Saturday, November 6, 2010

Camino Day 1 Leon- but first RUTHIE where are you???


Sept. 22 2010

It was almost midnight when we had arrived in Leon after the worst travel experience of the trip. We were told by bike spain we should be okay getting our bikes on the train......don't try it. All trains accept 3 bikes....we took all three, but the conductor did not want to let us on. If it weren't for some very supportive bystanders we would not have got on the train. They complained and held a mini boycott on the platform or we would still be standing there....after all that stress Cammie cried for 3 solid hours till we pulled out the stroller and put him in it.

In the dark of a foreign city we biked until we found our hostel (which Rob had pre-booked praises be) and we found out that our hostel had no windows and that they were two ajoining rooms not one room for all of us. It did however overlook the most incredible Cathedral that was lit up in the night and the wonderful thing about Spain is that everyone is out on the street with their babies at midnight so they didn’t think that we were up for the worst parents of the world award.

I brought the kids downstairs to find breakfast while Rob had gotten on the bike and decided to see if he could find Ruth somewhere in the city. The best is that while the kids and I were downstairs who should come through the door, but Ruthie! So amazing to see family in the middle of our adventure.

Rob eventually showed up and we ate a raisin bun and café-con- leche’s outside underneath the gaze of the Cathedral. The kids were so happy to have someone to play with besides us, and we met all kinds of interesting “peregrino’s” from all over the world and even one man from Etobicoke. Small, small world. After breakfast and check out and speding time in the cathedral we biked to get our pilgrim passports which prove that you are legit to all the pilgrim hostal’s on the way and then we headed out for day one of biking the Camino!


adios modern transport.....hello biking...and walking (the first hill was a doozie.)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Falafel in Paris- little middle east

So we were winding our way down a small alleyway in Paris, taking the scenic route back home. Strangely enough I started seeing Hebrew lettering on the storefronts. We kept going and I saw men dressed in black and wearing keepah’s and suddenly I was back home in the middle east. We couldn’t resist the 3 falafel shops in a row. Sure enough, best falafel this side of Jerusalem was had in Paris.
We confirmed we were in the middle east, because 2 guys start fighting over a motorcycle, till mama comes out of a shop and beats the 2 grown men with her cane……ahhhhhh the middle east.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Businessmen and Baguettes


Sept 6 2010

Yes, accommodations may be less than desirable for the young family trying to stick to a budget, but I really do love Paris. I love that men in suits have a cellphone in one hand and a baguette to take home in the other. I love that the café’s are lined with tables looking out on the street and that every table is taken. That there is a love for good food, friends and café crème. It is also so beautiful. The attention to detail and beauty makes me think the line of kings couldn’t have been all bad…well, except for Marie Antoinette.


I had brought Dickens’s A tale of Two Cities to read with me on the plane and was so glad I did. We were staying in the “Bastille” district map(which perhaps explains why our hotel was less than stellar) and it was making me a little squeamish reading Dickens’ account of the French Revolution at the same moment as I was walking Parisian streets where so much blood had been shed.
What a history this country has.