[INSIGHT TRAVEL - EUROPEAN GRANDEUR] - Madrid and Barcelona

Day 10 - SEPTEMBER 9, 2000
MADRID - BARCELONA
ON BOARD THE BUS (0825)

Well, being an energetic lot, we were at the breakfast room before it even opened. Though it rather looked like Dmitri got a short shrift on his breakfast, the way he came charging out of the hotel to open the bus, considering we were all over the sidewalk, it's no wonder he was in a rush.

Lisa has just given us our standard morning briefing and now she's got Natalie Cole's "Unforgettable" album on the PA. It was funny to hear "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" as the first selection -- now it's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore".

Road gets shaky now and again, like now. And usually when I've found the turn of phrase I want. Lisa has instituted a game for the bus -- there are these big black bull billboards along the road at regular intervals. Like the Merrill-Lynch logo. When anyone in the group sees them, they're supposed to shout "Ole!" in best Spanish style. No one is up to it much this morning, but yesterday, the young marrieds -- Fiona and Alex, Greg and Lisa, Franca and Joe -- were at it with a will, yelling even without the benefit of seeing the bull!

POST-LUNCH STOP (LEIDA)
(1428H)

Had some fun coming into the morning stop -- we passed a Trafalgar bus on the way in. According to Lisa, this is against the rules of the road for us, since Insight and Trafalgar, together with Contiki, are all sister companies. However, we justified this breach of road etiquette by saying that since the Trafalgar coach had passed us earlier in the day, the contest was even.

Lisa passed around the little paper disc that logs all the mileage, speed, engine start and stop times. Interesting to see how everything gets recorded. Maybe someday we'll have buses that do the same thing back home.

Then we had a game of Trivial Pursuit. Got about 23 questions right out of 40 -- not so bad considering the questions were Oz-slanted rather than American.

Had a nice chat with Owena about a number of topics, including : what Daddy used to do, differing attitudes towards girls and boys in China and the Philippines; World War II and how it affacted the Philippines, the Death March.

Mostly nap time until we pulled into the lunch stop, where we had our most expensive-sounding meal to date : two entrecote steaks sided with broccoli and two salad bar creations. The place was one of those resto-shopping complexes that straddle the road with a bridge-like structure. That way, it serves motorists from either direction. Price of the meal was 4400 pesetas. But it still leaves us with more than enough money for our expenses in Barcelona proper : lunch and souvenirs. There's a coffee stop before that, but I can use the coins to buy us more water.

What I really need is a battery for my beeper. The poor thing has been beeping warning signals at me for nearly three days now. As per Ramon's experience, that means I have at least two more days before the battery dies.

Looks like we're leaving this bumpy expressway now. Hope the road gets smoother. I have some fanfiction dialogue that's been asking to be written down since we left Madrid. Eccch. No such luck. My penmanship looks pretty much like a seismograph reading at this point.

BARCELONA - HOTEL HESPERIA ST. JUST
HOTEL LOBBY (1553H)

We pulled into the hotel not five minutes ago, and what Lisa kept warning us might happen, did happen -- only one porter for all our bags, so what happened was that our big beefy Australian men formed a human chain to get all our suitcases into the hotel. The porter is this gangling young man who's somewhat short of sleep. Just as well we got our own stuff in -- hate to think what would happen if that little boy decided to take charge of all our bags by himself!

HOTEL HESPERIA ST. JUST
ROOM 525 (1610H)

This room is not a room, it's a junior suite! With a sitting room and a proper writing desk, huge bathroom with a bidet. Not bad for a triple-share that's been discounted USD125.00 -- makes the whole thing worthwhile. We've decided to have dinner in the hotel. Mommy would rather not venture into Barcelona after what we went through in 1984 and Lisa's warnings to be careful. Anyway, we have a few pesetas to burn, we can afford to be nice to ourselves in a city like Barcelona.

This is a very nice place to stay!

HOTEL HESPERIA ST. JUST
ROOM 525 (2130H)

It was a long wait for dinner, since the restaurant opened at 8:30pm -- a scandalously late hour for Mommy's sensibilities. Still, the wait was worth it. The head waiter marked us out for Filipinos right away, and was positively solicitious. He recommended their house speciality -- open fire roasted lamb, with salad, good for two people. Price was right -- 4,900 pesetas. With tax and soft drinks, the total bill came up to 6,484 pesetas. Left 6,500 pesetas to take care of the bill and tip, which leaves us exactly 5900 pesetas and odd change to get rid of by tomorrow. I guess it will mostly go to mineral water and snacks.

It must be noted that while channel surfing, I discovered that this hotel actually shows previews of its X-rated movies. The channels are usually blocked without trailers everywhere else, no matter what the rating of the movie is. But oh, my goodness! Right between "The Mummy" and the Men's US Open is this raunchy sex movie in all its graphic glory for about 30 or 40 seconds.

Since the dinner -- which I know Ramon would have adored -- is guaranteed to keep us up for most of the night, I am going to take advantage of this lovely writing desk and work on that fanfic stuff that's been buzzing about in my head. Did I happen to mention that this junior suite practically allows me my own room? The "reception area" of the suite is where the sofa bed is located -- and it has its own writing desk and lamp and window. Not bad at all...

Just remembered that at the Barcelona toll plaza, I saw a car execute a manuever that not even a Manila driver would dare to do. The car -- a white Renault -- got itself into one of the automatic pay lanes, but apparently something there didn't suit the driver, so the driver reversed the car and ducked into another pay lane. Amazing! Truly amazing.

Being in Spain really brings home just how much of Spanish culture and attitudes have soaked into the Filipino lifestyle. The laid-back easygoing confidence that tomorrow will take care of itself; the expressiveness of manner so unlike the typical Asian inscrutability; machismo attitudes, and names -- so many familiar names! Retiro, Avenida, Cervantes, Alcala, to name just a few.

My spoken Spanish has returned with some fluency, much to the credit of my former instructors. It's fun to have some fluency in another language. Perhaps I should aim for German and Dutch as well as perhaps Japanese for another trip. One never knows -- who would have thought my spoken French would turn up so pretty!

Tomorrow is the city tour and then flamenco dinner, then off to the French Riviera after that. Am debating on whether to develop my films now or later at home; and if maybe I can't find some internet access in Nice. We'll see.