From French into Catalan!

Hola! (Not sure if that’s even how it’s spelled!!)

We are now in Gerona, Spain, settled in to our hotel, fed and watered and ready for tomorrow! Wasn’t sure, though, if we would ever make it here...so will begin the story of the day...Got up early, had breakfast at the hotel, and were ready to go by 9. Really hated to leave Hotel Arene; it was lovely, and the people were some of the nicest and most accommodating we have ever experienced! They couldn’t do enough for us, and I’m sure we pushed the envelope, especially with asking about hairdressers and laundries! Had the car delivered, and made our way (slowly; didn’t want to leave any paint on those narrow Orange streets!) out to the motorway. It was only about an hour and a half to Marseille – until we got into town, that is. The motorway lets out, actually, not too far from the Marseille train station – but boy, once you get there, wow, are they doing construction! The entire block next to the train station (which used to hold most of the rental car locations) is now closed down and under construction, as is the train station itself. Found ourselves really lost trying to get to Europcar (thanks, Ryan Air, for cancelling our flight from the airport 20 miles out of town, where we were to spend tonight at a hotel right across the street...) – turns out that a temporary building holding all of the rental car agencies has been set up (and strangely, not on the Marseille map or on GPS!) – and a big building for all the rental cars; just park wherever, and they’ll somehow find it! We were lucky to find some very nice folks to help us get to where we needed to go. At one point, I dropped R off with the luggage and then went to park the car – he thought he’d never see me again! Will really miss our Ford S-Max! A bit too big for comfort in small towns and on small streets, but incredibly comfortable! And I want you to know that right to the end, I still was having problems confusing Reverse and 1st! Then the train station ... you know, catching trains is NOT like catching planes. No need to get there ahead of time, but sure enough, we were there 4 hours early...and the facilities – well, suffice to say it’s not where I’d chose to spend a day! Had some lunch first – pizza, and then sat down to read books and wait ... and wait ... and wait...Finally our train was given a platform, and we (and our incredibly heavy luggage) were on our way! Fairly good train (not TGV) to Montpelier, and fortunately, our connection to Spain was just across the platform; YEA! Really enjoyed the entire train ride. It follows the coast most of the way around and into Spain, and the Med was lovely; lots of flowers (including my poppies!) Very interesting crossing the border. First the French police came on board to check passports – and actually hauled off someone who apparently didn’t have one – or one they liked! R very upset, as this is supposed to be the EU ... however, as soon as the train passed into Spain, on came the Spanish police, again checking passports; looked like they also found someone they didn’t like, as we saw them headed off the train with someone else! Fortunately, they seemed to like ours ... French police barely glanced at them! Oh well! Then we were in Spain, and not long after, to Gerona. Got a cab at the train station to our hotel; clear on the other side of town, but very, very nice ... one out of two ... they have Wi-Fi, which I’m on now, but NO EUROSPORT! What is WITH these people!!! As it was already 9:15 p.m. we decided to eat here at the hotel. They had a lovely buffet set up – stewed beef, paella, potatoes, vegetables, salad makings, cheeses, Serrano ham, melons; YUM! Only difficulty – this is Catalonia, you know, so Spanish doesn’t work here, and neither, it seems, does English! At any rate, R tried Vino Roja hoping for red wine ... turns out that here, it’s Vino Tinto; Vino Roja (rose) got us some very interesting rose; tasted almost like Sangria, although we saw it poured from the bottle...Are now up in our room drinking a bottle of the wine that we got with Alain and Graciela. As it is, we’ve had to give away several bottles – not because we wanted to, but because there was no WAY we could drink everything we bought, and it’s NEVER going to fit in our luggage!!! R is going to repack for us in the morning; he’s the champion packer, and I know he will get everything just right ... we are dragging quite a bit of laundry detergent in the form of tablets, which I refuse to give up!! So, that’s about it for now! Sorry there aren’t any pictures, but I don’t think you would think much of the Marseille train station! Take care, and hopefully, more from Italia!!
Much love,
m