7/21 Al Sumario ...

21 July 2008 - We have finished the trip - hard to believe it - months of thinking about it, planning, anticipating ... and now it's over! But what a great trip. We had the chance to see bits of the world we have never seen, get know parts better that we've glimpsed at before, and were able to reinforce some friendships of people we don't get to see often enough.

The trip spread out over a 5 week period, where we visited the United Kingdom, including Inverness, Edinburgh, London, Cambridge and Oxford. We also spent time in Spain traveling to Madrid, Segovia, Salamanca, Barcelona and the Catalonian towns of Cadaqués and Figueras.

It's hard to list all of the highlights of the trip, as there were so many great things we could talk about, but there were a couple special moments to point out. First, the 2008 European football (futból, soccer) championship was advancing to a conclusion when we arrived in Europe. We went to pubs to watch quarterfinal and semi-final contests with Spain, and they won both matches. Owing to fortuitous timing, we flew to Madrid the day before the Euro 2008 final match, against Germany. You have not seen a "party" until you are in a passioned-filled, victorious country like Spain after winning a big soccer tournament. Our hotel was only a half mile from the Plaza Colón, the city's center for the match celebrations. The Plaza was filled with thousands of screaming fans. Trying to describe the feelings, the emotions is difficult - words cannot really express the moment. See the posts for 29 June and 01 July at the right for a small sample of the "ambiente" ...

A second highlight was when we visited Cambridge. It was graduation time, and we got the unexpected opportunity to see the pomp-and-circumstance associated with longstanding cermonial traditions. The photos that we took do not begin to capture the atmosphere of the moment, but seeing it firsthand was very inspiring and will always be remembered by us.

We could go on and talk about how great it was to stay in an apartment in Barcelona getting a more authentic local perspective on Barcelona and Catalunya (Mallorie and I really appreciate this view and lifestyle).

Or we could spend hours discussing all of the great artwork that we were fortunate to see, from the Queen's Italian renaissance collection in Edinburgh, to the spanish
masterpieces at the Prado or the photo exhibit of Edward Steichen in Madrid, the Gaudí and Romanesque styles in Barcelona, Dalí artwork and jewellry at the museums in Figueras and Cadaqués. Seeing and appreciating the artwork is certainly one of the big advantages of visiting Europe.

This blog has daily posts made throughout the trip. You know the routine - took pictures throughout the day as we walked around the many different places. Then, back at the hotel or apartment, downloaded the pictures, did a quick edit and wrote a few words that hopefully wouldn't embarass us. Over the next week or so we will probably update the blog posts, a little, to add some more photos and descriptive verbiage.

All of the daily posts are available by clicking on the links at the right side of this web page - please feel free to read them and post comments ... in the meantime here is a summary of the trip itinerary:

June 14-15: Hal flew to the UK
June 16-18: visited Inverness, Loch Ness area of Scotland
June 19-20: Edinburgh
June 21: Rendezvoused with Mallorie and Sarah in London
June 21-27: London and Cambridge
June 28: All flew to Madrid
June 28-July 5: Madrid, Segovia, Salamanca
July 6: Sarah flew home, Mallorie/Hal train to Barcelona
July 6-12: Barcelona, Cadaqués, Figueras
July 12: Train back to Madrid
July 13: Hal flew back to London for work
July 14-21: Mallorie in Madrid
July 18: Hal flew home
July 21: Mallorie flew home

It's now time to start planning for the next trip ... hmmm, let's see maybe Cuba? ... South America? ... Montréal ... stay tuned.

7/19 Visiting Friends in Madrid

19 July 2008 - Mallorie visited with our friends Anne and Oscar again in Santo Domingo - north of Madrid.

7/18 Trip Home for Hal

18 July 2008 - Hal had the early morning taxi ride (4:30am again) to Heathrow for trip home, and a mere 23 hours later arrived home ... after long layover in Toronto.

Last meal in UK was at the airport international departure lounge - I splurged and had not one but two almond croissants and a latté ... I went around and tried to spend all of my British money - bought a soccer magazine and a Cadbury chocolate bar and ended up with 7 pence left - not bad.


Here is the Air Canada Boeing 777 that I flew home, as it sits at the Heathrow Terminal 3 gate ... you can see that the weather was deteriorating as I was leaving. I could not complain as we had fabulous weather throughout the entire 5 week period - I consider us very lucky for that.


... and the plane again just after arrival in Toronto ...

7/17 Business Trip to Oxford

17 July 2008 - Hal had a work trip to Oxford where he and work colleagues met with British Telcoms in Oxfordshire ... here are a few pictures of the train ride... from London's Paddington Station to Oxford.

Paddington Station ...



Oxford Train Station ...

7/16 Status Quo ...

16 July 2008 - Mallorie visited Anne in Santo Domingo, north of Madrid ...


Hal spent the day with colleagues at work in Hammersmith ...

7/15 Visit to Cisco and the Ram

15 July 2008 - Had a visit to the Cisco office near Heathrow in Bedfont Lakes. We later "worshipped" as a group at The Ram (pub in Hammersmith) ...

Bob Cooper in the taxi on the way to the Cisco office from the Hatton Cross tube stop ...


... and Paul Andrews ...


Chris Lomas and Epe Dyer at Cisco ...


Building 9 at the Cisco Complex, where we met with the Cisco UK and NSC team ...


After work, we went to The Ram ... here are Bob, Ligiu, and Paul M ...


... and Bob, Paul M, Paul A, Hal and Epe ... and YES that is sunshine spilling into the pub - another great weather day on our trip - we were lucky.

7/14 Back to Work in London

14 July 2008 - Hal went back to work at the office in Hammersmith. Setting an alarm to get up to a little getting used to ...

Here is video of the walk from the Hammersnmith tube stop to the office as seen from the road across the street from the new bus station - click on the play button to view ...



... and here is a shot of the office from the hotel ... at least the commute was easy ...

7/13 Splitting Up

13 July 2008 - Hal flew to London (for work) today and Mallorie remained in Madrid. Here are a few pictures from Hal's trip to London ...

After the 4:30am taxi ride from the hotel to Madrid's Barajas airport ...


I thought the terminal design was interesting (the engineering in me?) - here are a few photos of the soft indrect lighting ...




Here is a "Zona Fumadores" plopped in the middle of the Barajas terminal ...


On the air approach to Heathrow airport, we had these views of London ... here is the Thames, London Eye, Parliament ...


The view backs out to include Buckingham Palace, St. James and Green parks to the left, Whitehall and Downing Street area in the center ... click on image to enlarge and see more detail.


After getting situated in the Hammersmoth hotel, took the underground to Leicester Square area ... here is the Leicester Square tube stop ...


... and here is Leicester Square itself ...


I found the "Bear and Staff" pub near the square ...


... where I had Sausage and Mash (the Lamb sausage was great!) ...

7/12 Back to Madrid

12 July 2008 - Today we traveled back to Madrid on the highspeed AVE train, this time with a few stops. We took the extravagance of riding a taxi to the train station instead of taking the metro ... what luxury, we could get used to that. We had breakfast at the Barcelona Sants train station before we left.

The perfect spanish breakfast for Mallorie and Hal - Café con leche y croissant ...


The Barcelona-Sants train station ...




And finally, we had our evening meal with our friends in Majadahonda at the Restaurante El Descanso 1927. Here is a picture of Carmen and Pisto's family ...



Hal is off to London mañana ...

7/11 Roman Barcelona

11 July 2008 - Our last full day in Barcelona ...

We had the chance to visit the city historical museum that included the underground Roman ruins, restored and well marked for touring. Here are some photos from our walk through the ancient ruins ...








Here are other miscellaneous photos from around town ...

Hal's late afternoon snack (pastry with sausage, onions) with a "cortado" ...


During the paseo ... to walk off those late afternoon snacks ...


Happy Pills - makes you wonder what's beyond the door? ... it's a candy store.


From Mitch and Kathy's apartment balcony we could see Montjuic and the Castillo. Here is a night view of the Castillo with the spotlights glowing - and a day photo of roughly the same view (zoomed in and a little blurry) ...

7/10 Dalí Day ...

10 July 2008 - Today we traveled to Cadaqués and Figueras to explore the life of Salvadore Dalí, and to get to know a little more about the Costa Brava area of Spain.


We took a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from the Estación del Norte to Cadaqués. the little coastal village is where Dalí lived and worked for much of his life. Walking around the village and touring his house was very interesting. What a great environment to be creative in, and clearly he WAS creative in his own style.

Here are some photos from the trip there ...



And here are some pictures from the village of Cadaqués ...



We took a twenty minute walk from the main playa across the small isthmus to an adjacent bay where the Casa Dalí is located ... here are a few photos from the walk ...





Then once we reached the peak along the walk we could see the other way toward the north where the bay and Casa Dalí are located (visible to the left foreground) ...





Here is the Casa Dalí ...


We toured the house ... both around the garden and inside ... photos follow.









On the walk back, we encountered the following flowers ...





After having a quick meal we caught a connecting bus to nearby Figueres, the birthplace of Dalí and home of the museum that he designed before his death ...




Naturally being on vacation, all you do is eat, and while eating, you plan where you are going to eat next ... so as soon as we got off the bus from Cadaqués we ate again ...



Here are some additional shots around Figueres ... beginning with La Rambla ...




The walk from La Rambla to the Dalí museum headed up these roads ...


Here are some images from the Dalí museum ...







The Museum is also his tomb - as Dalí is buried there ...