Back in Spain

Hola everyone
Well, Luke, Pam, May and myself are back in Spain for a week. Luke's wife Dalia arrives today and then we start our one week tour of Spain tomorrow. We are renting a car tomorrow and driving around. Hopefully everything works out since we have Luke, who has lived in Singapore the last 4 years and has driven very little. And then me, who hasn't driven in 3 months and rolled his car 2 months before that...believe, I'm knocking on wood as I type.

Paris was fantastic. Really like all the monuments to visit - the usual stuff of Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the Catacombes, we were right beside the Bastille (or former location of it), Basilique de Sacré Coeur. And very laid back too...we didn't pack our days with stuff to do, which was nice since this trip I have planned around Spain is pretty non-stop.

We leave tomorrow, drive all the way south to Granada, stay there, head to the Alhambra on Sunday. Sunday night we are staying in the Alpurrajas, little moutain villages imbedded in the Sierra Nevada. Then we are off to Jaén on Monday to see my old stomping grounds, Cordoba on Tuesday to visit the Mesquita, see some Flamenco dancing and have an arab spa (those are both hopefully's..). Then we are off to Madrid or Toledo...we have not decided yet. I would prefer Toledo but that is just me...lots of medievil monuments there that I wouldn't mind seeing. Then we are back in Barcelona next Thursday night, as Dalia and Luke leave on Friday.

The girls and I have received an invite from Enrique, a man my uncle met in Africa last September. We have kept up some email communication and he has been so kind to offer to let us visit his home city of Teruel (Southwest of Barcelona and Northwest of Valencia for those map people out there). We will visit for the weekend and then starting Sunday, we are off to Italy for about 2 weeks and then Greece for the remainding 2 weeks before May and I are off to the Philippines.

Really am glad to be back in Spain. Really have taken a liken to this place...actually nice to be back speakin Spanish, in a familiar setting than that of Paris and France that we experienced the last 4 days.

Some general comments about France..the people are not stuck up like the stereotype suggests. Very friendly and genial people we encountered throughout our travels. And no negative experiences. Interesting the level of security or police in most areas. Outside the Louvre, around the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, 4-5 military people carrying automatic weapons patrolling the area. Very interesting. I did not figure out if it was because the France gov't problem with the opression of the minorities or just the general threat of terrorism from outside of interior forces.

Also, the day we visited the Louvre, there were demonstrators regarding the CPE (which I gathered was the government agency regarding emloyment or something similar..never figured the acronym. It was always in the news though and the problems with the people and that agency) Anyways, the demonstrators were stating it was free to get in, you don't have to pay, etc. I asked one of them and they stated that it was just the goverment's way to make money on culture, tourism, etc. But of course we didn't heed this warnings....But definitely some tension with the people in the government, or the CPE. Racial regarding the previous riots and the work situation as well with all people.

But enough for today, hope all is well with everyone and everything is fantastic on this end. So crazy, 3 more months to go..
AT