MrBishop
Well-Known Member
Good evening ladies and gents...or is it really eraly morning? My brain is so fried with jet-lag that I don't quite know anymore.
Well...3 weeks in France and Spain...visiting family. What can I say? I need a vacation from my vacation. Luckily...it's a long weekend, so I might get my wish.
When we'd left off my little adventure...I'd arrived in Cizur Major...close to Pamplona and was resting up a bit....not too long though..many places to see in cluding San Sebastian.
For the next week and a bit...we drove about, visiting family...from Cizur Major and San Sebastian to St.George, to Lizartza, to Irurzun and back...sleep late, waking early and enjoying the scenery. The Pyranese are beautiful mountains and make the mountain in the middle of Montreal look like a hill of beans. Driving is a challenege to say the least. The highway speed limits are 130kph (about 80mph), but most often people go at around 180-200. I'm driving the biggest,ugliest mini-van-like thing that the rental place could privide...a Kangoo
...like this one, but in lime-green. It's boxy and drives like a wet cardboard box. At least..it's spaceous. Comes in handy with all the luggage that we're dragging around, but it doesn't help when you've got 1 1/2 lanes with a cliff on one side and a valley on the other...especially when a truck's coming the other way at break neck speeds.
I'm was having a doozie of a time following conversations...or rather keeping up. I understand about 80% of what's said but it takes me a bit to formulate what I want to say and get it out there. By that time...the family's changed subjects 3 times and suddenly get the impression that I'm a slow 4-year old with particularly bad grammar. Felt like an idiot...and ended up playing the strong silent type for a good chunk of the trip....at least, around family.
Mayn things to see...I'll begin posting pics soon as I can. I've got about 360 on my digicam and 4 rolls of 24 to develop. I've got to post some of the Sagrida Famillia, a church in Barcelona that's constantly being built. Amazing and eerie...it's a marvel created by about 6 different architects, with the style changin when one dies and another takes over. The buildin's story-line is the same...that is, they've tried to keep in a similar vein of design, but the individual styles jump out at you. A testament to modern insanity.
I'll get into more details when I'm not so tired... I'll jump to the end though. The main reason for going to Spain at this time of year instead of June or July was for a wedding (Boda) of one of MrsBish's favorite cousins. This fell on my birthday (Apr 3rd). Bish_jr had caught some virus a few days earlier and it caught up to him on the morning of the 3rd. His asthma kicked in and that's how it started. Ventalin (sp?) in the morning...another pump before the wedding itself...another pump after the wedding (because his breathing wasn't improving)...a drive to Donostia for the reception. A pump in the parking lot. Wedding photos...finding a place to sit...standing up and trying to calm down Bish_jr. It doesn't work...so..we follow the sister of the groom to the local hospital (all dressed up) and end up spending the night there, until noon the next day. The room's rules said 'only one adult per child'...but thanks to the fact that Bish_jr was the only kid there, the nurse kindly let me stay until another kid showed up.
So...on my birthday and the wedding day that we went to Spain for, I spent my time half-sleeping on the floor, under a sink with a sweater for a pillow, while my son slept fitfully..only to be awakened every 2 hours for another check-up, and MrsBish slept badly in a torture-device cleverly disguised as a chair.
His asthma got under control on the 4th...kinda. Was much better on the 5th...and we left Spain for Paris on the 6th at 6pm. 12 hours drive to Paris...interrupted by Bish_jr throwing up 3 times, and my frantically opening up suitcases to try and find clothes to put on him...on the side of the road, at 3am.
His asthma is under control...he's got a Gastro-virus, so does MrsBsih...so I'm playing Dr while trying to recover from jet-lag. Now that I'm done bitching and moaning...I think that I'll read a few threads, and pass out. Sometime this weekened...I'll post teh happy parts of my trip..including my personal run-ins with members of the ETA party.
Well...3 weeks in France and Spain...visiting family. What can I say? I need a vacation from my vacation. Luckily...it's a long weekend, so I might get my wish.
When we'd left off my little adventure...I'd arrived in Cizur Major...close to Pamplona and was resting up a bit....not too long though..many places to see in cluding San Sebastian.
For the next week and a bit...we drove about, visiting family...from Cizur Major and San Sebastian to St.George, to Lizartza, to Irurzun and back...sleep late, waking early and enjoying the scenery. The Pyranese are beautiful mountains and make the mountain in the middle of Montreal look like a hill of beans. Driving is a challenege to say the least. The highway speed limits are 130kph (about 80mph), but most often people go at around 180-200. I'm driving the biggest,ugliest mini-van-like thing that the rental place could privide...a Kangoo
I'm was having a doozie of a time following conversations...or rather keeping up. I understand about 80% of what's said but it takes me a bit to formulate what I want to say and get it out there. By that time...the family's changed subjects 3 times and suddenly get the impression that I'm a slow 4-year old with particularly bad grammar. Felt like an idiot...and ended up playing the strong silent type for a good chunk of the trip....at least, around family.
Mayn things to see...I'll begin posting pics soon as I can. I've got about 360 on my digicam and 4 rolls of 24 to develop. I've got to post some of the Sagrida Famillia, a church in Barcelona that's constantly being built. Amazing and eerie...it's a marvel created by about 6 different architects, with the style changin when one dies and another takes over. The buildin's story-line is the same...that is, they've tried to keep in a similar vein of design, but the individual styles jump out at you. A testament to modern insanity.
I'll get into more details when I'm not so tired... I'll jump to the end though. The main reason for going to Spain at this time of year instead of June or July was for a wedding (Boda) of one of MrsBish's favorite cousins. This fell on my birthday (Apr 3rd). Bish_jr had caught some virus a few days earlier and it caught up to him on the morning of the 3rd. His asthma kicked in and that's how it started. Ventalin (sp?) in the morning...another pump before the wedding itself...another pump after the wedding (because his breathing wasn't improving)...a drive to Donostia for the reception. A pump in the parking lot. Wedding photos...finding a place to sit...standing up and trying to calm down Bish_jr. It doesn't work...so..we follow the sister of the groom to the local hospital (all dressed up) and end up spending the night there, until noon the next day. The room's rules said 'only one adult per child'...but thanks to the fact that Bish_jr was the only kid there, the nurse kindly let me stay until another kid showed up.
So...on my birthday and the wedding day that we went to Spain for, I spent my time half-sleeping on the floor, under a sink with a sweater for a pillow, while my son slept fitfully..only to be awakened every 2 hours for another check-up, and MrsBish slept badly in a torture-device cleverly disguised as a chair.
His asthma got under control on the 4th...kinda. Was much better on the 5th...and we left Spain for Paris on the 6th at 6pm. 12 hours drive to Paris...interrupted by Bish_jr throwing up 3 times, and my frantically opening up suitcases to try and find clothes to put on him...on the side of the road, at 3am.
His asthma is under control...he's got a Gastro-virus, so does MrsBsih...so I'm playing Dr while trying to recover from jet-lag. Now that I'm done bitching and moaning...I think that I'll read a few threads, and pass out. Sometime this weekened...I'll post teh happy parts of my trip..including my personal run-ins with members of the ETA party.
Get it? Gay Paris? 
Nevermind... 
