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tikistitchO, how I wish for a banyo. We´ve just taken two overnight trains in a row, and the pensione manager just glared at us when we asked to check in at 9 am. (I think he´d just awoken, this being Spain and all).
And some excitement: Philip got his wallet snatched when we were on the Metro. It´s all gone, money, credit cards, passport.
Why were we on two overnight trains in a row, you might ask? We took a lovely "day trip" to Sevilla, so my husband and Duncan could snap some pictures of the castle there, which as all know, was used in filming a scene in Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the Clones. Which scene? You know the one with the boring awkward dialog between Padme and Anakin? Yeah, one of those. We lined up shots from the movie (which was not easy, as George L. obviously used some video trickery to arrange his backgrounds), and even filmed little video sketches of us chirping Annie/Padme dialog: "Oh, Annie, you´re so cute when you murder Tusken raiders!"
Nearly didn´t make the train to Sevilla when, with two hours to go, I noticed Philip´s bag was unzipped as we were emerging from the Metro station. His wallet had been snatched, along with all his money and papers. After some runaround, which involved walking miles along Las Ramblas, we finally located the police station. Fortunately, Philip is French, and the Europeans being as madly organized as they are, the young policeman who helped us told him that the report he filed will serve as a substitute for his drivers license and passport until he gets back to France. We were all worried he´d have to waste a couple days sitting around the French embassy in order to get back across the border. If it had happened to any of us, that would indeed be the case. And if any of us were Cat Stevens, we´d never get back in the USA!
The train was kind of an adventure in itself. We got the Spanish version of a no smoking car, which seems to imply that you can go ahead and smoke in the hallway, or even in the threshold of your compartment to your hearts content. You can even smoke in the compartment, if you don´t get chased out by a cranky Frenchman who´s just lost his wallet. Duncan & Anne and Gus and I fortunately shared a compartment, but Philip had a typical "adventure" with a compartment-mate who spent the entire 10 hour journey talking to his pet bird.
Philip was a bit luckier in his bunk-mates on the trip back to Barcelona. We were only temporarily delayed by two pushy old women who looked like they´d packed their every possession for transport to Barcelona. Being somewhat younger and more agile, we managed to scoot around them by the time the train arrived. Both Gus and I independently thought, "The Triplets of Belleville." When some time after we had settled into our own compartment, we ventured again out into the hallway and saw it stacked floor to ceiling with the Triplets' luggage, it was all we could do to stop laughing as they screamed at the poor conductor to play sherpa.
Sevilla was fun. It was unexpectedly cold--I had thought southern Spain was a sunny wonderland, but the fog didn´t lift ´til 2. Besides our detailed photoessay of the castle, we also visited the mosque, and toured round the humongous gothic/moorish cathedral. We tried to sneak into the cathedral as "students" on my UW ID, but that didn´t go over (suspicious people, those Catholics), so instead of shelling out 7 Euro, we went souvenir shopping.
At the very last minute, I made a mad dash to the Euro Disney store via taxi with Duncan and Anne. Duncan was delighted to find a Euro Toys R Us at the very same mall. The Stitch Store in Sevilla is twice as big as the one in Barcelona, and I actually found two new plush Stitches: a really big guy, and a really teeny guy. I wonder how many Euro-Stitch I am missing? I also found a Lilo & Stitch puzzle in a random souvenir shop in Sevilla. How I´m going to pack in all in my luggage, I don´t know, but I´m a very happy collector. AND Pam FINALLY got churros y chocolate!!!!!!!!!! Yay! Wasn´t for breakfast, but what the hell. It´s the best meal on earth.
Homeward bound early early early tomorrow. I´ll take pictures of all my Stitches. Now I need to address post cards saying the exact same thing as I said here, only scribblier.
And some excitement: Philip got his wallet snatched when we were on the Metro. It´s all gone, money, credit cards, passport.
Why were we on two overnight trains in a row, you might ask? We took a lovely "day trip" to Sevilla, so my husband and Duncan could snap some pictures of the castle there, which as all know, was used in filming a scene in Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the Clones. Which scene? You know the one with the boring awkward dialog between Padme and Anakin? Yeah, one of those. We lined up shots from the movie (which was not easy, as George L. obviously used some video trickery to arrange his backgrounds), and even filmed little video sketches of us chirping Annie/Padme dialog: "Oh, Annie, you´re so cute when you murder Tusken raiders!"
Nearly didn´t make the train to Sevilla when, with two hours to go, I noticed Philip´s bag was unzipped as we were emerging from the Metro station. His wallet had been snatched, along with all his money and papers. After some runaround, which involved walking miles along Las Ramblas, we finally located the police station. Fortunately, Philip is French, and the Europeans being as madly organized as they are, the young policeman who helped us told him that the report he filed will serve as a substitute for his drivers license and passport until he gets back to France. We were all worried he´d have to waste a couple days sitting around the French embassy in order to get back across the border. If it had happened to any of us, that would indeed be the case. And if any of us were Cat Stevens, we´d never get back in the USA!
The train was kind of an adventure in itself. We got the Spanish version of a no smoking car, which seems to imply that you can go ahead and smoke in the hallway, or even in the threshold of your compartment to your hearts content. You can even smoke in the compartment, if you don´t get chased out by a cranky Frenchman who´s just lost his wallet. Duncan & Anne and Gus and I fortunately shared a compartment, but Philip had a typical "adventure" with a compartment-mate who spent the entire 10 hour journey talking to his pet bird.
Philip was a bit luckier in his bunk-mates on the trip back to Barcelona. We were only temporarily delayed by two pushy old women who looked like they´d packed their every possession for transport to Barcelona. Being somewhat younger and more agile, we managed to scoot around them by the time the train arrived. Both Gus and I independently thought, "The Triplets of Belleville." When some time after we had settled into our own compartment, we ventured again out into the hallway and saw it stacked floor to ceiling with the Triplets' luggage, it was all we could do to stop laughing as they screamed at the poor conductor to play sherpa.
Sevilla was fun. It was unexpectedly cold--I had thought southern Spain was a sunny wonderland, but the fog didn´t lift ´til 2. Besides our detailed photoessay of the castle, we also visited the mosque, and toured round the humongous gothic/moorish cathedral. We tried to sneak into the cathedral as "students" on my UW ID, but that didn´t go over (suspicious people, those Catholics), so instead of shelling out 7 Euro, we went souvenir shopping.
At the very last minute, I made a mad dash to the Euro Disney store via taxi with Duncan and Anne. Duncan was delighted to find a Euro Toys R Us at the very same mall. The Stitch Store in Sevilla is twice as big as the one in Barcelona, and I actually found two new plush Stitches: a really big guy, and a really teeny guy. I wonder how many Euro-Stitch I am missing? I also found a Lilo & Stitch puzzle in a random souvenir shop in Sevilla. How I´m going to pack in all in my luggage, I don´t know, but I´m a very happy collector. AND Pam FINALLY got churros y chocolate!!!!!!!!!! Yay! Wasn´t for breakfast, but what the hell. It´s the best meal on earth.
Homeward bound early early early tomorrow. I´ll take pictures of all my Stitches. Now I need to address post cards saying the exact same thing as I said here, only scribblier.
