Just a note. I seem to have less control with the postings using this app: some photos aren't showing up in the body of the posts, but if you click on them, they open in a new page - so they ARE visible.
Also, the spacing seems to be off, so just read it as is, try to make sense of it, and I will try to fix things when I can borrow Rob's computer.
More later!
(Hey, I really AM doing better this trip!)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, November 18, 2010
On to Leon
11/10
How nice to have a quiet morning when we can sleep in a bit, pack up leisurely, find breakfast, and get on the road. Rob's cold does seem to be worse - he's never sick, so he is not very patient. The Sudafed I brought doesn't seem to be doing the trick, so we made our way to a Farmcia. The lady there didn't understand English or my Spanish for "getting sick," so I did a good mime of coughing and sniffling, all the while pointing at Rob. Her face lit right up, and she came back with some medicine. We were able to communicate the dosage, and got him started on it. (a couple of doses later and he was almost good as new, feeling much better.)
Spain's terrain is quite variable. Just out of Lleida, we passed through lush orchards, lovely green grass, and trees.
Looking back at Lleida heading west.
Soon we entered scrubby desert areas, where it is obvious there is little precipitation, and most of the vegetation was around homes:
Spain is also a world leader in the production of wind energy. In even small villages, there are often wind turbines on the hillsides. One of the companies being considered as a partner in this area by Montana's governor is a Spanish one. We passed a huge wind farm that stretched along the highway for many miles in this dry area.
But then we entered the region, "La Rioja," the wine country. Vinyards stretching as far as the eye can see in all directions. This time of year, of course, the harvest is over, and the vines are going dormant, their leaves turning beautiful colors.
There is an old church just to the right of center in this photo.
Another view of wine country.
We occasionally saw a huge wooden bull way up on the hillside by major roads between cities. The first few we didn't think too much about, but as we saw more we became curious. We learned from our host in Leon that they used to be printed billboards advertising a Spanish wine, "Toro." they became so familiar, that people no longer needed the text to know what was being advertised, so they were painted all black and left standing.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
How nice to have a quiet morning when we can sleep in a bit, pack up leisurely, find breakfast, and get on the road. Rob's cold does seem to be worse - he's never sick, so he is not very patient. The Sudafed I brought doesn't seem to be doing the trick, so we made our way to a Farmcia. The lady there didn't understand English or my Spanish for "getting sick," so I did a good mime of coughing and sniffling, all the while pointing at Rob. Her face lit right up, and she came back with some medicine. We were able to communicate the dosage, and got him started on it. (a couple of doses later and he was almost good as new, feeling much better.)
Spain's terrain is quite variable. Just out of Lleida, we passed through lush orchards, lovely green grass, and trees.
Looking back at Lleida heading west.
Soon we entered scrubby desert areas, where it is obvious there is little precipitation, and most of the vegetation was around homes:
Spain is also a world leader in the production of wind energy. In even small villages, there are often wind turbines on the hillsides. One of the companies being considered as a partner in this area by Montana's governor is a Spanish one. We passed a huge wind farm that stretched along the highway for many miles in this dry area.
But then we entered the region, "La Rioja," the wine country. Vinyards stretching as far as the eye can see in all directions. This time of year, of course, the harvest is over, and the vines are going dormant, their leaves turning beautiful colors.
There is an old church just to the right of center in this photo.
Another view of wine country.
We occasionally saw a huge wooden bull way up on the hillside by major roads between cities. The first few we didn't think too much about, but as we saw more we became curious. We learned from our host in Leon that they used to be printed billboards advertising a Spanish wine, "Toro." they became so familiar, that people no longer needed the text to know what was being advertised, so they were painted all black and left standing.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Continuation
A good night's sleep, a little pampering - I'm ready to go again.
This lovely hotel has only five rooms, and as far as we could tell, we were the only guests last night. Even so, we were treated to a fabulous breakfast of traditional Catalan fare. You would have thought, looking at the spread, that every room was taken: several kinds of traditional sausages, breads, cheeses, fruits - impossible to try everything!
Then Jordi picked us up for another day of travel to see sites of other fires (I did a little birding while the guys looked at fires). We headed into Barcelona in the afternoon. There is a large urban park just outside Barcelona, where many of the city residents go to hike, bike, picnic, etc., in the evenings and on weekends. The Bombers explained to Rob that because of it's popularity and proximity to Barcelona plus the fact that there are few roads in and out, it is a firefighter's nightmare. If a fire starts, they have no way of knowing if there are locals in there, how many there are, or where they might be; and it is a political problem as well, since the local ands regional governments would want it put out NOW.
This is a view down into Barcelona from the National Park.
The Bombers' main office is in Barcelona near one of the Universities. While Rob returned with them to do some work, I got dropped off for a couple of hours of birding on campus. It was a nice afternoon, but apparently the beginning of a new term; lots of people going by, and unlike a class change, the crowd never lessened. Not too many birds to see, but I enjoyed just walking around.
We then returned to Lleida for an evening on our own. We strolled around the shopping district for a while, then found a little cafe for a light dinner. Rob & I are both pretty tired tonight, and Rob seems to be coming down with a cold; so after eating, we headed back to the hotel to pack up and get some sleep. Tomorrow we drive to Leon for the next part of the trip. It's about a five-hour drive, so we don't have to get up and out at first light.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
This lovely hotel has only five rooms, and as far as we could tell, we were the only guests last night. Even so, we were treated to a fabulous breakfast of traditional Catalan fare. You would have thought, looking at the spread, that every room was taken: several kinds of traditional sausages, breads, cheeses, fruits - impossible to try everything!
Then Jordi picked us up for another day of travel to see sites of other fires (I did a little birding while the guys looked at fires). We headed into Barcelona in the afternoon. There is a large urban park just outside Barcelona, where many of the city residents go to hike, bike, picnic, etc., in the evenings and on weekends. The Bombers explained to Rob that because of it's popularity and proximity to Barcelona plus the fact that there are few roads in and out, it is a firefighter's nightmare. If a fire starts, they have no way of knowing if there are locals in there, how many there are, or where they might be; and it is a political problem as well, since the local ands regional governments would want it put out NOW.
This is a view down into Barcelona from the National Park.
The Bombers' main office is in Barcelona near one of the Universities. While Rob returned with them to do some work, I got dropped off for a couple of hours of birding on campus. It was a nice afternoon, but apparently the beginning of a new term; lots of people going by, and unlike a class change, the crowd never lessened. Not too many birds to see, but I enjoyed just walking around.
We then returned to Lleida for an evening on our own. We strolled around the shopping district for a while, then found a little cafe for a light dinner. Rob & I are both pretty tired tonight, and Rob seems to be coming down with a cold; so after eating, we headed back to the hotel to pack up and get some sleep. Tomorrow we drive to Leon for the next part of the trip. It's about a five-hour drive, so we don't have to get up and out at first light.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Already behind :-(
(Just so you know, I've been writing (fairly) faithfully, but have been without Internet in small towns for several days. So am posting the earliest journal entry now, and will put up others another day so as not to overwhelm everyone.)
Our friends and colleagues here threw us right into a frenetic pace, and so I am already several days behind! Let's see if I can catch up a bit.
Lesson learned: just plan to write off the first morning here.
Last year we made plans to meet our hosts at 10:30 for breakfast and a tour of eastern Catalan - and they woke us from a dead sleep with a phone call at 10:30!
This year, awaking me from a deep sleep, Rob asked me if I had changed the time on the iPad yet. I somewhat irritably replied, yes, why?! His reply: well, then it's 11:00 am. Sheesh; I would have been nicer if I'd known it was past 6:30!! Fortunately, the Spanish are pretty laid back, and apparently don't have hard and fast rules for check-out times ...
After finding some breakfast and packing up, we hit the road for the 5-hour drive to Lleida. Apparently, the song is right: the "rain in Spain DOES fall mainly in the plain." A cloudy, cool, drizzly day, but still a pretty drive. Interestingly, much of the geology reminded us of Utah and northern Arizona. We even saw "hoodoo" formations in one spot that were very reminiscent of Bryce Canyon.
Like last year, I am again fascinated by the antiquity and history here; it reminds me that the US is such a young nation! Every town we drive through has beautiful old stone walls and buildings, often carefully and tastefully done over for modern use, an amazing and beautiful marriage of old and new. Most towns are built on a hill with an ancient church crowning the high point.
We arrived in Lleida, checked in, and got ready to meet our friends from last year, Oriol and Jordi. We went to a quiet restaurant where they helped us with the menu and got our tummies happy. The coffee here is amazing, and Rob and I both made the mistake of ordering a cup: it's 11:30? No problem we are so tired nothing will keep us awake. Wrong; we both tossed and turned all night, wide awake.
The guys picked us up the next morning to take Rob on a tour to help him become familiar with the geography, botany, etc., of the Catalan region. Since we would be gone overnight in order for them to show us all they wanted to, I went along as well. Very interesting, and we saw some wonderful scenery way up in the mountains along some typical "forest service" roads.
I was made "Bomber" for a day. The Catalan fire group is known as the Bombers.
A stop for lunch, then an afternoon for Rob to present some of his work at a mini-conference in a small town called Solsonna. One of the guys who lives near had booked us a room a local inn, and I went there to rest a bit (remember that cup of coffee?) while they got down to serious fire stuff.
The inn was an old building on a narrow street in the old part of town; a perfect place for a European visit. I had developed a headache, and when Oriol explained to the inn keeper, he told Oriol not to worry, he would take care of me. Juan, I learned the next day is actually the proprietor. He was an delightful older man, who chuckled politely at my Spanish and wasn't afraid to try to speak a bit of English. Between us we figured things out, and within a few minutes, he appeared at my door with a tray bearing aspirin, water, juice, and pantomimed mixing the powdered aspirin in the water.
But even after a hot bath, nap, and the aspirin, I wasn't feeling all that great, and so told Rob when he got back to give my apologies and enjoy his dinner. But before I could get the door closed, Rob was back: Juan's brother was now working, and had heard the conversation as Rob explained to the others I wasn't feeling like eating much more then fruit and some juice. Next thing Rob knew, he was being handed a tray with apples, kiwi, mandarin oranges, more water, more juice. Needless to say, I felt very pampered.
The doorway just under the flags was the entry for the lovely hotel in Solsonna. Rob & Jordi are loading our suitcases into the car.
Continued tomorrow ...
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Our friends and colleagues here threw us right into a frenetic pace, and so I am already several days behind! Let's see if I can catch up a bit.
Lesson learned: just plan to write off the first morning here.
Last year we made plans to meet our hosts at 10:30 for breakfast and a tour of eastern Catalan - and they woke us from a dead sleep with a phone call at 10:30!
This year, awaking me from a deep sleep, Rob asked me if I had changed the time on the iPad yet. I somewhat irritably replied, yes, why?! His reply: well, then it's 11:00 am. Sheesh; I would have been nicer if I'd known it was past 6:30!! Fortunately, the Spanish are pretty laid back, and apparently don't have hard and fast rules for check-out times ...
After finding some breakfast and packing up, we hit the road for the 5-hour drive to Lleida. Apparently, the song is right: the "rain in Spain DOES fall mainly in the plain." A cloudy, cool, drizzly day, but still a pretty drive. Interestingly, much of the geology reminded us of Utah and northern Arizona. We even saw "hoodoo" formations in one spot that were very reminiscent of Bryce Canyon.
Like last year, I am again fascinated by the antiquity and history here; it reminds me that the US is such a young nation! Every town we drive through has beautiful old stone walls and buildings, often carefully and tastefully done over for modern use, an amazing and beautiful marriage of old and new. Most towns are built on a hill with an ancient church crowning the high point.
We arrived in Lleida, checked in, and got ready to meet our friends from last year, Oriol and Jordi. We went to a quiet restaurant where they helped us with the menu and got our tummies happy. The coffee here is amazing, and Rob and I both made the mistake of ordering a cup: it's 11:30? No problem we are so tired nothing will keep us awake. Wrong; we both tossed and turned all night, wide awake.
The guys picked us up the next morning to take Rob on a tour to help him become familiar with the geography, botany, etc., of the Catalan region. Since we would be gone overnight in order for them to show us all they wanted to, I went along as well. Very interesting, and we saw some wonderful scenery way up in the mountains along some typical "forest service" roads.
I was made "Bomber" for a day. The Catalan fire group is known as the Bombers.
A stop for lunch, then an afternoon for Rob to present some of his work at a mini-conference in a small town called Solsonna. One of the guys who lives near had booked us a room a local inn, and I went there to rest a bit (remember that cup of coffee?) while they got down to serious fire stuff.
The inn was an old building on a narrow street in the old part of town; a perfect place for a European visit. I had developed a headache, and when Oriol explained to the inn keeper, he told Oriol not to worry, he would take care of me. Juan, I learned the next day is actually the proprietor. He was an delightful older man, who chuckled politely at my Spanish and wasn't afraid to try to speak a bit of English. Between us we figured things out, and within a few minutes, he appeared at my door with a tray bearing aspirin, water, juice, and pantomimed mixing the powdered aspirin in the water.
But even after a hot bath, nap, and the aspirin, I wasn't feeling all that great, and so told Rob when he got back to give my apologies and enjoy his dinner. But before I could get the door closed, Rob was back: Juan's brother was now working, and had heard the conversation as Rob explained to the others I wasn't feeling like eating much more then fruit and some juice. Next thing Rob knew, he was being handed a tray with apples, kiwi, mandarin oranges, more water, more juice. Needless to say, I felt very pampered.
The doorway just under the flags was the entry for the lovely hotel in Solsonna. Rob & Jordi are loading our suitcases into the car.
Continued tomorrow ...
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Spain (and Portugal) 2010
Sunday, November 7
(the first thing you need to know is that I am attempting this trip without a computer - just our trusty iPad. I'm already discovering a few disadvantages, such as not having ready access to Photoshop to crop and correct photos, as well as just finding out that the site I use for the blog doesn't play nice with the iPad. However a quick search turned up a blogger app that I hope will work. The second thing is that photos will follow as soon as I figure out how to use this new app better!)
About 10 months ago, Rob submitted a paper for review to a scientific conference to be held in Portugal. It was accepted. And when his friends from the fire group in Catalonia, Spain, learned he was coming, they wanted him to visit them for an exchange of information and ideas again this year. Thus began the long, arduous process of planning, plus obtaining official permission from our government. It all finally came together, and so here we are again.
We arrived at Madrid International airport about 8:15 yesterday morning - right on time, but with very little sleep. Managed to pick up the natal car with very little hassle, get it started (once Rob figured out it was manual and needed the clutch all the way in), and made our way out of the city without incident.
Let the adventures begin!
The next reasonably-sized town was Guadalajara, and there we made our first stop. We wanted to get a 3G plan for the iPad, so that we could check email, have access to online maps, etc. We found what was essentially a Best Buy on steroids and were able to communicate what we wanted - but the phone companies that could have helped us said we needed to go to one of their main stores, not a kiosk.
We wound our way on backroads toward Lleida, where we needed to be by Sunday evening, trying to find a place to stay for the night. The map from Avis, unlike those from most rental car companies, was quite good, but even so we have no idea where we actually were: we just kept the sun to our right and slightly behind us.
We landed in a small town, Molina de Aragon, about 3:00 pm. After trying to get some info from the tourist office (closed since it was Sat.), we decided on an old hotel near the main street, Hotel San Francisco. After much-needed showers and fresh clothes, we headed out to find some dinner. We were both pretty tired, so opted for the cafe at the hotel, decided on a light meal, and headed back across the street to our room - only to find that we couldn't get our key to open the outer door!
This photo is for son, Connor. His favorite Mexican restaurant in Portland is called Trebol, and even has a similar logo. We stumbled on this shop on a small side street in Molina de Aragon.
So the good news here is threefold: we are in a small town where no one we talked to speaks English, but we were still able to book a room, order dinner AND get help with the key - all without anyone giving up on or laughing at us!
I'd definitely call that a successful first day back in Spain.
Muchas gracias, Senora Johnson. You'd have been proud of me, and I will miss visiting with you on future trips to NC.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
(the first thing you need to know is that I am attempting this trip without a computer - just our trusty iPad. I'm already discovering a few disadvantages, such as not having ready access to Photoshop to crop and correct photos, as well as just finding out that the site I use for the blog doesn't play nice with the iPad. However a quick search turned up a blogger app that I hope will work. The second thing is that photos will follow as soon as I figure out how to use this new app better!)
About 10 months ago, Rob submitted a paper for review to a scientific conference to be held in Portugal. It was accepted. And when his friends from the fire group in Catalonia, Spain, learned he was coming, they wanted him to visit them for an exchange of information and ideas again this year. Thus began the long, arduous process of planning, plus obtaining official permission from our government. It all finally came together, and so here we are again.
We arrived at Madrid International airport about 8:15 yesterday morning - right on time, but with very little sleep. Managed to pick up the natal car with very little hassle, get it started (once Rob figured out it was manual and needed the clutch all the way in), and made our way out of the city without incident.
Let the adventures begin!
The next reasonably-sized town was Guadalajara, and there we made our first stop. We wanted to get a 3G plan for the iPad, so that we could check email, have access to online maps, etc. We found what was essentially a Best Buy on steroids and were able to communicate what we wanted - but the phone companies that could have helped us said we needed to go to one of their main stores, not a kiosk.
We wound our way on backroads toward Lleida, where we needed to be by Sunday evening, trying to find a place to stay for the night. The map from Avis, unlike those from most rental car companies, was quite good, but even so we have no idea where we actually were: we just kept the sun to our right and slightly behind us.
We landed in a small town, Molina de Aragon, about 3:00 pm. After trying to get some info from the tourist office (closed since it was Sat.), we decided on an old hotel near the main street, Hotel San Francisco. After much-needed showers and fresh clothes, we headed out to find some dinner. We were both pretty tired, so opted for the cafe at the hotel, decided on a light meal, and headed back across the street to our room - only to find that we couldn't get our key to open the outer door!
This photo is for son, Connor. His favorite Mexican restaurant in Portland is called Trebol, and even has a similar logo. We stumbled on this shop on a small side street in Molina de Aragon.
So the good news here is threefold: we are in a small town where no one we talked to speaks English, but we were still able to book a room, order dinner AND get help with the key - all without anyone giving up on or laughing at us!
I'd definitely call that a successful first day back in Spain.
Muchas gracias, Senora Johnson. You'd have been proud of me, and I will miss visiting with you on future trips to NC.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Finally, the continuation …
As the days passed, I decided I shouldn't be wasting any of our too-short time in Spain on the computer when I could be out exploring and enjoying Spain. Of course, the plan was to finish it upon our return … but then it was Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then … and suddenly I find it the last day of January and the blog is still stuck in mid-November. So I'll return to Spain in my memories, and add some of them to the blog.Monday morning was scheduled for a hike along the Wall which has surrounded Girona since the time of Charlemagne and the early Middle Ages as a defense from invaders approaching from the sea. It has been restored and is now open to the public as a walkway that provides some amazing views of the city and, on clear days, the Pyrenees Mountains off in the distance. We lucked out with a gorgeous day; I entertained myself with taking photos, while the guys discussed (what else?) fire.
I wasn't entirely ignored by the guys; Rob stopped talking shop long enough to take this photo overlooking the Old City.
A view over the newer part of the city with its skyscrapers and modern architecture.
Part of the restoration included railings for safety, which, in my opinion, didn't really fit with the wall. But in the background can be seen a large section of the original wall. Parts of the walk can be quite strenuous as testified to by the angle of the steps.
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