Back to France

Let me just say that Carcassonne in southern France has the most screwed up keyboards ever. Everything is in the wrong place and you have to use the shift key to get all numbers and punctuation!!!! So anyway, we just spent a few days in Barcelona seeing art by the architect Antoni Gaudi and works by one of my favorite artists; Barcelonas own Joan Miro. Barcelona was clean, open and felt pretty safe. I was pretty surprised when we got off the train and went into Mcdonalds and everything was in Catalan and not Spanish. We were hoping some new cuisine on offer but it was the same old stuff. Saw Gaudis unfinished Temple of the Holy Family, known here as the Sagrada Familia. It was pretty amazing and I dont think it will be done in my lifetime. Inside in the towers where tourists can go is entirely defaced with graffiti. It is unbelieveable. We were in a nice park in Barcelona and we actually saw the leaves of big cactus and aloe plants defaced by things like Juan + Maria!!

We came yesterday by train to the Unesco city of Carcassonne in France. We were going to stay in a small village near here and rent a car and go visit some mysterious towns but we couldnt rent a car since it was sunday and couldnt get the guesthouse owners on the phone so we are just staying in a run of the mill hotel and are going to stay 2 nights instead of 4 so we are off to Rome tomorrow. It is very very cold here!!! We agree that the French people here are way more freiendly than they were in Paris! Now we are going to have a delicious French lunch and go visit the medieval walled town and castle. It is just like something from King Arthur!!!