Bordeaux – Wine Country (Our 2nd City)

     We headed to Barcelona airport for our flight on Vueling Airlines to Bordeaux. We weren’t sure how big the aircraft would be but apparently many people go to Bordeaux so we were pleasantly surprised to see it was jet not a propeller driven aircraft.  It was a short flight around 35 minutes, which was obviously faster but also cheaper than the train.

     As soon as we arrived and picked up our bags we got a cab to our VRBO apartment.  As in Barcelona very few people spoke fluent English but they spoke enough to get by.  The smart phones were a lifesaver and I had loaded all the addresses on my calendar, which I could show the driver.  All the cabs had GPS so finding your way was easy, plus I had GPS on my phone as well so this was comforting.

     Bordeaux is a small town in comparison to Barcelona, which was welcomed.  Many of the streets were blocked from auto traffic by cylinders that were in the middle of the road to prevent traffic (except for scooters and motorcycles).  Our apartment was on one of these streets but at the beginning of the street there was a call box, which the cab driver used to call in order to have the cylinder temporarily lowered so he could take us to our apartment. 

     After settling in our apartment we went for a walk around town, this being a 35-minute flight there was no jet lag so we were fresh.  The streets were narrow; we were in the town center so there were many restaurants (street dining) and shops, which made it a pleasant walk.  The streets were randomly laid out which is to say there was no pattern you just roamed around taking in the sites.  I know unconsciously we would look down occasionally expecting to find more euros floating around the street as we did in Barcelona but that was just a one-time find.  If we got too lost to find our way back we would pull out the phone and use the GPS to get back to the apartment.

     We walked over to the tourist information center and passed the metro (above ground) along the way, which was sleek and quite and seemed to fit into the city without disturbing the surroundings.  We would be taking that metro to the train station in a few days for our trip to Paris.  Arriving at the Tourist Info center we were fortunate to be able to book a wine tour to Saint Emilion for the 21^st (last day in Bordeaux + Ann’s birthday).

    We continued to take in the sites but by now it was getting near European dinner time so stopped at a restaurant call Le Garage.  I’m not sure why we choose this place but the name should have been a warning.  I ordered lamb chops but they were dry and tasteless, Mimi ordered a roasted half chicken (remember Christmas Vacation Dinner when they cut into the turkey, Yeh! just like that), anyway nobody enjoyed their meal but the waitress was very nice. We then bought a bottle of wine and headed back to the apartment.  I sat on the partial balcony that looked out on the street (see photo) while sipping some wine.

     The apartment was nice but not comparable to the one in Barcelona.  We only had one bathroom here so Tom and I usually took showers at night.  The next day (Saturday) we walked around town seeing the sites and there was a lot of activity, we saw a sculpting class for kids, many bands, a few churches and many carousels.  As we were watching a marching band in a square a young girl (college age) with a group of students came up to me speaking French and holding a piece of paper, I ask her if she spoke English which she did and she restated her request saying they were on a scavenger hunt and looking for a person with a red shirt (that was me), she ask to take a picture with me which I agreed.  Unexpected but fun even though my companions were laughing, sometimes goofy things just happen to me.

    Still roaming around the city we stumbled into the Bordeaux Classic Car show.  I want to say foreign cars but this is France so I guess that would be incorrect since these were all European cars (see photo).  That night we ate dinner at the La Petite Savoie, which was a much better meal.  We then headed home to relax. 

    The next morning Tom and I went out to buy some croissants for breakfast, which had become our normal routine.  The croissants were very good, many were infused with chocolate, the French like their chocolate. This was the day of our wine tour and we had an excellent driver (Marc) who was very knowledgeable about the wine district.  We visited 2 great wineries and enjoyed the company of 2 other couples on the tour Dianne & John from Portland, Oregon and Juan & Mia from San Francisco (see photo of our group).  Later that night we ran into Dianne & John while walking around Bordeaux (we exchanged emails) and sent a few pictures.  It's always fun meeting new people and when you're on vacation it almost seems easy because there is a commonality that exist between you, which is enjoying life.

    Monday morning we packed up and took the metro (bought tickets the night before) to the train station, which was only a 15-minute ride.  We already had train tickets so we just needed to figure out what track and train we needed to take to Paris. Surprisingly I met Juan & Mia at the train station they were leaving for San Sebastian, Spain.  We wished each other the best and parted ways.  We had a great time in Bordeaux, the people were friendly plus the food (with a few exceptions) and wine were good. This is definitely a place we would visit again.  Now just waiting for our 3-hour train ride to Paris.

Barcelona - Our First Stop

     Vacations take a lot of planning and the better the plan the better outcome.  My wife is the vacation planner in our household, which she takes pride in and does well.  Every couple of years we take a big vacation and this was the year.  There were 4 of us on this trip and we got together a few times prior to the trip to make reservations.

     We left on Sep 14^th and landed in Barcelona, Spain.  This is the first trip that we stayed in VRBO (vacation rental by owner), which worked out really well and allowed us to cook a few meals at home since we had a kitchen.  That was nice.

      As anyone knows when flying a long distance the 1^st day is tough because you need to stay up until the evening (local time) so you can avoid jet lag.  After arriving at our apartment and unpacking we took a walk around to familiarize ourselves with the area.  If you have read any of my past stories you know I don’t go into a lot of detail about the sites because that information is readily available (Rick Steves). 

     So as we are wandering around Barcelona, which is bustling with traffic, I look down as I am crossing an intersection and see euros laying on the ground, blowing around a little in the wind.  I say to Ann who is walking in front of me “Hey look at all the euros, pick them up”.  So as we are bending over to pick them up she says “Are we on Candid Camera”, I said “I don’t know, we aren’t doing anything wrong so lets just pick them up”.  So we are scrambling around picking up the money and luckily there is a lull in traffic so we have time.  My wife (Mimi) and Cousin (Tom) are already across the street they walked right over them without noticing anything.  As we are gathering up the euros we see a guy to the right who has picked up a few as well looking straight at us then quickly taking off.  After we had picked them up we reach the other side of the street and still there was a bike rider who stopped and picked up a few floating euros near him.  We decided to go sit on a nearby bench and wait about ½ hour to see if anyone showed up that seemed to be in a panic but there was no one.

     This was fortunate for us but disastrous for the person that lost the money.  They likely had the shock of their life when they went to pay for something and found they had no money.  It’s likely they blamed a pickpocket, since Barcelona is the pickpocket capital of the world but they would be mistaken.  First rule in travelling, ATM’s are everywhere there’s no need to carry a lot of cash.  We headed back toward our apartment but stopped at the church across the road and dropped 20 euros in to the collection basket, it seemed like the right thing to do.  In the end it turns out that we had found 360 euros  ($430). 

     As with many European countries, dinner is late 7:00 to 8:00pm and usually a small meal.  Lunch at 2:00pm is the main meal so most restaurants are not open for dinner until 7:00pm.  However we were hungry a tired and we found there were a few restaurants open at 5:00 so we decided to get something to eat.   After sitting down we noticed there was no one else there which should have told us something but we ordered pizza (that seemed safe).  Tom and I asked about getting a glass of wine and the waitress “Yes we have homemade wine, what would you like white or black”, “Huh! Black wine, hmm, I’ve never heard of that, do you mean red or rouge”, “Yes” she said “Red”.  We said "No thanks, Coke will do".  Really how much did they know about wine if they called red wine, black, it just wasn't worth the chance.  The pizzas arrived and it was less than spectacular, more like a Totino’s frozen pizza.  We then stopped at the market to get some lunch meat, breakfast items and of course wine before heading back to the apartment.

     That night we made some sandwiches opened the wine and had a nice relaxing meal then retired to the patio to enjoy the wine.  While sitting on our patio we heard English (American Accent) voices from above which were the first that we had heard.  So I went to investigate and found a party of 6 people sitting around drinking wine and laughing (wine will do that to you).  I introduced myself and was pleased to see how friendly this group was, I met  Terry & Jan (San Diego), Bernice (Mom), Richard (Minnesota), Erin (Fairfax  Virginia) and Kathy (Fairfax Virginia).  They were very inviting offering me a glass of wine, which I accepted while waving at my traveling partners below sitting on our patio.  Richard was a funny guy cracking a few jokes after finding out we were from St. Louis.  Just to let you know, Richard “I’m not a politician and I won’t be running for Mayor of Ferguson”.  We ran into Richard and his gang of cohorts the next night as well, they regaled us with stories on their trip to a French vineyard, which sounded awesome but we would soon find out ourselves as we were off to Bordeaux in a few days.  

      We booked all of our tickets for the various tours sites on line while in Barcelona which saved us hours of waiting in line.  All we did was show the confirmation email on our smart phone and went right in the entrance without any delays.  We also got a 2 day pass for the hop on & hop off bus which took us all around Barcelona, it was ideal plus it had audio describing the upcoming sites.  La Sagrata Famalia is a must see if you ever go to Barcelona.

     We had a great time and great meals including the steaks at A. Gianno’s and the seafood Paella at Escriba on the beach.  Near our apartment we found a big market, which sold fish, meat and pasta.  So one night we bought some fresh pasta, sauce and Parmesan and had a great meal at home.  The VRBO worked out well.

     We toured around Barcelona until Friday (Sep 19^th) then headed to the airport for our flight to Bordeaux.  

Pamplin Boys

     I grew up in North St. Louis specifically the Walnut Park area.  My childhood friends lived only doors away on the same block, Pamplin Place.  I love the fact that we stay in touch even though we have gone our separate ways. 

     Frank Berra (oldest) was always the mediator, Jim Madigan was the comedian, Reinhard Altenhofer was the adventurer and me, Jim Ladendecker, (youngest) was the observer.

     Frank was always the one to step in to mediate a situation.  He would negotiate things between us when we couldn't come to some agreement.  Frank is also a collector of memorabilia from past times.   He enjoys collecting things that evoke pleasant memories of the past.  Frank is the one that has reunited the old gang for card games at his house 3 or 4 times a year.  His basement is filled with old memories and many old movie posters.  I remember when I was very young and had a fist fight with Rein, I don't remember what it was about, just that the next day we were friends again because Frank told us to forget about the squabble and just shake hands as friends.  Frank's house was one of the places we would hangout when not running around the neighborhood.

     Jim M knew everyone and still does today.  He is like a book of knowledge regarding north county people and it seems like he is related to all of them in some way.  You've heard the saying "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon", well I believe it should really be the "Six degrees of Jim Madigan".  Jim was always cracking a joke, it was just his nature.  Jim had a natural talent for remembering jokes and repeating them at any time and he still does.   Comedy seemed to come to him naturally maybe it was his Irish heritage.  He could make me laugh almost anytime, especially when we were supposed to be quite while saying our morning prayers at school.  I guess some families have a humor gene that goes from generation to generation.  As it turns out Jim’s niece Kathleen is a professional comedian.

     Reinhard was always the adventurer wanting to travel the world. Rein lived right across the street (our 2nd house on Pamplin) from me.  He insisted that he would travel the world instead of getting married at a young age.  My Dad bet him $5.00 that he would be married by age 25, Rein won that bet.  His favorite car was the Chevrolet Corvette, which he intended to own some day.  He achieved this dream as well.  He joined the Marines which was the start of his world travels.  He has traveled the world and lived in many different countries for extended periods of time, working odd jobs while living there.  




     As a young kid, I was not the leader of our group but just one of the gang and more of an observer in some cases. To me as with most kids, friends were the most important part of being young.  My house was another place we would hangout either playing cards or goofing around in the garage.  My parents were glad to have us there partly because they could keep a closer eye on us which is important because boys can easily get in to trouble.  I was the smallest and youngest of the group and a bit quite but always glad to be included.  I guess it's not surprising that as the observer I am writing this story.

     Now we are older and grown in different ways but we still have traits of the personalities we had as young boys.  You can see the kid in all of us when we get together on our occasional card night at Frank's.  Our card games include not only the Pamplin boys but buddies from nearby streets like John O'Toole (Mimika) , Mick Noser, (Floy Ave), the Dunn brothers (John & Butch), Tom (very funny sarcastic humor) and a few others now and then.  These card games are fun but you shouldn't go if you have sensitive feelings, everything said is not politically correct but it's ok we are among friends and nothing is being recorded. 

People of Color

     Recently, I have heard African Americans (Blacks) refer to theirself as a "Person of Color", which seems funny to me because we (all humans) have color.  I know of zero human beings that are colorless (clear), they would be invisible.  In the US it seems we are overly concerned with black and white race issues, but the truth is no one has pure white colored skin. A styrofoam coffee cup is white, no person is truly white, we are all people of color.  In this world you will find people with many different completions such as fair, black, brown, olive, yellow, red, etc.  These seem like relatively minor differences.  Humans have many things in common but we seem to concentrate on skin color, why?

     So instead of getting wrapped around the axel with skin color which seem to pull us apart why aren't we looking for those similarities that bring us together?  I'm a tennis player and I have played for many years with people of many races but on the tennis court we are just tennis players.  I play in a doubles league but I also play singles with a friend (Joe) every week.  Joe is black but he once referred to himself as a person of color, I chuckled a little inside but didn't comment, but if it comes up again I will explain that I have color too.  He's a friend so it's easy for me to be me.  We joke around with each other like most guys, but we play to win and have fun.  We have a common ground that binds us which is the sport of tennis.  We may have different backgrounds, upbringing, religion, personality but we don't let that get in the way.

     Here's an idea for US citizens instead of classifying people by race, religion or heritage.  Let's start by looking for some common ground, something that we can all get behind.  How about just calling ourselves "Americans" without all the adjectives.  We should all be proud of that.  "Just Saying..."