kidzdoc Reads (and Cooks) Globally in 2015: Part 9

A view of Montserrat ("Serrated Mountain"), the multi-peaked mountain north of Barcelona, and the Monestir de Montserrat, the Benedictine abbey that houses the famed Virgin of Montserrat, one of the Black Madonnas of Europe. I plan to make a day trip there when I travel to Barcelona at the end of this month.




Currently reading:

    

The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda
Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care by H. Gilbert Welch
Selected Poems of Corsino Fortes by Corsino Fortes

Completed books: (TBR = book acquired prior to 1/1/14)

January:
1. Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers (TBR) (review)
2. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (TBR) (review)
3. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (TBR)
4. A Distant Father by Antonio Skármeta
5. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
6. The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh (TBR)

February:
7. In the City By the Sea by Kamila Shamsie (TBR)
8. The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters by Wes Moore
9. I Called Him Necktie by Milena Michiko Flašar
10 Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy by Darryl Pinckney

March:
11. Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital by Jerry Gentry (TBR)
12. The Sellout by Paul Beatty

April:
13. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry (TBR)
14. March: Book One by John Lewis
15. Nada by Carmen Laforet (TBR)
16. Outlaws by Javier Cercas
17. Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal
18. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (TBR)
19. Blank Gaze by José Luis Peixoto (TBR)
20. The Education of the Stoic by Fernando Pessoa (TBR)
21. Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi
22. Navidad & Matanza by Carlos Labbé

May:
23. The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol
24. Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe
25. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
26. The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics by Barron H. Lerner
27. Barcelona Travel Guide: A Weekend in Barcelona by Gerry Kerkhof
28. Guide to Troubled Birds by The Mincing Mockingbird

Books purchased or received in 2015: (Bold = book purchased this year)

January:
1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2 Jan, Kindle e-book)
2. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin (2 Jan, Kindle e-book)
3. The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks (11 Jan, Kindle e-book)
4. A Useless Man: Selected Stories by Sait Faik Abasiyanik (12 Jan, Archipelago Books subscription)
5. The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters by Wes Moore (20 Jan, LT Early Reviewers book)
6. DownBeat: The Great Jazz Interviews, edited and compiled by Frank Alkyer and Ed Enright (20 Jan, free book as part of 2015 DownBeat subscription)

February:
7. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, (1 Feb, Kindle e-book)
8. Bedlam: London and Its Mad by Catharine Arnold (4 Feb, Kindle e-book)

March:
9. Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care by H. Gilbert Welch (2 Mar, LT Early Reviewers book)
10. Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi (2 Mar, Archipelago Books subscription)
11. The Sellout by Paul Beatty (3 Mar, Kindle e-book)
12. A Man of His Word by Imma Monsó (29 Mar, Kindle e-book)

April:
13. Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal (1 Apr, Kindle e-book)
14. March: Book One by John Lewis (2 Apr, Kindle e-book)
15. The Bees by Laline Paul (2 Apr, Kindle e-book)
16. Selected Poems of Corsino Fortes by Corsino Fortes (3 Apr, Archipelago Books subscription)
17. The Lost Child by Caryl Phillips (3 Apr, Barnes & Noble)
18. Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson (5 Apr, gift from Karen W.)
19. Paris by Marcos Giralt Torrente (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
20. Things Look Different in the Light & Other Stories by Medardo Fraile (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
21. Tristana by Benito Perez Galdos (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
22. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David J. Garrow (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
23. I Never Had It Made by Jackie Robinson (8 Apr, Kindle e-book)
24. The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (10 Apr, Barnes & Noble)
25. My Struggle: Book Four by Karl Ove Knausgaard (22 Apr, Archipelago Books subscription)
26. Life Embitters by Josep Pla (22 Apr, Archipelago Books subscription)
27. This Life by Karel Schoeman (22 Apr, Archipelago Books subscription)
28. Amsterdam: A Brief History of the City by Geert Mak (24 Apr, Kindle e-book)
29. The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić (24 Apr, Kindle e-book)
30. The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol (25 Apr, LT Early Reviewers book)

2015 Reading Globally Themes and possible reads from my TBR collection:

First quarter: Indian subcontinent



Aravind Adiga, Between the Assassinations
Tariq Ali, Night of the Golden Butterfly
Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games
G.V. Desani, All About H. Hatterr
Roopa Farooki, Bitter Sweets
Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide
Intizar Husain, Basti
Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
Uday Prakash, The Girl with the Golden Parasol
Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Kamila Shamsie, In the City By the Sea

Second quarter: Iberian peninsula



António Lobo Antunes, Act of the Damned
António Lobo Antunes, Fado Alexandrino
António Lobo Antunes, The Land at the End of the World
Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
Juan Goytisolo, Juan the Landless
Juan Goytisolo, Landscapes of War: From Sarajevo to Chechnya
Juan Goytisolo, The Marx Family Saga
Almudena Grandes, The Frozen Heart
Carmen Laforet, Nada
José Luis Peixoto, Blank Gaze
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
Fernando Pessoa, The Education of the Stoic
Mercè Rodoreda, Death in Spring
Mercè Rodoreda, The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda
José Saramago, Baltasar and Blimunda
José Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon
José Saramago, Manual of Painting and Calligraphy
Llorenç Villalonga, The Dolls' Room
Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Angel's Game

Third quarter: Nobel Prize winners writing not in English

  

Knut Hamsun (1920), Hunger
Thomas Mann (1929), Death in Venice
Halldór Laxness (1955), Independent People
Albert Camus (1957), The First Man; Exile and the Kingdom
Ivo Andrić (1961), The Bridge on the Drina
Jean-Paul Sartre (1964), Nausea
Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967), The President
Yasunari Kawabata (1968), Beauty and Sadness
Pablo Neruda (1971), The Essential Neruda; Canto General
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1978), Collected Stories, Volume 1
Gabriel García Márquez (1982), One Hundred Years of Solitude; Of Love and Other Demons; The Autumn of the Patriarch
Claude Simon (1985), The Trolley
Naguib Mahfouz (1988), Midaq Alley; Rhadopis of Nubia
Octavio Paz (1990), The Labyrinth of Solitude; In Light of India
Kenzaburō Ōe (1994), The Changeling
José Saramago (1998), Raised from the Ground; Baltasar and Blimunda; The History of the Siege of Lisbon; Manual of Painting and Calligraphy; Journey to Portugal
Günter Grass (1999), The Tin Drum
Gao Xingjian (2000), One Man's Bible; Soul Mountain
Orhan Pamuk (2006), Snow; My Name Is Red; The Museum of Innocence; Other Colors
J.M.G. Le Clézio (2008), Terra Amata; The Giants; War; Fever; The Book of Flights; The Flood
Herta Müller (2009), The Land of Green Plums
Mario Vargas Llosa (2010), Captain Pantoja and the Special Service; The Green House; The Way to Paradise; The Bad Girl; The Dream of the Celt
Mo Yan (2012), Life and Death are Wearing Me Out; The Garlic Ballads; The Republic of Wine

Fourth quarter: Women writing not in English

  

Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits
Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins; She Came to Stay
Assia Djebar, Algerian White; Children of the New World; The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry
Diamela Eltit, E. Luminata
Annie Ernaux, Cleaned Out
Sylvie Germain, The Song of False Lovers
Marlene van Niekerk, Agaat
Miral al-Tahawy, Brooklyn Heights
Delphine de Vigan, No and Me

2015 American Author Challenge

  

January: Carson McCullers, Clock Without Hands
February: Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
March: Richard Ford, Independence Day
April: Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
May: Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
June: Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
July: Ursula Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
August: Larry McMurtry William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
September: Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories
October: Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
November: Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior
December: E.L. Doctorow, The March

2015 British Author Challenge



January: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger
January: Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
February: Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests
February: Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
March: Daphne Du Maurier, ?Rebecca
March: China Miéville, The City & the City
April: Angela Carter, ?Nights at the Circus
April: W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
May: Margaret Drabble, ?The Radiant Way
May: Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest
June: Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie
June: Anthony Burgess, ?The Doctor Is Sick
July: Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out
July: Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
August: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea
August: Graham Greene, The Quiet American
September: Andrea Levy, Fruit of the Lemon
September: Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
October: Helen Dunmore, The Siege
October: David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks
November: Muriel Spark, Loitering with Intent
November: William Boyd, An Ice-Cream War
December: Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
December: P.G. Wodehouse, Love Among the Chickens

Books about Medicine:



1. Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital by Jerry Gentry

TBR Books to Read in 2015:



Tomes (500 pages or more):
      Nicole Barker, Darkmans
      Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins
      Douglas Brinkley, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
      Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
      Ralph Ellison, Three Days Before the Shooting...
      Ian Gibson, The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí
      David Grossman, To the End of the Land
      Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name
      George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music
      A.J. Liebling, Just Enough Liebling
      David Macey, Frantz Fanon: A Biography
      Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
      Paul Murray, Skippy Dies
      Patrick O'Brian, Picasso: A Biography
      Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul
      Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
      William Trevor, Selected Stories
      Patrick White, The Vivisector

Non-tomes (less than 500 pages):
      Stuart Altman and David Shactman, Power, Politics and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
      Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
      Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
      Amiri Baraka, Tales of the Out & the Gone
      Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal
      Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
      Jean Echenoz, I'm Off and One Year
      Percival Everett, Percival Everett by Virgil Russell
      Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
      Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
      Paul Farmer, Haiti After the Earthquake
      Juan Eslava Galan, The Mule
      Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America
      Jerry Gentry, Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital
      Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
      Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
      Juan Goytisolo, Juan the Landless
      Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris
      Jonathan B. Imber, Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine
      Robert Klitzman, When Doctors Become Patients
      Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle: Book One
      Charles Lemert, Why Niebuhr Matters
      David A. Mendel, Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and their Doctors
      Simon Mawer, Mendel's Dwarf
      Claire McCarthy, Everyone's Children: A Pediatrician's Story of an Inner City Practice
      Ian McEwan, Atonement
      Andrew Miller, Pure
      Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
      Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood
      Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History
      Laura Katz Olson, The Politics of Medicaid: Stakeholders and Welfare Medicine
      Brian Orr, MD, A Pediatrician's Journal: Caring for Children in a Broken Medical System
      Orhan Pamuk, Snow
      Roy Porter, Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad Doctors and Lunatics
      Graham Robb, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
      Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir
      Mario Vargas Llosa, The Green House
      Richard Wright, Black Boy

Literature from the African diaspora:
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
March: Book One by John Lewis

Nonfiction from the African diaspora:
Wes Moore, The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters
Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped
Darryl Pinckney, Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy

My overly ambitious list of planned reads for May:

Martin Amis, Lionel Asbo: State of England
Antonio Lobo Antunes, Act of the Damned
Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
Corsino Fortes, Selected Poems of Corsino Fortes
Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings
Jonathan Kozol, The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time
Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
Sid Lowe, Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid
Geert Mak, Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City
Josep Pla, Life Embitters
Mercè Rodoreda, The Time of the Doves
Karel Schoeman, This Life
Kamila Shamsie, A God in Every Stone
Dubravka Ugrešić, The Ministry of Pain
H. Gilbert Welch, Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care

The Virgin of Montserrat, which was believed to have been sculptured in the 12th century. Her dark color has been attributed to the dark candles used to illuminate the shrine over the centuries.

Ha! I'm first! Gorgeous photo of Montserrat. I'm so looking forward to travelling there vicariously with you!

Happy New Thred, Darryl. I hope you can visit Mosserat this year.

>11 Sakerfalcon: Hi, Claire! Did you visit Montserrat when you travelled to Barcelona? From what I just read it only takes 1-1/2 hours to reach Montserrat from the Plaça de Espanya station in central Barcelona, so it's a very doable day trip (one of my partners from work, who travels more than I do and hosts a travel blog, highly recommended going there). I also plan to take a trip to Figueres, to see the Dalí Theatre and Museum (Teatre-Museu Dalí). Figueres is also a short train ride from Barcelona's Sants Estació.

>12 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! It's all but certain that I'll go to Montserrat, as it's an easy trip from central Barcelona. My friend from work wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I couldn't make it there! I'll have to figure out the best times to go there, and to Figueres, but I would imagine the earlier I arrived at both places the better.

>14 kidzdoc: It's mostly so, the earlier you go the better.

>15 Ameise1: I'll also probably go to Montserrat and Figueres on weekdays, to avoid the weekend crowds.

>13 kidzdoc: I visited both Montserrat and Figueras. Montserrat is stunning. As well as the monastery and museum there are some easy trails around the mountaintop, to the cave where the black virgin was discovered and to some of the hermitages. The Dali museum is worth seeing for a perhaps all-too-revealing glimpse into Dali's mind - it's a suitably surreal place. But the museum in St Petersburg FL has a better collection of his work. I'm so envious of you getting to explore Barcelona and its environs - I can't think of a single thing I didn't like about my visit there.

>17 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire. The Teatre-Museu Dalí web site is only selling online tickets in May and June on weekends, which first made me think that weekday tickets were sold out, which didn't seem to make much sense. From what I read on Rick Steves's web site, there isn't a need to sell advance purchase tickets on weekdays, as the huge summer crowds haven't arrived in Catalunya yet. That made sense, and when I went back to the museum's web site it was selling advance purchase tickets every day in July and August. I also saw that the R11 Rodalies de Catalunya regional train to Barcelona Sants Estació to Cerbère, France stops at the Passeig de Gràcia station, which is a short walk from the hotel I'll be staying at in L'Eixample. That same train also goes to Girona, so I'll go there as well.

I still haven't visited Florida yet, as I haven't thought of a good reason to go there. A visit to the Dalí Museum there is the best idea I can think of, so I'll make plans to go to it during the off season (if there is one in St. Pete).

I'm looking forward to traveling to Montserrat, if only for the journey on the rack rail or cable car and the views from the mountain.

Needless to say I loved my first visit to Barcelona last June, and I also can't think of anything I didn't like about it. As I mentioned on my Facebook post I think I spent the entire 10 days I was there with my mouth hanging continuously open at the architecture, views, museums and food I saw, visited and had there.

I love all the pics you post on your thread, Darryl. And now that you're going to be on a month-long trek at the end of May, I can't wait to see what new pics you will add to us armchair travelers. You need to post a map tracker before you leave on your thread, and then we can follow along red dots or lines as you move through cities on your travels.

Huh. I'd never realized "Montserrat" meant "serrated mountain" - neat, I like words. My sister's been to Barcelona, but I haven't - I'll be following along with interest.

Happy new thread Darryl! I will be living through your travels vicariously. How long is your trip for?

Happy New Thread, Darryl! Love the mountainous topper. Gorgeous.

And good luck with those various challenges. Whew!

>19 cameling: Thanks, Caroline...whoa...wait a minute: did you say us armchair travelers??? I can't think of a single person on LT who that term applies to less than you, dearie! Aren't you heading to NYC tomorrow and flying to Hong Kong this weekend?

I like your idea of a map tracker; I'll have to look into that.

>20 jjmcgaffey: You can see from this photo why it's called Montserrat, Jennifer:



I would highly recommend a trip to Barcelona. One friend of mine didn't like it when she and her husband visited the city last year, but everyone else I've talked to who's been there raves about it.

>21 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie! I'll be gone for just over a month, as I'm off from work for all of June. I'll arrive in Barcelona on May 29th, four weeks from today, fly to London on June 10th, travel by train to Amsterdam on June 24th, and fly back to Atlanta on June 30th.

>22 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I'll take plenty of photos of Montserrat when I go there later this month or in early June.

My reading for the next two months will focus heavily on Barcelona and Amsterdam, along with the Iberian peninsula for the Reading Globally second quarter theme that I'm hosting. I'll read Arrowsmith for AAC II, and try to get to Lionel Asbo: State of England by Martin Amis for Paul's BAC.

I was happy to see that you use Rick Steeves web site. I used it when I went to Germany and because of his recommendation went to Baden-Baden and loved it. I hope that you have picked hotels or B&B's that have good internet. You will need it to keep all of us LT'ers happy. At least the ones who are traveling vicariously with you.

I picked up Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall last night and started it because I am determined to read it before the new version of it comes on PBS in late June. I read the first chapter and so far it is very good. It captured me from the first paragraph.

Happy new thread Darryl! Love the pictures. You have a good weekend.

>1 kidzdoc: Jealous of the trip to Barcelona. I've wanted to go there ever since I took Spanish in high school.

>25 benitastrnad: I looked at a couple of posts related to Barcelona on Rick Steves's web site, along with a YouTube video about Amsterdam, and found them all to be very helpful. I'll do much more of that in the next few weeks.

Ha! I didn't check, but I think that the hotels I'm staying at in Barcelona, London and Amsterdam should all have good Internet access. I did post daily or at least every other day updates and photos on LT and Facebook during my previous trips to Europe, and I'll do the same this time around.

I look forward to your comments about Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall.

>26 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel! I'm working tonight and tomorrow night from 8 pm to 8 am. So far I haven't had to do anything, as the neurohospitalist (my friend who gave me two vegetarian cook books) working alongside me is the first call for admissions to the General Pediatrics service from 8 pm to midnight; I'll take over from then until 8 am. The ED is busy, but there haven't been any Gen Peds admissions since I arrived (although I'm sure that will change). I end my work week Sunday at 8 am, and I'll fly to Philadelphia early Monday afternoon to spend the week with my parents, and celebrate Mother's Day before I have to fly back to Atlanta that afternoon.

I hope that you have a splendid weekend!

>27 thornton37814: You're far from alone, Lori! If everyone at work who knows about my trip wanted to come on my trip I'd need to hire at least one 747 and rent a large hotel. I hope that you can make it there in the near future.

Happy new thread, Darryl!

Cheers to your new thread, Darryl!
That trip up to Montserrat looks like it's not for the faint of heart but once made should be spectacular.
I just learned yesterday that my Friday morning coffee buddy will be going to Barcelona with her husband and daughter in June. So far, she's only made reservations to tour Sagrada Familia and was unsure of what else to see. I'll certainly tell her of the spots that you mention on your thread.

PS, my friend just responded to my text message and wants to know if she needs to make advance reservations for Monserrat. Do you know?

What a feast to visit here. First, congratulations on your well-organized lists of those you purchased, read and are hoping to read.

And, I also look forward to arm-chair traveling with you.

I've never heard of The Virgin of Montserrat. As always, thank you for teaching me something each time I visit your thread.

You are indeed quite a lovely and interesting man. Oh, and I cannot wait to hear about the "lovely" foods you will be eating while traveling. Please do post those if you can! (I'm smiling of course)

Enjoying In Diamond Square set in 1930s Barcelona. Not quite as good as seeing >23 kidzdoc: in person though!

Just checking in on your new thread. I completed Outlaws and gave it five stars. Thanks for the recommendation.

Great pictures!

Happy new thread, Darryl! I'm afraid I missed your entire last thread. I see you're reading The Theft of Memory. I'm just about to start my ER copy of that.

Great photos here!

>1 kidzdoc:, >35 tymfos: I finished The Theft of Memory last night. Casually picked it up two days before and zipped through. Partly because it's short, but partly because I got drawn in.

Woo! My second and last night call is nearly over, and for the first time in years I was able to get uninterrupted sleep (nearly four hours' worth). That may not sound like much, but I feel far more rested than I normally would at the end of two night calls. The day team will arrive in a little over an hour and a half, and I'll be off until the Monday after next.

Catching up...

>29 scaifea: Thanks, Amber!

>30 Carmenere: Thanks, Lynda! There is a rack railway that goes directly to the Monestir de Montserrat, which you can see in the photo below, although I understand that you can hike up the mountain as well:



Congratulations to your friend for her upcoming trip to Barcelona. I'll check and get back to you, but I would doubt that you would need reservations to Montserrat in June.

>31 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda! I can guarantee that I'll order all of the octopus and other seafood I can in Barcelona, but I'll bet that there won't be too many unusual foods that I'll eat, unless I meet up with Fliss and Rachael in Cambridge at the same pub where we had croc and roo (crocodile and kangaroo grilled on a volcanic rock) two or three years ago.

>32 charl08: Interesting...that book's original title in Catalan is La plaça del Diamant, which translates most directly as The Diamond Plaza; the UK title is In Diamond Square. The US title is, oddly enough, The Time of the Doves, and I just received my copy of it yesterday. I'll read it later this month, so I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying it, Charlotte.

>33 EBT1002: Great! I'm thrilled that you liked Outlaws as much as I did, Ellen. It's still my only 5 star read of the year so far.

>34 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda! There will be plenty more to come, and they'll be from my camera instead of images from Google.

>35 tymfos: Thanks, Terri! I did start The Theft of Memory, and although I haven't read much of it I'm enjoying it so far. I'll probably finish it later today, or tomorrow during the trip from Atlanta to Philadelphia.

>36 qebo: I look forward to your comments on The Theft of Memory, Katherine. It certainly has the potential to earn a 4-1/2 to 5 star rating from me.

I won another medically themed book from the batch of April LT Early Reviewer books, The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics by Barron H. Lerner.

I'm off to the hospital crapeteria to see if I can find something edible for breakfast. Wish me luck.

>37 kidzdoc: Cool. Look forward to hearing what you think. Such a readable book, I can see why Virago republished it over here.

>39 charl08: It's supposed to be one of the best books ever written about the Spanish Civil War, and since it's set in Barcelona I wanted to read it this quarter for the Reading Globally challenge. I have two of Mercè Rodoreda's other books on my Kindle, Death in Spring and The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda, and I'll probably read them next month.

Love the pictures of Montserrat, which is a place I've heard of, but don't recall ever seeing before. The name is certainly appropriate.

Do you mind sharing how you insert the red check marks next to books you've read? Is it with html code, or copy/paste, or....?

>41 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda. The Monestir de Montserrat sits 4,055 feet (1,236 meters) above sea level, and when I go that will be the highest point I've ever stood on earth.

Here's the link for the small check mark I use:

http://www.shopwpthemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/CheckMarkSmallRed.gif

Belated congratulations on thread #8 and Happy new thread wishes for this thread!

Great reviews as always. You caught my eye with your review of Outlaws. I have also made note of the mujaddara recipe. ;-)

I am all caught up now. Happy Weekend, Darryl!

I visited Montserrat last year in late January. It was a lovely drive up into the mountains with simply wonderful views back across the countryside. I'm not sure where the rail link ends up but will recommend that you walk towards the car park as there is a large viewing platform over the cliffs. Being winter time the cable car up to the top of the rocks above the monastery wasn't working, we weren't dressed for cold weather hiking anyway.
Another consideration is that there was only a busy cafetaria to eat in, we ended up having a very late lunch in back in Barcelona. There were stalls along the walk back to the carpark with friendly locals selling their mountain cheeses & dried fruits, we were enticed to try the free samples and ended up buying some.
The queue to see the Black Madonna was long and confining as you go through many small rooms up the side of the cathedral, many devout Catholics and as a tourist I felt a bit out of place but after so long in the queue had earned a brief time at the altar. The boys' choir was enthralling to listen to.
Overall it is the sheer majesty of the place, hewn into the soaring rocks.

I'll come back and add a couple of photos to the post when I can locate them.
edit: wow, I was almost convinced I'd lost these for good.

several of the buildings are quite modern though still impressive







queue for Black Madonna





white line in the middle is the funicular to top - http://www.cremallerademontserrat.cat/website_cremallera/eng/itineraris_rutes.as...

>39 charl08: >40 kidzdoc: I've also read The Time of the Doves, it is very good.

>43 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori! Ellen also gave Outlaws five stars, and she reviewed it on her thread this weekend.

I had the mujaddara with chicken for lunch today, and it tasted even better than when I first made it, as the aromatic flavors were considerably more prominent.

>44 avatiakh: Thanks for those first hand tips on Montserrat, Kerry. From the photo in >1 kidzdoc: and >37 kidzdoc: it seems as though the rack railway station is on the other side from the car park. If you look closely at the first photo you can see the tracks from the railway angling upward from right to left; the car park seems to be toward the right of the monastery.

I'll try to go there on a weekday, and as early as I can, so that the queue will (hopefully) be shorter.

I'd definitely like to see your photos!

Montserrat looks very awesome ..... will be interested to see pics when & where possible for you to post ...

Added some photo to post #44, took me quite a while to find, so a real good prod for me to sort my photos into some sort of digital order and get some prints for an album.

Roman circus in Tarragona - bring your chariot!

Monserrat looking back towards Barcalona

Catalonian xuixo, a precursor to the cronut
'It would seem that the origins of the Cronut-style pastry could possibly be attributed to pastry chef Emili Puig from the Corte Real, Girona, Spain during the 1920′s. However, local legend tells of the secret lover of a pastry chef’s daughter (a popular acrobat named el Tarla) who was discovered hiding within a bag of flour, after being betrayed by a sneeze. After marrying the daughter, el Tarla gave the recipe to make the Xuixo (named after the sneeze sounding like Xui-Xui) to the pastry chef. Either way, the Xuixo is commonly eaten for breakfast or tea within Catalonia and has been granted Producte de la Terra (Product of the Home Country) status from the Government of Catalonia.'

>42 kidzdoc: Really? 4000 feet is the highest you've ever been? It's strange, sometimes, the little things I don't think about...

I grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, which is based at 6000 feet, and we often climbed into the mountains around it (just little hikes, not mountain climbing - we left when I was 8). And now my family regularly vacations at Lake Tahoe, which is just a little higher - 6225 feet. And getting there takes us up to 7000+ feet (though we don't usually stop at that elevation, so I don't know if it counts).

>44 avatiakh: Wow! Thanks for posting those fabulous photos of Montserrat, Kerry! I'm glad that you were able to find them. I'll definitely look for those fruit and cheese vendors. Is that cafeteria worth eating at, or would I do better with a light meal of bread, cheese and fruit before I head back to Barcelona? For roughly how long did you stay at Montserrat? TYIA.

Did you go to Figueres as well?

>46 roundballnz: Will do, Alex. Kerry's pictures make me that much more eager to go there.

>47 avatiakh: More great pictures! I love the view toward Barcelona from Montserrat. Can you see the city from there?

ETA: The mountains in the far background in your photo look like the Serra de Collserola, which are the distant mountains in this photo I took last year from Montjüic Castle:



I'll be sure to look for xuixo in Barcelona or when I go to Girona.

>48 jjmcgaffey: You have to keep in mind the places that I've lived, Jennifer. Jersey City and the Philadelphia suburbs are barely above sea level, New Orleans is at or, in some parts, below sea level, and Atlanta is at most 1000 feet above sea level. I'm sure that I've been at least a couple of thousand feet up while traveling in the US, but I'm certain that I've never been close to 4,000 feet above sea level before.

>45 kidzdoc: >47 avatiakh: wonderful photos Kerry. I have never been there.

On the reading front, my LT Early Reviewers book for March, The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol has been very good so far. He describes his relationship with his father Harry, a noted neurologist at Harvard Medical School who cared for several famous people including Eugene O'Neill, and his slow decline due to Alzheimer's disease. I'll fly to Philadelphia early this afternoon to visit my parents, and hopefully I'll have finished it by the time I arrive there.

Enjoy some time with your parents Darryl.

>50 Caroline_McElwee: Barcelona is amazing, Caroline. The flight I took from Gatwick to Barcelona on Vueling Airlines last year took exactly two hours (which is slightly less than the time it takes to travel from Atlanta to Philadelphia!), so it's an easy trip from London. Have you been to Barcelona but not Montserrat?

>52 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. Mother's Day is this coming Sunday, so I'll do some fun things with her, and my father, this week.

>49 kidzdoc: We probably spent about 2.5 hours there, about an hour in the queue for the Black Madonna. One of those places where just being there is a joy, the view, the beautiful buildings...very spiritual...
There is a museum, though we didn't visit it.
It could turn into a full day trip if it was summer and suitable to walk some of the paths. We didn't go into the cafeteria, it was one of those self service with tray places.
I'm fairly sure we could make out Barcelona and the Pyrenees from the monastery, though my memory is now a bit hazy.

We spent an afternoon in Girona on this trip and I'd love to have spent even more time there.
We visited the Dali Museum in Figueres back in 2008, I've been a fan of Dali since reading his The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí when I was 17. Again there was a huge queue to get in but well worth it. I don't remember there being much else to do there.

Safe travel, Darryl and enjoy your time with your parents.

>55 avatiakh: That's not long, Kerry. The weather should be nice in late May to early June, so I'll probably want to spend most of the day there. The cafeteria sounds pretty lame, so I'll check for other food options. From looking at a map it seems as though you would be able to see Barcelona and the Pyrenees from Montserrat. I'll look at the Monestir de Montserrat web site in greater detail this week, and perhaps make reservations (hopefully I won't choose an overcast or rainy day to go there).

I'm glad to hear that you liked Girona; I'll add a trip there to my to-do list.

I have The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí somewhere, along with The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí. I would like to read it next month, but I don't want to bring more than a couple of paper books with me, so I may buy it in Barcelona (my hotel is two blocks away from llibreria anglesa, the English language bookstore I visited last year), or buy the Kindle version of it.

>56 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. My flight departs in a little over three hours, so I'll be leaving home shortly.

Hani keeps reminding me that next Sunday is Mother's Day and flickers not a smile when I inform her that she is not my mother!

Good to see you got your reading mojo back in April, Darryl.

I hope to get my own back a month later than you did.

>49 kidzdoc: That's what I meant - about things I don't realize. There are many people who've never been as high as I've lived...

I have been hit over the head with "some people live in the same place all their lives" often enough that I can realize it, but it's an effort. It had never occurred to me that some people have never lived on/been on mountains...though now that I think about it, I bet my mother (from New Jersey) had never been to any height before she went to Kabul before I was born. It's just my blinkered worldview causing me amazement.

>49 kidzdoc: I don't think you will be in a minority having not been above 1000 feet, hope you get a great day when you get up into the mountains so you can enjoy the views when you are up there .....

Yes I love being up in the mountains ..... sorry I cannot lie :)

>53 kidzdoc: yes, loved Barcelona, despite being really ill while I was there, so did half as much as I'd have liked to do.

>58 PaulCranswick: Ha! I would have thought that the quick witted Hani would have said something like "I am the mother of our three lovely children, Paul. Doesn't that count for anything?", or landed a left uppercut followed by a right hook to the jaw, especially if she watched highlights of this weekend's Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

Thanks, Paul. January and February are usually my worst reading months, due to my work schedule and our high inpatient census, and either March or April is when I start doing damage to my TBR pile. May should be a decent month, but the summer months will be the ones that I'll really get it going. I hope that May is a good reading month for you!

>59 jjmcgaffey: I suspect that many of us are like that in some way or another, Jennifer, depending on the situations we grew up in. Because I spent my first 13 years in Jersey City, less than five miles from NYC, I'm still surprised when people, especially those living here in suburban Philadelphia, haven't ever been there.

>60 roundballnz: I didn't think so either, Alex, especially considering that people who live or grew up along the Northeast Corridor of the US (Boston-Providence-New Haven-NYC-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington) have to travel a significant distance before encountering any mountain ranges. Pennsylvania has plenty of mountains, but not in the southeast corner of the state where Philadelphia is located.

I'm eager to see the views from Montserrat, especially since being up that high will be a unique experience for me.

>61 Caroline_McElwee: I'm sorry to hear that you were ill during your visit to Barcelona, Caroline. I hope that you can go back there in the near future.

As I hoped, I finished The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol during the commuter train ride from the airport to the station closest to my parents' house yesterday afternoo. It was very touching, readable, and unputdownable. I gave it 4-1/2 stars, and I'll write a review of it later today or tomorrow.

Interested in The Theft of Memory although even the title makes me feel a bit emotional. I've ordered Contented Dementia as I feel that I really should know more about the subject.

On a much happier note, the Barcelona photos and chat is lovely. I'm not sure when I'll get to travel again, but this discussion has definitely pushed it up the list. As has reading fiction from Spain. I've started The Scent of Lemon Leaves which is set in or near, (my Spanish geography is not sufficient to work out) Alicante. Fascinating premise of an elderly man trying to bring a Nazi couple to justice, alongside the narrative of a young woman befriended by the couple.

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo a todos mis amigos!

What a great photo. Full of joy.

Morning Darryl! The Theft of Memory sounds very interesting. Have a great time visiting the folks, my friend.

>63 charl08: The Theft of Memory will definitely strum your heartstrings, Charlotte, but it's more of a celebration of the life of Kozol's parents than a maudlin description of their decline.

I'm also returning to Spain in my upcoming books, Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid and Life Embitters by Josep Pla. The first book is a history of the two football powers and their bitter rivalry, but it also discusses the relationship between the two Spanish cities, their different cultures, and how the Civil War and the suppression of Catalan culture under Franco continues to affect Spain and its two major cities in the present. The second book by one of Catalonia's greatest writers is a series of journalistic short stories about ordinary people throughout Europe that the author encounters during his years in exile from Barcelona.

>65 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. The little boy doesn't seem to be as joyous as that lovely girl, though. If it wasn't so hot and sticky today and if we weren't supposed to get rain this afternoon I'd be tempted to take the train into Philadelphia and attend of the Cinco de Mayo celebrations that are undoubtedly being held there.

>66 msf59: The Theft of Memory was a great read, Mark. It was my LT Early Reviewers book for March, and it will be published here on June 2nd.

Mmm...someone is cooking something downstairs. I'll be back later.

I think the little boy is fully concentrated on the dance steps ;-). What a pity that you can't attend it. I love such festivities.

>69 Ameise1: That could be so, Barbara!

Because this is a weekday there probably won't be very many Cinco de Mayo celebrations today, anyway. There were a dozen or more events in the Philadelphia area this past weekend, and hopefully there will be neighborhood parades or other events in the city on Saturday.

Hope you're having a good time with your parents, Darryl. Will you be heading into Philly for any meetups or museums?

I was confused by the references to the rack railway, which I didn't remember at all from my visit to Montserrat. Then I looked it up and saw that it only reopened in 2003, some 5 years after my visit. We took the cable car which was amazing, but not good if you don't have a head for heights. We spent all day up there as we did walk some of the trails and visited the little art gallery as well as the monastery.

>71 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire. My visits to see my parents are always pleasant ones, and this one should be no different. I was just looking to see what's on in Philadelphia and NYC; there aren't any "must see" current exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but I do want to see the Jacob Lawrence exhibition at MoMA before it closes in mid September, along with the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, which is on until mid-August. I'd also like to visit Idlewild Books, the travel bookstore on W 19th St, and see an old friend of mine who I used to work with at NYU Medical Center before I went to medical school, so I'm thinking of going to NYC on Thursday. I'll send my friend a text shortly to see if she's free that day. Other than that I don't plan to meet any LTers on this trip, but I have requested two weeks of vacation to spend with my parents in August, and I should have plenty of time for meetups then.

The cable car looks interesting, and I was thinking of taking the rack railway to Montserrat, and the cable car from there. I'm in the process of making plans for my trips now, including my stay in London.

If anyone is interested in reading The Theft of Memory, the new batch of LT Early Reviewers books for May includes another 20 copies of it.

>64 kidzdoc: Gracias, Darryl, y tu tambien! We always celebrate the day because we consider ourselves landowners in Mexico. Even if it is only a timeshare, it's fun to do.

>73 kidzdoc: Oooh, good news! I'll be heading right over there after I say hi and Happy Cinco de Mayo! We celebrated last night with tacos and ALL the trimmings, margaritas and beer, all courtesy of my lovely nieces.

I'm getting pretty excited about your trip to Barcelona and nearby places, almost as if I were going there too! Wonderful pics of Montserrat.

>74 Carmenere: De nada, mi amiga. A timeshare in Mexico sounds nice!

>75 Storeetllr: I hope that you get a copy of The Theft of Memory, Mary.

Needless to say I'm also getting excited about this trip to Europe, as I'm making more definitive plans this week, including a possible two day trip to Edinburgh while I'm in London.

Just two days in Edinburgh?!!

>77 charl08: Two, maybe three days at the most, Charlotte. There are a lot of things I want to do in London and plenty of people to meet up with, including one of my favorite partners from work who'll be there for most of the time that I will. I'm torn between spending a couple of days there or waiting until September to go.

The shortlist for this year's Best Translated Book Award was announced yesterday:

The Author and Me by Éric Chevillard, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (France, Dalkey Archive Press)

Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires by Julio Cortázar, translated from the Spanish by David Kurnick (Argentina, Semiotext(e))

Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov, translated from the Russian by Katherine Dovlatov (Russia, Counterpoint Press)

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)

Things Look Different in the Light by Medardo Fraile, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Pushkin Press)

Harlequin’s Millions by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by Stacey Knecht (Czech Republic, Archipelago Books)

The Woman Who Borrowed Memories by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal and Silvester Mazzarella (Finland, NYRB)

Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)

La Grande by Juan José Saer, translated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph (Argentina, Open Letter Books)

The Last Lover by Can Xue, translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (China, Yale University Press)

The winning book will be announced on May 27th. More info here: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=14392

>78 kidzdoc: These are the tough decisions (!)- seriously though, I'm sure you'll have a great trip for however long you go. I love Edinburgh, it was an amazing place to live, not least because of all the second-hand bookshops. I've a hankering to stay in one of the National Trust's converted flats, above a property that shows you what life was like in a tenement going back hundreds of years - although I don't know how *quiet* staying there would be, given that the Old Town is full of buskers, tourists and drinkers.
http://www.nts.org.uk/Holidays/Find-Accommodation/Edinburgh-and-The-Lothians/

Are you going by train? The north-west line (usually Virgin) goes through the Lakes, but the north-east line (was GNER - through Newcastle, anyway) you get wonderful sea views, and (blink and you'll miss it) Durham cathedral, which is beautiful too.


ETC: Both lines were east, making my sentence make no sense. I'm blaming auto-correct...

>80 charl08: Thanks, Charlotte! If I went to Edinburgh I'd probably go in the middle of one of the two weeks, when my LT friends will be at work. I've only make plans for one day so far, but there are at least eight plays that I'd like to see (not counting The Trial at The Young Vic with Rory Kinnear starring as Josef K, which is completely sold out even though the opening is a month and a half away), so I'll start making reservations for the ones I'll likely see by myself (or possibly with my friend from work) today and tomorrow.

Yes, I am planning to travel by train to Edinburgh if I do go. I had just posed a question on my Facebook page asking which route from London to Edinburgh is the more scenic one, the East Coast Main Line from King's Cross, or the West Coast Main Line from Euston. The WCML takes longer, by about an hour, so I'd be slightly inclined to take the ECML to Edinburgh, and the WCML back to London.

Another literary prize announcement: The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, an Algerian journalist, won this year's Goncourt du premier roman, the "first prize" Goncourt. It's narrated by the brother of the unnamed Arab that Meursault from Camus' The Stranger killed on a beach in Oran, and this novel provides a perspective of the day's fateful events from the murdered man's standpoint. It will be published in the US next month and in the UK in July; I'll definitely read it this summer, after I re-read the new translation of Camus' classic by Sandra Smith, which was released as The Outsider.

NYT: Goncourt First Novel Prize Is Awarded to Kamel Daoud of Algeria

Happy Wednesday, Darryl! Hope you are enjoying your time with the folks.

Thanks, Mark! Yes, we're having a very relaxing and pleasant week together. It sounds as though they are awake, so I'll head downstairs and join them shortly.

Edinburgh! wonderful place- I loved the galleries, the roses surrounding the old part of the city and the historical sites! ( and great food by the way)

My dad was stationed in Edinburgh during WWII and loved it and the people he met there. I was always sad that he never went back (and took me with him).

I come from Kansas and can say that the place I lived in for 36 years is higher than 1,000 feet. In fact the lowest point in Kansas is almost higher than the highest point in Alabama. Tuscaloosa is at 250 feet above sea level so Alabama isn't very high.

As for mountains - Mount Sunflower in western Kansas is 4,000 feet above sea level.

I hope you enjoy your trip to Edinburgh and other places when you go. Maybe one of these days I'll make it across the pond.

>85 torontoc: I've received some great recommendations today for places to visit and restaurants to go to in Edinburgh from LTers today by e-mail and on my Facebook page today; thanks Tui, Alex, Deborah, Joe, Claire, Katie and especially Fliss! I'm in the planning stages of my London trip, and hopefully there will be a 2-3 day midweek period where I can visit Edinburgh next month. If not I'll go there in September.

>86 Storeetllr: That's a shame that your father didn't return to Edinburgh after the war (and take you with him), Mary. I'm sure that he would have rekindled some fond memories of his favorite places and possibly met up with some old friends there.

>87 benitastrnad: Interesting, Benita. Having never been most of the middle of the country I have the biased impression of Kansas and other Midwestern states as being flat as a pancake until you approach the Rocky Mountains, and I would have lost a bet over Kansas having a mountain 4,000 feet above sea level.

>88 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori. I hope that you do get to visit Europe in the near future, especially the UK and the dozens of friendly LTers who live there. It's great to visit London, but it's much more special to be able to spend time with people I enjoy and am fond of.

I don't have particular recommendations for Edinburgh (okay, I lied, I really liked Robertson's Guest House, where we stayed in 2002) but I will say that it's a wonderful city. We didn't go there on this most recent Scotland trip but we will put it back on our itinerary next time we go! I see that there are a couple of very poor ratings on Trip Advisor but our experience was excellent.

Robertson Guest House

The winner of the Arabic fiction prize

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32610027

I love that part of the prize is the translation into English.

Passing thru - I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend

Hi Darryl, I wish you a lovely weekend.

Happy Saturday, everyone! I'm spending a very enjoyable and relaxing week with my parents, so I haven't been on LT as often as usual. I'll catch up on this thread, at least, before breakfast.

>90 EBT1002: Thanks for your recommendation of the Robertson Guest House, Ellen. Those two negative English language reviews on Trip Advisor are chilling. The inability to make guaranteed reservations would be a huge turn off for me, so I'll look for a more standard hotel to stay in when I travel to Edinburgh next month (I'll leave London on June 15th and return on the 18th or 19th).

>91 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for mentioning the winner of this year's International Prize for Arabic Fiction, The Italian by Shukri Mabkhout (which hasn't been translated into English yet). I had been meaning to pick up the winning titles in previous years, but the only one I own is The Arch and the Butterfly by Mohammed Achaari, which I bought in Barcelona last year.

>92 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex! I hope that you're enjoying your weekend as well.

>93 Ameise1: Thanks for the lovely flowers, Barbara! I'm glad that you had such a great stay at that spa, and I hope that your weekend is half as nice as your week clearly was.

Happy Saturday, Darryl! It sounds like you are having a perfect time with the folks. Enjoy!

>94 kidzdoc: Darryl, tomorrow morning we attend a concert from our daughter's youth band for the honour of mother's day. Afterwards we'll have lunch in a nice restaurant with my in-laws.

>95 msf59: Thanks, Mark! It looks like you have a nice day planned as well.

>96 Ameise1: That sounds great, Barbara. Have a lovely day tomorrow!

Back to >90 EBT1002: I made a (refundable) reservation at the Fraser Suites from June 15-18, which is a short walk from Edinburgh Waverley, the city's main train station. I'll take a Virgin East Coast Main Line service from London King's Cross to Edinburgh, and return on a Virgin West Coast Main Line service to London Euston.

Hi Darryl - Glad you're having a good time with your parents. Are you cooking something amazing for them?

Was there talk about a group read of The Autobiography of Malcolm X in May? I just watched Selma. Wow.

>99 streamsong: you are right, oops, better acquire a copy from the library as I don't have it.

>99 streamsong: Great film - thanks for the reminder. I'm sure my copy (of The Autobiography of Malcolm X) is about somewhere...

Happy weekend Darryl and so wonderful that you are getting some time off to spend with family. I hope you are getting in some time with the books as well! :)

>98 kidzdoc: Fraser suites looks very nice (will bookmark for my next trip), stayed at Apex last time very nice & was almost across the road from my leaving point for my tours around Scotland ...

depending on how long you stay, you might want to check out these - https://www.rabbies.com/one_day_tours_scotland_ed.asp?lng=en

#103
Thanks for the link to the Scotland tours. I'm not going to Scotland anytime in the future but a girl can dream and those tours sound great. Did you go on any of them?

Hi Darryl! It is so great that you are enjoying time with your folks. I am drooling over your travel plans!

>99 streamsong: Thanks, Janet. I made four meals during this visit. Three of them are favorites of mine that I hadn't made for them before, African sweet potato soup with peanut butter, black eyed peas, white beans and black beans; carrot ginger coconut shrimp soup; and chicken and Andouille sausage Creole jambalaya; and the following recipe, Xi Jong Shi Chao ‘Jidan’ (Chinese Tofu Scramble), from the One Green Planet web site:



INGREDIENTS:

1 tbsp peanut oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated or minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 block extra-firm tofu, pressed and drained
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp black salt
4 scallions, finely chopped, whites and greens divided
1 medium or large tomato, cut into chunks
toasted sesame oil, for garnish

PREPARATION:

Heat the oil in a deep skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook until the onion is softened and translucent, about 4 minutes.

Break the tofu into chunks and add to the pan. Mix the tofu into the onions and let the tofu cook until it browns a bit, about 5 minutes.

Add the turmeric and the black salt to the pan. Toss the tofu so the spices cover it completely and turn all pieces of the tofu yellow. Pour 1/3 cup water into the pan and mix the tofu well. This helps the spices to distribute more evenly.

Add the scallion whites and the tomatoes to the mixture. Stir and cook until the tomatoes are heated through, about 2 minutes. Turn the heat off. Add a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and garnish with the scallion greens. Enjoy!
_________________________________

This was my first time making a recipe with tofu in it, and my parents and I were very pleased how it turned out. My mother has claimed the leftover tofu for herself, along with the other meals I made. Hmm...now that I think about it I'm the only person who has cooked a meal for the family this week! They enjoyed what I made, and my brother had four servings of jambalaya yesterday, to the chagrin of my mother.

Ooh, you may be right about the group read of The Autobiography of Malcolm X that I had proposed. I can't remember what month I suggested, and May would have been entirely possible. I can't do it this month, but either July or August would work well for me.

>99 streamsong:, >106 kidzdoc: You had suggested May (here: "Malcolm was born on May 19, 1925, so what if we read this book in May, in celebration of his 90th birthday?"). I'd gotten the book in preparation (and shortly afterward someone donated another copy to my Little Free Library), don't especially care when the group read happens.

>100 Caroline_McElwee:, 101 Would July or August work well for you for a group read of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Caroline and Charlotte?

>102 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie! I've done very little reading since I arrived at my parents' house, as I've only read a little over 100 pages of Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid. I usually don't get much reading accomplished on these trips, though.

>103 roundballnz: I use Hotels.com to make reservations; Fraser was highly rated there and on Trip Advisor, and it's a short walk from Edinburgh Waverley Station.

Thanks for the link to the one day tours in Scotland. I'll reserve those for a future visit, as I'll only have two full days in Edinburgh (June 16 & 17).

>104 benitastrnad: I have the same questions as Benita does, Alex. Which, if any, of those tours did you take?

>105 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda!

>107 qebo: Thanks, Katherine. I had suspected that Janet was right, but I completely forgot about it! I probably won't get much reading done this month, and what reading I plan to do will be mainly in preparation for my upcoming trip, and for the Reading Globally theme that I'm leading this quarter. I'll be back in the US in July and won't take any scheduled vacation that month, so that would be a much better time for me to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

>104 benitastrnad: >108 kidzdoc:
I did a couple 5 day tours when there, but have heard great things about the Whiskey tour, gives you a real flavour so to speak ....

I had an awesome time on the "Iona, Mull & the Isle of Skye" tour & really rate it & Rabbies generally
https://www.rabbies.com/tours_scotland_edinburgh/iona_mull_isle_skye_5_day_tour....

Planning to go back next year or year after & will probably do one of the Outer Hebrides tours

>110 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex!

>108 kidzdoc: either month fine for me Darryl.

Glad you had a good time with your folks.

>110 roundballnz: Have several friends who have done these tours and been very positive about them (especially if you don't want to drive yourself and have a limited amount of time). Can also recommend the train from Glasgow through to Oban (and then if you wish on to Mull by ferry) - very scenic.

I hope you won't mind me saying - have you had a look at the gradient of your 'short walk' from the station to the hotel? (your bag is on wheels, right?)

I have had some wonderful meals out at Howie's restaurants - http://www.howies.uk.com - the Waterloo restaurant is near Calton hill which you can walk up for an amazing view over the city. And they're big on their food being 'Scottish' (and I don't mean 'fried'!)

And re the books - there's a list here which looks good - West Port is a short section of street with three or four second hand bookshops - http://www.tollcross.org/home/tollcross-extra/edinburgh-book-quarter

Word Power is more aimed at the student market but had a great range of the political / small publishers that might be difficult to find elsewhere. http://www.word-power.co.uk
It's round the corner from plenty of curry houses, and the Nile Valley, which is/ was a bit of a uni institution, and does some great middle eastern style food (and coffee).

Talking of uni institutions, you might be interested in the med school, one of the oldest in the world - there is a collection of plaques near the entrance to the old building (it's now offices for the uni, plus the history dept) which include early women medics, Conan Doyle, US / Canadian medics. Picture below - it's not obvious, so there's not normally anyone around it.


I've never been, but other people have told me good things about the Surgeon's Hall museum, but this is closed until September. http://www.museum.rcsed.ac.uk

But there's an amazing document here -https://twitter.com/RCSEdArchive/status/596264024670609408/photo/1 which makes me want to go when it opens again in September.

Back to the books - the Edinburgh bookshop in Bruntsfield is beautifully situated, near a large park (but also on a bus route from the centre of town if you've had enough walking) and with friendly and knowledgeable staff who like talking about books. http://www.edinburghbookshop.com

If you're after a bargain though, my best (secret!?) recommendation would be Oxfam books in Morningside - Morningside is kind of a 'posh' area of Edinburgh, so the donated books are amazing. I used to find proof copies of books in there that hadn't come out yet. It's a bit of a hike (or a bus or taxi journey) but the high street is old fashioned too, with tea shops, butcher, cheese shop (if it's still there!) and an art shop or two.

ETA: Hope it's ok to go on at length on your thread about Edinburgh. I loved living there, really hope you have a good trip.

>112 Caroline_McElwee: Sounds good, Caroline. Either July or August will be fine with me for a group read of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, so I'll post a thread some time next month and let participants decide which month is best for them.

I'm back in Atlanta, after a short flight from Philadelphia (less than two hours gate to gate, and roughly 75 minutes wheels up to wheels down). I always have very enjoyable visits with my parents, and this one was no different from the previous ones.

>113 charl08: Thanks for those great Edinburgh recommendations, Charlotte! Yes, it's more than okay to speak about that city on this thread. I'd forgotten that the University of Edinburgh Medical School is one of the oldest and most prestigious ones in the English speaking world, so I'll have to pay it a visit next month.

Uh oh...no, I didn't look at the gradient between Edinburgh Waverly station and the Fraser Suites on St Giles St, but I'll do so now.

>108 kidzdoc: I am interested in your review of Fear and Loathing in La Liga. Champions League play has been a big deal in our house and there are big games coming up this week.

>114 kidzdoc: Glad someone else mentioned the gradient, was wondering if you realised, basically the nearer the Royal mile you are the steeper the gradient (okay for light travellers maybe not for those hauling their book collection with them :) )

>113 charl08: Thanks for the tip on the train, may try that next time ....

>115 Oberon: I thought I would finish Fear and Loathing in La Liga last week, but I'm only halfway through it. It's been a good read so far, as it mixes a bit of the history of Spain under Franco with the history of the two clubs, and it dispels some myths, and confirms some truths, about Real Madrid being the team of Franco and the right wing Nationalists, and FC Barcelona representing the left wing Republicans and the Catalonian resistance movement. Fortunately I'm only working today and tomorrow, so I'll definitely finish it by mid week.

I know that FC Barcelona plays at Bayern Munich tomorrow in one of the Champions League semifinals, and Real Madrid plays Juventus in the other semifinal, but I'm not sure where or when. Barring a complete collapse, Barça should advance to the final match, but Madrid needs to win by two goals, I think, to join them.

>116 roundballnz: Although it's wasteful I'll actually keep my hotel reservation in London while I'm in Edinburgh, so I'll only have to bring a tote bag for those three days. If there is a cut through from the side of Waverley Station to St Giles Street it will be an even shorter walk to the hotel. I may also ship some items back to the US from London, so that I don't have to lug a lot of luggage on the train ride from London to Amsterdam, and the flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta. I did that last year just before I traveled from London to Barcelona. It wasn't cheap, but it was well worth it.

I'll only bring two or three books with me on the flight to Barcelona, and I plan to read a half dozen or more books that are on my Kindle.

>117 kidzdoc: A group from my university just left for a trip to Spain. I think Barcelona is on the itinerary as well as Madrid.

>20 jjmcgaffey: >23 kidzdoc: I love that visual of the serrated mountains! I learn something every day......

A semi-local mountain range here is called The Remarkables. It is obvious why when you see it too :)

>106 kidzdoc: tofu can be tricky to inject taste into, I find dousing it in sesame seeds and frying it in sesame oil is delicious.

>114 kidzdoc: I love hearing about your visits with your parents and how very special they are to you!

My two day work week is over, and I'm off from clinical service until Monday. I have a lot of things to do, though, including final preparations for my upcoming trip to Europe in two weeks and administrative duties, so I may not be on LT more than once a day. I should finish Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid no later than tomorrow.

I read the awful news about the fatal Amtrak crash in Northeast Philadelphia not long ago. It's a tragedy that six people lost their lives and that several dozen were injured, but from the photos and videos I'm surprised that the casualty count wasn't higher. I hope that all of the victims have been recovered from the wreckage.

>118 thornton37814: Good for your university group, Lori. One of the gastroenterologists, who was my adviser in residency, showed me photos of his daughter riding on a bicycle in Barri Gòtic and playing volleyball on one of the beaches in Barcelona this past weekend.

I did read a story in El País yesterday that mentioned the heat wave that is currently taking place in Spain, with temperatures from the upper 80s through the mid 100s across the country. Let's see...Barcelona will reach 26 C (79 F) today, which is reasonable, but it will be 35 C (95 F) in Madrid and (gasp) 42 C (108 F) in Seville. I hope that Barcelona stays at or drops below that temperature when I arrive there on the 29th.

>119 LovingLit: I didn't know that about Montserrat either until I looked it up, Megan, although its name in Spanish translates to serrated mountain, just as Montréal translates to Mount Royal, the hill that lies in the heart of the city.

I had to look up images of the Remarkables. Yes, the name fits perfectly, I'd say.



Thanks for that tip on cooking tofu, Megan! The toasted sesame oil that I drizzled on top of the scramble after it was finished cooking did add a very nice taste to it. I'm pretty low on prepared foods, so I'll probably make it later today or tomorrow.

>120 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda! My father told me on the drive from their house to the airport that my week long visit was the best Mother's Day present I could have given her. Unfortunately I won't be able to do the same for him, as I'll be in London on June 21st, but I think he'd accept that visit as an early Father's Day present. I have asked for two weeks of vacation in August, which I plan to spend mainly with them. We haven't been fishing together in years, and hopefully we'll be able to do so then.

>121 kidzdoc: Amtrak crash in Northeast Philadelphia
Yeah. I saw it last night when they didn't know much, now following along as details emerge. A very familiar train.

>121 kidzdoc: >122 qebo: I saw the headline when I woke up this morning. Shocking and sad.

>121 kidzdoc:, >123 lauralkeet: Trains are still running on a revised schedule from Harrisburg through Lancaster to Philadelphia, but I bet 30th Street Station is eerie.

>122 qebo: I watched the coverage of the crash on CNN while I was getting my car washed and waxed. The accident happened at Frankford Junction in Northeast Philadelphia, close to the intersections of Frankford & Castor Avenues in the Port Richmond neighborhood. The tracks make a pretty sharp turn at that point, from a west-east direction to a north-northeast one as you head north from 30th Street Station to Trenton, and if the latest reports that the train may have been going over 100 miles per hour at that point are true, this derailment would have been all too understandable. By now you've probably heard of the even more deadly Pennsylvania Railroad crash at Frankford Junction in 1943 that killed 79 people.

I've taken the SEPTA Trenton local to Philadelphia, which runs on the same tracks, far more often than Metroliner or Northeast Corridor trains between 30th Street Station and Trenton, except when I took the Pennsylvanian from Pittsburgh to Trenton when I was in medical school at Pitt nearly 20 years ago.

>123 lauralkeet: Very sad and shocking, Laura.

>124 qebo: The lower section of 30th Street Station, where the Amtrak and the New Jersey Transit trains call at, is definitely quieter than usual, although I would think that service from Philadelphia south and west to Washington and Pittsburgh would still be in operation. However, the SEPTA Regional Rail services from the upper level of the station should be in full operation, except for the Trenton and Chestnut Hill West lines, which have to pass through Frankford Junction. The West Trenton line is the one I take to get to my parents' house in Langhorne, and there should be no reason why the trains that head east from 30th Street Station, to Suburban Station, Jefferson Station (formerly known as Market East Station), Temple University Station and all points north should be affected by this crash. If I was going to bypass this crash I would take a West Trenton local from Center City Philadelphia to West Trenton Station, take a taxi or shuttle bus to Trenton Station, and then pick up a northbound Amtrak or NJ Transit train from there, or vice versa if I was heading southbound. I'll bet that the West Trenton trains will be packed from now until the Northeast Corridor line reopens at Frankford Junction.

>125 kidzdoc: The Pittsburgh train (which passes through Lancaster) was canceled today; it normally goes to NYC, maybe not so simple to change its start / stop points, and I'd guess this is also true for the Northeast Corridor schedule, all sorts of logistical issues coordinating the locations of employees and trains. The 100mph thing is flinging around in news reports without further details; disturbing, because one wants to trust the people who drive the trains to attend to the speed limit.

>126 qebo: From Amtrak's web page:

Amtrak continues to offer modified service between Washington and Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and New York and Boston. There will be no Amtrak service between New York and Philadelphia, but New Jersey Transit will honor Amtrak tickets between New York City and Trenton.

From SEPTA's web page:

Regional Rail:
West Trenton: Passengers should note that SEPTA has placed extra trains into service that are not currently listed on schedules to accommodate the large number of travelers.
Chestnut Hill West: Service is operating with delays.
Trenton: Service is suspended until further notice due to Amtrak's train derailment. Alternate service suggestions are available online.

That's what I would have thought: the SEPTA West Trenton line is serving as a major alternative route for passengers traveling between Philadelphia and Trenton.

>127 kidzdoc: Gah, what a nightmare. And apparently still people not accounted for, which is the more distressing aspect of this.

The 100mph thing is flinging around in news reports without further details; disturbing, because one wants to trust the people who drive the trains to attend to the speed limit.

Right. I'll be watching closely to see if these reports are true. I read that the train's black box has been recorded, and the engine's camera should also provide more information about the moments leading up to the crash.

That report reminded me of the horrible Renfe train crash near Santiago de Compostela in Spain a few years ago that killed at least 75 people, which derailed after it passed through a curve at too high of a speed. The video of that disaster, which showed the carriages derailing, was chilling. I'll ride on several high speed trains next month in Europe (Renfe trains between Barcelona and Girona, Tarragona and Figueres (and vice versa), Virgin trains between London and Edinburgh (and vice versa), Eurostar train from London to Lille, Thalys train from Lille to Amsterdam, and possibly a TGV train from Barcelona to Paris and a Eurostar train from Paris to London if I change my mind and travel by train from Barcelona to London instead of by air). I won't cancel those plans, but I'll certainly be thinking about last night's crash if these reports are true.

>128 qebo: Gah, what a nightmare. And apparently still people not accounted for, which is the more distressing aspect of this.

I read that too, on the Philly.com and CNN web sites. I pray that everyone has been accounted for, but I fear that won't be the case, especially in the carriage that was shredded to pieces.

The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed the reports from CNN and other sources. The train was traveling at 106 miles per hour when it approached Frankford Junction, and the engineer applied the brakes just before the derailment occurred. The speed limit at the junction is 50 mph.

Back to >115 Oberon: FC Barcelona will play Juventus in the Champions League final in Berlin on June 6th. I'll be in Barcelona that day, so I'll try to take photos if when Barça captures the title.

>132 kidzdoc: That is fantastic timing! Barcelona is definitely the favorite to win. Better buy a jersey and scarf to be ready to join in.

>133 Oberon: Right. I have a Barça baseball cap already, so I'll look for a scarf and jersey, which are sold in every other store there. They have a great chance to capture a treble, as they are all but guaranteed to win La Liga with a four point lead over Real Madrid and only two matches left in the season; they play Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final at Camp Nou on May 30th (I looked last night, but all tickets were sold out); and they should be favored over Juventus in the Champions League final in Berlin on June 6th. I'm also an Arsenal fan, so I'll pick up something with the team's logo when I go to London, and I'll look for something similar for Ajax when I travel to Amsterdam.

I finished Fear and Loathing in La Liga this morning, and I gave it 4-1/2 stars. The Red Sox-Yankees and Alabama-Auburn rivalries look like playground scuffles compared to the one between Barça and Real Madrid.

Hi Darryl! I hope everything is al right! I've been absent for a few days but I'm back again.

>134 kidzdoc: Sadly I am a bit of a Real Madrid fan while my son is a rabid Barcelona fan so the defeat in the Champions League and the forthcoming loss in La Liga gives him a few too many things to gloat about.

I will have to pick up a copy of Fear and Loathing in La Liga it looks fun.

Your trip is going to be a blast.

>135 connie53: Hi, Connie! Yes, all is well on this end. It's good to see you back!

>136 Oberon: I'm aligned with your son, Erik, thanks to my visit to Barcelona last year. I'll probably go to Madrid in the fall, as it is and probably will be too hot for me to want to go there at the end of this month or in early June.

I had a hard time finding Fear and Loathing in La Liga in London in June, but llibreria anglesa, an English language bookshop in the Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona, did have one copy left in stock.

I'm ready to leave for my trip now! I'll be at JFK two weeks from now, waiting to board the overnight flight to Barcelona.

Have fun with the football - one of the few football related books I've ever read is Tim Parks' account of his time supporting an Italian team famous for their, er, very loyal, fans, A Season with Verona. Good reading, but I can't say it's made me want to go see a match.

>138 charl08: Thanks for mentioning A Season with Verona, Charlotte! I saw that the US Kindle version is on sale for $3.99, and after reading reviews of the book on LT and Amazon I just bought a copy of it.

I think that the only other book about football I own is Sol Campbell: The Authorised Biography. I bought a signed copy of it at Foyles a year or two ago, but I haven't read it yet.

I'd love to see a match at Camp Nou (FC Barcelona), Emirates Stadium (Arsenal), Amsterdam ArenA (Ajax) or Wembley Stadium (English national team), but that probably won't happen during this trip, as the Premier League, La Liga (Spanish first division) and Eredivisie (Dutch first division) seasons will end later this month. Barça are playing Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou on May 30th, the day after I arrive in Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final, but it's apparently sold out. Camp Nou isn't far from the Eixample neighborhood, where I'll be staying, so I may go there after I check in to my hotel on Friday to see if there are any last minute tickets available for Saturday's match.

>137 kidzdoc: One book store in Barcelona? Sounds like I won't be getting my hands on it any time soon.

I want to take the kids to Spain but that is probably 3 or 4 years out at a minimum. We will probably do London as their first European experience.

I am for Real Madrid simply because I lived there for awhile doing a study abroad and loved the city. I would probably be for Barcelona if I had lived there instead. I do recognize that Real Madrid is a bit like the Yankees of soccer.

>140 Oberon: Fear and Loathing in La Liga was published in the US last year. Amazon sells the paperback and Kindle versions of it. My local Barnes & Noble apparently has it in stock as well.

I agree; London would be a great starting point for your children.

What did you like about Madrid? Several people I've spoken with were disappointed or felt constricted by it, and they liked it far less than other cities in Spain, especially Barcelona. I do want to go there, if only to see the museums, and if it's not too hot next month I may make a day trip there. The new AVE service from Barcelona Sants to Madrid Atocha takes just over two hours, so it's certainly doable. I'm planning to make day trips to Figueres, Girona, Tarragona and Montserrat, and there are a number of sites I want to visit in Barcelona that I didn't get to last year, so I'll probably save Madrid until the fall.

RIP, B.B. King. Heaven is certainly a more soulful place to be now that you and Lucille have joined the band.

>142 kidzdoc: That choir of angels will never be the same!

If it is really hot in Barcelona- spend time on the mountain!

>143 laytonwoman3rd: Right, Linda!

>144 torontoc: Will do, Cyrel. Do you mean Montserrat, Tibidabo, or Montjuïc? I'll go to all three mountains while I'm there.

It looks as though temperatures in Barcelona will return to normal, with highs mainly in the mid 70s, by next week.

Happy Friday, Darryl. Glad to see the BB King tribute. What a treasure he was. I was fortunate enough to see him a couple of times, over the years.

I saw him perform here in Tuscaloosa one hot sultry summer night. His tour bus rolled into town and he put on a big show. It was lots of fun with thousands standing in a parking lot listening to those blues.

I was surprised to see about the death of BB King...I think I thought he was already gone! And that is a great photo of him.

>141 kidzdoc: Actually I met BB King at the airport on my first trip to Madrid. Got his autograph and a Lucille pin.

I disagree with the other assessments of Madrid. I thought it was a rich city culturally and architecturally. The art museums were the first reason- the Prado foremost among them. The Buen Retiro park is a fantastic green space - more compact that Central Park but still very relaxing. The Plaza Mayor, Palacios Real and Puerto del Sol are great. Much of the central part of Madrid feels old and historic with neat buildings and impressive public art. I actually really like the central post office and the fountain in front of it.

The central part of the city is very walkable and fun to explore. I saw a zarzuela in the national theater and a bullfight in the Plaza del Toros.

There are some impressive churches but they were more impressive for the art - great one painted by Goya - rather than huge like Notre Dame.

Also, very near Madrid are Segovia with a spectacular Roman aqueduct and the El Escorial which is remarkable in and of itself.

A lovely, culturally alive city - at least to me.

I would think that Madrid would be a wonderful place for an art lover.

Some friends of mine did the opposite of what you are planning. They based in Madrid and used the train to take two different day trips to Barcelona. They told me that the new train made this very possible and they didn't have to worry about taking luggage with them as they jus left it in their Madrid hotel room.

Montjuic-I remember really nice breezes up there.
and if you are going to Monserrat, you may want to look at some Gaudi architecture in Barcelona to see the relationship- if you don't want to wait in line for La Pedrera- go to Casa Batllo.
( Gentle reminder- try to see a concert in the older hall of The Palau de la Musica Catalana or take a tour)

I've only had a weekend in Madrid but enjoyed it a lot and would happily have spent longer. El Escorial is fascinating as well.

Hi Darryl! Your vacation sounds fantastic, and I hope the trip is even better than you anticipate. One of my mother's cousins studied in Spain for a while during his college years. If my memory is correct, he was in Barcelona. This would have been sometime in the 1970s, I think.

Yesterday was a disappointing day, as I didn't do much of anything other than firm up a few vacation plans and read a little bit. I'm determined to be more productive today and tomorrow, though. I'm caught up on threads for the moment, so after breakfast I'll write a couple of reviews, get back to reading my LT Early Reviewers book for May, The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics by Barron Lerner, which is excellent so far, and do some cooking and cleaning this afternoon.

Forward, march!

>146 msf59: Happy, um, Saturday, Mark! I never saw B.B. King in person, unfortunately. I wish I had.

>147 benitastrnad: Nice! I would have enjoyed that performance, Benita.

>148 LovingLit: I'm not surprised that you thought B.B. King had already died, Megan. He was 89 years old, and lived far longer than most of his contemporary blues musicians.

>149 Oberon: Very nice, Erik! I'm sure you'll keep and pass down those B.B. King mementos.

Thanks for those encouraging words about Madrid. I suspected that there was a lot more to like about it than the comments I've heard from others (not counting my partner Javier, who is from the city), and especially the opening paragraphs in the foreword, preface and first chapter of a book I bought last year, Madrid: A Cultural History by Elizabeth Nash, the Madrid correspondent for The Independent:

Few people are likely to fall in love with Madrid for its appearance alone. Spread out over a flat, dusty and largely featureless landscape, and without the compensations either of a proper river, or of a generally distinguished architecture, Madrid is a city whose charms are not immediately obvious. From at least the nineteenth century onwards foreigners have unfailingly commented on its scarcity of major old monuments, on its uniform brash modernity, and on the way it fails to live up to stereotypical notions of romantic Spain. Today's tourists tend to compare it unfavorably with Bracelona, while most Spaniards from outside Madrid criticize not only its look, but also its climate of extremes, its proverbially arrogant people, and even its food, which, in the woods of the fictional Catalan detective Pepe Carvalho, "has given no more than a stew, an omelette, and a dish of tripe to the gastronomic culture of our country."

And this:

Madrid may not grab you at first. It has few splendid buildings or views, and its culture may initially confirm clichés rather than beckon you to deeper understanding.

And this:

Madrid in high summer—when July burns into August—is a terrible place, a searing frying pan, in the words of the city's best-known chronicler, Benito Pérez Galdós. The heat buffets your face as if you had stepped inside an oven. The sun spikes your eyeballs like a spear to the brain. Every step, every breath, requires superhuman effort. Your eyelids droop, your body sags; thought processes all but close down. If you make the mistake of entering the city in the afternoon of such a day, when the sky is fiercely white as the heart of a blast furnace, you will find the streets silent and deserted.

Yikes! Fortunately the rest of the book is far more positive about Madrid, and Madrilenos. Now that it looks as though I'll have good company for roughly half of my stay in Barcelona I'll skip a day trip to Madrid later this month or in June, and plan to go there in the fall, when I won't have to worry about my eyeballs melting when I go outside.

Hi Darryl, I love Madrid and can strongly recommend a visit there even staying longer. There are wonderful museums, gorgeous architectures and wonderful food. I wish you a wonderful weekend.

>150 benitastrnad: I would think so too, Benita. I'm definitely an art lover, and Barcelona is filled with great museums. I went to at least five of them last year, and I'll see at least that many on this visit, along with the Museu-Teatre Dalí in Figueres and the museum in the Monestir de Montserrat.

The Renfe AVE (high speed) service between Barcelona and Madrid takes as little as 2 hr 30 min, which makes a day trip from one city to the next very doable. I thought about going to Madrid when I was in Barcelona last June, but the eyeball-melting temperatures in the capital (which were in the upper 80s to mid 90s F, 15-20 or more degrees higher than in Barcelona) made me decide to postpone a quick visit there.

>151 torontoc: You're right, Cyrel. I did choose a Saturday to go to Montjuïc last year, and it was noticeably cooler there than it was at sea level. I'll see more of Gaudí's architecture this time, particularly the Sagrada Familia and Parc Güell. My hotel is two blocks west of Passeig de Gràcia, close to Provença station, so I'll be within a few blocks of La Pedrera (Casa Milà) and Casa Batlló.

Ha! You read my mind, or vice versa. I booked a ticket last night to see a flamenco guitar trio performance at the Palau de la Música Catalana on May 30th. The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is giving a performance there on June 2nd, in celebration of Tchaikovsky's 175th anniversary, and if I don't have anything else planned I may see it as well. The Palau, designed by Lluis Domènech i Montaner, who also designed the Hospital de Santa Creu i Sant Pau, is a stunning building, and I can't wait to see the interior of it.





>152 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian. I'll almost certainly visit Madrid in October, if I get my vacation request, along with Lisbon and Porto.

I looked up El Escorial, and I'd like to go there. Thanks for mentioning it!

>153 cbl_tn: Thanks, Carrie! The trip will include meet up with LTers in and outside of Barcelona, London, Amsterdam, and Utrecht as well, and I'll take plenty of photos and post them here and especially on Facebook, as I usually do.

Barcelona would have been an interesting place to be in the 1970s, either during the last years of Franco's regime or in the period that followed his death.

>156 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I look forward to hopefully going to Madrid in October. Thanks for the flowers, and I hope that you are enjoying your weekend as well.

Be sure, I'll do so :-)

Book #23: The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol

  

My rating:

Jonathan Kozol is a noted American author, teacher and speaker, who is best known for his books about the failure of the public education system in the US, including Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools, which won the National Book Award in 1968, Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools, and The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. In his latest book, Kozol writes about the life of his father Harry, a noted neuropsychiatrist and forensic psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, his relationship with him and his mother, and his slow decline toward death after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Harry Kozol, born in 1906 to Ukrainian parents of Jewish descent who had emigrated to Boston four years earlier, was an example of a classic immigrant success story. He grew up in South Boston, worked his way through Harvard, attended Harvard Law School on the behest of his mother, then transferred to Harvard Medical School after he completed a fellowship in Europe and spent time with several noted specialists in the burgeoning field of psychiatry. He was trained as a neurologist, but he devoted most of his career to the study and care of psychiatric patients, including noted figures such as the playwright Eugene O'Neill, Patty Hearst, and the man who was accused of being the Boston Strangler. Much of the book is a description of Harry's fascinating life, along with his relationship with his son Jonathan, who initially was a disappointment to him after he participated in the Civil Rights Movement and decided to pursue a career in the Boston Public School system in the mid 1960s rather than embarking on a more lucrative career. Harry eventually came to respect and admire his son, particularly after his books became popular and highly regarded.

Harry Kozol continued to actively practice medicine well into his eighties, when he, his wife and son began to recognize that his razor sharp memory and ability to form coherent thoughts and sentences was beginning to deteriorate. Jonathan, who is unmarried and childless, takes over the day to day management of his father's health, and he describes in detail the difficult decisions he faces in managing his parents' health while maintaining his own speaking, teaching and writing schedule, the great cost and challenge of providing both parents with end of life, and the mistakes made by his father's medical team, particularly the internist whose lack of attention to detail on several occasions led to his decline and ultimate death at the age of 102.

The Theft of Memory is a compelling and touching memoir to the author's father, an insightful examination of the relationship between a famous and highly respected man and his equally laudable son, and the triumphs, failures, joys and despair the author experiences as his parents slowly decline at the end of their lives. It is a quick read and is filled with wisdom that anyone who cares for an aging parent or relative would be wise to heed, and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

Book #24: Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe



My rating:

Dear sports fans: what are the most intense rivalries you can think of? Those in the US would list the Yankees versus the Red Sox or the Giants versus the Dodgers in baseball, Ohio State versus Michigan or Alabama versus Auburn in American college football, and Duke versus North Carolina in college basketball. European football fans would claim that the derbies between Arsenal and Chelsea, Olympiakos vs Panathinaikos, and Juventus and Internazionale are even more passionate. Rubbish! These rivalries are all playground dustups compared to El Clásico, the century long hate fest between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two premier teams in La Liga, the Spanish football first division.

  

Both teams are among the best in Europe, and their rivalry is enmeshed in the history of the two main Spanish cities; the difference in languages and cultures, with Madrid being the capital of Castilian Spain and Barcelona the capital of Catalonia, a region whose residents want nothing more than its independence from Spain; the suppression of Catalans during the nearly 40 year reign of Generalísimo Francisco Franco; and the meaning ascribed to the two teams by its followers throughout history. A win by FC Barcelona, known casually as Barça, over Madrid during the years of fascist rule meant a victory for the Catalan people over Franco and the Falangists, who were based in Madrid, whereas a win by Real Madrid meant, for some supporters, a victory for the Fatherland and Franco. That's right, isn't it?

Well, not entirely. Sid Lowe, a Madrid based English journalist who writes about football for The Guardian and other publications, does a masterful job in looking underneath the myths and claims by supporters of each side to find the truth about both clubs, and in doing so he has written a very readable and interesting story about the teams, their players and owners, and their often rabid fans. The book covers the teams' combined histories through the 2011-2012 seasons, and every important player and influential coach and owner is given due treatment, including László Kubala, the fun loving Hungarian who was one of Barcelona's first star players; Alfredo Di Stéfano, Madrid's Blond Arrow; Johan Cruyff, the Dutch footballer who changed Barça's approach to the game and turned it into a winner; Madrid's galácticos, the superstars whose egos got in the way of their successes; and the two best players in the world, Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who are pictured on the cover of the book.

Fear and Loathing in La Liga would be best appreciated by football fans, especially those who know something about these two clubs. However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book despite my relative lack of knowledge about Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and La Liga, and it kept my interest throughout its 400+ pages.

Please excuse me while I give Pooja a call...

Too late! What was her number again?

I love reading about your travels, especially Barcelona right now because we're planning a trip to Spain in fall 2016. We tend to plan early and I'm already thinking about when, what and how for that trip (and we haven't even left on this year's yet lol). I was in Monserrat in 1965 (yikes, I don't even want to think about how long ago that way). Might be fun to go back and use the cog railway which I don't think existed then.

>159 Ameise1:

>164 RebaRelishesReading: Great! It's never too early to plan a trip, Reba, even if it isn't until next year. I'll be interested to hear about the places you plan to visit, as I'll start planning for my probable trip to Spain and Portugal after I return from this one.

According to Wikipedia the Montserrat Rack Railway opened in 1892, closed in 1957 due to lack of ridership and an accident that occurred four years earlier, then re-opened in 2003, as the cable car and road to the monastery were insufficient to carry those who wanted to see it.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/medicine-and-the-arts

Maybe you could teach this course in your spare time, Darryl? I couldn't help but think of you when I saw it :)

>161 kidzdoc: looks like sport and politics DO mix after all!

>166 LovingLit: Thanks for that link to the Medical Humanities online course, Megan! I signed up for it, and I'll plan to take it once the course starts. It only requires 3 hours per week for six weeks, so I can easily fit that into my schedule even if I'm on clinical service.

Ha! I think it will be a while before I can teach a course in the medical humanities. I'm very interested in the field, and I could see myself in a teaching role once I hang up my stethoscope. I did give one or two lectures a year on pediatric topics to the first year physician assistant students at Emory University for several years, so I do have experience in lecturing to graduate students. I and my partners are all adjunct faculty members of the two medical schools in Atlanta, Emory and Morehouse, since we serve as attending physicians on teaching rounds in the hospital once every 2-3 months.

Yes, in the case of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid politics do mix. I can't think of another sports rivalry that can make that claim.

I made a batch of Chinese tofu scramble for myself for dinner, after I made it for my parents last weekend. Mmm...

I'm halfway through my April LT Early Reviewers book, The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics by Barron Lerner. It continues to be excellent, and I'll finish it tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Hmmm, gonna have to look for The Good Doctor.

>161 kidzdoc: Ajax versus Feyenoord! For sure!

Happy Sunday, Darryl! Excellent review of The Theft of Memory. We just watched Still Alice last night, which dealt with early onset Alzheimer's. It's a good film and a good book.

>168 drneutron: I'll finish The Good Doctor this morning, Jim. It continues to be excellent, and unless it goes off the rails I'll give it at least 4-1/2 stars.

>169 connie53: Those are two of the traditional powerhouses of Dutch football, right? What makes FC Barcelona and Real Madrid a unique rivalry is the history of Catalonia and its relationship with Spain, personified by the capital of Madrid. especially during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and in the years that Franco was in power (1939-1975). Catalonians were not allowed to speak their own language in public without risk of arrest by the Guardia Civil or assault by right wing Falangists, and there were numerous inflammatory and intimidating signs throughout Barcelona that ordered them to speak Castilian, the primary language of Spain, such as "Perro Catalan, habla cristiano." ("Catalan dog, speak Christian.") and "¡No ladres! Habla la lengua del imperio." (Don't bark! Speak the language of the empire.) Numerous Catalonian authors, including Mercè Rodoreda and Josep Pla, and had to go into exile in order to write in their native language, as Franco all but completely banned any newspapers or books that were written in Catalan. Barça supporters were prevented from singing their traditional tributes to the team, and from dispalying the Catalan flag, even in Camp Nou, the team's home stadium; one portion of Fear and Loathing in La Liga mentioned that the president (I think) of FC Barcelona was threatened by a high ranking police official after the public address announcer played a Barça song throughout Camp Nou.

Because of this oppression of Catalan language and culture under Franco, a result by FC Barcelona over Real Madrid (or even a loss by Real Madrid independent of Barça) was not just a win for the team, it was widely viewed a strike against fascism, and a victory for all of Catalonia. I don't think any other rivalry can make that same claim.

>170 msf59: Happy Sunday to you too, Mark! I'm glad you liked my review of The Theft of Memory; it was an outstanding book.

I'll have to get to Still Alice sometime soon. Thanks for mentioning it.

Sagrada Famiilia- great nave and make sure to see the museum in the basement- beautiful models of the church. There is a documentary on the construction of Sagrada Familia that I show before I went to Barcelona- if you can find it- worth viewing although it was too long. The part on the stained glass was great- from watercolour composition to the wrong out of the glass colours was fascinating

>173 torontoc: Thanks, Cyrel. I didn't go to the Sagrada Familia last year, but it's high on the list of things to do this year. I'll be sure to go to the basement in the museum.

I checked on YouTube; so far I found two nearly hour long documentaries, one in German and one in French. I'll keep looking to see if an English or Spanish language one is available online.

>157 kidzdoc: what an outstanding performance that's going to be, Darryl! I love Spanish guitar and listen to it quite often on Spotify. The venue looks amazing too.
Has the big countdown begun for your vacation?

Hope you're having a restful Sunday

>175 Carmenere: Definitely so, Lynda! I leave in 11 days, so the clock is ticking, and meet up plans with LT and non-LT friends in Barcelona, England and the Netherlands are underway.

I am having a restful day so far, although I'll need to do some chores this afternoon after I have lunch and finish The Good Doctor. I hope that you're enjoying your Sunday, too.

>173 torontoc: I did find some additional documentaries about the Sagrada Familia, including a recent one produced by the CBS News program 60 Minutes after Pope Benedict XVI consecrated it as a basilica in 2010:

God's Architect: Antoni Gaudí's glorious vision

Hi, Darryl ~ Hope the rest of your weekend is great!

Good review of Theft of Memory; sounds like something I need to read.

I just put Theft of Memory on my wish list. Thankfully, Alzheimer's is not something that my parents or grandparents suffered, but the book sound interesting, and I like Kozol's work.

Looking at your tofu scramble, I was reminded of the Hot & Sour soup I made earlier this week. Very different--it uses eggs instead of cornstarch as a thickener.

>176 kidzdoc: wonderful link Darryl.

The Sagrada Famillia is one of my favourite buildings. It is a precious example of human talents, ingenuity and perseverance. On the day I was there there weren't too many people visiting and I sat quietly inside and looked and looked, and sensed, and felt. If I am anything I am a pantheist, so perhaps it's organic quality felt right. But I have a deep appreciation of sacred buildings of any faith.

>160 kidzdoc: The Theft of Memory sounds good, but I don't think it is one I want to read at the moment. It's a little too close to the loss of my own father, even if the circumstances are different.

Hi Darryl--Loving all the talk about travel plans here. I will live vicariously through you as we plan on being mostly home bodies this summer. I also think Theft of Memory sounds awfully good--thanks for sharing. Hitting the hay now--just wanted to say Hi!

You might want to book a time online for visiting Sagrada Familia- I did and just walked past the lineup-

>171 kidzdoc: Yes they are, Darryl. And I know about the historical background of the Spain and how it has effected the sports like soccer.

Rotterdam (Feyenoord) and Amsterdam (Ajax) have been rivals as cities too. Rotterdam was heavily bombarded in WO II and so was Amsterdam.
The Rotterdammers are working class people and they worked very hard to built up the city again. They overpowered Amsterdam in this and the economic situation of Rotterdam was very good. A big harbour, the first underground/metro. The differences are still big. Rotterdam is working class, Amsterdam is a bit posh. There have been heavy fights between supporters with people getting killed. So it's not just soccer. PSV (soccer champion now) has never been part of this controversy. It's not that extreme as between the two Spanish clubs though.

Hi Darryl, I am trying to get the name and location of a small cheese bar in Barcelona that I went to the last time I was there. It's a very unique place that specializes mostly on all types of wonderful cheeses. They will bring you all types of cheese and wines to accompany them. I don't know if they serve any other food because when I went there I was interested on eating cheese.
The catch is that the place prides itself in not being well known- so there is no signage indicating that it is a shop or bar. Also I believe that it's known only through word-of-mouth, no advertising. When I went there it was referred orally as "el hombre de los quesos" (the man of the cheeses).
The place is near the Basilica Santa Maria del Mar; it's close to the Picasso Museum.

I'll let you know if I can get the address. Also I assume that you like cheeses since you come to Wisconsin often.

>177 Storeetllr: Thanks, Mary. It was a good weekend, although not as productive as I would have liked. I hope that you enjoyed your weekend as well.

The Theft of Memory was exceptional. It will be published in the US on June 2nd.

I did finish my LT Early Reviewers book for April: A Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics by Barron Lerner. I'll write a review of it this weekend.

>178 Cariola: I want to say that I've read, or at least own, one of Jonathan Kozol's books, possibly Savage Inequalities, but I'm not sure. If I did it would have been in the Ancient pre-LT Era, and I may not still own the book, as The Theft of Memory is the only book by him that's in my current LT library.

Your hot and sour soup sounds interesting.

>179 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. I hadn't seen that 60 Minutes story about the Sagrada Familia before, so I'm glad that I stumbled upon it on YouTube.

I have a deep appreciation of sacred buildings of any faith.

I agree completely. I absolutely loved going on the Old Jewish Quarter guided tour in the East End of London with Joe and Debbi, particularly the visit to the Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest one still in existence in England. If I remember correctly it's been in continuous operation since 1701, and most of the original interior hasn't changed during that time. That was my first visit to a synagogue, and I won't forget it.

>180 thornton37814: That's very understandable, Lori. I wouldn't want to read The Theft of Memory either if I was in your position.

>181 Berly: Hi, Kim! I've been regularly making plans for this upcoming vacation over the past couple of weeks, and there will be numerous LT meet ups (and pictures) during that time.

There's nothing wrong with spending a summer at home, especially if you're in a gorgeous city like Portland. I'd go stir crazy if I spent my entire summer in Atlanta.

>182 torontoc: Right, Cyrel. I have been looking at dates and times for the Sagrada Familia, along with Parc Güell, and the Teatre-Museu Dalí, and hopefully I'll be able to make final plans for the most essential parts of the Barcelona trip later this week.

>183 connie53: Wow. Thanks for that information about Rotterdam and Feyenoord, and Amsterdam and Ajax, Connie. I didn't know that and, admittedly, I know almost nothing about the Netherlands. I'm very eager to go there, though, and part of me wants to visit Amsterdam first.

Fear and Loathing in La Liga didn't mention any instances in which Barça or Real Madrid supporters were killed, although I wouldn't be surprised if some were.

>184 xieouyang: I would greatly appreciate it if you were able to find the address of that cheese shop in El Born, Manuel! I'm familiar with the area, as I visited the Museu Picasso and the Mercat del Born, walked past the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar, and had lunch in a restaurant on the Plaça Commercial (El Rosal) when I was there last year. I'll see if I can locate that cheese shop online as well, or on foot once I arrive there next week.

LOL! I was a cheesehead well before I made my first trip to Wisconsin.

>184 xieouyang: I did find one small and highly rated (on Yelp) cheese shop, Formatgeria la Seu, on Carrer de Dagueria, close to Carrer de Jaume I and the Jaume I metro station. It's on the other side of Via Laietana from the Museu Picasso and the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar, though, so it would seem to be in the Barri Gòtic rather than El Born, although it's very close by. The reviews say that it's run by a Scottish woman, and that you can try five Catalan cheeses, bread and a bottle of wine for 18 €. Is it the same one that you're thinking of?

ETA: It may not be the same shop; Formatgeria la Seu has a web site, so it would seem to be better known. And, now that I look at your message again, it clearly indicates that the shop you mentioned is run by a man ("el hombre de los quesos").

http://www.formatgerialaseu.com

I'll certainly visit Formatgeria la Seu, but hopefully you or I can find el hombre de los quesos, too.

>185 kidzdoc: I'll check out that synagogue Darryl. I think the first synagogues I went into were those in the Venetian ghetto, very moving. I think that was the first time the word ghetto was used.

If you haven't read it, you might enjoy Rodinsky's Room.

>188 Caroline_McElwee: It was very worthwhile to go on the guided tour, as our guide (Judy) was both entertaining and very knowledgeable, and the gentleman who spoke to us in the Bevis Marks Synagogue was just as good. Here's a link to the tour:

http://www.walks.com/Standalone/Jewish_London_–_Discover_Jewish_London_with_Lo...

Thanks for reminding me about Rodinsky's Room. I have her earlier book, On Brick Lane, but haven't read it yet. There are a couple of other books about the East End that I'd like to read as well. Paul Harris (from Club Read) and I spend a day out last year, and we visited Greenwich and the East End, including the Brick Lane Bookshop, which had numerous books set in the neighborhood. He grew up there, so walking with him was akin to having a personal guided tour of the area. We'll meet up again on June 13th, and spend the day walking and chatting, starting in Golders Green.

Two excellent reviews, Darryl. I'm not sure I'm ready for that much futbal lore via Fear and Loathing in La Liga, but I'm adding The Theft of Memory to my WL. Thumb for both reviews. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on The Good Doctor.

>186 kidzdoc: If/when you go to the Netherlands don't just stay in Amsterdam. It isn't all that typical of the country (IMHO) and it's such a small country that it's easy to see more. The Hague is lovely and interesting. My alma mater city, Utrecht, is wonderful. The Hoge Veluwe in the east has a wonderful van Gogh museum and Eindhoven has a new light array in a walking path that echoes his Stary Night which I hope to see this summer. Then there's Geithoorn, a village with canals resulting from the peat digging in 19th century and Zeeland which is different and charming and, last but not least, Connie's own Limburg which actually has some hills and the wonderful Maastricht.

>167 kidzdoc: hey, look at that, I hit you with a CB (course bullet) and hardly even had to try :) I love the internet LT ;)

One last Barcelona hint- I used the Rick Steves Barcelona travel guide and found that there were great " self tours" and good information on sites( especially Sagrada Familia )

Off-course your first city in the Netherlands should be Amsterdam!

>191 RebaRelishesReading: Hear, hear! Thanks Reba!

>193 torontoc: Oooo, I'll also tell my friend, who's going to Barcelona in June, of the Steves travel guide. Thanks!

Thanks for posting the 21 most beautiful places in Barcelona on FB, Darryl. We're saving it for a visit in 2017. Hope you're continuing to have a great time.

Woo! The weekend is here! It was a good work week, as I worked with two superb pediatric residents and three engaged medical students, which made it enjoyable to be the teaching attending physician (that's not always the case, unfortunately).



I won't be doing much reading this weekend, although I hope to finish The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda by Monday. I'll work Monday through Wednesday of next week, and I leave for Barcelona on Thursday.

The Atlanta Jazz Festival takes place this weekend in Piedmont Park, a short walk from my building, and I'll probably meet up with one of my colleagues from work to see the evening performances on Sunday night.

>190 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I'm become progressively more interested in (non-American) football, and I'll count myself of a budding fan of FC Barcelona in La Liga and Arsenal in the English Premier League. I was tempted to buy a ticket to the Copa del Rey final between FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou, FCB's home grounds, next Saturday night. However, the cheapest ticket I could find cost 280 € (roughly $300 USD), even though the stadium seats just under 100,000 people, so I'll see a flamenco guitar trio performance (for 35 €) at the Palau de la Música Catalana that night instead. Hopefully I'll be able to see an FC Barcelona match at Camp Nou in the next year or two.

I'll write a review of The Good Doctor this weekend.

>191 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks for those suggestions, Reba! As it turns out, Connie & I are planning to meet in Utrecht while I'm there, as it's less than 30 minutes by train from Amsterdam Centraal to Utrecht Centraal. I'd like to make short trips to Haarlem and The Hague while I'm there as well, depending on other plans that I make in Amsterdam.

>192 LovingLit: Well done, Megan! I hope that the class you mentioned starts soon, as now would be a great time for me to take it.

>193 torontoc: Thanks, Cyrel. I do own a few Barcelona guides already, but I'll probably download Rick Steves's guide onto my Kindle this weekend and look at his online videos about the city as well. I did buy his guide book on Amsterdam last week, which I'll bring with me next week.

>194 connie53:, 195 Amsterdam will be my first port of call in the Netherlands, Connie! Although I've been focusing on plans in Barcelona and London I'm just as excited to make my first trip there, and (hopefully) meet up with you.

>196 Carmenere: I just bought the Kindle version of Rick Steves' Barcelona. I'll read and review it while I'm there. If I didn't say so already I would also highly recommend Baedeker's Barcelona, which I bought at a travel bookshop in NYC (Idlewild Books) last year.

>197 jnwelch: You're welcome, Joe. I'm glad to hear that you and Debbi will visit Barcelona in 2017. I'd be more than happy to give you any recommendations between now and then.

I think I picked up a GI bug from someone in the hospital, so I'm feeling a bit washed out. I think I'll call it a night shortly.

I found Rick Steves books to be very helpful. His recommendations for places to stay are especially good.

I love Amsterdam. Harlem is pleasant, Utrect I only visited for a day, it took an age getting out of the station mall, but I enjoyed it when I did. I went to the, then, only gallery for the work of Australian Aboriginal artists in Europe, it still may be. I also like Leiden. Unfortunately you will be too late for the Keukenhof gardens. I didn't spend much time in Delft as I was there the day after 9/11, and like everyone, in shock.

I managed to get a long layover in Amsterdam when a friend and I visited my brother in Germany three years ago. We arrived late afternoon and took the train into the city center where we had dinner and then visited the Anne Frank house and museum. I'd love to go back when I can stay longer and see more.

Hi Darryl, I wish you a relaxed weekend. Enjoy the Atlanta Jazz Festival. I would like to join you there. I love Jazz.

>200 benitastrnad: Thanks, Benita; that's good to know. I've made all of my hotel reservations for this trip already, but I'll keep that in mind when I go on holiday later this year.

>201 Caroline_McElwee: I'm glad that you're fond of Amsterdam, Caroline. I'll have to take a closer look at what I want to do there in the next week or two, so that I can decide whether I should visit any other city beside Utrecht. I'll be there for five full days (May 25-29), so I may want to stay in Amsterdam for the four unplanned days that I have remaining.

>202 cbl_tn: Nice, Carrie. I hope that you are able to make it back to Amsterdam soon.

>203 Ameise1: Thanks for those lovely flowers, Barbara! I wish you could join me at the Atlanta Jazz Festival; I believe that it's one of the largest free jazz festivals in the US. The weather will be fabulous all weekend, and since I live so close to Piedmont Park I may walk over there tonight to listen to some music. The big name artists will appear tomorrow night, though: Diane Schur comes on at 7 pm, followed by the Pharoah Sanders Quintet with Kurt Rosenwinkel at 9 pm on the main stage, and Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra play on the international stage at 7:30 pm.

Wow, that sounds fabulous. Enjoy it.

Thanks, Barbara! I'll let you know how the concerts were. I have a lot of last minute things to do before I leave on Thursday, so I may decide not to go if I haven't gotten enough done.

Enjoy the concerts! I love outdoor music. And have a wonderful and safe trip.

>199 kidzdoc:. Of course we will meet! I'm looking forward to that!

Amsterdam is a great base as there is so much to do there, but it is only a short train ride to do day trips elsewhere.

Both the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and the RijksMuseum have had overhauls (the latter took 12 years) and house maybe half of my favourite paintings (I'm a big Van Gogh fan).

The Amstelkring is worth a visit too
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/netherlands/amsterdam-museum-amstelkring-hidd...

If you can, getting your tickets for the museums and Anne Frank's House is advisable to do in advance online. When I went to the latter 35 years ago there was no big museum, and only a couple of dozen visitors. It was very intimate. I'm afraid you will have a very different experience now, but still very moving I'm sure.

My favourite thing to do in Amsterdam though is just to wander along the canals. It has the feeling of a village once you get off the main drag.

And one of my favourite places is the little botanical garden De Hortis. Take a picnic and enjoy. In a small park nearby is the memorial to the Jews lost in the Holocaust by writer and artist Jan Wolkers (pron Yan Volkers).

I was last in Amsterdam about ten years ago, so some things will have changed.

The new concert house had just opened, which had a little music studio attached called Bimhaus, which had some interesting music.

http://bimhuis.com/home

Among other artists I saw the extraordinary jazz pianist Misha Mengelberg.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misha_Mengelberg

>208 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda!

>209 connie53: Great! I didn't want to be too presumptuous before I mentioned our meet up publicly. I'm still on for June 27th, as I haven't made any other plans yet.

>210 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for those recommendations, Caroline! I checked the web site for the Anne Frank House, and at the moment there are no tickets available for the entire month of June. I'll keep checking to see if any tickets open up between now and then.

Thank you x 10 for mentioning the Bimhuis! I looked to see who was playing, and noticed that the pianist Brad Mehldau, who I've seen at least three times in performances in San Francisco and NYC, is appearing there with the Dutch-American singer Fleurine on June 28th. I just bought a ticket. I owe you one!

I would check with your hotel - they may be able to get you a ticket.

>211 kidzdoc: it's a great little venue Darryl, glad you found someone you like, but make sure you have comfy walking shoes on, in case it runs over. I only just made the last tram, but it may just have been Misha's temperament!

>212 torontoc: I revisited the Anne Frank House web site, which mentioned that only a limited number of advance sale tickets are sold online; most visitors purchase their tickets in the queue.

>213 Caroline_McElwee: Will do, Caroline. The concert starts at 20.30 and apparently the trams stop running after 00.30, so I should be okay. I'm staying at the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky on Dam Square, which is within walking distance of Amsterdam Centraal Station and, it would appear, Bimhuis.

>210 Caroline_McElwee: My experience last year with Van Gogh was that even the pre-booked tickets were queuing round the block (but it was the school holidays, so that might have been unrepresentative!). Crazy stuff. I ended up running round to the Rijksmuseum for their opening time and 'just' queuing for half an hour. Worth it for the miniatures (like The Miniaturist although I think The Goldfinch was then on loan elsewhere.)

>215 charl08: I just checked online, and it appears that the summer (Zomer) holidays in Amsterdam and the North Region of the Netherlands begin on July 4th, the week after I leave. I'll want to visit those two museums and the Anne Frank House, at a minimum.

Did either of you purchase an I Amsterdam City Card?

Good morning, Darryl. I NEVER buy city cards when I'm on holiday somewhere. It's too expensive. Mostly we walk and when we need public transport than we buy it for this or a day card which is much cheeper. Further more the entrance fee is also cheaper when you don't visit five and more musuems in this period. So, no city cards for me, never.

>217 Ameise1: Good morning, Barbara! Thanks for your advice on city cards. I normally don't buy them either, and the prices for the I amsterdam City Cards seemed excessive. The only card I have bought and would highly recommend is the ArTicket BCN; for 30 € you gain one admission to six of Barcelona's major museums, including the Museu Picasso, the Fundació Joan Miró, and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, and you avoid the sometimes long queues for same day tickets. I went to five of the six museums last year, and saved 15-20 € by purchasing that card.

Morning Darryl! Happy Sunday! I hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend.

I am also a fan of Brad Mehldau, but have not listened to him for years.

Happy Sunday to you too, Mark! Yes, I've had a nice weekend so far.

It's been quite a while since I saw Brad Mehldau, too. I first saw him perform with his trio at Zanhell Hall, the smaller auditorium within Carnegie Hall, roughly 10 years ago, and with Joshua Redman and others in a recreation of Thelonious Monk's 1959 Town Hall concert. Hmm...actually I think I've only seen him twice. I did have a ticket to see him perform in Atlanta last year, but one of my patients became very sick and I wasn't able to leave the hospital in time to go to the concert.

I hadn't heard of Fleurine before, but she and Brad Mehldau have been married since 1997, according to Wikipedia. He heard her perform at the North Sea Jazz Festival that year, invited her to join his band, and married her not long afterward. They split their time between Amsterdam and NYC when they isn't on tour, and they have three children together.

Here's a YouTube of the two performing together in a 2011 concert at the Muziekpodium Bakkeveen in the Netherlands: Close Enough for Love

I think I want to be Brad Mehldau when I grow up.

>216 kidzdoc: I had the museum card which was good value for me as I visited Holland three times in 12 months at that time. I think the city card is targeted at single visit travellers and should be good value.

>215 charl08: I know, art as pop concert! On the one hand it's great, on the other hand I dream of the days when you could be with masterpieces almost on your own.

>221 Caroline_McElwee: You're right, Caroline; the I amsterdam City Card is geared toward tourists to Amsterdam and nearby areas, and it gives the user unlimited use on the trams, buses and metro trains, free entry to most museums, and discounts at stores throughout and outside of the city. It is pricy, though; it costs 49 €, 59 € and 69 € for 24-, 48- and 72-hour cards, respectively. I'll look at Rick Steves' Pocket Barcelona to see if he recommends buying one.

I visited Holland three times in 12 months

Sigh. I wish that Europe was closer to the US.

Sad news: John Forbes Nash, Jr., the Nobel Prize winning mathematician afflicted with schizophrenia who was the subject of Sylvia Nasar's book A Beautiful Mind and the movie of the same name was killed along with his wife in an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike yesterday.

NYT: John F. Nash Jr., Mathematician Whose Life Story Inspired ‘A Beautiful Mind,’ Dies at 86

Yes, I thought that sad news too Darryl.

>222 kidzdoc: knowing your cultural stamina Darryl, I think you will be in pocket with the city pass. It would be less budget-wise for someone who only likes to do a couple of things a day.

The last time I was in Atlanta was for Paul McCartney's concert in Piedmont Park. It was great fun, but it rained. It poured. It was muddy and sloppy. It was fun and very crowded. It was all old people so I joked with those sitting on the ground next to our spot that it was just like Woodstock, only none of us were going to get naked at our age.

>198 kidzdoc: I'm delighted to hear you're meeting Connie in Utrecht. I studied there and my son was born there so it has a very special place in my heart.

I'm nearly done cooking for the week. I made bacon & mushroom pasta yesterday, Moroccan lentil & vegetable stew for lunch today, and I just finished making the cilantro sauce for the pollo cuidad with pickled tomato salsa for dinner. The salsa is already prepared, so I only need to cook the chicken and the rice, which won't take long. I should get off of work early tomorrow, and I'll make another batch of carrot ginger coconut shrimp soup for dinner. Fortunately I'll be able to store a few days' worth of leftovers in my freezer before I leave town on Thursday, as I'll have to return to work the day after I arrive from Amsterdam (I'm not complaining, though!).

>224 Caroline_McElwee: As I mentioned to Cyrel, I'll have to look in detail to figure out which passes or cards I'll buy. The I amsterdam City Card seems pricy, but it may be worth it if I take advantage of a good bit of what it has to offer. The Museumkaart allows one year's free access to over 400 museums in and around Amsterdam, including all of the major ones, for 59,90 €. If I go to the three museums and the Anne Frank House and pay full price that will be more than the cost of the card, so I'm inclined to buy it, especially if I decide to visit Amsterdam a second time later this year or early next year. I'll likely combine the Museumkaart with a city transit pass.

>225 benitastrnad: Nice, Benita! When was that?

>226 RebaRelishesReading: Same here, Reba! If you have any recommendations for places to visit or dine in Utrecht I am all ears (or eyes, I guess).

I will have to check but it was at least five years ago. It was before he turned 70.

I made a batch of loaded macaroni and cheese today. It sure smelled good baking, but it heated up my house. Oh well, good stuff to eat this week.

What is loaded macaroni and cheese, Benita? It sounds good.

>227 kidzdoc: Darryl, your food sounds heavenly. So, there is only three days of work before leaving for hoiday. They will pass quickly.

>211 kidzdoc: June 27! check! We will work out where to meet on the station!

hi Daryl, I was not able to get any info on that cheese shop. My daughter, the one who took me there, is right now in Indian studying and wifi is rather inaccessible where she is. Sorry about that.

I have an old recipe for macaroni and cheese from the 1950's Betty Crocker cookbook. It uses bread crumbs, milk, butter, cheese, and eggs. I also add peppers ( either green or red, whatever I have on hand), ham or tuna, and sometimes leftover kielbasa, and a good amount of hot sauce for flavoring. This batch was long on peppers and short on cheese, but it still tastes good.

I seem to have picked up another viral upper respiratory infection. I was absolutely dragging at work today, and when I came home I laid down for a nap at 7 pm and didn't wake up for 4-1/2 hours. My throat is quite sore, and I still feel like someone ran me over with an SUV, but I definitely feel better. Hopefully this will pass in the next day or two.

The 3rd floor nurses and PCTs (patient care technicians, aka nurses' aides) prepared a nice Memorial Day spread which I was invited to:



Fortunately I did bring some of the Moroccan lentil & vegetable stew with me, and since I contributed it to the spread I felt comfortable joining them without feeling as if I was a mooch. Food coma...

>231 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. I was too tired after I came home to cook chicken and rice for the pollo ciudad, or make carrot ginger coconut shrimp soup, but I should have time to do that tomorrow after work.

>232 connie53: Sounds good, Connie!

>233 xieouyang: Thanks anyway, Manuel. One of my closer friends at work has been to La Formatgeria la Seu in the Barri Gòtic and she highly recommended it, although she said it was a bit pricy, so I'll pay a visit there this coming weekend. If I run out of cheese I'll look for the shop you mentioned in El Born. It's a relatively small section, so I think I could find it if I ask some of the other shop owners about "el hombre de los quesos."

>234 benitastrnad: That sounds tasty, Benita. One of the patient care technicians that I'm particularly friendly with made macaroni and cheese for the Memorial Day spread, and it was very good. You can see it in the above photo.

Oh dear, get well soon.

>236 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara.

I hope the respiratory stuff clears up soon. It's no fun to fly in that condition.

Oh, dang, Darryl, I'm sorry that you're not feeling well!

Do you think it's easier or more difficult to be ill and be a doctor - is it comforting to have a pretty clear idea of what's wrong or more irritating?

>235 kidzdoc: Sorry to hear you're not feeling well Darryl. I hope it clears up before your holiday.

Get well soon Darryl!!

Empathising re the lurgy Darryl, I've had a bout of asthma cough, with a cold and temperature for four days. And last night had temporarily lost my sense of smell, which has never happened before. It's not back properly, but it is getting there. I know that run over by a truck feeling though. Get fixed soon.

That respiratory stuff is making its rounds here too.

>228 kidzdoc: My son is 41 Darryl and I got my degree in 1983. Have only had short visits to Utrecht since then so I'm afraid I have NO recommendations for restaurants. I'm sure Connie will be a great guide for you.

P.S. The hospital where he was born, the university hospital, was turned into a condo complex many years ago now...but the University is still there of course (it's the second oldest in the Netherlands).

>87 benitastrnad:, >89 kidzdoc: Going way back, western Kansas, flat as a pancake, is the HIGH plains. At the Colorado border, at Goodland, the flat land is at an elevation of 3,681 feet, and it rises, of course, although so gently as to be pretty unnoticeable, to a mile high at Denver before the mountains spring up in a massive wall. So a 4,000 foot mountain isn't going necessarily to be very impressive. In contrast, my home town in central Kansas is at an elevation of 1,155 feet. (I love geology/geography!)

>245 ronincats: Gotta love Kansas fun facts :)

My illness has now declared itself. It's a viral URI (upper respiratory infection) with pharyngitis (I have two moderate sized ulcers on my posterior pharynx, and overall my throat looks like raw hamburger meat and is very sore), tender anterior cervical lymphadenopathy (the lymph nodes located in the front of the neck, on either side of the thyroid gland), erythema (redness) of my palms, fever (100.5 F at the moment), and fatigue (I've crashed at 7-8 pm every night since Sunday). It's probably a coxsackievirus infection that I picked up from one of the kids in the hospital last week, and this is commonly known as hand, foot and mouth disease. Other than rest and plenty of fluids there isn't much else to be done for this.

I tried to move my flight up a couple of days, since the change fee I would have to pay would be recouped by the amount I would save on booking less nights in my hotel room. Unfortunately Delta wouldn't allow me to make the switch online (grrr). So, I'll see how it goes today, and hopefully I can suck it up and make tomorrow afternoon's flights (ATL-JFK, JFK-BCN), or make a game time decision to arrive there in the middle of next week. That would still give me four weeks of vacation instead of nearly five, which is still very good.

>238 cbl_tn: Thanks, Carrie. If I still feel like this on Thursday then I'll probably leave on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. One benefit of leaving after June 1 is that Delta begins its direct ATL-BCN service then, so I wouldn't have to fly to JFK, CDG or AMS and transfer to a connecting flight, which would save at least 2-3 hours of flying time.

>239 scaifea: Thanks, Amber. Your question is a good one, and it depends on the condition. For a routine childhood illness like this one it is comforting, as I now know that I don't have strep throat and I won't need to see my internist before I leave. For something more serious it can be a major hindrance to be a sick physician; one of the books I keep putting off is When Doctors Become Patients by Robert Klitzman, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia, who describes the experiences of several physicians who were diagnosed with serious and sometimes fatal illnesses like cancer and AIDS. Many of these sick doctors try to manage their own conditions, deny the obvious signs of illness, and delay seeing their own primary care physicians. If I stay here over the weekend I'll try to finish it before I leave.

>240 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather. I'm pretty sure that this won't be completely gone by tomorrow, and I'm now thinking of calling Delta and switching my flight, since I wasn't able to do it online. This won't affect the plans I've made for London, Edinburgh and Amsterdam, and I'm sure that I'll be completely back to normal by June 10th, when I fly from BCN to LGW.

>241 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura!

>242 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline; I'm sorry to hear that you're under the weather as well. Most people think of winter URIs as being the worst, but summer viral infections caused by coxsackieviruses and other enteroviruses can be just as bad, if not worse.

>243 thornton37814: Yep. We had a lull in viral illnesses that caused hospitalizations, and our census is still relatively low, but I imagine that it will pick up again in the upcoming weeks, now that the Memorial Day holiday is behind us.

>244 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba. I'm sure that Connie will have plenty of good suggestions.

>245 ronincats: That's very interesting, Roni! I would have thought that the flatlands would be at or barely above sea level. Atlanta is roughly 1000 feet above sea level, but it does have some small hills and the Appalachian Mountains extend into the northern suburbs of the city.

>246 brenpike: Right, Brenda. Who knew?

Off to call Delta...

Done. I'll leave Atlanta next Wednesday, and arrive in Barcelona the following day. The change fee and the refund from the hotel are roughly equal, I'll be able to fly directly from ATL to BCN instead of going through JFK, and I should be right as rain when I do leave.

Back to bed.

Sorry to hear that you'll have less time in Barcelona, but I hope you'll be back to full fitness by the time you go so you'll be able to make the most of your visit.

I'm so sorry your illness has delayed your trip. I hope you have someone who can shop for you to stock your fridge since you're probably low on perishable items because of your travel plans.

Hope you're feeling better soon (and specially in time for your new trip arrangements).

Oh no, this virus isn't a nice one and the contagiosity seems to be hight. Get well soon and I keep my fingers crossed that you can change your flight.

*snork* I should read all posts.
Glad to hear that you have a direct flight and enough time to get well. xx

I'm sorry that you had to delay your trip, but it seems to have worked out pretty well with the hotel and the airline. Now, just Get Better, mister!

And thanks for the thoughts of being a doctor and being ill - very interesting!

Darryl, I'm amazed how easily you roll with the changes in your travel plans, something that would totally stress me out. I'm glad it all worked out for you. Now get some rest and feel better soon!

>251 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire. I thought about sticking with my original schedule and taking it easy in the hotel room until I felt better, but I haven't accomplished much the past four days and would have needed to do several things tomorrow morning before I had to leave for the airport, which was going to be quite stressful. Now I have plenty of time to get everything done and recuperate fully before I leave.

>252 cbl_tn: I'm actually in pretty good shape food wise, Carrie. I have two containers of Moroccan lentil and vegetable stew, two servings' worth of bacon and mushroom pasta, four chicken thighs (for two to four servings of pollo ciudad), and all the ingredients I need to make carrot ginger coconut shrimp soup. I'll probably lay low until the weekend, and go to Publix on Saturday morning.

>253 charl08: Thanks, Charlotte. My throat feels worse than it did several hours ago (this is definitely the worst sore throat I've had as an adult, as it's very painful to swallow saliva or anything else), but so far I don't feel as weary as I did yesterday. I have one long call today to get through, and that's it until July 1.

>254 Ameise1: No, this virus is far from nice! This may not be hand foot and mouth disease exactly, as I don't have ulcers on the inner portion of my mouth (i.e., inner cheeks and lips, gums, and tongue); my ulcers are in the back of my throat. However, I know have a few red dots on my palms, so it still could be HFMD.

>255 scaifea: Thanks, Amber! I was able to get a good seat on the ATL-BCN flight, and taking the direct flight cuts the total trip by nearly 3 hours (just over 9 hours versus nearly 12 hours via JFK). I had to pay extra for that seat, and overall it cost me ~$15-20 to make the switch (roughly $625 to change flights, combined with a hotel refund of around $610). Fortunately I didn't make a non-refundable reservation at the Hotel Barcelona Center.

>256 lauralkeet: It usually isn't a big deal for me to change my itinerary, Laura. The great thing about living in the city with the world's busiest airport and the main hub for one of the world's largest airlines is that there are numerous options to get to practically anywhere I want to go, and it's often just a matter of finding a good seat, especially on a long flight. I also don't have to worry about anyone but myself; it would have been highly difficult, if not impossible, to rebook 3 or more seats together at the last minute.

Off to work...

Morning Darryl! I haven't been by in a few days and I arrive to find you under the weather. The sore throat sounds terrible. I hope you get this wrapped up soon.

It is Miles Davis's birthday, so keep him on, in the background. Doctor's orders.

first stop in here in a long time.....so lots of skimming through. Sorry to hear you are ill. I agree with you on summer URI's.....miserable!

Sorry to hear that you are ill and that has caused a delay in your travel plans. But now you will have a direct and shorter plane trip and have time to do last minute things - a lot less stressful. I know we are all looking forward to traveling with you vicariously. Travel safe.

What a lousy time to get sick. Glad you were able to change plans with relative ease.

Darn it, Darryl! I was just stopping by to wish you Bon Voyage and I learn you've (possibly) got HFMD! Glad you are able to make adjustments to your itinerary. We are going thru a bit of a conundrum ourselves. Long story short - My MIL, very sick. We have non-refundable airline tiks - no bereavement refunds. She could survive weeks - maybe days. I'm staying out of this decision, whatever my husband decides to do is fine. I just don't want to think about it or the inflexibility of today's airlines.

You made the right decision- nothing is worse than being sick in a hotel room- you can be more comfortable in your own place.

Hope you feel better soon, buddy.

Yes, we'll be quizzing you about Barcelona when the time comes. :-)

Sorry to hear you're still ill and have had to postpone your trip but glad you could rearrange everything. Being sick is never fun but it's a lot less fun in a hotel room in a foreign country. Hope you feel better soon.

Feel better soon.

Woo! I'm finished with my last shift of the month, which fortunately wasn't a bad one, and I'm off from work until July 1. I feel considerably better now than I did at this time last night, so I hope that early this morning was the worst of it, and that I'll continue to improve over the next few days.

Even though I'm feeling better I'm glad that I decided to change my flight. I would have to get a lot of things accomplished between now and roughly 1 pm tomorrow, and that would have meant me staying up a good portion of the night to get all of that done; needless to say that is the last thing I want to do right now.

I'll create a new thread tomorrow.

>259 msf59: Hi, Mark! My throat feels much better now than it did this morning, as I can swallow liquids and saliva without significant pain. Earlier today it felt as if a gremlin had abraded the back of my throat with a Brillo pad, then used a dropper to drip battery acid on several areas to cause the ulcers to form.

I couldn't listen to any tributes to Miles Davis yesterday, so I'll check to see if WCKR is having (or did have) a birthday tribute for him.

>260 tangledthread: Yep. Summer colds can be vicious at their worst, especially the enteroviruses, the family of viruses that is the most common cause of meningitis in children and adults.

Oof. I'm struggling to type a coherent message, so I'll think I'll call in a night and finish catching up tomorrow.

Darryl, I'm glad to hear that you feel much better. I keep my fingers crossed that it will continue so.

I'm also glad that you're starting to feel better. Shame that you had to delay your trip though changing to a direct flight certainly helps. Looking forward to your posts from Barcelona.

I'm so glad to see that you're starting to feel better, Darryl! Yay!

Take care of yourself, Doc.

Good morning, everyone! I'm definitely on the mend, but I still have a way to go before I'll be back to full speed. Altering my travel plans was definitely the right thing to do, as I'm still groggy and fatigued, and I seriously doubt that I could have gotten everything done that I needed to before I would have had to leave for the airport. Strong and possibly severe thunderstorms are supposed to strike Atlanta this afternoon, so this wouldn't have been a good day to fly, and it will be a much better experience to take a direct flight from Atlanta to Barcelona next week instead of traveling through JFK.

My throat is still raw and ulcerated, but significantly less so than it was on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

>261 catarina1: Right, Catarina. Now that I have six free days before I leave town I am completely relaxed and at ease with my decision. My seemingly strange decision to cook several meals last weekend turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I have plenty of food on hand, and I'll make carrot ginger coconut shrimp soup for lunch, which will be a great food to help me rebuild my immune system and fight off the remnants of this viral infection.

>262 qebo: Thanks, Katherine. When I originally planned this trip I had thought about waiting to leave until early June, as Delta begins its nonstop service from ATL to BCN on June 1. I'll have less free time in Barcelona, so I'll be more selective on the things that I'll do while I'm there, and I'll leave a visit to Madrid for another time.

>263 Carmenere: I'm very sorry to hear about your situation, Lynda, which is vastly worse than mine, and your MIL's declining health. I pray that all goes as well as it possibly can.

>264 torontoc: Right, Cyrel. It would be far more comfortable to be sick at home than in a hotel room, and I don't think I would have done myself any favors by staying up most of the night and running around like mad this morning to get everything done before I left town. I don't have an iota of regret about the decision to postpone this trip by a few days.

>265 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I'll be happy to give you and anyone else information about Barcelona anytime you'd like.

>266 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather. It was relatively easy and painless to change my flight and hotel reservations, and since I only had to pay a net of $10-15 dollars to make the switches it was a no brainer to do so.

>267 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda!

>270 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. I'm already starting to feel very sleepy, even though I've only been awake for three hours, so I assume that my body is telling me that I need more rest. Fortunately I don't have to do anything today, so I can go back to bed whenever I'd like to.

>271 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry. I'll still have five full days in Barcelona, so I should be able to do most of the things I'd most like to, including visits to the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres and the Monestir de Montserrat.

>272 scaifea: Thanks, Amber!

>273 weird_O: Will do, Bill.

Darryl, sorry you aren't feeling well. I hope you recover quickly for your trip.

I have had so many bad experiences with Delta that I refuse to fly with them anymore. They are NOT customer friendly at all. The last straw was when my daughter was flying home from her dad's and missed her flight because the car broke down on the way to the airport. Delta said that they could not book her until 6:30 a.m. the next day--and charged her a full price for the second ticket.

Glad you got to change the flight. I'm sure your fellow travelers will appreciate it, too!

Thanks, Deborah. I should be back to normal by the weekend, and definitely in time to fly to Barcelona on Wednesday.

I'm sorry that you've had such bad experiences with Delta. Mine have been more positive than not, although I had a notable run in with an African American man at SFO who became irate when my check in bag weighed over 50 lb. I was a Gold Medallion member, and with that status the maximum allowable weight for one bag is 70 lb. I tried to tell him that, but he wasn't having any of it, until a Caucasian female colleague of his came over, told him that I was right, and eased what was about to become a very ugly situation. I kept my calm, but I was doing a slow burn for some time afterward. Unfortunately I was so hot that I failed to find out the name of that jerk.

Right! I did think that the passengers I would have sat next to would have appreciated knowing that I decided not to board that flight due to illness. A few years back I was at ATL about to board a flight to Heathrow, when an English passenger took ill, vomited, and passed out not far from where I was sitting. He insisted that he had to board that flight, but fortunately the Delta staff wouldn't let him on board in that condition. I'm not sure if he was drunk or not, but his speech didn't seem to be slurred, and those of us who saw that scenario unfold were relieved that he was left behind.