Back online, from Spain
Oct. 2nd, 2003 02:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayI'm in Nerva, Huelva, Spain, a town of about 10K in northern Andalucia. This is a few km from the Rio Tinto mine site, where our drilling is occurring.
It's late here (2:20am) so this will be relatively brief before I go to bed... I'm coming down with a cold.
The flight over was nearly full, but I was lucky and kept a vacant middle seat next to me. I slept a few hours on the plane... arriving in Madrid, I tried to get a cash advance on my NASA card from an ATM -- but it wouldn't go through. After several calls back to the US, I finally could retrieve $150 or so... sigh. This problem happened in Japan, and it was supposed to have been fixed.
By the time I arrived at the rental car counter, my car had been let. All they had available ("free upgrade!" ha...) was a (large) Chrysler minivan. Diesel, with a 5-speed. Dave promised to teach me how to drive a stick shift sometime before I drive back to Madrid next week. But maneuvering the large van on narrow streets is a nuisance. Jetlagged, we made it to Plaza Mayor and our hotel... then I grabbed a bocadillo calamares (squid sandwich) for lunch and we walked to the royal palace:
Which was large, ornate, and a bit over-the-top... it was raining, so we then took a cab to the Prado museum. I hired a guide for 40E, split 3 ways... she was knowledgeable, but fast -- flitting from floor to floor to the highlights (good, because we only had 3 hours). I saw the evolution of Velasquez, influences on Goya (who I never realized was so similar in style to the century-later Impressionists) as well as Hieronymous Bosch (below) and El Greco.
Nancy and David had to sit -- they were exhausted. For dinner, we visited a couple of tapas bars and then an all-night chocolaterie -- thick pudding-like cocoa, into which one dips thin churros (like long beignets... it reminded me of Cafe du Monde in New Orleans).
This morning, after more credit card conversations (back to the US), we left Madrid and drove first to Toledo...
where we saw the huge, beautiful cathedral (stunning paintings and the St; Louis Bible, too) and had lunch (more calamares). Then drove the remaining six hours to Nerva... playing CDs, including ones burned by James and byrosefox.
Upon arriving, Jhony greeted me and immediately asked me if I could take over configuring the wireless access point/router (the same one thatpatgreene mailed almost two weeks ago ;-). Telefonica had this afternoon installed our DSL line to the hotel and dropped a DSL modem there with an unknown configuration. I had it identified, properly configured and the building online in about half an hour... he'd been wrestling with it for hours. Then I talked to Howard while chatting online with hopeforyou about setting up her external server access.
It's late here (2:20am) so this will be relatively brief before I go to bed... I'm coming down with a cold.
The flight over was nearly full, but I was lucky and kept a vacant middle seat next to me. I slept a few hours on the plane... arriving in Madrid, I tried to get a cash advance on my NASA card from an ATM -- but it wouldn't go through. After several calls back to the US, I finally could retrieve $150 or so... sigh. This problem happened in Japan, and it was supposed to have been fixed.
By the time I arrived at the rental car counter, my car had been let. All they had available ("free upgrade!" ha...) was a (large) Chrysler minivan. Diesel, with a 5-speed. Dave promised to teach me how to drive a stick shift sometime before I drive back to Madrid next week. But maneuvering the large van on narrow streets is a nuisance. Jetlagged, we made it to Plaza Mayor and our hotel... then I grabbed a bocadillo calamares (squid sandwich) for lunch and we walked to the royal palace:
Which was large, ornate, and a bit over-the-top... it was raining, so we then took a cab to the Prado museum. I hired a guide for 40E, split 3 ways... she was knowledgeable, but fast -- flitting from floor to floor to the highlights (good, because we only had 3 hours). I saw the evolution of Velasquez, influences on Goya (who I never realized was so similar in style to the century-later Impressionists) as well as Hieronymous Bosch (below) and El Greco.
Nancy and David had to sit -- they were exhausted. For dinner, we visited a couple of tapas bars and then an all-night chocolaterie -- thick pudding-like cocoa, into which one dips thin churros (like long beignets... it reminded me of Cafe du Monde in New Orleans).
This morning, after more credit card conversations (back to the US), we left Madrid and drove first to Toledo...
where we saw the huge, beautiful cathedral (stunning paintings and the St; Louis Bible, too) and had lunch (more calamares). Then drove the remaining six hours to Nerva... playing CDs, including ones burned by James and by
rosefox.Upon arriving, Jhony greeted me and immediately asked me if I could take over configuring the wireless access point/router (the same one that
patgreene mailed almost two weeks ago ;-). Telefonica had this afternoon installed our DSL line to the hotel and dropped a DSL modem there with an unknown configuration. I had it identified, properly configured and the building online in about half an hour... he'd been wrestling with it for hours. Then I talked to Howard while chatting online with hopeforyou about setting up her external server access.
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-01 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-01 10:21 pm (UTC)I like pictures.
I'm so impressed you know how to do that even when you're away from home.
I barely know how to do that when I'm
AT home, with my 'in home technical help' person to guid me.
:)
heh.
get over the cold quick!
eat lots and lots of really hot food, right?