1 week already gone

From: Hicken, Garry
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2012 4:59 PM
Subject: 1 Week Already Gone

 I'm starting this e-mail just before I pass out after another full day in Spain. Since I last wrote you we visited the Picasso Museum. ( Great for Joani, although for me it just confirmed that I will never be a Picasso fan. Putting an ear where an eye should be, and a nose on the top of a head just makes me think of a "Mr potato head doll"!) Anyway after we left the museum we jumped in our car and headed for Valencia. Since we didn't get on the road until noon, it  was late afternoon by the time we rolled into Valencia, so before we even checked into our hotel we drove  to an architectural wonder that I had read about. Le Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciencies. ( The city of arts and sciences. ) This is 5 buildings designed by a Valencian architect, Santiago Calatrava. I could use this whole email to describe how cool these building were but most of you would probably be bored ( if you weren't already ) but I will keep my exuberance to a minimum and tell you that if any of you watch any Sci-fi TV or movies you will love the two photos I have attached of these buildings.

 The other thing that I will mention about Valencia is that after the long drive and seeing the wonder I told you about, we just wanted to eat and get to bed early so we could get an early start the next day. It was about 7:30 when we started looking for a restaurant and what we forgot is that Spanish people don`t start eating until 8:30 or 9pm. We wandered around for half an hour looking and I was getting a little frustrated when we finally passed a Burger King! I looked hopefully at Joani and the saint that she is, she said`` I don`t care `` So in we went. Guess what.....I got a beer with my Chicken burger and salad combo. That`s right, a beer. It was so cool that when I finished and was still hungry I got 2 Tapas ( onion rings and chicken fingers) and another beer for 4 dollars. I ask you, where can you get a beer in Canada for 4 dollars let alone add in chicken fingers and onion rings. Only at a Spanish Burger King.

 We left Valencia the next morning heading for Granada and spent the day in the mountains.

For those of you that don`t know,( and I didn`t know until this trip ) Orange and Olive trees grow up in mountainous country. So most of our scenery was cultured groves of trees and barren landscape. Our ears were popping all day as we were very high up.

But all in all it was a very scenic drive and we had a picnic lunch at the top of a mountain eating Croissants and Brie with spring water. No wine, I`m driving, thank you very much. In the afternoon we pulled into our next stop, Granada.

Checked into a very beautiful hotel,and had our evening meal at what was perhaps the most quaint town ( city ) that we have been to yet. Tomorrow we are going to see The Alhambra, A very cool Muslim palace. ( we seem to be behind schedule all the time as there is too much to see and too little time) and we will then head to Gibraltar around noon.

 Until then.

 Hasta Manana

 Garry