Ian.2

Rachel left for home today.  For the first time in a very, very long time I am on my own.  For the next six months.  Gonna miss the wife but looking forward to being the lone wolf for a while.

Ian.1

At the best shawarma place I have ever eaten at after a speakeasy where apparently after four gin and tonics you get a free shot of tequila.
Life ain't bad some days.  Going back to the hotel to climb three flights of stairs to watch Johnny Depp play Dillinger with my sexy wife.

Granada 2

Today we saw the Alhambra, and in spite of a ticket fuckup that forced us to walk the length of the place (big place) it was AWESOME. Got my souvenirs, had a tasty sandwich, milkshake, and more delicious cocktails at the Bronx Speakeasy cocktail bar. Looking foward to convincing the man at the shawarma place to put spicy sauce on my patatas and watch a gangster movie in the hotel room.

Btw, we had to book an xtra, more expensive room last minute, because the eurail people couldn't  figure out that they couldn't book the night train from Barcelona to Granada on Friday because it Doesn't Run! on Fridays, so xtra night at the hotel. But because they accidentally overbooked that night, and had us go round the corner to their sister hotel, they let us keep the bigger room for the rest of the booking so we didn't have to move. Room was 117$ the first night, and 38$ the rest of the nights. Thanks world. 😊

I leave you with photos.

Granada

Beautiful city. But first post from here is in honor of the fabulous cocktail bar themed for a speak easy. Ian had a gin and tonic followed by a mango mojito, and I had a fantastic Tom Collins, followed by a gin and tonic made with orange peel and Angelica tonic. Soooo awesome. Man was an artist.

Barcelona

I wrote a post about Barcelona, but Blogger and the sad WiFi in our hotels didn't want to cooperate, so here it goes again.

Questionable burgers, plentiful cheap beer, man with a Cyr Wheel, small aquarium for all the hype, but they had a baby jelly tank, so it was all good.

The wings from dominoes have no sauce, the Mc Donalds did not have spicy mustard, I did not give either my business, but thought people should know.

Lovely sushi at a place called Temaki-Ya, went back a second time it was so nice.

Drank a bottle of wine in the 'common area' of our budget hotel, which was also a student residence, before a man with a name tag came out and told us no liquor or wine in the common areas because there were minors. Beer was ok though, in fact they sold it in the cafeteria with the sodas. I had to try pretty hard not to laugh, because we had been down there for about 3 hours, not being sneaky at all, as I did not have a glass and did not know there was a rule against it.

Navigated home at via the Torre Agbar,  which I have dubbed the Space Penis, due to its evening time appearance. Will add picture later.

Avignon

Avignon is a small medieval town, down to the stone walls and castle. Oddly enough, on the weekends it seems to turn into a mall. The main drag is littered with boutiques, I guess because there are lots of tourists coming through. The man at the desk in our hotel seemed genuinely surprised thet we were staying for 5 days.

There are a small collection of cute shops full of lavender and lavender soaps and oils and ice cream. I guess it all comes from Provance. The ice cream was fantastic. I did buy some cheap tubes of spices to take home, still pondering the lavender.. Pretty sure i could find a use for that much...

In a continuing trend Ian and I have persisted in eating a fair amount of asian food, or "Chinoise", which is acually mostly Vietnamese with some Thai mixed in. Curry's are not as sweet as in Amsterdam, but if it says 'spicy' on the menu don't have super high expectations. My body is apparently confused by me trying to live off of sweets and bread and cheese, so some vitamins were in order. There is a nice sushi place in the centre of town called Naka, and I slurped down a plate of the most beautiful salmon sashimi I have ever had. Ian has also taken to clearing his plate, partly because , 'can you box up my leftovers,' is not really a thing here.  At the little vietnamese place by us we got shots of sake as an aperitif, and they had marbles in the base with pics of naked people under them that you could only see when the cup was full. I will try to post a pic, we will see if blogger takes it down. :)

Lyon/Mirebel

Miribel is tiny, but our room looked out over the Rhone Valley, and it was beautiful. At night Lyon sparkles across the entire horizon like a pile of pirate treasure, glinting off the river. The mist in the morning makes everything look like a fairy tale. A fluffy cat made friends with us.
In my continuous battle with the tenacious mosquito, I have to say that the 1 in Paris who got me like 6 times in one night was way more badass then the ones in Miribel, as I was able to wander around each night before bed and get all the ones we had let in leaving the doors open, and aquired not a single new bite. Ian keeps making fun of me, but I don't care. I shall be victorous!
I ate a merengue cookie the size of my face, and have really settled into the French way of breakfasting with a croissant and hot drink. Maybe with honey.
We went to the beautiful park there and a funny bunch of harmless bee/fly like critters decided my hula hoop was a flower. :)

Paris part deux

Before we left Paris we went to see Notre Dame Cathedral, which was as beautiful and awe inspiring as I hoped. I stood in the light cast by one of the stained glass windows, lit a candle, gave an offering, and sent up a prayer for my departed loved ones and an easement of the suffering in the world.

I almost spat on the woman behind me who said to her companion "I am not going to light a candle, are you? You know you have to buy the candle right, it's 2 euros, I am not going to pay that". I would like to point out now that getting in was free, and the whole place was very obviously intended to still be a place of worship, there were roped off sections for people who came to pray instead of ogle, and they still hold mass. Way to be a crass American, too cheap to drop less than 5$ U.S. on a historical monument that you already stood in line to see, and then saying it out loud as if it makes you better than the people who would pay it. Do what you're going to do, but keep your stupid mouth shut about it. You are making the rest of us look bad. The 2 euros is an offering to the church and is stated to be voluntary, and I am pretty sure that that is fairly standard practice.

Anyway, stupid people aside, the next day we went to see the exhibition of the Studio Ghibli designs at the Art Ludique museum, and I was an aghast art student all over again, thoroughly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work and dedication that goes into the works and the ingenuity utilized to make the 2 dimensional world of animation come to life. Miyazaki states in a video that he wants to portray the world through the lens of human eyes, which is often fantastic and rarely technically accurate. I wanted to hug his adorable spectacled face through the screen when he said he doesn't like standard perspective lines, because they are boring.

Let's see.. also went to hoop by the Seine, and spotted the Parisian burners doing the same. No fire, but the gentleman with the contact staff had soot smears on his face, and we waved at eachother.

That's all I have for Paris, more updates from Miribel soon.  :)

Paris

French wine is a little vinegary, but halfway through a glass you don't care. Stuff goes right to your head. People at shops in the Latin Quarter expect you to not speak French, bought stuff several times, the only word they and I exchanged was 'merci'. French girls appear to be jealous of my Black Milk fairy paint leggings. I have no other explanation for the occasional not-quite-dirty looks I have gotten. Found accidentally giant park next to hotel, plan to hoop there later. Also plan on getting drunk by the Seine on French wine, and not falling in. Also.. Anniversary dinner tonight shaping up pretty nicely. Just some garlic and a baguette.. Oh yeah... And some more wine. :)

Things to do in Amsterdam

Not get hit by a biker.
Not get hit by a tram.
Eat a stroopwafel, flat waffle cookie with syrup in the middle. Have to set it over your coffee or tea so that the syrup melts.
Drink lots of tea and coffee.
Eat sweets
Look at cool stuff!

Mission accomplished.

Amsterdam

Crowded and busy, Amsterdam smells like fried sweets and flowers. There is cheese everywhere and lots of stairs.

Off we go, into the wild blue.

Ian and I fly out to Amsterdam today, stay tuned for more fun stuff as we embark an our adventure!