Barcelona, Spain

After a short flight to Atlanta and a long 9 hour flight over into Spain, we took a cab ride to our hotel in Barcelona. Jim hardly slept at all on the flight . . . I slept about 3 hours or so. But it was a painful three hours . . . not very restful at all. The regular coach section just doesn't cut it for sleeping. As we were leaving the plane, we walked through first class. We passed by the nice wide seats with nice foot rests and nice heavy blankets (did I mention it was really nice up there?). For a very short second (or maybe two) the extra $10,000 per seat almost seemed reasonable. :)

I had a stressful day on Tuesday before leaving. I thought I was doing so good getting things ready early . . . but I still left a bit too much for our last day before flying out. Jim is a great "get 'er done" . . . "don't worry, be happy" kind of guy. Unfortunately, that trait hasn't rubbed off on me in our thirty years of marriage (did I mention that this is an anniversary trip?). I have to spend some of my "get 'er done" time worrying myself silly about what is still left to do. After all what if I forget something? Well I did forget to pack a couple of significant items on this trip. In case you don't already know the solution to that one is generally quite simple . . . you go shopping (which is kind of fun when you are in Barcelona). Anywho . . . I got up the day of departure a little stressed with tight muscles in my head and neck . . . and a nice little headache. I tried to stretch it out throughout the day but was not completely successful. The overnight flight and trying to sleep in some pretty uncomfortable positions increased the intensity of the headache and with it came a bit of nausea. I had three hours of sleep, jet lag and a major headache by the time we got to our hotel.

We took a two hour nap and then I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some myofascial release work on myself. Jim went and checked out the area around our hotel and picked up some water and fruit from a nearby grocery store. By bedtime I felt a bit better but was very, very tired. Surprisingly Jim was not tired at all. We both got a good nights sleep and then set out to check out the city. We had a great day of sightseeing and shopping. I got a super yummy falafel with hummus, sautéed cauliflower and sun dried tomatoes for lunch at maos vegetarian restaurant (www.maozveg.com) for lunch. Just finished dinner sitting out on the balcony of our room. We are thinking about taking a bus tour tomorrow to get a little of the history of the city. The language barrier hasn't been too bad. It takes a few minutes and lots of hand gestures and folks either understand or act like they do.