el 6 de julio - First full day in Estartit, Spain

Now that we have arrived in Spain, the lazy days have started.  I'm so busy doing nothing that it's hard to find time to sit down at the computer to blog.  The kids are having a great time in the pool here at the house; since it's been two years since we were here, we are seeing great improvements in their swimming abilities.

We went down to the main beach, where most of the tourists in town go.  It was a very windy day.  Likely the Mistral winds that blew us south from France into Spain on Monday hit our Costa Brava on Tuesday.  The kids splashed around in the Mediterranean, not caring about the sand blowing around on the beach.  After playing a little soccer in the sand, we headed back to the house for lunch. 

 After lunch on the terrasse at home, we had espressos and cortados by the "ski beach" and met the owner, who was very pleased to hear her regular client's son (Austin) speaking Spanish!  This is the Wheelocks favorite place for espressos, great prices, and friendly service.  Patrick enjoyed some chips (made with olive oil, which I guess makes it more Mediterranean) and Sophie enjoyed a decadent Magnum noir (white vanilla ice cream covered in dark chocolate.)  We took the fishing boat out to the Illes Medas.  Just around the corner, we admired the giant fish (pictured at left) installed since we were last year, creations by our friend and artist Marc Alos! 

Marc is also well-known for his little statues of people...  I will blog about this on another day, with pictures and quote from the artist himself.  In the meantime, if you are curious, you can check out:  www.caganer.com  Don't be too shocked by the pictures you see...

Being mid-week in early July, we were able to stop at a buoy close to the island, in shallow green, blue, azur water.  It was gorgeous.  Austin and his dad got in to the water, and snorkeled around a bit.  Patrick jumped in quickly, but it was a little chilly so he hopped back into the boat fairly quickly.  Sophie was maybe a little seasick and mostly just dozed while the boat bobbed around a bit.

A simple dinner at home finished off the day, so we could sit in front of the tv to cheer for opposing World Cup teams.  (We cheered for Gijs' team...)

Kids in bed sometime around 10:30 or 11:00pm.  Becoming used to the Catalan hours...

Les Grandes Vacances

I was going to write a clever email detailing our first 24 hours in Geneva, Switzerland.  Instead, here are just a few highlights:

Sent the incorrect itinerary to our friend Heather who lives here.  She arrived to meet us on Monday around 11:30am, but we didn't arrive until 3pm or so.  Took a while to figure out how to call her on a pay phone.  Pay phone!  When is the last time you used one of those.

Geneva airport has a French and Swiss side.  Went back and forth between the countries trying to find the right Hertz.  Patrick straddled both countries for a few minutes.

The reservation we had for our rental car didn't exist in the system.  No cars were immediately available, and if we took a car that day, we were going to have to pay close to $1600 for 24 days - and for a small/medium-sized car.  Austin figured out the free wi-fi at the airport and sitting on luggage next to Hertz, reserved and paid for a car to pick up on Tuesday morning.

Finally made contact with Heather and met her!  Stuffed all our luggage and the 5 of us into her car, and went to her Swiss village of Crans.

Had some good local wine from the chateau/winery here in the village of Crans at dinner.

Sophie slept from 8pm to 10:30am.

Patrick woke up at midnight and tossed and turned until around 2am.  He woke up this morning at 8:15am when Austin and I got up to go back to the airport for the rental.  Patrick has a headache, and a fever.  Heather walked down to the pharmacy to get a thermometer and kids' ibuprofen.  He is still pretty docile and not feeling great, but not grouchy.

We might take a boat across Lake Geneva to a French village to stroll around.  No big plans until Patrick feels better...