Adventures with Dad. Part 2
Trip Start
Oct 27, 2008
1
12
17
Trip End
Jan 22, 2009
Barcelona,
Catalonia,
Spain
Monday, December 22, 2008
the weekend with a festival in Zumaraga. Semi-early in the morning we took the
bus to Tolosa and switched to the train since there's not a direct route from
Lasarte. Don't fret, the names are confusing, but if you continue to read this
blog you will know the Basque Country well by the end of January. Just trying
to help. The train was packed like pickles and I don't even think one more
skinny person could have fit. This festival must have been kind of a big deal.
There was an animal market in progress with people mixed among them in the
streets. All through the town there were numerous booths for food, crafts,
equipment, junk, etc... We saw most of the exhibits but decided we had enough of
the crowds and wanted to get out of the rain. Dad had concluded that he was the
wrong height for all those "damn umbrellas." They can poke an eye out if your
not careful. And when someone loses an eye... all fun-and-games are over. J
We returned home for a siesta and
re-grouping before we attended the basketball games in Astigaraga. This weekend
both teams were at home and we went in time to watch the end of the men's game
and all of the women's. For a switch the men had lost and the women won with a
couple of exctiting plays. Two guys got ejected for fighting and there was a
lot of angry spanish being thrown around. I never learned those words in school
so I don't know what was said. It looked as if they were going to duke it out
off the court, but nothing came of it. On the women's end we were up big before
Pamplona made a 4th quarter run. It was tied and we scored with 0.6
seconds left for the win. Only the second win for team Mundarro this year, but
a W is always welcome.
Sunday morning we headed to Pamplona on
the bus. This had been one of my favorite rides and there is so much more
country to explore if I had a little better weather for hiking. It was cold but
not rainy when we arrived in Pamplona around 1:00pm. We had some time to kill
and went to the bullring and walked the streets of the famous San Fermin
festival. After a good lunch at my "cousin's" favorite bar we returned to the
bus station for a ride to Barcelona. We checked into our room a bit before
midnight and made a call back to Nevada. The next morning we were up and to the
train station before 6:30a.m. for a ride to the airport. We got the tickets and
checked his luggage in plenty of time for breakfast and to track down an
English newspaper. I have to admit that when we said our good-byes I couldn't
talk much and was getting teary-eyed. I waved at him after he passed through
the international flight check and then located some Kleenex. I enjoyed having him here but only wish we could have had more time and pleasant weather. It was
about 10:00am and the sun was bright as I watched his Delta plane taxi down the
runway. Love you dad and hope you
had a good time!
