Professor Sharon

Only a quick posting today as the Wifi café we found has a terrible connection. Access to free wifi is next to nil; and when you find it (only one place in our huge neighborhood), it doesn’t work so well. Hubby and I think that this is probably likely to be the result of Spain’s last 30 years of recovering from Franco. The electricity and phone system even goes down in the rain the rural cities.

We’re having a great time in Barcelona with the family! Barcelona is big, busy, and international, but beautiful. Here’s Poppi and grandbaby at the beach!

Hola!

We have succeeded in moving ourselves to Barcelona from Salamanca! It took all day Saturday and 3 trains. One 2 1/2 hour from Salamanca to Madrid, then a 1/2 short local hop to the other train station and then the high speed train to Barcelona. That was another 3 hours; it would have been many hours more without the high speed train. It travels about 150 miles an hour!

We had an oops and actually didn’t have our apartment for the first night in Barcelona. Fortunately we figured this out in Salamanca and called ahead and they had one night free in another apartment. Up two flights of spiral staircase with two 50 lb bags! We thought it couldn’t be worse; but our new apartment in on the 3rd floor (4th as America measures it) and the lift is broken!

But Barcelona, as many tourbooks describe it, isn’t Spain anymore….very interesting place so far. Much larger, noiser, more tourists, but beautiful. We are in the old Gothic quarter and it’s very lovely (and a bit noisy).

Yesterday morning (Monday), daughter and baby and good friend arrived to spend a week with us. It’s a tiny apartment so the fun is just beginning! They baby traveled well, even though sleeping little.

It’s wonderful to see them. We’ve already had a great walk through the cathedral of Barcelona (where this pic was taken); found a small playground, and the baby’s been admired by many. The Spanish adore children and will stop you to chat about the baby, or just walk close enough to touch them and say something sweet about them.

As we suspected, we don’t have connection in our apartment; and it’s almost worse here than any where else; even though it’s a huge city. We are currently using the computer room in a branch of the Spanish school we went to; but it’s a good half hour walk away. Otherwise you have to pay a few euros to use terminals in Subway (yes that Subway!). But check back; I’ll post as often as I can.

We’re planning a trip to the beach and the important Gaudi sights as well as other adventures.

Goodness, tomorrow is our last day of classes here and I’ve hardly posted anything about Salamanca. I can only blame being ill. We’ve gone to classes, eaten lunch and had long afternoon naps trying to get better.

You also have to plan things around siesta time. Almost everything but a few small shops for newspapers and such are closed from 2ish to 4ish. Evening lecture and tapas with friends has gotten us home late and with not much time to get homework done!

It’s really been a good time. So far of the towns we’ve lived in and visited, I really enjoy this one the most. It’s really quite my speed. At least the old center part of town: we’ve walked a bit in the newer area and it seems somewhat similar.

First, here’s a group of us at dinner last night at a really wonderful restaurant. We’ve been in Salamanca for different amounts of time, but all of us are finished on Friday and we were enjoying a meal together. Only person missing is the hubby of the woman in green taking the picture. We’ve met some really fine folks at this school.

This is the Roman bridge that you can walk to/from the old section of town. I haven’t posted the Roman acqueduct that we saw in Segovia over the weekend as yet: this is very small in comparison yet still wonderful in terms of the history of the town.

Like all the towns we’ve been in, the churches are a main part of the central area. Salamanca has two cathedrals: the “old” and the “new.” The old cathedral was built in the 1200’s – the ‘new” added in the 1500s! They are built in a connected way; so the really cool thing is you can walk up high and look down upon the new cathedral. You can only walk outside along some of the outside of the cathedral which is really wild. It’s not often you get to look at gargoyles face to face while they’re doing their work!

This below is a picture of a several year old library in the University of Salamanca – just breaktaking to those of us who love books. There are books on the shelves that are as old.

Salmanca is truly beautiful. Tomorrow we spend the day on the train to Barcelona and don’t know when we’ll find connection again. Stay tuned!

And last, but not least, for my Avi-do. A bit of window shopping for you: