We're home, but....

....I'm going to be posting...um, would this be post-tripolusly??

Er, anyway, post whatever, regarding our Amazing-Cruise-To-Europe-Camels-And-All.

For the already posted version, see my friend Carole's blog: cruzineurope2007.blogspot.com.

She (not that I'm jealous or anything) actually was able to log on In Her Stateroom.

I, that is, WE (in our stateroom -- Tim, Bob and I) were unable to log on in our room. OK, so Linda couldn't either. Why not? It seems that Brilliance of the Seas is not necessarily brilliant when it comes to internet access. In case you haven't looked, newer computers don't have a modem. They do, of course, have wireless capability, but no dial-up modems. And Brilliance, in it's ever-lovin' brilliance, simply doesn't have the capability of communicating with Macs. (So there, Steve Jobs....).

But I, as usual, digress. The reason for the tardiness of this post is simply because I had to get to a "hot spot" on the ship to communicate. And I didn't. At least not to add to this blog. I did download e-mails, but I didn't blog. So there.

For those of you who care, here are some pictures of Barcelona....




Number one, perhaps on my list of 101 things-to-do-before-I-die: Ride a cable car over nothingness. And here I did it -- on the way to Monserratt, the monastery where the roads had been washed out -- so up we went!

This is the beautiful (and famous) Cathedral of the Sacred Family. I don't have Tim here to remind me of what it really is in Spanish, so you can take it for what it is worth. Done by Gaudi (who is evidently very famous in Spain -- or in Barcelona -- take your pick -- it isn't done. Not by a long shot. Very lovely, but very full of lots of scaffolding and ladders and planks and whatnot. It was impressive on the outside, but not worth 11 Euros each (that's about $16.50 in $US -- each) to admire a lot of, um, not much. We consoled ourselves by considering that we had contributed to the restoration of said cathedral.

Think the IRS will let us take it off on our taxes as to a non-profit?

Tim here, is resting on his bed in our pink, that is to say VERY PINK, room at the hotel in Barcelona. I LOVED the hotel. It had a 24 hour open buffet which served all manner of goodies (including verybadwine) but only had 18 guest rooms, had a "dining room" which was sorta like your average family room -- that is, if your family room could seat about 30 people at small round tables. Anyway, it was a great place to hang out, especially since there were seven of us meeting up at various times.

This is the rest of the very-pink-room. If you are pink-o-phobic, don't book your overnights here.

Our hotel in Barcelona was about one block from what I called "Michigan Ave" in deference to the Mag Mile in Chicago. This is one of the structures by Gaudi (hey -- this pic would cost you at least 1 Euro in Spain -- and you are getting it for free, from my camera -- on this blog!! Such a deal!! (See reference to the picture above -- he's the guy that did so much of the Familia Sagrida)

For those of us into Mothers and Babies and Breastfeeding (OK, so I'm a Lactation Consultant -- and, we are into mothers/babies/breastfeeding...) here is the statue that is right outside the Barcelona Ministry of Health.

Gotta love it.

Two, of many, pictures I could have taken and shared with you of food in the market on Las Ramblas -- the street Bob, Bob, Tim and I strolled in the morning. I got 1/2 kilo of Savilla olives that taste as close to any of the ones Tim, Bob and I enjoyed in Sevilla back in '04 when he (Tim) was studying there. ("Back in...." sounds really far back, as though it was at least in the 1900s....) It truly was an amazing and beautiful market. No preserved lemons though -- I'm on the hunt.



The best, however, was noting that they did not go in for Dunkin Donuts....it was Dunkin COFFEE! Had to share this with y'all. Does this mean you are dunking your coffee into something? I'm just not sure.

Dunkin Coffee. Gotta love it.

More anon.