Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Last day
Well we made it home. Suffering from 4 hours sleep since i woke up on last day. I have no idea how long that is but we went barcelona dubai bangkok sydney. Around 21 hurs in air. Last day spent ridiculous amounts at decathlon sports store. We had our last buffet breakfast, our last donut and finally made it to the chocolate shop. A bottle of hot chocolate, a really thick covered hot choc and some sugary extras made it worthwhile
Monday, January 28, 2013
Hanging on Messi
Will he play or not? Stay tuned. Sleep in on Sunday as no hurry to get out for a change. You know what happened at breakfast so straight to the rest of the day. Hold on a sec, as something did happen. I had my tirst bowl of cereal for a year. Also had my second bowl.
DOMS delayed onset muscle soreness. It usually is at its worst 2 days after strenuous exercise. Judging by the groans going downhill or stairs, the climbing of Montserrat is kicking in. We went to parc guelle for a long walk through another Gaudi creation before heading off to the end of La Rambla for just one last market. The chocolate shop we have been planning on visiting, we visited. It was closed. But back to the park where the illegal stree vendors were doing their stuff until the police were spotted. Seeing them pack up and bolt was classic. Ten minutes later they were set up again. Now its back to the afternoon and a one hour wait to be seated in the Hard Rock Cafe. Then to the soccer. It was as impressive as i had hoped. Messi played and scored four times, hit the post and had one disallowed. I guess thats alright. We then got swept away in a wave of people to the metro and finally made it back. The hotel room on my side is a mess so i better start packing. Last chance shopping tomorrow morning before a couple of flights home.
The stadium is massive. Do you allremember those tiny toilets at the SCG? They had a line up of a hundred people all day. Not at Camp Nou. 24 urinals. And that was just our level in one area. What do you think Annette did as soon as we found our seats? Those of you who said she went to look for hot chocolate would be right.
Also saw the biggest vending machine i have ever seen. Probably another Gaudi.
DOMS delayed onset muscle soreness. It usually is at its worst 2 days after strenuous exercise. Judging by the groans going downhill or stairs, the climbing of Montserrat is kicking in. We went to parc guelle for a long walk through another Gaudi creation before heading off to the end of La Rambla for just one last market. The chocolate shop we have been planning on visiting, we visited. It was closed. But back to the park where the illegal stree vendors were doing their stuff until the police were spotted. Seeing them pack up and bolt was classic. Ten minutes later they were set up again. Now its back to the afternoon and a one hour wait to be seated in the Hard Rock Cafe. Then to the soccer. It was as impressive as i had hoped. Messi played and scored four times, hit the post and had one disallowed. I guess thats alright. We then got swept away in a wave of people to the metro and finally made it back. The hotel room on my side is a mess so i better start packing. Last chance shopping tomorrow morning before a couple of flights home.
The stadium is massive. Do you allremember those tiny toilets at the SCG? They had a line up of a hundred people all day. Not at Camp Nou. 24 urinals. And that was just our level in one area. What do you think Annette did as soon as we found our seats? Those of you who said she went to look for hot chocolate would be right.
Also saw the biggest vending machine i have ever seen. Probably another Gaudi.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday , Koala Sprint
Too cryptic a title? So it was the same carbo loading brekkie again and then onto a train and to the bus station. We just missed our train and had to wait 2 min 33 seconds for another. Outragous. Then it was a ride up the coast to Tossa De Mar. Walking amongst the ancient Roman fort, i finally began to piece together World colonisation. You see, on arrival Annette wanted a cup of tea. Four hours later she still wanted tea as she hadn't found any yet. My theory is that some poor Roman Emperor got up one morning and his wife wanted tea. Years later and after conquering a large portion of the World, he finally found some and took it back to the missus who promptly advised that she doesn't like Earl Grey and would like him to get her English Breakfast. So then he invaded Britain.
Anyway the scenery was good but as its Winter all the shops are closed. The last part of the trip was spent looking for hot chocolate. None was found, but tea was captured at the bus stop cafe which is where, on tv, I saw Messi jogging slowly at training followed by the coach at a news conference. I concluded that he is injured and won't be playing tomorrow night.
Bus and train back to a known hot chocolate joint with a huge line of waiting patrons out the front. We ( the royal kind ) decided it was off to a jewellery shop, seen briefly earlier in the week. How long is forever? For the fifth time Annette spent her birthday money. Dragonfly jewellery in hand we headed back to last nights sports store find. So in two hours we looked in two shops and blew the budget. Then to a little restaurant for the buffet tapas. Different buffet though. They bring the food to you. Six full plates in all. I wonder, but don't want to know, just how much weight we have put on.
Anyway the scenery was good but as its Winter all the shops are closed. The last part of the trip was spent looking for hot chocolate. None was found, but tea was captured at the bus stop cafe which is where, on tv, I saw Messi jogging slowly at training followed by the coach at a news conference. I concluded that he is injured and won't be playing tomorrow night.
Bus and train back to a known hot chocolate joint with a huge line of waiting patrons out the front. We ( the royal kind ) decided it was off to a jewellery shop, seen briefly earlier in the week. How long is forever? For the fifth time Annette spent her birthday money. Dragonfly jewellery in hand we headed back to last nights sports store find. So in two hours we looked in two shops and blew the budget. Then to a little restaurant for the buffet tapas. Different buffet though. They bring the food to you. Six full plates in all. I wonder, but don't want to know, just how much weight we have put on.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Last bits of Friday
After the cardio workout from Hell, the stairmaster at the gym will never look so bad. Back down the mountain, we checked out another church before our 415pm train trips back to the city. We made our way back to the hotel, dumped our bags and headed out for dinner. Of course shops got in the way. Annette found a store which held her captive for a long time. This was followed by being lost for a long time without a map. We then stumbled upon a sport clothing store. Shopping karma for me . The strange thing is that nobody is in any restaurants. We decided on our Hard Rock Cafe tradition for holidays. Of course it was a 40 minute wait so while we were in another shop we asked a local where to eat. After a walk through another maze we sat down for an authentic local meal. It was well after 9pm and still no people eating. They all turned up later. No 7 pm eating around here. Back home and hit the sack at midnight.
A bit of yesterday and the start of today
Started yesterday with a walking tour of the gothic area. Saw lots of impressive cathedrals, roman ruins and got a good history of the city. Annette tried to make an unscheduled confession when she yanked the door open saying "whats in here". The unsuspecting priest jumped up startled. She quickly stuttered "forgive me father for i have shopped". From there it was to la sagrada familia, the most enourmous chuch i can imagine. Still unfinished, it may be complete in 15 years. Then annette went through another Gaudi building while I relaxed at Maccas. Then it was off to an evening of walking and eating tapas while we got a bit more history. Unfortunately we stumbled upon shops and with time running out i have a feeling we will visit tonight.
Today (friday)
Walking to the metro through the streets, i decided that Barcelona is a very interesting place, and is, i concluded, probably what Europe would be like if i ever get the chance to go there. The metro service is easy to get around and even an idiot could figure it out. Luckily for us, Annette is guiding me. We are currently on the train to montserrat. The cable car and funicular are closed so lots more walking will help burn off the huge amont of breakfast calories.....13 hours later... We walked to the top of the mountain. I took a bit over 2 hours. As with getting to the top of most mountains, it was mostly uphill. Sensational views from the top followed by a slightly quicker yet much easier walk down. She who does pump and other non cardio classes struggled a bit, but i went ahead and had the food. I powered up but fear i will pay consequences tomorrow.
Today (friday)
Walking to the metro through the streets, i decided that Barcelona is a very interesting place, and is, i concluded, probably what Europe would be like if i ever get the chance to go there. The metro service is easy to get around and even an idiot could figure it out. Luckily for us, Annette is guiding me. We are currently on the train to montserrat. The cable car and funicular are closed so lots more walking will help burn off the huge amont of breakfast calories.....13 hours later... We walked to the top of the mountain. I took a bit over 2 hours. As with getting to the top of most mountains, it was mostly uphill. Sensational views from the top followed by a slightly quicker yet much easier walk down. She who does pump and other non cardio classes struggled a bit, but i went ahead and had the food. I powered up but fear i will pay consequences tomorrow.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Thursday (we think)
So when Annette told me that today would mostly be about gothic architecture blah blah blah, I wasn't really paying attention. I will never make that mistake again. Then again, the black hair, black lipstick and black fingernails i had applied sure had a lot of people looking as we started our tour. Now I can't tell you exactly where I went and what I saw. I will leave that to the expert. What I can tell you is that we did a walking tour, a tapas tour, and our own tour of a ridiculously big church. Hope that this has been informative. Hopefully full details will follow. What I do know is a lot of history of the city, where to eat, and that I am too lazy and tired from 12 hours on my feet to get off the bed and turn off the figure skating.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Suzi Quatro
Well the body clock thinks I am getting up for work.
It's 625am. No breakfast for 90 minutes and half a donut , which was a full donut when I went to sleep, coould soon be no donut.. Just checked out facebook and the kids had rice, garlic bread and veggies for dinner because they can't defrost meat. I am so proud.
Ran out of toilet paper. Just wish it was me that could have the opportunity to use it. I think today is a tour of football stadium followed by the obligatory trip to markets. We are contemplating making sandwiches from last nights dinner leftovers which have been sitting on a chair in the room for 10 hours. I would do anything to get regular, and food poisoning is now an option. Then I talked to a local about my problem. He suggested praying to the god of the Messi toilet. This I did and now all is well. After our first trip on the Metro, we got to the place the markets were meant to be. We looked and couldn't find them so naturally went into the Barcelona version of Payless shoes. Did I need pink running shoes? No Did I buy them? Of course. Only 20 euros. That was 18 for the shoes plus the local gay fine.
We finally finished spending the college money and walked a little when we saw a street sign to the markets. Yay. Managed to spend a lot of time and not so much money before we headed to Camp Nou, home of Barcelona football. The self guided tour was great. We got to see where our seats to the game were when the cloud cover cleared and spent a lot of time looking around the stadium. Sure its no Hammondville Park, but they are working on it. Messi dropped by to ask questions about my best left footed goals, but had to leave after an hour when he realised that he could never reach the lofty heights of my "the goal". The gift shop was too expensive so I will do some bartering to get some shirts.
Having left at 9am it was now 6pm. All we had eaten since breakfast was a tiny pastry and a smaller cheese sandwich. Of course this should have lead to a sensible meal but the all you can eat buffet across the road sucked us in and I lie on the bed typing with another sore stomach from over eating. Its even too painful to try out the new pink shoes. Not sure whats on tomorrow but i know it will start with eating times four, followed by walking and more markets.
It's 625am. No breakfast for 90 minutes and half a donut , which was a full donut when I went to sleep, coould soon be no donut.. Just checked out facebook and the kids had rice, garlic bread and veggies for dinner because they can't defrost meat. I am so proud.
Ran out of toilet paper. Just wish it was me that could have the opportunity to use it. I think today is a tour of football stadium followed by the obligatory trip to markets. We are contemplating making sandwiches from last nights dinner leftovers which have been sitting on a chair in the room for 10 hours. I would do anything to get regular, and food poisoning is now an option. Then I talked to a local about my problem. He suggested praying to the god of the Messi toilet. This I did and now all is well. After our first trip on the Metro, we got to the place the markets were meant to be. We looked and couldn't find them so naturally went into the Barcelona version of Payless shoes. Did I need pink running shoes? No Did I buy them? Of course. Only 20 euros. That was 18 for the shoes plus the local gay fine.
We finally finished spending the college money and walked a little when we saw a street sign to the markets. Yay. Managed to spend a lot of time and not so much money before we headed to Camp Nou, home of Barcelona football. The self guided tour was great. We got to see where our seats to the game were when the cloud cover cleared and spent a lot of time looking around the stadium. Sure its no Hammondville Park, but they are working on it. Messi dropped by to ask questions about my best left footed goals, but had to leave after an hour when he realised that he could never reach the lofty heights of my "the goal". The gift shop was too expensive so I will do some bartering to get some shirts.
Having left at 9am it was now 6pm. All we had eaten since breakfast was a tiny pastry and a smaller cheese sandwich. Of course this should have lead to a sensible meal but the all you can eat buffet across the road sucked us in and I lie on the bed typing with another sore stomach from over eating. Its even too painful to try out the new pink shoes. Not sure whats on tomorrow but i know it will start with eating times four, followed by walking and more markets.
Art for art's sake
Having refrained from butter and sugar for a year, breakfast was soon to reacquaint me. The plan was to have a couple of pieces of toast, but all out food warfare soon took place. Stupid Krause buffet code of practice. It started with what I thought was butter in a little container. Turned out to be a chocolate based spread, and once you've had chocolate on toast, nothing after it seems bad. I found the real butter, which needed toast and jam and fruit and tea and juice and rolls as an accompaniment to go with it. Didn't eat the donut though. It is waiting on the bed to be consumed at 10pm.
So fully stuffed we crossed town to start our tour to.......an art museum. I really have to start putting more input into planning these holidays. On the way we are talking to our guide for the day and are talking about Riley working at Zodiac. At that precise moment we pass a building with the same Zodiac emblem. So onto the Dali museum. From the info given by the guide, he was weird. This was confirmed by the art. But it was good and now I officially have some culture. From here it was to lunch in what became another eatfest. We were told how to rub the garlic, squeeze the tomato, pour the olive oil, sprinkle the salt onto the toast and to eat with aioli. She forgot to tell us to stop eating. This was followed be a spring onion mousse thingy. Then Annette had pork, I had rabbit and they had to force feed us the crema de catalan. Our first Catalan feast and we both ate too much.
Luckily we then got to walk around Girona to burn some calories. A very interesting town invaded by Romans and the Moops (or the Moors for non-Seinfeld fans). Walked through the cathedral, around the city walls to stop further invasions and had a quick look at the shops. And what souvenier do you buy in one of Spains most cultural towns? A Ramones tshirt of course. By around 5 we headed for home.
Still bloated by lunch which finished at 330pm we ended up buying some bread meat and cheese for sandwiches. So as what I think is day 3 about to end I must contemplate when I might be able to "go" again or just as Kramer in Seinfeld, will i need to use the dreaded apparatus? Might have to just eat fruit tomorrow for breakfast.
So fully stuffed we crossed town to start our tour to.......an art museum. I really have to start putting more input into planning these holidays. On the way we are talking to our guide for the day and are talking about Riley working at Zodiac. At that precise moment we pass a building with the same Zodiac emblem. So onto the Dali museum. From the info given by the guide, he was weird. This was confirmed by the art. But it was good and now I officially have some culture. From here it was to lunch in what became another eatfest. We were told how to rub the garlic, squeeze the tomato, pour the olive oil, sprinkle the salt onto the toast and to eat with aioli. She forgot to tell us to stop eating. This was followed be a spring onion mousse thingy. Then Annette had pork, I had rabbit and they had to force feed us the crema de catalan. Our first Catalan feast and we both ate too much.
Luckily we then got to walk around Girona to burn some calories. A very interesting town invaded by Romans and the Moops (or the Moors for non-Seinfeld fans). Walked through the cathedral, around the city walls to stop further invasions and had a quick look at the shops. And what souvenier do you buy in one of Spains most cultural towns? A Ramones tshirt of course. By around 5 we headed for home.
Still bloated by lunch which finished at 330pm we ended up buying some bread meat and cheese for sandwiches. So as what I think is day 3 about to end I must contemplate when I might be able to "go" again or just as Kramer in Seinfeld, will i need to use the dreaded apparatus? Might have to just eat fruit tomorrow for breakfast.
Day Dos
Just woke up on what i assume is tuesday morning. Got up yesterday at some allah forsaken time so not sure what is going on. Flight was long enough to watch a couple of movies that I was too cheap to go to. Pretty good flight but he bounced the landing. For the second flight in a row, Annette failed to eat her chocolate. She never found yesterdays and forgot to eat todays. Now if I can eat the corn based salad, she must eat the chocolate. It's plane food and all must be eaten. It is the Krause code.
Arrived in Barcelona and strolled straight through customs in no time. Got straight onto bus, walked down La Rambla (picking up the language) and got to Curious Hotel. Highly recommended by family whose travel reputation is on the line. We were told that rooms are tiny but ours is huge. Cant even cover the floor with all our stuff. Did I mention that my hand luggage weighs more than suitcase? So after a short rest we went exploring. Saw lots of tapas and paella deals probably prepared by mrs costanza, and thats what we ended up eating. Back to hotel for our first "sleep at the right time". Must wake up in time for breakfast and tour tomorrow.
Arrived in Barcelona and strolled straight through customs in no time. Got straight onto bus, walked down La Rambla (picking up the language) and got to Curious Hotel. Highly recommended by family whose travel reputation is on the line. We were told that rooms are tiny but ours is huge. Cant even cover the floor with all our stuff. Did I mention that my hand luggage weighs more than suitcase? So after a short rest we went exploring. Saw lots of tapas and paella deals probably prepared by mrs costanza, and thats what we ended up eating. Back to hotel for our first "sleep at the right time". Must wake up in time for breakfast and tour tomorrow.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Dubai
Compared to yesterdays 14 hour marathon flight, todays 7 hour flight only seems half as long. To start, a big thanks to riley for driving us to the airport at 330am. We are sort of wondering if he has made it home yet. The first flight was good, and i showed the family gene pool by eating everything. I didnt sleep at all so food was my sleep. I went 24 hours without sleep. Got to dubai and found out how good sydney customs is. From arrival to hotel took 2.5 hours. Of course we get to the hotel and only get 25 minutes until the lunch buffet closed. Once again, thankyou gene pool. From there it was a short walk to the metro and 30 minutes to the Emirates Mall. It was big beyond imagination but give me Westfield Liverpool anyday. All we got was something for Jeremy, the son who chose sleep over being a taxi service. We decided that our ailing backs would not handle the indoor ski slope so headed back to the hotel to our next free buffet. Mealed up and desserted up we finally got some sleep. About 7 hours was much appreciated before we got our 430am wake up call. For those of you who are Seinfeld trained........just got hot hand towel so more food is imminent. Hope i get the morrocan, but being down the back of the plane means i might get what's left........back to Seinfeld. Well the shower head was huge and the force nearly threw me through the wall. Annette is currently sleeping. Would it be bad to let her sleep and eat her meal? After she told me that we could have upgraded for only a fraction of what a year at uni would cost, i am leaning toward eating her meal. I guess when she reads this i will be in trouble. Dubai airport was massive. Probably still is. Didnt take long to find the hot chocolate though. I had a caramel frozen yoghurt . Damn it was only biscuits and a drink. Annette is awake and hydrating and biscuiting 2hours 52 minutes to Barcelona. Time for a movie, coke light and savoury bikkies. Wish i knew how the 49ers went
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