And then...

So, the last two stops on my European trip were Barcelona and Madrid. Barcelona was one of my favorite stops. The hotel was on La Rambla, and I had a lot of time to do my own thing. So, I chose to walk from La Rambla to the Gaudi Park, which I estimated to be a 4 to 6 kilometer walk, in one direction. It was well worth it because it was a great way to see the city in both it's touristy and real life and buildings. Below are pictures of the touristy parts:





This is me at Gaudi Park. It sits at the top (or near the top anyway) of a hill that over looks Barcelona. The benches here are really famous, and you can only see a little of them. Behind me is the house that looks like the gumdrop house from Candyland, but my big old head is in the way. Then there is the rest of Barcelona and then the Mediterranean Sea, which is a giant port.


This is my favorite Gaudi building. It is a representation of St. George slaying the dragon (it's a dragon on his pile of bones, e.g. the skull balconies). The picture does not do the building justice. It also made me root for the dragon, but that's more about me than the building or the story.

This is the most famous of the Gaudi buildings, the Sagrada Familia. They've only been working on it for 120 years. I think they said it's about half done. The coolest part to me is that Gaudi determined the measurements of the building by hanging sandbags upside down on strings and then doing the conversions. It was a non-traditional method, to say the least. So much so that modern day architects were not sure if his measurements were correct, so they did the calculations using math (not sandbags) and Gaudi's measurements were exactly correct. Take that establishment! (Sorry, I'm trying balance the fact that I'm the man's lawyer and that I don't agree with the man on a lot of principles.)

The next stop was Madrid. This city got sold short because it was the last city on the trip, it was so hot, and it was the end of August -- meaning everything was closed. I was so tired of traveling and being with strangers (who weren't really strangers anymore). Also, almost all of the tour of the city was by bus, which doesn't feel organic so it's hard to get a good feel for the place. Also, I had to finish up the gift shopping which is only because I'm a big procrastinator. The awesomest part was visiting the Prado Museum with a local guide. She taught me a lot about the history of art and some truly amazing artists. My favorite was Goya but that's probably because he went through the most diverse periods and created new concepts on how art could express the world. Depression seems to change art in a profound way and it was coming through his depression that Goya created The Dog, which is the only poster I bought during my whole trip through art museums. Below are two of my pictures.

This statue is in front of the palace (yeah, I forget that Spain is a monarchy, too). The reason that it's cool is that it is the first statute where the horse is on its only standing on its back legs (the pose was taken from a portrait). The interesting part about this is that no one knew how they could get the statue to stand up. They had to have some Italian mathematicians do the math in order to figure out the geometry (they told me the name, which I recognized, but I can't remember who it was because it's been almost two months -- I think DaVinci, but that seems so obvious and therefore wrong, maybe Michelangelo). The picture is washed out because I don't know how to use my old school film based camera well enough. Most of my film pictures look like this (if they turned out at all -- stupid winding mechanism...).

This was the view of Madrid from my hotel room. It was the only room in the group on the 12th floor, so I had a phenomenal view, including the sunset. I did walk all around Madrid, mostly trying to find a tobacco shop so that I could buy the last few stamps I needed to mail out postcards to my family. That literally took five hours. I found stamps at a tobacco shop where the owner did not speak a bit of English (weird being in Spain and all) and I barely can say hello in Spanish. So a brief pantomime session later I got my stamps. Then I stopped at a pay phone to use up the last minutes on my phone card (because a phone at a five star hotel cannot accept a phone card !?!). After I hung up, having been cut off by using up all my time, I look down my shirt and saw that I had been pooped on by a bird. BASTARD BIRD! I had made it through the whole trip being warned about the probability of bird shite and I got pooped on on my last day!

So, that's my trip in short summary. I have forgotten a lot of details, but I have over a thousand pictures and a scrapbooking project to remind me. I will do another post or two about the road trip part, but you've now gotten a good taste of my trip. It was fun, interesting, exhausting, and a great way to introduce me to a couple of beautiful countries.

As for my first week at work, I'm strongly opposed to being awake for so long starting so early. I prefer the 10 am wake up. Also, my work clothes used to fit so much better. Stupid metabolism and fried chicken.

I am also officially a CA resident (new license and all) so I get to vote here now...but I also have to pay more attention to election news.

Now for October's post

I started another post while I was in MN, but since I was in charge of a baby, my computer time was limited. Then I was at my parent's house where my computer is not accepted by the network. Then I was home for two days and too lazy to do any updating, and then I was in VT for an intoxicating weekend. That's my excuse this time.

For those that have asked about the CA bar passage rate, the July 2007 passage rate for overall test takers was 56.1%, for first time takers it was 68.9%. For those who graduated from a CA ABA Approved school it was 75.9 %. So, that's where my confusion is based. There are tons more statistics out there, but that's why I'm nervous.

So, here's the next bit about my travels:

The next places I went were Florence and Monaco (staying in the area called Monte Carlo). Florence was an amazing city if you wanted to see art, even just walking through the streets it was amazing to look at the buildings and the art painted on the side of old buildings. They had a loggia full of statutes in the square where the David originally stood. I saw the David and I finally understand the appeal and renown. It’s just inspiring how realistic the statue was as far as depicting a fit young man. The biggest problem is that everything in Florence is copyright protected so you can only buy images, but you cannot take pictures of things. Stupid lawyers...

Here are some pictures from Florence:


This was the view from my hotel room. To the left, where the rest of the rooms were was the historic area, with the Basilica and Baptismal and Bell Tower. The bridge that looks like a building is where most of the jewelers in Florence are. It used to be where the butcher's had their shops, but the Duke decided that the blood, etc., that poured from the slaughtering into the river was not healthy and declared that only gold could sold from the bridge. It was right outside his windows, so I'm not surprised.

This is me in front of the Gates of Paradise, which are really the doors to the Baptismal which tell the bible stories in golden pictures. They are said to be called that because Michelangelo said that they were so pretty that they must be the gates of paradise when he first saw them. This is also where we had our first encounter with the gypsies. Not at all like what Disney portrays them as. It's much more sad.

This is a replica of the original David, sitting where the original David was for centuries until someone "cleaned" the statute so well that it removed the marble's natural protective coat, ensuring that it will calcify and crumble in time. Now the real David is in a museum and this replica sits in front of the Duke's original palace, near the Uffizi (translates "office") Building where a bunch of amazing art was hung for the Duke and is now a museum which I wandered around.

We then went to Monaco, staying in Monte Carlo. I bought stamps, because everything else cost too much.

Here are some pictures:

This is my feet in the Mediterranean Sea. Now, I've only got a few oceans and seas left that my feet should touch. Some of them, however, I don't think that I want to put my feet in. But that's a different post.

This is the world famous Casino in Monte Carlo, from the backside. It costs money to gamble for reals; the more the door fee, the higher the stakes at the table. I went into the video gambling section which both has no dress code and no cover charge. Therefore, all they got from me was five Euros. However, other people from the group dropped off more of their wealth there.

These pictures represents the "standard" modes of transportation in Monaco. The cars are an Astin Martin and a Ferrari. The boats are huge, and I didn't get the biggest boats into the picture. So, that's why I bought stamps. Oh, and a drink, too. Monaco has a Formula-One race which is the big thing there and they were getting ready for the F-1 to come to town. So, there was apparently a guy who would take you along the road track in a Ferrari for 35 Euro. I didn't do that either.

I would note that in my excellent trip retelling skills, I've missed some in-between stops, which also have interesting landmarks. I have decided that I will simply make the "on the road" portion of my story a separate entry.

I would also note that my picture uploading to blog skills leave something to be desired. This entry took at least an hour to format properly. That's absurd. Never mind the spelling mistakes and now the reposting because of too many typos.

I am currently off to yet another wedding, this one in San Francisco, and then I start off on my new career of being the Man on Monday. Ah the trepidation and fear.

"And now time for something completely different." ~ Monty Python Flying Circus