Knitting in Transit

The Decemberists have a song called " O, Valencia " but it seems to be more of a Romeo and Juliet story rather than about the city of Valencia. What can I tell you about Valencia , Spain? Well...it is the birthplace of Paella , which all of us on the trip love. Kym and Kyle have a big paella pan and make paella before triathlons and whatnot. Valencia is also the third largest city in Spain, after Madrid and Barcelona. It is also on the coast and has a lovely beach. And it's like a three to four hour train ride from Barcelona so you might wonder why we were going there. In the original trip plan, we had two more cities included: Valencia and Granada. We decided that we would all still go to Valencia as a day trip. This involved waking up very early to catch the subway and then the train. This was painful. And of course the train station was super hot. We arrive in Valencia and wait for the shuttle. The train ride was pretty nice though. We had assigned seating and...

When we left off, I was hot, tired, and I may have mentioned the need of a bathroom. We had just traveled one of the shadier parts of Barcelona, my feet hurt; I am sure I was thirsty. Sigh. Instead of heading back to La Rambla, we decided to head over to the Olympic park. Was it the '92 Summer Olympics that were in Barcelona? Why yes...yes it was. To get to the park, which was up a hill, we took the Funicular Montjuic . What is a funicular ? It's an inclined railway. Funicular sounds a lot more fun! We got to the top of the hill and I almost immediately turned into crabby "must-find-bathroom- NOW" Michelle. I'm sure that was fun for my travel buddies. Especially since there really didn't seem to be any place public with a restroom to use. We found a garden and on the map the bathroom looked miles away, down a billion steps. But, it was a pretty park and gave me the chance to practice my living statue. Contemplating why there is no bathroom in sight. ...

Okay, so where was I? What day is it? Wednesday? That sounds about right....It was October 12th. Thank goodness I can look back over Facebook or and get somewhat of an idea of where we were. Our apartment building. Isn't it lovely? We were on the fourth floor...one of those turrets was ours. Well, not the entire turret. Just one floor. So...it's Wednesday morning. During the evening, David and I discovered that the nightlife in Barcelona never really stops. It is also a city full of scooters and people seem to ride them all night long. Around 2 a.m. David suggested we head over to the one empty bedroom that was on the other side of the apartment, away from the street. What a fantastic idea! So nice and quiet. About 6 a.m. I suggested we head back to our room and things were fairly quiet until two women on the street below started screaming at each other. What a way to start the day! It wasn't all bad. The apartment was great, plenty of space for all of us. Afte...

Tuesday was another travel day! We were off to Barcelona. Although I was sad to leave Sevilla, I was excited to see a new part of Spain. I was also particularly pleased that we would be flying to Barcelona. No horrible bus ride. Before we left town, David and I and Kym and Kyle decided to head over to Mailboxes, Etc. and ship some things home so we wouldn't have to lug olive oil and stuff all over Spain. We had done this on our honeymoon as well and it worked out great. Well! All I will say is...shipping anything from Spain - very expensive. Note to self: in future buy light weight gifts. After that little adventure, we stopped at a pastry shop for some sweet treats. I wish we had more shops like this in the Twin Cities. Sure - there's Woullet and Cupcake and Sweets Bakeshop, but nothing like the bakeries and pastry shops I saw in Spain. I miss them so. If anyone knows of a good one in the Twin Cities, let me know. Fortified by pastry, we finished packing up and he...