De merci a gracias

It’s raining here in Macon, and Dave and I are the only guests left. Lorraine left at 5 with Cedric for the hour long ride to Lyon; Nicole at 7 with Patrick, and Carol at 10:30 with Cedric. I mention this only to highlight the kind of care they’ve been taking of us – if this were a cruise, we’d all have gone at 5 with Lorraine. Even though we have little to do today besides pack and play petanque if the rain stops, I got up early (well, 8) and ran through Feeling in the bar, then went down for breakfast with Carol and Diane. It was odd to be just the three of us – Cedric joined us briefly and snarfed down two croissants before heading out for his second trip to Lyon with Carol.

Back up to the room for packing. Dave and I both brought too many clothes, and for the Priorat section of the tour we’re going to be in a smaller car, so we needed to cut down. We divided our clothes into a Priorat section and a leave-at-the-hotel-in-Barcelona section (we’re staying there both before and after) and it magically worked out – in fact the suitcases both weight 18 kilos exactly. So we’ll have 1 suitcase and 1 garment bag in each place. After we finished packing I made the facebook album for Dublin, and then it was time for lunch. We met Diane and all had a salad, but of course I had cheese as well. It was odd to leave the table without drinking any wine and feeling only pleasantly full. It was nice to have one last quiet meal in the dining room.

We hung out in our room for a while. I paid some bills. I needed to send a paypal payment, but somehow got logged on to French Paypal which would lead me on through screen after screen and then die. I persevered and got it done. At 3:45 Patrick called and said they were waiting for us. He has a cold, so Cedric took us to the airport. Diane rode along hoping that in the big city of Lyon they could find an open grocery store so she could make soup for Patrick – if not, it’s potato, onion, honey and mayonnaise soup.

The drive to the airport was very rainy but otherwise uneventful. We missed the drop off point on our first go-around, but got into the airport in plenty of time to check in and get through the (extraordinarily slow) security. Our flight was uneventful and our luggage all made it successfully. The Barcelona airport is amazing – it has an entire shopping mall inside of security! Customs is a sign over an open door, and you’re out.

A moment to discuss toilettes, which are either lavabos or aseos here. Maybe first we talk about language? Spanish is of course the official language, but the preferred language for speaking is Catalan, which seems to be a mixture of French and Spanish – not terribly helpful when you’re trying to remember to say gracias instead of merci. My Spanish is flooding back, and after spending the past week trying to read French the Catalan is seeming pretty accessible. Back to lavabos. The public one at the Chateau had a motion sensor in the little cubicle, so you had to be sure to keep moving. These had motion sensors also, and very clever door locks. I can’t help it, these things fascinate me. Do people who live here learn to constantly twitch while they are taking care of things?

Once we got our bags we made our way to the exit to get a taxi. The signs are very big and visible, but at one point they seemed to be pointing into the floor. Sure enough, we went there and there was what I thought was an escalator but which turned out to be a fairly steeply slanted moving sidewalk. Suddenly wheeled luggage that can roll in any direction didn’t seem like such a great idea.

We got a taxi and although he seemed to be driving through the airport way to fast, the ride was not too scary. We got to our hotel and got checked in, and then the bellboy took us up to show us our room which is palatial – a huge sitting room with a heavily decorated dark wood 16’ ceiling, and a gigantic bedroom with a nice 3” high threshold that Dave has already smashed his foot on. We’re going to keep the doors between the rooms closed to remind us not to trip on it. Also we have 3 TVs (yes, there’s one in the bathroom), a giant Jacuzzi tub with the ceiling shower and doors that go all the way across, the world’s largest single sink and – this one’s for you, BOS - a bidet!

We’re only here for one night, and then we leave for the Priorat and wine tasting tomorrow at noon. We were so exhausted and tired of figuring out what to order and how to pay and whether to tip that we ordered room service and enjoyed eating it in our sitting room with a big pot of tea. The food would have been mediocre in any setting, so it was quite a comedown from what we’ve been eating. But it was easy to order, they put it on our bill, and it’s very peaceful and quiet in our room.

A few more things about our room. It has the weirdest bed pillows ever, not only are they the long king sized version but they’re narrower than usual. Also there are 3 bottles each of shampoo, body wash, and body lotion, and toothbrushes and a comb and I don’t know what all else. I am so stealing some when we come back.

That’s all for today.

Bonus photo from cooing class. Cocoa Claw Hands.