thegcb learns to play Euchre

When we last left the gcb, he'd been sleeping in trees and exploring new and exciting places. He'd also begun to develop a sore throat. On his way to meet Dad & Ilka in Seville, the throat got worse and worse. Seville, meanwhile, got hotter and hotter in anticipation of his arrival.

So, when Dad, Ilka, and the gcb ascended the 30+ story tower of Seville's Cathedral (the largest in the world, according to Guinness) on foot, to take this photo (looking south towards the Plaza de Espana featured 3 entries ago),



his throat was at it's painful peak, and the temperature in Seville was 45 degrees Celsius- or about 113 Fahrenheit. Which means Alec Longstreth is no longer allowed to complain on his blog about the heat in New York until it exceeds 113. And he hikes up 30 stories of stone ramps.

(end awkward third-person narration)

I also saw Seville's Alcazar (palace) with its lovely gardens, other nice sites, ate well, and slept in an air-conditioned hotel with the parents-- definitely a relief.

Then I spent most of the next week in Arcos- whatever bug I had made me completely exhausted (12 hours of sleep per day, minimum) and especially hungry, snacking for most of my waking hours. I was too tired to take any photos, I guess, because I haven't got any on my camera.

Just as my throat and energy started to recover, I set off again for Barcelona, where Mike Mertens (a friend from my time at Ecotrust) was going to be with his family. Before they arrived, I wandered around Barcelona again for a few days-- it just gets more charming. Especially when you can learn radical ways of think and see stores that are so sexy.

On the train to Barcelona, I played some very-low-stakes poker with three Aussies who I was sharing a sleeper with. I lost a Euro, so we met up in the city a few days later. Our group quickly swelled to nine, and we went to an "absinth bar" which was quite nice, but convinced no one that what they were selling was really absinth.

We wandered the town for a bit, and by the time our numbers had dwindled to 5 we were sitting in a quiet plaza where I showed them my Clergy membership card. It was met with enthusiasm, and I ordained two new Reverends. Having done something productive, we called it a night.

Mike Mertens arrived yesterday, and I had dinner with the family, including his nephews Gregory & Michael and his son Sebastian- all of whom are right around 4 years old. Here we are on the elevator of their fancy hotel:



Sebastian is the image of calm in red (a completely deceiving image), Michael is enthusiastically eating his fingers, and Gregory is checking the right side of the elevator for monsters. Half of Mike is wearing black, and in the center in white is Billy, Mike's brother. Bits of the grandparents can be seen as well.

Had a fabulous evening racing, talking Sebastian out of playing redlight-greenlight (or "redlight-flashingyellow" as we dubbed it in honor of Spain's traffic system) in the restaurant, and spinning little boys in the air until I was too dizzy to continue. It was an excellent change of pace.

In a couple of days, I'll stomp off to Figueres to see the Dali Museum, then over the French border into the walled city of Carcassonne for a day before wandering off to Bern in Switzerland, where they have bear pits, chocolate, Swiss people, and signs in German that I hope to be able to read.

-gcb

ps. If you are wondering about the title of this blog entry... it's true, and there's not much else to tell about it.