Adios Barcelona, Bonjour France

No internet access for the last few days, so I will do a quick "catch-up" of our last few days. Thursday was our final day in Barcelona - another day of perfect weather. We started out heading to find the Museum of Barcelona History and wandered in circles a bit cursing the signs until we realized we had walked right by it, but had been so distracted by this fountain that was balancing an egg, that we totally missed the entrance to the

museum. The museum was well worth the wait, giving the history of Barcelona (geography, political, cultural) and then the exhibit was going "underground" to see the remains of the earlier (Roman) Barcelona - I'm simplifying, but it was really quite interesting.

Afterwards, we decided to head to the water and see the beach, not realizing that it would be so nice and quite so hot.

We hadn't brought swimsuits with us, but our feet enjoyed the water. I think that Jim enjoyed more than just the ocean view (topless is okay here).

We headed back to the hotel to meet up with our "tour guides" -my cousin Janet and her husband Gilles. We all had a good laugh about the "high tech" and impossible lighting system we had each struggled to figure out while getting settled (they had not accomplished it any faster than us, although they did figure out how to close the internal shutters in the glass wall of the shower; but we had been the only ones to discover the outlet on the side of the nightstand). After charting out the agenda for the next few days, we headed out for a tapas dinner in the gothic quarter.

Several hours after witnessing a pick-pocket and police and citizen pursuit, Gilles ended up interrupting being pickpocketed himself on the metro - they got away with two of his credit cards (which he immediately cancelled) but no cash. An unfortunate way to end our stay in Barcelona, but nobody hurt and nothing of value gone - just the hassle of it.

On Friday morning we headed over the Pyrennes. Long drive but beautiful scenery, as you can see by the pictures. There is an interesting spot, where Spain ends and before France begins, called Andorra - a principality that is its own nation, but the president of France is the "Prince of Andorra" and then there is also a Bishop and element of Spanish rule as well (again, our "tour guides" explain much better - you can google it). You can see the flag. The weird thing is that apparently this land of neither France nor Spain, does not exist according to Wells Fargo. We could not use our debit or charge card there. Fortunately, I had brought along another VISA card not afilliated with Wells Fargo, and that worked.

Once through the Pyrennes, we went to the medieval village of Carcassonne. Looks quite different than Obidos, but another walled cit, completely charming.

Janet had arranged a wonderful B&B - could have moved right in. Darling couple left Paris a few years ago and bought this house which was a wreck and re-did it just beautifully. Not sure if he always wears the Obama shirt, or put it on for our benefit! You will all be surprised to see Jim petting their cat! He was being a very good guest.

Today we went on into "duck" country, stopped for lunch at Rocamadour, a church and city built into the side of a cliff.

Then on to Sarlat, a charming old city, where we are spending the night. You can see the sign for the local youth and family counseling center - I feel right at home!

Sorry for the brief note and crazy order of the photos - I am not a mac person and Jim's laptop version of the blog doesn't work like the PC one. The last two pictures are actually back at Carcasonne...oh well, I guess if you have seen one medieval city you have seen them all~