Spain in a Week
by Steve West on June 30, 2012
We're back in the USA after a week in Spain with layovers in Paris and Amsterdam. Barcelona and Madrid were incredible. We saw more things than my brain could catalogue and looking at the pictures we took I find myself repeating, "Where in hell were we when I shot this?" I'm okay with just knowing it was Spain. The guides for our tour were fantastic and now that I know about the city I could probably find a lot on my own but all of them (a team of about five) added a local flavor to the trip. They all spoke with Castillan accents which is refreshing and authentic to Spain. The food at the local restaurants was exciting and new if not always to our liking and many of the sights were unlike any I had ever seen, unique to that part of the world. The architecture was one of a kind because of Gaudi, you couldn't escape his influence throughout Barcelona. The thing that struck me most visually was the bus trip we took from Barcelona to Madrid. The landscape for hours at a time was largely scrubland with some farming (grapes, olives and almonds) and very few small villages. I had no idea that such large stretches of land were so uninhabited. And it was dry. Not a whole lot of green to be seen out there. Yet it was exotically beautiful nonetheless. Swimming in the Mediterranean was a highlight for Lauren even though she got a mild Spainburn and she adjusted to the beaches being topless. She was more concerned about what I was seeing, the little prude. So I'll stop writing before I write 20 more pages that will be meaningful only to Lauren and I but I will say that Spain is a place you must see given the opportunity. This may well be the only trip I'll take to Europe and if so, it was worth it.
Web Junkie
Steve West scours the Web searching for interest or absurdity and then shakes his head ruefully when he finds it. Read more »
Bad Jobs
I've had a few jobs that were pretty bad or at least aspects of them. We've probably all had crappy jobs like working in a kitchen or stuff that's just unpleasant or had difficult co-workers. The worst thing I was required to do was when I was working at the Department of Agriculture. Go »Public Service Announcement
For those of you who will be pulled over by the police and asked the inevitable question, "Because I'm smokin' hot" is not the correct answer to "Do you know why I pulled you over?" Live and learn. Go »Vacation Week II
Took the girls to a petting zoo where they could not only look at the animals but interact as well. Saw some things of interest to me; an albino peacock (well, I don't know if it was albino but it was all white); petted a llama (their hair is kinda rough); the world's fattest rabbit (big as a poodle!); pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, turkeys & chickens & roosters (oh, my); a beautiful garden of vegetables and flowers; and lots of ducks and geese. Go »Odds And Ends (Definitely Odds)
Strange and wonderful stuff. Video of the week 1: Perfectville - Population 1 Nouvelle cuisine. Stuff a hamburger up your tailpipe. Go »Halloween Post #7: Scary Movies
Movie moments are still stuck in my head from films I saw 30 years ago, moments that scared the crap out of me then and still run chills down my spine today. This web page has collected 100 of these scary film moments and tried to supply a Youtube clip for each one (not successful) and some interesting commentary. This site might hold you until Halloween. Go »
