The Things You Learn

It's amazing how quickly the time goes by when you get back to real life - it's been three weeks already since I returned from my trip!  I've had a chance to think about everything and realize some of my mistakes, so I thought I would make a few comments as a guideline for next time, whenever that might be.
 

Things I did wrong:
 

1.  Losing things.  I didn't end up losing anything that didn't find its way back to me, but I easily could have.  And if truth be told, I deserved it.  I resolve to be more attentive to my stuff on future trips.
 

2.  Buying ScotRail tickets ahead.  I really did need to buy the Virgin Trains ticket ahead to get the discount on the train from London to Balloch.  But the train from Balloch to Prestwick Airport was just a regular, anytime ScotRail ticket.  I didn't save anything and I spent extra to have it mailed to me, when I could have just paid on the day without a problem.  I can't really blame myself for that, totally, since I didn't have a clue at the time.  I just wanted the tickets in my hand.  But I will know better next time.
 

3.  Not having a phone when traveling with others.  I realized that I had made a mistake when I told Lisa when to expect me in Balloch, and I had no way to let her know, so they had to wait an extra 30 minutes or so for me at the train station.  It also could have been a problem when I went to fetch my camera.  We will see what the technology fairy has come up with by my next trip before deciding how to resolve that one.
 

4.  Taking the wrong shoes.  I wore slip-on shoes for the plane, thinking I could also wear them with the long pants that I had with me.  That was true, but I only wore those pants two days.  On the other days I wore capris or shorts, which only went with the sandals, and the slip-ons stayed in the suitcase until my homeward flight.  What I should have done was wear athletic shoes on the plane, and with the long pants.  Then I could have had them to wear with shorts or capris, and for doing things like hiking down to the river.  The sandals were great, but I really should have had shoes I could have alternated with them.
 

Things I learned:
 

1.  Fried calamari isn't completely terrible.  It isn't squeaky or chewy.  I wouldn't order it in a restaurant, but if someone served it to me I could eat it and not gag.  That's the best I can do right now.  :-)  I also ate eggplant and zucchini, both steamed and grilled, and they were actually OK.  I had several other things that I really loved (cod with tomatoes and onions, manchego cheese, gazpacho, Aquarius) that were new to me.  Ooh, and lemon sorbet with cava!  Sort of like the punch that you make with sherbet and 7-up, only with sorbet and cava (Spanish "champagne").
 

2.  If you plead complete ignorance and ask, people are willing to help you.  They even help you when you don't know you need it, like the guy who followed us with my gps in his hand.  I asked a lot of questions, and had a lot of random conversations with strangers (including a strange man in Balloch who followed me across the street with his dog to tell me that the shop I had just come out of had thrown him out the day before for telling their customers that they were overcharging - pretty sure that's not the only reason they threw him out).  Everyone I met was great - and you learn a lot if you stay open to random conversations.
 

3.  Sauchiehall St in Glasgow is pronounced "sucky hall".  Heh.

4.  I was an idiot to have waited so long to get my new knee.  Every day I walked somewhere or did something that would have been impossible last year - hiking down to the river at Gredos, walking miles of streets and up hills in Glasgow, going up and down stairs in my hotel room, walking, walking, walking.  Not entirely without pain, but a couple of ibuprofen took care of it, and I never needed anything more.
 

4.  Next time I should take a jar of peanut butter.  It could come in handy for lunch or dinner, and most of the Spaniards have never tasted it, though several of them expressed an interest in it.  In general, I need to think about "local" things I could take to share.
 

5.  The automated immigration system at O'Hare is a new pilot program, being tested only at O'Hare right now (though they have it in some other parts of the world, I hear).  Very fast and easy!
 

7.  You can buy lots of things over the counter at the pharmacy, both in the UK and Spain, that you would need a prescription for in the US.  Just sayin'.

USA, USA!

I caught the 7:50 bus outside my hotel this morning for the 4 minute ride to Heathrow, and then I got on the Heathrow Express to T3 for my flight.  We sat on the train for a couple of minutes then they told us all to get off and go to a different platform.  Even with that tiny glitch, I was in line at the bag drop by 8:30.

Security was , um, very thorough.  My knee beeped, so I had to take off my shoes and be patted down.  Then I was wanded.  Then they asked me to put one foot up on a box and they wanded that leg, then the other (which beeped).  I asked, sort of joking, if she wanted to see my scar, and she said yes.  So I hiked up my pant leg and showed her.  The only other place I was patted down was in Glasgow.  I was sitting in the departure area by 9:10 for 9:45 boarding.  Perfect timing.

I have to say, Virgin Atlantic is great.  We had on-demand touch screen entertainment, and in addition to lunch and "tea", they came around and gave us ice cream bars!

We got into O'Hare a few minutes early. They now have an automated passport check where you feed your passport into the machine, it copies it, asks you all of the questions on the customs form, and then takes your picture and prints you a receipt.  Then you turn in the receipt after you get your bag.  They first sent us to the wrong carousel, and I got a little concerned when my bag never arrived.  Then the next one over started up, and everyone moved over.  I think mine was the next to last bag to come off the belt.

I thought I could catch the 3:00 bus, but it turns out that their schedule has changed, and it doesn't come til 5:25.  So here I sit.  But given the complexity of some of my travel, and the good breaks I got along the way, I can't really complain.

Last Stop

It was a beautiful, breezy morning in Madrid.  The museums don't open early (well, not much does in Spain, really) so I went around the corner to VIPS to pick up some sliced strawberries, and then stepped next door to [hanging my head in shame] Starbucks for a cafe mocca.  I sat at Starbucks' outside tables and enjoyed my breakfast, then went looking for culture.  Just as I walked away from my table, though, I ran into Kathryn from Vaughantown!  She said she, too, was waiting for the museums to open, but was going a different direction (I ran into her again at the Thyssen).

Because it was closer and smaller and cheaper, I opted for the Thyssen-Bournemisza instead of the Prado.  Part of the reason was that in just 90 minutes or so, I really couldn't do justice to the Prado's vast collection.  And in all honesty, I just can't sustain interest in paintings for that long.  I much prefer sculpture and jewelry and furniture.  I probably don't try hard enough to appreciate paintings (though there are some that I really love, and I appreciate the talent that it takes to paint), which is why a museum like Kelvingrove appeals to me so much.  In addition to paintings, you have your stuffed elephants and your antique cars and your crystal, and strange heads hanging from the ceiling.  That's my kind of museum!   I got done early enough that I had time for a quick shower and cooldown before checking out and walking down to Cibeles for the airport bus.

                                        You can just see the tables in front of Starbucks to the left.

The plane got in about 10 minutes early to Gatwick, there was no line at immigration, and by the time I got my bag and made my way to the bus area, it was 5:30.  I stopped into the ticket office to see if I could get an earlier bus if there was one (my ticket was for 6:50), and there was - 5:40!  I asked the woman in the bus area about how many stops it made, and she listed T5 as the next to last stop.  I asked if I could maybe get off there instead of the central bus station (so I wouldn't have to backtrack by shuttle to T5 - remember my ticket issue when I booked the hotel?).  She told me to ask the driver, and he said sure!  Woohoo! One less step in the process.

                                                       

Adios and Goodbye

Sorry about having no pictures yesterday.  The wifi signal and/or my netbook were not cooperating.  They have now been added, if you look back.

 

It is a little late, I know, to say much about the Spaniards, since this is our last day, but I will give a quick rundown.  We have two Oscars (Oscar and Oscar G) and two Javiers (Javier and Francisco Javier), Jose from Argentina, Paula from Portugal, Ana, Elena, Pedro, Pilar, Begoña, Victor, Teresa, and Miriam..  There are a couple of them with not a great deal of English, but they have improved so much this week.  They are all natural comedians and a lot of fun to talk to.  Yesterday, in advance of the presentations, a couple of the guys shaved, when they had not been doing so all week. They looked so different that I hardly recognized them.

 

They are mostly somewhere in their 20's-30's, though some are older. Many of them work for US companies or others that do international business, or they work in the information technology field.  Besides the previously mentioned surgeon, there is also a school psychologist, and a civil engineer,  One is the European brand manager for Centrum vitamins, and two others work for drug companies.  And one works for everyone's favorite Spanish beer, Mahou, though he says he can't get anyone discounts.

 

 

There is really no way to describe how such an exhausting week could be so fun, but it was.  The certificate ceremony just before lunch was a chance to say some last words to everyone, and Oscar G summed it up pretty well when he said, "In the future, I might forget my English, but I will never forget you."  There were tears, and hugs, and kisses, Facebook friend requests and business cards exchanged, and a group photo taken.  Then a last lunch together (except for a few who had come in their own cars and didn't stay for lunch).

 

Now I am back at the Westin Palace in Madrid in a fabulous room overlooking the Neptune Fountain.  Tomorrow I plan to go get a little culture at the Prado Museum, then head to the airport for my flight to London.  Just two more sleeps and my trip will be over.

 

 

 

Next to Last

Today was a very long day.
All of the Spaniards were doing their 10 minute presentations and were nervous, using every last minute to practice with their one-to-one partners or still trying, last minute, to come up with something to talk about.  I had a total of five one-to-ones, and was part of the audience for one set of presentations.

At siesta, I went for one last swim in the fabulous pool, empty except for Katy and me.

                                                                   The perfect pool.

Two more one-to-ones, then a short group activity where we learned a dance that Australian kids do in high school, the nutbush.  It's sort of a line dance at a fast tempo that left most of us gasping for breath, but it was fun.

Dinner ran long tonight, and soon there will be music and dancing up at the little building.  We check out early in the morning, have two more one-to-ones followed by lunch, then the trip back to Madrid.

                             The dining room - note the blue Anglo chairs and the tan Spaniard chairs.

I am ready to head home.  I'm ready to wear clothes that were not washed in the sink, and get a cold (really cold) Diet Coke out of the fridge whenever I want.  I am ready to sleep in a little, go back to the gym, work on my pictures, and digest all of the great experiences I have had this trip.  I am very grateful to Sue and Igor for being great to travel with, to Lisa and Donna for being great hosts, to Jaime and Adrian for being wonderful tour guides, and to all of the Anglos and Spaniards of Vaughantown.  But it's time to go home.

Scavenging and Trekking

This has been a very eventful day.
Actually, it began last night with dinner.  Yesterday there was a big influx of regular tourists arriving, and the hotel is suddenly a bit crowded.  We are a big group of 34 people, and that many people have difficulty being very quiet when we are in a small room, and the conversation (and the wine) is flowing.  We were just laughing, having a good time, when the MC went upstairs to the lobby for something, and was cornered by a Spanish tourist who screamed at him about us being so noisy when he had paid a lot of money to stay here and have dinner, etc.  Daryl told him that we were just having fun and he couldn't stop it, but we did try to keep it down a little after that.

Last night was the queimada ceremony (see last year's blog for an explanation).  We had a bit of a party in the little classroom building afterward, and I left about 11:30, but there were those who, I hear, stayed until 2:30 and later. 

My losing streak has reached a new high (or low).  Last night before dinner, I left my cellphone in the lobby (but got it right back), and THEN.... I lost my electricity!  At about 4:00 a.m. I woke up and needed some decongestant from my daybag that was downstairs.  I flipped on the light for the stairs, and the second one's bulb blew, taking with it every light in my little house.  The lobby is open all night, but though I could probably have gone there to get some help, I didn't really need them coming over to fix it at that hour, so I just used my phone for enough light to get down the stairs and back, and went back to bed.

This morning, the whole lot of us walked into town to do a photo scavenger hunt.  In the  little town there is a castle, an old prison, a Roman bridge, and some other places that we had to photograph, along with our group with a display of Barco Beans (white beans that the area is famous for) and some other things.  We ran all over Barco getting our pictures, then had a drink in the square before heading back.  We had a couple of one-to-ones, then lunch.

My team, Angela (Anglo), Victor (Spaniard), and Julio (Spaniard) at the hotel gate, on the way to town.


Then during siesta, when I would normally be swimming, Craig (an Anglo from Michigan) and I walked down to the river (about an hour's trip all together).  We were actually in search of a geocache that had just been published the other day and has not been found yet, but we were in the whole wrong area.  Still it was worth going just for the view.

We had another telephone session, then a couple more one-to-ones, then a hilarious entertainment hour (I was in a skit last night).  Now it is past dinner time, and though I know I said I would tell you about the Spaniards today, there just isn't time right now.  We have reached that stage of the week, though, where we are starting to eat off of each other's plates and make fun of each other without risk of anyone being offended.  One of the Anglos is teaching them all kinds of slang, and barely an hour goes by without a Spaniard telling me "See you later, alligator" to see if I will respond "After while, crocodile".  I also had an interesting conversation today with one of the Spaniards who is a maxillofacial surgeon.  We talked at great length about Kym's surgeries and he was interested to know what kind of outcome she had right away, and he explained the facial sweating.

Last full day at Vaughantown tomorrow (already!).

Hanging Around the Hacienda

Last night after dinner we had a trivia contest in the lounge.  My team was dismal in the first section (general knowledge), quite a lot better in geography, and then really brought up our score on a picture identification section that included identifying various sports trophies, shapes of countries, and paintings and sculptures (we could identify either the artist or the name of the work).  In the end, two teams had a score of 25 and two had a score of 24.  I was in one of the 24 teams, but we were pretty proud of that considering we had a score of 3 at the end of the first section.

This is the main hotel, the center of most activities and all meals.  It was an old hacienda in a former life, with the family living upstairs, and the animals being kept downstairs.

The hotel contains the lounge and bar, and dining room.  There is also another small building up the hill where some of the activities take place (mainly the noisy ones where we might alarm the other guests).  Yesterday all of the Anglos had to give a two minute presentation on where I live and why my town is really, really cool and better than your town.  The Spaniards will do something similar this afternoon - and then the skits begin.  I am set to be in a skit tonight, but I won't know what it involves until later this afternoon.

The schedule is a little more relaxed today.  After lunch and siesta, I have a group activity where we are just the audience, a rehearsal, free time, then entertainment.  During siesta, we think Jose will join our little swimming group (yesterday it was Katy from England, Begona from Spain, and me).  We don't want it to get too popular because we don't want to share the lanes.  :-)

Some are pushing to have another trivia night after dinner (only with easier questions), but last night's went till nearly midnight.  It didn't start, though, until 10:30 because dinner doesn't finish until 10:00.  I know it sounds late, but the whole day runs late, so it isn't hard to get used to.  As it was last year, meals are at tables for four, with two Anglos and two Spaniards.  It is easier here because there are blue chairs and tan chairs in the dining room, and the Anglos get the blue ones.  So if you walk up to a table and both blue chairs are occupied, you have to find another table.

Breakfast   9:00

One-to-ones, telephone calls, rehearsals, etc. 10:00, 11:00 12:00, 1:00

Lunch   2:00

Siesta/free time  3:00-5:00

Group  5:00

One-to-ones, telephone calls, etc. 6:00, 7:00

Entertainment   8:00

Dinner   9:00

At lunch we had something that was billed as "rice casserole with meat and fish".  What arrived looked more like chicken broth with rice and loads of small sea creatures - tiny crabs, shrimp (unpeeled), prawns, tiny lobster claws - as well as chunks of fish, chicken, and chorizo.  We all just picked around the sea life and ate the rice.  It was funny that even the Spaniards didn't quite know what to do with our little fishy friends.  It turned out that they weren't really meant to be eaten, they were for flavor and looks, mainly.  There was hardly any meat on them (or so I am told).

Tomorrow we will take a group walk (with one-to-ones along the way) into "town", which will take about 30 minutes, they say, so we can see the town and do any necessary shopping.  I am not involved in any conference calls, but those are going on today and tomorrow.  The Spaniards are beginning to work on their presentations that they will give on Thursday, too.  There are still a handful of Spaniards that I haven't spoken with yet (I have now done 11 one-to-ones), but everyone gets to everyone by the end of the week (I have four left).  Things are falling into a little routine now, and I have learned a lot about them and their lives.  One of the Australian girls was a little freaked out last night because she accidentally said "hola" in front of the Master of Ceremonies, and she is afraid she won't get asked back.  There is no Spanish allowed by anyone, but lots of people, including me, have slipped up a time or two.  The other Anglos that I didn't mention yesterday are two women from England, a woman from Tucson, AZ who is originally from Trinidad & Tobago, and me.  Tomorrow I will tell you a little about the Spaniards in the group.

My little barn away from home.  Mine is the closest one.  The single upstairs window is the bathroom, and the triple window is the bedroom.



Life in the Barn

I was going to go swim this morning at 7:30, but I didn't sleep well at all so I skipped it.  The director had arranged for the hotel to open the pool at 7:00.  At breakfast, it turned out that no one who had said they were going to swim this morning actually went (including the director) because we all slept badly.  I plan to go over during siesta, right after lunch (which is in about 30 minutes).  I had three one-to-ones this morning (I'm not exactly sure when you would use the phrase "to go off on" in a business setting, but I suppose anything is possible).  On my first one-to-one almost everyone decided to walk down the road, since it was still cool.  Now it is not.  The sun is intense here, so I practically bathed in sunscreen this morning.

My losing streak continues, as I was the first one to lose their room key (it dropped out of my pocket while I was sitting talking), so now I have taken to keeping it in my nametag holder.  That requires me to disassemble it whenever I need to go to my room, but I suppose that's the price I have to pay (idiom!). 

My bedroom

My room is in a former barn, and the walls are thick stone.  The other building of rooms is different, with a little balcony up underneath the overhanging roof.  The balcony has a skylight, but other than that, there is no light into the room.  Strange.





My little sitting room,  Practically useless, since I don't watch TV and I don't have wifi in the room.

They told us that they usually don't put Vaughantown people in these rooms, but the hotel is full of other guests.  I wonder what they make of us, sitting or walking around in pairs, talking, wearing blue lanyards and nametags!

This afternoon there will be two telephone sessions, a group activity, and some "entertainment".  Everyone is beginning to relax a little and get to know each other.  The Spaniards that I have met so far have mostly had really good English, so it is easy to talk to them.  One or two, not so much, though they have to pass an interview to be allowed to come.  The Anglos are a mixed bunch.  There are two Californians, a US expat living in Portugal, a US expat living in Spain, an Egyptian, an Italian (who turns out to actually be working for Vaughan as a classroom teacher), a couple of Australians, a guy from Scotland, a woman from Ireland, a guy from N Ireland who now lives in England, and a couple of others that I can't remember just now.  One of our group (one of the expats) is a guy who comes from a banking family in the States, but who never held a job (he says) until he "retired" to Spain (he is probably my age).  He now teaches English on the internet and telephone.  Judging from the way he is, I would guess that his family gave him money to just go away.  One of the Spaniards described him as "special" in that way that means a little on the cray cray side.  I would actually say he was a LOT "special".

 Off to swim now (siesta)!



Greetings from Gredos

I am now in Gredos.  We left Madrid at 8:45 and arrived here at about 12:30.  We had one break on the drive, a stop just outside the walled city of Avila.  I was under the understanding that we were actually going to the town, but no.  I was also under the understanding that we would have wifi in the rooms, too, but no - at least not in mine.  So I am stuck with coming to the lobby to post, but it's not a huge problem, since my building is right behind the main one, where the wifi actually lives. Tomorrow I will do my posting during siesta.  I am really tired, so this will be short.

 

                                                                       Avila

 

When we first got here, we had a little introductory exercise, then lunch, and then we were assigned our rooms. Mine is actually sort of a little townhouse, with a sitting room and TV and fridge downstairs, and bedroom and bathroom upstairs. Instead of blinds or curtains, the windows are covered with wooden doors which latch. The bathroom has double sinks and a huge tub with.... jacuzzi!! (I am definitely looking forward to that later on.) There would have been no way I could have managed in a room like this last year! 

  

We have already had four hours of one-to-one conversations, then dinner.  The number of Anglos and Spaniards is even this week, so I won't have nearly as much (if any) free time as I did last year.  Echh.... I am tired of talking and can't really even think any more today.  And that jacuzzi is calling my name.......

  

Royalty and Deity

This morning, on purpose, I slept in until 9:00.  It is the only chance I have had or will have until I am home again, so I thought I might as well take advantage of this fabulous bed!  Even so, there were relatively few people on the street when I went next door and picked up some fruit for breakfast.  The street weirdos were just putting on their makeup and getting set for the day, Puerta del Sol was pretty empty, and it wasn't yet very hot (even now, at 3:00 pm it is only 87 degrees).

I do wish the other guy had not walked up just as I was taking this picture, or you could see it better.  At first, I thought the bottom guy was fake, but he was not, and neither was the top guy.


The walk down from Sol to the palace was nice, and I had not realized how close it actually was.  I wanted to see the Almudena Cathedral first, but as I took a couple of pictures, the line at the palace entrance kept getting longer and longer, so I thought I had better see that first.  No pictures were allowed inside.  The past royals must have been big believers in Better Living Through Chemistry, judging by the number of whole rooms of medicine jars and boxes and drawers, not to mention the distillery for making medicines!

My favorite room was the porcelain room, with every surface covered in porcelain, fitted together perfectly, with the vines and leaves covering any joints, so that it looks like you are inside one whole piece.  I also liked the royal chapel, with its gold ceiling, and the king's dressing room, where, in place of a fresco on the ceiling, there were 3-dimensional flowers and vines (hard to describe).  The throne room, I have to say, looks better on the postcards than in real life.  I also loved seeing the four Stradivarius instruments in the Stradivarius room (two violins, a viola, and a violoncello - not sure about that spelling).



                             Royal palace, from the balcony of the Almudena Cathedral.

I almost forgot to go see the armory, but I am so glad I remembered!  I think I was expecting rooms of swords and guns, and there were some, but what it mostly was was armor for both people and horses.  Monty Python's Black Knight came instantly to mind when I saw one helmet that looked pretty much like a bucket, with really no visible slits to see out of (surely there must have been some way to see out of it).  There was no photography allowed, but I might have maybe accidentally turned on my camera and bumped the shutter button once.  The horse armor was really impressive.  How did they not die of heat stroke?  How did they even manage to fight after spending all that time putting on all the pieces,  and weighing down their poor horses with even more armor?  You would think they would get halfway through and just decide to give it up and go take a nap.

They also had a display of children's armor.  Did they send them out to fight, or was it just for ceremonial purposes and royal portraits?  I kept picturing a room of used armor being swapped around by parents whose kids have outgrown last year's helmet and breastplate, and need new ones.

Next up, Almudena.  A lot of the museum history was lost on me, since the displays were all in Spanish, but I enjoyed seeing the different vestments and processional pieces.  Many of the crosses and other things were inlaid with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones.  Pope John Paul II said mass in the cathedral (2011?), when he was in his later years, and they had video of it.  I actually climbed the stairs to the top of the dome, and looked out over Madrid!  The sanctuary of the cathedral itself was not all that interesting. 

Then I headed back toward the hotel, taking a detour to the Plaza Mayor to see what was going on there (most of the weirdos had picked shady spots just outside the plaza instead of  out in the blazing sun).  I got some lunch, then came back to the hotel to cool off, clean up, and get ready for the tapas reception in a little while.  I have just enough time for a shower, but not a nap, which is probably just as well.

UPDATE:  Just back from the reception.  There are two programs this week, Gredos and Valdelavilla.  Marisa and Pete from El Rancho last year are going to Valdelavilla.  The Gredos group gets Julie (from the Pacific NW) and Daryll (from Singapore) as Master of Ceremonies and Director.  Unfortunately, I got to chatting with some people not going to my location, so I didn't meet everyone going to mine.  Ah, well.... I will meet them soon enough (8:45 a.m., in fact).  Unlike before, they aren't just using native English speakers as Anglos this time.  I talked to a guy from Italy, who now lives in Puerto Rico (and whose mother is a Hare Krishna!), and another from Egypt.  I also met Russ from N Ireland, Geoff from Canada, and Kathryn (I think) from England who, in her own words, is "actually quite deaf".  Huh?  That ought to be interesting.

Flying on the Ground

I had a last little bit of time in Barcelona this morning before getting on the train for Madrid, so Jaime, Adrian, and I went see one of two old bullfighting rings.  Bullfighting was outlawed in Catalonia several years ago, and there are only two rings still standing in Barcelona.  The first is used as an outdoor venue for concerts and other events.  The second, the one we visited, has been turned into a multi-level shopping mall.  This particular ring was no longer in use prior to 2004.  The lower seating was overgrown with grass and weeds.  Because they want to retain the historical appearance of old buildings in Barcelona, when they redo a building, they gut it down to its outside shell, then rebuild inside. (We saw an example of this in the Barri Gotic the other day.)  The bullfighting ring, or corrida, was treated the same way.  All that was left of the former building was the Moorish style outer wall.  They built four wedge shaped buildings inside, joined them with ramps and escalators, and added an extra story inside and another on top.  The very top, where there is an observation deck, is a series of restaurants overlooking the city.  The next contains a restaurant as well, and the next has a 12-screen theatre complex.  The remaining floors contain shops, with a glass elevator running through the middle.  There is an interesting display showing how the building looked before restoration (or maybe "re-creation" is a better word), pictures taken throughout the building process, and how it looks today.  The picture below is not my picture, but a photo from that display.  It was really interesting how they did it without damaging any of the outer wall and its tilework during the process.  One amusing thing inside was a store which mainly sells American major league ballcaps, for about twice the price that they are at home.  I found a Chicago Bears cap, but no Chicago Cubs. (I guess they have heard about them in Spain, too.)

Then it was time to say goodbye to Jaime, Adrian, and Barcelona.  By the time I had passed through security (a result of the Madrid train bombing several years ago) and got to the waiting area, I only had a few minutes to wait before boarding was called.  When we lined up, because I had not fully understood the announcement, I asked a guy, in English, "To Madrid?", and he said, "Yes", so I got in line.  A woman came up behind me and asked, "Para Madrid?".  I said, "Si," and she got in line. The guy I asked just stared at me, no doubt wondering why I had asked in English if I understood and answered the other woman in Spanish.

The train was a high speed AVE train, which goes something like 300 kilometers an hour.  It was spacious and quiet, with reclining seats with footrests, huge tray tables, and power ports at every seat, so it would be easy to use laptops, etc., if you were so inclined.  If this is what high speed rail is like, I can hardly wait till the rail through Bloomington-Normal to Chicago is completed!  They handed out earphones and showed a movie, which I didn't watch partly because it was in Spanish, and partly because it was a guy movie with shooting and things blowing up.

 

So now I am in Madrid.  The train station is just a few blocks from the Westin Palace, so I walked.  That seemed like a good idea when I decided to do it, but it was actually close to 100 degrees here today.  After about two blocks it seemed like much less of a good idea, but I took it slowly, stopping repeatedly to catch my breath and drink some of my warm Diet Coke.  Actually, walking along the park, it was shady and really didn't seem that hot.  After taking my bags to my room, I went out for some dinner, thinking I would stop at VIPS and just pick something up to take back to the room.  Instead, feeling very "at-home", I guess, I decided to eat there.  I read the Spanish menu, ordered in Spanish, asked for the bill in Spanish, all without a problem!

Tomorrow I plan to go early to Almudena Cathedral and the Royal Palace, and possibly stop at a geocache or two along the way.  Then at 5:00 is the tapas reception at Vaughantown, where I will meet the other Anglos on this week.  Time for a bath in the world's best tub, then off to bed!  (Now that I know how to properly hang the "do not disturb" sign, I won't get bawled out by the housekeeper, like I did last year when I did it wrong.  I didn't even know it was possible to do it wrong.)





 

Mountain, Sea and Sky

After our late night last night, we started out a bit later today.  We drove to Montserrat to see the monastery there, Montserrat Monastir.  Jaime says they call it the Magic Mountain because it is the only one of its type in the area.  Standing alone, it is nearly bare rock jutting up out of the ground.  The monastery there was heavily damaged during the Spanish Civil War during the 1930's, and has been reconstructed.  And to get there you can either drive, take a train, or do as we did - ride the cable car up! 

 

If you squint really hard, you might be able to make out the monastery at the very top of the mountain on the right.

 

 

The trip up was uneventful, and we walked around taking in the view from various points.  There are lots of little paths you can take to various shrines in the rocks around the monastery itself, but we didn't feel the need to do that.  You can also take another little train down to a sacred cave, or up to the VERY top of the mountain, where you can walk around.  We didn't think we needed to do that, either.

 

When we went into the actual monastery, we noticed a long line of people along the wall.  It ran from way out in the front plaza, through the courtyard, and into the church.  We thought for a minute that we wouldn't be able to get in to see the church, but it turned out that this was a special line.  There is a Virgin of Montserrat that people can climb up to touch and take pictures of, and this line was for that.  I am not really interested in touching virgins, religious or otherwise, so we just went on in to the sanctuary.  We moved toward the front for a moment and sat down.....then a bell rang and everyone stood up.  Umm.... it was either slip out right then or stay for mass.  We departed. 

 

After eating the sandwiches Jaime brought (there is nothing better than ham and cheese on crusty Spanish bread rubbed with tomato), we headed back down on the cable car.  There was a geocache right there at the bridge to where we were parked, and we started down to look for it, but the terrain was a little too much for my foot and knee.  So Jaime and Adrian pressed on, found the cache, and brought it up.  We signed it, dropped some geocoins, and back they went to return it to its proper place.

 

Then we headed back to Barcelona to go to the top of Mont Tibidabo, the highest point in Barcelona.  There is an amusement park at the top, but we were only interested in the view.  And what a view it was!

 

Today was a bank holiday, so most stores and offices were closed.  There was relatively little car traffic or people in the city center, so we drove around to take another look at some things we saw yesterday, then got an early dinner (McDonald's for Adrian, since he had been so good all day).

 

Now it is time to pack up and get ready for part three of my trip - to Madrid tomorrow, then off to Gredos on Sunday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!



Nothing to Lose

Hey, I'm doing better!
All I lost today is an hour (which really wasn't my fault) and part of a toenail (not sure how or when that happened, it just started to hurt and I realized it was torn and bleeding).

Jaime and I had agreed to meet at 8:50 in order to have time to get to the train station and park before catching a 9:20 train into the city.  At 8:30 I left my room and came out into the lobby to find Jaime and Adrian waiting for me.  I thought they were early, but it was me who was late.  Even though my phone managed to make the jump between Central time at home and British time, it failed to do so from Scotland to Spain.  It was actually 9:30, and we had missed the train altogether.

Now I know why they say that August is not the best time to visit Barcelona.
It is hot and crowded everywhere you go - the parks, the streets, the stores, the tourist bus.  And when people are hot and crowded, they get crabby.  Kids cry and are ignored, people push and glare and make snide comments that they don't think you understand about the fact that you are a %^&* tourist.  Never mind the fact that they, themselves, are tourists - or do some people in Barcelona actually take the hop-on hop-off bus to work??

Our plan was to ride the tourist bus around both of the main routes, then get off wherever we wanted to.  What we actually did was take one of the routes as far as Parc Guell (where we hoped to find a cache or two) and then get off.  One thing that irritates me about the Barcelona tourist bus map is that it makes it appear that certain things are on the route when, in fact, they are long walks away from the closest stop.  The walk from the Parc Guell stop was a full 20 minutes, and uphill all the way.

See all of these steps?

And all of these?

                              These were after the long, uphill slog - and there were more.

We found the cache in short order, then looked around a bit at the beautiful mosaics on almost every surface.  Supposedly, the mosaic which covers the back of the sinuous bench around the upper plaza is the longest continuous piece in the world.   We stayed a bit, then made our way back down the stairs and then several blocks back to the bus stop, where we had to wait in line for the next bus.  When we finally got on, it took some time before we could get an upstairs seat, where the breeze made it bearable (downstairs in a closed bus is not fun).  When we finished riding that route, we stopped for lunch at KFC, then got back in the bus line for the other route.  As we rode around, I began to notice that everything they talked about on the commentary was "the biggest in the world", or "the best", or "the tallest", or "the first" or "the fastest".  Strange coincidence that Barcelona could be home to the finest example of just about anything you can name.  Even the Columbus memorial was "clearly the best" of all Columbus memorials in the world, even though he is pointing in the wrong direction to find the New World.

I was surprised to see just how small the Olympic cauldron is at the top of Montjuic.  Hitting it with the flaming arrow to light it and start the 1992 Games now seems like a much bigger feat than I remember it being then, though I was impressed at the time, too.  The diving venue looked kind of terrifying, built into the side of the mountain.  It was probably the last time that diving will be held outside because the athletes complained about the wind affecting their performance.  I can believe it.

When we finished the second route, we did a bit of shopping, then hopped back on the bus to take us back to the train station to head back.  We both agreed that if you are going to do both routes, it would be better to get the two-day pass so that you have time to see everything you want.  We spent so much time waiting in line, and being on the bus but not being able to see because we were downstairs, and we didn't get off anywhere but Parc Guell (and to change routes).

We got back to my hotel, and I showered, then we went for dinner at Jaime's home in a quiet little town outside of Barcelona, a few miles from my hotel.  Jaime said that his wife was a bit worried about the dinner because she doesn't speak English, so I had to practice my Spanish.  I tried.  And she tried.  And with smiles and sign language, everything was fine.  The uneven number of little cars in the package I gave their two boys was a problem for a minute, until Jaime told them they could each have two, and he would get one (they chose the smallest one, a little backhoe, for him).  The meal was absolutely delicious - tortilla, a tuna salad, jamon and bread, a really wonderful pork dish, and a dessert that was sort of like cheesecake with a cookie crust on top and bottom.  It was very nice of them to invite me, and I had a great time.

 

Mosaics at Parc Guell

Rambling the Ramblas

My connections were all perfect today, but my new career as The Absent Minded Tourist continued.
I easily caught each train, arrived at Prestwick Airport, and promptly left my passport at the desk.  A couple of passengers behind me, and the desk guy called me back for it.  I'm telling you, I need a minder this week!

The Ryanair flight was great.  I was well forward in the line and got a nice window seat near the front.  And we arrived 10 minutes early!  Jaime and Adrian were waiting for me, and we drove down to the harbor to park the car, and walk the Ramblas, the main street running from the harbor to the Plaza Catalunya.  On the way, though, there was a dramatic moment in the car.  Adrian had his first loose tooth, and he managed to pull it by himself!  Raton Perez (a little mouse who is the Spanish "tooth fairy") will be making a stop by his house tonight, for sure. 

Along the Ramblas, we stopped at La Boqueria, a massive food market.  Jaime says it has kind of been touristified (not a real word, probably) with the addition of things like juice stands of all types.  Everything looked so fresh and beautiful..... well, except the icky things, like the squids and such.  I have no doubt that they were fresh, but beautiful?  No.  The weather in Barcelona is not at all like it was in Scotland yesterday - no jackets necessary.  It was H O T.  Tomorrow I will go out dressed a bit more appropriately than the long pants I wore on the plane today.  Actually, it worked out well that I was wearing long pants, because we visited the cathedral, where it is inappropriate to wear shorts.  After the Ramblas, we wandered around in the Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter), and took a lot of pictures.  Eventually, we made our way back to the harbor, and then to the hotel.

We are meeting up in the morning to ride the Barcelona Turistic Bus, and we hope that we won't get rained on.  Even if it does rain, we can still do the bus.  And I have been invited to Jaime's home for dinner tomorrow.  Actually, he said there were no other options, I was coming to dinner.  :-)
After all of the walking we have been doing in the past week, I am ready for a leisurely day of riding around.

Chilis of all kinds at La Boqueria



On the Bonnie, Bonnie Banks

We had an absolutely great day today!
We went down first thing to see when the cruise boat times were, and decided that it would work out best if we went into Glasgow (well, Partick) to see the Riverside Museum, then come back and catch the 3:00 cruise.  The weather changes so quickly here that even though it seemed like it might rain this morning, by afternoon there were brilliant blue skies....oh wait...no, really dark clouds....well, kind of cloudy sunny....sprinkles.  And it was cold....and sunny....well, misting.  That is Scotland weather.

From the Partick train station, it was maybe a 15 minute walk to the museum.   There is a pedestrian bridge across the motorway that looks like it has ship's railings, and the light poles in the middle look like masts.  All along the way, there are inlaid granite blocks laying out a history of the Clyde riverfront and its restoration.  The museum was awarded European Museum of the Year this year, but when we first walked in, I couldn't see why.  But the longer we stayed and the more we explored, there were so many little things that caught our attention that we could see why it got that honor.  It is a transportation museum, and they mean every form of transportation - trolleys, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, ships, skateboards, baby buggies, buses, gliders, camper vans - and shoes.  Of course, since it is in Scotland, the focus is on Scottish inventors and vehicles of all types, so many of them were unfamiliar to me.  In Alexandria the other day, we saw a huge old building with the front of a car on the façade, but we didn't know what it was (right now it's sort of a derelict building with some shops in it, but Lisa says it's not great).  In the museum, Igor spotted a car that was built in Alexandria around the time of Henry Ford.  The front of the car matched the façade of the building we had seen - and there were pictures of the building when the factory was in operation!

The items were all displayed in unique ways - full-size cars on ramps up the walls in one area, and on shelves in another, a velodrome of bicycles spiraling in a circle.  Every area had interactive screens that explained more about the display.  We were all very impressed.  It's very child-friendly, too, right down to low-level toilets and sinks for the little ones, with lots of places to sit and things to climb on.

The building itself is stunning.  It was opened in 2011, and was the design of an Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid.  The roof is a wave-like pattern, and the front and back are dark glass, so they reflect the sky.  On the riverside, they reflect the Tall Ship Glenlee, which is docked there.  You can go aboard the Glenlee to see how the crew lived there, and there was a big crew of little kids swabbing the decks with provided buckets of water and mops.  We had a great time (and we didn't even do any mopping!).

On the way back to the train, I picked up a couple of geocaches right near the museum.  Sue is great about my geocaching, often asking if there are any around where we are.  She says she still doesn't really understand the attraction, but whatever.  Both Sue and Igor like to take their time in museums, which suits me fine, too.

Back at the train station, I got some money from the ATM so we could pay Emma tonight.  As we walked down the hall toward the train platform, a young guy came hurrying after us, saying, "Excuse me, is this yours?"  It was my GPS, which I had left on the floor when I was putting my money into my daybag.  I swear, I need some of those little clips that you hook babies' mittens to their sleeves with, so that everything I own can be attached to me.  Interesting, Igor had just been reading in the paper on the train that 4 out of 10 men in Scotland have a criminal record.  But both times I have left something behind, it has been immediately returned to me.

We got back to Balloch with just enough time to walk down to the water, buy our tickets, hit the restroom, and get on the boat for our cruise on Loch Lomond.

The cruise was really great.  It was really cold out on the front of the boat and the pictures don't do it justice at all, but it was a nice time.  Loch Lomond is about 24 miles long, and is 5 miles at its widest point.  There is an island that has about 50 wallabys living on it, but we didn't see any of them.  That would have been so strange, seeing wild wallabys on an island in Scotland.  We saw one of two famous golf courses there, right on the short of the lake.  Loch Lomond Golf Club is on some list of 50 best courses in the world, and it is really pretty, with a big manor house as its clubhouse.  In general, the old manor houses around the lake have been turned into upmarket condos and apartments, or turned into pricey resorts.

After the cruise, we walked around a path to see if we could find a mall that we had heard existed nearby.  It was, indeed, there, but most of the shops were closing at the time we arrived.  It didn't look like much shopping-wise, anyway, so we don't feel like we missed anything.  We had dinner at the same hotel where Lisa, Donna, and I did the first day I was there, then we headed back to the B&B to reassemble for leaving tomorrow.  Emma made little pancakes for us to take with us, so those are packed and ready.  Everything is sorted back into the correct bags for my flight tomorrow.  I have to be up early, since I have to catch the first train to Partick, then transfer to Glasgow Central to get my train to the airport.  I really enjoyed Scotland and Glasgow.... and in a different way, Emma.

                                                         The beautiful Loch Lomond

Glasgow, Part Two of Maybe Three

Today we set out to see the Kelvingrove Art Gallery for real.  We had a few minutes before the train, so I took a couple of pictures by the water, and one of a speed limit sign (pay attention - this will be important later).  Because we were wanting to get off nearer Kelvingrove, we had to change trains to a different line after a few stops.  Along the way, a man and the cutest little toddler got on the train and we chatted for a minute, then I wrote some notes for myself as we rode.

We got off the train and started to walk toward Kelvingrove, thinking it wasn't all that far.  We had only gone a few blocks and crossed the motorway, when I realized I didn't have my camera.  I checked both pockets of my bag, but nothing.  I tried to remember when I last had it.  Did I bring it at all?  Yep, remember those pictures before the first train?  I was sure I put it in my bag, and no one had been near me (and I was certain it couldn't have been stolen, anyway).  Then I remembered taking it out of the bag to get my notebook.  In chatting with the man and watching the toddler, I forgot to put it back (though I did put back the notebook), and it did not follow me off the train at our changing point.  So back we went to the station to report it.  On the way, I had visions of spending the rest of the afternoon filling out a police report, but I was happy that all of the pictures except those last few were backed up on the computer.

At the station, we determined which train it was, and the woman called to the end of the line.  My camera had been found and turned in, and was waiting in a town on the other side of Glasgow called Motherwell.  Hallelujah!!!   They couldn't just sent it back because the guy there had already done the paperwork, and I needed to sign for it.That station was open later into the evening, so we opted to go on to the museum and let it stay locked up in a cabinet for the rest of the day in Motherwell.

We then hopped on a bus to Kelvingrove.  Good thing we did, too, because it was much farther than we thought.  Kelvingrove is an amazing place.  Part art gallery, part natural history museum, it has famous paintings from all over the world, including Salvador Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross, which was a very controversial purchase for the museum back in the 1950's.  Many people considered it blasphemous, and others thought the money would have been better spent to assist young Scottish artists instead of lining the pockets of some crazy Spaniard.  It has actually been attacked twice.  It is not a crucifixion as is normally depicted, but one from above the cross.  Many people find it deeply moving both because of its realism and its unique perspective.

On the other end of the spectrum is poor Sir Roger the Elephant, who has been at the museum for over 100 years.  He was originally a performing elephant, but when he retired from show business, he lived at the Scottish Zoo in Glasgow.  His keeper would often take him for walks in the country.  Unfortunately, in 1900 he developed "musth", which is when male elephants go into heat, and it can make them very dangerous.  His owner decided that he needed to be put down (no need for the sad details), and after that he was stuffed and put on display in the museum.  For some odd reason, there is a Spitfire airplane hanging from the ceiling just above Sir Roger.

Kelvingrove is also home to a magnificent organ, and on Sunday afternoons they give an organ concert.  We were still there then, so we watched most of it.  While I was expecting something classical and serious, the first piece was a John Philip Sousa march, aaaand then it went rapidly downhill into old Broadway show tunes.  <sigh>   I did find a geocache there near a statue outside the building, though, so that was a plus.  When we were done exploring every corner of Kelvingrove, we got back on the bus and went back to the city center.  Then I set off for Glasgow Central station to take a train to Motherwell to retrieve my camera, while Sue and Igor walked around the city center, and visited the Gallery of Modern Art.

Getting to Motherwell and back took about an hour and a half, partially due to apparent problems with the train.  I was a little uneasy with no way to contact Sue and Igor if something really bad happened, so I need to remedy that before any further trips.  When I got to the station and they got the camera out of the cabinet, I said to it, "What were you thinking?  Going off to Motherwell by yourself when you were supposed to be with me in Glasgow!"  One of the station guys jokingly told me that I had better check to make sure the other station guy hadn't taken any illicit pictures with it.

Back in Glasgow, I met up with Sue and Igor in short order, after a long uphill walk, and we found a great Italian place for dinner, then went back down the hill to get the train back to Balloch.  We are completely pooped.  It's now cold and rainy-ish.  Our plan, particularly if it is raining in the morning, is to go into Glasgow to see the Riverside Museum, a transportation museum which has won all sorts of awards, including European Museum of the Year.  If the weather is good in the afternoon, we will finally take our cruise on Loch Lomond.  Tomorrow was supposed to be the day with the best weather, but we will see.

It's about time to put away the long pants and switch to shorts in Barcelona, where I hear it has been over 90 degrees recently.

Is it just me, or do these guys kind of remind anyone of the ghosts at Disney's Haunted Mansion?  In case you are wondering, because my camera was still in train jail I took pictures today with my phone.

Pipes and Peeps in Glasgow

We were going to go on a cruise on Loch Lomond today, but we had to change plans.  There had been some confusion about where our friend Leonie was coming into (from England) for Lisa's party tonight, and it turned out that she was coming into Glasgow instead of Alexandria (where she was staying, and where the party was).  Lisa was working, so that left Sue and me to meet her.  Igor decided to stay in Balloch and do some hiking and birdwatching and such, and Sue and I went into the city to do some sightseeing before meeting her bus at 2:10 (or maybe 2:30, or whenever National Express got around to arriving).

We wanted to find the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, but got started off in the wrong direction.  We realized we had gone wrong, and headed back the right way, but realized after a bit that even if we did manage to get there today (and that was still iffy), we would have virtually no time to actually see anything before we had to head back.  So we decided to visit the Willow Tea Rooms and have a cappuccino instead.  The Willow Tea Rooms were another Charles Rennie Mackintosh design.

As we walked along, we started hearing bagpipe music and drums from various places.  It turns out that the Piping Live! festival begins tomorrow in Glasgow and runs through next Sunday.  Obviously, pipers are already on the street and practicing.  The actual festival is centered around the National Piping Center and various other points around the city, and most venues are free. We stopped and watched a couple of  groups, then went on our way.  Too bad we didn't know about this in advance, but I am sure we will run into more tomorrow.

After our tea room break, we went up to see the Glasgow School of Art building, designed by (guess who!)  Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  (Glasgow is all about Charles Rennie Mackintosh, in case you haven't guessed).  Glasgow is hilly, and the School of Art is on one of the steepest hills of all.  It was a two-stage process getting up that one. We couldn't see the whole building without taking a tour, and we didn't quite have time because for some silly reason we assumed that Leonie's bus would actually be on time, so we just poked around in the shop for a bit, then headed for the bus station. The bus was late enough that we could easily have done the tour had we known, but whatever.

The party was held in the lounge room of a pub in Alexandria.  There was music and dancing, cake, and a nice little buffet of homemade dishes set up in the pub kitchen.  The room was pretty crowded with friends and family, and we had a great time.  We stayed until just after 11:30, when we had to leave to catch our train back to Balloch. (Emma had retrieved a key from her granddaughter for us, so we could let ourselves in.) 

We had talked earlier about not knowing when breakfast was tomorrow, but I found a note on my pillow that said it would be at 8:30, and Emma even signed it.  (Like, who else would be leaving a note on my pillow saying when breakfast is?)  Interesting, because her house rules say that breakfast will be served no later than 8:00.  But like many of her other rules, now that she likes us, the rules (some of them) no longer exist.  We have actually come to really like her, and are glad we stayed.

The plan now is to finish Glasgow tomorrow, then take the boat tour on Monday, since the best forecast was for that day.  Then on Tuesday, I am off to Barcelona.

Welcome to Scotland, Dearie!

Sue and her husband, Igor, arrived last night at nearly 11:00, after I had had a shower and was ready for bed.  We said quick hellos, but I was really, really tired, so we didn't chat.  At breakfast, Emma made us a HUGE meal, beginning with porridge, small pancakes, fresh strawberries, homemade raspberry jam, and toast.  Then we had our actual breakfast, which for me was scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato and potato scone.  Emma was unhappy that I "ruined" my egg by having it scrambled (that was after she saw my filthy, smelly blouse that I had dropped on the floor with my other filthy, smelly clothes from yesterday, and told me not to put it on the floor - just where was I supposed to put it, then?).  We were less than enchanted with her brusque manner, and actually talked about moving elsewhere after a couple of days, but Igor convinced us that it wouldn't be fair to her because she might have turned away other guests, and it wasn't that bad.  She is 82, and from the highlands, and Lisa says this is just their way.  Anyway, Igor and she got on well right away.  This is not so much a B&B as her actual house.  We eat jammed into her little kitchen, her bedroom is right next to mine, and I have the main bath (Sue and Igor's room has an en suite bath).

Anyway, it took us a little while to get used to her, but as the time goes by she is actually growing on us (though she keeps angling for gifts by showing us what her "regulars" have given her over the years - she's not getting one).  We find her quite funny because she says outrageous things, and follows that with a hug and a cup of tea.  More about her later.

After breakfast we walked down to a ship called The Maid of the Loch, which is currently undergoing restoration, but will be paddling its steamy little self around Loch Lomond again later this year.  We were actually not there to see the ship, but to find a geocache on her dock.  That accomplished, we decided to walk about 20 minutes to where Lisa and Donna live in Alexandria to chat with Lisa and get acquainted with Donna.  Regarding Emma, she was under the mistaken assumption that it was Lisa who had gotten married, and that Donna "would make some man a nice wife one day" because she went into the kitchen and washed the teacups.  Seriously, that's why.  It was actually Lisa and Donna who had gotten married to each other, but we saw no reason to correct her, since we already knew she is deeply Catholic, and did not like "the drink", English people or blacks, so we assumed she had other prejudices as well.

Anyway, Donna's cousin came by to take Lisa to work, so we bummed a ride with them to Hill House, a Scottish National Trust property designed by the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the early part of the last century.  He was mostly famous for public building projects, and this was the only house he designed completely, even down to the furniture, textiles, and grounds.  I wasn't really expecting to care much for it, though I don't know why, but I really loved it.  Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife (she was an artist) were working in the same general time period as Frank Lloyd Wright, and Hill House instantly reminded me of his work.  With straight lines, stained glass, repeated motifs throughout the house, it was built for the Walter Blackie family to raise their family in.  It has a beautiful view of the Clyde River, and there is lots of symbolism associated with the design.  For example, the children's rooms were located on the eastern side of the house, and the master bedroom on the western side, symbolizing the beginning of life, with the rising of the sun, and the ending of it with the setting sun.  Light and shadow are big parts of the design.  Color coded stained glass squares in all of the doors indicate whether this was a masculine space (dark purple, as in the husband's dressing room) or a feminine one (pink or lavender, as in the daughter's room and the drawing room).  We were completely taken with it, and we stayed a couple of hours. 

Then we called a taxi to take us into Helensburgh (like with Edinburgh, the "burgh" is pronounced "burra").  We walked along the riverfront, then stopped for a drink at a place called The Commodore.  It was so pleasant sitting outside by the water, that we decided to eat there, too.  Eventually, we headed back to the train station, and arrived back in Balloch to another cup of tea, with shortbread, with Emma.  After the "cuppa", I went around the corner to use wifi at McDonald's but it wasn't working for some reason.  The wifi issue is settled for now with the purchase of a day pass from British Telecomm (so I have wifi at any BT open zone).  On returning to my room, I found that she had washed my pile of filthy, smelly clothes (she said they were crawling toward the stairs on their own), which was completely unexpected and wonderful of her!  It might have been in self-defense, since her room is right next to mine.   :-)

We have been walking everywhere, and becoming old hands at using the trains, too.  Tomorrow we will pick up our other Vaughantown friend, Leonie, and we will all go to the wedding reception in Alexandria.  Emma only has one key to her house, and she doesn't want to give it to us, so we aren't sure what to do about potentially coming in very late (not to mention the possibility of "the drink", in the bargain).  We don't want her waiting up for us because we have no idea when we will be back. I guess we will see how that works out by tomorrow night.

                                   Aird House, our little home away from home for five days.

Bus Plane Tube Train

Today was a long, looong, looooong day.

A few highlights from it, in order of occurrence

 

Bus (Normal to O'Hare Airport)

Driver, to the elderly woman two people ahead of me: Where are you going?​

Woman: O'Hare

Driver: Which terminal?

Woman: O'Hare

Driver takes her suitcase and puts it aside, turning to her younger traveling companion.

Driver: So where are you going?

Woman 2, looking confused: O'Hare? The airport?

Driver: Yes, but which terminal?

Woman 2, looking blankly at him, even more confused: The airport. We are going to the airport. O'Hare?

Driver, still attempting to find out which terminal: What airline are flying?

Woman, looking confused but now with a hint of panic: The airport? We are going to the airport.

Driver takes her suitcase and sets it aside until all the other bags are on.

Not sure where they are getting off, but it will definitely be at O'Hare. The airport.

Update: At O'Hare, the women showed no sign of getting off at any terminal.  At T3, the driver asked them if they had decided where they were going to get off, since there was only one more stop, at T5. The older woman asked if we were at the “airport proper”, and the driver didnt know what she meant. So off we went to T5. On the way, they got a phone call. Turned out that the person who was meeting them there was at T1. And they weren't flying on any airline, they were just meeting at the airport because it was the closest point to the other person's home. So they were left at T5 and, I suppose, eventually made their way back to T1.

 

Plane (O'Hare to London Heathrow)

When I checked in for my flight, I was able to change my righthand aisle seat for a lefthand one a couple of rows up (I hate clashing elbows with righties when it is time to eat). At that time, the rest of the row was empty, and I hoped it might remain that way. No such luck. I heard the guy on the other aisle seat of my row tell the flight attendant that he had hoped he would have the row to himself, too. Heh. And in between us were two very cute young men. Unfortunately, I was the lucky one who got to sit next to the one that had apparently not showered for several days. Dinner was excellent, though it took forever for them to get it out. After that, I got a decent amount of sleep, I think (hard to say). I woke up when they switched the lights on for breakfast. The pilot announced that we had actually caught a jet stream tailwind, and were going to be arriving at Heathrow a full hour early! And at 7 a.m., there were virtually no other passengers in the immigration area. I actually walked past a lot of the stanchions and straight up to a desk with no more than a 15 second delay. Pretty amazing!

It was easy to find the tube ticket window, though the gate machine confused me a little. After running into the unmoving barrier, I realized that I had to put my ticket into the machine first.

Tube (Heathrow to King's Cross station)

When we got on the train, the car was nearly empty and we had our choice of seats. I chose one near the door with my two bags. There were two American men at the other end of the car giggling over the name of the final stop, Cockfosters, and every time it was announced they lost it. They found it highly amusing for at least two stops. Very mature. As we progressed toward the city center, the car became more and more full of commuters going in to work. In fact, it was full to the point that I was beginning to wonder how I was going to get through the crowd, with my bags, to get off when it was time. But most of the crowd off at Piccadilly Circus, and by the time we reached King's Cross we were back to almost empty.

At King's Cross, I went to see Platform 9 ¾. It was actually a touristy-type thing where they took your picture and you could view it (and presumably buy it) at the Harry Potter store nearby. So, no, thanks. Then I walked the 1/3 mile down to Euston Station, stopping for two geocaches and one attempt on the way.

I had several hours to spend, so I wandered around and did a little shopping at Boots, then sat down at an outside table to have a baguette with chicken and bacon for lunch.  It was such a perfectly pleasant day that I was just sitting there, enjoying being outside, when a woman and her son asked if they could share my table. Turned out they were from Norway, just over for the week to do some back-to-school clothes shopping. We got into a long discussion about the Norway education system, being a divorced parent, what the boy wanted to do when he finished school, and a number of other topics, until it was time for me to go watch for my train to Scotland.

It took me a bit to figure out how to know when my train was there, and after I puzzled over the big electronic board for awhile, I asked a woman if she knew how it worked. She said she didn't really know because she was Australian and had never seen it before, either, but eventually we figured out that the train announcements worked their way from the far right to the far left, where they were given a platform number. As each platform was added, people would go bolting for the platform en masse, even though they were continually telling people not to run. ( They also made frequent announcements about thieves and pickpockets working in the area, so to watch your belongings.) Eventually, they announced my train and I bolted off with the rest of the herd.

Train (London Euston Station to Balloch)

The train was a nice, reserved-seat train and there was a space nearby where I could put my big bag and keep an eye on it. This train terminated at Glasgow Central, where I was to transfer to one to Partick, then one to Balloch. I had fifteen minutes to catch the Partick train and I asked where to go – no signs, nothing. A man directed me around 3 or 4 sets of tracks and then down the escalator. At the bottom were some stairs and a ticket office (and more of those gates that you have to put a ticket in). Problem was, I only had the one ticket. Not knowing what to do, with the train due in three minutes, I got in line at the ticket office to ask where I needed to go. The guy directed me down two flights of stairs, where there were two platforms (still no clue which I was to wait on). But a very nice man, who probably overheard my near panic at the ticket desk, said, “Are you going to Partick? It's that platform there – and all the trains go to Partick so it doesn't matter if you take this one or the next”. So why didn't someone tell me that??  There was never a sign or any direction of what do to once I got to Glasgow. This train was more of the metro variety, with frequent stops and people hopping on and sitting wherever. When I got to Partick, woman standing there told me that the Balloch train was the very next one, so I only waited about five minutes (which is why the schedule said I only had five minutes to change).  How did she know I needed to know that?  Did ScotRail call ahead and tell them to be on the lookout for a clueless American?

Lisa and Donna were waiting for me, and we went straight to get something to eat, then they walked me to the B&B, filling me in along the way about the B&B owner, an 82-yr-old character from the highlands named Emma Macdonald. They had checked earlier to see where the B&B was, and got roped into a lengthy conversation, almost not getting away in time to come and get me.  In fact, Lisa and Donna told me that she had urged them to stay to chat instead - I could find my own way to the house!

There is so much to say about Emma that I just can't start here right now – that entry will have to wait for another day.  So - I'm here!  Total travel time from the shuttle bus in Normal to the train station at Balloch:  26 hours.