Our little car

Hi to Michele, Alex and Colette. I´m enjoying your blog. Keep it coming.

Today we got a car. It is a lovely orange colour. She is a ripper. The region on the map in red is Catalan, just in case you are wondering: Where in the world is Greta Caruso?

Debbie, who is really hopeless on foot, has a wonderful sense of direction when driving. She understands the color-coded road system, the wrong side of the road thing, the impossibly confusing left hand turn, the primary, secondary and tertiary roads, the ring roads, the manual transmission, the various routes to the destination, and even which roads have tolls and which don´t. Her phenomenal skill on the road makes no sense because every single time we walked out of the hotel room in Barcelona, she turned the wrong way. So, how does she do it in a car? Wonders never cease.

We are paying homage, and when I get back I am going to read George Orwell again. I did go to the Geroge Orwell memorial in Barcelona, but it is not much.

If you want to follow our travels with your finger on a map then the circuit so far is Barcelona, Sitges, Tarragona, Mont Blanc.

Still Dancing
Catalan dancing apparently helps keep the idea of Catalan independance alive. Folk dancing done in unison with the town´s people holding hands will have a bonding effect, I suppose. The dance is so complicated it keeps out the non-Catalonians but does not require a level or excertion that would exclude the elderly or unfit. We wandered around the seemingly dead town on Mont Blanc, til we found what seemed to be the whole town gathered for an afternoon of dancing. The band was up on a stage and they played clarinet style horns that I have never seen before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri5XY9f3alI
And here, in Mont Blanc we stop for the night.

Swimming in Euorpe. In Sitges, we went for a swim and people could barely tell us from the locals. The few give away signs were

• We were wearing wide brimmed hats that kept the sun OFF our faces.
  
• We tried NOT to get burnt. (The Spaniards it seems are completely resistent to skin cancer; not one mother chasing an escapee toddler trying to slap on sunscreen, not a rash vest, nor hat, nor sun glasses)



• We COVERED UP with sarongs pretty quickly after actually swimming rather than just standing in the knee high water and having a mini-conference with our friends.



• We actually IMMERSED ourselves in the water and got our hair WET.



• We did not wander about TOPLESS (even though many our age put all the rolls and wrinkles out for display with not a care, and good on them I say.)



• We are not GAY. (But we are pretty happy that we came here.)
  
  The perfect outfit for a hot day.