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After spending more than 7 months on the road we arrived in mother England and for the first time our communication was in a single language. No need to interpret menus or reduce questions to simple mono-syllable strung-together words in English or some other language.
Conversations with waitresses and shop keepers was easy and their politeness and humour never ceased to impress us.
It has been like a holiday!
Forty and a bit years ago, in my hitch hiking days, I was on a mission – to reach Land’s End.
It was Sunday and it was raining so my chances of reaching there were looking grimmer and grimmer.
Then along came two guys in a camper van with massive letters spelling out Australia on its rear end. They talked me out of visiting this wild, wet and windy place where you can’t even see The End.
The rest is history.
Today Bruce brought me to Land’s End where we will celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary. It is not wild and wet and windy. Instead we were treated to a wonderful sunset over The End.
September 11 means a lot in our history, but in Barcelona we were struck with a very different meaning.
September 11 is a holiday celebrating Catalunya, the Spanish state which includes Barcelona. In 2012 a massive march was organised to call for the independence of Catalunya, from Spain.
We visted Barcelona that day, knowing the march was on, but never expecting to become part of an estimated 1.5 million crowd marching down Passage de Gràcia, through Plaça de Catalunya and on to the Arc de Triomf. People of all ages, young families, young adults with a purpose, children and grandparents were all part of the crowd.
It is a passionate cry for independence that is taking on more meaning as an estimated 52% of young people are unemployed in Spain, in these harsh economic conditions.
If you would like to read a little more about the economic situation in Barcelona, here are a couple of articles published by The Age:
My heart goes out to them
The Osborne bull (Toro de Osborne) is a landmark in Spain and is the symbol of the Osborne brandy and sherry.
The monstrous black bull (14m tall) stands out on the high points of many roads.
I remember seeing one or more of them when I travelled through Spain in the 70s and more recently in 2007. A couple of weeks ago we saw one on the road to Granada, on a freeway, not a convenient place to stop.
After a litte research, Bruce decided to go find the nearest bull to Barcelona, a mere 270km away on the road to Zaragosa. They are, after all, very photogenic.
Fortunately he was there and in excellent condition.
And even more exciting, he had a mate a little further down the road.
We took the opportunity to pop into Zaragoza, a beautiful city that hosted the World Fair in 2008, with the theme “Water and Sustainable Development”.
It was a long but fruitful 600km drive on a Saturday afternoon!
Life has slowed down for us – we have taken up residence in a tiny flat in Badalona, just 14km north east of Barcelona in a beachy suburb. We have had to get back into the swing of shopping, cooking and cleaning.
We also have time to read, walk and just sit and contemplate. It is a nice balance to what has so far been a fast moving year.
We will be back on the road next week, to France and England. But we have a “home” to return to.
It is 200 days since we left home on this amazing adventure. I know, because my camera counts the days for me.
We have slept in 64 different hotel beds, 2 ferry cabins, 1 overnight reclining plane seat and 3 uncomfortable, overnight bus seats. We have cooked about 20 meals and eaten ‘out’ the rest of the time.
We have visited 15 countries, countless mosques, churches and ruins. We have rented one taxi and seven cars. In 3 months have covered 10,000km in our leased Renault Megane Sport.
We have replaced one pair of shoes, one watch battery and one wide angled lens. We have added numerous T-shirts (Bruce) and one top and shorts (Thea) to our luggage.
We have written 88 postcards – have you got yours yet?
I have taken 9,000 photos, written 42 posts and 80 pages of photos and maps on this blog site – and I am behind. Bruce has taken 13,500 photos, written 70 posts and added 56 photo galleries to moustache. There are very few photos of us – we are here to see the sights, not us.
Amazingly, we are still enjoying each other’s company and this adventure, and there are only 150 days left.
We have come half way around the world for our special adventure and also to spend some time with Hayden. We have had a lovely time in Croatia and a chatty drive back to Barcelona from there with him.
But today (14 August) was different.
It is the day before the feast of the Assumption – a holiday in Spain. It is also the day before the Festa Major de Gràcia starts. Hayden wanted to pop back to his old street in Gràcia to help set up for the festival. Their street participates each year with decorations along a theme. This year Carrer Progres’s (Progress Street) theme is Star Wars.
When we arrived it was obvious there was a lot more to be done before tomorrow, so Bruce, Hayden and I mucked in. Hayden will be there all night but we came home at dusk.
So I spent the day gluing sand to cardboard and covering chicken wire with papier mâché with my son. Perfect!
Hayden & Thea preparing for Festa Major de Gràcia
It is 6 months since we hit the road, and I am astounded to see the extent that Barça (Futbol Club Barcelona or FCB) has penetrated the world. From Dubai, through Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia and even Italy – standing out in front of all the other kits for sale is Barça. They are everywhere, sports shops and souvenir stalls alike. Most of them display Qatar on the front and of course “10 – Messi” on the back, although some places offer to put your name on the back.
And it is not just kits for sale – cars are decorated, towels are sold and kids are dressed in the famous blue and red Barça colours.
Yesterday, in the real Barcelona, I popped into the real Barça shop to see the real kit. This year’s kit looks quite different to what I had seen elsewhere – the typical blue and red stripe was hidden at the back of the store, behind the new orange/yellow away and blue merging to red home colours!
Makes me wonder how many kits I had seen on our travels that were real and licensed to the world’s second-richest (revenue) football club?
On the Mediterranean and down the Adriatic the Spring flowers dried and died. The weather was so hot, all that was left were dried grasses and dead flowers.
Leichtenstein and Switzerland have been different – the mountain flowers are in full bloom and they are beautiful!
Flowers of Leichtenstein
