I’m on a roll – two posts in one day! Had some thoughts so going somewhat stream of consciousness on my Wednesday. Had class from 9 – 1. Four hours is a lot each day but still loving it thanks to an amazingly patient, kind, dedicated and talented teacher. I have a long way to go, but you can’t say I’m not trying. Point of reference – school is about 3 blocks from home. I pass by the beautiful campus of the University of Barcelona every day.

Came home for a quick change and walked the two blocks to the bus stop so I can make my way across town to meet a friend for our regular Wednesday singles game. Those who know me well, know that I’m better at doubles than singles, nevertheless we have great games every week. I walk in the door around 4:00 and head off immediately with Lilly – there are errands to be run.

The goal of this day’s excursion was to find some Rice Krispies. We did that at our first stop – a nice grocery store about 5 blocks from the house. You should know that there is another one closer (a lot are closer) but they don’t carry Rice Krispies. Off to Fruteca, our favorite little fruteria. We get the usuals – fresh milk, yogurt, fresh juices, clementines (oh, how we eat so many clementines), limes, blood oranges, and pre-packaged ibérico ham and fresh eggs. Net door is a bakery that we normally find with a line snaking down the block. We were in luck and walked right in. Bought a couple fresh loaves of bread, a tasty chocolate muffin and seasonal, delicious, sugary small donuts. With all the groceries and now fruit and milk weighing down our shoulders and filling our canvas bags, maybe we should make our way home. Then I remember the cute little spot for coffee on the way home – ODD KIOSK. Picture the cutest little pink kiosk, serving the best coffee brand in the city, stocked with curated and curious gay art. It’s amazing. And the owner in his adorable pink apron and awesome spectacles. I introduced myself (yes, in Spanish) and explained that we were soon to be neighbors! It’s actually just one block from what will be our new apartment in a few weeks! More on that later.

Coffee in hand, the bags were starting to get heavy. Dropped our haul off at the apartment with plans to go right. back. out. I had more errands. Again with canvas bags in hand we headed out for the liquor store (3 blocks from home). Got what I needed, even asking in Spanish for the ginger beer that was not in its usually spot on the shelf. The gracious employees knew just where it was in back, explaining that the shipment had arrived but it was not yet out. I feel more and more like a local every week. I promised Lilly that she could grab an A&W from Taste of America on the same block. It’s just what it sounds like – mostly American food imported and sold at ridiculous prices. I couldn’t pass up the bag of marshmallows though – I mean, we had a fresh box of Rice Krispies….we needed to make treats! Ok. Doubled back down the block, popped in the cooking store to do some recon on a soda siphon and French press. Didn’t need to buy anything but always fun to stop in. OK. Now around the corner to the gourmet store owned by the same people as the liquor store. These guys are total pros. I wasn’t sure how to describe them to you all – so I found this sweet picture online. Although the product line is slightly more updated than shown to included hand-carved jamón, cheeses, foie gras, the fanciest water I’ve ever seen, and a curated wine shop, this picture perfectly represents the space. The men all wear the same style uniform. It’s 2021 not 1960 and I love it so much! All I needed was a bit more ham (we ALWAYS have local ham in the house) and cheese and we were out the door. Walking back the few blocks to home I was reminded just how close everything is for us. And just how beautiful the surrounding architecture. Every day I notice something new and beautiful.

So, that’s a bit of a day in the life here. News from home is that our dads have both had their first vaccine shots…could it mean that travel is going to open up in the coming months? We feel like there is a light at the end of what has been a dark and lonely tunnel for them. We want to share all of this with our dads and whoever else can make their way over. Eventually.

Oh – and we are changing apartments! This apartment has served us well and was a great place to start our Barcelona life…but it is a bit small and has too many problems to overcome (still don’t have a fridge in its proper place, just one sitting near where it belongs in our tiny, tiny kitchen). We are sad to leave our kind, helpful doorman, Hugo. He’s the bright spot here! We will still come back and bring him sweets. Will post pictures when we get in our new place in a couple weeks. It’s 3 blocks up the street. That’s all for know. Love to you all.

Time continues to fly by for us here in Spain. Can’t believe it will be a month on Monday that we’ve been here.

UPDATE: This is all old news. It is now NOVEMBER 6. This story happened weeks ago! We snuck away to the Pyrenees to see another part of the region. It was most definitely cooler, mountainous, gorgeous and we loved our 4.5 mile hike along a beautiful gorge – Ruta de las Gorges Carança.

Cameron had been asking for a good hike – and he got one. It was challenging, stunning scenery, a little dicey, dangerous and Cameron approved. David took a couple videos as we clung to the safety rope along the cliffs. At maybe three to five feet across at points, this mama was grateful the kids had something to hold on to. At the highest I am guessing we were probably 300 feet above the gorge. The whole thing seemed a bit surreal. As we hit what we assumed was the halfway point (yeah, no helpful maps or blazes along the way) David, ever the responsible dad and husband, reminded us that rain was predicted and we needed to pick up the pace. When it was safe to do so and we were not perilously clinging to the side of the mountain to avoid plunging into the gorge, we jogged and tried to make double time. And…just as we finished putting our pack in the truck and climbed in the car the rain began to fall. We would NOT have wanted to spend any time on a rain-soaked trail.

David navigated the switchbacks in the rain like a champ. We also used the time to teach the children an important life skill….how to use an atlas. A-T-L-A-S. We bought one the second day in the city for a couple of reasons. First – you never know when your signal is going to drop and your mapping app quits on you. Second – google maps doesn’t make it easy to spot what might be a cute little mountain village or a town you should quickly research and visit. Grateful that our car had awesome navigation, but we did notice what looked like a neat mountain town off in the distance – the atlas helped identify said adorable town so we headed over to Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via.

A tuckered Cameron zonked almost before we were out of the parking lot after the hike. Lilly and David volunteered to do the reconnoissance mission in the cold, pouring rain while I selflessly stayed in the dry, warm car so Cam could continue to snooze. Mission accomplished. A rain-soaked Lilly returned to lead us to a cute, warm restaurant. The waffles, crepes, cappuccino and hot chocolate with whipped cream warmed our innards and fueled us for a walkabout. The town was virtually void of all visitors, but we were grateful for the few enterprising shop owners who kept their doors open. Forgot to mention that we were in France. We actually kept jumping the border from Spain into France all weekend, mostly because of a funny little island city of Spain surrounded by France. Click the article to learn about that!

Anyway – we had success finding a few tasty French cheeses, a bottle of local beer and another bottle of local liquor from a lovely French woman who graciously helped us. She didn’t speak English and I don’t speak French. She just kept telling us to use google translate when her French didn’t quite translate for me. It wasn’t until 20 minutes into the conversation that it occurred to me that we were minutes from the Spanish border and she might just speak Spanish. Yep. We had a good chuckle since we could have simply been chatting in Spanish the whole time. Our conversation continued and turns out that when two people speak broken Spanish to one another you can communicate pretty well – and no one judges the grammatical errors or conjugation flaws!

The next day we headed back to Girona and showed the kids the church and old town. We previously visited this area with our dads (see Octogenarians in Spain blog) and used it as a chance to recreate some photos. The kids stood in for Lou and Denny. As we climbed and wandered the kids appreciated that their grandfathers made it up the dozens of steep, stone stairs and around the hilly city! I’ll try to upload a split shot of our recreations later – poor David has been tasked with that one.

Today, September 11, is a Catalan holiday. (remember I said I drafted this long ago, just roll with it). We wandered a bit just to see what the locals would do to commemorate the day. Typically there would be upwards of one million residents filling the streets to show their support for an independent Cataluña, but the pandemic curbed most of the big plans. Keenly aware that we didn’t want to find ourselves in a huge crowd or near any sort of riots (we haven’t heard of any) we wandered different neighborhoods to observe how folks were showing their Catalan pride. Lots of folks wearing their flags as capes, one small, very orderly and spaced out march (pro-Communist I might add). Here are a couple of interesting articles about the significance of the day in this region of Spain and an explanation about the different flags flown here in Cataluña. We spent a good amount of time at a local coffee shop reading to the kids and discussing what it means for Barcelona, Cataluña and Spain as a whole. Interesting stuff.

https://www.barcelonas.com/la-diada.html

https://www.barcelonas.com/catalan-flags.html

OK. So that has you caught up through September 11, nearly seven weeks ago. I’ll try to catch up again on our next adventures. But, know this: our days are filled with exploring, schoolwork, coffee shops, people watching, researching cities near to us, road tripping (when and where it’s safe), checking out markets, eating on sidewalks and late night walks to the best darn gelato shop in the city.

More coming. I promise. – I am racing to play catch up. Writing the blogs is the easy part – uploading the right pictures is really dragging me down and causing all the delay.

I can’t believe we’ve been here almost a month already! Wow, it is speeding by faster than I even imagined. We don’t even have a well working shower yet—ours is like a combination of getting hit with a fire hose while someone simultaneously spits on you. But other than some upkeep issues, our apartment is ideal, and in the PERFECT location. All part of the experience—especially the shower, which is a true adventure.

Thank God Kate & Lilly have been on top of the blog. I did have good intentions—do have good intentions—but there is so much to do here. I haven’t written and I’ve barely read. When I do have free time I prefer to just set out (hopefully with Kate or the kiddos) in some new direction and discover more of what this amazing city has to offer. And it is so packed full that even the same route reveals new gems on each and every excursion.

I’ve always been someone who relishes the unopened gift on Christmas (I never tried to sneak a peek)—Whatever could be in there?? BCN is like a city of unopened Christmas gifts. Each night… or day… or Thursday… I don’t know, schedules aren’t really a thing… the gates and doors are closed on businesses, often covering their sign and any clues about what’s inside. You walk by some small, closed door without ever questioning what is behind the gate and graffiti art. Then one pass you see it open and discover some amazing cocktail bar or craft beer shop, a giant, multi-level bookstore, a store that sells nothing but rubber ducks, an art gallery, a barreled vermouth bar, a giant bike shop, and of course endless markets, cafes, and restaurants. I literally just saw a hotel across the street from us I hadn’t noticed until yesterday. Seriously.

And that’s just here in our neighborhood.

Speaking of our neighborhood, for those familiar, we are in Central Eixample which is just West of Plaça de Catalunya (away from the water). The Plaça divides four sections of Barcelona: El Raval, The Gòtic Quarter (+ El Born) and Left & Right Eixample—so we are close to all the action! Rambla de Catalunya divides the two sides, so officially we are are on the left, or “Gayxample.” It’s got a ton of energy and a great vibe! Just beyond the quarters are Barceloneta (the beach) and Gracia, La Sagrada Familia & other Gaudi creations and I guess other things too… we have a lot more exploring to do!

One find not too exciting for everyone else, but great for me is the WeWork on Passeig de Gràcia. It has been a quick and easy place to go work rooftop, use a printer, and get away for calls where I need privacy. It is just one block away, in-between a huge FC Barcelona store and a Gaudi building, and open late. The time difference has had a few challenges, but honestly been a pretty easy transition. I LOVE having my mornings free to go for a walk, hang with the family, then start working in the afternoon. We may sneak out occasionally at 10pm for a dinner (totally normal time here), but that’s 4pm back home, so really able to keep US hours for the most part. And for travel it works great because we can take our time Monday morning—or any morning. Have I had a conference call end at midnight? Yes, but totally worth it. Oh, also WeWork has free coffee and beer.

Fractional Petsolt

Those of you I work with know I try to work in new places as often as possible… why not!? Here are my daily snapshots of a work location and view on Instagram @FractionalPetsolt

(COVID did make this a bit challenging back in SOP, but I did my best to keep it going)

I have so much more to share, but that’s it for now. Please read the blogs from Kate & Lilly about all the details and much better writing—I will try to do a better job of memorializing my thoughts about this adventure and share some stories too. I promise!

Salud

Our first road trip in Europe did not disappoint. Note: long post ahead – these blogs are to fill in family and friends and will serve as a bit of a journal for us so will include many details. We are most certainly counting our blessings that we can safely travel by car and explore nearby France. David was at the rental agency Friday morning when they opened and we were out the door by about 7:45. First stop Aix-en-Provence, maybe a 4.5 hour drive from home. Checked in early to our hotel so we could drop our things and park the car. It all came flooding back – the tiny, tiny parking garages. I mean, there was about 2 inches of clearance on either side of the car as we snaked down into the garage. And while David to me seems somewhat absent-minded when he is behind the wheel in Southern Pines, when we are on switchbacks, small roads and trying to navigate a parking space made for a Mini Cooper, there is no one I would rather have behind the wheel. He is the master. Anyway – set off on foot to see what this little old town had to offer. Lunch outdoors under giant umbrellas with a carafe of local rosé and a gorgeous and delicious salad with the biggest piece of burrata on top seemed like a pretty good way to kick off the weekend. Bliss. As is our way, we wandered down cobblestone streets, doubled back on ourselves because we didn’t know where we were, hit a few local shops, walked some more. David scooted back to work from the hotel while the kids and I walked and walked and walked some more. Grabbed David for a bite to eat across town. More rosé, more delicious (not fancy) French food, more catching up and laughing at the dinner table. One observation for our 2 weeks here in Europe – I have maybe heard five different groups of people we have passed speaking English. Normally I feel like there’s English all around. This is a nice change. Oh, another observation is that the French smoke so, so much. In Barcelona proper we see folks smoking outside at restaurants and occasionally on the street, but in France it seemed like EVERYONE was ALWAYS smoking. Gag.

We originally made plans for a free wine tasting at a local vineyard and then decided it might be more fun to just scoot over to the next town where we had a hotel booked. This meant a drive down into Nice where I wanted to catch the Grand Corniche – the beautiful elevated roadway overlooking the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera). Fortunate to have been on many scenic drives but this one takes the cake for me! Every turn presented a grand view, and overlooking Monaco from high above was a treat. Cameron pointed out the luxury yachts moored in the bays. I don’t know what those people do (or don’t do) to have such opulent boats.

Menton is the citrus capital of the area so everything is lemons. Our check in at the hotel included fresh squeezed lemonade – a nice touch on a hot day. The hotel was situated on the Lower Corniche (basically Ocean Boulevard) and our room overlooked the mountains out back. Normally I might be disappointed to not face the water, but the view out back with enormous windows open all night offered a glimpse into life in this sweet town. You’ll see a theme emerging…. we set out for town, map in hand, and wandered the colorful and steep streets to the cemetery at the top of the old town. What a view! We then meandered back a different way, got lost (not really, but we did do more doubling back), and found our way to the more commercial district. The highlight this afternoon was the kids getting into the Mediterranean and bobbing around. We found a beachfront Italian restaurant (we were about 2 kilometers from the French/Italian border still on the French side) where we were covered with giant umbrellas when the rain began to fall. The kids, undeterred, kept swimming and enjoying the water. We shared a couple of pizzas, David and I had more rosé (told you there was a trend) and we waited out the rain. Kids dried off, threw their clothes back on, shared some tiramisu and a lemon tart, and we were off. We picked up some tasty and locally made limoncello, honey, soaps and art. We think Menton is a great little town and enjoyed the colored buildings and contrasting shutters. We considered surprising Lilly by walking on the promenade over to Italy but – COVID. Another time, kid. We freshened up and had a late dinner at a hopping spot a few minutes from the hotel then back to bed.

I failed to mention that while driving the Grand Corniche we saw signs indicating it was part of the route for the Tour de France which got us wondering how and where we might catch a glimpse. Or was that totally wishful thinking? Our hotel was able to clue us in, explaining it would be passing through Èze the next afternoon. We tend to have pretty good luck when traveling and this day proved no different – we were already booked to stay in Èze the next night. The tour schedule had all been changed thanks to COVID so we were in luck. We got up early and made our way down to the medieval town, parked our car (this time in what I might even call a full sized parking lot which was awesome), and made our way to the pool. Our room wasn’t ready so we lounged, swam, read and took a bazillion selfies from the infinity pool overlooking the Mediterranean. I would argue this was one of the prettiest views I’ve ever had from a hotel. Since our room still wasn’t ready and we wanted to hit the town and see about those bikers coming through, we changed back and set out for town. This was a dicey situation as we walked 25 minutes down the same beautiful roads we had been driving… BLIND CORNERS, SPEEDING DRIVERS, NO SHOULDERS. David was our brave leader in his bright pink shirt ready to take one for the team, you know, if a car should come too close and pluck him off! We made it without incident to the cobblestoned, hilly old town. We learned a little bit earlier that this town was my mother-in-law’s favorite town on the French Riviera, making it especially meaningful as we explored. We could all picture her going in all the little shops and enjoying her wine at a picturesque little restaurant. Our lunch was a trip…. everything was pretty much shut down because the Tour was passing through. I know what you might be thinking – that would be a opportunity to stay open because of the large crowds. Me too. As it turns out there were not all that many people there to see the Tour so there were only 2 restaurants open. One was fully booked and the hostess shook her finger and head at David when he held up 4 fingers looking for a table. No go. He did manage to secure the only indoor table at a crepe and pasta and pizza restaurant. The table was literally in the kitchen. The 3 other tables outside were full and besides, they only sat two people each. The waiter was also the host and the chef. Since we were not in a hurry it was fun to watch him work, preparing one meal at a time for the other customers. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I would not say that David has a grasp for picking up languages and today showcased this point to the children. The only options on the menu were 5 pizzas, 4 pastas, and 4 crepes. David picked what he assumed was some sort of Sicilian pizza thinking that meant some spicy meats and cheese. Turns out that whatever he ordered was in fact NOT a meat and cheese pizza but rather one covered in olives and anchovies. Out of curtesy and to assure our waiter/host/chef/owner that we liked his pizza when we asked several times, David ate about half. The kids and I do not do anchovies (I tried but couldn’t do it) so David plowed through. The sweet, older gentleman seemed genuinely concerned about us liking his pizza and pleased that we did (or so it appeared).

Now to the Tour de France. Seriously, the Tour de France. The barricades were set up and a small crowd began to gather. David and Lilly found a quiet little spot near the bridge (no one was allowed on the bridge for good reason) where we could catch the riders taking the turn at the bottom of a long, fast hill. There were so few people we were able to spread out. Really. After anxiously waiting about 45 minutes the riders began to come. Oh, let me back up. While we waited at a little bar about 100 feet from the barricades the merchandise trucks came by selling official gear, followed by advertising vans chucking gear and samples into the small crowd making it festive. Note: the photo of David in the bright yellow bucket hat was just him modeling; that hat is going to straight to Chuck Schirmer when we return! Then we watched about 20-40 support vehicles, maybe more, come in advance of the riders. Police, official TDF vehicles, motorcycles, ambulances, street sweepers. Yep, there was a giant street sweeper that came through and picked up most of the pine straw that had been blowing onto the course. He was preceded by a man with a blower pushing the pine straw to the curbs. And then he was followed by the same blower guy working briskly to keep up with the pace of the mess blowing onto the road. Made me think of Moore County with all the pine straw falling. Ok. Now here come the riders. They are FAST. And after the lead peloton came, all of their support vehicles careening around the bend with about half a dozen bikes on each roof rack. They were barely managing the turns – it was crazy. The bikers were cruising, the sun was shining and those around us were cheering. We waited for a few more groups to come through, including all of the support vehicles. *For those of you who know me well, you won’t be surprised to learn that I cried when the first racers came by. I mean, I saw the Tour de France!

Less exciting that afternoon was our first family game of Pétanque, a game much like the bocce we play in our backyard, except this time we are overlooking the Mediterranean. Here’s a link to a short video about the game. Despite the very simple rules we still had several disagreements about certain aspects – NO, we aren’t competitive! 🙂

After breakfast the next day Cameron, David and I squeezed in an hour of really fun, grass court tennis. While we did that, Lilly was dutifully at work on the terrace since school is officially in session. She’s so disciplined. I think she was pretty content with her set-up anyway!

We had to check out and head to town for our private perfume workshop, complete with Champagne and guidance from Caroline, Galimard’s chief perfumer. Three hours was how long it took to whittle down our favorite selections from the 127 jars in front of us. We selected from base notes, heart notes and top notes. Depending on which layer they are from (base, heart, top) the scents will linger different lengths of time. It was overwhelming and educational. Lilly’s creation is perfect for her – fresh, lovely, light. I would gladly wear it. Mine is slightly heavier but still light and just my vibe. We were told to wait two weeks for them to macerate and mature before wearing. Since that was the case, I felt like picking out another bottle at Galimard made perfect sense. Caroline walked by and told the saleslady which one I would like – not surprising, she was spot on! Our handsome gentlemen were by our sides the whole time. Cameron was especially helpful when it came time to measure each fragrance into the beaker. The formula was tweaked by Caroline who at each of four phases had us choose our favorite scents from a batch of her choosing. Once we had narrowed it down she wrote down how many millimeters of each would added to strike the right notes. Now our formulas are on file and should we want to reorder, we can. Or we can add it to lotion or body wash. Grasse, just a few miles from where we were in Èze, is the perfume capital with over 40 factories. I think Cameron was relieved to be served gummy bears, chocolates and Orangina during the workshop rather than touring multiple factories!

And just like that it was time to head home. We really packed it in and saw some beautiful scenery. We covered a lot of ground on our first “vacation” and feel like we learned a lot. I forgot to mention that prior to our trip I tasked Lilly with doing some research on the region – foods, customs, etc. In true, adorable, perfectionist, creative Lilly style she created a beautiful list, complete with pictures to share. I can say without a doubt that given more time and with safety ensured, we will head back and explore the region again.