Where in the World?

My last day in Barcelona was a bright, sunny day with clouds that rose over the mountains. I’ve really grown quite an attachment to this city, the food and it’s people. I think I’ve gained 2 or 3 pounds with all the home cooking I was able to experience.

I learned a lot from my few days here. As I got to know the people on a more personal level in their homes and among friends, I realized that there were five fundamental lessons that were being taught.

First, I (we) need to slow down and focus on the present moment more. I’ve talked about this concept before, but it was refreshing and inspiring to see people living that way every minute.

Second, the importance of communication and how much we can communicate without speaking the language. Babi’s grandmother was the best at this. I couldn’t understand one spoken word from her, but I never had a problem understanding what she was telling me. Now that’s a gift.

Third, to be more open. Many of the people I met took a genuine interest in learning more about me despite the language barrier.

Fourth, laugh a lot and often. Though I feel that I do this very often, it’s always refreshing to see people live that philosophy.

Fifth, give and then give some more. Guests (me) are treated like royalty. It’s a great way to treat people.

I appreciate my new friends and I hope to see them very soon in the near future. I will be back to this place. It’s easily in my top five favorite places now.

Michael

I spent the majority of the day with my Spanish friend’s father and friends. Later we visited with her mother, grandmother and friends. It was a fantastic day. The scenery, food and conversation were quite special.

My friend’s father lives in S’agaró, Spain which is up the coast north of Barcelona about 60 miles. This is a beautiful seaside upscale resort area with stunning views of the Mediterranean. Most of the time was spent eating lunch (for over 3 hours) and talking. I was doing very little talking since I didn’t speak Catalan or Spanish. But it was fun to be involved with this close knit group of people. At one point, we had four countries represented; Spain, America, Ecuador and the U.K.

Near the end of the afternoon, my friend’s mother drove us to Vinyoles which is up in the mountains. In fact the area around Vic, Spain is a stunning valley surrounded on all sides by mountains. To the north, I could catch glimpses of the snow covered Pyrenees Mountains. They were simply stunning. I have to go back and explore this area some more.

My friend’s mother and grandmother were lovely! Her grandmother made a fantastic dinner composed of bread with oil and tomato, vegetable soup, omelet, and a very tasty dessert called A Gypsy’s Arm; some kind of cake with a crème filling. All the food was fresh and cooked on the spot. You can’t get any better than this.

I loved being able to experience the Catalan and Spanish culture at this level. I was able to see and experience how they live, eat and enjoy life.

At the end of the day I was feeling somewhat stressed because of some meetings I have on Tuesday. I was told to relax, enjoy the moment, tomorrow is tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Michael

Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day. – W. Earl Hall

It was quite a change to wake up to blue skies and sun this morning. There were a lot of clouds but the sky remained visible until mid afternoon.

I took advantage of the nice weather and started off the day with a 2 1/2 mile walk. All in all I would walk another 4 1/2 miles for a total of seven or so. It felt great.

I caught a bus to Placa d’Espanya and walked down the Av. Paral-lel to Port Vell. After watching the boats for a bit, I then took a very leisurely stroll up La Rambla, which is a fantastic street with lots of street vendors, artists, musicians and mobs of people. A latte and plate of chorizo was in order.

I then headed to Palau de la Musica to grab my third geocache for the day. Back to La Rambla to catch a taxi back to the hotel. I met a friend at the airport. After a late afternoon snack we headed to a modern dance show at a theater near the Montijuic. A late dinner was needed. We ate at a wonderful Catalan style restaurant called La Bodegueta del Poble Sec.

That was enough for one day!

Michael

We landed in Barcelona through wind and rain in the early afternoon. The forecast is rainy for several days. Oh well. Plans have to be adjusted. It shouldn’t really be a problem as there are plenty of things to do in this wonderful city.

My co-worker and I had a somewhat of a challenge obtaining our luggage after getting off the Lufthansa flight. There are two terminals at the Barcelona airport; A and B. We landed at a gate right in the juncture of the two. As we exited the gate, we both saw a sign with an arrow pointing to Baggage Claim – B. So, we followed.

After walking about a half mile to the end of terminal B, we walk down the stairs to baggage claim only to realize that Lufthansa bags are located in Baggage Claim - A. We ask someone how to get there and he points up and back the way we came. We tried to return up the stairs, but that way was blocked; no entrance to the gate area from here.

So, we walk on the ground floor all the way back to Terminal A which was at least a 1/2 mile or more. We find baggage claim A, but the doors are exit only and the guard will not let us in even though we showed him our ticket stubs and luggage tags. He tells us we have to go back up the stairs and through security again.

Argh!

Another 15 minutes and we are through security and down the stairs to baggage claim where our bags were just rounding the baggage belt when we walked up. We grab our bags and head outside to find a cab in the rain.

We quickly find one, explain that we need to be taken to two hotels; one a Marriott near the airport and the other in central Barcelona. The taxi driver takes off and after about 10 minutes, I realize he has passed up the Marriott. I show him the address and he starts getting very angry since he has passed the exit already. He had misunderstood us and thought we wanted a Marriott in central Barcelona, but there isn’t a Marriott in central Barelcona.

Once we straighten out the confusion, he angrily turns around and starts driving “wildly” through the traffic in the wind and heavy rain. He keeps repeating, in Spanish, how we messed up the directions. I keep nodding my head as I don’t want him to get any angrier than he already is.

Finally, after much swerving and high speed driving, we arrive at the correct hotel.

Welcome to Barcelona!

I know things will be much better, so I’m not worried at all.

Michael

I’ve been involved in long meetings for the last three days. Our meeting room was down in the basement which meant there were no windows to the outside. After being couped up during most of the daylight hours for these three days, I decided to have a nice walk alone, outside, in the sun and air when we got off early today (4:15 p.m.).

I walked a little over two miles north of my hotel (Meliá Barcelona) through the back and side streets. I wanted to get a little bit of the feel of the neighborhoods in the area. The first half of the walk was mostly uphill. I found several small parks and ended up a nice park called Turó de Monterols.

There’s nothing quite like some fresh air, sun and exercise to adjust your attitude. It’s important to listen when our body, heart, mind or soul give us some guidance. It’s usually beneficial. I’m glad I listened today.

Have a great day!

Michael

It’s been a long two days of meetings. Tonight, we all went to a place near La Boquiria, which is the largest open market in Spain and I believe in all of Europe. Lots and lots of fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, chocolate, meat, fish, cheese and etc. Very busy place. We had a tour here first and then walked to the back where the cooking class was located.

We started by making fresh Sangria from scratch. Very tasty and easy to make!

We had a starter dish made from salt cured codfish. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name. Basically, it is made from green and red bell peppers, onions with balsamic vinegar, re-hydrated salt cured cod fish, olive oil, black olives and parsley. The ingredients are layered with the fish and olive oil on top and served at room temperature.

Our main course was a paella made from chicken, pork, mussels, three types of shrimp, bell peppers, onions, olive oil and rice. It took about 1 1/2 hours to make but it was spectacular.

Our dessert consisted of peeled whole pears cooked in a red wine sauce sweetened with sugar, cinnamon and other spices. This was cooked over a low flame until the wine mixture made its way inside the pear. Very sweet with a wonderful flavor.

We had a lot of fun. It was probably one of the better corporate “events” I’ve ever gone to.

Michael

Tonight we ate at a fabulous restaurant called Taller De Tapas. The amount of food was outrageous even considering the number of people we had on this outing. I’m so stuffed right now, I can barely remain conscious. Sad but true.

I have to say though that every item (except one for me) was outstanding. We shared 18 tapas dishes with generous portions of water, wine, liquor, beer and coffee. I’m listing the menu of all the dishes we ate for dramatic purposes only.

Course 1:

Toasted coca bread from Vic with Tomato and extra virgin olive oil
Tomato and Nuri’s goat’s cheese salad
Oven roasted red pepper, sweet onion and aubergine with anchovies
Cured acorn ham from Jabugo

Course 2:

Cured acorn ham croquettes
Malagan style baby squid
Fried potatoes with a spicy paprika sauce and garlic mayonnaise
Cod fritters

Course 3:

Sautéed seasonal wild mushrooms
Grilled green asparagus with extra virgin oil and Maldon salt
Pan fried chickpeas with spinach and Galician pancetta
Steamed mussels

Course 4:

Sizzling king prawns cooked in a clay pot with garlic and chili
Grilled Catalan farmhouse sausage with white beans from Santa Pau
Grilled squid
Chorizos braised in Asturian cider

Desert:

Crema catalana (Crème brûlée)
Fresh fruit soup (fresh fruit cup)

Dinner started at 9:00 p.m. which is really typical for Spain and lasted until midnight. I believe it will take several days to recover from this one.

Have a great day!

Michael

We walked about 8 miles today through the streets of Barcelona. It’s a great walking city. Our starting place was near the Pl. Francesc Macia on the Av. Diagonal. Since most of us had not slept crossing the Atlantic, the first order of business was espresso.

Our walk took us down the Av. Diagonal to Pg. Gracia, a main thoroughfare that goes to the Mediterranean. After we reached La Rambla, our walk became more leisurely so that we could enjoy the street performers and peruse the many vendors along the sides of the street. We found a fantastic fresh market that was full of every kind of vegetable, fruit, nut, cheese, meat that you could imagine. I wonder what this place is like on a Saturday as many of the small shops were closed.

Lunch was at a small tapas bar. We tried about 10 different dishes. Very nice plus we were starving. After meandering around the very narrow streets in this part of Barcelona, we decided to walk to the Sagrada Familia, which is under construction. Gaudi started this church early in the 20th century, but it was never finished. It is a massive building with a very unusual style. Quite stunning to see up close.

Please view the travel snapshots from my walk. You’ll see many of the places we visited.

Michael

I’m on my way to Spain this evening and will arrive by 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. This marks the 15th country I’ve visited. One of my “goals” before I die is to visit 100 countries. I have a quite a ways to go, but that’s not a problem at all. Barcelona is my actual destination in Spain. I’ve wanted to visit this city for several years. I’m actually surprised it has taken this long for me to get here.

Travel has become one of my passions. My current job has allowed me to fulfill a lot of my travel desires and quest for adventure. Or to look at it another way, I have engineered my career to satisfy my travel needs.

My anticipation level increases dramatically as I board the plane. I love the feeling. I’m fulfilling a big goal of mine, having a new adventure, seeing new sights and experiencing new things. For me, it doesn’t get much better than this.

As an added bonus, I got upgraded to business class on the leg of the trip from Boston to Frankfurt. That’s always welcome! It makes the almost 7 hour flight much more bearable. And it’s a real treat for me as I typically fly economy when I travel to Europe.

Remember that you can find adventure anywhere you want. Just go to a place you have never been; i.e. another city, state, country, museum, park and etc. All you need to do is get out of the house. Expand your horizons. You’ll enjoy it.

More on Barcelona later this week.

Have a great day!

Michael