Day 5 - June 17th

11:16am - We just got on our charter bus, and we are headed to Logrono for our family stay. I am so thankful for my mom right now. The Dramamine she got for me to pack will probably save me today. The water/light show we went to last night was really fun. We were all energized after resting in the hotel, and the fountain was beautiful.  We took lots of pictures. Next to the fountain, there was another group of tourists dancing and singing American songs with thick accents, which was really funny. We sang along for a bit and wanted to join their dancing, but our group had to stick together and keep moving because we were short on time.  We began gathering together at about 11:30pm and realized how short we really were.  We needed to catch TWO metro lines home and the metro stops at 12... (btw, we just passed Nestle on the bus, which I think is funny).  We ran through the metro trying to get to our check points, swipe our shared tickets, find the correct line, find our correct stop, double check, wait for the tram, stay together, watch out for creepy men, get on the tram, watch out for pickpockets, remember the name of the stop, get out, regroup, run to the next station/line, Senor had Megan and I help get everyone through the checkpoint with our shared tickets, regroup, run/find our next stop, wait for metro, realize it's 12, panic! Although, Senora explained, luckily for us, we would be able to ride the metro back because we had swiped our tickets at the checkpoint and were already in. She compared it to going into a mall right before close and being allowed to finish up. That meant no more panicking, and the metro was almost empty, so it was easy to be wary of all possible pickpockets (cateristas, ladrones).

When we got back to the room that night we packed a little and got to sleep at about one. Rebecca got up to shower at around 645, so I got out of bed at seven. This gave us all PLENTY of time to finish packing, get ready without being rushed, relax, etc - I was even able to update my travel blog.

Now, I'm getting sleepy. I may take a nap and finish this later.

1:35pm The Spanish countryside is so beautiful. My nap was very nice, as well.

Back to my morning - after updating my blog, I went back up to the room, and all three of us came down for breakfast. We made a few trips to the market down the street in groups of 3 or 4 to get snacks and "lunch" for the bus only to find out now that we're stopping somewhere. I suppose that's good because this charter bus ("home" for 6 hours) has no bathroom!

Hopefully, that won't end up being a problem.

3:30 "I wish Quique was here."     (This was the code phrase we were supposed to use if there was ever a problem at our family stay).

3:31 I think we just drove by a sheep (ovejas) farm.  I didn't get a great look, but it was pretty exciting. I just don't want to think about where they're headed.

The Spanish countryside slightly resembles Colorado - just factor in more grapes and olives, so probably more of a CO/CA mix.
There are periodically large clusters of windmills, too, but it is too hilly to resemble the midwest much.  Most of the houses/building I've seen are made of stone -from the small, quaint cottages to the larger (but still small by US standards), beautifully crafted farmyard estates.

Their pine trees are strangely narrow and straight.

Flower bushes line parts of the highway.

I'm thinking back to yesterday's visit to la Sagrada Familia. Still under construction, this remarkably intricate Catedral is filled with beautiful patterns and colors. It seemed to be entirely lit by natural light, which was even more breathtaking.  I'm in a pretty artsy mood right now, so I'm hoping to create some sort of collage using the colors/patterns in my pictures when I get home. I could print some pictures, match them to some paint chips, possibly add in some ribbon and/or textured paper. I'm excited for it.