27 Thursday Jun 2013
Posted in Sentiments, Travel
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“Meet us under the big clock at the railroad station.”
When our friend Simone suggested that meeting place, we knew exactly where that clock was. We knew how long it would take to walk there. We even knew that at that time of day, the clock would be in the shade. We have lived here three months, and three months is long enough to know things like this.
And now we’re about to leave.
24 Monday Jun 2013
Posted in Travel
“Come on, Louise. It’s 4:15. The place is closed.” I get impatient when I’m tired, and we were visiting Figueres (home of the Teatro-Museo Dalí, which I’ve described earlier in this blog) for the second time since we began our travels – not to see the Dali museum again, but just to visit Figueres on a sunny day in Spain.
But it was 4:15. The sign on the door said the museum would open at 4:00. I’d been on my feet since 10:00 that morning and I wanted – needed – a cerveza grande. Figueres is charming, but charm has its limits, like watching six hours of Audrey Hepburn movies.
21 Friday Jun 2013
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At the turn of the century (1900), Bare Mountain (Muntanya Pelada) overlooking Barcelona seemed like an ideal place for a housing development. It was high enough to offer air clear of the soot from Barcelona’s industry, it sported a panoramic view of the city, and its height almost guaranteed exclusivity for the Spanish elite. Count Eusebi Güell – an industrial entrepreneur who profited greatly from the industry from which Bare Mountain offered a respite – platted sixty huge triangular lots, hired the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, built a model home, and sat back, waiting for orders. None came.
18 Tuesday Jun 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
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Sunset over Tossa de Mar (click to enlarge)
Don’t let us bore you. It’s just that Tossa de Mar on the Spanish Costa Brava is this incredibly charming place, so when our daughter Sybil came to visit, we had to take her there. She’s been around Europe a bit, but she’d never seen the Mediterranean, or a Roman ruin.
16 Sunday Jun 2013
On the terrace: (from left) Sybil, Louise, Jeanette, Luisa, Vicens, Gerard, Tom, Moira, Steve. (Click to enlarge)
We invited some friends over last night to show off introduce my daughter Sybil, who has traveled across nine time zones to visit with her father on Father’s Day this year. There was plenty of cava, Louise’s magic chicken pie, and a $30 orange cake that lasted barely five minutes before the celebrants reduced it to crumbs.
That’s my girl!
12 Wednesday Jun 2013
Let’s take stock: we’ve taken you to the Costa Brava multiple times; we’ve introduced you to our friends; we’ve hiked to the hills, walked the wall, and rented bikes; we’ve even told you how we make phone calls and get mail. What’s left to talk about?
10 Monday Jun 2013
Posted in Travel
Way back last year, before embarking on this adventure, we did a month-long research project on the feasibility of expathood. We did this in the charming and obscure town of Collioure, France, just north of the Spanish border on the Mediterranean. (Read all about it here.) The goal was to see if we could stand:
07 Friday Jun 2013
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
One of the things I do to while away the time – while I’m cleaning the kitchen, for example, which it seems I’m always doing – is listen to podcasts. And one of my favorite podcasts is called Radiolab, self-described as “…a show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.” In short, Radiolab has no particular subject nor format; but it gets the dishes done.
Although Radiolab usually measures an hour, they occasionally feature what they call “shorts,” which are what you would expect them to be: short podcasts – far shorter than the usual hour.
Which took me far off topic, and I haven’t even introduced the topic yet.
This is an Expat Almanac “short.” A brief little tidbit of a post. The Spanish would say “un poquito posta.” I like that.
Oh yes, the topic: How we get our mail.
05 Wednesday Jun 2013
The New Orleans Big Head float at the Tournament of Roses Parade, 2008. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
There are more places than you would think that are into big heads. The Tournament of Roses Parade (above) comes to mind. Portland’s Rose Festival (my home town) comes to mind too. New Orleans, Ann Arbor, Vancouver – they all have parades with big heads. It’s a Big Head epidemic.
03 Monday Jun 2013
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Tossa de Mar as it appeared in the 1940s or 1950s.
Tossa de Mar has been home for somebody since the Neolithic days, continuously populated through the early Iberians to the Romans … and now we’re only up to 100 BC.
So Vila Vella enceinte, the ancient walled city located within Tossa de Mar and the only fortified medieval town still standing on the coast of Catalonia, is a journey back in time – way back (Vila Vella was built in 1200 BC). On the first summery day of the season, we climbed up the hill with our friends Vicens and Jeannette to wander within and on top of the ancient walls.
