After spending nearly an hour trying to get out of Marseille, we headed to Barcelona.
Happily, in our "tour" we got to see the cathedral that we didn't have time to drive by, as well as a lot of the downtown area. I think whoever programs routes into the Garmin GPS must have a wicked sense of humor. More than once in Ferrara I've seen a terrified-looking Japanese tourist gripping the wheel of his little rental car, attempting to navigate down a narrow road that is obviously designated only for pedestrians and bicycles. We had a similar experience in Marseille, turning left onto a road where there was barely room to fit between the parked cars and then being directed to turn right. Fortunately, The Linguist just stopped and turned the van around (much to the chagrin of the traffic trying to use the through road) before we barreled through the walkway filled with fruit stands!
Our drive to Barcelona was notable for just 2 things -- the number of tolls and our European bathroom experience. I lost count, but it seems like we stopped at least 10-15 different times for tolls during what was supposed to be a 4-hour drive! All of those stops just seemed to make the drive last forever and added a good hour or so onto our trip. The toll machines in France rejected our credit card, so I don't have a good record of the money we fed into those machines, but it was over 50 euro (about $80). Despite that, it was a beautiful drive and the the landscape really changes as it transitions from France to Spain. But I digress! I'm supposed to be telling you about the bathroom....(no pictures : ))
So bathrooms in Europe vary from place to place -- not region to region, but store to store, restaurant to restaurant. Sometimes they don't have toilet seats. Those, apparently, are optional. Sometimes they have bidets (that's a whole other blog post!). One time I entered the restroom and found that the whole toilet is optional. It was just a big hole in the floor! Anyway, the kids and I hopped out to use the bathroom in France and found the women's bathroom was closed for cleaning. The solution? Everyone was just using the men's bathroom. Men lined the wall, using urinals, and other men, women and children we using the rest of the facility. It was just business as usual...in a smaller space. I was grateful Songbird was not with us or she would've had a fit! As it was, we strolled in just like this is how things always operate and made all of our comments of surprise AFTER returning to the van.
We finally arrived in Barcelona and were thrilled to meet up with some good friends from our Montana days! When we found out they would be finishing up a cruise in Barcelona and that we could spend the evening together if we flip flopped some dates on our trip, we just couldn't resist! The kids spent the afternoon/evening in the hotel game area and took a dip in the really cold pool. Afterward we walked over to a huge department store called El Corte Inglés for dinner and enjoyed good food and lots of conversation.
We feel truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family...and even more blessed when we get to spend some time with them -- even just for a few hours.
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| Downtown Marseille. We're driving toward a facade of an archway overlooking downtown. It was realistic enough to make us double take. |
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| The cathedral we didn't have time to drive by... |
Our drive to Barcelona was notable for just 2 things -- the number of tolls and our European bathroom experience. I lost count, but it seems like we stopped at least 10-15 different times for tolls during what was supposed to be a 4-hour drive! All of those stops just seemed to make the drive last forever and added a good hour or so onto our trip. The toll machines in France rejected our credit card, so I don't have a good record of the money we fed into those machines, but it was over 50 euro (about $80). Despite that, it was a beautiful drive and the the landscape really changes as it transitions from France to Spain. But I digress! I'm supposed to be telling you about the bathroom....(no pictures : ))
So bathrooms in Europe vary from place to place -- not region to region, but store to store, restaurant to restaurant. Sometimes they don't have toilet seats. Those, apparently, are optional. Sometimes they have bidets (that's a whole other blog post!). One time I entered the restroom and found that the whole toilet is optional. It was just a big hole in the floor! Anyway, the kids and I hopped out to use the bathroom in France and found the women's bathroom was closed for cleaning. The solution? Everyone was just using the men's bathroom. Men lined the wall, using urinals, and other men, women and children we using the rest of the facility. It was just business as usual...in a smaller space. I was grateful Songbird was not with us or she would've had a fit! As it was, we strolled in just like this is how things always operate and made all of our comments of surprise AFTER returning to the van.
We finally arrived in Barcelona and were thrilled to meet up with some good friends from our Montana days! When we found out they would be finishing up a cruise in Barcelona and that we could spend the evening together if we flip flopped some dates on our trip, we just couldn't resist! The kids spent the afternoon/evening in the hotel game area and took a dip in the really cold pool. Afterward we walked over to a huge department store called El Corte Inglés for dinner and enjoyed good food and lots of conversation.
We feel truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family...and even more blessed when we get to spend some time with them -- even just for a few hours.
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