Thursday, October 25, 2012

World Series 2012 - Game 2

When Buster tagged out Fielder at the plate, once again I felt that we were meant to win this World Championship.  Here is a link to some photo's of that game.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

World Series 2012 in San Francisco, A.T. & T. Park

What a year it has been for our San Francisco Giants!

From shutting out the Dodgers, in 3 consecutive home games in June for the first time in the over 1,200 games these teams have played against each other to Matt Cain's perfect game, I was there through it all!

I went to the first two playoff games, which we lost to Cincinnati. We then went on vacation to Spain, Costa Brava and Barcelona.  When I left I did not think that the Giants could go to Cincinnati and win 3 straight games on the road....but they did.  So while I was in Barcelona at 3:00 am I am watching my MLB app listening to Kruk and Kuip...the Giants again face elimination for the 4th time.  Yet we win game 5 in St Louis to bring the series back to SF.  We arrived home from Spain on Saturday, October 22nd, so I was able to attend games 6 and 7 which we won.  It was the first game 7 in over 50 years of SF Giants history.  It is/was destiny that we swept the Detroit Tigers, when all the experts where picking them.  4 games to 0

World Series 2012 in San Francisco at AT&T Park

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Barcelona

After our arrival and check in at our Barcelona hotel we had to return our rental car.  The return location was in a mall near the ocean.  We returned the car had a wonderful walk along the ocean boardwalk as we headed towards our hotel.  In 1992 Barcelona hosted the Summer Olympics and this help to create the city Barcelona is today.  They build very modern designed building, so Barcelona is a city of the "Old Modernisme" and the NEW truly Modern buildings!

Like this Agbar Tower
Jean Nouvel's Agbar Tower






Lights in ceiling that look like peas in a pod!

After our arrival and check in at our Barcelona hotel we had to return our rental car.  The return location was in a mall near the ocean.  We returned the car had a wonderful walk along the ocean board walk as we headed towards our hotel.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Montserrat Monastery & the Boys Choir

After visiting the Salvador Dali museum we drove the Montserrat Monastery we wanted to see the famous Boys Choir sing without the crowds, so we made it in time to see them sing at 6:45 pm.  I chose this video as it shows where Montserrat is high in the mountains and what the area around it look like, in addition to hearing the boys sing with this man.


When we got up on Tuesday, October 16th we took a walk to a small church, still part of Montserrat and took these photo's there.






So we left Montserrat mid day and drove to Barcelona, we made it to our Hotel Catalonia Cathedral very easily!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Salvador Dali Museum, then to Montserrat

After a wonderful night in Mas Falgarona and an excellent breakfast we set off to spend a few hours at the Dali museum.  It was amazing!



Salvador Dali




May West - made from furniture





Dali jewelry



Check out this piece of jewelry by Dali, it's and actual moving/pumping heart made of diamonds, rubies, etc.


From Figures we drove to Montserrat


Saturday, October 13, 2012

Driving from Llfranc in Costa Brava to Figueres

Today we checked out of our El Far hotel in Llfranc to drive to Figueres.  The El Far, with only 9 rooms, had a wedding today (Saturday).  The wedding party is 160 people, quite large for the space, but it allowed us to see something we would have never even known it existed....an old chapel which is part of El Far.  Also as part of the hotel are ruins from the Iberians, here are some photo's.





Costa Brave beach we took a walk on


From the beaches we drove to the Ruins of Empuires (both Greek & Roman, below are more of my photo's
http://www.spain.info/en_US/reportajes/de_grecia_a_roma_las_ruinas_de_empuries_en_la_costa_brava.html







We then drove outside of Figures to get our hotel Mas Falgarona, it was beautiful  We wish we had arrived earlier in the day and spent more than one night here.



Friday, October 12, 2012

La Bisbol d'Emporda, Girona & Pals "oh my"

We both woke up early, the sun was rising so we took some photo's, and then went back to bed until about 10:00 am....it is vacation!


After our "included" European breakfast - 3 pieces of toast, 2 pieces of bread that had been toast with oil oil and the essence of tomatoes, plus about 5 different croissants, along with OJ, cut fruit, plain yogurt and a plate with prosciutto, salami, ham, etc. coffee.  At breakfast we saw that it was supposed to rain so we decided that rather then walk the Costa Brava coastal walking trail, we'd drive to La Bisbal d'Emporda, then to Girona and finish at Pals.  Now I have to admit I had hoped La Bisbal d'Emporda may have had something to do with baseball......I was just dreaming....nice town known for their Ceramic....we did purchase a few small items.

From La Bisbol we drove to Girona, what a wonderful city with a old Jewish quarter  along with Arab Baths, churches, it was very nice.  We spent the afternoon, including lunch (which I had paella). More of my photo's





On our way back to the Hotel El Far we went by Pals, so far our favorite small medieval.  I love the vending machine inside the church to purchase candles



Check out the old style "street light"  it's stacked wood in a metal frame.  A full day but another great day....one last image.....

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Catalunya, is it part of Spain or not?

I love to travel!  It's no surprise that I have worked in the travel industry for 31 years.  After being unemployed for close to 10 months I now have a job working for MLT Vacations (one of my former clients) owned by Delta Airlines.  Like I said I love to travel and I love my wife so much that I even agreed to arrange this trip during the Baseball playoffs.  

We flew to Newark, a pretty easy  5+ hour flight.  When we arrived, we were hungry. We found a restaurant that had a TV's. I asked them to put on the SF Giants game.  Zito was pitching, Pagan had lead off the game with a HR. It was 5 to 2 when I had to board the flight to Barcelona (Giants won 8 -3 and tied the NLDS at 2 games each).  More about the Giants and playoffs at the end.


From Newark our flight was non-stop to Barcelona, the flight was only 6 1/2 hours, it went by pretty quickly.  Unfortunately the sleeping pill I took did not have he impact I had hoped for.....so upon arrive both Beth and I were extremely tired. It was difficult to make decisions at the car rental....do I keep the  small car I rented or upgrade to a larger car (Peugeot)....I upgraded....do I add additional insurance in case someone is injured........I added it the additional insurance.....all just part of the travel experience!  You know you are exhausted when you get in the car and you can't figure out how to put the manual drive into reverse.......so we are on our way...how do we go?  I do love to drive all over the world, however not knowing where you are going can get a bit stressful, especially when you are tired and hungry.....as it turns out the directions I printed worked well and we had an uneventful drive to our Hotel El Far in town of Llfafranc, in the municipally of Palafrugell in the province of Girona in Catalunya, Spain (say that 10 times).  The hotel only has 9 rooms, and they are not very fancy, but as the saying goes...location, location, location.  We are 500 feet above the ocean with amazing views.


 Here are a few photos from our balcony





After checking in we took a nice 2+ hour nap, then went down to Llafranc to walk around the beach and harbor.




Our dinner was included with our "Romance Package" so we had  

OK now back to my SF Giants....below is a quote from Hunter Pence prior to game 4 that Ryan Vogelsong pitched...talk about intense, emotional, passion.....one of the many reasons why I love baseball.


“get in here, everyone get in here..look into each other eyes..now! look into each others eyes, I want one more day with you, it’s the most fun, the best team I have ever been on … and no matter what happens we must not give in, we owe it to each other, play for each other, I need one more day with you guys, I need to see what Theriot will wear tomorrow, I want to play defense behind Vogelsong because he’s never been to the playoffs..play for each other not yourself, win each moment, win each inning, it’s all we have left.”

So before going to bed tonight I checked my sports site and am proud to saw that 2012 is a recording breaking year for the Giants.  They, once again, did something NEVER done before.....in a short 5 game series they are the first team EVER to lose the first 2 games at home and then sweep the next 3 games on the road to WIN the series.....awesome....GO Giants.....I want to go to World Series games when I get home.