Blog on temporary hold

So our new waterproof camera we bought for the trip seems to have died, so I can't charge it, turn it on, etc.  So we can't use that camera to take pictures for the blog.  We brought another camera that works, but I can't download the pictures to the computer, unless I can get a SD card reader for my laptop so I can download the pictures.  I'll look for an electronics shop tomorrow so we can download pictures and update the blog.

8-31-16 by Adam Catmull - AKA Dad

So it's actually about 10pm on 9-1-16 but I'm having to catch up and do my post from yesterday before Megs can do her post for today. Yesterday was such a crazy day. We stayed the night on the edge of Valencia (about 3 hours south of Barcelona) and didn't get there the other night until after 11pm as we had stayed at PortoAventura too late. I had finally bought tickets to La Tomatina online a couple weeks ago. I had tried to buy them before that, but you could only buy them with a tour group or taking the bus from Barcelona and it was about 50-100 Euros each. The tickets themselves are only supposed to be 10 euros, but I saw them available with buying a t-shirt for 22 euros so I got 3 tickets. They have this festival every year in Bunol (a very small town about 20-30 minutes north of Valencia). Got up and drove to Bunol but had no idea exactly where to park, where to actually pick up the wristbands, etc. As we were walking around trying to figure it out, Brad was starting to get way stressed out. In walking into the town it was definitely a party atmosphere. People had come from all over the world to do this and we saw people from Japan with shirts showing Japan to Bunol for La Tomatina. This little town has a normal population of about 9000, but about 40,000 come for La Tomatina. Tons of people were wandering around trying to find out where to go, where to exchange tickets, etc. As we got closer to the main old street where the event happens, the roads going in were blocked with barricades and security people wouldn't let you in unless you had the right wristband on. We finally found where to exchange the online printout for the wristbands and they indicated you pick up the t-shirts on the other side of town after the event. We finally made it into the main road and it was just packed. We had bought cheap goggles to where as we heard that the tomatoes can really sting your eyes, not to mention it wouldn't be real great to get hit square in the eye with a tomato. We were only in the street maybe 15 minutes when it was about time to start. During that time everyone was jumping up and down and chanting. It was crazy how many people they packed into about a 10' wide road with about a 5' sidewalk on each side. I was wondering how in the world they were going to get the big trucks through. Finally a horn blew and after a few minutes the first truck started coming. There were about 40 volunteers around the truck. About 30 in front to clear the way, and a few on each side and behind to keep people from getting run over. They were blowing whistles and pushing everyone out of the way. It wasn't until about 2 trucks had come by and dumped a few tons of tomatoes that things really got crazy. After the trucks would go by everyone would rush into the street and start throwing the tomatoes at everyone else. When I went out into the street, the tomatoes were literally up over my ankles. In just a few minute you were totally covered by tomatoes and tomato juice. When all the trucks were finally through, we decided to just try and make our way back to the car and head out of town. As hard as it was to find the placed to get the wristbands, now that 40,000 people were all running around, I didn't want to spend the next 3 hours just trying to find our t-shirts and get out of town.

　

We finally made our way back to the car and after trying to scrape a little bit of the tomatoes off, we decided to just put down a towel and blanket we had bought for the beach on the seats and head out of town and try and find either a river or the beach. We finally found a beach after about 45 minutes of driving and hit the water with tomatoes caked all over ourselves. We brought in soap and shampoo and just washed in the ocean. Then we just hung out and laid on the beach for a while before we decide to drive the other 2+ hours back to Barcelona. We finally made it back about 7-8pm and after checking into our hotel and taking quick showers we headed out to dinner I was hoping to go to a place called Tickets I had seen online that had rave reviews, but I hadn't been able to get in touch with them by phone to get reservations. When we got there they said they were booked, but we could try back around 10pm. As it was only 8:30 and we were starved, we found a place and had a bunch of Tapas.

　

As we were touring around Barcelona a couple days ago, we saw big posters saying a world famous DJ called Axwell was going to be at a Barcelona club our last night we were going to be in Barcelona. I know Brad has been way into house DJ music and is a big fan of Axwell, so I went online and bought tickets and told him I'd take him. I didn't want to just have him go on his own, afraid he might either get into trouble, get lost, etc, so I wanted to make sure he was good. He was pretty excited. When we finally got there at about 11:30pm, there weren't that many people there. I asked around a little bit and finally found out that Axwell probably wouldn't be coming out until about 2:30am, and the party wouldn't even start going until about 1am. Aw Crap. Oh well, Brad really wanted to do it, so I hung out with him until things started happening and then just hung back at the back of the club. It was wicked loud. I do have to admit that Axwell was pretty good and had the place in a crazy mood everyone just jumping and recording on their cell phones. I didn't get any pictures, but I'll try and just copy a crazy picture of the nightclub from online how it looked and post it. By the time we finally got back to the hotel, it was about 4pm and we had to get up about 7:45am to catch the 9:25am train in the morning. I was about dead, but Brad and Megan had a very, VERY memorable day, so day well spent! Enjoy a couple pictures below.

 Just entering Bunol and the anticipation of La Tomatina is starting to build.

 On the walk to the start area we passed this beautiful ravine.

 We are all packed in waiting for La Tomatina to start.

 The anticipation is building.  Everyone is jumping up and down and chanting.

 And here comes the first truck of tomatoes.  Let the fun begin.

 Megan starting in.

 So the next few pictures are a little blurry, as the camera, like everything else got coated with tomatoes, but you can tell Meg is having the time of her life.

 Even Brad had a blast. 

 And although blurry, you can tell we had an absolute blast and all got totally coated in tomatoes.

 What a crazy time!!

 We stopped at a beach to wash our hair and get all the coated tomatoes off.

 Megan loved the beautiful beach with hardly anyone on it in the middle of the day.

 Just as we were leaving the town with the beach, we saw some amazing building art.  Here is just one of the cool pictures we saw.

 Once we got back to Barcelona we checked back into the hotel and then headed to dinner  On the way, we passed a bakery with this cool dog looking bread?  It reminded me of Mitzi and how I miss that cute little kid.

 We had tapas for dinner and then headed back to the hotel.

Then I took Brad to a night club in Barcelona with Axwell as the guest DJ.  He was rated the #1 house DJ in the world a couple of years.  It was pretty crazy and Brad said that's one of his coolest thing he's ever done.  Glad I could take him, even though it really didn't get going until about 2am.  We finally left about 3:30am and made it back to the hotel about 4am.  Need to get up in just a couple hours to catch the train to France.

8/30/16 By Brad :)

  All of us on the way to an amusement park in Salou called PortAventura.

 Dad and Meg standing in the parking lot posing in front of the Ferrari roller coaster being built.

 Thought this cars paint job was pretty cool.

 Me being cool as a cucumber in front of the Ferrari Land sign haha

 

 Megan was quite fond of this bush who's flower petals were actually pink leaves, it was really bizarre, never seen anything like it.

 Ferrari Land, planned to be completed next year unfortunately :(

 Us waiting in line at the first ride. The rides themselves were GREAT, however each one was about a 30 minute wait in line. This one in particular took an hour and a half just to ride once!

 

 

 Still pretty overcast weather today.

 

 Megan hadn't eaten since the day before so I gave dad the camera to take pictures while they ate while I went out and adventured :)

 All of us walking in "China". The amusement park was divided into several different areas of the world, each area with their own unique rides reflecting the part of the world it represented. It was essentially the Epcot Center but with roller coasters.

These two were my favorite rides, the Shambala (the uber tall white one) and the dragon something or other ride (the red one with a lot of loops) 

 

  All of us waiting in line at the dragon ride.

 My dad made it a point to take a picture of me eating a sandwich we quickly grabbed from a 24 hr. gas station so I can tell my kids someday hahaha

 Me and my dad being dorks on the 2 and a half hour drive to Valencia after walking everywhere today. In total we've walked between 27 and 33 miles in the last 3 days so everyone was pretty tired by the end of the day.

Finally at the hotel in Valencia. Well just finished typing this up at 2 in the morning, time to go to bed cause I have to wake up in 6 hours to throw tomatoes at people. PEACE!:)

August 29,2016 by Megs

Super cool serrated edge of Mont Serrat from the freeway

Stretch of highway where the concrete wall next to the road was completely covered in graffiti and street art.

The clouds around the mountain (Mt Serrat) made the views of the rocks protruding to the sky look super eerie and cool.

Tunnel through the mountain side up to the monastery.

Columns up to the monastery. It was a little chillier than we thought and started sprinkling when we got up there.

Montserrat monastery high up in the mountains.

Monastery. Honestly, how did they get anything up here in the middle ages?

Arches up near the courtyard of the monastery.

Megan found some sweet street kitties and we were all reminded of Mitzi.

So the funicular up to the very top of the mountain was nearly vertical. It was pretty dang freaky to see. Especially when we knew it was raining.

Slightly apprehensive about this whole straight up the mountain on a little rail car thing...

Up at the top of the mountain, you can see the clouds rolling over.

The hike down from the top, back to the monastery with Megan bringing up the rear as usual.

Artsy photo by yours truly

Because "the" was too much to translate. So follow de red line.

Balancing stones next to a cross half way ish down on the hike on Montserrat.

Cool statues lining the hike.

Gate up to the courtyard of the monastery.

Satan's fetus. AKA a little rabbit thing in the little grocery store at Montserrat.

Inside the courtyard of the monastery. Really cool arches and a palm tree or two.

According to dad, the coffins of knight are unique and symbolic to what they did in their lives.

Inner courtyard and front of the church.

Side view of the Black Madonna. Super cool experience in a very reverent setting. It was mostly encased in glass besides one part that stuck out from the glass and people would hold the small ball extended in the Madonna's hand taking a personal moment of prayer and meditation.

After Montserrat, we went to Mont Juic aka mount of the jews in Barcelona. There are a lot of pretty gardens on the mountain and this picture was of a butterfly on one of the plants in the gardens.

Weird flowers stemming up from onion like bulbs.

Pretty little bush.

View from the cable car thing.

Brad and Dad on the cable car thing up to Mont Juic.

Me being a goob on the ride to the top.

Brad on a really cool cannon thing that we stumbled across up at the castle on the top of Montjuic.

Artsy photo by Meggers of a mostly dead thistle in the castle wall.

The castle was pretty impressive. Loved the vines up the side.

There was a really cool draw bridge and door closing system just inside the doorway.

Some of the rooms in the castle were filled with neat little exhibits explaining a little of the history of Barcelona and the castle and these weapons were in one of the rooms.

Cannons lining the entire wall of the castle.

 

No more photos from today. We tried to find somewhere to eat, a really creepy guy hit on me and I was tired beyond belief. Pretty cool day though overall.