¡Hola from Barcelona!

The rest of our time in Lisbon went well. We climbed up to (yet 
another) castle on a hill overlooking the city, visited the riverside 
(actually an estuary) tower from which various Portuguese explorers 
such as Vasco Da Gama set forth to conquer the world (okay, so they 
were really just trying to break the Arab spice trade monopoly and 
merely stumbled upon the rest of the world), and met with some locals 
and other travelers over tasty food and beverages (such as Porto, 
a.k.a., port wine).

We left after a few days for Seville via a night train to Madrid
which 
was much more pleasant than our prior night train experience (we 
actually had learned our lesson and got a 1st class seat reservation
a 
day in advance this time). Seville was great, with some spectacular 
architecture (world's largest cathedral which contains Christopher 
Columbus´ tomb if not his actual body; two impressive suspension 
bridges over the Guadalaquiver River near the Expo 92 site; classic 
old town crooked and narrow streets reminiscent of a rat´s maze).
One 
night there, we found a flamenco bar and heard some impressive
spanish 
guitar playing while watching ladies in full flamenco dress dance in 
patterns surprisingly similar to belly dancers. We wildly speculated 
that this evolved from the Moorish influence on Andalusia (southern 
Spain), although we've no real data to support that theory.
Perhaps 
someone out there has a clue for us?

After three days, we boarded a daytime train bound for Barcelona and 
watched the scenic Spanish countryside roll by. At this point in the 
trip, we were starting to feel the strain of too many hostels, 
museums, train stations, etc. and decided we needed to take a
vacation 
from our vacation. So we jumped off the train in Valencia with plans 
to find a boat to Ibiza, one of the Balaeric Islands off the east 
coast of Spain in the Mediterranean. Turns out that Valencia was 
having some kind of holiday and all the tourist offices were closed, 
no boats were heading for the islands. We spent the night there and 
found ourselves in a festival atmosphere, spying from behind the 
buildings the top of a spectacular fireworks display which went on
for 
about 45 minutes.

The next day, we boarded a bus for Denia where more frequent ferry 
boats left for the islands. We shipped off to sea and about 5 hours 
later were checking into a hotel room (with it's very own
bathroom!!!) 
in Ibiza City. Turned out that the high season was past and things 
were not quite as active as we'd hoped. Nevertheless, we did
managed 
to chill out on a couple of beaches, swim in the sea, and even found
a 
busy discotheque one night were we participated in the foam dance (the 
flood the dance floor with about 5 feet of soap foam - messy, but
quite 
amusing at 3:00 a.m.).

On the 13th, we took the night ferry to Barcelona and have spent the 
last three days here seeing the sights and hanging out with a fun 
group of travelers from a hostel here. We visited the Picasso Museum 
which has much of his early work (he started painting around 12 years 
of age), which was already quite good but very true to life - many 
portraits with strikingly detailed features. Within a few short
years, 
you could see how his style evolved, with some cubist elements 
creeping into at first his sketches and then later his paintings 
before finally breaking out into the completely psychedelic forms
that 
is more commonly associated with Picasso. We learned that his father 
was an artist and teacher and that he realized quite early that his 
son was a much better artist, at which point the father quit painting 
and never picked up a brush again. Around town, we watched the
nightly 
lights & music synchronized with a large water fountain (captured
that 
on video tape) and saw some of Gaudi´s amazing architecture,
including 
the Temple de la Sagrada Familia (a work in progress for 112 years
and 
counting and still not even half done - looks like it may very well 
displace one of the 7 wonders once it's completed) and Guell Park,
the 
most fantastic display of landscape architecture either of us had
ever 
seen. He was obviously way ahead of his time, creating these 
fascinating, colorful structures at the turn of the last century. We 
also sampled some tasty paella (saffron rice dish with seafood) and 
some really fine $0.75 per bottle wine (well, okay, at least it had a 
cork in it). We met a fun group of Argentine and other travelers at 
our hostel, and we sat around singing and playing guitar into the 
evening, venturing out for a 1 a.m. swim under the full moon on
Friday 
the 13th.

Tonight we're off to Nice and the Cote D'Azur (French Riviera) for
a 
day or two before pressing on to Italy and points east.

Adios amigos,
Than & Chris