Girona: Ups and Downs

Heading from Barcelona to Girona, we just happened to take the same train as Sam and K.O.!  It's always fun finding people you know in some other part of the world.

Girona's a nice town, medium-sized by Spain standards I think.  Sam's friend/employer Marty Jemison of  is loaning us his apartment for the week, called Can Bici.  It's in a great part of town, only 15 minutes walking from the old part of town, and out the front door it has a great view of the town and the mountains to the west.

We've had a beautiful ride at dusk and a beautiful ride up Els Angels.  The weather so far has been awesome blue sky with big puffy scattered clouds that move in during the afternoon.

On Saturday, Sam took us to a friend's house whose family was having a big afternoon lunch.  We rode 1.5 hrs out to the house, which was an awesome affair, with 11 people around the table and food for 20.  They had an outdoor grill and brought out several huge plates of meat -- ribs, chicken, different pieces of lamb, rabbit, fish, several different kinds of sausage, liver from something, and god knows what else.  There were salads, deviled eggs (always a favorite), homemade mayonnaise, and other things.  All of this was washed down with wine, finished with a few desserts, and topped off with some after-meal shots of a liquor that tasted like an herbal Jaegermaester.  After lots of chatting, we took the fast way back; with the tailwind it only took 20 minutes.

We met up with Peter and April at their hotel.  It was a blast hearing about all their adventures.  They've been criss-crossing this region for weeks now.  We all had a nice dinner together.  I was really feeling the jetlag; I've been too excited to sleep more than 4-5 hours at a time.

The next day was not so good for me.  [Skip the next paragraph if you don't want gory details.]

Woke up with pressure in chest, puked a little, went back to sleep.  Woke up a few hours later, pressure in chest and nauseated, went with the glass of warm salt water, asked Emma if she put enough salt in, and by the end of the sentence I emptied my stomach.  Emptied the other direction as well.  Ugh.  Everybody ate the same stuff (except Sam only had the fish of course), so not sure about the cause.  Pretty sure it was a meat product at fault.

Went for a quick ride up Els Angels with Sam and Emma.  Emma rocked it, powering close behind Sam and I, and we were all rewarded with a great view.

Fantastic dinner with the Spiros at a place Sam had been to before.  Great conversation, lots of interesting food.

I woke up this morning without quite as strong nausea, only to find out Emma's stomach was hurting!  Bummer!  It helps to know it's probably mostly a 24hr thing, but I can attest (and Emma agrees) it's been pretty painful.  A water bottle full of hot water earned me the most points today.  I can already tell she's improving, but we'll see how things go tomorrow.

Went for a beautiful ride with Sam during one of Emma's naps; we weren't able to push it too much, but took some videos that I'll post later.

Barcelona

We're staying in Ciutat Vella, on a quiet street a few blocks off Las Ramblas.  We rented an apartment for the night.  Had some great tapas last night, including some solid patatas bravas as well as calimari.

Woke up this morning for a jog along the waterfront, and on the way back got quite lost in the zigzagging neighborhoods of Old Town.  Instead of stopping and asking for directions, I just keep running and eventually found a big church that I recognized.  Brought a few croissants back to Emma to make up for my tardiness.

Some people here seem busy; others smoke their morning cigarette with a deliberate slowness, almost like they're waiting for friends to arrive.  It is a bustling city, to be sure -- garbage trucks holding up traffic and street washing trucks spreading city grime evenly across the narrow neighborhood streets.

I feel bad for the dogs.  You see owners giving them a quick morning walk, and the dogs seem quite dejected.  On the other hand, I saw one happy mutt -- no owner in sight -- and as soon as I wondered where he was heading, it took a dump in the middle of the stone street.

We went to the market.  It's pretty extensive.  The meat stands are most impressive: lots of ham legs hanging from the ceiling, but also skinned rabbit and whatnot in the glass cases.  Sharing a cafe Americano and tortilla patata for breakfast hit the spot, and I grabbed a ham and cheese sandwich to bring for the train.

Travel day

After a few meetings in the morning we took a Super Shuttle to LAX, heading for gawdawful Heathrowe.  I thought I was pretty lucky getting placed next to one of the only open seats.  Turns out a 3 foot tall tyrant was placed directly behind me.  A few times his kicks were a bit soothing, but other times they just woke me up.  Got through two movies: Mission Impossible (which achieved the rare bad - bearable - bad transition) and Ides of March (depressing pic about the game of politics).  I also chipped away at some work on the laptop while Emma dug into a romance novel using the Kindle app on her phone.

It is always a pleasure going somewhere with TravelEmma.  For those who have not spent time with TravelEmma, she is a checklister.  Even if you may have traveled once or twice before, she will regularly give advice on where to put your wallet and passport, under the guise of "making conversation".  In fact, a few times I found myself looking for an item of mine, only to find it has magically migrated to her purse; "just putting it somewhere safe," she says.

However, the real way you can distinguish TravelEmma from regular Emma is by her behavior when surrounded by people (e.g. on an airplane, waiting at a gate, security lines, etc):  wide-eyed, yet expressionless, she quietly stares at the people around her.  A mother doting on a young child receives extra attention -- occasionally with a raised eyebrow that some would call "judgmental".  Sometimes her stares last long enough so that her original smile has since drifted into a bit of a snarl; at this point, I try and get her attention before the people notice.

But take all this with a grain o' salt, as I'm working off 1.5 hrs of sleep while Emma's cheerful after at least 7 or 8.  Off to Spain!

Dolomiti, Part II

Yes, this post is admittedly a little late. Things have been so crazy over that last few weeks but I promised Chris I would get this one up. I will try to make this one a little bit shorter, but its had to get everything into one post so it might end up as two. Sorry Eth, but its not like you read it anyway.

When I last wrote we had just started our hiking the the Dolomites. Our first segment lasted three days in huts before we reached another little village. From Rifugio Genova, we set out early in the morning towards another distant pass. Though I love being able to see the final destination on hikes like these, it is an bit disheartening when it looks so far away. Today the distant Forcella della Roa looked like a tiny opening in the menacing roll of rock before us. In fact, I was doubting a little our ability to get over it. There is so much rock in this area that it inevitable results in scree fields, which of course we have to cross. Steep, movable scree -- that was what was in store for us. The beginning of the hike was beautiful along the ridge.

As we approached the notch we could tell that there were going to be a few sketchy paths trying to get to the top. Not only did the trail cut across the steep slopes, by which I mean such a steep drop off that there is not way you are stopping if you go down, but they we had to scramble on zig-zags up the scree field. It was so steep! I was trying to catch my breath, but stopping in the middle of the slope was too dangerous in many places, which made the climb less than enjoyable. However, we made it to the top just as a huge tour group of people decided to descend. And thank god for our timing. As the people started to slip and slide down the trail -- we witnessed two falls within the first 100 feet -- we there so happy that we didn't have them trying to go down as we were climbing. The chances of us getting a rock in the head were probably 50-50.

The top was spectacular, views down both valleys and around the whole area are pretty crazy because of the sheer rock faces in all directions. It was also a gorgeous day, blue sky and warm. But we weren't out of the water just yet. From the forcella there were two ways to get to our next hut. Our planned route took us down from the top, along the rocky valley for a bit then up and over another pass. The alternate route was comprised of a series of ladders straight up and over the cliff. As we looked in the direction of the via ferrata, i.e. iron way, as the system of ladder and cables is called, we thought to ourselves there is no way that anyone but the most experiences climbers go that way. Boy were we wrong.

Sitting of the top, enjoying the view and our snack of cheese and elven bread we were joined by two different tour groups. The first was a bunch of English speakers most in the 50s and 60s and the second was a group of pre-teens. To our amazement both groups set off towards the via ferrata. We also ran into a group of four German guys, who we had (perhaps unfortunately because one of them snored incredibly loud all night and Chris got zero sleep) encountered at the previous rifugio. They spoke enough English to encourage us to come along, saying it was very easy and the children go on it every year.

In the end we decided against it, but our way turned out to also contain a section of iron cables along a steep cliff, so in hindsight I am not sure if we chose correctly. As we got to the top of the second pass we discovered that the trail did not go down the other side, as any sane person might have expected, but instead continued up along the spine of the ridge. Granted there was a purpose to the madness, since it brought us to the top of the cliff which turned out to be relatively flat -- and had amazing views. Still, as we climb on hand and knees at some points up the rock we were both contemplating the decisions to build the trail this way. The iron stretch was definitely the more dangerous we had encountered, and both Chris and I were a bit nervous. When we made it to Rifugio Puez, a relatively short walk along the tabletop, still both thinking about the cliff just out of view down to our right, we decided to take a closer look at the planned itinerary.

That night at the hut, after some delicious spaghetti, beer and a little World Cup action, we decided to hike around the next mountain, rather than over the top as the route originally directed us. Instead to descended into the town of Covara, a small little town at the foot of a few different peaks. In the winter the whole area is home to a ski area called the Alta Badia. We found a great little B&B before Chris read about a bike ride that went over four different passes and around the highest mountain in the area. He was able to get in a three hour ride in the afternoon while I took a little nap.

Dolomiti, Part I

The starting point for our hike in the Dolomites was the town of Bressanone. We arrived just before dinner to check into our bed and breakfast and get a few things before the stores closed. Bressanone was a tiny little town and it reminded me a lot of Austria. Even though we are in Italy much of this region is German speaking and you can clearly see the influence in the architecture. After dumping our backpacks we went walking around the town. The main square consisted our a few churches around a central plaza. The streets in this area were closed to cars, though on some I'm not sure a car would even fit. The cobble streets get so narrow in places its easy to feel lost in a maze. We had a delicious dinner here, opting for a somewhat upscale little restaurant on the street rather than the Bufalo Cantina, which looked okay from the outside. One of the main errands of the night was to hit up the grocery store to get food for the hike!

It was a bit of deja vu going into the Coop market! Chels and Ethan will remember the excitement of seeing the red lettering of this grocery store. (In Norway, we never passed up the chance to buy food!) The selection is somewhat limited but we were able to get a bunch of cheap granola bars, chocolate bars, and made some delicious GORP with M&Ms. We decided to go with standard bread, cheese, and salami for most of our lunches. We found some amazing little pepperoni sticks and some cheese that didn't need to be refrigerated (kinda like laughing cow -- somewhat sketchy but tastes good). As for the salami......we bought a big squishy thing - more on that decision later! For bread we decided to go with one of those dense loaves that resembles a brick. We have taken to referring to it as elven bread and Chris says that the only way he can force himself to eat it. Its actually not bad with cheese spread on it and given how heavy and dense it is I'm guessing we could survive on it for a few days at least in a pinch! We also found a couple pouches of tuna which has yet to be eaten and Chris is betting that we never do.

One of the pleasant surprises thus far has been the extensive system of gondolas and chair lifts in this area. In many places the valley is simply one giant ski area in the winter, so there are many different lifts. In the summer, however, they allow hikers and bikers to use the chairs and it has been a great for us right from the beginning! The first day of the Alta Via 2 is a 6000 foot climb up to Rifigio Plose, where the actual hike begins. By jumping on a gondola we were able to cut out the first 4500 feet - awesome! The day started out somewhat cloudy with what looked to be a few showers headed our way. We didn't mind too much because it helped to cool us off on the relentless climb the rest of the way to Plose, where we had a quick lunch of of bread, cheese and GORP. The rest of the day was a slow meandering across alpine meadows, occasionally dropping into valleys and crossing windy roads that lead up to tiny little clusters of homes. Some of the day was spent walking through pine forests before we started a climb to the Forcella di Puntia.

I had read in the book that the ascent to the saddle was "relentless" which is never a good sign when hiking. We were able to see the small saddle way in advance, practically from the start of the hike. It matched the picture in our book perfectly, and when I told Chris that was most likely where we were headed I could tell he was a little skeptical - it looked really far away. The mountains here are extremely wild looked because of their sheer rock faces and jagged tops. They look like something straight out of Mordor, which is why Chris has made so many LOTR references thus far. The cliffs and peaks are really spectacular, however, they lead to some pretty rocky and rough trails. There has been a lot of scree and boulders to negotiate in climbing up to many of the passes we need to cross. The first day was a introduction to it all as we climbed up and up. I was a bit tired when we reached the saddle, but the view was definitely worth it. I love being able to see into two different valleys and the feeling of crossing from one to another.

The rest of the hike was an easy slight descent along the ridge line to the Rifugio Genova. The hut system in the Dolomites, and many parts of Europe for that matter, is awesome! The huts provide hikers with a bunk and blankets, so that we only need to carry small silk sleeping sacks. They also serve up an array of hearty food throughout the day. It is great to relax after a day of hiking by sitting at a picnic table on the deck overlooking an serene panorama enjoying a tall glass of cold beer. And that is exactly what we have done each day!

One of the staple foods at the rifugios is of course spaghetti and meat sauce, but they also have some damn good salads and vegetable soup. One of the local special are a kind of bread dumpling made with bacon and herbs served in a simple broth. Though we were not quite sure what it was the first night after the waiter tried to describe it to us and thus decided to go with spaghetti, he told us "next time you try the balls."