03 Tuesday May 2016
Posted in Accommodations
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We depart the Gare de Lyon with all the fanfare of a taxi departing a stoplight. A quiet and really fast taxi. But unlike any taxi I’ve ever known, and even though the Gare de Lyon is Paris’s central train station, we’re out of the city and watching grazing sheep on grassy knolls before we’ve even removed our coats.
05 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in Sentiments, Travel
If I could save time in a bottle,
The first thing that I’d like to do,
Is to save every day,
Till Eternity passes away,
Just to spend them with you.
01 Monday Jul 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
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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.
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?
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.
30 Thursday May 2013
Panorama of Girona taken from the wall’s north tower. Click to enlarge (all photos).
During recorded history, Girona has undergone twenty-five sieges and has been captured seven times. Defending against the bad guys has been the name of the game since the First Century BC, when the Romans began construction of a wall around the city. Over the years the wall was fortified: slots were added to accommodate bows with arrows; towers were built to house heavier artillery; the wall kept getting higher.
28 Tuesday May 2013
Posted in Travel
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People in Girona often ask us “Why three months in Girona?” True, if we were just visiting landmarks and museums in the city, that would take about three days. While some people travel for art and some for food, we are in it for the people. We stay a long time in order to make relationships that we hope will be enlightening and longstanding. We are curious and communicative by nature and profession; we like to learn about the world through the people that live here. But only if we really like hanging out with them as well.
The Expat Almanac 