Category — Travel

On Monday, we started the morning by meeting up with Natalie at one of her favorite restaurants, Brunch & Cake.

This may have been some of my favorite food thus far!

The four of us began by splitting an order of Buffalo Ricotta and Blueberries on Toasted Brioche topped with Sweet Fruit & Nuts. It was SO Good!

Lorraine and I split Sweet Crunchy Waffles topped with Eggs Benedict. The hollandaise was somehow light and fluffy – whipped maybe?

Lorraine is allergic to nuts, so I asked for the topping of dried fruits and nuts on the side, and sprinkled them on my half. This is one recipe I am determined to recreate when I get home!

Oh, and the corner the restaurant sits on… very charming!

Next, we ventured to Casa Batlló which is a Guadí-designedt home topped with a fanciful dragon-like roof.

[Read more →]

After a lovely weekend in Paris, we took the metro and then the RER back to Charles de Gaulle airport. On our initial RER trip to Paris, there were many stops and it took at least 30 to 40 minutes, so we allotted at least that much time to get back to the airport. Turns out, the return ride was non-stop, so we arrived at the airport in more than enough time.

We decided that with all our extra time we would enjoy a nice leisurely lunch before we went through security. We were working out the bill, Peggy wanted to use her credit card, so Lorraine and I had just handed over our cash when Natalie asked, “What time is it? What time is our flight?” Realizing we were late… very late, we all panicked and told Peggy to just throw down some cash and RUN!

As Lorraine said in her daily email update to her family, “We moved faster than we have to date on this trip. We actually did an “OJ Simpson” through the airport to make our flight.”

You know, the good old vintage 1970’s OJ Simpson Hertz advertisements…

Point is, We Made It!

We arrived in Barca (“Bar-sa” which is the endearing name the locals call their city) dropped our bags at our apartment, changed into warm-weather clothes, and headed to Montjuic in search of a castle. Montjuic Castle is on a hill and is actually a mid-1600 military fortress that today houses a military museum.

[Read more →]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. If you want a few St. Patty’s Day recipes you might want to look HERE, HERE, or HERE.

But if you’d rather hear about our weekend in Paris… yes, Paris!!! … then keep reading.

On Friday at 5 AM our adventure began. We took the Barcelona metro, with a transfer, to the Placa Cataluña to catch the Aerobus to the airport. It was less than 2 hours in the air to Paris Charles de Gaulle. From there, we got on the RER train and then onto the metro and finally to our hotel – just a couple of streets off the Champs-Elysees. The Helzear Hotel was within sight of the Arc de Triomphe.

After we checked into our modern Paris apartment and had a few minutes to refresh ourselves, I led the girls on a wild goose chase in search of Jardin de Tuileries. We got off track and wound up taking the long route.

We stopped at a corner café for lunch and then finally found the Jardin.

We then walked the full length of the park up to Musée du Louvre.

After spending a couple of hours seeing such works as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Michelangelo’s Captive, and The Wedding  Feast at Cana by Veronese, we’d about worn ourselves out.

We walked a few blocks and had dinner before heading back to our apartment to crash.

[Read more →]

Thursday was our “church day.”

In the morning we toured La Sagrada Familia which is architect Antonio Gaudi’s most famous work. Gaudi began his lifelong project of the church at the age of 31 and continued to work on it for 43 years, until his accidental death in 1926.

The church is still under construction. There are currently four spires or towers. Once finished, there will be 18 towers. The hope is to complete the church in 2026, on the 100^th anniversary of Gaudi’s death.

Just as the sun rises in the east, representing birth and the joy of a new day, the east side of the church is the Nativity Facade. It is intricate, full of life and joy.

And as the sun sets in the west, the west side of the church is the Passion Facade. It is starker in nature, as you might imagine since it tells the story of Jesus’ passion and death.

There are two elevators that take you partway up the towers for a great view of the city: the Passion Facade elevator and the Nativity Facade elevator.

We went up the Nativity Facade elevator and then took a very narrow and tight spiraling staircase all the way down.

One of the beautiful features on this side of the church is the Tree of Life. It is a cypress tree and represents everlasting life. The many doves in the tree represent the true believers who flock to Christ.

I loved listening to the audio program and learning about all the symbolism in the design of the church. And one of the most touching moments was when we were going out one of the doors, to listen to the next station of our audio program.

As we were walking out, a few of the construction workers who you see inside, outside, and all around the church, going about their work day were coming in the same door. One of the men made the sign of the cross as he crossed the threshold of the door. It really moved me to see how he was so conscious of where he was, not just “at work” but in a place of worship, a holy place. As a tourist, it is something that so many of us forget to keep in mind.

[Read more →]

I consider myself a “seasoned traveler.”  If anyone knows how to start a trip off on the right foot, it is me!

Let me give you a prime example of my expertise…

On what was to be our first non-zombie day (as Lorraine called it) I woke up at about 6:30 (after going to bed at 7 PM the night before) and stayed in bed for a time, formatting photos for this blog. I decided I needed some tea, so I put on a pair of socks and walked toward the kitchen, making a slight detour to set my computer on the coffee table as I passed by it.

I know — how exciting, you’re thinking to yourself!  But here, my friends is where it all went wrong…

I ran directly into the coffee table with my left socked foot so hard that it took every ounce of self-control and determination to NOT scream out in pain… which would have promptly awoken my two sleeping beauty friends. I hopped around, sucked in a ton of air, and tried not to moan and cry.  Here is the result of my clumsiness…

A possibly broken middle toe. No, that is not a manicure gone wrong, that is not pink nail polish on my skin. And yes, that is the coffee-table-culprit in the background.

Now that is how you start a nearly two-week European vacation, heavy on the walking, off with a bang! If you think a broken little toe is going to keep this girl down, you are wrong.

For Day Two in Barcelona, we got ready and walked toward the Sagrada Familia, where we planned to jump on a double-decker autobus to tour Barcelona.

We stopped and had breakfast first and then popped into a corner farmacia to buy some tape for my toes.

[Read more →]

By the time you read this, we will have already been in Spain for more than 36 hours. Just know that as I type this it is still Tuesday night in Arizona and it is Wednesday morning in Barcelona, but I’m setting this to post on Wednesday morning in Arizona and when it does, it will be Wednesday night where I am. I always have a hard time figuring out and communicating time differences, so from here on out, I won’t worry about my time vs. Arizona time!

Our flight on Monday morning from Phoenix to Philadelphia was packed, sold out. Sky Harbor was overflowing with travelers at 5:30 AM when we arrived. We then had a 4+ hour layover in the busy Philly airport, which we spent in the US Airways Admirals Club lounge. We drank too much free wine and ate their complementary snacks as our late breakfast.

The best news of the day came when we boarded our flight to Spain… it was empty! Just about everyone on the plane could have had his or her own center row to lay down in… and we did!

Bad news, even with the luxury of having a place to lay down and sleep the flight away, I barely slept a wink. No matter, it was a joy to have room to stretch out. Trust me, I tried to sleep, but after much tossing and turning, I ended up watching two movies instead; 2014 Best Movie Academy Award Winner, 12 Years a Slave and Enough Said with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the late, great James Gandolfini, in his last film. Recommend them both!

When we landed in Barcelona, we were shocked at the emptiness of the airport. I think our flight may have actually been the first of the morning, arriving at 7AM. It was a virtual ghost town. There were no departing flights scheduled for hours! Spaniards know how to live right!

[Read more →]