Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 09:23:27 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Wow...
ok, so maaaaaybe i was a little harsh on Barcelona in my last email. (sheesh, just my opinion, thatīs all...) canīt believe i got so many people telling me how great barcelona is! no, i didnīt go to mont serat and i didnīt see the Gaudi museum and i didnīt see the dancing fountains at the olympic park and i didnīt go to any of the nightclubs and i didnīt stroll around mont juic and i didnīt .... well i didnīt do a lot of things. granted. but from what i DID see (yes, including the stairs climb from where the elevator dropped me off at the Sagrada Familia), it was not all that impressive as paris or rome for example... that's all. maybe if i had gone to all those places it would have been better.
Anyway... enough about yesterday. i'm no longer in barcelona now, so i'm really not going to see all those other places on this trip. now i'm in madrid.
i took a few detours along the way, which made the normally 3-hour drive into a 7-hour drive. first stop was in the town of Tarragona, just a half hour south of Barcelona. This didn't take too long - i parked the car near the center of the town and walked around a little bit. Then drove around a little bit. It's an old Roman city, with a BIG wall dating from that time right in the middle, and modern buildings built around it, in some cases attached to it. That was kind of interesting.... But i didn't linger too long there.
Next stop (not really stop but a drive'through) was through Castille and Valencia ... this whole drive from Barcelona to Valencia is beautiful - occasional glimpses of the mediterranean on the left, with occasional glimpses of medieval castles on the right... and maybe some old watch towers. i'd like to think they're also about 700-800 years old, but most probably not. They looked old, so maybe ... and it's nice to think that they were!
Then Valencia to Madrid, with a few exits at small villages along the way... i didn't really know where i was going.. i just took some exit, drove around the town, and got back on the highway. This part is a lot like Painted Desert in arizona -- red mountains all around!
And into Madrid... and one of the highlights of this trip:
Some time ago i had told some of you that "some day" i'd like to stay in a luxury hotel just for the fun of it, and today became "some day". Tonight I'm at the extremely elegant Ritz Hotel in Madrid. i felt so out of place when i checked in! wearing my jeans and fleece jacket while everyone else was in a formal suit and tie... at least i was wearing a buttoned shirt today instead of a t-shirt! and i haven't shaved in the last 3 days. oh well... it's a great hotel though.. and relatively cheap for that class of hotel ... less than 200 euros/night, and i'm getting some bonus American Airlines miles, so thats always good. Inside the room they have a book on the history of the place... it was built in 1910, with the king and queen of spain at the inauguration. and over the years its been home to guests like prince rainier and princess grace of monaco.... the british royal family.... the full "who's who" list of Hollywood -- richard gere, tom cruise, nicole kidman, brad pitt, etc..... and then there's me. hmmmmm....
i didn't see anyone famous there tonight.
anyway, i'm running out of time on this pc and i dont know how many internet cafes will be open christmas eve and christmas day... so ..... merry christmas, feliz navidad, happy birthday, feliz cumpleanos, and happy birthday and feliz cumpleanos again.
tomorrow off to toledo and seville...
hasta la vista,
-me.
Another e-mail I sent a few days later regarding that night:
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 07:33:12 -0800 (PST)
Subject: A night at the Ritz...
Finally holidays are over, which means three things:
1. restaurants are open and i can eat.
2. gas stations are open and i can fill up on gas.
3. internet cafe's are open and i can send this email.
I'll get to everything in a bit... a lot has happened (and not happened) in the last 3 days, so i think i'll separate the emails, starting with this one which i'm calling "A night at the Ritz"..
It's an old hotel, and if i didn't believe in ghosts before, i do now! i woke up in the middle of the night but couldn't open my eyes, in fact couldn't move any part of my body! i was just frozen.. then felt something inside.. i can't describe it, just something -- like someone put their hand inside my chest! tried to open my eyes but couldn't for some reason...
anyway, it may have all been a dream but i was pretty sure i was awake.. about 5 minutes later i opened my eyes and there was nothing.
after that i went back to sleep.. next morning i was reading in the hotel's history book that they had some guests in the early years who were "permanent residents" there .. they lived and died there. oh well... the whole thing was kind of interesting. not really scary - just strange.
then i left for toledo the next morning..............................
Spain:
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