Tag Archives: Spain

Robbed In Barcelona

It happened on our third day in Barcelona. I can’t say we weren't warned. The travel guides warned us, the TripAdvisor forums warned us, the cab driver from the airport warned us and my friend Gursel, who has lived in Barcelona for six years, warned us. Despite the warnings and despite being wary the whole time we were in Barcelona, it still happened. We got pick pocketed. The scene of the crime was the Urquinaona metro station which is located in the heart of Barcelona’s delightful Gothic Quarter. As we were about to get on the train, an attractive young woman asked me a question I didn’t understand. ... [Read More]

Wine, Waves & Flies

  Eight centuries ago the Spanish town of Girona had to choose between being infested with flies or infested with French. They went with flies. It was in the year 1285. The story goes that during the Aragonese Crusade Girona fell to French forces, who immediately set off for the collegiate of Saint Felix, where lay the uncorrupted body of the city's patron saint, St. Narcissus. Legend has it that to celebrate their victory the French soldiers desecrated the body of the revered holy man. Suddenly a horde of flies appeared and swarmed the French. According to the graphic description by Bernat Desclot, a monk from Ripoll who "jotted ... [Read More]

Galileo Galilei

Josh Merryman in Spain

Prior to graduating from college I had the desire for another practical experience abroad that I could add to my resume. I love a challenge and will do whatever is necessary to accomplish my goals, but for this experience I needed a more accessible destination. I am paraplegic and use a manual wheelchair for mobility. Since I have an interest in international business, and Spanish is such a common language in the world, I decided to participate in an intensive Spanish language program abroad. I took advantage of the considerable information available on the Internet and did a large amount of research and correspondence regarding prospective language ... [Read More]

Size matters in the Canary Islands

   I arrived in the Tenerife, largest of the Canary Islands, to the following message from my colleague in Barcelona: "Mr. Jones! I think you made my eruption!" I couldn't think of any way to translate that into something I wanted to hear, so I declined to respond. Sometime later I received the following correction: "Sorry, I meant the eruption! You hear about volcano?" This made me simultaneously relieved and nervous. It turned out that just as Soo and I were arriving in the Canary Islands an underwater volcano erupted, near the Island of El Hierro, forcing the evacuation of more than 600 local resisdents. (El Hierro hasn't had the easiest of ... [Read More]

Adventures in Traveling

  There are a lot of airlines on earth. Some are good (Delta, Qantas), some are excellent (Emirates, Singapore), and some are utter crap. Sliding futilely into the latter position I present Vueling, a low-budget Spanish airline duking it out with Air India for the top spot on my ranking of world’s worst ways to fly. On what should have been a quick, easy domestic flight from Barcelona to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Vueling instead set about mashing up our journey from the first opportunity, and never let up. Once at the airport Soo and I proceeded to the Iberia desk, since we had Iberia tickets. Some readers ... [Read More]

Style, service and sangrias in Spain

  It's easy to like Barcelona (pronounced Barthalona by the locals. Truly – I spent my first two days here convinced everyone had a lisp.) I decided upon arriving in Catalonia's capital city that it was my duty to sample Spain's native drink in as many places as possible. (This perhaps has less to do with the fact that it’s Spanish that it does with my fondness for sampling drinks – tequila in Mexico, grappa in Italy, vodka, well, everywhere. You get the idea.) And I wondered if being full of sangria would, among other things, help me understand the bizarre and wonderful style of Gaudi, the 19th-century architect whose ... [Read More]

Bicycling European Cities

About four years ago I decided to renew my interest in bicycling. Got a new bike. Got the wife one. Started riding the greenways and bike paths in northern Georgia. Then it occurred to me to incorporate it into my work travels. Many European cities have guided bike tours. I've now been on four with a tour in Madrid Saturday morning. The tour started at 10 a.m., which was a struggle for me as I had sampled the Madrid nightlife a little too hard on Friday night. Nevertheless, I persevered and make it to the tour company, Bravo Bike, on time. It was to be ... [Read More]

Sardines and Sangria

International press trips are highly coveted by those lucky enough to participate. One of the many reasons is the food and drink. Monday night, at a restaurant called El Lirio on the beach at Malaga, Spain I discovered how great grilled sardines can be. Tuesday night it was the El Agua restaurant with an incredible view of the 9th century castle Alhambra, Spain's most visited tourist attraction. Nearly as incredible were the seemingly limitless pitchers of sangria brought to our table. Time was seemingly limitless too as this dinner ran till nearly 1 a.m. Great food and drink, but the hours can be grueling. [Read More]

Time to get rid of my old bag

My primary piece of luggage seems to have more adventures traveling than I do..so it’s probably time I parted with my old bag. When I was in Hungary in February, it decided to stay an extra two days and have who knows what sort of adventures thanks to Malev airlines. Monday, when I arrived in Malaga, Spain, I discovered that my old bag had once again decided to leave me during a brief layover in Paris…it finally caught up to me in Granada, Spain on Tuesday evening after Air Europa tracked it down, about 24 hours after having to rush out and buy a couple days ... [Read More]