Truth-stalking in Spain

I stalked some truth in Spain with Anita from April 15th to April 23rd. This is the first entry of several in which I'll try to capture some of the adventure and fun we had there.

For pics, see the albums involving Spain at

http://picasaweb.google.com/remierice

Only my pics are there right now, but I will soon be adding Anita's. You may find some of the comments on the pics interesting, so take note of those.

Day 1 -- Tuesday to Wednesday April 13 / 14

Took off from Minneapolis on this transatlantic journey -- my first trip away from North America since 1998 when I went to Switzerland -- and first landed in Amsterdam. I guess I recall a little of the wonder of being abroad and a little about how challenging it was. Without much difficulty, I connected from Amsterdam to Madrid and then from Madrid to A Coruna. The landing in A Coruna was kinda exciting: the flight was pretty empty, but for some dumb reason, I took my assigned seat at the window with the other two seats in my row taken by a retirement-age Spanish couple. On the descent into A Coruna, the pilot must've been having a little fun because it was like being on a fighter jet in a dogfight. We swooped this way and that at extreme bank angles. When we landed, the lady beside me puked. Great. Why hadn't I taken a seat in an empty row??!!

Met Anita there at the airport quite easily and we headed back to her hotel room. I was wasted of course from traveling for the past 20 hours, but I was stoked about going to see a 2000 year old Roman lighthouse in A Coruna. So we did that. Cool place. See

http://picasaweb.google.com/remierice/20100413SpainLoRes#5464678496352214002

Wind was blowing like a Republican opposing finance reform at the top. We're talking Mt Rainier conditions. A Coruna is situated at the far NW corner of Spain. Anyway, view was nice and was fun to see this ancient lighthouse (but I must say it was a little tough to tell what was authentically 2000 years old in this significantly remodeled structure).

We got some early dinner that evening. Well, in Spain, they don't start dinner at restaurants until 9 pm, so 7 pm is "early" there and we had to just get "tapas" or, as Seth dubbed it when we got tapas at a Mexican restaurant one time in DC, "tap-ass" (implying the tapping of your ... pocketbook when buying tapas). The problem with ordering tapas in Spain wasn't really the cost, but rather the total unpredictability of what you're going to get. I had my spanish dictionary, but couldn't usually figure out what was coming at restaurants. Usually, it would involve huge amounts of cheese and some bread which isn't too bad.

Day 2 -- Thursday April 15

Rent car. Car rental guy had a British accent. Said he'd grown up in London where his folks had moved to get decent paying jobs. Car make was Seat. Probably pronounced like the first part of Seattle. But we pronounced it like a chair-type seat just for fun. It was a typical narrow European car. Ran well. Had tiny engine. Stick shift. So we took off. The wrong way. Traffic was bad in A Coruna. Plus I was driving for the first time in Spain. Their roundabouts are free-for-alls. Another crazy thing is that they don't have yellow lines for two-way roads. Sometimes roads are one way. Sometimes two way. Always the same white lines. Aaaaaahhhhh!! Busted out iPhone and got straightened out. Anita is an excellent navigator and without too much effort, we got on track for our first destination, 50 miles away, Santiago de Compostela, where there is a famous cathedral which pilgrams hike from the Pyrenees across Spain to see. See

http://picasaweb.google.com/remierice/20100413SpainLoRes#5464678576001538594

We enjoyed the cathedral. The Spanish seem to be pretty religious folks in general. There were less tourists and more local and visiting Spanish people than I expected. In the cathedral, they were taking the ceremony pretty seriously and I couldn't handle the chanting very long. I/we enjoyed the nearby expansive park a lot more. Nice day. Weather was quite good for us in general during this trip. 70 deg F highs. 50ish lows.

Got back on the road to cover the 200 miles to reach the B&B-type place (rural house) that I'd booked for us for two nights (Thursday and Friday nights). We had quite an adventure finding the joint. Check back here soon for that story and more!!!