Spain Day 3 Barcelona July 16, 2015

Today's 3 destinations were all planned at home and the tickets were bought on-line. Two of the three destinations are known for their long lines and we decided to skip those lines as much as possible. I made two copies of every voucher or ticket, just in case of problems, and made sure those copies were divided between two people.
I will admit, that when the alarm went off at 6:15, I began to question the wisdom of trying to be in one of the earliest admissions groups for our first visit. My husband was dismayed to find that while our room had a CD player, it did not have a coffee maker. His attempts to find coffee in the hotel were to no avail. While it always irks me a little that he gets coffee for free in the room, I was quite happy that I'd found orange juice at the grocery store the night before. That, pastry and half my fruit cup satisfied me, while he had yogurt and pastry.

We met the daughters in the lobby at 7:25 and by 7:34, we were on the L4 to Passeig de Gracia. Once there, we reversed last night's long walk to the L3. At 8:04, we were off at the Vallcara stop. We had less than 1/2 hour until the time on our ticket for entrance to Anton Gaudi's famous Park  Güell. The clerk last night had been surprised, when Google showed 1 hour for the entire trip from the hotel and a good half hour from the Metro. She knew it had taken her a very short time from the Metro. Perhaps she hit the area later in the day. For we found that our path took us up a very steep hill, with many, many steps. There were escalators and none were working, until we reached the last short one near the top.

This climb was very difficult for me. it wouldn't have been great even if my knee hadn't been giving me trouble. However, my younger daughter took me in arm and got me to the top. There, across the road, we saw a set of metal stairs. More stairs! A British couple had come up behind us and were fairly disgusted by the climb as well.

Unfortunately, the stairs weren't at the side entrance of the Monumental Zone, where we needed to be at 8:30. A winding path leading downhill lay before us and we could at least see our destination. I was grateful, that we didn't have to make our way to the main entrance to enter. We made it with 2 minutes to spare! The guards did have to call about our tickets, but someone came and scanned them, handed us maps and in we went.

We decided to start our tour right where we were, rather than making our way to point A. This meant that we had only a relative few steps to climb to the terrace and then all the other steps were down. After the climb up the hill, this seemed pure brilliance.

We learned that the park was originally intended by a guy named Güell to be a housing development with triangular plots of land. Right there, you know it's going to be a quirky place.

Before coming to Spain, I definitely equated Gaudi, his architect, with "gaudy". But, as I walked around the Monumental Zone and studied the details, I warmed to him. The area where we started was the area of the porticos and viaducts. This area, made of rocks, which made it seem natural, still had things like helicoidal columns, which are definitely not natural. I found them fascinating and the one made to look like a washerwoman was very cool.

I think I became sold on Gaudi, when we reached the serpentine bench on the terrace or square. First, it was beautiful. It is covered with trencadis work, for which Gaudi used broken pieces of used tile. Such colors! You'll see basic designs and, when you get up close, you can see the designs in the broken tile pieces. And second, it was cool-literally. If you sat on it, especially any part not facing the sun, there was a delicious coolness. On this hot day-it reached 87, but felt worse- this was wonderful! I hated to get up. We did use it for lots of photos, of course.

Looking over the bench, not only could we see the city and La Sagrada Familia,our next destination, but also the administration lodge and the caretaker's residence for the park. Oh. My. Goodness. Dr. Seuss had to have taken inspiration from these whimsical buildings, which featured colorful trencadis work, as well. Wow, just plain wow!

We went down through the gardens to reach the Marketplace below the terrace. Postcards later showed us that the rosettes in the ceiling didn't just have flat tile pieces, but also half-bottles, broken dishes, hooks and more. Too bad we couldn't tell that in the relatively dim light under there, but they were pretty. The Doric columns here are slanted, which really messes with the classical feel they should lend to the place.

Leaving the Marketplace, we found ourselves at the top of the entrance stairs and above the lizard or dragon, that is the symbol of the park. It is very difficult to get a picture of him without an unknown tourist also in the picture. Believe me, I worked at it.

My daughters and I decided to join the line for the caretaker's house, but my husband could no longer live without his coffee and he headed off to the cafe. The only restrooms we could find were by the cafe, so my daughters and I took turns holding the places in line, so that the others could use the facilities-which were air conditioned!! The house was interesting in shape and the rooms were painted a vivid blue. It no longer looked like a house, but rather was a museum with exhibits on the park, when it was built, Gaudi, etc. Since we had chosen not to pay to go into the Gaudi House Museum, this was our one chance to see the inside of a house.

The shop was crowded, but had some interesting items, including a miniature terrace bench. No matter how hard I tried, I could not convince myself not to buy it. It is only a couple of inches long and I don't know what they intend for you to do with it, but I couldn't resist it. Besides postcards, I also picked up the Pocket Series book on the park. I hope to learn all manner of things that we missed on our ramblings.

At 10:35, deciding we'd pretty much seen what we wanted to and wanting to stick to our schedule, we left via the main entrance. This afforded us a few more good photos.

On our way to the Lesseps Metro station, we stopped in a souvenir shop for a mug for my husband and more postcards, as well as pins, for my collections. This hill was not as steep or long, and, besides, it was downhill. We walked along a fairly busy street at the bottom until reaching the station at 11:10.  It was an 8 minute trip on the L3 to Diagonal. There, we found a much nicer passage than the one we'd traversed earlier in the morning, which we followed to the L5. We were on the train by 11:25 and out at La Sagrada at 11:28. It was definitely easier than walking all the way from Park

We had to find lunch before our 1:00 ticket time. We walked down the street, checking out possibilities, and finally chose Baviera Restaurante. I mean, come on, how could we not choose a Spanish restaurant called Bavaria? Due to the heat and because I love it any way, I ordered gazpacho for 5,95 euros and we had to try the German Salad for 3,95. It had a lot of mayo and cut up hot dogs.

My husband got  mediterranea pizza for 8,90 and the older daughter ordered a cured ham sandwich for 4,85 and potatas bravas for 4,25. The younger daughter got a frankfurter for 3,95 and Spanish omelet (which is really potatoes) for 4,25.

Cold Coke, Coke Zero and Fanta in bigger bottles were more refreshing than usual. The food was very good, but we suddenly realized we had no time for dessert. It was 12:45 and the restrooms were less than adequate. We finally flew out of the place at 12:55.

Our problem was that we not only had tickets to get into the cathedral La Sagrada Familia at 1, but our tickets to go up the Passion Tower, which was on the opposite side of the cathedral from where we were, were for 1:15. We got lucky, in that they saw how long the line was for 1:00 and took those of us at the end to a newly opened line, where we quickly had our bags searched. We then had to get in line for our audio guides. We hurried through the church, as much as decorum would allow, and got in line for the elevator, only for my husband to be turned back to put his backpack in a locker. After a bit of confusion, he managed to join us in line.
The view up above was magnificent. We had a wonderful view to the sea and to the mountains, even if there was a bit of haze. Gaudi's masterpiece has always struck me as looking a bit like a drippy sand castle. But, up here, we could see details of the work that is still in progress almost 90 years after his death and I was impressed.

So much color and so much detail, even though you won't be able to see the detail from the ground.

We had wisely chosen the ticket that let us ride the elevator back down. Later, we heard about some clarinetists' wives, who had had to walk down and they did not like that at all.
The outside of the cathedral is meant to tell the entire story of Jesus. We'd entered on the Nativity side, but decided that, since we were on the Passion side, we'd start our tour there. These sculptures that will tell the entire Passion all the way to the Ascension were not designed by Gaudi and many evidently find them too modern. They are quite different from Gaudi and I can see why people don't like them. I like them, but not here. They don't fit with the style. Gaudi felt that future ages should have a chance to leave their mark, but this doesn't work here for me.

The inside of the church, oh the inside! It is Gaudi with light:

The stained glass in each area has colors representing themes and how I wish I'd written them down! I know, they were said on the audio guide. I've searched the internet and, of course, I can't find them. The man was crazy for symbolism. Four of the columns have the four Gospel writers' symbols. Each tower represents and apostle. You can talk all day about how the columns look like trees and his hyperboloid structures, which are cool to the former-geometry teacher in me. But these windows are amazing. The upper ones have no color, because who can compete with God?-That much I remember.

These windows and this interior made me fall in love with Gaudi. God bless his soul! He was going totally old school in creating a magnificent church for his Lord.

The church was incredibly noisy, not just from all the construction work outside, but also from the people who couldn't seem to recognize that this is a consecrated church. At least, there is a roped off area in front of the altar, where one can sit and pray or contemplate.
We headed outside to the Nativity side. Now, this side looks like Gaudi.

There isn't a surface that is plain. The side does do a good job of teaching the story of Christ's birth and early years.
We did a quick look through the museum under the church, before going to the restrooms and shops, one on either side of the church. There were some things on one side and not the other. So, I'm glad we did both. We exited on the Nativity side and went across the street for more pictures, before hopping in a cab at 3:55 to our next destination, Fundacio Miro.
We took the cab not only due to a time crunch-our next ticket had an entrance window beginning at 4- but also because the museum is up on a hill and only buses go up there. We'd chosen Miro over Picasso, because this was Miro's home town and we figured we'd see plenty of Picasso in Madrid. We arrived at 4:12, paid the driver our 12,65 fare, which my older daughter rounded up to 15, and got out to see Miro's very modern museum.

I loved the building. It reminded me of the Bauhaus style. It was a little difficult to figure out where to take our voucher to get our tickets, but we soon found ourselves strolling through a very modern visiting exhibit. Then, we got our tickets stamped to actually enter the Miro galleries. Maybe it was due to a day rich in symbolism and design, thanks to Gaudi, but we found a lot of Miro's stuff difficult to get into. I can't include photos of these, because this is one museum that doesn't let you take pictures indoors. We couldn't even take pictures of the Alexander Calder Mercury Fountain that was behind glass outside, but you could only see it from inside. We thought it was really cool and had a lot of discussion about whether it really was mercury, since that element is so dangerous. But it really was mercury!
We loved the view from the roof and enjoyed some of the sculptures we found there. No one stopped us from photographing those.

The temperature in the museum was a relief from the heat of the day. We did learn a lot about Miro's life. I simply decided that the stuff by him that I liked, was stuff that wasn't in this museum.
The shop was pricey, but I found some cards and pins. We then found a seating area to hash out what to do next. We'd planned to go to the fountain that had a colored light show. It was relatively nearby, but the show didn't start until 9 and it was now about 7. We couldn't find much around the fountain that would occupy us, so we looked through the guidebook for ideas. We decided to take a taxi to go look at Gaudi's Casa Battlo.
In under 15 minutes and for just 8,20 euros, we were delivered across the street from the building. It was closing soon, but we took pictures of the outside. It cheered us up after the relative grimness of Miro.

By 7:40, we decided it was time to eat. So, we strolled down the street looking for a likely place. We chose Tapa Tapa, where we had good food, but incredibly poor service. We had to ask for silverware. We ordered things and then they didn't come, so we had to ask someone else. We didn't have just one server.
While the older daughter had a Coke, the rest of us split a liter of sangria for 17,00. Once again, we chose a variety of tapas to sample widely: 3 cheese croquettes 3,60; beef fillet brochette 5,95; lettuce and goat cheese salad 3,95; fuet de vic (Catalonian sausage) 4,85; crispy shrimp 4,95; 2 Catalan creme brulee @ 4,30; hot chocolate coolant 4,30; and chocolate sin with orange sauce  4, 30.
Since this was our last night in Catalonia, we were glad to be able to have some specialties of the province. And those desserts were to die for!

When we left at 9:15, we headed back up towards Casa Battlo to catch the Metro. We were rewarded with a really lovely evening view of the house. The lights really livened it up.

At 9:20, we were on the Metro and had that long walk through the passageway again. At 9:45, we were out at Forum. My daughters can now check off the Barcelona Metro on those things depicting Metros of the world. We ducked into the Diagonal Mar to see if anything was open, but no luck.
By 9:55, we were in our rooms packing for tomorrow's departure. It had been an incredibly long, packed day, but we really enjoyed it. We're leaving Barcelona with a very good impression of it.

Spain Day 2 Barcelona July 15, 2015

Waking up on a plane after an overnight flight is not one of my favorite things to do. It always seems like I just finally settle into sleep, and that's when they turn on the overhead lights and start serving "breakfast".

As we flew over northern Spain, I looked over my husband's shoulder at the countryside. What I saw really surprised me. It was much more mountainous than I imagined. Oh, I knew the Pyrenees were between France and Spain, but hadn't really thought that mountains extended so much into the country. They were much closer to Barcelona than I had thought, as well. I'm going to have to start looking at topographical maps as well as road maps, when planning trips.

We landed at 7:09 local time at Barcelona's bright, modern airport. Going through immigration was the usual deal, with the usual unsmiling European immigration officer. (Honestly, in all the many times I've gone to Europe, not one immigration officer has smiled.) We waited a bit for our luggage, but by 8 am, we were at the Sixt car rental desk.

We'd prepared for this rental. My husband and I had searched on line and found rentalcars.com to have the best prices. We'd contacted AAA for help, but all they'd found was a van and we knew that would be a gas guzzler. My husband took luggage to our VW dealership to test space for the luggage for 4 adults. The Passat fit the bill and we signed up for a Passat or similar car through Sixt and paid for the bulk of the rental at home. We knew, we'd have to pay extra to have our younger daughter as my back-up driver and that would be paid for in Spain.

Why were we to be the drivers? My husband had a cornea transplant on June 25 and he isn't even driving long distances in Florida. Our older daughter uses the Metro in Washington, D.C. and rarely drives. That left me and the daughter who, until she recently moved, had been fighting I4 traffic to her job at Disney every day.

At the Sixt desk, the clerk asked if we were taking all that, pointing at our luggage. A truly dumb question. Yes, and we'd tested it on a Passat in America. After signing away my life, we were sent off to the car area. It took a bit of work to find the office at the end of the garage. National, the only other rental company we saw, had all the spaces near the terminal.

Now, the fun truly began. We were shown our car, a Jaguar. That was an exciting prospect! I began taking pictures of every aspect of the car, as I'd learned to do from the travel column in the paper, in order to protect us from future damage claims. While I did this, they tried to get the luggage in the car. While the Jaguar may be as big as a Passat in the cabin, it is not in the trunk. So, back into the office to ask for another car. They had to search, but eventually they found an Audi  Wagon.

At first, they said it was an upgrade, but that it would be free. Then, he talked to the woman out in the terminal, who claimed we hadn't had all the luggage with us there. Seriously? Where could it have been? Finally, we had to sign to pay more. As I took pictures of this car, I began to see scratches. Lots of them. The guy, who turned out to be German, told me that Spanish drivers were crazy and that I would have to be very careful around them. (This caused me great worry for the rest of the time we had the car.) He gave me quite a print-out of all the scratches that they'd already documented. He set up the GPS for English, although it spoke Spanish to us for the rest of the trip.

At 9:05, we were finally packed up, having had to put a backpack or two in the back seat. The odometer read 17262 and we plugged in Sarah, our GPS from home, for which we'd bought Southern European maps. Over the next week, we were glad to have her and her voice. We could look at her and the car's GPS and be sure of where we were going.

The next hour was very stressful for me. (My daughter is not used to driving in large cities and left that to me throughout the trip.) First, we had trouble figuring out how to get out of the garage. It was not clearly marked, and what made it worse was all of the scrape marks along the walls of the exit ramps. I did not intend to add to them! Traffic was heavy and it was taking Sarah a long time to get a signal. I just kept following signs to Barcelona, which turned out to be north of the airport. By 9:30, Sarah was still not working, so  I pulled off the highway into a side street for our younger daughter to program the car's GPS with the hotel's address. Either the threat of being upstaged by the car or the time sitting in the open did the trick- Sarah began to work. 

We found the hotel, but there was nowhere to pull in to check in. I circled the block and miraculously found a ramp leading down to a garage. The floors were all painted and there were lights overhead to show empty parking spaces. We found one fairly far from other cars and yet near an escalator. I did not want anyone dinging the car. It turned out that we were in the garage for the Diagonal Mar mall across the street from the hotel, AC Barcelona, which is part of the Marriott brands and I would get points there.

Only one of our two rooms was ready, but we gladly took it. It was my room, number 2206. We had a marvelous view of the city.

I begged for a 20 minute nap and my daughters and I took advantage of the great width of a European double bed.

After changing and washing up, we felt a bit more ready to tackle what we'd planned for the day.
( Well before the trip, my younger daughter and I spent several hours mapping out what we would be doing for the days before Madrid. Then, a couple of weeks before the trip, my older daughter was visiting us and helped me get all the tickets for the pre-Madrid attractions. I'd been advised by a Spanish teacher I worked with, that we wouldn't need to do that for Madrid.)

We headed back to the car, retrieving it within the grace period for free parking. Upon the hotel clerk's recommendation, we moved it out to a lot near the beach. While the beach was just minutes away, it still was a trick figuring out how to get into the parking lot and then being able to get it into a space. These were not marked out spaces, just a bit of room in the line. The odometer now read 17297.

It was now 1:14  and we used the city map to head to the subway. The hotel clerk had told us that the best buy was 9,95 Euros for 10 trips and that we could share the ticket. We got off at Urquinaona and found ourselves near the Hard Rock Cafe. I collect their city guitar pins and this was a great opportunity to take care of that.

We were very hungry by now. Unsure of the restaurants around us, we spotted a Pans on La Rambla. Rick Steves, the travel writer, had done an article on eating in Spain, that I learned a lot from. This was one of his recommendations, and even though it was crowded, we went in. My husband and I got a Serrano Grand with fries and a Tortilla Grand with fries, although I'd tried to ask for the local style of potatoes. I could not pass up the special of 3 Pop Dots for 1Euro, which were like doughnut holes and delicious. We were very happy to be able to get Coke Zero, too.

We took our tray upstairs to the smallish seating area. The sandwiches were good and the Cokes helped us cope with the heat. The 88 degree temperature felt a lot worse to us. The Spanish idea of air conditioning was not very helpful either.

By 3:05, we were back out on La Rambla picking up postcards and searching for Catedral de la Seu. Our walk took us through the Barri Gotic, the Gothic Quarter, an area of narrow streets. The cathedral sits on a large plaza, which afforded good photo ops.

Tickets were 7 Euros, which feels odd, but it does keep the place open to tourists. It was cooler inside and lovely. There's a courtyard with altars in niches and a shop, where I got postcards. I was expecting the trip to the roof to be extra, but all we had to do was show our ticket. What an incredible view! And the breeze was awesome! They are working on the roof, but there is a walkway that runs part of the length of the building and we had a great 360 degree view from the Mediterranean to the mountains. We took so many pictures!

At 4:50, we were back outside and stopped at a souvenir shop for cards and a pin. (Postcards are rarely cheap in Spain.) We arrived at our next destination, Mercado di Sant Josep de la Boqueria, at 5:15. We roamed through the market marveling at all we saw. The daughters and I each got a strawberry and mango juice. It was delicious and refreshing! We weren't hungry, otherwise all the amazing food we saw might have tempted us. I ignored the fish and other weird seafood. We saw smoked hog legs hung up, with little pans attached to the hooves to catch the grease. People chose the ham they liked and the butcher sliced it right off the leg.

Fruit was beautifully arranged at various stalls and other stalls sold pastry.

Our next destination was MACBA, the city's modern art museum, whose tickets were 10 Euros each. When we arrived at 5:48, there were so many skateboarders out front! It seemed to be the local skate park. Inside, we were grateful for the cooler temperature. We roamed through the galleries, seeing some art that was to our taste and some that was really out there. Of course, that's often the case with modern art. We did like the building itself, however. On the whole, we rather like modern architecture.

After about 2 hours, we headed out in search of dinner, even though it was on the early side, by Spanish standards. However, we hadn't eaten in a while and our bodies didn't recognize Spanish time. We did stop by a bakery and picked up 3 chocolate croissants for 3 Euros and a muffin for another Euro for the next day's breakfast. We found a tapas bar (another Rick Steves' suggestion) called Bar Castells at Placa Bonsucces. We were some of the few guests at this early hour and we were seated quickly.

English menus helped us make our choices. We chose a variety of tapas plates that we would all share to taste as many things as possible. We ordered: jamon iberico (Iberian ham) for 11,80; tortilla espinacas (spinach) 3,00; ensalada de legumbres (sort of chick pea salad) 3,00; albondigas (meatballs) 4,00; queso manchego (sheep cheese) 5,50; bread for 2 with tomatoes ( a Spanish thing); 1 regular Coke and 2 Lite @ 2,60; red wine for my husband 2,50; and 2 flan @ 1,80.

We spent an hour savoring the food and relaxing. It was a terrific meal and a great introduction to Spanish food. 

Our next stop was unintended, but was a very good idea. We stopped in the Carrefour Market to pick up more breakfast items. The place was busy and had lots of signs with Spanish and English. We bought fresh fruit cups, yogurt and juice, as well as a package of various pastries.

We then headed toward the harbor to see the Columbus statue, which had been on my younger daughter's wish list. She had wanted to visit the maritime museum, but a quick look at their website showed no English translations, so we knew the museum would not be a good stop.  We enjoyed the breeze that had kicked up and took lots of pictures.

We watched trucks load onto a ferry and very briefly considered walking out toward the aquarium. The fact that it was after 9:30 killed that. 

At 9:45, we were waiting for the L3 Metro. We got off at Passeig de Gracia and took a long hike underground to the L4. At 10, we boarded the train and at 10:14, we got off at El Maresme e Forum. 

At 10:30, we were in the hotel lobby getting the room key for the daughters' room 1610 and directions for reaching Park Guell in the morning. 

The shower at the end of this incredibly long day felt wonderful, but so did knowing that we'd gone everywhere we'd planned and had forced our bodies to get onto Spanish time. It was a great first day!

Spain Day 1 July 14, 2015

We're going to Spain! I have to admit, this was not a country on my bucket list. Knowing German makes me more predisposed to the German-speaking countries and countries where German might be heard. In German, they have a saying: "Es kommt mir spanisch vor." That means "It's Spanish to me", which is their version of "It's Greek to me". When we've been in Mexico, my brain has automatically switched to German in an effort to find something it understands. (It didn't work, of course.)

But, here we are heading to Spain. Why? Because my husband will be playing at the international ClarinetFest in Madrid. We've often hooked family vacations on to these conferences. And this  is a family vacation-both daughters took off work to go. Funny, they didn't take off when it was in Louisiana last year. 

Our younger daughter came to our house the night before our departure. She felt this would be easier than picking her up at her apartment before going to the airport. Besides, we both HATE packing and this way, we could stress out together.

At 7:35 am, we left the house and drove a couple of blocks to pick up my husband's colleague, who would be taking care of the car for us and picking us up at the end of the trip. It also lets him borrow the car, while his car is being worked on.

I got us to Orlando International Airport by 8:12. Within 20 minutes, we'd finished checking in for USAir flight 603 to Charlotte, North Carolina. Even though we'd had some breakfast at home, we had some Egg McMuffins at the McDonald's in the airport food court. It would be a while before we'd eat again. 

We were lucky enough to be in the PreCheck line. So nice not to have to take off shoes or take things-other than the iPad-out of the bags.

By 10:15, we were seated in seats 17A,B and C. We took off an hour later and landed uneventfully in Charlotte at 12:05.

Charlotte was a great first stop for us, as our best man and his wife live there, and we don't see them very often. As we taxied to the gate, my husband let him know we'd landed. He picked us up outside arrivals and took us to Saigon Palace, a Vietnamese restaurant that was not far away. His wife was waiting there for us, which was a wonderful surprise. These are the type of people that you can fall into talking to, as if you just saw them recently. 

The food was almost as good as the conversation. My daughter and I often order two things that interest both of us and split them. So, I got chicken with shrimp and she got beef. Both were delicious. We also enjoyed spring rolls. 

At 2:30. we had to head back to the airport and his wife had to go back to work. It was a short visit, but so much fun!

After going through security (still PreCheck!), we headed for Gate D3, where our older daughter was waiting, having flown in from Washington, DC. It was a shame, that she hadn't been able to arrive in time for lunch, but it was terrific that she and my husband had managed to arrange for all 4 of us to fly to Barcelona on the same flight.The daughters would be in 30A and B and we would be right behind them in 31A and B.

The plane was not full and many of the folks in the center 4 seats had at least 2 seats to themselves. When trying to sleep, that might have been nice.

We took off about 5 pm and my husband immediately settled in to try to sleep. I figure, I've paid for the meal as part of my ticket and I'm going to eat it. Besides, there is no way I can fall asleep that early, even though I've been getting up earlier and earlier every day for for 2 weeks. Today, I got up at 3 am but there was no way I could fall asleep this early. 

So, my daughters and I decided we'd eat his meal. We had a choice of chicken or pasta. I chose chicken for me and his meal would be pasta. All of a sudden, the plane dropped! There' d been no warning and it was incredibly scary. Then, we dropped again! It wasn't as much this time, but still...

What really concerned me was that the captain did not come on the intercom to explain what was going on. The guy across from me had a tomato-based drink, which went everywhere. I had the presence of mind to put my hands over my tray and spared myself a mess. I did wake up my husband, because there was no way I was going to die next to him and have him be asleep! The captain finally came on and told us it was due to "clear air turbulence". Sometimes, this happens and there is just no warning. My husband went back to sleep.

I watched " The Second Best Marigold Hotel" during the rest of my meal and then prepared to sleep. To help my legs, I put on compression socks. I've also been having pain in my left knee and put a brace on to try to help that. Both helped, but sleep was difficult. The crying baby didn't help. I tried listening to music, but the classical channel didn't work. Sleeping on an overnight flight is not the easiest thing for me.

But, we're off on our two-week adventure!