1-june-09 or monday. i know it's monday!

i'm in carcassone at a cyber cafe. holy shit! the key board is all different. so what have we done...the air trip went very well.

we bypassed barcelona and drove straight to lloret de mar. it reminded me of san juan capistrano beach. hotels and condos everywhere. it took us 3 hotels to find the right place. we had to pee so it made it that much funnier. we both had booked a massage thinking the trip would be tense. it was. the gal spoke french or spanish only but not a word of english. it was a good massage but the instructions took much longer to understand than normal.

the drive from there to cadaques was spectacular. the rocky cliffs were punctuated by sandy coves or bays that had condos or towns. it seemed very remote even tho there were towns every 20 km or so. it must be beautiful to sail along.

cadaques is the home town of dali. it is also a fishing village. we didn't go to see his house but it is touted to be a bit odd. go figure. the hotel was in the next cove - port llegat. quiet and rocky. we drove out to the cap 'd cruz...a point in the first national park of spain and has a lighthouse. the headland is rocky and windswept. dinner was in town on the main beach. it is lined with bars and places to eat.

the next day we headed to carcassonne. crossing from spain into france was a breeze. the spanish guards checked out the young couple ahead of us and passed the old ladies right on thru.

at perpignan we headed into the interior. we planned to stop at rennes le chateau of da vinci code fame but it was getting late. we drove thru the "gorges de galamas". it was spectacular. we didn't understand that the main part of the gorge was single lane. it worked out ok but were not sure if a horn toot is always friendly.

we easily found the house in pennautier just north of the city of carcassonne. the deal was to call the owner and she would meet us at the house. the pay phone in the town wouldn't take the credit card as we thot it should. we asked the bar owner but he didn't speak english. off we went to town and couldn't get a phone to work there either. after asking at 2 cell phone stores, we decided to look for a young person who we thot could speak english and had a cell phone. regina asked a gal and gave her 5 euro to call for us. finally! the house is on a 1 way street and seems to be 10' wide x33' long. it is over floors. last night i got to thinking about being on the top floor with 1 window to the interior terrace 12' below and a staircase my dogs would have a hard time negotiating...i got claustrophobic big time. all i kept thinking about was dad telling us on our travels to look for a way out in case of fire. god it took a long time to fall asleep!

now that we know where this cafe is i'll be online more often and tell more tales of out travels