1998 Iberian Tour

3-20-1998 Madrid, Spain
I'm baa-aaack!

I should mention that after leaving Bucharest in '95, I visited Vienna, Paris and Madrid for three days each. Now I'm back! Mandi is in the shower and I'm just waiting for my turn. The first thing we did when we got into our room is cuddle. We cuddle every morning we're together and this morning we missed because of the plane flight over. You couldn't really cuddle on a plane. Damon Yauney is with us as part of our tour group. Oops... my turn to shower.

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3-22-98 12:45 AM, Somewhere in Spain
Palacio Real, Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Museo Soifa Reina, Museo del Prado, Hard Rock Cafe, throw in some shopping and a couple of huge meals and you have the last two days. We've seen Picasso, El Greco, Dali, Rubens, Goya, Bosch, etc. We came, we saw, we conquered. Last night we went to bed early, hoping to adjust tot he time zone, but at midnight and 12:20AM Mandi and I were awakened by people dialing the wrong numbers. At 1:00AM there was a group of roudy kids running and yelling up and down the hall. At 2:00AM our upstairs neighbors decided to have a party and began moving the furniture in their room. At that point I got out of bed and went down to the front desk, head messy, shirt inside-out, shorts undone, shoes untied, no socks. I drew quite a few looks from the throng of people in the lobby, however, the manager, upon hearing of my plight, fixed the problem quickly. At 7:30 the next morning I turned up the TV knowing the neighbors would be asleep and was gratified to hear someone pound on the floor above a couple minutes later. Tonite, it is silent in the halls.

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3-23-98 Costa del Sol, Spain
I have to say that the group from North Carolina that is part of our tour. [?] They have two teachers and no guidance whatsoever. The teachers have been both incredibly annoying and a great source of humour for the rest of us. One of them needs slapped and the other we're hoping to get a good price for in Tangiers.

First, there's 'Blondie'; young, bitchy, an aspiring Tammy Faye Baker. She wears enough make-up in a day to keep the industry alive all by herself. Yesterday I made a joke about Washington Irving and his role in World War II. Janet Lueck caught the Catch-22 reference and we laughed pretty good. Blondie (AKA "The Bitchy One" by some) corrected me by pointing out that Washington Irving was long dead by WWII. Great catch, Bimbo! You teach, or so I'm told, but can you read? Anyway, all this happened after a long bus ride in which I tried to lean my seat back (the bus has airplane-like seats) only to be told by the Bi...imbo that it would force her to reposition her legs and not to di it. Did I mention that I haven't slept for 6 hours in one night since before we got to Portland? She's lucky I didn't break her legs! Anyway, I'll get back to her later. Her partner is just as interesting, if less annoying.

The 'Froo-froo' Lady wears just as much make-up, a lot of gaudy jewelry and clothes and is at least 50. Like her partner, she tends to look down her nose at the rest of us. So far today she pitched at least two fits that I've seen, but I have reliable sources who tell me that there were others.

The first one happened in the hotel lobby just after we arrived. We're all waiting in the lobby for our keys, along with 2 other tour groups, when she storms to the front desk and demands a porter for her luggage or she'll leave this hotel. Our poor tour guideis still passing out keys and now has 'Froo-froo' to deal with. I wonder where she thought she was going; to leave the hotel would be to leave the tourgroup and, therefore, her students, behind. We all kind of hoped the guide would call her bluff.

The second snit she had was when we were all lined up for the courtesy van to the beach. We all started finling on board and Froo-froo was last with her friend (who is truly patient for putting up w/Ff). As it turned out, there was only room for one of them. They both stayed, but as the bus pulled away, I could see them and our tour guide (Nerea) deep in meaningful conversation...

One thing both Blondie and Froo-froo have in common is their total lack of supervision over their kids. Damon and I have seen them break a number of rules and even video-taped them drinking at the bar. At least twice B & Ff have gone off to do their own thing and left their charges completely unattended. We laugh now, but would I let my kids go on one of these? Not with B & Ff, that's for sure!

[In fact, Janet was an outstanding example of what a good, caring teacher can do. She not only organized this trip, but kept her charges in line like a mother hen, and she included a number of parents on the trip as well, thus providing not only additional supervision, but family bonding as well. Janet Lueck is as quality a person as you're likely to find outside of heaven.]

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3-24-98 Tangier, Morocco
Quote of the Day, "What's a cavity search?" Dad and mom got the wrong stamp in their passportson the ferry over here and had to spend an extra ten minutes waiting for it to be corrected before they set foot here in Africa. [Dad hollered the cavity line down the gangplank while waiting for the Morrocan officials to correct their mistake. I was somewhat surprised he didn't actually get one after such a prank.]

Today was pretty full. We saw the Casbah and went for a camel ride. This place reminds me of Korea in that it is so foreign that you can't even read a coke bottle. It is beautiful though, not a desert at all, in fact, the only people who ride camels are tourists, everyone else has a car. There aren't very many trucks at all, and only a few sport-utes. Something that Spain and Morocco both have in common is their prolific use of tile. They make streetsigns out of tile, they paint mosaics and murals on tile, and they use colored tiles for decoration. I'm inspired, I'll use some back at Frog's Leap. [We used to live on Frog's Leap Lane in Eugene, OR.]

One thing to watch out for are the plethora of street vendors. They harass and harangue and try their best to rip you off. They lurk like vultures just outside the hotel door. [Although we were perfectly safe, the girls were a little freaked out by the way these guys would pressure you all the way down the street. they would literally wait for just outside the hotel and even sought to make eye contact with you before you even got out of the lobby.]