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Goodnight.

USA

We made it back to the US. We will spend several hours in the crappy terminal (unofficial name) of the Newark, NJ airport. At least there is college basketball to welcome me home.

My body is essentially wrecked at this point. No fancy earplugs for the flight home, so the right half of my brain exploded somewhere over the Atlantic. My back is very unhappy and my head is congested. Today will last 30 hours for us, mostly in uncomfortable places. The beaming light at the end of the tunnel is our very own bed in our very own home in our beloved Des Moines.

Cheer a little harder for the Hawkeyes tonight, as I will be in the air during the game. I will try to shoot them some goodwill as we fly over Chicago.

Stephanie's Barcelona Update

It's me again!  I wanted to give a quick update on some of the food we've been eating in Spain.  Most of our time here has been spent trying tapas and avoiding rain.

So here is our time in Spain in food:

Day 1:

We had breakfast on the train...no picture.  But we had coffee, orange juice, fruit, croissont, omelet, and jamon (cured prosciutto type meat).

Breakfast/Brunch (aka bocadillo time).  Per our guide books, the Spaniards eat light sandwiches before their large lunch at around 2:00

Sam: Chorizo Sandwich, cafe, and beer
Stephanie: Fanta Naranja (Orange)

Then we had tapas for dinner before the game.  I was pretty nervous to try out my spanish for the first time at a local tapas bar but the bartender was VERY helpful.  I said I spoke a little Spanish and he said he spoke a little English.  It worked.  But in our pre-game excitement, we forgot to take pictures.  We had jamon de iberico, manchego, pan con acieto y tomate.  (Iberian ham, Spanish cheese, and a local staple of toasted bread with olive oil and tomato rubbed on the bread.  You'll see pictures of it later as we had it again elsewhere.)

At the game, BARCA chips. 

 Day 2:

Breakfast/Brunch...we slept in this day

Cafe, Bocadillo de Jamon Iberico y Bocadillo de Chorizo
(Sam and Stephanie shared the two sandwich types)

Early Evening Tapas -

We headed to a place near our hotel per the recommendation of the extremely helpful staff here.  He gave us a voucher for a free "snack or drink or something".

The first thing we got from that voucher was some sort of seafood salad bite on toast topped with tuna...we think.  It probably had mayo in it, definitely tuna, and peas...the rest is a mystery.  Now if you know Sam, you know he HATES mayo and really dislikes peas and tuna.  If you know me, you know I HATE seafood and don't like peas either...but we were able to give it a try and were thankful the bites were so small.  (And that I had balsamic vinegar to drown out the tuna flavor for me).  Our efforts were rewarded at the end of the meal.  Read on.

Next up were some tasty treats:

Left: Tortilla Espanyola with that tomato bread
Right: Albondigas (meatballs in sauce...picture was taken after the meatballs were already gone).

If you care to try a similar meatball, try the Albondigas at the Continental in Des Moines.  Sam prefers those.  I like them both a lot.

Our short meal was punctuated by some free shots/digestives.

Sam's is the green one.  The waiter asked if we wanted something "fuerte" (strong) or something "suave" (smooth).  Sam picked fuerte and got some type of Spanish grapa.  I picked suave and got Crema Catalunya.  We think.


Late Night Tapas -

That tomato bread again with CROQUETTES!  My favorite!  (And a glass of Cava)

Some..."beef ham with parmesan cheese".  Essentially beef prosciutto. 

And for dessert Sam (left) Creme Brûlée with Pineapple Carpaccio

Stephanie (right) Crema Catalunya

 Day 3:

CHURROS
I was on a mission to try Churros.  My friend Kylee from Des Moines loves these things (I think) and they sound great, but have always tasted miserable at the amusement parks I've had them at.

And I wanted to try xurros amy xocolate (churros with chocolate in Catalan)

First place...no chocolate but very tasty in coffee

 Second place just an hour later...

amb xocolate!!  The chocolate is like a warm VERY rich pudding.  It was a little too rich for me, but the xurros were great.

We are on our way out for more tapas tonight...then an early flight home tomorrow.  The flight starts early, but we get home late.  A long day of travel tomorrow, but looking forward to being home and saying hello to our favorite cat/chat/gato Belle.

Last Day

I write this from the balcony of our hotel room in Barcelona, overlooking a quiet square with a little a playground. Yesterday the weather was terrible. It was cold and very rainy. Stephanie enjoyed about 2 minutes of dry feet all day before here tennis shoes were breached. Today is another story. It's cool, but sunny and nice.

We went to see the Sagrada Familia cathedral this morning. Even though is unfinished, it is still breathtaking. It compares to the other large cathedrals we have seen on our trip in scale and grandeur, but adds in a modern element. It has great stained glass, and the light is beautiful as it streams in.

After that, we went to the Picasso museum. That was short and sweet, but worth doing.

We have been strolling through the old city since then, wandering winding roads and stopping into small shops along the way. We will spend the afternoon and evening getting ready to depart and enjoying a few more tapas before it's time to go.

We have had a terrific time, but we're starting to smell, wear down, and miss home a bit. It's time to come back.

See you soon,

Sam & Stephanie

Scams and Bombs

Hello again!  This is Stephanie doing another guest blog.  This one isn't strictly about our itinerary in Europe.  It is about being a tourist and having loads of people try to scam you out of your money, or simply try to take it out of your pockets/purse.  And there was a "bomb," but I'll get to that in a minute.

First we'll discuss scams.  My first time in Spain, I witnessed the scam where women will try to aggressively give/sell you flowers (or in that case, tree branches) while another one pickpockets you.  I knew it was about to happen because they were discussing logistics quite loudly in Spanish not aware that the group that was walking by was actually a group of Spanish speaking Americans.  I actually have not seen this scam (yet) unless those men by the Eiffel Tower selling keychains "3 for a Euro!" have the same plan.

During our trip planning we read about a scam that involves a few individuals asking if "[you] speak English" or posing to be lost tourists trying to get information.  We had at least 2 groups of ladies with a clip board ask us this in Paris.  I always wonder why they're asking if I speak English when it is clearly not their native language.  Shouldn't they be asking if I speak that??

We also read about yet another scam that involves a person stopping to pick something up right in front of you.  It turns out to be a gold ring you supposedly dropped.  It isn't yours, but they will point out the marking on it that proves it is pure gold and will either try to sell it to you or simply give it to you out of the goodness of their heart and then ask for money in repayment.  We have seen this scam attempted on us at least 4 times.  The first time I firmly said, "No, gracias" ...in Paris.  Eventually I managed to squeak out a, "No merci!" to which the guy started repeating and laughing.  A few of them laughed at our assertiveness with them to get away.  And one was a woman that really threw us off guard.

All of these happened in Paris.  We have yet to experience any scams in Barcelona.  Probably because half of our time here has been spent trying to dry out from all the rain.

Essentially, we are now paranoid of anyone and everyone who drops something, tries to talk to us, or looks at us directly.  Everyone is a scammer.  Including small children, pup-pups and birds.

In London we had an interesting experience with this little box on the subway

Here is a close up

The box was sitting all by itself when we boarded the train. It was very likely just a sound equipment box that someone left on the tube accidentally (as that is how it was labeled).  However, EVERYONE around us asked about it and indicated that it might be a bomb and asking what we should do about it. Two Asian men walked onto our train, stopped short, said a few words I didn't understand, followed by "bomb" and some hand gestures.  The feelings we all had were pretty universal and language barriers were no problem.  A few stops later another traveller bravely grabbed it on his way out of the train and gave it to security.  And our lives were saved.

I have to go now since this post has gotten too long and it's time for breakfast followed by our last day in Europe.

Camp Nou

We went to another football match last night, and it was amazing. Barcelona is the best team in the world, and they play at one of the most famous stadiums in the world. They also have the best player in the world, Lionel Messi.

The stadium, called Camp Nou, is huge. It was filled to the brim on Tuesday night for a match against AC Milan in the champions league. The champions league is a tournament featuring the best club teams from the many leagues all over Europe. This was the second match of a 2-match series. They simply add up all the goals over the games to determine the winner. Milan was ahead 2-0 after the first match, so Barca was in a tough situation, and needed a big win to advance.

We arrived early to soak in the atmosphere.

Sam got a new scarf

As the game got closer, the stadium continued to become more crowded. We were seated in an area pretty close the corner into which they packed the Milan fans, maybe 6 sections of them, but they were all together, and they spoke and sang with one voice. Of course, we rarely understood what they said, but several times the Barca fans raised their voices in protest.

They do some funny theatrics right before the games in the champions league, including the champions league anthem.

The Champions

Eventually, the game actually began, and not long after, the place went totally nuts when Messi scored the first goal. Game on!

The next segment of the game featured a lot of action, but no goals. Barca almost scored immediately after the first, and Milan nearly struck back on a counter, hitting the post. Then with five minutes left in the first half, Messi stuck again. We went to half time even over the series.

The second half was full of tension, but Barca eventually took the lead on a goal by David Villa. Due to the tiebreak rules in the champions league, Milan could still win with one goal, so the last 25 minutes were as nervous as it can get. Any time Milan had the ball, regardless of where on the field it was, or how they they had it, all of the fans booed, hissed, and whistled.

Barca eventually hung on to win, adding a very late goal for good measure. It was an awesome experience, and we both had a great time.

Visca Barça!

Train to Barcelona

We arrived in Barcelona this morning. We took an overnight train from Paris. The station from which we left wasn't very nice. It was cold, and there wasn't much indoor space to enjoy. There were also fewer helpful people who spoke English, as the train was from France to Spain. We muddled through, and eventually we boarded the train.

We had a very small room, but it was ours, and it ended up being a nice experience. We had drinks at the bar before turning in for the night, and we had breakfast in the small restaurant on the train this morning. It wasn't the best night of sleep either of has had, but it should get the job done.

Our cabin.

Now we're on to the next leg of our journey, in Barcelona. We will be thrown right into the fire with a huge soccer match this evening between Barcelona and AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League. We have seen several Milan supporters around the city already today, along with tons of people sporting Barca gear, including Stephanie.