************DISCLAIMER - I am going back and trying to recall / recreate events after several days, so things are a little spotty right now - I will fill in as I go and between siestas *********
December 28 - 30, 2007
December 24th - Santiago de Compestela / slept / sick
December 25th - Santiago de Compestela
December 26th - visited the Cathedral at Santiago de Compestela and travel from Santiago de Compestela to A Coruna
Thursday, December 27th
Tower de Hercules - Roman lighthouse
Friday, December 28th
Enjoyed dinner at O Friedel again tonight. Had to wait until 11:00 for a table as once again we did not make a reservation despite our lesson of the previous visit. I ordered my own plate of Chicken and Rice and let Jerry share this time. Helped finish off two pitchers of sangria (did I mention that it is fabulous).
Saturday, December 29th
Today we focused on shopping and the children's science museum in A Coruna. The Science museum was really cool - lots of interactive, hands-on activities with a planetarium show (in Espanol of course) at the end. The museum is in an original windmill, so small in circumference with 5 floors including the planetarium in the dome of the windmill.
We had lunch in a nice little restaurant in the main shopping district. Riley had Sollomillio con queso y patata which was pork steak with potatoes covered in a cheese sauce - pretty yummy. Jerry and I shared a seafood dish for two which was fish, mussels and shrimp in a chicken type broth with lots of paprika and oil and rice. Good, but pretty reminiscent of the dish we had right before I got sick, so I didn't eat too much of it. It was tasty though and I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't gotten sick earlier in the trip.
Shopping in A Coruna was pretty overwhelming, lots and lots and lots of shops. I will insert some photos later of the main shopping center - it was packed with people (being Saturday) - and really crazy. We picked up some cool gifts for family and have some ideas for when we go back on Sunday / Monday.
We were pretty exhausted and ate dinner in the hotel room ordering room service. Just a club sandwich and fruit plate shared between the three of us but it was enough considering the huge lunch we ate. Watched a DVD and passed out...
Sunday, December 30th
Today we slept in really late (like until noon) and so got a late start but made it to the Aquarium which at first I thought was going to be disappointing. The first part goes into what seems to be simulating a submarine and has lots of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea posters and memorabilia - nice aquarium with a variety of fish, including a shark and some manta rays - I think after Shedd's Aquarium in Chicago though, most things are going to look second rate. The next section of the Aquarium was pretty cool though with lots of great, hands-on displays explaining the local ocean currents, tides and history of the ocean on the area. Even with our limited (excrutiatingly limited) Spanish, it was interesting and worthwhile.
Lunch was over in A Coruna by the time we finished in the Aquarium and the restaurants were closed, so we found a little grocery story (Open Cor) chain and picked up some pears, cheese, salami and chips. Grabbed our coats from the hotel and had a car picnic for lunch. It was perfect considering our belated time line today.
After our improptu lunch, we headed to the Picasso exhibit and went through it. I spent quite a bit of time translating the signs for the exhibits which I enjoyed as it improved my spanish. I learned woman (mujer) - and other words which I will hopefully remember later. I don't think Riley was as impressed as he wanted to be - he mostly wanted to find one particular portrait, which wasn't on display because his art teacher has them doing a project related to it at school. I told him he would find it online though so he was happy then.
We spent some time walking around the shopping district of A Coruna after Picasso, but I was getting tired by then - we had a lovely glass of wine sitting at an outdoor patio of a local cafe. The nice thing about Spain is that they have a good mixture of cafes and restaurants, which are totally different. In a cafe, you can get a drink and maybe a snack (depends) and they open earlier in the evening (around 4 - 6 depending on the owner). Restaurants serve meals and do not open until at least 8:00 - usually 9:00. Some don't open at all certain days of the week and many close for several weeks of the year. Definitely not the American attitude to commerce. LOL. Anyway, we spent some time deciding where to eat dinner and ended up back in the same place we had lunch the day before - Jerry and I both had steak and Riley enjoyed the pork steak meal again. That boy can eat!! He cleared every bite off his plate and then helped with desert (chocoalate mousse and flan).
Back to the hotel - DVD and bed.....
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Our Trip to Spain
Spain Trip --- December 17th - December 20th, 2007
Here, Riley is posing with artwork representing the "Festa Do Boi" - a traditional festival in Spain that I haven't quite gotten translated out yet to fully understand - but believe it is closely associated with the running of the bulls in Barcelona which occurs in July. This festival runs March to June each year. More info (in espanol) can be found at http://www.festdoboi.com/. Also here is the sign I photographed to translate later....
For more photos - view my web album at....
Day 1 - Monday, Dec. 17th
We fly away.....
The flight was fairly uneventful - if not amazingly long. Of course there were a 1001 last minute things I hadn't thought of and some things I should have known and it just escaped me - like you really, really can't bring toothpaste on a plane anymore. LOL - I was only thinking about wanting to brush my teeth before seeing Jerry after having been traveling for about 20 hours. (gross). The security guards at the airport were very nice about it and we just threw it away - bigger loss was my foot spray (again, thinking only of smelling and looking as nice as possible upon arrival :) - airport security was definitely not high on my list of packing priorities.
We flew out of Austin at 5:45pm on Monday, Dec. 17th - arrived in Minneapolis a few hours later and let me tell you - 50 minutes is exactly enough time between planes. Not one minute extra. We got to the gate and boarded immediately. (whew!). Seats in the middle stink on an 8 hour flight by the way - which of course is what we had - luckily we had tolerant neighbors who put up with Riley laying across my lap to sleep (they were probably just thankful he wasn't one of the other kids on board who were intermittently screaming). Riley was actually VERY good on the plane and slept quite a bit - kept himself occupied a lot and used his best manners without being reminded all the time.
We arrived in Amsterdam forever later and had a 5 hour layover which was enough time to figure out how to get a boarding pass (long line but not complicated) and go through security and customs in Dutch. On the way home, we will spend more time between ticketing and customs and see some of the great looking shops in that airport. This time we had an incredible bowl of tomato soup (and for those of you who know I don't eat tomato soup - let me tell you - I loved this!). It was like eating marinara sauce (the really good stuff from Gino's). Yum! After the soup, we found our gate (completely deserted) then found lounge chairs at the end of the empty terminal, laid down and rested - brushed my hair, did a little makeup, etc.
Finally, off to Madrid on the last stage of our journey - and yeah! There was Jerry. Now, remember, we hadn't seen each other in 3 weeks, so I was feeling a bit emotional - add almost 20 hours in travel to that and the fact that I couldn't find our luggage carousel in spanish and yes, I cried just a little - but happy tears - found my luggage and we went to our hotel in Madrid and crashed.
Day 2 - Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
Still just getting there....
Yes - seems like it should be day 3 - but really we lost a whole day in travel, so I am just counting it as second day of trip....
We slept fairly late and took forever getting ready and out the door, so it was pretty late by the time we got on the road to Allirez. Jerry was supposed to work today, but by the time we got to the hotel in Allirez, he only went in for a couple of hours. The drive was beautifully scenically, but honestly, I was still so exhausted from the travel, I kept dozing off. I felt so badly, but Jerry just laughed and said I would probably understand how wiped out he is after those trips better now. (I will - I still won't like him needing to sleep for 2 days when he gets home - but I will definitely like it!).
Day 3 - Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007
Finally - a day to explore
Today, Riley and I went out exploring Allirez. This is a beautiful little town with ancient (re: medieval times) churches, stone walls and homes. Jerry lives here at the AC Hotel when working in Spain - although he actually works in Ourense which is about 15-20 minutes away.
We fly away.....
The flight was fairly uneventful - if not amazingly long. Of course there were a 1001 last minute things I hadn't thought of and some things I should have known and it just escaped me - like you really, really can't bring toothpaste on a plane anymore. LOL - I was only thinking about wanting to brush my teeth before seeing Jerry after having been traveling for about 20 hours. (gross). The security guards at the airport were very nice about it and we just threw it away - bigger loss was my foot spray (again, thinking only of smelling and looking as nice as possible upon arrival :) - airport security was definitely not high on my list of packing priorities.
We flew out of Austin at 5:45pm on Monday, Dec. 17th - arrived in Minneapolis a few hours later and let me tell you - 50 minutes is exactly enough time between planes. Not one minute extra. We got to the gate and boarded immediately. (whew!). Seats in the middle stink on an 8 hour flight by the way - which of course is what we had - luckily we had tolerant neighbors who put up with Riley laying across my lap to sleep (they were probably just thankful he wasn't one of the other kids on board who were intermittently screaming). Riley was actually VERY good on the plane and slept quite a bit - kept himself occupied a lot and used his best manners without being reminded all the time.
We arrived in Amsterdam forever later and had a 5 hour layover which was enough time to figure out how to get a boarding pass (long line but not complicated) and go through security and customs in Dutch. On the way home, we will spend more time between ticketing and customs and see some of the great looking shops in that airport. This time we had an incredible bowl of tomato soup (and for those of you who know I don't eat tomato soup - let me tell you - I loved this!). It was like eating marinara sauce (the really good stuff from Gino's). Yum! After the soup, we found our gate (completely deserted) then found lounge chairs at the end of the empty terminal, laid down and rested - brushed my hair, did a little makeup, etc.
Finally, off to Madrid on the last stage of our journey - and yeah! There was Jerry. Now, remember, we hadn't seen each other in 3 weeks, so I was feeling a bit emotional - add almost 20 hours in travel to that and the fact that I couldn't find our luggage carousel in spanish and yes, I cried just a little - but happy tears - found my luggage and we went to our hotel in Madrid and crashed.
Day 2 - Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
Still just getting there....
Yes - seems like it should be day 3 - but really we lost a whole day in travel, so I am just counting it as second day of trip....
We slept fairly late and took forever getting ready and out the door, so it was pretty late by the time we got on the road to Allirez. Jerry was supposed to work today, but by the time we got to the hotel in Allirez, he only went in for a couple of hours. The drive was beautifully scenically, but honestly, I was still so exhausted from the travel, I kept dozing off. I felt so badly, but Jerry just laughed and said I would probably understand how wiped out he is after those trips better now. (I will - I still won't like him needing to sleep for 2 days when he gets home - but I will definitely like it!).
Day 3 - Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007
Finally - a day to explore
Today, Riley and I went out exploring Allirez. This is a beautiful little town with ancient (re: medieval times) churches, stone walls and homes. Jerry lives here at the AC Hotel when working in Spain - although he actually works in Ourense which is about 15-20 minutes away.Riley and I took several pictures today - Him standing on a typical street in Allirez. Yes, they are all that narrow. No wonder Europeans drive such little cars. They have no choice. You can still find many of the horse hitches on the walls outside shops and buildings. Many of the streets and buildings are renovated and updated, but original stonework and structure from the 1200's. (yes, over 700-800 years ago). There are parts of Allirez that are more modernized of course, but even those roads are fairly narrow in comparison to ours.
Here, Riley is posing with artwork representing the "Festa Do Boi" - a traditional festival in Spain that I haven't quite gotten translated out yet to fully understand - but believe it is closely associated with the running of the bulls in Barcelona which occurs in July. This festival runs March to June each year. More info (in espanol) can be found at http://www.festdoboi.com/. Also here is the sign I photographed to translate later....
More photos from Allirez - including our hotel, a beautiful river running through Allirez and a church all featuring the most charming young man - Riley.
More later - time to get today started (Dec. 29) we are shopping in (hmm... where are we ... ) Oh yeah! A Coruna.... port city on the coast......
For more photos - view my web album at....
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