Saturday May 1
Today is the first overcast day we have had in Barcelona since we arrived, and there have still been periods of sunshine. It has been a wonderful afternoon for exploring. We just started walking and ended up at Parc de la Ciutadella which is fairly near our apartment. There were people all over the lawn areas, just sunning, and almost everywhere we turned there was an incredible building, sculpture, or fountain. Here we are in front of a huge fountain with many figures spewing water and a huge golden chariot with horses and a historical figure, but we never found out who.

On a nearby plaza was their version of the Arc de Triomphe:P

The zoo was also in this park and by the time we had walked around the perimeter of it, we were pretty tired.
On some other days of exploring we have come across street vendors and have bought a few items because they were artistic and priced reasonably. Here is Elaine at the stall of a gal who makes some pretty painted leather belts and necklaces:

And at Park Guell there was this innovative way to display earrings for sale:

One of the main occupations here seems to be sitting at outdoor restaurants with a coffee, beer, glass of wine or a meal and chatting the hours away. There seems to be a few tables and chairs in nearly every open sidewalk space that is wider than usual.

The weather has been sunny and warm for most of this week, so everyone has been reveling in it and the open-air seating has been very popular.
In our little apartment in the El Born district, we have been enjoying trying many of the local delicacies. Here is one of the wines recommended by our local supermarket/wine shop and we have found it to be much to our liking:

There are many different kinds of olives on offer, sometimes in deli windows and sometimes in buckets, such as these:

One of our favorite kinds has both green and black olives, little pickles, and small onions in it.

In our last blog entry we mentioned that we had been to Park Guell, which was created by the most famous Barcelona artist and architect, Antonin Gaudi. A few days ago we walked over to several of his other buildings. They are so different, they stand out from all the other buildings on the street. Here is the front of the one called Casa Batllo:

The balconies and windows in the front are very unique and distinctive:

There was such a long line we decided to skip the interior, although we saw some pictures of it and it was so amazing that we hope to see it on another visit. The house next door to it was by another architect but also distinctive.

Just down the street is another of Gaudi’s buildings called La Pedrera. It is not nearly as colorful as it doesn’t have any of the glass mosaic pieces decorating the front.

It’s main feature are the wrought iron balconies.

The most incredible place we have visited so far was Montserrat. This is a monastery complex, built very high up in the mountains about an hour’s train ride away. It is astounding that it was built several hundred years ago because must have been very difficult to reach at that time. To get there we took the metro to Plaza Espanya and a train towards Manrasa and got off where the funicular or rack train left for Montserrat. You can also take the cable car instead, but if you do, you have to get off at a different train stop. The mountains are very steep, which is why a funicular is required. Here is a picture of the mountains that I took through the train window, so it isn’t very good but it shows some of the steepness.

When we arrived at the top, we could see that the large rock faces still towered over the buildings:

There were 2 more funiculars on top that we took to get to other parts of the mountain. Here is a picture of one of the funicular tracks:

And here is a view of the complex taken from one of the trails we hiked after we got off the funicular towards Santa Cova, the cave where the children saw the vision which is why this is such a holy place.

There is a very beautiful basilica, here is a picture of the front.

where there was a performance by the boys choir.

There were so many people in there that I couldn’t take any pictures of the interior splendidness, and then when we went back later to do it, the lights were off! The biggest attraction is the black Madonna, which was found in the cave (I think) and we went through the special area where they have her on display.

There were solid silver doors leading to this chamber and also many beautiful gold and multicolored mosaic insets in the walls. After all this ornateness, it was refreshing to walk outside and see this magnificent view as we left the complex.

Tomorrow is our last day here and we discovered that the Picasso Museum, which is just down the street from our apartment, has free entry because it is the first Sunday of the month. So we will be meeting our cruise friends, Duane & Dorothy McCarthy, who will be arriving on the Voyager of the Seas, and touring that museum. Then we will bring them over to see our cute little apartment, serve them some good Spanish wine and various local delicious appetizers such as black and green olives, pate, various cheeses, good baguettes, and then treat them to dinner at a local place. There are so many small and good local restaurants that it is hard to choose! They have allowed us to stay with them in Houston before a cruise and entertained us lavishly another time, so we are happy to have this chance to reciprocate. Besides, it is fun to have friends join us at various places in the world when we travel. Why don’t YOU plan to do that the next place??!! It will be India in November…..

4/27/10 Here we are in our cozy little apartment in the El Born district in Barcelona, where we have been enjoying wonderfully warm, sunny weather ever since we arrived Sunday evening. Our 2 week trans-Atlantic cruise ended Sunday morning in Southampton, where it was rainy and cold when we disembarked. Happily, flights had been resumed several days before so we were able to take a bus to Gatwick and catch our Easy Jet flight to Barcelona. That is about the worst airline we have ever been on and they really nailed us for extra baggage too. We were happy to arrive and catch the Aerobus to Plaza Catalunya and then we walked down to our apartment. It is very small, but has most of the necessities and we have been able to cook some of our own meals, which helps with expenses. Here is a picture of Elaine sitting in the dining area of the apartment:

This is the same apartment we stayed in for one night when we joined our friends Carole and Dick Schneider here just before we all took the Navigator of the Seas back to Galveston in Nov., 2008. The El Born district has many old, tall apartment buildings with shops, restaurants and bars at street level. There are lots of very small streets which are too narrow for cars, so it makes walking around here delightful because of all the pedestrian streets. It also means staying here is more enjoyable because it is quieter.
Yesterday we had to get set up in the apartment so we went to the nearby Santa Catarina market to buy some food. There were wonderful displays of fruits and veggies, meat stalls, pastries, and just about anything else we could want.

We bought salad makings, some of the delicious Spanish green olives, a couple of great cheeses, and some fruit. Everything else we needed came from the nearby supermarket.
Today we did some walking around to get set up for our train ride to Montserrat tomorrow, then we took the bus to Park Guell. This was a park where the most famous architect and artist in Barcelona, Anthony Gaudi, lived for 20 years. He made some decorative benches and pavilions and several very fanciful buildings. Here are a few pictures of some of his creations in the park:
Part of his decorative benches:

One of the buildings at the park entrance:

Another park building:

It was hot and we needed a rest so we sat down at an outdoor eating area and had a beer and a sandwich. A delightful couple from Peru named Lucy and Armando came and sat with us. We had an enjoyable time discussing travels in their country, and other parts of the world, because they spoke good English and had been to quite a few places. It reminded us that one of the joys of traveling are these little incidental interludes with new friends. Here is a picture of them with Elaine:

Another interesting part of the park experience was seeing lots of small green parrots in the palm trees and listening to them squabbling. Here is a picture of one of them sitting on her nest:

Of course, while we were on the transAtlantic cruise, we had some fun times in ports also. One of our favorite port cities is Funchal, in Maderia, which are islands belonging to Portugal. The island has a mountainous interior so the city goes up steeply from the waterfront and forms a kind of a bowl. We took a bus to the area where they offer rides down the steep streets in a wicker toboggan controlled by several of the local men who run alongside.

Some people take a cable car to get up there, and there is a nice botanical garden up there too. Here is a picture of us with David & Diane after we got up there:

There was also a big flower festival going on during our day there, and here is a picture of Diane with some of the flowers:

There was also a nice flower arrangement with lots of the different types of flowers:

Lisbon was the next port and we enjoyed walking around for a few hours. We spent a week here a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed everything, so we didn't need to rush around trying to sightsee this time. The last port was Vigo, Spain, which was new for us. It specializes in good seafood and here is a lady in the market who shucks oysters:

There were lovely flowers in the park, and here we are with some of them and a fountain behind us.

It was a nice little town but we were glad that we weren't going to have to get off there and make our way to Barcelona, as we thought we should if air flights hadn't started up again from England. Whoever would have thought that a volcano in Iceland would have such a huge effect on so many people and in such far-flung places.
We will be here until next Monday, and the weather is supposed to be nice until Saturday, so I'm sure we will have lots to tell you gain next time.

April 15, 2010
Hello from the middle of the Atlantic. This is our 5th day on the Independence of the Seas and, as always, we are having a great time. Quite a few of our friends are on board with us and we have been having daily Happy Hours with them in the Diamond Lounge. The drinks and appetizers are free to Diamond and Diamond Plus members between the hours of 5 and 8:30PM but the real perk is having the time to schmooze with our good friends from other cruises. Here is a picture of some of the friends in the lounge:

Last night 14 of us went to one of the specialty restaurants on board called Chops, where we had a gourmet meal which unfortunately took quite a long time because of the slow service. But the food was fabulous!
This adventure started last Thursday when Elaine and I drove to San Diego and stayed with her son, Darran, and his partner, Marielle. It was another beautiful day there and we enjoyed walking around on the Mission Bay pedestrian path. Friday morning we got up at 2 AM and Darran drove us to LAX where we boarded a flight to Miami at 6:05AM. This was our first try at using a companion fare and flying standby, which we were able to do because one of our Boy Toys, Martin, works at American Airlines and put us on his buddy list. The flight was very full and we felt lucky to get on it, although we didn’t get into First Class, and Martin and Roger often do. After landing, Martin & Roger picked us up and took us out for a lunch at a Cuban restaurant we had enjoyed the last time we visited. We also stayed at their condo and we all used the hot tub in the evening, along with Roger’s brother and his wife.
The next day we worked out in the exercise room at their condo, then joined a bunch of friends for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. The guys then dropped us off at the Ramada in Fort Lauderdale where we shared a room with our good friends David and Diane Wilson, and were just down the hall from Jim & Jan Sylvester. Both of these couples hosted us on our recent trip across the south as we returned to California in our RV, and we are also sharing a table at dinner with them on this ship. Here we all are at our table on the first Formal night:

Sunday we all took the hotel shuttle to the ship. Too bad the weather was cool and rainy on Sunday, and our suitcases even got wet while being transferred to the ship. It has also been the coolest crossing we have ever experienced, even while we were still in the Caribbean area between Florida and Bermuda. The swimming pools and lounge chairs aren’t getting any use on this trip so far!! We are hoping for better weather soon, especially as we approach our first port which will be Punta Delgada in the Azores.

April 3 Tomorrow is Easter, and we hope you all have a lovely day, whatever you decide to do. We will be having a delicious dinner with Ken & Carolyn Kimpton and Brenda & Dave Neil here on "our hill" at Park Sierra. These people are all good cooks, so we are happy to share this holiday with them!
Not many interesting things have been happening in our lives, and I wouldn't even be updating this except some of our family members have indicated that they want regular updates even if nothing exciting is in it. Today I whacked all the weeds on our lot and then sprayed them with Roundup. It just reminds me that I never want to live in a house again where there is lots of this regular maintenance!
Of course, we are having to do some maintenance on our bodies as well. This week we had more medical appointments, some of which are the prerequisites for some minor surgeries we are hoping to schedule when we get back from our Europe trip in early May. I am going to have a foot surgery for a hammertoe as soon as they can get it scheduled. Yes, I did try to convince Elaine to do it for me, since she was such an excellent foot surgeon but she says that after 23 years of retirement, she isn't going to take it up again, even for me. I will also be trying to schedule a surgery for a carpal tunnel problem, which I have in both hands. The left one is the worst so I want to get that one done in May or early June. Elaine also needs surgery on her hands because she has Dupyertins Contracture, which means she has knotted tendons which are causing one of her fingers to stick up and she can't straighten it. So that will have to be scheduled too. It really stinks when we have these problems, all of which are related to GETTING OLDER!
The next few days will be busy, as we organize and pack for our upcoming trip. The next blog entry will be when we start that trip, so I promise that it will be more interesting than this one!

March 28, 2010
Finally I am finding a little time to update this blog! Since we have been at Park Sierra, we have been dealing with many of the issues that non-RVers deal with on a regular basis. One of the big issues is arranging and attending medical appointments to deal with some of the health problems we are developing as a result of advancing age. Happily, we are fairly sure that we do not have any life-threatening illnesses. But it is finally time to deal with some things we have been putting off. So last week we had two days of appointments and this coming week there are three more; such tings as mammograms, dermatology, lab tests, an x-ray of my hammertoe, etc. I won't bore you with a complete list....
When we aren’t at Kaiser, we have been either socializing with our many friends here, or trying to deal with rig organization and repair. After 13 months on the road, there is a lot to deal with! Additionally, there are still some preparations we need to do to get ready for our April transatlantic cruise. On April 11 we will join many of our friends from last year’s Around the Horn cruise on the Independence of the Seas to sail from Ft. Lauderdale to Southampton, arriving on April 25. Then Elaine and I will fly to Barcelona where we have rented an apartment for a week. We hope to visit some places outside the city too, such as Montserrat. On May 3 we fly back to Florida and then will catch another flight back to CA.
Before arriving back here, on March 21, we spent about 6 days at Jojoba Hills SKP Park in southern California, near Temecula. Our good friends, Dick & Carol Schneider, and Joe & Carla Calwell have lots there, and we had may delightful social times with them. Here are a few pictures of some of the events:
Dick, Carla & Joe:

Elaine & Carol:

For St. Patrick's Day we drove to Darran & Marielle's in San Diego where Elaine and Darran fixed a great corned beef meal.

Marielle's sister Meg, and her husband Ben, also came, as well as Darran's good friend Brian, his wife Jen and their baby McKenna. Here we all are at the dinner table:

It has been a LONG time since we have been around such a young, and cute baby, so we enjoyed holding her:

Brian & Jen and McKenna:

Meg & Ben wearing some of the beads we got at Mardi Gras:

Darran & Marielle like to play with McKenna:

Of course, we needed a picture of the Moms with Darran:

One of the delights of visiting Darran & Marielle is that they live about 2 blocks from Mission Bay in the Pacific Beach section of San Diego. So we love to walk on the pedestrian walkway around the bay:

After we returned to Jojoba, we enjoyed a lovely cocktail party with Joe & Carla on their new lot, and old friends George and Madelyn also joined us.

Later we had a delicious dinner with lots of friends held down at the Ranch House. Here is a picture of Elaine with Vicky & Terry Webb, who also have a lot at this park, but are Boomer friends of ours from our summer at Lake Kachess:

A few days ago, we drove to Merced to see my granddaughter, Paige, who was home for quarter break from college. We all went to lunch together at Applebees, then did some thrift store shopping before dropping her off at her boyfriend Christopher's house. He took the following picture of the three of us. Too bad Paige's eyes were closed!

It was great to see her and she is not only doing well in her classes, but also at her job as assistant manager at a retail store called Pac Sun. We are very proud of her and miss the days when she used to be able to stay with us for one or two weeks at a time.
Here at Park Sierra, there have been lots of Happy Hours and dinners but we haven't taken many pictures of these gatherings. The weather has been sunny and nice but we are due for some rain starting Tuesday night. Hey, maybe I will finally get the taxes done!

3/24/10 Sorry it has been so long since our last update! We have been very busy with socializing during our stay at Jojoba Hills SKP park, and while there we also squeezed in an overnight visit with Darran & Marielle in San Diego. Sunday we drove all day to get back to our lot at Park Sierra because the neighbors were having a big party, partly to welcome us back and partly to say "goodbye" to some of the people who were leaving for a while. Since then we have been busy with doctor's appointments and catching up on chores such as paperwork, and getting resettled on our lot here. Even now we do not have time for a full report, since it is late and we have more early appointments at Kaiser in Fresno tomorrow. So I just wanted to let you know that we are well, and in a few days, when things slow down here a little, I will do a more complete report and post some pictures of our recent doings.

3/14/10 Tonight we are at the Quechan Casino west of Yuma and on the road to Algodones, where Elaine has an appointment with the dentist tomorrow morning. He will check her titanium post to make sure the bone is healing where it was inserted, and then we will be free to head back to California. She will have to return in 3-6 months to get the final tooth put on the post.
While waiting for this appointment, we have been camped out at Mittry Lake with Mike & Marilyn Harrison. Here is a picture of the lake from our camping spot:

Unfortunately, it was pretty darn windy 75% of the time we were there. We were hoping to use our time to catch up on paperwork, household chores, and start doing our taxes, but many of our RV friends were around, and we had lengthy visits with them, so our spare time evaporated. One of the visitors was Maria Navarro, who was on our Panama trip with us. Her partner, Bruce, died about a year ago and we were happy to learn that Maria is doing OK and making a new life for herself here. Other visitors were our old friends, Lee & Susie Blattner, who have traveled with us a LOT. Some friends of Mike & Marilyn's who also came were Bob & Sam Fleckner. So we all had a nice corned beef dinner together last night at MArilyn & Mike's. Here are Lee, Sam, Bob & Elaine at one table:

And Susie, Mary, Marilyn & Mike at the other table:

Previously we had enjoyed a nice visit with Dave & LaVerne Markle, and today when we dropped by the RoVing Rods site for their gathering, we saw them again and also Bruce and Bunny Ratliff.

Our year-long travels have prevented us from doing anything with the group this year and we have missed that!
While staying out in the Foothills the week before, cruise friends Rick & Denice Osborne had hosted us at their home for dinner. Tonight they joined us here at the casino so they could see our RV. We had a nice Happy Hour together and then adjourned to the casino. Here is a picture of them:

We will all be on the Independence of the Seas together starting April 11 when we sail from Fort Lauderdale to Southampton.
Our plans for next week include driving to Jojoba Hills, the SKP park near Temecula for a visit with Joe & Carla Calwell and Dick & Carol Schneider. We will also stay overnight on Wednesday with Darren & Marielle in San Diego so he can cook a St. Paddy's Day dinner for us. Can't believe it has been a year since we have seen them! Then we will head back to our lot at Park Sierra next Sunday.

3/7/10 This will be a quick update because we are having company for dinner and I have to help prep it. Ron & Carol Leonard have graciously allowed us (and Mike & Marilyn) to stay here on their lot while we all get our business taken care of so we have been here for a week. Of course, we have been having some social activities, and also have squeezed in some visits with RV friends who are here for a while.
Yes, Elaine managed to get in to have the beginning phase of her dental implant done in Algodones. When we arrived here and met Ron & Carol's friends and neighbors, Linda & Ray, we learned that Linda had recently had a very good dental implant experience with Dr. Emmanuel Cordova. So Monday we went to his office and spent most of the afternoon waiting to get in for an assessment. He has a very modern office with the latest computer imaging equipment for x-rays, so they did that and determined what Elaine needed to have done, quoted a price, and set up an appointment for Tuesday. That day she spent 3 hours in his chair while he removed the remaining root of the tooth that broke and installed a titanium post and a temporary tooth. Now she is taking antibiotics and waiting for it to heal. She wasn't supposed to return to his office until the 15th but yesterday her tooth became loose, so tomorrow we will go back for him to stabalize it.
Our plan is to head for southern California once she has been cleared by the dentist on the 15th. Until then, we will be leaving Ron & Carol's Tuesday and move out to Mittrey Lake with Mike and Marilyn. Some friends we haven't had time to see will be coming out to visit, hopefully. Tomorrow night we will be having dinner at Rick & Denice Osborn's, some cruise friends who live near here.
Friday was Marilyn's birthday so we went out for dinner with them, Carol & Ron joined us, and we all had a great time.

Then we had cake and ice cream in Marilyn & Mike's rig and the neighboring couples joined us. Here is a cute picture of Ron & Carol we took at that event:

Our friend, Frank, who worked with us at Lake Kachess several summers ago, also lives near here, so we went walking with him and several of his friends one day. Here is a picture of the 3 of us:

Padraic & Willie Ley, from the Boomer group are also here so one day Padraic came to visit and it was great to catch up on their doings, since we haven't seen him for several years. He also helped us with our computers. THANKS Padraic!! (I forgot to take his picture - too bad cause he is a cutie).
It is raining heavily today and we are trying to catch up on inside stuff. Check back with us in a week or so for another report.