get on his walkie-talkie and basically say, Dude what's up? You've got a passenger at the airport. Then he came back on the line and told me 6 minutes. I was barely off the phone when this guy comes up and asks if I'm John Bowser. He said he's a friend is the driver and the driver just called him to look for me and say it would be 20 min. Now mind you I'm processing all this in Spanish at 5 am and all I can think is, this is how the kidnappings we heard about get started. This guy could have made al this up from what he overheard me say on the phone. He walked me over to where we could sit and chatted a bit. He says we'll love Cusco the best and want to stay there. It was a good 20 minute wait and then in a split second his phone rings, he pops up and of he goes with my luggage. He was so fast he even got my map bag with my passport. But he turned and said, come on he's pulling up now. So now I'm in a cab, driving through the dark desolate concrete jungle of Lima, with some stranger thinking, hmmm if I were going to kidnap someone, surly I'd have my accomplice get here faster, right? This has got to be the real deal, right? We got to chatting. He had picked up some folks on an Air Canada flight and didn't get to bed until 2 (or so he claimed). He'd set the alarm for 4 but overslept. When I started recognizing some street names and the neighborhood made a remarkable improvement over abandoned industrial park, it looked like things were going to work out. Pulled into the hotel safe and sound. No room yet at this hour. Lounge with wifi until breakfast is available then I need to figure out what to do until Jan gets here this evening.

The Life of Spanish Nobility

2010-05-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Rick Steves and I just don't agree. He sometimes sort of dismisses things that are big winners in my book. In the afternoon we took a tour of a palace dating back to the 1500's or so that was lived in up until 1980 by the widow of a Marquees. It has been left more or less as she left it. So unlike other things we've toured it has furnishings and art collections (1950's bathrooms). It was huge and had over a dozen courtyards. The downside for Jan was that the guided tour was in Spanish, but the guide spoke very clearly and was easy to understand so I was able to do some translating for her and a group of 4 from England. (Jan must have all the palace pictures so here are some more form the patio tour.)

Note to Dad

2010-05-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

Your hanging basket of petunias may be stunning by Westminster Woods standards, but if you're going to play in Cordoba you'll need to take your game up a notch.

Royal Palace

2010-05-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hit some rain in the morning for our tour of the royal palace, but fortunately it didn't last long. Then we took in the old Jewish quarter with 1 of only 3 synagogues remaining in Spain.

Patio and Balcony Tour

2010-05-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

This week is Cordoba's annual tour of Patio's and Balconies. What great timing for us. First it was free! There were three routes each with more than 20 stops. We did one route the first night and enjoyed it so much we did a second round the next night. Some of the stops were hotels or restaurants. But the ones that were private homes were incredible. Rather plainhouses on the outside, you step through the front gate into these incredible cobblestone patios with thousands of flower pots all over the walls sometimes with colorful plates mixed in. I didn't take a camera the first night and didn't get the best shots the next, maybe Jan will have some better pictures. Now this will give you a true picture of doing things on Spanish time. The tour hours were something like 2-4 pm and then 7 - 11 pm, midnight on Fri/Sat! Imagine if you opened you home for the Oakwood Christmas Candlelight tour and they told you those were the hours. Well we set off at 7, stopped around 9:45 for dinner and then did a few more right up until 11. The second night on the tour there were two girls that were on pace with us for several houses and one had an NC State jacket on. Well finally my inner Joyce Bowser was getting the best of me and I had to ask her about it. Turns out she was Italian and had just picked it up in a store there and had no idea where Raleigh was. I guess some wolfpack backpacker running low on funds sold it along the line. As we were going into one house were 3 young people coming out and they were making the tour with a bottle of sherry and some small cups. We kind of laughed about it to ourselves and the one guy said to the other "hey those Americans are laughing at you carrying around your bottle." Well at the next house they were still there and he insisted we have a drink with them.

Mezquita

2010-05-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most unusal Cathedrals we've ever been in. Originally a huge mosac that could accomodate 20,000 people spread out on their prayer rugs, it was a sea of columns with 30 ft high ceilings. Then when the Catholics got hold of it, the plopped a Cathedral about 3 times as high, right in the center of it. Spent the afternoon walking around on our own checking out the occasional Roman ruins. They founded the city in the first century before the Muslims got here.

Cordoba

2010-05-15T01:57:00.000-07:00

Another easy 2 hour bus ride moved us along to Cordoba. A ride on the local bus took us from the station to within a couple blocks of our hotel in the old section. So back when the Muslims were in charge in the 900's or so this was considered the cultural capital of the world It had a population of over 300,000 people, which I think is more that live here today. But in the 1200's the Christians took over, converted mosques to churches, expelled the Jews and pretty much brought all progressive thinking to a halt.

Plaza Espana

2010-05-15T01:51:00.000-07:00

This building was constructed for a sort of Spanish nations world fair. It currently has government offices and has fallen into some disrepair. But they're restoring it and going to add shops and restaurants. It should be pretty cool when it's done. This is just half of the semi-circular building. It goes all the way around and ends in another tower like the one in the distance.

Royal Palace

2010-05-15T01:45:00.000-07:00

Nice tour of the royal palace. But their gardens weren't up to Alhambra standards. Considering that this is the official residence of the King and Queen of Spain when they're in Seville, I thought they could have done a better job weeding and triming the hedges. Liz Windsor wouldn't have to put up with it. I guess they can slack off knowing the king is recooperating from his lung surgery in a Barcelona hospital.

We Have Snails

2010-05-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

But Jan wasn't taking them up on it.

I forgot to pack my stadium cushion

2010-05-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

Took a tour of the bullfighting ring. It was the first one ever built and also the home of the first bullfighting school. There is a fight scheduled for tonight, but we're opting not to go. There are some cheap seats in the nosebleed section, but if yout want one of the prize seats right down in the corral where the bulls run in, that will set you back 150 euro (more than $200).

We ended up having dinner near the ring and as it let out all the people walking by had their little fabric seat cushions with handles but only about half the size of an Amercian vinyl version.

Torre del Oro

2010-05-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

Another small tower to climb this morning down by the river. Lots of people rowing.

Chocolate con Churros

2010-05-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Got another "must do" off my list this morning when I had my hot chocolate and churros. The hot chocolate was so thick you could have stood your spoon up in it. The churros were ok, but the ones in the diner at the bus station two days ago looked alot better. We'll see what Jan's are like when she gets around to ordering some. Here you see the thimble size portion of coffee they serve her. There are Starbucks everywhere and I know Jan would like to have one, but she can't bring herself to go in. We got on the subject with one of our guides and she couldn't get over how huge their coffees are and that - horrors - they serve them in paper cups!

Cathedral Fatigue Sets In

2010-05-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

Apparently the baby in this picture occasionally breaks out in song.

Seville Walking Tour

2010-05-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

After the Cathedral we did Rick Steve's walking tour of the Jewish quarter. Very charming. All twisted little alley ways with small plazas and courtyards every couple blocks. Back to the room for a little rest and then out for dinner on Spanish time: 10 pm. It seems like they serve potatos in one form or another: mashed, boiled, deep fried in croquettes, french fries, potato chips, potato salad and potato sticks with everything. You'd think at one point in their history they must have been conqured by the Irish.

Catherdal of Seville

2010-05-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

The tower at the cathedral is something like 330 ft tall and was once the tallest building in the world. It doesn't have stairs. Instead there is a wide ramp that twists the whole way up. That's because it was built by the Muslims and they rode a horse up it 5 times a day to ring the bells for prayers. So of course we set off to climb it. Its part of the cathedral tour so you're in for 8 euro to do it. I went in thinking, well another Cathedral we'll whip through this and on to the tower. I was wrong. Wow! It is the third largest church in Europe and largest Gothic church in the world. It was over the top. It also has the crypt of Christopher Columnbus whose body got shipped around alot after he died, including a trip to the Carribean and back, before ending up here.

Pirates

2010-05-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

Had an interesting museum tour. Seville is on a river not far from the ocean and was the only licensed port for voyages to the Americas. It became super wealthy. They built an incredible merchant exchange building here. When trade moved to the port city of Cadis, it was abandoned and eventually became a tenement house which is really hard to imagine. I think it was in the late 1700's that Spain felt they were getting a bad rap on their colonozation of the Americas so they decided to create an archive of everything related to it and used this building. The current exhibit is on piarates. They have all sorts of maps and letters on display. It was interesting how the tone was first the French, then the English, then the Dutch all tried to take away what was Spain's. Never saw any mention that it really wasn't Spain's in the first place.

Seville

2010-05-12T15:35:00.000-07:00

We have a very nice hotel room in the old part of the city in a pedestiran zone just a few blocks from the Catherdral. Came by bus from Granada and the tram from the bus station took us practically to the door of our hotel. It was lunch time and things were hopping in the streets. Seems like there was a lot of celebrating going on - weddings, first communions, bachelor and bachelorette parties. Tables to sit down for lunch were scarce so we opted for tapas at a busy place without a tourist in sight. Proved to be a good choice. It can be a bit of a hectic experience, jostling for position, peeople all around yelling out orders and food being passed over and around you on its way out to other patrons. Not sure how good that is for the digestion to eat this way on a regular basis, but I suppose you get used to it. Here's a prospective groom in his best flamenco drag. When they saw us getting ready to take a picture they all waved and broke out is song.

Ferdinand and Isabella

2010-05-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

Granada was the captial of Spain when Colombus got the green light to head off to the new world. At the Alhambra we saw a tombstome where the Catholic kings were originally burried. This afternoon we toured the Royal Chapel and saw the mosseleum where their grandson later moved them. You could climb downstairs to see their coffins.

Traveler's Tip

2010-05-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

Don't walk up to the audio guide booth and say "Dos audioguias por favor". It will just confuse the attendant and you may get them in Spanish. Better to just ask for them in English. This rule can also be applied to asking for maps and brochures in visitor centers.

In Spain It's All About the Ham

2010-05-12T00:48:00.001-07:00

Alhambra

2010-05-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

Truly spectacular. Beautiful gardens with increddibly huge roses everywhere. A fort, a renasiance palace and an Arabian palace. Views of the snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains, the city and the Albacin where we were yesterday. We ended up spending more than 7 hours here and finally just had to tear ourselves away. The most underpriced attraction in Eurpoe. It was only 12 euro (plus 1 for having made an advance reservation on the internet). I would have easily paid 30 euro.

How many beers do I have to drink to get the sausage.

2010-05-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

So tapas are the little plates of food you get when you order drinks. Originally they were free but only like 3 cities in Spain still do it that traditional way, the rest charge a couple eruos a plate. Well Granada is one of the places where they are free and our guide in Barcelona said the more rounds you drink the better they get. So there are a lot of tourist tapas bars with pretty mediocre tapas but some apparently focus more on the food than the drinks. Our hotel is a bit out of the tourist area so we ended up walking into a place in a residential neighborhood. No Americans, no English. We ordered our first round. They're small beers, served in a wine glass, but less than 2 euro. Next thing you know out comes this amazing plate of tempura like fried squid and zuchinni chips. They were paper thin, barely dusted with flour, hot from the fryer and perfectly salted. Just fantastic. The place is super narrow, just stranding room but we were in front of the window to the kitchen. So we're looking around trying to get the gist of things, and we see some other food come out. Next round tomato pulp toast and egg and potato omelet. That omellet, or tortilla as they call it, is sort of a national dish. I fixed one from that same Spanish cookbook I had out of the library and wasn't that impressed. Well this version was great. I don't know what the secret is, but they clearly left it out of the recipe I had. Now about this time we're seeing these sausages skewered to a roasted green pepper on bread and I'm jonesing for that. So on to round 3. Out comes grilled chicken breast with roasted red peppers. Darn, well let's go for level 4. Now this is clearly the last round for Jan. But in all honestly it will only be maybe a little more than 2 beers. Some sliced ham on bread - delicious but not the sausage. I needed to have the Towson crew with me. I'm sure we'd have gotten the sausage at Level 5 and probably learned what comes with the next couple rounds after that. All that only set us back about $9 each. The next night we tried to research on the internet where to go for tapas and ended up at a place built under the stands of the old bullfighting ring. Well the atmosphere was great and I'm glad we checked it out, but the drinks were 2.25 euro and the first tapa was a boring piece of pork loin and potato chips. We didn't even try for level 2. We'd been spoiled by the first place and just should have gone back there.

Arab Baths

2010-05-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

At 6:00 we had a reservation at the Hamman (arab baths). Very cool experience. there were rooms with cold, warm and hot water. A steam room and some alcoves for resting. Arches, tile walls, marble floors all by candle light. You were supposed to be quiet, but a few people had problems with that rule. NOT US! One American girl in particular just wouldn't shut up. I wanted to go over and say, "There will be plenty of time to gossip over tapas later, you're missing the whole experience which is to be quiet, contemplative and medatative." It included a 15 minute massage. We were so refreshed and relaxed that afterwards it was like we were walking on air. We need to do this 1/2 way through every trip.

Venice Without the Canals

2010-05-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

This morning we were up early (way early) and flew to Granada. Spent the afternoon walking around. Ended up walking up the the Albicin, the old arab quarter on a hill opposite the Alhambra. What a maze of streets, alleys and passage ways. No street name lasts longer than a block or two, and by block I mean 2 to 5 houses. Our plan was to do a big loop past the gypsy cave houses and end at St Nicholas church which has a plaza and views. All along the way we kept stopping to take more pictures of the Alhambra but grumbling about this or that tree or telephone pole that was messing up the picture. Then after hiking up and down and up and down and up and up and up countless stairs we arrived at the plaza, which was a bus stop and had the most spectuacular unobstructed views. Duh, well at least we got our exercise and got a good tour of the neighborhood.

Caracoles

2010-05-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

Dinner tonight was a treat from Ed. This restaurant dates back to 1835. His crowd ate here last fall before their cruise and he wanted us to try it. Caracoles means snails and since Jan had never had them, that was a clear choice for our appetizer. She liked them ok, but said she'd take muscles given the choice. We had Paella and an excellent fish dish. The atmosphere is really cool. You walk in right throught the kitchen with blazing grills, and then there is a maze of rooms with hams hanging all over the ceiling dripping into little cups underneat them.

Parc Guell

2010-05-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

Finally the skys were clear so we headed up the hill to Parc Guell. When it was conceived it was to be a suburban communitty for the wealthy but it was a flop. Gaudi was hired to design public spaces and model homes. Now it is a great pack with fantastic views of Barcelona. A bit of a hike to get there. There were some escalators, but Jan threated to report me to CrossFit if I used them.

Que Fruta es esta?

2010-05-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

Stopped by the market on our way to this morning's walking tour. We'd seen this purple fruit there the other day and wanted to try it. It was pretty much a big purple kiwi. But expensive, they go for $4.50 for half of one. They must not ship well, because I've never seen them in the US and they'd make a dramatic statement in any dish.

Did the Gothic/Old City walking tour. Eleven in our group, so that was a nice size. The guide was an Australian girl who has been living in Barcelona for 7 years and was very good. The two craziest things on the tour were the apartment building that happens to sit on the site of the Roman temple when the city was founded. She said there were some columns in the courtyard and we went in. Well, I was expecting some 3 foot high stumps of columns. No here are these huge columns litterally an arms reach outside people's kitchen windows. Bizaare. The other was the Catalyan Christmas traditon. They don't just get pressents from Santa and the 3 Kings. There is this goofy character that they put in Nativity scenes right along with Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. He is squatted down, with his pants around his ankles taking a shit. And on Christmas day he'll be in your house squattig on a bag, litterally shitting out Christmas presents for all the boys and girls.

The rain in Spain does NOT STAY Mainly in the Plain

2010-05-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

It stays in friggin' Barcelona. It started Sunday night and rained pretty much non stop for two days. Monday it was managable, but Tuesday afternoon it was a serious downpour. We were some drenched sewer rats on the bus back to Barcelona. So much so that when we got back to the hotel and it was time for dinner I told Jan, "I think it is entirely appropriate to have Arab food in Spain. That's not breaking the eat local rule. So if you want to go to the kebab place next door that's fine with me." I think she was relieved (especially since she only brought one pair of shoes and they were soaked). Well sometimes you just luck into things. They had a soccer game on the TV and there were several tables of fans cheering so we got some local color and the pita sandwiches were out of this world. They were stuffed with a least 3 times the amount of meat you'd get in a typical gyro and they shaved it so that it was all little crispy edge bits. Delicious. Oy, again with the food.

Dali Museum

2010-05-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

The definition of surreal. Well worth the trip, but what a mob of people. Our other trips have been before tourist season starts so we aren't used to standing in lines. We thought we were still a little ahead of the pack, but early May apparently every high school in Europe has their senior trip to Barcelona. Hopefully it won't be the same in the rest of Spain.

Somewhere on the Girona live webcam, the locals are laughing at the tourists

2010-05-09T01:21:00.000-07:00

If you want to come back to Girona, you've got to kiss the lioness' ass.

Oy vey, are we going to get fat

2010-05-09T01:19:00.000-07:00

Part of our walking tour was through the old Jewish quarter. There was a thriving community here until the inquisition and we all know how that turned out. Then we were on our own for lunch and stumbled on the best meal we've had so far. But these lunches are going to do us in.

They have "Meal of the Day" specials at lunch that are 3 courses (appetizer, entree and dessert) plus a glass of wine for $12 or less. One place they just put a bottle of wine on the table and you could have as many glasses as you wanted and that lunch was only $9.50. You can barely get a bottle of water in Scandinavia for that. Thank goodness we are doing lots of walking.

Road Block

2010-05-09T01:12:00.000-07:00

If your a fan of "The Amazaing Race", you can't help but make repeated references to what you're trying to do on these trips and things that happen on the show. End up at a museum that's closed on Mondays - "Did you read the clue?". Show up at an enormous plaza with countless bus stops and try to find the #202 - "Needle in a haystack". Today's challange was: Your are at the widest gothic catherdral in the world and ignoring architectual style, the second widest in the world after St. Pauls in
the Vatican. Count the steps as we climb to the entrance if you get to the top and don't have the right number. You should go back down and try again.

Me (in my head): "67"
Lady behind me (aloud): "62"
Me (in my head): "68"
Lady behind me (aloud): "63"
Me turning (aloud): "You are messing me up!"
Lady behind me (aloud): "Sorry"

But I got the right number and at the top I sort of apologized because my protest was way louder and more serious than it should have been. I should have been more like Jan. She said the lady was messing her up too, so she just let her pass.

Dali Tour

2010-05-09T01:05:00.000-07:00

Today was to be a day trip north of Barcelona to the Dali Museum in Figures. The Spanish train network is on strike for a few days - reductions of service by 33% and 66% depending on time of day. Rather than deal with that we opted to take a guided bus tour. A bit more expensive but it was all day 8:30 am to 8:00 pm and included a trip to Girona in the morning which we wouldn't have done on our own and turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

We had a good guide for a two hour walking and as usual the other tourists always provide a bit of entertainment. At one point the group split and some who had paid extra to tour the Arab baths went in while the rest of us stayed outside for 15 minutes. Since we're booked to use the Arab baths in Granada, we passed. While we were waiting, a Russian tour group went by and the guide was using a microphone system that was pretty loud. I don't know if it was just that it was loud or that it was loud and Russian, but it apparently got under the skin of a woman from Amsterdamn. When our guide came back out of the baths, she immediately started grilling her on whether guides had to be acredited and could they use microphones, etc. We thought she was going to insist our guide chase her down and have her license revoked.

Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves

2010-05-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

From the sound of the guide books, Barcelona is so overrun by street crime that we were half expecting to see mobs of Roma children routinely surrounding happless tourists in the square and going in for the kill. We'll we'd seen no such thing (hopefully I'm not jinxing us by writing this) until Jan was shopping for some postcards. All of the sudden the shop owner ran out of the store. When he came back he said, there were two tourists walking down the street with backpacks and two Morrocan children had come up behind them and were unzipping the pockets of their backpack. Tough break, but that is one of the things they warn you about. You need to wear your bag on the front.

Gaudi Homes Came with all the Modern Conviences

2010-05-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Gaudi por Adentro

2010-05-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

We went back and toured the roof of the Sleestak house The building is now owned by a bank. the original owners had the entire 2nd floor as their apartment (something like 9,000 sq feet). That is now an exhibition space. Our guide gave us the tip that you can go in there for free with no waiting in liine. So we did. You get a sense of what it was like but it is pretty well masked by a coat of modern museum. So we went ahead and paid to tour the roof and one apartment that has been maintained in the original style. Way cool. The curious thing is most of the units are now converted to offices but some units are still residences. I can only imagine it is like having some great town house in the historic district of Savannah in the family and everyone hoping Grandma leaves it to them when she checks out.

Inside La Sagrada Familia

2010-05-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

After lunch we went back and toured the inside of the church. It is an active construction site. Despite my lousy pictures (thanks to raid drops still on my lens), the interior is spectacular and the stained glass is stunning. It will be amazing when it is finished. It is just impossible to believe this is a design form someone in the late 1800's. It still has an almost science fiction like quality today.

Overheared at the Cafe

2010-05-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

The English always seem to provide us with a chuckle or two on our trips. At the next table were an English couple, probably late 50's/early 60's. She was reading a text message aloud to her husband.
"Miriam is having a dinner party"
"By candlelight."
"Won't that be delightful."
Him (barely paying any attention): "Umm, hmm."

It was "Keeping up with Appearances" does Barcelona.

More Gaudi

2010-05-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

The tour finished at lunch time and the guide gave us a great recommendation 2 blocks from the Sagrada Familia - far enough away to escape the tourist traps. She warned us that the owner is Catalan and doesn't speak English but with Spanish you can get by.

Unlike Puerto Vallarta where I had strange conversations where the Mexicans were speaking English and I was speaking Spanish, here my Spanish has actually proven useful.

Sleestak!

2010-05-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

The rest of today was Gaudi day. An architect way before his time. We took a guided walking tour and probably due to the rain were the only two to show up - sweet. We saw three of his houses (condo buildings really) from the outside and then La Sagrada Familia - the cathedral that has been under construction for nearly 150 years and still has a long way to go. At one of the houses the guide asked us if the chimney covers reminded us of anything. Immediately in unison Jan and I said "Sleestak!" The guide had no idea what we were talking about.

Clearly she didn't waste away her Saturday mornings as a child watching the "Land of the Lost". The "right" answer was Storm Troopers. Apparently George Lucas visited Barcelona before making "Star Wars", but ask Will or Holly and they'll tell you - those are some serious Sleestak.

Day 2 Barcelona

2010-05-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Up and out this morning to tour the Cathedral. Funny to see flat screen monitors mounted on the columns of this centuries old church, but I guess you've got to keep with the times.

Next up was Rick Steve's walking tour of Las Ramblas. A great pedestrian tree lined walk from the main Plaza all the way to the waterfront. One stop was the market. Wow, not just fantastic looking produce, but there were stands that sold countless varieties of ham or pate or eggs.

Beautiful Barcelona

2010-05-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

After the museum did a little walking tour of our own, Gothic cathedral, cobblestone streets and picturesque alleyways, fountains and statues, vibrant waterfront and people everywhere out enjoying the beautiful day. Easily walkable with occasional hops on the metro. Just another one of those, "Why don't I live in Europe?" days.

Cubism the cause of narcolepsy?

2010-05-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

Our luck, the Picasso museum is free the first Sunday of every month. It was packed but we moved through quickly. I was so tired, at one point I actually fell asleep standing up and nearly fell on a woman. We'd have enjoyed it more with a guide that might have taken us to just 10 or so things and given us an art history lesson as there was lots to see. But hey, we saved $16 so can't complain.

Step Away from the Aoli

2010-05-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

After we checked in the only thing on our mind was getting something to eat. The yogurt and muffin from the plane 8 hours earlier had long worn off. We wandered past a few places and then just picked one - jackpot! I thought there might be a knife coming for me when Jan saw me going in for the last of the garlic aioli.

I had a Tapas cookbook out of the library a while ago and there were instructions for making a tomato pulp. I thought what a lot of work, just slice a tomato and put it on your brushetta. Well, what was the first thing we ate in Spain? Bread brushed with tomato pulp - wonderful. I ordered an omellet this morning for breakfast and when the waiter asked if I wanted tomato bread with it that was a definite yes.

Um, Did I Just Join the Mile High Club?

2010-05-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

I boarded the the TTA bus at 7:40 AM Saturday to start the trip and almost exactly 24 hours later we reached our hotel in Barcelona.
That was a long day. I didn't get much sleep on the plane. The two women in front of us stayed up all night drinking beer and watching movies.
The one in front of me was up and down constantly and would just heave herself into her fully reclined seat and in turn my knees when ever she
came back from the restroom. So eventually I moved my feet into the isle, but kept them close to her seat. Then the strangest thing happened, She reached down and craddled my heal in one hand and ran the other one up and down my foot once or twice. Was I just sexually assulted at 30,000 feet? She bent over and whispered something to the other woman then stopped. I was speechless.

Well despite our lack of planning there is no shortage of people worse off than us. We were giving out directions on how to get into downtown from the aiport and on the train had to help people figure out how to get to their curise ship. Their boat was leaving in 3 hours and had no plan figured out for how to get to the docks other than get on the Metro.

Que Sera, Sera

2010-05-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well here I am one year later on a layover in Dulles getting ready to board another Aer Lingus flight. Only this time we're heading off to Spain. I never did finish the Ireland blog. After Cork we went to Galway, the Aran Islands, Derry, Belfast and back to Dublin. Maybe some day I'll get some pictures up, but for sure many of the anecdotes are now long forgotten.

View Spain 2010 in a larger map
Despite having bought our plane tickets at least 10 months ago, somehow we have managed to be the least prepared we've ever been. We have hotel rooms and our flights to Barcelona and Granada, but after that not a single bus or train ticket to finish the loop. Although not for not trying, we struggled with that stupid Renfe train website like countless others on TripAdvisor and never could get it to sell us tickets. So we'll see, we may be hitching rides between Seville and Cordoba.

Jan usually has her speadsheet of sites and tours all planed out for us. The other day she sent me an email saying she was sorry but not to expect that this time. I told her, "Jan, we're not going to Germany - we're going to Spain. A bit of 'que sera, sera' attitude is how we should approach this trip."

Here's hoping I do a better job blogging Spain, but for now I've got to run. My job was to have researched how to get to our hotels from the train and bus stations and I still have Seville and Cordoba to go.

Cork

2009-04-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Got into Cork and checked into our one hotel of the trip. Talk about some luxury digs. It was a real steal at only 69 eruo, including our "Full Irish Buffet" and access to a proper health club (not the typical hotel workout room). I went swimming twice while we were there. The rooms in the back have river views and we opened the door we were wondering if we would had one. The room and the bathroom were both enormous but when we went to check out our view we realised part of the reason our rate was so cheap. We had one of the 3 rooms on each floor that look out on an inner courtyard of air conditioning equipment. Oh well, no big deal for us.

We tried to connect with a guy who gives walking tours in the evening if there is enough demand, but didn't get a response by email or phone so took off on foot ourselves. We were definitely back in a city and this one has some serious hills.

More Cork pics on the jump page.

Food Porn

2009-04-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

So some of you are probably wondering, "John, were are all the food shots?". Jan has a digital camera this trip so I've been less diligent about taking my camera to meals as I can always get the shots from her later. But I've collected enough now that I'll post a set. As advertised the "Full Irish" breakfasts are an insane amount of meat: sausage, red and white pudding (which is a grilled "meat product") and rashers (country ham) served with eggs, beans, grilled tomato and toast. Our two nights in Galway have been a pleasant change as they offered all sorts of other options - from oatmeal with Bailey's to a smoked salmon plate with scrambled eggs.

Also as expected, I've had more potatoes in the last week than I've had in the last year! Today on our tour were we stopped for lunch I opted for the seafood lasagna (pictured) which came with side vegetables: carrots, cabbage, and both mashed potatoes and roasted potatoes! At dinner tonight the Irish couple next to us both had meals that came with mashed potatoes and they got an extra order of french fries on the side.

Basically we're eating pub food because we can get a hot meal for 10-12 euro. To go into a restaurant prices jump to 20 euro and up. When we find a pub serving dinner salads we jump on them. Have had a good bit of salmon, as it is no more expensive to order than any other meat.

Lastly, I was about convinced that there is no artificial sweetener in all of Ireland. No where in all our breakfasts or all Jan's coffee stops did we see any of the yellow, blue or pink packets. But our gourmet breakfasts in Galway broke the rule. They had regular and raw sugar on the tables, but over on the buffet with the herb teas was a little tic-tac like container of Splenda that dispensed it in microscopic pill form.

I don't have Jan's pictures yet, so there will be another food post when I get back. Here's a sample for now.

Your After Eights

2009-04-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

Oops, got this and the previous post out of order...

Got into Waterford with enough daylight for a quick run along the river. With all the walking we've been doing I wasn't sure my legs and feet were up for it, but it was the first time I'd seen a long pathway where I wouldn't have to be constantly stopping to try and cross a street.

Then it was off to find some dinner. First try was a pub that was the oldest in Waterford (maybe even Ireland neither Jan or I can remember but its been in operation since Medieval days). Well they are only open for lunch until high season kicks in a few weeks from now. So we asked for a recommendation and they sent us down the street. We walked in at 9:01 and they'd stopped serving dinner at 9:00. So they sent us on to an area with a number of restaurants. But again everything was closed except an Indian place. Well we decided that even though it wasn't Irish, Indian still qualified as food of the Empire and with the aroma of the cooking in our Kilkenny hostel still on our minds we went in. Wow, probably the best meal of the trip.

There was a young guy serving as our host and waiter. He was Pakistani and full of questions about the U.S. The economic troubles in Ireland are stifling his ambition and he's considering a move to America or Canada. It was interesting how many times the questions came back to crime and the police. He was particularly concerned about being beaten by the police as apparently in Pakistan they'll beat the crap out of you and ask questions later.

Jan picked up a box of After Eight dinner mints a few days back which we've been slowly working our way through. When he brought us our check, he presented it on a plate and said, "Your After Eights." We looked down and there were two mints for us. It's as if he could read our minds.

Waterford

2009-04-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

There is a tower in Waterford that goes back to the Viking era (Waterford is the oldest city in Ireland) We were there for opening around 10 and they said we could take a self guided tour or wait 10 minutes and take the guided tour - no brainer - we'll wait. The visitor's center said there were only self-guided tours, so we were happy. Little did we know how lucky we were. We got a private tour from Catherine and she has to have been the best guide of the trip so far. At the end we got to talking and when we said we'd come from Kilkenny she asked us what we thought of the castle tour as they have just changed it. Bingo. I told Jan after that tour, I think they must have just switched from guided tours to posting the guides in some of the rooms either for budget cuts or because they get too many people in high season that they need to move them along faster. Catherine said it was a bit of both and also that some folks just really want to move through quickly, looking at things and don't want all the information. I told Jan when we left that castle that somethings was up because the guide just had all this information and was bursting for an opportunity to tell it but didn't know how. Our suggestion was that if they're going to stick with guides in just some of the rooms they should basically just announce they're going to give a talk about the room every 15 minutes rather than have to go around soliciting tourists who might be interested in hearing.

We finished in time to catch a walking tour of the town. There was a large group of retired English women, Jan and I. We've decided every walking tour should have some doddering older English or Irish women on it. Their ongoing commentary is just priceless. We made it back to the oldest pub for lunch, back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then to the bus station with maybe just over 5 minutes to spare. We're starting to get more Irish about this - showing up at the last minute not worried if there will be seats.

BTW, the tower we toured is the round one in theWaterford pics not the one seen here.

Belfast to Dublin

2009-04-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

Our hostel in Belfast worked out just fine, but the Internet was about $1.50 for 10 minutes and you had to go down to the lobby to use it (plus really didn't have time) so all I managed to do was download pictures off my camera, get them flipped the right way and resized. It's a little after 5 pm on Thursday and we're back at our guest house in Dublin. Turns out they did have free WiFi, but just like everywhere else the network wasn't accessible from rooms. So I'm down in the lobby to fire off a few posts while Jan does some shopping before we head out to dinner. Tomorrow it is up and out to the airport for our trip home. (Belfast City Hall pictured)

No Time To Blog

2009-04-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

We have been touring non-stop so I haven't even had time to write posts to upload later. Tomorrow we are on a tour all day and then bus to Sligo - arriving around 10:30 PM. We'll get some sleep and then back on the bus at 8:45 AM to continue on to Derry in Northern Ireland. So no blogging tomorrow either. Since the last post we've been to Waterford, Cork, Kinsale, Galway and the Aran Islands. I'm just going to go ahead and upload a bunch of pictures to the jump page so you can get a sense of what we've been up to. Who knows, at the rate things are going, the stories may not get written and posted until I'm back in Durham. (Geez and I didn't even have time to get pictures posted from all those places)

On the Road to Kilkenny

2009-04-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

After the jail we went back to our hotel and relaxed a little while in the lounge before walking over to the bus station. The bus station was only a block away which is nice for wheeling luggage. You can't make a reservation for the bus, so as you can imagine I was a bit anxious. We ended up being first in line. As we'd been assured the bus left the station only about half full. We picked up people along the way. Jan ended up with a lady next to her for a while, but fortunately I had my row to myself the whole way. A little less the 2.5 hours later around 8 PM we were in Kilkenny. Walked up to the hostel (pictured). Someone was cooking Indian food in the kitchen and it smelled so good I wanted to buy their dinner from them right there and then. We ended up in a pub and the couple next to us were from Maryland. It was there first day. They'd driven from Dublin and we're a bit taken back by the experience. The wife said, "I'm glad we bought all the extra insurance." Again, glad we're busing.

Kilmainham Goal (Jail)

2009-04-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

As much as I like to tour castles and palaces (museums not so much), I think this was the highlight of the trip so far. Again we had a superb guide and the history was just fascinating. The jail opened in the 1790's and as you can imagine conditions were deplorable. It housed women and children as well. because theft of food or clothing during the potato famine would land you here. In modern times it housed Ireland's revolutionary founding fathers (and mothers). Some just until they were executed and others until they were freed when Ireland got its independence. Half the prison is the original structure and half was torn down and expanded in the Victorian era. In was abandoned in the 1920's. In the 1960's restoration started and they have video of their president who was once held here coming to visit. They have plaques with the names of the more famous prisoners over the cells they were kept in. Not exactly the same as a "Washington Slept Here" plaque. In the East (Victorian) wing the guide asked if anyone recognized the room. I held back until it was clear no one else was going to answer and then said, "Was it used for the film 'In the Name of the Father'". Turns out yes, but also a bunch of other films. HBO's 'The Tudors' is currently filming scenes in the basement.

More pics after the jump.

Tram Envy

2009-04-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

Is this not the sexiest tram you've ever seen? After watching it pass by our B&B for the last two days we finally had a reason to ride it. When we got back from Malahide we hopped on to ride out to Kilmainham Goal.

Some more pics here.

There Are Swings Today!

2009-04-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

Monday morning we were up and out early to catch a commuter train a short ride north of the city to Malahide Castle. We got there a little earlier than we expected so walked around the village a bit and then up to the castle in time for opening. One other couple with us on the tour. The castle was in the hands of the Talbot family for 800 years until 1976 when the last remaining heir sold it to the government and retired to Tasmania. She died this year in her 90's. Like Powerscourt, there are now golf courses on the grounds to help pay for things. There are also soccer fields and swings! Picture of the castle and village after the jump.

Music Pub Crawl

2009-04-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

After getting back from Glendalough we had just enough time for a quick dinner and then over to the Temple Bar Area for a highly recommended Irish music pub crawl. We met in a popular lively pub but only stayed for a brief introduction to the tour. There were two musicians and they'd talk a bit then play a bit. It was all very light hearted and full of jokes. We moved on to two other pubs where they have arranged to have private rooms upstairs while we're there. Neither Jan or I was sure this was exactly up our alley, especially when they said we'd be expected to sing - Yikes! Their recommendation - "If you can't sing well sing loud." Jan assured them, "We can do loud". But like others that wrote about it on TripAdivsor, we were pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed it.

Glendalough

2009-04-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

After Powerscourt it was back on the bus to Glendalough. Gleann dá locha in Irish. One of the things we learned from our guide is you won't pick up any Irish from reading the names of towns off the bilingual signs. The English has no meaning; it's just a word the approximates the pronunciation of the Irish. The translation of Gleann dá locha would be Valley of the two Lakes.

Glendalough is the site of a 7th century Christian monastery started by St. Kevin. He came from money but went out into the woods to be by himself and get closer to God. Well a bunch of people ended up following him there and a whole community grew up around him. The buildings of his time were wood and are gone. But the remains of the stone buildings from the 8th, 9th, and 10th century are still there. The tour was very interesting but I won't get in to all we learned. I'll just let you check out the pictures and go to Wikipedia if you want to learn more.

The site is now used by locals as a park. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and the place was packed. On the way we passed through a little 10 house village. The guide said one of the homes is where Daniel Day-Lewis lives but he's not allowed to point it out. He'd just say it's the biggest. Well that made it easy to spot, but don't think for a second it was any great manor house. it was a simple two story house set back just a few yards from the road.

More pictures after the jump.

No Swings Today

2009-04-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

We were planning to take a bus tour out of the city today to Powerscourt and Glendalough. When we checked yesterday there were only 4 signed up and they needed a minimum of 10 so we left our names and hoped some more folks would sign up. When we checked in this morning there were 13 so we were off - in a bus that would have held 50. Later in the day when the bus driver had to navigate these narrow roads through the countryside with stone walls on either side I'm sure he wished they had a smaller 20 person bus to use in the off season. It also convinced me that we'd made the right decision for us by not renting a car.

It was an hour ride to Powerscourt. We quickly went from city center, to water front suburbia, to the posh neighborhoods where Bono and Enya live out into the rural countryside populated mostly by sheep. Powerscourt was a castle, but having been added onto and remodeled over the years now resembles more of a palace. In 1974 the owners could no longer afford to keep it up and decided to open it for tours. The had a final last grand banquet with the prime minister in attendance and later that night it caught fire and the entire interior was destroyed. So far they've manged to restore the grand ballroom which is available for private functions. But the main attraction here is the gardens - the best in Ireland. We hit them at a good time as daffodils and tulips were in bloom.

People watching is always an interesting part of travel, but sometimes you need look no further than the other members of your tour group for entertainment. There were two young Japanese girls on the trip. They never took a picture that one or the other wasn't in it. No big deal, but what took it over the top was they always struck such an elaborate pose. Hands outstretched like an appliance model on the "Price is Right", they'd display the "Dolphin Fountain" as is they were Carol Merrel caressing the latest Ammana side-by-side.

When we finished the loop around the gardens, Jan and I were sitting on a bench when a little three year old boy came trudging across the gavel towards us ahead of his family. He waved and said, "Hi". We said "Hi" back and then with a long breath and a heavy sigh he shared with us his deepest disappointment, "No swings today."

Maybe you had to be there. In the jump pictures you'll see a couple shots of their pet cemetery. The tombstones had some really cute remembrances on them.

Dublin - Day 1

2009-04-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

With our early arrival we had to wait about 10 minutes for a ground crew, but we were off the plane and on a bus downtown in no time. Dropped off our luggage, got some breakfast (somehow the "light breakfast" never materialized on the plane) and were at our first walking tour ready to go at 10 AM. The theme was Medieval Dublin and we walked all over. At which point I began to question my sanity for having walked all over Baltimore and DC the day before. Then on our own we toured a Georgian row house built around 1800. Four stories and a basement - the guide was just full of interesting tidbits about life in one of these houses during that era. I watched some of PBS' "1900 House." when it aired. I may need to go back and watch it all again.

Thought we'd have time for a sit down lunch but had to grab a panini on the go in order to get to Dublin Castle in time for a guided tour. Picked up our Ireland Heritage passes as well. Another great tour guide.

Stopped by City Hall, the Vistor's Center and then a pub to kill the hour before our 6 pm walking tour. I know, what were we thinking. The more we waited for the guide to show, the more we realised we didn't want to fork over 11 euro to walk for 2 more hours on our very tired feet and only 2 hours sleep. So we went back to the hotel and checked into our room around 7 pm.

A little rest, out for a nice dinner and back to bed for a very sound night's sleep after a very full day of touring. More pictures after the jump.

Save the liver!

2009-04-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

Ed, David and Bradford were driving up to DC Friday for Ed to go to a wedding. The plan was we would try to meet in Chinatown for a late lunch. Well from the previous post you know things weren't going so well on my end. They were running later than they expected as well and as we we're all getting hungry we just decided to go ahead and eat on our own. I did have a good lunch in Chinatown and then popped into the Smithsonian to see Julia Child's kitchen. Pretty cool exhibit. But that was all I had time for before needing to catch the bus to Dulles.

I was aiming for the 4:00, but caught the 3:30 because it was running a little late. It was nearly full. About 10 until 4 the couple behind me ask, "Is this bus going to Dulles?"
"I hope so, because that's where I want to go."
"Well, why does that say Rosslyn Metro?"
"Oh, because it makes two stops along the way."
"What? How long does this bus take?"
"An hour."
"No! We've got to get off. We've got to catch a 5:00 flight."
"Well, I don't know. You might want to ask a local what to do. I know DC traffic is a nightmare."
"Oh, we know, we live on Capital Hill."

They ended up getting off at Rosslyn to try and find a cab. The man across the aisle from me said, "That was a mistake." I said, "Their mistake started long ago."

Jan and Amanda showed up shortly around 5:30. We scored an exit row, which on this plane is one of those full door exits opposite the flight attendant's jumper seat. On our left there weren't even middle section seats but the wall for the crew berth. So we couldn't even see any other passengers during the flight. Couldn't have asked for better seats. Landed in Dublin at 7:00 AM - 35 minutes early.

Good Morning Baltimore

2009-04-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

The adventures began even before we left for Ireland. The plan was Amanada would take Jan and I into Baltimore. Jan would work a part day and I would do some sightseeing and make it to Dulles on my own. Amanda would bring Jan and my luggage.

First I walked over to Fells Point and had breakfast at Blue Moon which was featured on Food Network's "Diners, Drive-thus and Dives". They're famous for their Captain Crunch French Toast, but I went with the Crab and Bacon Benedict. Yum.

Walked back to the courthouse to see the chambers Jan is working in now. The judge was in and got to meet the new law clerk (a fellow train junkie). After a pit stop at the Bank of America to pick up some no fee pounds and euros it was off to the light rail to ride up to the Baltimore Streetcar museum. Where I got off was the same confusing area where we got a little lost driving at Thanksgiving. The light rail is at the bottom of this ravine and there are multiple levels of bridges for trains and cars all crisscrossing around. Well I started walking in the direction of the museum, decided I must have gone to far and circled back. No luck. Well maybe the entrance isn't directly on North Avenue so I went up a block and wondered around a bit. Still no luck.

So then I start asking people - HA! The first ones to even hazard a guess where these two girls that I saw in public transportation uniforms.
Girl 1: "I think that's in the bottom."
Girl 2: "No, ain't nothing in the bottom."
Girl 1: "Well OK then, all the museums are down there on North Ave. Go and make a left."

Well I wasn't convinced but I went down and looked again. This time I traced my way all the way back to the bridge and I looked down. There it was, but how in the world do you get there? So I started walking around trying to find a way down but there was chain link fencing everywhere. Then I spot a woman with a garment bag getting out of car. "How do you get down the hill behind here?" "I have no idea, hon." I thanked her and started to walk on when it dawned on me - I think I'm standing in the parking lot of a strip joint!

Well who should I stumble across next, but my two MTA friends.
"Hey, I found the museum. It's under the bridge. But how do I get down there?
Girl 1 to Girl 2: "I told you it was in the bottom."
Girl 2: "Well, I didn't know. I didn't think there was nothing in the bottom."
Girl 1: "I think if you keep walking up this street then you can cut left and there is a road that will go straight down to the bottom."
"Thanks."

So I'm walking along, getting further and further into a mix of not so great row houses, warehouses, parking lots, etc. When finally I see a garage where there is a gate in the chain link fence at the back. I walk through and there I am face to face with a lady tattooed up and down both arms, sitting on the railroad tracks, swigging a beer with her two dogs who come running toward me. "Don't worry, they're friendly."
She calls them back and I keep on walking. Well I realize I'm only half way to the bottom and there's no getting down the rest of the way. Here I am, alone, walking along the railroad tracks with over a thousand dollars in foreign currency strapped around my waist when it hits me - my life has become a Quentin Tarantino movie. It's time to get out of here.

I came back out of the garage's parking lot and had walked about a block or two when I spotted a cab. Oh man, is this good news or am I about to get taken for a ride? I hoped in, "Penn Station, please." And as we neared the station, there finally was a sign pointing to the "Streetcar Museum". The entrance to "the bottom" was in the complete opposite direction of what they'd told me. I almost pulled a "Stop the cab" Hollywood moment, but we weren't in the curbside lane so I just let it go.

CrossFit Pasadena, MD

2009-04-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

The key to being successful travel companions is communication.
John: "So your not even taking any sneakers? I guess you not planning on going running."
Jan: "No, I'm on vacation. And if I want to eat fish and chips every day I will. And I don't need to hear how they're not Travis-friendly."
John: Understood.

WOD
12 squats
12 push-ups
12 sit ups
12 lunges
ARAJS

CrossFit Translations
WOD = Workout of the Day
ARAJS = Typically CrossFit routines are done for a set number of rounds as fast as you can or ARAP - As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. For this trip the plan is to do ARAJS - As many rounds as Jan showers.

Here's me getting in some weighted tree stump steep ups while we wait for Amanda to pick us up.

Ireland 2009 - The Circle Tour

2009-04-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

View Ireland 2009 in a larger map

Here's a rough map of our trip. These are the places we'll be staying the night. There are some day trips to other sites that still need to be added to the map. We are making the trip by bus as neither Jan nor I felt adventurous enough to drive on the other side of the road. We're also staying in hostels a few times, though we'll have our own room and bath - not some dorm room with 16 kids stacked on bunk beds passed out on Guinness.

Azalea Triathlon - Wilmington NC

2009-03-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'm in my favorite town, my home away from home to run in my first Triathlon. It's an event that's been a year in the making. This won't be my typical travel post but it is about a journey none the less. When I got back from the around the world trip last March I decided something had to be done about my weight. My doctor had been after me for a couple years to drop some pounds. So instead of another half hearted attempt at dieting I decided to get a trainer. I Googled around a bit and decided to meet with a guy name Travis who trains not too far from my office. He would have me do CrossFit which are really intense under 30 minute workouts three times a week. And when I say intense, I mean collapse on the floor in total exhaustion drenched from head to toe in sweat when you're done workouts. The phrase "Travis-friendly" was soon added to the lexicon, often used in restaurants to explain my ordering to friends as in, "Oh, I can have the steak I just have to sub veggies for the mashed potatoes, they aren't Travis-friendly." I may have gone a bit overboard with the "Travis this" and "Travis that" because I was chided with "You'd jump off a bridge if Travis told you to. He's some sort of Svengali" But as Travis pointed out when I told him the story, a Svengali has evil intent.

By the end of May I was already seeing some pretty good results. People who hadn't seen me in a while would do a bit of a double take. Sometimes I'd get compliments that I thought were funny like "Wow! You've lost ALOT of weight. That must have been really hard FOR YOU." But you just have to laugh because you know the person meant well. I started swimming again and when gas hit $4 a gallon I decided it's only 4.5 miles to my trainer I'm going to get a cheapo bike form Target and start riding to the gym. It won't take me long for the bike to pay for itself, and then I'll start saving money and get more exercise to boot. Oh how wrong were those tea leaves.

I really enjoyed riding the bike. It actually felt sort of noble to be doing my part to go green. I could write another whole essay on the experience of being a bicycle commuter, but for this post I'll just leave it at: If you think your a perfectly safe driver while your talking on your cell phone, well you aren't. Period. Case closed. I started thinking, this CrossFit is really going well. What new challenge could I take on for 2009? I started reading up on Triathlons and even did a little mock one myself at the YMCA to see if I could pull it off. I made up my mind, I would sign up for three: the Azalea Tri in March, the Kure Beach Double Sprint in June, and the Wilmington YMCA Sprint in September.

Now Atlantic Ave. is way too busy for me to ride on, but it actually has sidewalks (not that you'd ever see anyone walking on them) so that's were I rode my bike. Atlantic Ave also has office buildings with landscapers and that is were one fine October morning what shall be forever know as the "riding mower incident" sent me over the handlebars breaking both my arms. In the grand scheme of things I guess they weren't the worst breaks as they didn't require casts. But my arms were pretty useless for a long while. Just trying to turn a door handle was about impossible. But would that stop a CrossFitter? Oh, no. You can't lift dumbbells over your head? Well here, put on this weighted vest. I was like a turtle flipped upside down on its shell trying to get up off the mat to move from scissor kicks to step ups.

As part of my triathlon preparation, I'd signed up for my first 5K run the last Sunday in October. The doctor said it was ok for me to do it, "Just don't fall down." It was an absolutely gorgeous day. I hadn't done any real running since the accident, but I did a few laps in the parking lot and decided I'd go for it. I could always stop if I needed to (yeah, right). As more and more people started lining up for the start I was getting a bit nervous about being pushed down when the gun went off. Well I over compensated for that and ended up starting behind the walkers. I had to fight my way through the first few blocks until I was half way around the capital building before I could get into my race pace. At the finish line I had to ask a volunteer to open my water bottle for me since my arms still didn't work, but I did better than I expected. The next day however, was the start of a very sad time.

My dear friend Mark, my onetime next door neighbor and someone I'd known since moving to Durham was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer early in the summer. Monday I got a call that he had had a heart attack Sunday night and was at Duke Hospital. The prognosis was pretty good and he might be discharged in a couple days. I went to visit him Monday night after work. We talked all about my race. I was pretty hyped up and he said, "John Bowser, I know how competitive you can be. I've seen you play Taboo. Now you've found a physical outlet for that competitiveness and that's great." Before long he was nodding off. I stayed a bit longer to see if he might wake up but when it was pretty clear he was out for the night, I slipped away. That night he had another major heat attack, flat lined and was brought back. He was conscious again for a brief time on Tuesday while I was there, but by the end of the week he was in hospice. He died on election day. We didn't get to celebrate the Obama victory together, but thanks to early voting he helped turn North Carolina blue.

Its fair to say I was a bit depressed this winter, but in January I was cleared to start swimming again. My left arm was coming along but I still couldn't really straighten my right arm all the way. I went to a one day Triathlon clinic hoping to pick up some tips on improving my swim time only to find out I was running completely wrong. I was a heel toe runner and should be running on the balls of my feet. So I started playing with that. Talk about a way to kill your calves. Sometimes I could do a mile and could feel how much more efficient the Pose technique was. Other times I'd go a quarter mile and, bam! Crippling pain. I'd have to limp back to the Y or my car. I could not afford for that to happen on race day. So I asked Travis if we could spend a couple sessions working just on running. He'd video tape me and we'd review it. That was the most amazingly helpful thing for me. If the first session weren't so mortifyingly embarrassing I'd post the videos on YouTube so you could see the progress.

We can get the occasional 70 even 80 degree great day in February. I printed off the race course for the Azalea Tri and went down one weekend to practice on the course. Well it was clear - my cheapo Target mountain bike just wasn't going to do. Now the folks that want to be on the medal platform will put $5K into their bike, that is definitely not me. But a week before race day, there I was in the bike store test driving different models. I ended up with a 2008 model on a good sale Who knew bikes were like cars that come out with new models every year? I was like a kid at Christmas on Friday night going home. I couldn't wait for Saturday morning to come so I could take my new bike out for a spin on the American Tobacco trail. I'd been taking spinning classes on Tuesday and Thursday all winter as part of my training, but when I'd ride my mountain bike I just couldn't get that same cadence (fancy new cycling word I learned for peddling speed). Well, that was not a problem with the new bike. OMG it was down right scary how fast I could go! Between the toddlers on trikes with no clue what the yellow line down the center of the path means and the joggers with iPods oblivious that they were moving left directly in front of a bike going 20 mph, I was sure I was going to kill someone. So with less than 20 miles experience on my bike it was now time for -

Race Day

Registration was closed at 700 with 50 on the wait list. Because the swim leg is in a pool you have to submit your expected time. They order you and they start someone every 15 seconds. Ideally if people submit accurate times no one has to pass anyone or be passed as you snake up and down the lanes going under the ropes. The race started at 8:00. My start time was 10:10:15. I got there around 8:15. Had #436 written on both arms, both legs and my age written on my right calf. Picked up my timing chip to go around my left ankle and walked over to where people were coming out of the nauditorium to run the 400 yards to their bikes. The elite athletes were already finished biking and starting their run. Thank goodness my first race was this style and not all 700 of us storming into the ocean at one time. I had plenty of time to see how things were working. It was only 41 degrees and overcast and here go guys whizzing by on bike shirtless or in tanks. Eventually I saw folks wearing what I had planned (a long sleeve running shirt and a windbreaker) so I wasn't going to stick out like some total know nothing newbie.

Before long it was time to head to the pool. A few warm up laps in the diving pool and then they were lining up the 400's. The 380's and 390's were in the pool and I couldn't help but think, man do I really swim that slowly. I saw one lady stop after 3 laps and start doing the breast stoke. So I started timing them, sure enough they were just under 30 seconds a lap and I'm right at 31-32 seconds, so I guess I am that slow. Next thing I new we were in the water, 3, 2 1 go, 3, 2 1, go and I was going under the rope getting in position 3, 2, 1 go. Normally when I swim there is a tape playing in my head, high elbows, follow though, rotate, head up. That tape never even had a chance to start. All I could think about was flip at this end of the pool, go under the rope at this end and go fast. It's all a total blur. And then, oh no, two laps in there are the feet of #435 right in front of me. I'm freak'n gonna have to pass. So I battle my way between him and the woman coming down the other side of the lane. Not pretty. But #434 was a no show so there was 30 seconds of free lane ahead. And then shit, here's #433's feet. What am I doing? Am I racing at some crazy fast pace and going to totally fade out before I'm done. Hell, what lap am I even on. We both hit the wall at the same time so I let him push off first and had a second to look up and see I had maybe another 100 yards to go. Another nasty pass and before I knew it I was having to overtake #432 and then I was out of the pool. 5:40 - a good 40 seconds faster than my submitted time. As I ran for my bike, all I could think was what a total brute I'd been in the pool and how sorry I was that I'd messed up those people's swims by not submitting the right time. Only later in the afternoon did it dawn on me, the Y pool is setup for meters on Monday and Wednesday when I swim, not yards. That might account for about 20 of those seconds but I guess the rest gets chalked up to adrenaline. Talk about your rookie mistake.

The bike leg went well. For about the first seven miles I just kept pace with the guy ahead of me. I was really surprised I wasn't getting passed. I took all the turns pretty slowly - I did not want to wipe out. Then I saw the guy ahead of me catch up and pass someone and the next thing I knew I was passing them too. Just as I pulled ahead someone else came along and passed me. I managed to pass a few more people before getting back to the transition area for the run. I hopped of my bike and oh no, my legs are completely numb from my butt to my knees. How am I going to run, I can't even walk! Helmet off, gloves, off, windbreaker off, Let's go.

For the first half mile, I had to fall back on my heal toe running. I couldn't believe I'd spent the last two months learning a new technique and I wasn't going to be able to use it. But then the next half mile I started alternating between heel toe and ball of foot. The problem was my toes were about frozen and they just plain hurt. But finally around mile one I was thawed out and could start running Pose. And that's when I started passing people which felt really good because your could tell from their numbers they had started 5 or even 10 minutes before I had. The 1.5 to 2.5 mile segment was the hardest. My mind starts playing all sorts of head games with me. I really had to talk myself through that. But I kept passing people. I even passed someone with 39 on their leg and I thought, wow that guy must have had some tragic bike leg. He started hours ago and bless his heart he is seeing this through to the end. Only later when I was washing the 45 of my leg did I remember that's where they wrote our age, duh. Then it was time to sprint to the finish. I didn't kick it in soon enough. I think that's because the last part of the course twists around some buildings instead of being a nice straight shot with the finish line in sight. Later while I was packing up several people said to me "You really finished the run strong." So that felt pretty good.

The results 1:10:15, 201st place out of 326 men 24th out of 38 men in my age group. I was hoping to be under 1:20 so I was pleased. Next up, the Kure Beach Double Sprint with an ocean swim at the beginning and then again at the end! Given the zig zag pattern of my ocean practice swim in Ft. Lauderdale last month, sighting is definitely something I'm going to have to work on.

So in wrapping up this way too long post, thanks to Travis, I fesl very lucky to have worked with him the past year. Thanks to my "coach" and sister Jan who has indulged me in all my ramblings about training and is on her own personal quest to complete a half marathon on her 40th birthday in October - Go Jan! Thanks to my bestest friend Ed, my personal cheerleader in life. I swear I could have come in dead last and he still would have found a way to make me fell like I'd won. Thanks to my parents who were convinced they were going to get a call from Cape Fear Memorial Hospital on race day and everyone who who sent words of encouragement by phone, email or Facebook. I really appreciated all the support.

So check back in a month when the blog will return to its normal travel theme. Jan and I are headed to Ireland the last two weeks of April. It'll be here before you know it and there are still hotel rooms to book.

There are just a few pictures after the jump. Despite having a packing checklist, a before I leave the hotel checklist, a once I get to the race site checklist and two transition checklists, batteries for the camera didn't make it on to any of them.

Now With Video

2009-01-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

Went to see "Slumdog Millionaire" last night. Liked it, but it was a good bit more violent than I was expecting. Anyway, it got me thinking that I still have some video clips from my trip that I never could get posted using the blogger software. So today I decided to upload them using YouTube instead. That worked like a champ. These are taken with my digital camera and not a proper video camera so the quality is pretty bad. I don't take much video. You see way too many tourists walking around with their video camera plastered to their eye the whole time and it drives me crazy that people would go all the way to Ankor Wat only to see it all through a view finder. Mostly I end up with 2-4 second clips after I've fat fingered the dial and end up shooting my feet or my hands as I fiddle with the camera trying to figure out why it isn't working. But sometimes a still photo just doesn't capture the energy, motion and sound of a place like a video does.

I've embedded my favorite one here. It is from my walking tour of the Thieves Market in Mumbai. I was standing on the corner while the guide and the other lady where looking at some items in a shop. As you watch it, think about the pedestrians crossing the street. There's no waiting your turn. You just have to throw yourself into the mix. It is no wonder there are some many pedestrian fatalities in Mumbai.

I have 15 short videos from my trip uploaded. I've gone back through the blog and embedded them on various postings. But you don't need to hunt for them, you can see them all here on YouTube. After you watch one you'll see a bunch of links to other people's related videos courtesy of the magic of YouTube. They're typically much better than mine so check them out if you're interested.

ATW Final Posts

2008-12-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

In just a few days it will be a year ago that I left on my Around the World trip. I wrote all the Chile blog postings in the LAN lounge the final day as I had an overnight flight back to Miami that didn't leave until 11:30 PM. But for the last 10 months the pictures have been on various memory sticks waiting to be processed, matched with the postings and uploaded to the blog. At first it didn't get done because there was alot to do once I got home. Then it didn't get done because I just didn't want to acknowledge that the trip was actually over. Then it just became one of the many back burner tasks I needed to get done. Well yesterday my simple hop skip and a jump flight from RDU to Altoona turned in to an all day affair. So I pulled out the laptop and got to work. Got all my pictures ready and today, finally they have been uploaded. Guess I just needed to get to an airport all along to get me in the mood.

Next up is Ireland. Jan and I are going for two weeks the end of April. So check back then for some postings from the Emerald Isle.

Prize for most unusual food

2008-12-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

Awarded to Chile. This is Mote and they were selling it everywhere in the park
today. It is corn and sliced peaches with a very sweet peach flavored iced tea
poured over it. For $1 I decided I needed to try it. Strange, but not bad. The bees absolutely love it! Just a shame it was made with canned peaches and not fresh given that fresh ones are everywhere right now. When the NC crowd gets to try this at a pool party this summer, we will use fresh. In the jump shots you'll also get a pic of the national drink, the Pisco Sour.

Cerro San Cristobal

2008-12-26T13:12:00.000-08:00

So having been up Santa Lucia, I was thinking how much different will the views really be from San Critobal. You can take a funicular up one side and return or go down the other side by cable car. Since the cable car station is just a few blocks from my hotel, I opted to go up by funicular and down by cable car. Well it's a whole lot higher and the views were awesome. There are a ton of pictures after the jump.

Neruda in Santiago

2008-12-26T13:02:00.000-08:00

After visiting his home in Valpariso, I definitely wanted to visit the home he had with his third wife in Santiago. It was built while she was his mistress and then expanded after they were married. Its a collection of houses at the base of the mountain with winding stairs connecting them through gardens. There were bars at each level, some inside, some outside. If you were liked and a friend you got your
drinks in colored glasses - not so well liked - clear glass. Neruda was exiled a while for being a communist and then the house was trashed during the coup. He died 2 weeks later.

Last Day in Santiago

2008-12-26T12:51:00.000-08:00

Did some touring of the government and university areas before heading off to another Neruda home and summit of Cerro San Cristobal. Needed a nosh along the way
and ended up ordering some Chilean empanadas - I think you can see from the photo there was no comparison to our Argentine creations (in all fairness, these clearly weren't home made).

Orchards and Vineyards

2008-12-26T12:17:00.001-08:00

It was about 1.5 hours from Santiago to the coast. Along the way we went through 2 valleys. In one they were growing all sorts of fruits in the other it was all vineyards. The agriculture has really only taken off there in the last 20 years or so when irrigation techniques where adapted from Israel and the US.

Screw You Americn Airlines

2008-12-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

So my original ATW plans were to include an Easter Island leg, but that was denied by AA. It just so happens only 3 maui (stone heads) have been taken off Easter Island. One is in the British Museum (no surprise there, did we see that Jan?), one is up the coast and one is right here in Vina Del Mar. So there.

Vina del Mar

2008-12-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

The next town up the coast from Valparaiso is Vina del Mar. They used to be phsyically separtated but have not just gown together. But they are very diferent.
Vina del Mar is all highrise condos for the beach crowd - second homes for people from Santiago. Year round the population is under 300,000, but in Summer swells to well over one million. Our bus didn't stop in the ritzyest section, but we did stop at the beach so I could go out and get my feet wet in the southern Pacific. The water was very cold and surf ruff. They had the no swimming flags up.

Lunch at the Harbor

2008-12-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

Our tour dropped us at the harbor for lunch at a seafood restaurant. It was a bit pricer than my seafod restaurant in the Central Market, but I opted for scallops prepared the same way as my calamari had been done. So it tasted good, but it wasn't as good as Central Market. The sauce was mostly butter. The sauce in central market was a much more complex seafood broth with buttery flavor. Interestingly there happened to be a professional photographer there taking pictures of their food. I wonder what my food shots would look like if I had all his apparatus.

Valparaiso

2008-12-26T11:53:00.000-08:00

Took an all day bus tour to the coast today. First stop Valparaiso. It's the harbor where all the fruit exports leave (and cruise ships). Before the Panama Canal it was much more significant as it was the last major harbor before rounding the cape. Oddly the parliament sits here intead of in Santiago (part of Pinochet's efforts to decentralize that stuck). There are 45 named hills here stretching up from the harbor and the houses just climp all the way to the top. There are 15 funicular to help pedestrians, but it is still said that the women of Valaparaiso have the best legs in Chile.

Our first stop was the house of Neruda. He is a Noble winner for poetry and was also a diplomat having been envoy to many Asian countries and ambasador to France. He had three houses, one for each of his wives. This house was for his second wife. His
theme is to build them like ships and he is the captain. He was friends with folks like Picaso and Diego Rivera and of course tons of Chilean artists so the places are totally funky. They have this mix of 60's pop art and furniture, all his different collections (Russian dolls, Mexican glassware, African statues), and things given him by his friends. A stop not to be missed.

Providencia

2008-12-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

The neighborhod where my hotel is located is very residential. It's very much
downtown (just not the center of town). It is sandwiched in a little pocket of land
betweem the base of San Crisobal mountain and the river (most of Santiago is on the
other side of the river). So it is very quiet and green. It's a simple 4 block walk
across the river to a metro station. I'm very pleased with the hotel. The first night here walking around and getting my bearings I was just so surprised to see all these green parks and how clean and modern the city was. I'd been told its 1/3 the population of Buenos Aires in 6 times the area. So was sort of expecting a mini Buenos Aires. That is not the right comparison at all. It's more like Ottawa with some Spanish influences expanded to a huge size and plopped down in the mountains like a Denver. It's really a beautiful city.

Lunch at the Central Market

2008-12-26T11:33:00.000-08:00

Downtown is also home to the central market, lots of vegetable stands, butcher shops
aseafood. Peaches are in season and are everywhere. They are selling for less than
25 cents a pound. We had them on our breakfast buffet and they were delicious. A big
part of the market is now devoted to seafood restaurants that are only open until
4:30. They all seemed to have their resident hawker trying to pull you in so I
walked along until I found a small place, full of locals and no one yelling, "my
friend, my friend" and picked that one for my lunch. Great choice. I was very tempted to go back there for lunch on my last day.

Quatro Light

2008-12-26T11:28:00.000-08:00

The Fresca of Chile. Tip to travelers, buying sodas in Argentina and Chile is
usually just popping into a little corner store and picking from what is in a bunch
of refrigerated cooles. Its easy as you can see all the variety and prices are well
marked. The problem, they just don't keep those coolers very cold (not like
Thailand. Heck in Thailand they will even bring you a bucket of ice so you can add
cubes to your beer to keep it good and cold). So my tip, if you do happen on a
street vendor with an ice chest, buy your drinks there, they may cost 20 cents more
but they will be iced down and worth every penny.

Cerro St. Lucia

2008-12-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

I was totally unprepared for Santiago. I started out with just the crappy map put out by the tour companies that offers one of those all day on/off their double decker bus deals. When I got to the tourist information center downtown and asked for a map, they gave me the same one. On the way to the center I stumbled on to a park that is a hill the sticks up in the center of downtown on top of which is a fort. Not too bad a climb and great views.

You'll really have to look close in some pictures to see the moutains in the backgrounds. In the morning the humidity from the coast moves in but stays up in the mountains and obscures them. By evening things clear up and they're much more visible. In the city it is brisk in the mornings but quickly warms up; there is no humidity. In the subway they have big fans with misters blowing (and for Jan, branches of the library).

Historic Santiago

2008-12-26T10:48:00.000-08:00

A few shots of downtown Santiago. I love the mix of architecture here. On any given block you can have colonial, art nuveau, art deco and modern. The colonial red building in the jump pics is the Casa Rosada. It is what remains of a wealthy independence area home. It's the kind of museum I really like. Each room was a different era in the growth of Santiago and filled with diorama, models and photos. How cities evolve over time just fascinates me.

On the Road to Chile

2008-03-01T04:49:00.000-08:00

It was good to have you Spanish skills about you today, although I suppose the people could have spoken English if I'd asked. Got my boarding card and asked where the lounge was. She asked if I was a club member and I said, "no, but it was business class on an international flight". "Hmm, this is an economy seat". Call in to supervisor. Turns out there had been an aircraft change and all seats were economy. So told me I was entitled to compensation (and she'd still print up something for me to go to the lounge). Well I went to the compensation line and was offered either $400 in LAN services or $120 cash. I said I'd take the cash and set about filling in the paper work. Which I was then to take to the LAN office where I live. "What? In the Estados Unidos? Donde?" Miami, LA or NY. I told him I don't live anywhere near those places. So new paperwork so he could issue a credit to my credit card for the amount. Still that's pretty good considering the flight is only 2 hr and 15 minutes, she gave me the exit row, they served lunch and didn't charge for beer. The other five seats in the exit row were taken up by a family from Argentina that had also been bumped from business. We got to talking and the mother thought it was hilarious that I had taken the train to Adroque to learn to make empanadas. In fact she had friends on the flight and when they stopped by to talk, she would start with "Can you believe, he went to Adroque to learn to make empanadas?!" I think she was in shock that I'd take that train (something I doubt she ever does). On arrival in Uruguay I had a little surprise. There was a separate line for Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, Australians, and English where we had to fork over US$ 131 for a visa. So much for that $120 LAN mad money.

Colonia

2008-03-01T04:36:00.000-08:00

Colonia is indeed a nice day trip. Got to climb a lighthouse and walk all over town. Stumbled on a great lunch. They had a cold buffet for $11 or hot and cold for $16.50. I took a look inside and clearly cold would be more than enough. Besides a large salad bar there was another whole spread of prepared salads, several variations of fish and chicken in different marinades, roast beef in red pepper sauce, stuffed tomatoes. pork in a pesto sauce, etc. It was all very attractive and very tasty and 1 block outside the historic district made it alot cheaper than the $20 lunches I had been looking it. Later, I wasn't really hungry, but someone from the hotel had recommended an ice cream place. They had maybe 40 little trays of homemade ice cream and you could get a small cup with 2 flavors for $1.75. Peach and Dulce de Leche with walnuts - yum.

Ha, I spent the whole day at an UNESCO Heritage site and all I wrote about was the food. Well here are some pics to show why I was really there.