Sierra de Guadarrama

Will I ever catch up? I don't know. Internet is spotty at best. Blog says I'm in Spain, Facebook says I'm in France. Neither are true at this point. But I'm going to try.

One of our favorite adventures thus far was visiting Valle de los Caidos, just outside of Madrid. A controversial visit according to the locals. If you know your Spanish History, which I did not, Franco is not the most popular guy 'round these parts, what with all the anti-nationalism and authoritarian dictatorship and all.

Well, he built this creepy "cathedral" but it's really more of a crypt. Instead of the cathedral stretching towards the heavens, like most we have seen, it is buried in the side of a mountain. The cross you see below is all that is visible, and it is visible for miles. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, but it was ominous. And over the top. Very cold. Very clean. Like Cameron Fry's house. Being that we like things that are creepy and weird, it was a favorite. If you get the chance, you must go.

Segovia, Spain

So I am WAY behind y'all. We've been busy busy everyday. We are headed to the beach for some low-key adventure tomorrow, so maybe I will catch up then.

Our first stop in Spain was to visit my unofficial little bear, Karina, in Madrid. We didn't actually spend a lot of time in Madrid. Instead we did a number of little day trips. The first one was to Segovia where James spent some time in high school. Here are some photos:

Segovia

Aquaduct

Jonah? What are you doing in Spain. Silly gato.

Street kitty

More Jesus

Jesus

So they say this castle was used to inspire the one in Disneyland....

El Toro. He gave us directions.

Bordeaux------>Madrid

Excited to finally get the car, a Fiat Punto which I have named Beldar until my companions stongly argue otherwise, we headed out on the road trip portion of our journey. We left our gracious abode in St. Germain and managed to get as far as Bordeaux. Upon the advice of friends of our hosts, we were guided toward the Formule 1 chain of hotels that exist throughout Europe. So great!!! Suited our unique requirements for lodging, and was very Year 2000 Ikeaesque futuristic. And cheap! 35 euro an night. Even with a common bathroom and shower, we found it very private and comfortable.

Exterior

On the way to Madrid, we stopped in Hossegor, which was supposed to have some of the best surfing in the WORLD according to James' cousin. Sorry Matt, the surf didn't look so great, but the sand was fantastic on the feet. The water was a bit to cold to swim in. In any case this is what we look like on this side of the Atlantic:




And then a beautiful sunset. Yay France!!!

more Parisian photos

chien français:

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

Once again:

Beautiful rug bought in Dubai by our hosts. Notice the shadows.

LA VOITURE!!!!!!! Time for a road trip.....

Fantastique

So viking Dave was right. Dammit. It is too time consuming and we are simply too busy for me to keep up on this blog. Internet access often costs money and Blogger is a little bitch when it comes to uploading photos. So I'm predicting that this blog will be sparse at best..... Maybe more text than photos? I can't say. I'll try, but I'm not making any promises. Certainly not as rich as last year.

Paris and St. Germain were fantastic. James' family was so kind and generous. Heather, I did go to the textile museum. You are so jealous of me right now. There fashion exhibit was all 1930s high end pieces. Couldn't take pictures though. Found my dress for the wedding! Make a distraction, I'll sneak it out the back. In the same museum they had a toy exhibit... with toys from my childhood. Behind glass. On display. Am I that old? Must do more adventuring to combat the inevitable.

Did standard touristy stuff. Had happy accidents. Its all too much right now folks. I will say though that I never had any desire to go to Paris, and I am so very happy I did. I look forward to returning someday.

I'll try and give you attention when I can but it will be hard. (that's what... oh nevermind)

Some photos:

Le Chein:

Bad college nicknames following me all over the world.

Je suis sur un bateau!!! Where's T-Pain?

Notre Dame
Musee de Louvre
Ferris Wheel. Its becoming a theme.

Romantique:

Première nuit en France

No pics today football fans, but wanted to recount my first day in France while still fresh in my mind.

Dr. S is in charge of the alarm clock situation, so when I heard alarm clocky noise from her side of the bed and then no one got up I thought I would be the Rock Star of the group and get the day moving. (I guess technically that is anti-Rock Star behavior....) After a refreshing shower I started to get ready for the days travels and then checked the actual time: 4:45 a.m. Drat.

Six hours later we boarded the Eurostar Train through the Chunnel to Paris. Very nice travel option I must say. Smooth ride, very comfortable seats. Highly recommend it. The three of us did have to behave, however, since we shared our seating cubby with a gem dealer from from Sri Lanka.

Upon departure we had to immediately figure out another train system to get to our destination. By we I mean they. I have relinquished the power to them as far as navigation in this capacity. They are meticulous and we always seem to get to where we are supposed to go. And to many cooks in the kitchen etc....

In their capable hands we managed to get from Paris to St. Germain-en-Laye, a historical city outside of Paris. Birthplace of Claude Debussy and home of Alexandre Dumas, both personal favorite Frenchman of mine. Also the home of TMs Aunt and her wonderful family who are graciously housing us during the French portion of our adventure.

Mother and daughter prepared an exquisite home cooked meal for us consisting of some sort of homemade ginger soup, veal, roast beef, wine, fresh baked breads, a variety of cheeses and a raspberry tart. We ate out on their deck over a beautiful back yard. Just lovely. Great food. Great company. Best meal thus far.

If you have any suggestions for Paris, please send them our way. And don't say the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower, I mean really. Some originality people.

Happy Birthday to You 2

For reference, exactly one year ago I was acknowledging the United States declaring its independence from the kingdom of Great Britain in our nation's capitol. I thought this year I might return to the source of the matter and celebrate in said Kingdom.
The question is.... how does one celebrate amidst the very people we are... er... celebrating against? The answer is, quite obviously, Stonehenge!!!!


Included in this day trip was a stop in Salisbury where we saw an original copy of the Magna Carta, which, as you may know, inspired our very own constitution. I felt it was a decent nod to the celebrations occurring back home. We also went to Bath and saw the Roman Baths. It finally felt like we were in Europe. London felt too... familiar. Walking around we could have been in Manhattan or Austin or even San Francisco depending on where we were in the city. But Bath had palpable history and culture. We wished we could have spent more time there. There we also had our first of I'm hoping hundreds of Happy Accidents, which was this guy playing a really interesting steel drum. He was very talented. See him behind Triangle Man and Dr. Scientist there:
Then some time to relax and contemplate:

Then back to the city. We tried to meet up with Latoya, who would be familiar to all of you who are Go Bears. The thing is, see, is that it was London Pride that day. We knew she was in SoHo, but so was every queer and queen as well. Dr. S and I were SO happy to get at least a taste of Pride, and I felt it was another great nod to America to participate. When we (meaning he) had finally had enough we headed back toward the Underground. Except that Dr.S and I had to pee, so we ducked into the first pub we saw, which just happened to be the first pub Jimi Hendrix played at in the UK and was his rehearsal space while he was here. And it was a Guinness Pub!!! AND Willie came on the TV!!!!!! I am hoping he will be my stalker on this journey. So cool. We, of course, had a Guinness, our second historical beer of the adventure. A final and fitting tribute to the U.S.A.

3 + 2 = AWESOME

Certain aspects of long-term traveling are slowly coming back to me as we are closing down phase 1 of our journey. Travel fatigue being a major one. Pride in finding our way through a strange city being another. The most significant is remembering how enriching other people are to my journey.

I'm going to go ahead and say that my favorite part of London was meeting up with girlfriend's older brother Ben and his girlfriend Loe:

Ben and I had never really hung out before, despite having known each other for the majority of our lives. Nonetheless we had SUCH a good time. They brought us to a great pub called The Woolpack for dinner. Then they guided us to our first (of, I'm certain, many) historical beers. We went to The George, which was visited by William Shakespeare and frequented by Charles Dickens. On their recommendation we drank cask ale and had great conversation. I found it particularly interesting to hear a Californian's perspective on living in London. Thanks you two for an awesome night!

We have arrived!

So we have officially arrived!!! After months of planning and anticipation, after 22 hours of travel from home to hotel, we made it to London safe. I guess I should introduce "we" first. You know me.... occupation: part-time adventurer. My other traveling companions will hereto be known as Ms. Doctor Scientist and Triangle Man. We have just embarked on a 7 week whirlwind tour of Western Europe for our summer holiday.

We were fortunate to get a straight flight from San Francisco to Heathrow. Our first order of business was to figure out the London Underground in order to get to our hotel, which was about the last thing we were in the mood for after 10 hours of travel. But we did it!!! Well... actually they did it. I followed blindly in a travel induced stupor. I'm already feeling the advantages of having traveling companions. My stubborn independence may be slowly melting away. We finally ended up here:

After a brief nap we headed into the city and ate at... wait for it.... TGI Fridays! I know I know. Super weak. But super good. We then walked around seeing London at night. Very beautiful. See:

Today was our first full day in Europe. We are easing into our new rolls as travelers. Did the London Eye, the National Gallery, and OF COURSE had a couple pints of Guinness at a pub. Yum. Shared a huge pile of fish and chips. Had a strawberry ale that reminded me of Abita Strawberry Lager in New Orleans. Luckily our hotel is right next to this great, cheap Turkish diner. So we are well fed and ready to explore tomorrow! Here are some pretty pictures from today:

Look Kids: Big Ben. Parliament.

SF Pride '09

What better way to say goodbye than a parade. And not just any parade, but the grandtranny of all parades:

Me, girlfriend, and girlfriend

SF's FINEST (pun intended)

And guest starring Mark from last year's adventure!

See you in London!!!

Adios, Arrivederci, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

I happen to have the best friends EVER. Here are some shots from our going away party last night*:





*photos not inclusive of all the awesome people that came. Thanks y'all! See you soon.