Uhlfelder News

February 14, 2008.  Bruno and I went to ski today.  He wanted to show me some of the really off-piste stuff they have around here so we went to Courmeyeur with the plan to ski a couple of couloirs off the Funivie Monte Bianco at 3462 meters and then ski back to Chamonix.  The first couloir was one of the steepest things I’ve ever skied.  About as steep as Highlands Bowl, only three times the length in very difficult and challenging snow conditions with rocks everywhere. It was really challenging skiing and very scary turn or die terrain.  In fact, my guide (this is an area where each client must have their own guide) told me not to fall.  About 2,100 meters later and what seemed like two hours, we made it down on every type of snow imaginable, but mainly challenging conditions with changes from breakable crust, ice, spring crud, breakable crust, powder, etc…  Through trees, over rocks, on dirt.  I saw a bighorn sheep and a fox on the way down.  The top was the scariest, hairiest run of my life.  Here are photos from the day.

Then we went up to ski another couloir; this one thankfully was not turn or die conditions (but it would be preferable to stay on ones feet or you’ll descent much more quickly than is preferable or comfortable).  By the time we arrived at the mid-station for lunch, and the temperatures had warmed up and I was skiing through mixed spring conditions and soft snow and crust, I arrived at the lunch place covered with sweat. 

Bruno and I ate a very nice meal of a lot of wonderful Italian food that was very authentic seeming and an hour or more later, got on the Funivie Monte Bianco for a final ride to the summit and the ski down to Chamonix via the Vallee Blanche.  A huge day of skiing to say the least.  The most vertical I’ve done probably ever and certainly the most challenging skiing I can remember doing. 

February 15, 2008.  I can’t say I’ve ever skiing six days straight.  In Andorra I skied five days straight, but it was work and very easy skiing.  This was vacation with the family and some very challenging runs and yesterday, one of the most challenging days of skiing ever.  In any case, we ended up going through the Mont Blanc tunnel again, for the third time for me and the second time for Anne and the kids.  Dan and Amy and their kids, Sam and Hanna, joined us for the ride there and back and for lunch.  Bruno guided mainly me and some runs for the family.  Photos are here.

We had a great vacation.  The kids got along well together and it was great that Dan and Amy’s kids got along so well with our kids.  The skiing was very good, and of course would have been one tenth what it was without Bruno, our guide.  His service is unbeatable and I would not even consider coming here without him (it’s just too dangerous and you’re missing most of what Chamonix is about).  While I have no experience with other guides here, I met a few others on the mountains and Bruno is the best combination of hard work, knowledge, humor and seriousness that worked for me. 

I learned that I don’t want to bother with the Haute Route.  Going to six different huts over six days, slogging around in Rondonee gear, just isn’t for me.  I’m sure it’s a great experience, but I can do it any year.  I may be interested in coming back just for a day or two to ski powder, again guided by Bruno.  Anne discovered she loves the out-of-doors and that Aspen is the place for her.  I discovered why I like France so much; it’s just a cool place and parts of it feel very familiar and the people are just great, generally. 

February 16, 2008.  We woke up this morning and it was lightly snowing in Chamonix.  They need snow, and they probably got more at altitude.  In any case, it was colder than the spring-like weather we had enjoyed the last week and we all walked around to see anything we missed.  We bought some lunch, the bus came on time, and off the eight of us went to Geneva — about a 1.5 hour ride with the traffic.  We made the plane, I ended up sharing the exit row with another BFIS parent, Rob M., and we had a great chat.  A nice end to a great vacation.   Photos are here.  All our bags made it and we ended up going through the non-passport control side of the airport, which was wrong (we were coming from Switzerland, which is not a “Schwegen” country and therefore requires passport control) but no matter to us.

February 17, 2008.  A very sleepy day getting over a very active vacation.  We didn’t go out of the apartment until dinner time and ended up over-eating at Cerveseria Catalunya. 

February 18, 2008.  Off to our near routine, Starbucks (for me), studying Spanish, etc… 

Thinking a bit more about Spain; they need some public education campaigns here.  (1) Smoking is dangerous to you and people around you are likely to not want to smoke; and (2) don’t litter.  As for #1, you both know my thoughts — I hate it.  As for #2, so many people here just thrown their litter on the ground without thinking twice.  Instead of waiting to stop at a gas station, they will throw litter out the car window — can’t have a dirty car. 

Rocket has been on vacation and is coming home tonight.  Hopefully he isn’t worse than before and some how I doubt he’s gotten better (not like at Shelly’s where she actually managed to train him to (1) stop getting on the furniture and (2) stop jumping on people). 

February 19, 2008.  I’m still tired from the skiing last week and haven’t felt like getting back to the work-out routine.  Tomorrow I have too much to do, so I guess it’s the day after.  Today I decided to start a new website in order to sell the furniture I bought here in Barcelona and have already begun to focus on getting our stuff home.  I guess we’re ready.  My new website is here.   It is called www.BarcelonaSabbatical.com and should be fully working by tomorrow.

February 20, 2008.  Finally, I felt good enough to get back to weight work-outs.  I’m hoping that the weather gets better so I can get on the bike soon.  I had a nice lunch today with David R who is a good listener.  I’m enjoying learning about all the history (this place is just full of it!).  Between my haircutter, my Spanish teacher, and my friend at David’s soccer practices, I’m getting lots of one-sided views of what went on 500 plus years ago. 

February 7, 2008.  We met the Edgerly family (minus one daughter) tonight for dinner.  They are here from Aspen, visiting with their daughter attending college for a year here and perfecting her Spanish and learning Catalan, the language of the region here.  It was really fun for me to see Stuart, about the nicest guy I know.  The best (strangest) part is we’re all on the same flight to Geneva and going to Chamonix for the same week!  Also David told me several of his class-mates would also be in Chamonix.  It should be darn crowded.

February 8, 2008.  Not much went on today of import — we packed.  I was waiting for the boys at the bus stop and watched Spanish police pull over motorcycles.  There was clearly nothing random about it — these were the ones that were ridden by kids.  Papers, etc… were examined.  I think they were looking for stolen motorcycles and drugs.  I watched for a while waiting for the kids’ bus, but no one was lead away in handcuffs.  One thing was clear, they were profiling.  No constitutional worries here about randomizing and not profiling just stop those most likely to be criminals. 

I’ve been reading the papers and there is an election here for President too, and it’s coming up in March.  Meanwhile the US election battle gets just as much press and everyone knows what is going on there.  I doubt there are many people who know there is even an election coming in Spain, much less the candidates names. 

February 9, 2008.  We got up and made our way to the airport, and waited in the long line for check-in with easyjet, a cheap dot-com airline.  Everything is handled by subcontractors including check in, baggage handling, gate operations, and probably flights too.  In fact, as we were checking in Anne noticed one of our bags got to the conveyor belt before getting tagged.  I was running parallel to the conveyor belt, trying to help the woman who was checking us in identify it, and then noticed she had given up.  She assured us that she would find the bag and get it on our flight.  Guess what.

You thought it would make it.  No way.  This of course caused an hour delay at the Geneva airport reporting the bag.  Then there was tons of traffic to Chamonix.  We got a private transfer – eight of us on a 42 seat city bus – we had plenty of room. 

Anywho, we got to Chamonix one bag short, Anne and I had to organize ski rentals for everyone and now David needed new ski clothes.  All before the stores closed.  Somehow, we got everything done and had a nice buffet dinner at the hotel.  Amazing.

Then Anne and I got on the phone (via Internet) and while doing that (no, the bag isn’t here yet), I got a call on my cell phone from someone at the airport in Barcelona about a bag without a tag.  Jose Maria was nice enough to call the cell number on the luggage tag, and hopefully the bag will arrive tomorrow.

As for Chamonix.  It looks great and really reminds me of Europe.  It’s a narrow and deep valley, and with unbelievable mountains surrounding it and a vertical rise of 10,000 feet plus.  The vistas are amazing.  I also arranged a guide tomorrow and managed to get the ski school organized for Dan’s kids.  Not as easy as Aspen, but it should work out.  Tomorrow Bruno will guide the six of us around and we’ll see what the skiing is like.  Bruno really wants to show me some of the good skiing. 

February 10, 2008.  After some amazing hassles getting our free tickets, we met with Bruno, our guide who Dan characterized “out of central casting”.  Bruno had us modify the tickets they gave us so we could ski everywhere.  Anyway, off we went.  Basically, I would say that Chamonix is about the best skiing I’ve ever experienced.  Living in Aspen this year would likely match it, but I’m here.

Basically, it’s a skier’s paradise.  Once you’ve come here, you’re going to be very spoiled.  Here are some photos from today’s and yesterday’s exploits, which included Dan and Amy and the four Uhlfelders with our guide Bruno.  David’s bag made it late at night.

February 11, 2008.  Bruno, our guide, met us this morning at the hotel with climbing harnesses and avalanche beepers.  This was, I suspect, a surprise for all of us.  Long story short, we ended up on the Argentiere Glacier after taking two crowded trams with about 60 people in them, then walking down about six or seven flights of super slippery steps with skis to the slopes/glacier.  Bruno was adamant about everyone skiing exactly in his tracks, which seemed smart since there are holes, also known as crevasses.

It was another day of breathtaking vistas and medium to challenging skiing, mainly as a result of the volume.  The kids held up really well, the adults were mixed with Dan having the hardest time although doing well given the intimidating nature of the endeavor.  After some discussion, we decided to ski the Vallee Blanche tomorrow, which is a very long ski down a glacier that everyone must do when visiting Chamonix.

February 12, 2008.  Today the family, with Bruno guiding, took us down the Vallee Blanche.  It was two 15 minute tram rides followed by 15 kilometers of skiing on a glacier.  Just getting from the tram to where the skiing started was probably the hardest part since you had to walk down a sheet of ice carrying your skis (and I carried one pair of the boys’ skis, Bruno the other and Anne’s skis) roped in to Bruno just to make sure the kids were okay.

Once we got to the skiing, it actually was not very hard, although there were some harder options.  If would be imprudent to do this without a guide; really taking your life into your hands.  And, in fact, by not hiring a guide you miss out on the best skiing for your ability.  The place is vast and I took a bunch of photos, but you have to see it to believe it.  In any case, some 2 plus hours later we got to a place where we had to walk up about 300 meters to a gondola which took us to the train to get back to Chamonix.  We had a leisurely lunch and dropped the kids off with Anne (enough!).  Then Bruno and I went back and did three trips to the Argentiere Glacier and skied all parts of it.  Who knows how many vertical feet was skied, but a lot and quickly.

February 13, 2008.  Off we went to Courmeyer, Italy, through the 12 kilometer-long Tunel de Mont Blanc.  In less than 20 minutes (and 42 Euros!) you are in Italy next to a really large and fantastic ski area.  I made one run on the off-piste down a narrow drop between some rocks with guide Bruno, then decided the entire family could ski a VERY long run from the top to the bottom off-piste.  About two hours and many falls by both boys and Anne, we were eating at a small restaurant in a town near Courmeyer.  All so very Europe.  Photos are here.

Off to dinner we went, to the Vista on the seventh floor of another hotel in our hotel’s group.  It was cook your own meat at the table with lots of choices including kangaroo. 

January 31, 2008.  I’ve had a nasty something that seems like a sinus infection for 11 days and I’m sick of it.  Green flem, sinus pressure, etc… I wanted to see if I could get rid of it without drugs (antibiotics) and make sure it wasn’t a virus.  No such luck.  So off I went to the pharmacy on skier’s left from our house and asked for Amoxicillin, she asked for how many days, I said 10, and she handed me a package telling me they are 500 mg, which is the most common dosage.  That’s three Euros, she said, I paid and went to Starbucks to celebrate with a five Euro coffee and banana bread.  No prescription needed.

February 1, 2008.  We’re trying to put a list of places to go and things to see before we are out of here.  They include the Balearic Islands, Madrid, Paris (haven’t been there for a while).  We’re off to Chamonix next week and then I’m thinking about doing the Haute Route (Chamonix to Zermatt on skis, climbing and skiing from hut to hut) and a week of driving during Semana Santa to France (our chance to go to Paris by car). 

One observation about life in Spain and Europe.   Anne tried to buy an electric pencil sharpener.  No store had it.  This isn’t exactly new rocket technology, but you’d think it was.  At the three or four stationery stores she visited, no person offered to order it and have it delivered for free the next day.  Americans take it for granted since we’re a consumer oriented society.  Here it’s more the Russian model or maybe the New York City model, I’ll get it for you if I want to.  I’m amazed that a category killer like Staples hasn’t decided to come here, like Starbucks, and take the business which is available for the picking. 

February 2, 2008.  David had an earache last night and Anne, I and David were up until after 2:00 a.m.  We all really need our sleep, especially Anne.  Oh, well.  We couldn’t do much for David but he was crying and wailing and it must have hurt a lot.  He’s had a cold and threw up at school yesterday (I picked him up with a taxi and the driver was a total jerk).  Rocket also threw up right in front of me yesterday.  Good eats.   In a week we are planning (not with Rocket) to go to Chamonix!

I went to the market to shop for food.  Lots of people were in costume for Carnivale.  I saw the usual — men dressed as women, strangely no women dressed as hookers but some as men, and lots of painted faces.  It took 1 hour and 40 minutes to do all the shopping because it was crowded and I had to wait for bread and for fruit and vegetables.  The fruit and vegetables line took so long (close to 30 minutes) that I sat at the booth next door and had a coffee served by a very nice man/woman.

Anne managed, through a friend, to find a doctor who actually came by our apartment and made a house call!  The whole medical thing here is much easier.  She looked at both boys, gave us a prescription for antibiotics since we’re travelling soon, and will charge our health insurance.  No deductible, no copay.  Seems good to me.

February 3, 2008.  A rainy day here, the first in months.  I finally dragged myself out to walk around and took dragged, literally, Rocket along.  I went to find the theatre near here where they have English movies (Spanish subtitles) otherwise everything is dubbed.  We hate dubbed moves, tv, etc…

February 4, 2008.  Anne and I had our separate Spanish classes.  I’m getting pretty disgusted with my lack of seeming progress, although I know there is some.  What is distressing is not being able to utter a sentence without making a mistake.  Yuck.

I’m also considering what to do upon return from our excile here.  I’ve always wanted to work for the betterment of mankind, help the poor, make the world a better place so I was thinking about high-end real estate rentals in Aspen and Snowmass for a start.  I’m working on a business plan (well, will work on one).

February 5, 2008.  I watched some of the Superbowl commercials on Youtube.com — there were some really funny ones.  My favorites were the one for Planters Nuts with the woman who everyone coveted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZuMhZGCPrs and the FedEx one with carrier pidgeons http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaNQSwR7F4o. 

February 6, 2008.  Everyone here pretty much supports Obama, as far as we can tell.  My thinking is the Republicans support Hillary with the thinking that she is unelectable.  I think the Democrats will surely snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by nominating Hillary.  In that case, McCain will win.  In the last day or so, I’ve had one call each from Bill and Hillary and one call from a volunteer for Obama.

I went on my usual bike ride to Molins de Rei, first time in over three weeks due to leading ski trip in Andorra and sinus infection/cold.  I went really hard on the ride I do, which has some nice turns.  Then back and took David to soccer practice.

January 24, 2008.  Today the family went to the German Consulate here and acquired German citizenship.  We are now dual citizens of the US and Germany.  We managed to take care of this, which with some foresight we would have done years ago, with the help of our friends in Germany, Jahudi and Stefanie.  This enables us to be in Spain legally, which we never planned to do and most likely would get away with, but…  The idea is if the boys ever want to work in Europe or live here, they don’t need a visa.  I could also work here, but that’s unlikely. 

They were very nice in the German consulate tripping over themselves explained why I am considered German (you know, the Nazis).  What’s amazing is everything was in English with both women we dealt with speaking it perfectly. 

January 25, 2008.  Now that I’m German, I am finding I have a strange desire to take over the world.  It may pass.  Also, I want to wear black (black T-shirt) and take breaks to dance.  Again, it may pass.  Finally, I want to eat fattening potato-like foods and sauerkraut and weiswurst for every meal.  Again, hopefully it will pass. 

January 26, 2008.  I’ve been fighting a cold for close to a week, unsuccessfully it seems.  Anne and David have it too and maybe Joshua.  It doesn’t matter, I had to get out so I did my usual ride which takes about 1:40 to go from the house round-trip to Moulins del Rei, a small town via a very curvy road.   The rides, actually, has some very “sweet” turns and twists that are world class.  They showed a video last night that someone had posted to youtube that had some motorcycles and cars going over 100k/h on another road I ride on.  Thus, today, I saw two police cars patrolling on the road.

January 27, 2008.  We made our way down to Placa Cataluna today and went to the Palau de la Música Catalana to see a percussion thing (INSTRUMENTS DE PERCUSSIÓ) that was a sort of a “tour de force” of the world’s music as presented by a group of percussionists.  It was entertaining and the kids seemed to like it — it was clearly geared to kids.  David is on a reading binge and read through the entire performance.  He’s reading a lot now, which is great.  We met Dan and Amy and their kids and went to Buenos Migas, a sort of fast-food place that has a bunch of locations around Barcelona and is expensive a not great quality.  Oh well. 

Of interest is that we were sitting across the aisle from a couple of handicapped kids and what appeared to be their young caretaker.  The kids had fairly serious handicaps with one of them moving back and forth through the performance.  What an angel the caretaker, who looked like a hippy that hadn’t showered or shaved for a while, had to be.  To care for kids that have these problems shows that there are people out there who are really selfless.  A lady sitting behind the kids, who in normal life looked like she would have been disturbed by their restlessness, reached over and kindly touched one of the two.  I wanted to reach over and hand the caretaker 10 or 20 Euros just for being such a kind, decent person; I sat still until the urge passed.  (It seemed like a strange thing to do, anyway, since they weren’t begging or even looking like they needed it).

Seriously, Barcelona is a great city in terms of being friendly to people with challenges and the patience of people here comes through in situations where patience is often called for. 

January 28, 2008.  More of the same; nothing insightful or otherwise to report.

January 29, 2008.  We had lunch today with Dan and Amy and discussed politics, mainly.  Dan is a student of government (not of Spanish, though) and talked about the State of the Union Address that he read, in toto.  According to Dan, Bush even mentioned that we (not he) have to do something about Global Warming, acknowledging that it exists.  To which Anne replied, “Yea, he said, ‘Is it hot in here.'”

January 30, 2008.  Yes they have people sleeping in the streets here.  I found out last night, when at 1:00 a.m. I walked Rocket (I was up and couldn’t sleep and he was too and had to poop).  As I exited our building, Rocket walked over to what looked like a rolled up carpet and right away after about five minutes I realized it was a body (presumably alive) sleeping behind the garbage container.  Then I walked down the well-lit main street next to the park and another person, more evidently alive, was sleeping on a store-front.  It reminded me of Rue St Honore in Paris, one of the most expensive streets around, with homeless people who slept there.  Probably, by the way, because it’s safe.

Rocket then pooped and we returned to our piso.

I went to soccer practice with David and met and spoke with my friend, a septegenerian named Josep or Jose or Victor.  In any case, we spoke about (I understood about 50 percent and made up the rest) the state of the State of Spain.  He’s very interested in politics and likes to talk about how bad it was under Franco.  It’s a lot better now, he says, although his neighborhood apparently is riven with drug dealers. 

January 17, 2008.  Today was the last day of skiing with the group.  We had a veterinarian here to inspect the property/ski resort for a group trip coming up in TWO YEARS.  He was pretty nice and I skied with him for the day.  We had powder that turned into cement by the end of the day, but it was skiable and fun.  I’m very much done with skiing for a while (well, I guess, only three weeks and we’re off to Chamonix for ski week with the kids). 

January 18, 2008.  We took the bus from Andorra this morning, made it to Barcelona, and I actually managed to replace the two stolen passports in about an hour.  I had emailed all back-up to the consulate, they got it and were able to do the entire job before their closing time.  Then I let our incoming tour operator deal with the broken arm issue since it involved really understanding Spanish.  I didn’t want to be the guy who gives the wrong dose since I misunderstood.  I’m glad to be home, and worked hard, not fully enjoying the trip.  I did learn a lot: don’t dismiss suggestions without making sure I can blame someone else for dismissing them. 

January 19, 2008.  My group stayed on the Ramblas and reported that they had a good time.  They found plenty to whine about, as usual.  The rooms were too small (welcome to Europe) and dirty (I guess that’s not good).   They had a four hour tour of Barcelona which they said was really good and then I went over to their hotel and set about organizing people into groups for the rides to the airport.  They all went at different times, so I organized a series of taxis and gave them cash.  Then we had our farewell dinner.  The woman with the broken arm joined us and seemed in good spirits despite having been operated on days ago.  She was a trouper.  Anywho, dinner was had, good-bye to all.  It was a lot of hard work and looking back, a good learning experience for me (patience, listen, etc… stuff I loath to do) but I wouldn’t do it again.  The resort was much too easy, the skiing marginal and the job, well, a job.  I uploaded a bunch of photos here http://picasaweb.google.com/skidotcom/

January 20, 2008.  We rented a car yesterday and drove about an hour out of town to a lunch with a bunch of people, mainly Americans but others too, that involved eating onion shoots followed by beans, butifara and more.  Lots of fun and very Spanish — a four hour lunch from about 2:00 until almost 6:00.  The event is a traditional Catalan “Calçotada”.  Anywho, it was fun.  Here are some photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/markannedavidjoshua/CatalanCalOtada

A few people have told me about 14 terrorists arrested in Barcelona, or something.  I’m thinking that it’s hard to get news here, although I read the New York Times online.  The only way I would probably hear about it, in fact, is if the 14 “terrorists” were a soccer team, since that’s about all that is reported.  I’ll now try to find out more.  Okay, I just found out that it’s not a soccer team but a team of Islamists who planned attacks here and in France. 

January 21, 2008.  Started my recovery today from the trip.  I am finally feeling normal but fighting a cold.  Time to start studying Spanish, bring David to soccer, ride buses around and walk fast.

January 22, 2008.  The kid in the hallway cried a bunch today and what we realize is that at some point the lack of sleep gets to these kids.  The parents never seem to pay attention to the kids, or to scold them for anything, but they appear to turn out fine except they all smoke.  How can they help it?  As we noted, lunching with Amy and Dan, it was only a few years ago that we cut it out in the US.  Now it’s just something for people who are from the third world or a lower economic strata, it seems. 

Something about the stock market today.  Apparently it dropped somewhat.  More money lost!  Yikes, not a good thing.

January 23, 2008.  This was the day of walking since I had to finally deal with the bank guarantee of six months of rent for our place (don’t ask).  Anyway, this should have been done when we moved here or before (week one) but I’m getting around to it now (week 22).  The bank made a mistake (week 12) which took until now to recognize and correct.  This required a lot of walking on my part, picking up the document, going to and then appearing before a notary (here the notary function is very official, costs a lot and adds friction, time and cost to every legal transaction all mandated by the ley para empleo completo para personas que quiren llevar ropas limpias) and finally delivering the document to the managers.

January 10-11, 2008.  The missing days.

January 12, 2008.  Today my new job as a group escort for ski trips started.  With a bang, after one of the people I met at the airport had a bag stolen out from under our eyes.  Amazing since everyone was sitting with the luggage, and his bag disappeared.  Not good since it contained his passport.  I asked if he had a copy of the passport, and he confirmed, yes, it was also in the same stolen bag.

Anyway, here’s the deal.  I have a few just wonderful people, including the guy and his wife whose bag was stolen, and others.  The deaf people are really nice and descent and trying to communicate with us like I try to communicate in Spanish.  The woman in the ski shop just loved them – she is very nice.  I’m pretty sure she’s from the Basque country since she’s not like a Catalan (she let me have a pair of skis free – any Catalan would have charged “sorry, it’s the rule”).

January 13, 2008.  Everyone got on the bus from the hotel to the resort, which turned out to be too small.  I even have a stow-away — a French guy who just happened to be at the hotel and is also deaf and cannot speak.  Apparently sign language in international.  What are the chances?

Then once at the resort, we finally organized tickets, which took some time, especially with the deaf group.  Then taking a funnytram or whatever it’s called from the base of the resort to the top, an 18 minute ride in a large gondola with two cables.  Finally at the snow, and one of the deaf women found out that one of the skis she rented did not fit her boot.  This was very difficult since I had to find someone who knew how these worked and she was very agitated, pointed to her watch and jumping up and down.  The guy who was helping me really felt sorry for me, and when he finally was able to fix it, hugged me (!) as if to say, Good Luck.  I tried to tell her (difficult since she cannot communicate (no lip reading, no hearing, nothing other than writing I guess or sign language).  The deaf people all ski together with their trip leader (it’s a group within the group).

Off everyone went and I ended up skiing with the couple who lost their passports yesterday.  We had a fine day, ran into various people from the group here and there and everyone seemed to be doing fine.  At the end of the day, one of the deaf people who reads lips very well told me that the women who was very agitated and nervous had hurt her shoulder.  Bad news.  Her group leader had gone with her to the hospital.  Turned out she broke her arm, was hospitalized and would need an operation!  Really bad news.

Anyway, I found all this out as I was walking the remaining 14 people who survived a day of me as trip leader to the Caldea Spa.  One of the women accepted a dare (she apparently thought this was fun) to wear her hotel robe through the streets to the spa, a 15 minute walk.  Whatever.  Caldea is a huge indoor and outdoor pool complex with tons of “spa” features like Sauna, Steam, ice cold, snow, all in a darkened complex with a sound and light show every hour.  There were tons of young Spanish and Russian couples in positions where you really wanted to say, “Hey, get a room” all over the place.  The first show reminded me of some cheesy new-Russia themed movie with a disco and lots of action.  The second show involved what appeared to be toxic clouds of smoke descending from the ceiling.  Somebody must have had $50 million or more to build the place because no reasonable bank would have financed it; it seems pretty successful to me, though.  Then dinner at the hotel (I found out everyone thought last night’s dinner was not good but apparently they were happier with this one).

Now to see who makes it through tomorrow.

January 14, 2008.  Now I see yesterday was the 13^th, not a Friday, but nevertheless.  Today, after skiing the day and dealing with three nice people and having a pretty good time, after returning from skiing (somehow our group started out with 14 and was reduced to 7 by the end of the day), I went to the hospital to deal with the injured woman.  She can’t hear, speak, or otherwise communicate very well, other than writing in English and sign language.  Luckily, her group leader (she was part of the deaf group within our group) sat with her the entire day. 

Anyhow, off to the hospital I want and a mere four hours later, we finally arranged for a ambulance to Barcelona where she could be operated on.  With her limited communication, I don’t know how it will work, but so be it.  I was helped for the entire time by Eugenia, from the hotel, who was fantastic and of course spoke every language.  She also taught me the phrase in Spanish “estoy hasta las narices” as in all fed up, which I pretty much am.  This is a job I probably would not want to repeat.  The joke is I’m only two days into this. 

January 15, 2008.  Got the group together and off we went to ski.  The wind was pretty strong but everyone seems to deal with it.  We have levels from intermediate to close to expert but everyone seems to be able to ski together. 

I have found a nice lunch place on the mountain and plan to spend all my lunch times there until we leave.  Two more days. 

January 16, 2008.  Another day off to the slopes on what looked like a pretty terrible day.  Once we arrived, however, the weather cleared and it was nice until about lunch time.  I’ve found a very nice Andorran restaurant on the slopes (Pessons) that is just great and have gone there every day.  On leaving, I just say, “hasta manana.”  They are really nice.

I took the group out for dinner tonight at a Borda, a traditional Andorran farmhouse converted to a restaurant.  It was very nice with multiple courses.  Jenny, the girl who is my liaison with the hotel came along luckily and explained each dish of food and what it was and its history.  She was a wonderful addition and is very attractive so one of the single guys (there are two) upon finding she was married asked if she had any unmarried sisters at home.  She said she had only a brother.  I, of course, commented “he’s very handsome, though.” 

It’s raining cats and dogs here, which means probably good skiing on the slopes. 

January 3, 2008.  My sister left this morning to catch a flight back to New York.

I went to rent a car (in person, I just couldn’t get a good rate over the Internet).  This required some negotiation, and I’m certain I was given among the worst deals possible.  I will be driving up to Andorra next week to do a “fam” trip of the resorts there.  The person at Ski.com who was to lead a trip there because unavailable (husband had a by-pass) so I stepped into the fray.  This should be interesting as I have 15 people to lead around in Andorra, where I have never been.  Also, I am expected to ski with them.  This should be really interesting, as most people tell me skiing with me is “skiing through intimidation.”  Finally, Anne noted that we hope there are no women who acquire an instant dislike to me — this happens every once in a while.  We don’t know why.  It may be a very long week. 

Mary Claire, the original group leader, when I asked her about the group make-up, told me not to worry.  “There are no jet-setters,” she advised, but the good news is they are all nice and five of them are deaf.  Come again, I said.  Yes, they are deaf, but they can read lips very well.

As for home life, our upstairs neighbors moved back in after their place was renovated.  We hated all the construction noise, but having them back, we would prefer the construction noise.  It is at least during the day.  These people arrive back home at 9:00 from their work and child-care, and their kid(s)? proceed to scream and run for a couple of hours while the parents apparently move furniture.  In Anne’s opinion, the children in Spain are underperformers (they are) because they lack proper sleep.  These kids may get seven or eight hours, at best. 

January 4, 2008.  I changed my Hertz reservation for next week, and that was my opportunity to speak some Spanish.  Pretty pathetic.  I have to get more hours, otherwise I’ll look back on this as a wasted opportunity.  Right now, I feel like I know about what I knew a few months ago.

January 5, 2008.  Today was the Three Kings Day.  I’m not very informed about this, but my impression is these were the guys who came to Mary after Jesus was born and brought gifts, which included franincense, mur and cash or cash-equivalent.  Mary tried to kick them out of the room, until she heard about the cash.  In any case, this is the day in Spain when gifts are exchanged.  Christmas Day here is called American Christmas and generally no gifts are exchanged (except, presumably, by Americans).  With television and increasing commercialism, there are more celebrations of Americans Christmas.  As part of the Three Kings’ Day, they have a parade and throw hard candy at the crowd by the bagfulls.  We filled a bag, then just gave away most of it (what would we do with a bunch of hard candy?  Decorate our apartment?  There were drums, pirates, I guess Kings, and more and lots of kids fighting for candy in order to properly rot their teeth.  Many people made sure they were smoking since there were kids around. 

Sales (“Grandes Rebajas”) begin on January 7, by law, so everybody is geared up to buy stuff at discounts.  I don’t need or want anything, which makes me sad.  I’ve failed as a consumer and generally I feel materialistic in my heart.  I just can’t bring myself to buy anything.  Maybe I’m just cheap. 

The King’s birthday is today or yesterday and the television also has a lot of coverage of his life.  Generally he is and has been a good monarch.  One of the newscasters yesterday stopped his telecast and toasted the king’s birthday.  It was very nice.

January 6, 2008.  I’m thinking about how I’m going to lead a group of 15 people who I don’t like in Andorra.  I plan to ski Tuesday and maybe Wednesday and get an idea about getting around the place since I have to lead the group of 15 the week after (yikes!).  It will have to be the new Mark, the patient Mark, you know, the Mark that doesn’t exist.

January 7, 2008.  I picked up the rental car today, drove about half a mile, and called Hertz to tell them it smelled too strongly of cigarette smoke for me to use.  I simply didn’t want to sit in an ashtray for six hours.  They “understood” and changed it and upgraded me.  I now have a huge BMW new sedan — it drives beautifully.  It is a manual, like most cars around here, even larger ones, and has a feature that when you stop, put it in neutral, and let the clutch out, it stops the engine.  Push the clutch back in, the engine starts.  Also, it runs on diesel and appears to be super economical with gas.

January 8, 2008.  After dropping Anne, the boys and Rocket at school, I drove to Andorra which took about 2.5 hours.  I was a dreary day with misty wet roads.  I got to the hotel, and they gave me a room that, predictably, smells like an ash tray.  What is wrong with there people?  I think the smoking is driven by the Spanish, they were told that you are not much of a man unless you smoke.  My reply, you’ll be less of a man with only one lung.  Oh, well. 

As for Andorra.  First, the skiing absolutely sucks.  It’s a bare base of man-made “snow” which is brown, full or rocks, and icy in spots.  I managed to ski most of the huge mountain in about 2 hours since skiing was limited to the runs where they could make snow.  I tried to check out the restaurants to see if there was any decent food, but there didn’t seem to be.  In order to get on the mountain, we have to shuttle about 6 kilometers to another town, then take a six kilometer gondola ride with takes about 20 minutes plus. 

Most of the other skiers were either Spanish or Russian and a few odd balls.  There are tons of Russians here, second tier to be sure (enforcers, not the godfathers).  Many of them have Motorola Radios and they seem to always be calling each other.  The woman have those acrylic nails, which probably were all shipped there after they went out of style in Croatia.  They are likely here on cheap package tours.  The economy of Andorra seems to be powered by Spain, and specifically by Spanish people who come here to buy cheap electronics and other stuff like perfume.  There is a street here, the “shopping street” that is at least a mile long with very brightly lit (overlit) stores hawking all sorts of wares and it’s very crowded, again mainly with Spanish.  I’m not feeling in a very consuming and materialistic mood, so it doesn’t do anything for me.  I guess I would characterize it as Reno meets a smoking convention at Sears.

January 9, 2008.  Andorra is composed of two areas, the quaint old town (didn’t find it) and the shopping area, which I would say is like Las Vegas, but not as elegant.  The snow is getting worse (read, nonexistent).  And I have a group of people coming to “ski”.  Basically, I am a cruise director on the Titanic.  It’s a suicide mission. 

December 26, 2007.  Marbella town was just as cute as we remembered it, with narrow streets, a castle (what town doesn’t have one), the Plaza de los Naranjos, etc…  It was a bit too cold and windy for the boys to hang on the beach so we went back to the hotel and let them watch a video (sometimes we just take the path of least resistance) and then down to the “quiet” pool which was occupied by some loud French people with their kids so we were among the better behaved.  They got some water time in at the heated pool, did some laps, and got some energy spent. 

December 27, 2007.  Off to Jerez we went to see the Andalucian school of Equestrian Art.  Here’s the review I posted on trip advisor:

We visited today and were sorely disappointed. First, even with tickets purchased on the Internet, expect to stand in an unruly line for up to an hour (50 minutes for us). Second, the show itself, while the horses display some very thorough training, is schmaltzy at best and cruel at worst. At one point, to applause of the audience, the horses are whipped so that they stand on the hind legs and rear up. My thinking is that if you whip them hard enough, you can probably get them to do a flip — they are real athletic.

DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!

______________________________

What I didn’t say was that the announced at the beginning that no cameras were allowed.  Most people were either so disgusted with the whole deal (me) or just didn’t listen or care, that they just ignored the warning.  One woman next to me actually had a video camera going.  A woman kept walking down the isle and telling people not to film.  I walked out I hated the torture so much. 

December 28, 2007.  This morning we decided to stay another day in Marbella, given the weather forecast for clear skies and warm weather, and the daunting drive in front of us, no reason to jump into the car.  The hotel agreed and extended our stay another day (at the same discounted travel agent rate). 

We walked to Puerto Banus, which I’d already run to twice, injuring my left ankle in the process.  In any case, we walked there which took a while since first, we forgot the camera and second, David and Joshua stopped every 200 feet to play in the sand, and third, the dog was trying to go every which way.  Anywho, we made it after an hour plus, found water, bathrooms, and lunch and took a look at some of the boats, including one with a helicopter on top.  Joshua said he thinks we should buy a house boat.

Joshua, David and I took a cab back to the hotel and Annette and Anne and Rocket walked back.  I hung out on the beach with David and Joshua, and they finally got their beach time, and then when the girls and Rocket got back, we all went to the pool and ended dinner at the same place we’ve eaten now for three nights in a row (large no-smoking area, nice service and good food).

December 29, 2007.  We drove this morning, after a great breakfast at the Don Pepe (“Boys – eat everything you can, you won’t eat again for a long time.  You’re full, you’re not full until you can’t stuff anything more in.”) back to the Montbolli, which is about half way back to Barcelona.  Once we got here after about six hours and a nice picnic lunch, and realized how nice it is (it is), we decided to stay an additional day.  That’s an additional day we stayed in Marbella and an additional day we’re staying here.  Nothing requires that we get back to Barcelona in any rush, so…  The boys especially enjoyed the Knights.

This evening, after eating in the room, we walked down to the beach, then across a rock in the dark (I had a flash light) to another beach.  Lots of fun and nice.

December 30, 2007.  It’s the penultimate day of the year, and a wonderful one at that.  The weather was beautiful, we went first on a hike in the mountains and met a guy who parked on a trail near the beach and had birds that he had in raised cages.  He was just sitting there, watching the birds, to see which ones would sing best.  Very nice guy; he told us that when inside they really get going.

Then to the beach.  This was interesting since we didn’t know it, but the beach we likes was “naturalista.”  This is a way to say clothing optional, but is code to say gay beach.  I didn’t want to watch one of the two nude guys parade around so I went to do a weight work-out.  On the way back to meet Anne and the kids, he had left and the other guy, who brought a woman along (as cover?), marched nude into the rocks to meet another guy who was hiking his way.  At that point, it was time for Marlin Perkins to say, “The male then does his mating dance so that the female (scratch that – male) can react.  In any case, it was a nice episode of Wild Kingdom, watching two nude guys crawl around on rocks to better see one another.  We were at a good, safe distance which required telephone lenses, but didn’t take photos – it wasn’t anything we wanted to remember in that much detail.

December 31, 2007.  New Year’s Eve.  Time to get wild.  After driving from the Hotel Montiboli to Barcelona, which took us about five hours, we unloaded a bunch of stuff from our small car.  Today we pushed it so hard, it needed a quart of oil.  I think total mileage is close to about 2,000 or so, most at 130 or so kilometers per hour — about 80 miles an hour.  In a car that would be small by US standards with four (then five when my sister joined us in Marbella) and a dog.  The car’s mileage was lousy, unfortunately, meaning probably around 27 miles per gallon.  Glad to be back.

January 1, 2008.  A quiet day, finally.  Annette and Anne went around looking at buildings that are of the modernista school.  I stayed around and caught up on data entry.

January 2, 2008.  We drove this morning to Figueres, the town where Dali was born and built his museum.  The museum is like a large house with a lot of his work and the house itself is a work of art — really crazy stuff.  He was a mad-man, man.  It was a 2 hour drive there, then we toured around the crowded space, then back.  People tried to crowd the line and Anne told them off.  Turned the car in to Hertz, beaten to death and driven like mad. 

December 19, 2007.  Today we drove south from Barcelona to Villajoyosa, a town about 40 kilometers before Alicante.  We turned a five hour drive into a six and a half hour drive, but it was a lot of fun since the boys sang, scretched, got of each other’s nerves (and hours) and we were driving about 85 miles an hour in a small car on narrow roads with lots of trucks and getting lost at every opportunity.  We are here at the Hotel Montiboli for three nights, then another five (?) hour drive to a place in the country, then three nights in Marbella.  I’ve received different reports about Marbella but most are negative.

December 22, 2007.  Hiking and enjoying was what we did today.  I also watched a great sunrise.

December 21, 2007.  After a fantastic breakfast, we went off to the pool (the boys and I).  I read the paper and the boys played for hours.  It’s just a beautiful property, and although it’s not warm, it’s not that cold either.  Rocket took Anne for a hike around the hills and to another beach a bit further south.  Our beach, where we all ended up, is covered with egg-shaped rocks. 

Then off to lunch which was at the same good place with nice service as yesterday, called Portofino.  The owners suggested we check out Altea, which turned out to be a cute town with some uphill to a church that was very pretty.  It was populated by art galleries selling comtemporary stuff with all signage in English. 

We’re finding that Spain is a pretty big country with a lot of stuff. 

Rocket’s comments.  Erf, erf.

December 22, 2007.  Once you get south of Valencia and Murcia, it looks a lot like the American West which is why some westerns were filmed here, especially around Almaria. 

Off we went to our next destination, a cabin in the hills of Andalucia.  We found it fairly easily and even didn’t get lost after our days of getting lost during the last drive.  It was a nice, country place organized and owned by a Spanish guy who insisted on trying to speak with us with his two words of English.  One nice thing is that it’s heated by olive oil pits and remains, which seems just fine and a lot cheaper than gas or oil.  Anyway, we’re all toasty here. 

In any case, we finally went into town (Priego del Córdoba) to see what was going on, and it was a 20 kilometer hard drive.  There was a ton of life in the country square in Priego, and the Christmas spirit was in evidence.  We asked a lady for direction, and she was either deaf or didn’t understand us but we had a nice, and funny chat.  The Spaniards like to say “hombre” a lot even when it’s women speaking to one another.  There was a huge Kresch in the town square on the municipal building (no separation of church and state here).  There was some amplified music and people were out.  We went and did a fast shopping and got back to the cabin at close to 9:00 for a Spanish timed dinner.

We have no Internet, phone or anything else here so it’s a hideaway.  It’s not what we were looking for but as one who never goes with the flow… I did.  I also made a huge fire in the fireplace (like the American cowboys of yore and not like the American Indians – sorry, Native Americans.  Since all the wood is wet here, it takes a long time to get it to burn but once it’s lit, it seems to stay lit.  Olive wood makes great firewood.

December 23, 2007.  It was time to explore and Anne and I had decided (of course, after bringing the boys into our decision-making process) to go on a hike.  So off we went in search of the La Subbética, a National Park.  This was about a hour plus drive since we took some backroads (really backroads that at times turned to dirt).  We eventually arrived at Lugue, another whitewashed town (there are tons of them), and stopped briefly to walk up a small hill to see the castle but it was locked shut with a chain.  There was a church, and we felt obligated to stare inside.

Then off to find our hike, which was near the town of Zuheros, yet another Andalucian whitewashed village, oh so cute.  I found a woman who was supposedly there to provide information for the tourists who drove up the pass, in part of see the caves.  This was a guided tour, about an hour long, and didn’t sound like easy in and out.  So we opted for our original plan and I tried to get her to explain how to find the hike, which she sort of did and we found what we thought was the trail head.  It was and we hiked for about an hour and more and then decided that we had done enough.  It was thoroughly enjoyed by all, including our dog.  Joshua lost his second front tooth, pulling it out in a bloody mess and holding it proudly for all of us.

We went down to the town at the end, and couldn’t find a sandwich place.  There was a restaurant open, but that seemed like too big a deal; we were dirty and just wanted something quick.  So, off we went back to our cabin, without having eaten except for snacks, which luckily tided the boys over. 

December 24, 2007.  We decided to go to Priego, the town that seems the central part of the region and has enough interest, not to mention possible laundry facilities, so that we can enjoy it (and get a change of underwear).  Off we went for the 30-minute drive to Priego, found the laundry, and decided to visit another town about 10 kilometers closer to our casa.  Again, off we went and tried to find anything open (Christmas eve, remember, in Spain, which I think of as a pretty religious place).  Not only was it closed, it was really closed and very poorly marked.  So after driving around on narrow roads and driveways, we decided we were best off in Priego, which in any case was full of life. 

Caught in Christmas Eve traffic, we finally parked and went to the tourist office.  The woman, who was very nice, spoke lots of languages since she was from Tunisia, having learned Arabic, then French, then English and then Spanish.  We saw a few of the sights of Priego, Anne lost her purse (briefly) and we found a place to eat lunch, which was a relief (no smoking!). 

We had enough and after buying some groceries, we went back to our rural casa superior and hung around.  I hunted for fossils with Joshua (found none) and we walked around the olive groves.  Then I went back and restoked the fire, which I’ve only had to light once. 

December 25, 2007.  Off we went to Marbella, where my parents used to live.  I heard it had changed.  Of course, we had to get lost for a brief time and probably took the wrong road, but got there eventually.  In any case, it didn’t look anything like I remembered from 20 years ago or so, having been really built up.  One huge improvement is there is a boardwalk from town to Puerto Banus, about five kilometers. 

In any case, we’re staying at a hotel called the Don Pepe, which we remembered from the old days.  It’s still very nice with great grounds.  Despite the fact that my email said we were traveling with our dog, they said no dogs were allowed but once we checked in, they just said to carry it in the public spaces, so we got over that.  My sister joined us too, which we had planned, so we have three rooms at the end of one hallway, the “Uhlfelder Wing”. 

December 12, 2007.  I can’t believe this is week 17.  It really feels like we’ve only been here four months.  I’m thinking I’d like to get a white German Shepard when we get back since Rocket needs a friend and our house is probably trashed anyway.

December 13, 2007.  Anne’s Birthday.  She’s 34.  How time flies.  Why it seems like only 13 years ago we were married. 

It’s hard to think of what someone who wants nothing and scoffs at material things (unless they are polyester) can be given as a gift.  I thought, we’re in Spain, how about one of those pig legs that last a few months in the kitchen stinking up the place — you know, go native.  Funny, but ultimately a waste of money and too many unwanted side effects.   We’re been buying sweets and chocolate like they are going out of style, so that seemed like it had been done.  Flowers, definitely and check (over a douzen).  So, what did I come up with:  some really nice cheeses from Cataluna and some Iberic gournet ham.  What a romantic!

The boys had their school play tonight which was very nice, with grades k through 5 each singing a few songs with the older kids giving us the history of each song.  It was held in a large auditorium and we said hello to everyone we know (like two people). 

December 14, 2007.  David had another game (soccer) this evening.  Anne went and his team won 6-3, their first win since the first game and against a team that beat them 8-0 a few weeks ago.  Revenge is sweet. 

December 15, 2007.  Started planning our trip to the south of Spain.   Anne and the kids went to the ice rink, which was reported to be incredibly crowded and thick with people.  Not fun, but Barcelona city ice skating.  It’s getting pretty Christmassy around here, even though they don’t celebrate Christmas the way many Americans do (with gifts and Santa) and in fact call our version, which they are beginning to adopt as a result of too much TV, Navidad Americana.  There are Santas hanging from ladders, balconies, and lots of other places.  The Spanish don’t even give gifts until January 5, the Tres Reyes holiday.  Christmas is some sort of religious holiday — more on that as I find out.

December 16 and 17, 2007.  I have a very nice hair cutter, Josep, who loves to travel in France.  He told me about some good places to visit and thinks the French are great in that they love a good conspiracy, especially if it is really old.  Examples are Opus Dey, which most people know from the movie The DeVinchi Code.

We had lunch today with Dan and Amy at the Four Cats.  After we visited the fair in that neighborhood next to the Cathedral of Barcelona outside the Cathedral, in Plaça de la Seu and Plaça Nova which featured all sorts of people selling typical Catalan stuff for Christmas.  Then it got interesting.  Apparently, there is a contest among Spaniards to have the biggest and best creches.  That means, you start with the baby Jesus and go from there and there are NO limits.  After they add the traditional figures, they add a figure called the Caganer.  This is a person taking a dump — I kid you not.  The theoretical reason is this is a way the person fertilizes the soil (I think they soil the place, but…).  This is usually a little porcelain gnome-like figure with his trousers down, defecating somewhere in the nativity scene. Children enjoy looking for the little guy, who is often hidden among the more traditional items.  Nice.  I’ll take some photos. 

If this isn’t enough, Tio de Nadal or Caga Tió is a log, painted with a smiley face and cared for from after El Dia de Inmaculada, which is December 8. Then, either on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve (it varies), the children beat the log (and throw him into the fire, if they have one) and sing songs enticing it to ‘shit some presents’. Spanish speakers among you should note that ‘Caga Tió’ does not mean ‘Shit Uncle’ – ‘tió’ is Catalan for ‘log’.  Again, nice.

December 18, 2007.  I went out on the bike today and was pretty cool but it was good to get out and spin.  The roads were moist so I was extra careful.  We’re off to take some photos for the above stuff…