Day 2 Thursday, February 28, 2013

We slept in today and it was 9am before we were up and ready to go out. Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating and it is rainy and in the low 40's! We were out anyway trying the coffee and croissants and treking around town. We scoped out the Library at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili that I will be visiting tomorrow. Today we walked there, but since it is supposed to rain again tomorrow, I will take the city bus to get there. This will be the first Library for my research project. The others are in Barcelona and I will not visit them until April.

Our hotel is located on the main circle in the city (population more than 134,000) We have our choice of streets to follow off the circle and have gone up and down the Ramblas street in the past two days. There are many fountains and statues along this street and I will post some of our pictures soon. I have been using my Spanish quite a bit. Lola is picking up some words and has no trouble communicating. We are getting used to the money and both have a pocket full of Euros and assorted change. Everyone has been very nice to us and we are enjoying the stay.

We hope to see some of the Roman ruins in Tarragona tomorrow or for sure on Saturday before we travel back to Barcelona. Rain is keeping us in tonight so Lola is reading her book and I am prepping for my Library visit tomorrow. I hope we have something more exciting to share tomorrow.

Our trip to Spain lasted about eleven hours. It took about seven and a half hours to get to Amsterdam, where we had a 2 hour layover at 6 am  We slept little on the plane, but then it was only about 11:00 pm (Minnesota time) when we arrived there. We went through customs  and I was again patted down even though I removed everything from my pockets, etc. The scanner flagged three different areas including one by my right knee, so I am not sure what it was showing.

It was two hours from Amsterdam to Barcelona. We caught a bus at the airport that took us to Tarragona. We arrived here about 2 pm and found our hotel directly over the bus station. How convenient! We checked in and then walked around Tarragona until about 4:30 when we finally gave in and took a nap. We did not sleep very long and explored the hotel and the area a little more before coming in for the night. The hotel has a roof top pool and seating area that we intend to visit tomorrow evening. It overlooks the very busy main circle in Tarragona.

The hotel is nice and has been recently renovated. We discovered that we needed to insert the room key card to get the electricity on in the room. We are looking forward to exploring Tarragona tomorrow!

My bags are packed and I am ready to go. Everything for a two month trip fit into a backpack, a carry on suitcase and my pockets. For those of you who do not know, I have a sabbatical this spring and will be visiting academic libraries in Barcelona and Tarragona for my research. In addition, I will be studying Spanish for four weeks at the Enforex Language School in Barcelona.

At the end of the sabbatical, I will be joined by my husband, Mike, and my brother, Mike, and his wife, Sigrid, for a 12 day Mediterranean cruise. My research plans are in place. I have contacted Spanish librarians and will be taking tours of their libraries and doing interviews. The Dean of my library, Joan Roca, and his wife, Elaine Lilly, gave me many tips about my travel and I am very grateful to them for that! Thanks, Joan & Elaine.

 A co-worker, Lola Lemcke, is traveling with me for the first eight days. After arriving in Barcelona tomorrow morning, we will be traveling to Tarragona for my first library visit (and to recover from jet-lag!). We will return to Barcelona on March 2 and devote ourselves to sightseeing for the next six days. I will post more as we go. Please feel free to comment on any postings!