Madrid, Barcelona, Begur

Our older son has been living large at IES summer school in Madrid. My wife, younger son and I flew Iberia from Washington to Spain on June 27 to spend some time with living large son and come back home together. We rented an apartment from SpainSelect near Plaza Santa Anna, took the Ave train from Madrid to Barcelona and stayed there at the EurostarsBoqueria on the Ramblas, and then took a bus from Barcelona to the Aiguaclara Hotel in Begur. We rented a car for three days in Begur but took the train back to Barcelona and flights back to Washington on July 10.

Madrid. The apartment was great. Two small bedrooms slept three (a fourth could sleep on the couch in the living room). Kitchen. Two baths. Marble floors. Small balconies good for sipping coffee and people watching. Washing machine. Nice small kitchen. Stuff to do: Go rowing in Retiro Park (it's cool if your teenager doesn't know how to row a boat and you do); look at the stained glass ceiling in the Palace Hotel; buy candies in the Violeta, buy a currency converter at Corte Engles; figure out the metro; eat shrimp a la plancha and croquetas and potatos bravos at Cafe Alemania or La Trucha or El Abuelo all near Santa Anna; take a day trip to Toledo, eat luch at the Hostal Cardenal and walk up and down hills and feel just like El Greco; look in at the Ritz Hotel and wish you were rich; go to Botin's for dinner and spend money like you were rich; see Barishnikov dance at the Matedero and ask someone in your flawless spanish where was the bullring with matadores (donde estuvo el correo) but actually ask them where was the post office with matadores (now I think the Matedero Theater was once a slaughterhouse but never a bullring); go to Chueca with homestay hosts of living large son and go to an old restaurant with pictures of Hemingway and Matadores; go to the Teleferico and the Goya Chapel; fix a few meals in the apartment to save money; go to the Prado (Sorolla et al) and get lost; go to the Thysenn (Matisse et al) and get found; sneak in son's pool at the university; don't get robbed (we wern't, but it could happen). On second thought, skip the Teleferico.

Barcelona. Our hotel was on the Ramblas in front of the Boqueria Market. Great location. We had a quiet room in the back with a big terrace looking over the market. Too bad there's no pool. Stuff to do (again): The Ramblas is a great boulevard filled with street performers and street performer watchers and flower shops and pet shops and shoppers. At one end is the port and statue of Columbus, at the other end is the Plaza Catalunua and Corte Engles (or is it the Plaza Espana?). Exciting. We signed up for the BusTouristic tour showing Gaudi sites like Sagrada Familia and Parc Gruell and the rest of the city. We got on and off and on and off and on and off. Many times. At night we explored very good tapas places along the Argenterria (or similarly sounding street) where people swallowed fire and created huge soap bubbles (not the same people, understandably). We followed tapas recommendations in Frommers (gasp!). We also lost our debit card to an ATM because we (well, I actually) couldn't remember our (my) damn pin number. We were unable to rent a car because, we were told, it's July. So we took a bus to Begur.

Begur. The Aiguaclara is a wonderful hotel (per Meribel). Great hosts, great house, great rooms. A tad close to church bells which ring every 15 minutes, bless their hearts, but even a dumb person can learn eventually to close the windows and turn on the airconditioning (smart people may learn to do this more quickly). Or maybe some people enjoy the bells (knowing they toll for them). Joan and Clara helped us rent a car and directed us to great places. Stuff to do (penultimate): take bus down the hill to the beach (Sa Riera); from there walk on the coastal path slowly past the nudist beach (Platja Roja) to another bigger beach for lunch (Platja Raco); on return, stop and swim at the nudist beach, counting on not meeting there anyone from home; drive to Pals and other ancent stone towns built on hills with winding narrow cobble stone streets and Cathedrals and watch towers and really good icecream shops and table cloth shops and ceramics shops and swallows and bats in the evenings; drive to Aiguafreda beach and walk to La Tuna beach; play soccer with your kids (goalie, tougher job than it looks); drive to Figueroa and see the Dali museum (go early on wait on long line) and then on to Cadaques where the beaches aren't that great but nobody cares and there are many french people enjoying their nine weeks of vacation); enjoy sitting with locals along the wall in the plaza in Begur watching tourists; take taxi to train in Franca to Barcelona to plane to Madrid and another plane to home. Wonder if they could somehow possibly squeeze more seats into the tourist cabin of the plane. I don't think so.

Home. Things to do (ultimate): Walk dog. Mow grass. Unpack. Put new table cloth on kitchen table. Make sure sons make some money this summer. Write perky trip report. Go back to work.