Valencia and Barcelona

After our few days in Morocco, we rested at home for a day and then headed out on a road trip to northern Spain and southern France. The cast of characters included our friends Fran (as in Francisco) and Belén (as in Bethlehem, yes, her name means Bethlehem). 

We lucked out with great weather, except for one rainy day in France, and having a rainy morning in France isn't exactly the worst thing that can happen to you. We were limited to a few old CDs (a perilous situation on a road trip), but  of the CDs happened to be the Forrest Gump soundtrack, which is more or less the best CD I can think of to have on repeat on a car trip.

So there we were, rolling down French highways with Spanish friends, singing about California dreamin'. We stopped in Valencia and Barcelona, both of which were pretty great. Valencia is very modern and looked prosperous to us, as we're accustomed to the poorer south. I kept looking around at all the clean, neat apartment buildings and wondering where everyone put their laundry. In Málaga laundry is hanging everywhere outside windows, which seemed odd to me at first, but I suppose now I'm so adjusted to it that the city felt a bit sterile without it.

Fran and The Mister 

Belén and I, quite well-lit.

Then, it was on to Barcelona, which is one of my favorite cities in Spain. I know this is going to be a controversial statement, but I'm gonna throw it out there - I really prefer it hands-down to Madrid. It's got quirky architecture lots of parks and huge avenues that are vaguely reminiscent of Paris. Also, there is a camera store near the Plaza de España that has a floor tailor-made for moonwalking. I know this because we stopped in and The Mister and I had an impromptu moonwalk contest (he won, naturally) because life is too short to pass up such perfect opportunities to attempt a moonwalk in public.

Also, the sunrise over the sea was my walk to work yesterday morning. It's titled "Why I'll be sad to leave Spain: Exhibit A."