BARCELONA--On to the CANARY ISLANDS

A Parade and More.

    Today we begin the trek to the Canary Islands--limo to the airport, flight to Tenerife, driver/taxi across Island to Los Christianos, Ferry to La Gomera (an Island and hour away by hydroplane ferry), taxi across La Gomera to rural hotel in Hermigua.  Up at 6 to start the day and will hopefully arrive around midnight among the banana plantations, high in the mountains of the island of La Gomera. We may have no internet this coming week--so if you hear nothing, we're either off the grid or we decided to abandon all our worldly possessions and vacation forever.... both are reasonable possibilities.
    And Barcelona continues to amaze.  They held a parade in our honor yesterday ("American Ego" on full display there). But really, they did, in the Medieval/Roman city at the heart of Barcelona. An interesting thought: the old Roman walls and city are mostly buried because the Center for Preserving Everything Old Because It's Always Better Than The New Stuff had not yet been founded. Buildings were taken down and on top of them came the new Medieval City which the Mores (a/k/a Muslims) burned to the ground, only to be replaced by yet another city and magnificent Cathedral in the 12th Century, only be torn down (mostly) again late in the 1800's and early 1900's to build a modern city. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, about what will be left of what we have built in another 1,000 years. (Bet on "not much".)
     So, here's the parade of flutes, recorders and drums with costumed characters being carried on the head of a child on a chair.  Gotta love a parade!

      And that Gothic Cathedral was quite a sight.  Ken Follet wrote the best book about building a cathedral (Pillars of the Earth), and here it is--took 200 years to build. (Kinda like the last carpenter you hired to fix the kitchen....)

   
     Great food all the time, perhaps for another description. Tapas 24 was marvelous (thanks Roger Strode) and Moments, a two star Michelin restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental was likely the best restaurant we have ever eaten at! (The chef has 7 Michelin stars!). And wherever we stopped for Sangria and Tapas was always a treat.  No wonder folks "sit" a lot here and just watch the world go by. Seems like a good idea.

     AND, what great Gothic Cathedral would not be complete without a goose wandering around with his colleagues (perhaps a new Catholic Order?)