How did August get here already?! It doesn't seem possible, but since half the businesses in Granada are closed for the next several weeks, it must be true. It will be interesting to see if this is also the case further north in Europe (Coco and I join Eric in Switzerland next week). Here, ~60% of the shops and cafes are either shuttered for weeks or operating on very limited hours for the whole month. I'm not exactly sure where everyone is, but they've gone. Hard to imagine that happening in the US besides a few days here and there around a specific holiday. Even Coco's school is operating on reduced hours before closing altogether in mid-August. Hopefully the Science Museum is open then, we'll be spending every day in their kids area that has great A/C :)
Over the past couple weeks, we got to spend time with my sister and her husband when they came over to vacation. Coco was BEYOND excited to have Aunt Lauren and Uncle Ryan as her constant companions, and I think this may have been one vacation where they needed another vacation to recover. Sorry!! :)
We started in Barcelona, checking out Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, the 1992 Olympic grounds, and Camp Nou. We also did the hop-on/hop-off tourist bus, which seemed really necessary there, since the town is pretty spread out. The little audio-guide they offer is kinda cheesy, but I do love to hear the details about the places we're seeing. Splurged on a nice hotel there using our Marriott points, so it was also pretty tempting to just hang out around the pool and let Coco 'swim' a bit.
From there, we flew over to Dubrovnik, Croatia and got to see one of the best preserved old towns in Europe. These guys built some excellent city walls a handful of centuries ago, and they haven't been breached to this day. Truly feels like you have gone back in time...except for the Game of Thrones tours happening everywhere. Coco and I tagged along behind one guide and eavesdropped for a few minutes while the rest of the gang was out kayaking. Eric and Ryan also took a mini-road trip to nearby Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina and learned that the whole area is blessed with dramatic and breath-taking views of the hills and Adriatic Sea.
Next, a quick flight to Milan and then a drive down to the sea to explore the "Five Lands" or Cinque Terre. These are pretty tiny villages set along the rugged Ligurian coast, and connected by hiking paths up over the super-hilly terrain. Coco and I stuck to trains and the ferry, but the others made the trek from Riomaggiore back to Manarola (where we stayed). We didn't make it up to Corniglia, which is a hilltop village, but we did explore Vernazza and Monterosso Al Mare...and drink wine and eat pasta/pizza everywhere we could! 4 out of 5 ain't bad.
Then it was back up to Milan (with poor Coco car-sick again), and Ryan headed for home while we checked out the Duomo and some art, and had more wine/pasta/pizza. The next day was a flight back to Barcelona and then a quick drive to Montserrat. Maybe the pix on the Photo Album page will give you a better feel than I can, but that place has some incredibly unique rock formations, and I'm not even the one who's usually into that :) We managed to be there on the day that the train was on strike, but we drove up to the monastery set in the cliffs and got to explore a bit, and then hit up the community pool to cool off.
After getting back to Granada with Lauren, we figured it would be good to squeeze a bit more in, so took a beach day down in Nerja and then went through Ronda and over to Gibraltar for a night. Crazy how this tiny strip of land can feel and look so different from Spain. We came around a curve on the drive from Ronda (one of about 4,723 curves!) and realized that the weird shape in the distance was the Rock of Gibraltar, and in the haze beyond that were mountains in northern Morocco. Very cool. Went through passport control into British territory and then drove across the airport runway, which confused Coco a lot, then did a tour of the rock to see the monkeys and some caves. Finished the trip off with a couple of pints and some 'normal' food...cheesy garlic bread, yum!
Was sad to see Lauren off, especially knowing that we won't see her for 3.5 months, but the past 3 months have gone SO fast and I think it will feel like this adventure has gone by in the blink of an eye once we're back in the States living like 'normal' people again :) Today, Eric spent his birthday climbing around the Alps near the Swiss/French border, which is gonna be hard to top next year! After Coco and I join him in Geneva next week, we'll start the first of our 3 train trips, which I'm really looking forward to. Fingers crossed that the car-sickness Coco's been struggling with doesn't also exist as train-sickness, but the Dramamine will be packed just in case!
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