Around the world in February: From Factories in India to Skiing off a Mountain in the Alps

We had a busy February. First, Julie and Leo were invited to visit India with our friend Astrid and her son Tjade, one of Leo's school friends here. Astrid founded a nonprofit that runs educational programs for girls and women, including programs in garment factories in India. The group spent several days visiting factories and schools in India, and mixed in some sightseeing in Kerala as well. It was an inspiring and eye-opening trip, further supporting the vision of One Sky, the giving circle that Julie helped found: that the key to peace and economic progress lies in tapping the potential of half the developing world's resources:  women.

Leo at factory in India (photo by Julie)

Not wanting to be to be left out of the traveling, Lindsay and I decided to do a quick trip to London while they were in India. We had a great time visiting the sights, museum hopping, and going to shows. Highlights included the London Eye, the Egyptian rooms at the British Museum, and the remarkable puppets of Warhorse, which we added last minute when we discovered it was playing around the corner from our hotel.

Aboard the London Eye (photo by Lindsay)

Lindsay at Matilda

We finished all that traveling just in time for "Semana Blanca" - the week-long February holiday here in Spain. Julie and Leo had 24 hours in back in Spain before we headed off for a wonderful week in Verbier in the Alps. So lucky to have great friends come over, including the Blachfords, the Raneris, and Claudine and Ian Ryan. Micky and Lizette were also in town. Eight children and seven adults for a week of skiing, sledding, Swiss chocolate, and congealed cheese. Pretty much heaven.

One of the highlights for me was watching my son, my daughter, and my wife ski off the side of a mountain (albeit with parachutes and instructors). I did briefly wonder whether it was wise to send them all off at the same time, but decided it was an apt metaphor for our time here in Europe. Strap in and go, and hope for the best.....

Morocco: Out of Europe

We landed in Marrakesh on January 2nd. After a twenty minute ride from the airport, our driver pulled into a dirt parking lot on the edge of the medina (old city). He piled our luggage into a pushcart, and an elderly woman in traditional dress beckoned for us to follow her down a narrow alley.

And with that, for the first time in six months, we left the elegance and modernity of Europe for the color, chaos, and liveliness of Africa.  We jostled for space down the narrow alleys of the medina with horse carts, families on mopeds, Berbers in traditional dress, and shops selling chickens, rugs, Moroccan bread, spices, and tagine pots. Entering the medina is like going back in a time machine, albeit one where Google maps still (occasionally) works.

Medina scene

Marrakesh is a great city for wandering. On a map, the alleys of the medina look like someone dropped a plate of noodles on the page, and there are surprises around every bend.  The Djemaa El-Fna, the main square in town, must have been the inspiration for the pop-up restaurant, as hundreds of eateries selling everything from couscous to goat brain to jus de pamplemousse are set up each night and then torn down by morning.

Djemaa by night

From Marrakesh, we traveled two days across the High Atlas mountains to Erg Chigaga in the Sahara, where we stayed at Nick and Bobo's Luxury Desert Safari Camp. There we rode camels, hiked up giant dunes to watch the sunset, dune-boarded down the same dunes, and marveled at the beauty and solitude of the desert. If you ever want to see the Sahara, go see Nick and Bobo - link below. A special place, and a photographer's paradise. There are a few more images below, and a full set up on my Flickr page.

Tom's Full Morocco Set

Erg Chigaga Luxury Desert Camp
 

The family agreed that Morocco was right up there with Alaska and China for our most memorable family vacation. The culture, the food, the desert scenery, the safari tents, and the warm Moroccan people combined for an unforgettable week. And since several people have asked - we felt completely safe during our entire visit, and found the Moroccans very welcoming and engaging.

The Kasbah de Telouet across the High Atlas

Camel at sunset

Hiking in the dunes

Sand dunes at sunrise

Family portrait

A Catalan Sunday

We had a true Catalonia morning today. We spent last night in the medieval town of Corça, at the lovely country house belonging to our friends Viçenc and Ari. 

Arch of Saint Mary, Corca

This morning we headed over to Monells, yet another impossibly quaint cobblestone village, where we had the traditional Catalan breakfast of eggs, bacon, tomato bread, huge hunks of sausage, and red wine. 

Breakfast of champions

When we emerged, engorged, from our feast, we discovered we were just in time for the Blessing of the Tractors. For a small village, Monells has a surprisingly large tractor population. Equally surprising was that Pope Francis made the trip all the way from the Vatican. I guess even popes like tractor parades. 

The papal blessing

Ten Things I Love About Living in Barcelona

In no particular order, here are ten things I love about living in Barcelona:

1) Family time. We cook breakfast for the kids in the morning, we pick them up after school, we travel together, we hang out together. Julie and I go on cultural dates during the day, take Spanish classes, go to the gym together, and explore the city at night. To paraphrase Al Franken, we aren't just getting quality time, we are getting a whole lot of "quantity time."

Spending some family time in Amsterdam

 2) Our Bojon Barcelona family. How great it is to arrive in a new city, where we don't speak the language, and be welcomed by old friends, who also happen to be the warmest and most fun people in Spain.  (Sometimes too much fun - they are Bojon, after all).  You guys know who you are - thanks for making our days and nights memorable.

3) Our balcony. We look out over the top of a park and can see a sliver of the Mediterranean. The view just never gets old. Julie and I frequently end the day with a drink and a chat on the deck.  Gives us perspective

Sunset from the deck, by Tom and Lindsay.

4) Our new friends. We've met some great people through our kids' school. Many live nearby. For instance, about dead center in the photo above is the balcony of the Weubkers, who have twins in Leo's grade, a daughter in Linsday's grade, and I daresay at this point are doomed to be our lifelong friends.

The Wuebker's apartment.

5) Gaudi. Lots of Gaudi.

Casa Battlo on a beautiful winter day.

6) Barcelona is a great city for people-powered transport - walking and biking. When we do bike, we use Bicing, Barcelona's extensive bike-sharing system.  We can pick up a bike around the corner and ride the whole city. Over 400 stations and 6,000 bicycles. Julie and I bike everywhere. 

The BiCing bike share stand around the corner from our apartment.

7) The club. We joined a beautiful health club, near the school up the hill from our apartment. Julie plays lots of tennis, and I do the Sufferfest while looking out over the whole city. After we work out we can have lunch or a beer in the terrace restaurant. It's our happy place.

The pool at the club.

 8) The Menu del dia. A first course, second course, desert, and a glass of wine for 10 to 15 Euros. What a civilized way to have lunch.

9) "To go" cups are hard to find. Want a cup of coffee?  Sit down.  Take five minutes. Enjoy your coffee. Really. You have time.

10) There is always a bar. At the health club. The ice skating rink. The soccer field.  On this corner, and the next one, and the one after that.  There is always a bar. 

A Medieval Thanksgiving

What better way for a kid to spend Thanksgiving than in an actual medieval castle, complete with cannons, towers, battlements, views out over the mountains (and, for our generation of kids, WiFi too)?  What better way for all of us to spend Thanksgiving than in the company of our dear friends Michael, Laura, Miles and Mia?  We are indeed feeling grateful this week, for old friends and for this beautiful country we live in.

On Wednesday last week the eight of us drove to Cardona, a small town about eighty kilometers inland from Barcelona. There we stayed at Cardona Castle, one of the paradores, the national network of castles that the Spanish government has turned into hotels. Turns out a thousand year old castle is a spectacular place for Thanksgiving dinner:
 

Cardona castle, our hotel for Thanksgiving

The castle includes both a luxury hotel and a beautiful chapel.  They host weddings there; perhaps a good place to renew our vows next time?

Lindsay in the chapel

Cardona's lords derived their wealth from "Salt Mountain", a large salt mine just outside of town.  The mine is no longer active but is open for tours, which are especially informative if you bring Mia along to translate.

Laura checks out the salt formations.

As part of the medieval journey, we also stopped off at Montserrat, the thousand year old monastery in the jagged mountains outside of Barcelona.  It rained the whole way there, but the clouds cleared long enough for us to get a hike in with views back to the monastery.

Montserrat Monastery from the overlook

(An aside - a little mishap in the castle rendered my SLR inoperable.  I had to rely on my iPhone as my only camera.  I'm still learning how to get good photos out of the phone; it was a useful forcing mechanism.)

Full set of 25 photos here:

Tom's 2014 Thanksgiving Set 

Conserving the West: The High Lonesome Ranch

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Colorado last week at the High Lonesome Ranch, owned by my friend Paul Vahldiek.  Paul is doing something truly unique at his 400-square-mile ranch in the mountains of Colorado.  First he amassed a property bigger than Badlands National Park, in beautiful southern Colorado.  Next, he started restoring the land back to its natural state by bringing back beavers, clearing out invasive species, and letting predators roam free.  At the same time, he's kept High Lonesome as a working ranch. They have 600 head of cattle, they make hay, they farm, they work the land. Traditional ranching life continues, but together with sound environmental principles.  And he has created an outdoor adventure paradise - a luxurious dude ranch, hunting, fly fishing, mountain biking, hiking, you can do it all.

And Paul is just getting started.  He realized early on that if we are going to preserve the wild lands of the western United States, we need to preserve private lands as well as public lands.  Together with Wildlands Network, he founded the Western Landowner's Alliance to do just that.  And he's creating a new model at High Lonesome, by setting up a structure where 20 trustee families will create an endowment to preserve the land in perpetuity, while creating a research institute devoted to land conservation.

In his spare time, Paul also owns Deep Water Cay in the Bahamas, the premier bone-fishing destination resort in the world.  Oh, and he's working with the local government to create a marine preserve there too.  (And he's a great host).

Check out the links to both properties below, along with a few photos of High Lonesome, and more on my Flickr page.  And if you want to visit or learn more about either place, email me and I'll introduce you to Paul.

High Lonesome Ranch

Deep Water Cay

Tom's HLR Photos

Sunset over one of High Lonesome's valleys

Buck deer along the road at HLR

Lookout Rock at High Lonesome

House at High Lonesome

Finally - La Sagrada Familia

We finally made it inside La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpiece, last week when my dad was visiting.  We have seen the exterior many times since arriving in Barcelona, but I hadn't been inside the church since 1989.

Breathtaking, moving, majestic, other-worldly - the adjectives don't do it justice.