chiming in

Lundy has carried the blog just as she did all the reservations for the trip, so I suppose it is time for me to chime in and comment. If you ever have a chance to go on a trip planned by Lundy, take it. The hotels have been varied and great, each with its own charm, quirks, and suprises. The English love stairs, everything goes up and down. Looking out our hotel window, one expected to see Mary Poppins because of the height of the rooms. The English know how to utilize space, cupboards under stairs, even the kitchen attached to the dining room was tucked under the stairs going to the front door. The English make a great breakfast and Cornish pastry.
All the people we have meet on this trip have been helpful and kind. From what we read about Barcelona, pickpockets flourish, not our experience at all. My wallet fell out of my purse into the cab. The cab driver stopped the cab and gave it to me. My AAA debit card would not work and I went to Citi bank thinking it was a U.S. affliate and someone would understand my "lengthy" explaining of my problem. The bank was not affiliated, one person spoke English. The bank let me call the U.S. on their line (I did not know 800 numbers do not work in foreign countries and that one was supposed to call collect. I, a perfect stranger off the street, unknowingly, probably cost them a fortune.) Hours later I got my money. The time factor was a U.S. problem, not a Spanish problem. ATM cards are better than those debit cards, but life is learning, that was a cheap lesson, for me, probably not for the bank.
The best hotel was the one in Barcelona. Everything was perfect. The food in the hotel is better and cheaper than the fancy restaurants downtown. The language barrier sometimes gets one. I ordered sea bass with wild mushrooms and noodles and potato soup as an appetizer. The waiter misunderstood and thought I wanted sea bass in potato soup. It was still good. The chef sent the message with the dish that though sea bass was not usually served that way, they would do it for me. Lundy and I had ordered food very late the night before- sole with citron and capers and goat cheese salad. It was beautiful, scrumptious, and reasonable. Everything fresh and perfect. We stopped by the next morning and told management how much we enjoyed the meal. They aim to please! The chef even sent duck on toast with goose liver gravy (I can't remember the exact name they called it),; it was so good words fail. One day that chef is going to own his own four star restaurant; remember I said this!
Either in the morning or the night before, Lundy and I get pastries and fruit. Lundy bought a coffee maker for the room. Most all these people are skinny, how I don't know. I have never tasted pastries like these. The other day I bought a quarter of an orange, a small pear(seeds still in it), and a slice of melon done in sugar. The juice squirted out of the orange when one bit into it.
Too sweet for Lundy, I loved it. This was in Barcelona, right by the Picasso Museum. I suppose it is a mindset, most all the food is beautiful. One troops around to different stores for different things. Everything, including banks close at two o'clock, no business. It is very strange to the U.S. mind. In Paris, a lot of the smaller stores are closed except for a few hours on Monday.
We have had a taste of each city. Usually, we take the tour bus and view the city, then decide what we will do. We saw Soane's house in London and Cambridge (P.D. James the author was scheduled to speak at Cambridge the next Sunday in the same pulpit Latimer spoke from(during Henry VIII's reign). She evidently is an advocate of the 1662 prayerbook which they still use in that church. In her murder mystery, the victim lived in a John Soane house. So I had heard of Soane when Lundy wanted to visit there.
In Paris it was Sacre Couer (spelling?) and the Paris Opera House( a Chagall ceiling). I have never seen anything like either of them. The work and effort are simply unbelievable! I have read and seen pictures, but the real thing is truly different, not the same at all. I would not have thought that degree of difference would have existed.
In Barcelona it was two Gaudi houses, his park, and for me, the Picasso Museum. I had not seen the real thing before. I bought slides for the art teacher at school at Gaudi's and the museum. Picasso's work changed all through his life and that was represented at the museum. I tended to think of him as making one type of picture. I suppose that the learning process is change, even for genius.
Today in Montpelier, The Tour de France came through, but we could not find out where exactly it was, in hindsight a taxi driver would have known, probably. We poked around, but tomorrow is going to be the sight seeing day, as we are quite European now, with our sometimes naps, our late hours, mostly in the internet cafes or eating. We had to get up way too early to catch a train.
All over Europe most places have menus outside the restaurants in at least two languages, today it was only in French. It was three o'clock and we had not eaten since seven; this cafe on the square had mostly drinks, we guessed at the food. Lundy ended up with a breadstick in what seemed to be olive ice cream and cured ham, I ended up with raw salmon and avocado.
Every single place is so unusual. I am having a grand time. Lundy and I both seem to get lost quite a bit, apart and together, serendipity is a part of the trip, with the underpinings of Lundy's planned structure. I really want to come back, and I have not even left yet or seen it all. I think I am going to live differently. The people are grand everywhere.