(So yeah, gifts, for those of you who still, you know, want to send Missy a Xmas/Bday gift, Amazon.com gift certificates [because you can never have too much reading material] are easy to buy and send on-line, just, you know a brief helpful note. Ok then, moving on.)
Ok, in all reality I have to confess to a certain amount of depression after ‘the kids’ left. So I sat in my favorite comfy office chair in front of the TV with a bowl of lemon juice and BBQ potato chips, several six packs of Pepsi and my ‘blankie’ and watched The West Wing continuously for a week. Don’t laugh. You be depressed in any way you choose and I’ll be depressed in my own pathetic way.
The kids visit was so fun and revitalizing. I enjoyed every sleep deprived minute of it. We drove and shopped and behaved like true tourists and it was incredibly fun. J and I had some mother/daughter bonding time while S and Rich chased down piles of rubble across most of Southern France.
(They have photos and video that they would be more than happy to share with you with very little prompting)
In order for ‘the kids’ to check off some more countries on their passport, we went to Andorra and to Bilbao, Spain.
We visited Andorra on a cold, foggy and rainy Friday (1/9). We got a reasonably early start and were fearful that the rain here would be indicative of snow in the mountains, but our fears were unfounded. To be certain, they had received several feet of snow since the last time we were there, but the roads were clear, wet but clear, and five foot piles of snow walled us in on both sides as we climbed the winding mountain road.
The high snow covered peaks were so brilliantly white that they blended in with the high passing clouds. The day was cold and wet but mostly clear by the time we got to Pas de la Casa. After we parked the car we split up. The guys went off in search of sporting goods and liquor, not necessarily in that order. J and I went shopping for shoes, perfume and other girly stuff.
In France, and apparently in Andorra also, this week had been designated as ‘mark everything down and put it on clearance’ week. We had noticed this when we went to the mall a few days previous and the crowds were more like those of pre-Christmas not post-Christmas shopping. Everything everywhere was on sale or clearance.
J found a beautiful pair of red shoes. Not like ‘ruby slippers’ red, more like a deep dark red in smooth leather with a good 2 inch heal. They are so pretty! I wanted a pair too but they didn’t have another pair in the store. The shoes cost her less than 40€. We shopped for purses and found some very lovely ones, we, however, managed to resist the urge.
I for my part managed to purchase a nice scarf and matching gloves. You can never have too many scarves!
(A small delivery van has just parked across the street. The side of the van says ‘I.R.S. Information’. What do you suppose?)
Rich and S meanwhile had purchased some liquor and had moved on to looking for sporting goods by the time we caught up to them. Among Rich’s purchases was a bottle of Absinthe. Absinthe is banned in the US and several other countries. After we read about it we wanted to try some, but Rich had only purchased the one bottle and he wouldn’t share. No, really he wouldn’t have been able to take the open container back with him. He did not, by the way, have any troubles at customs.
(Well, at least I think he didn’t have any trouble, I haven’t however heard from him….hmmm. Wouldn’t he still get his phone call?)
On Saturday we got up at the crack of dawn…no wait crack of dawn would seem to imply that the sun rose shortly after we got on the road when in reality we drove ½ of the six hour drive in rainy darkness. The plan was to visit Frank Gerry’s Guggenheim Museum building. Though we were still undecided as to whether we were going to just see the architecture or actually view the collections inside. It was a subject of some debate on which I will not elaborate.
When by mid morning we reached St. Sebastian, Spain we decided to stop at the beach so we could all touch the Atlantic. Yeah, hard to believe but that was my first dip into Atlantic waters. St. Sebastian is a very picturesque coastal town and we left the highway and drove the coastal road for a while so we could see the vistas. I picked out the perfect cliff on which to build our summer home, it has breathtaking ocean views and lovely vistas of sheep dotted hillsides. Well, then it was on to Bilbao and the Guggenheim.
First I have to say that it eludes me why this beautiful modern building was put in the heart of Bilbao. Bilbao, putting it in as nice a way as possible, is an ugly city. The rain and low clouds trapped the stench of the paper mills near the ground and the smell was incredibly nauseating. Most evident were high rise tenement looking buildings all partly obscured by the paper mill smog. The city was also not very user friendly (typical for Spain?); we drove past the museum at least four times (reminiscent of the Barcelona highway fiasco) and wasted about an hour trying to find a parking structure for the museum. There evidently wasn't one and we were finally able to park on the street about 4 blocks away from the museum.
We decided on the front steps of the museum that we would go ahead and go in, since we had, after all, just driven 6 hours for this. For 10€ a person we got admission, a guide book and a phone-like handset with a recorded guide to the interior and exterior of the museum. The guidebooks were available in English, Spanish, Euskara (the second language of Bilbao), Catalan (the second language of Barcelona), French and Galego. We grabbed one of each just for fun. We all took loads of pictures of the outside and a few of the inside. Where as some museums will allow only non-flash photography inside, the Guggenheim does not allow any photography inside. However the inside of the museum is as architecturally interesting as the outside.
A vast majority of the ‘art’ was, in the very least, bizarre. The kind of stuff that makes people in the US scream about the NEA. It’s true that art is in the eye of the beholder. Anyway, the building is what you really want to explore. We had each taken a few photos of the main central hall, when a proctor (to be referred to as the Camera Gestapo from here forward) in a red blazer came over and told us that photos were not allowed. We covered three floors of exhibits and I, being a disobedient juvenile delinquent, hid in a few corners to take some photos of interior architecture. Well, being sly has never been one of my strong suites and so it was that I got caught. The Camera Gestapo did not however take my camera away from me. Instead it was placed in a sealed clear plastic bag that I was then forced to carry around like a scarlet letter. Not only that, but I’m sure that the Gestapo agent got on her little walkie talkie and warned all the other agents because from that point forward every red blazered employee of the museum seemed to mark my every movement and observe me specifically with particularly scowly looks. I have to confess that this made me a bit uncomfortable though I'm happy to say that the other members of my traveling party seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely at my expense.
We lunched in the museum restaurant that although slightly expensive was quite delicious. With the help of the human vacuum that was traveling with us, we cleared all of our plates of every delectable morsel. The dessert was an especially divine variation on rice pudding.
We visited the museum store and bought our Guggenheim souvenirs and headed home tired and poorer but happy.
On Sunday after a nice lie in and quiet day we went to a movie and dinner in town. We picked a new restaurant to try right off the capital square and had a great time. We spent our dinner conversing in goofy accents. Rich in his very good Irish accent, me in my southern. The other two spoke little and hid their embarrassment at our antics pretty well. We had a wonderful bottle of champagne (that added to the hilarity) and toasted Ardo, who phoned during dinner to inform us that he and Kay Marie are finally engaged. Finally! Congrats again kids!
On Monday S, with much foot dragging, was back at work and we headed back into the city to walk and lunch and see and also to teach J how to flirt. She says we embarrass her, I don’t know why. We had dinner in town that night and were joined by S and some South African co-workers of his who were in town. It was a very lively dinner group and we had a blast at yet another new restaurant off the capital square.
On Tuesday I got the kids to the airport where we tearfully said goodbye. That was one of the loneliest and saddest drives home I’ve ever experienced.
..........
Anyway, last Saturday we bought me a car. It’s a 1994 Mercedes C180 Elegance. It’s in reasonably good shape and rides very smoothly. We hope to pick it up next Saturday at which point I’ll post a picture.
That night (1/17) we attended the AIT New Years party. It was at a Brazilian restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. The food was delicious and abundant. The food, served family style, included bowls of salad with breaded fried bananas on top, black beans, a cheesy green bean casserole, rice, chips (steak fries? fried potato wedges?) apple sauce, bread and wine. There was also more meat than anyone could eat. As the sides were being placed on the long tables, a man came around with skewers of meat from which he served us. The first meat course was chicken, then bratwurst, then pork, then duck, then quail and then beef. A new meat was brought out every 20 minutes or so and then each variety was brought back numerous times for seconds or thirds (it was an Atkins dieter’s dream). By the time dessert and coffee came around we’d had more meat and wine than was strictly necessary.
At 11:30 when the music started we were ready to dance off the meal. We had a great time moving to a ‘get up and dance’ Brazilian beat. The tiny dance floor was packed beyond capacity and S and I made it a game to try and dance our way to the front. This little game got me into some trouble later in the evening.
There were about 60 AIT and ‘France/Etas Unis’ club members only a couple of which we had met before. We met two new couples, both British, who were quite fun. The noise level made conversation darned near impossible and once the music started all conversations were definitely ended.
Of course there are a few AIT club members who I should definitely steer clear of from now on for reasons that I do not care to go into. Let’s just say that there were three women on the dance floor who were very unhappy with me. I believe they were just jealous of my beauty and masterful dancing skills, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. They, however, may have a different view of the events, to which they are absolutely entitled.
Ok, here are three pics from the Guggenheim trip. The first one of three of my favorite people by a cool dog, the next one is an exterior shot of one side of the Museum and the third is one of my contraband pics of one of the interior 'great halls'.
