COMING SOON: Lauree's accounting of her trip with Ella to Valencia (maybe!);

STAY TUNED!!!

BARCELONA 05SEP08: Home-Sweet-Home-Away-From Home - On Wednesday morning, Tessa and I arrived safe and sound in Barcelona (which is more than I can say for the 40 ouncer of Canadian Club Whiskey I picked up at the Ottawa Airport duty-free, but had to dump in the international waste bin in Frankfurt, Germany, in order to clear security and make our connecting flight to Barcelona). We had a wonderful two and a half weeks in the beautiful (and hot & sunny!) Ottawa Valley, where it was great to see many of our friends and family. Thanks Jayne & Krish, Derek, Dallas, John and Tammy, Jenish-Corrigan family & Provencher family for taking such good care of us during our visit home!

Barcelona is going to be a terrific stop on our tour... we made our first excursion downtown last night and wow, what an amazing city!

We took a tram from the front door of our apartment to the tranquil Parc de la Cuitadella, less than ten minutes away. As we cut acroos the park, we resisted all temptation to visit the Zoo de Barcelona, the Museo de Zoologia, the Museo de Geologia, the Museum of Chocolate, the Castell dels Tres Dragons and the Arc de Triomf... we will leave all that for another day (or two!). We did pause to marvel at the huge 19th century fountain called the Cascada, but only momentarily - our intended destination was the Barri Gotic in the city's "Gothic Quarter", and La Rambla.

The Barri Gotic is incredible... Gothic architecture everywhere, and medieval street after medieval street of fabulous shops, restaurants, pubs and people. We made our way through the narrow traffic-less streets toward what we thought from a distance was Barcelona's Catedral, but which turned out to be the post office. We quickly got turned around and despite several stops into shops, we were soon at the 16th century Catedral, whose 19th century facade was completely covered up... it is undergoing massive external restoration.

We went inside where there was a mass in progress... it was interesting to note that there were more people sitting outside on the steps of the church, being entertained by a guitar-playing busker, than there were inside attending the mass!

As we got our bearings in the Placa de la Seu in front of the church, Lauree warned us to watch out for pick-pockets, who are notorious in that area of Barcelona. We easily made our way to La Rambla, Barcelona's most famous street. As we strolled down the boulevard filled with tourists and dozens of Indian-run souvenir shops, Lauree warned us to watch out for pick-pockets, who are notorious in that area of Barcelona.

By this time, night had fallen on the city and we were getting hungry, so we decided to head back into the Barri Gotic to find a nice place to eat.

We made several right turns, a few left turns and a couple of double-backs, and ended up not knowing exactly where we were, but feeling slightly nervous in a maze of dimly-lit streets. Pierced and tatooed locals in mohawks and leather seemed to out-number the suddenly-scant tourist population. A grimy-looking leg-less long-haired geezer was ranting and raving in Spanish, and charging at people with his wheel chair... he swatted Tessa as she tried to walk by him. Fortunately, he made the mistake of trying to push over a local girl on her scooter... we made our escape as she berated him severely in his own tongue.

Just when we were about to give up hope of finding an eatery, a passerby pushing a stroller asked if we needed assistance - he turned out to be an ex-patriot Dubliner, a financial analyst-turned-restauranteur. He kindly escorted us to a cozy little Italian restaurant, and, upon leaving us there, warned us to watch out for pick-pockets, who are notorious in that area of Barcelona. Once he was out of sight, we made a quick check of our pockets...

PEMBROKE 31AUG08: Another contest year over - Tessa competed over the weekend in the 18 and under class at the Pembroke Old-Time Fiddling and Step Dancing Contest. The classes were huge - 34 contestants in fiddle and 31 in step dancing, but Tessa did a fabulous job, being the youngest of the finalists, and also being one of only two contestants to make the finals in both classes. Way to go Tessa!

The fiddling continued at the fiddle park long after the contest ended... Tessa stayed up all night fiddling with friends Colleen and Eric, had breakfast and then went to bed at 8:30 a.m. She only caught a couple of hours sleep, and then was back at it!

She participated in a whacky fiddling contest (more of a game, actually) that is held every year at the fiddle park. 25 fiddlers sat in a circle... the rules were that each fiddler would play a reel once through (AA-BB), then the next would play a different reel once through, and so on, right around the circle, without any stopping from player to player. A fiddler who did not come in on time, or who played a reel already performed, would be out of the game. The game began and a few unwary fiddlers were bumped off.

After going around the circle a couple of times, the game was stopped and the rules changed: the fiddlers now had to play only once through the "a" section and once through the "b" section of the reel, again, without stopping or repeating any reel already performed. This took out a few more players from the circle.

Once the circle was down to a dozen-or-so fiddlers, the game was again stopped, and a new rule put into place: Fiddlers were to play only once through the "a" section of a reel, non-stop, and not already played... this significantly increased the pace of the game. Tessa thought she had a few aces up her sleeve with her new stash of Irish reels, but was bumped from the game when she played "Maid Behind The Bar"! Someone had already played a (fairly unrecognizable) version of this tune! Too bad for Tessa!

Her fiddle friend Alanna (Jenish) lasted a little longer, and her sister Colleen made it down to the final half-dozen (good job!), when she too, committed the error of playing a tune already performed! It was great fun for the performers and the audience alike.

And that marked the end of our fiddle-frenzied fiesta. Tommorrow we are back to Ottawa, and then Tuesday, it's off to Barcelona to rejoin Lauree and Ella.

PEMBROKE 30AUG08: Sister Marg's Book Launch - Dear Sister Margaret Foran (Grandpa Foran's sister), has written a book documenting the establishment of the Grey Nuns in Pembroke and area. We had the pleasure of attending the book launch at the Mother House in Pembroke. A lion's share of the Foran clan were there in attendance... Mac, Marina, Mildred, Grandma Dallas, Lillian, Irene & Tim, and assorted progeny.

In the chapel, we were handed a small pamphlet (program) with the book title printed on the front page. After finding a seat, Tessa studied the program carefully, and then, gesturing with the program, she whispered to me discretely: "Is this the book Sister Marg has been working on?"

Such a sweet, silly girl.

Congratulations Sister Marg, we are proud of you.

ALICANTE 29AUG08: Ella's Special Visitor - Last year, when Ella was doing her training in Montreal, she had the opportunity to preview the new (at the time) Cirque Du Soleil show Kooza. On a backstage tour after the show, she was introduced to Natasha Patterson, an amazing contortionist (one of the Mystic Pixies), and they became fast friends.

Kooza is currently on a break in its American tour, so Natasha (and her mom) have come to visit Ella in Alicante!

Bienvenidos Natasha (and mom)!

OTTAWA 26AUG08: All that glitters is not... diamond! - You may recall that back in February of this year, Tessa found (what we thought might be) a diamond on a sidewalk in Veracruz, Mexico. Yesterday, we finally had the chance to bring it to a jeweller for scrutiny.

It turns out our diamond is a actually a cubic zirconia, worth approximately... $20.00 Cdn!!!

Undeterred, Tessa is getting it set into a ring... never let go of your dreams!

OTTAWA 24AUG08: Grand Masters Junior Showcase - Tessa enjoyed a great week at the By-The-Canal Fiddle Camp in Manotick, staying with the wonderful Jenish family and jamming with her community of fiddle friends. She was thrilled to be back in Calvin Vollrath's group, and learned several more of the unique (and usually complex!) fiddle tunes he is famous for writing. The week of intensive playing was an excellent warm-up for the performance she gave Saturday night at Centrepoint Theatre in Ottawa.

Tessa was one of only four kids invited from across Canada to perform in the showcase (her good friend Eric Provencher was another), so it was a pretty big deal. She did a good job, though, with on-stage back-up from Geoff Horrocks on piano, and on guitar, songwriter/fiddler Calvin Vollrath, who early in his illustrious career played guitar with Graham Townsend... and she looked liked a million bucks in the black flamenco skirt given to her in Malaga by dance teacher Susana.

A grateful thank you is owed to Sebastien Savard (Quidam violinist), and to Andre Boileau (Quidam vocalist), who both provided invaluable coaching to Tessa in preparation for this important performance.

Also, a thank you & big hugs to Louise & Benoit, and to Dallas, for making the trip to Ottawa to see Tessa perform... you being there meant a lot to her!

OTTAWA 19AUG08: Homeward Bound - Tessa and I arrived in Ottawa last week, but we almost didn't make it!

We had to fly out of Barcelona on Tuesday morning at 10:30, but we didn't want to give up our Monday night jam at Cunninghams. Our plan was to do the jam, then catch an overnight bus leaving Alicante at 1:40 a.m. for Barcelona. Every thing seemed to being working out just fine... we had our cocktails at the penthouse (see entry below), enjoyed a 2 hour jam at Cunninghams, came back to our apartment for a night-cap with a number of our Cirque friends, and at 1:00, Lauree called for a taxi to take Tessa and I to the bus station downtown. Except, at 1:20, we still couldn't get a taxi to come and get us at the apartment!!!

Finally, around 1:25, a taxi pulled up, we piled in, and off we sped to the bus station.

"Mucho rapido Senor, por favor!"

Lauree had no idea whether we would make the bus or not. If we didn't, we would, in all certainty, miss our international flight out of Barcelona.

But don't be alarmed... the taxi was rapido and the bus was retraso (late), so we made our bus and we made our flight. The rest of our trip proceeded fairly smoothly... two hours to Frankfurt, then 8 more hours to Ottawa.

Lauree was worried sick! We couldn't figure out how to use the pay phone in Barcelona, so we had to wait until we had arrived in Frankfurt (different pay phone) before we could put Lauree's mind at ease with the news of our successful race for the bus.

A day after arriving in Canada, we "head off" on a Greyhound bus, travelling another 8 hours from Ottawa to Sturgeon Falls for a fiddle contest. For whatever reason, Tessa was a little off her game fiddle-wise, but managed to place in her step dance category. She is attending the By-The-Canal Fiddle Camp all week, will perform in the Grand Masters Junior Showcase on the weekend, and then give it her best at the Pembroke contest on Labour Day weekend.

How's that for pressure!

ALICANTE 11AUG08: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? - We, along with several other Quidam artists and their family are staying in apartments owned and managed by a charming lady from Paris. On Monday, she approached Lauree and expalined that she wished to invite artists from Cirque to a dinner party she was throwing in her penthouse apartment, and mentioned a few artists' names in particular.

"Oh, the artists in the apartments" Lauree clarified.

"Mais, oui!"

So... being a thoughtful, conscientious person, Lauree made sure all the artists staying in the apartments, several dozen people in all, were made aware of the generous invite.

We arrived at the penthouse at the stated hour and were surprised to see a formal dinner table laid out for a mere dozen-or-so guests. As we pondered the curious set-up, we were served Spanish champagne, a delicious gazpacho and French pastry hors d'oeuvres. A traditional Spanish dish called paella (whole shrimps and assorted peppers in a tomato sauce base) bubbled away in a huge 30" skillet over a propane flame.

More artists began to arrive, and we noticed a progressive change in our hostess's demeanor... from gracious, to confused, to slightly panic-sticken!

"Who are all these people? I didn't invite them!" we overheard her exclaim to her equally-puzzled husband.

Well, it became uncomfortably obvious to us that the few names our landlady had mentioned to Lauree were, in fact, the total sum of people she wished to invite!!!

An embarrassed Lauree apologetically confessed her misunderstanding to the hostess, taking full blame for the mix-up. No harm done... everyone was welcome!

As it turns out, we had to leave well before the meal was served, as did several other families, to attend our Monday night jam at Cunninghams.

Phew!!! And the night had just begun...

ALICANTE 10AUG08: Almost time to go - Time in Alicante is running out for Tessa & I... we only have a couple of days left before we head home for two weeks.

Yesterday, it was my intention to check out downtown Alicante... we hadn't been yet to see the sights, shop. etc. Also, I needed to pick up a pegatina (sticker) for ALICANTE... I have managed to get one for every city we have toured so far (thanks Rodolfo for Ciudad de Mexico!).

I had planned to take Tessa along... she had one school commitment first thing in the afternoon, then she would be free to go by 3:30. Lauree indicated that she was only working until 4:30, and said that if we could wait until then, she would like to come along. Great idea.. so we waited.

It was almost 5:15 before Lauree was ready to leave... but then she pointed out that Ella would be done school in an hour and a bit, and that if we waited, she could come with us (my original plan was to go roaming downtown and be back on site by the time Ella finished school!). Again, great idea... so we waited.

It was almost 7:00 before Ella got out of class. We were just about to head out, when the supper menu came out in the kitchen... it was a Chinese dinner, in keeping with the Olympics underwayin Beijing. We decided to eat on site, then head downtown.

By the time we finally arrived downtown, most of the shops were closed. Undaunted, we looked over the interesting items displayed at the many artisan stalls along the Paseo Explanada de Espana, a palm tree-lined promenade along the waterfront leading to the marina. We enjoyed refreshments at the outdoor patio of a cafe. We strolled through the marina to the sounds of European recording artist Noa (Eye In The Sky) completing her sound check... she was putting on a concert there later in the evening to promote her Genes & Jeans cd. Then, we cabbed it back to San Juan and called it a night.

So that was our first and last family excursion to downtown Alicante. I came back empty-handed, sticker-wise... I will have to rely on the kind generousity of others to pick up an ALICANTE pegatina for me... someone, anyone, PLEASE!!!

ALICANTE 04AUG08: Cunningham's Old-Time Jam - A few weeks ago, I approached an local Irish pub in San Juan called Cunningham's to see if we could play "Irish" music there on our Monday nights off. The pub boss (a Spaniard named Israel) explained that it is dead there Monday nights, to which I replied "Perfect!". So we struck a deal, and for the past two Monday nights, we have had the opportunity to jam some old-time fiddle tunes and do a little step-dancing. By "we", I mean Tessa, Ella and mysef, with Jim Bevan on mandolin and Sebastién Savard on fiddle. What a hoot!

And what a deal for Cunningham's... the usually dead establishment has been packed with our friends from Quidam making it their Monday night gathering place. And Lauree has been a terrific hostess, throwing us a post-jam party back at the apartment after each of the engagements! Good thing we are accustomed to late nights... I only hope our neighbours are too!

ALICANTE 01AUG08: School of Rock - Ella was singing to herself "... cuz I don't want to miss a thing...", and stated that she really liked the guy that sings it.

"Who, Steve Tyler?" I asked.

"No" she exclaimed, "I think his name is Smith... Arrow Smith!"

ALICANTE 24JUL08: Beach Daze - We are spending a lot of time at the Playa de San Juan beach. It can get pretty crowded at times, but we don't mind... the sand is white and fine, and the water is wonderfully warm.

I do find, however, that I suffer from eye strain by the end of the day... I maintain that it is from the glare and the salt water, but the girls are pretty sure it is caused by all the one piece bikinis!

ALICANTE 23JUL08: Backstage Rituals - It is interesting to observe the rituals different artists practise before their performances... and I do not mean the fully-expected warming up, stretching or run-throughs of their act. Nor am I referring to the common (and sometimes elaborate) high-fives which occur before each show. The rituals I am referring to are those with an almost superstitious connotation.

For instance, one artist gets down on one knee on the red carpet for a brief moment (of silent prayer?) before heading out on stage. Another whips a fellow artist on the back with his leather head piece. Yet another artist regularly does a 30 odd-second hand stand, as if to bring everything into focus before her arial act.

Ella, too, has developed a pre-performance ritual, which plays out at specific intervals before she is called to the stage. At "Musicians, standby", she jive-dances with Sebastien, the violinist. At "Musicians, onstage!", she stands before André the singer, and uses explicit hand-motions to express everything she must think about while singing onstage... cheeks, projection, keep loose, sing with your eyes, etc. Then she sits down on the sofa and askes me for a drink of water... and I have to act as if I am surprised to hear her request. If I have the water ready before she asks, she gets annoyed, because it could possibly jinx her performance. Once I bring her the water, I give her a last minute pep-talk, always the same one... "All you have to do is breathe...". Then, she receives her cue, and off she goes, arm-in-arm with Isabelle (the Mom), to open the show.

Merde!

Alicante 19JUL08: Beach Volley Ball - The pressure was on when some of the Russian acrobatic team (Banquine) invited me to play beach volley ball with them. I'm not one for sports, and beach volley ball is certainly not on my can't-wait-to-do list, especially after being traumatized some years ago when walking with Lauree along the beach in Cape Cod and coming across a group of young men playing beach volley ball... in the nude! All that flip-flopping about...

Fortunately, I was able to hold my own (performance-wise, that is!), despite being only two on two. I thought I was going to have a heart attack, though... man, what a workout!

Alicante 18JUL08: Shanghai Surprise! - We went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. After ordering, Ella was convinced that our Oriental waiter could not understand Chinese, because he gave me a puzzled look when I spoke Chinese to him.

And what did I say to him in Chinese, you might wonder?

I asked him: "Chop Suey?"

Alicante 17JUL08: Time for the beach! - We are now nicely settled in at our apartment in San Juan, just outside Alicante. There is a fabulous beach a couple of blocks down the street, and we intend to spend quite a bit of time there!

MALAGA 15JUL08: Our last days are spent... - Ella performed in the last show of the city on Sunday. It was an emotional performance for everyone, as it was Philippa's last show in the role of Target... and Ella and Philippa have become extremely close over the past nine months on tour. In demonstrations of affection, "Target" presented "Zoe" with a special gift bag, "Toto" presented "Target" with flowers, and "Zoe" gave "Target" a tearful farewell hug, all onstage over the course of the show! We will all dearly miss Philippa's presence, onstage and off.

After the show, Tessa, Ella and I (Lauree had already left for Alicante) took the train to Plaza Major (a stop along the rail line to Torremolinos) in order to catch a movie, Prince Caspian. There were only three English viewings each day, and as luck would have it, we missed getting in to one of them by 20 minutes. So we waited two and a half hours until the next viewing, which was scheduled for shortly after midnight. We ended up getting a private screening of the film... we were the only ones in the theatre!

For Monday, I had proposed taking the girls to Tivoli World, a nearby amusement park, but it didn't open until six at night (because the heat is too oppressive during the day), so it couldn't be managed. Consequently, Monday was simply a recovery day, with our only commitment being the jam at "An Irish Affair", a pub in Torremolinos. The jam came, we shared time with an Irish balladeer named Tony, and David & Rosie, who had organized the opportunity for us to play. Thanks folks!

Tuesday morning was the last of our flamenco lessons... Susana was so kind to Tessa & Ella, giving them each a flowing flamenco skirt. Juan loaded me up with a whole archive of flamenco studies, tunes and videos which he much have spent hours burning onto half a dozen dvds. Such giving, talented people... we were sad to be leaving them both, and their sweet young daughter Gabriella. Adios cher amigos.

Tuesday evening saw us with the rest of the Quidam cast & crew on the chartered fflight to Alicante... no time for any shut eye though, because one of the techies, Eduardo, was slathering red polish on the nails of any snoozing (male) co-workers. What a rascal!

MALAGA 11JUL08: The Road to (Tangiers) Morocco - Day two was a light breakfast in Alisah, then back to Tangiers. We met up with Cory, Raul & Ann and walked to the bus station, but the Tangiers bus was just pulling out... we had missed it. Our local buddy then brought us down the street to where a few smaller van-type buses were parked, negotiated a price for us, and instructed us to get in one of the buses and wait. We got in and waited, but our driver and another man got into a rather heated argument. We waited some more, but the arguement did not show signs of being resolved anytime soon, so we decided it would be best to get out and try the public transportation again. Back to the bus station we went, and this time we were in luck. A bus passing through was flagged down, and we got on... seven nervous westerners on a ricketty old bus jam-packed with local Moroccans! The looks we got!

The bus brought us to Tangiers, and we got to see the version most tourists never see - the trash-laden back streets, the dilapitated buildings, the crowded shanty-town-like local markets. Stop by stop, the bus emptied out, until we were the only passengers left. Fortunately, the driver was kind enough to bring us right to the Port of Tangiers.

We weren't done with Tangiers yet, though! Cory had picked up a carpet the day before, and Lauree wanted to go to the same place to check out the selection. Cory, Raul & Ann led us through the narrow back lanes to the shop of the carpet vendor, then raced off to catch their ferry back to Spain.

The carpet vendor sent out for some coffees and coca-cola, and after bringing us up to the roof of his establishment to show us the view of his city, he made us comfortable in his parlour. He then proceeded to bring out various carpets from his back rooms for us to take a look at. We finally narrowed the selection down to three mid-sized carpets, then started talking price. Of course, for the price we were willing to pay, we were joking, insulting his dignity, wasting his time, taking the food from the mouths of his children, etc. Only when we walked out the door empty-handed did the vendor entertain selling in the ball-park of what we were offering. We concluded our business, and raced to the port to catch our own ferry back to Spain with three Moroccan carpets under our arm.

We had less than ten minutes to spare, and, of course, we find out that we have to fill out a declaration form at Moroccan Customs. Lauree quickly filled out the forms, and the Customs Agent slowly reviewed them, then started re-copying the information, with a nasty scowl on her face... she couldn't read Lauree's hastely written scribble! We now had less than five minutes to get on the boat! Finally, all passports were stamped, and we were running like mad through the ferry terminal toward the dock.

The surprise twist at the end of our story? Well, who do we meet at the ferry dock, but Cory, Raul and Ann... they had missed their ferry (bringing us to the carpet shop!) and were trying to arrange passage on ours, which was about to sail in a matter of minutes! Half an hour later, the ferry pulled out of the port; we were on it, and so were Cory & Co. All was well.

MALAGA 09JUL08: "Beware of the three-legged camel" - The beach was beautiful, but strange... we have become accostumed to seeing quite scantily-clad women soaking up the sun, but here in Asilah, most of the women were fully-clothed from head to toe in "djellabas", as they sat on their rented beach chairs under their rented beach umbrellas. The Moroccan children, however, were in regular bathing suits, and acted as any other kids would, kicking a soccer ball around, or splashing around in the surf, which was littered with plastice bags, empty pop bottles and papers. Tessa & Ella didn't strip down to their bathing suits... maybe they were a little self-conscious, or maybe the water was a little too cold to swim in. Or maybe they were too preoccupied with the camels on the beach.

For a couple of Euros each (the going rate), Tessa & Ella were each able to climb up onto the back of a camel. Ella's camel had an awkward itch or something, and proceeded to stick its head under its lifted back leg to give itself a good licking, with Ella (in a slight panic mode), perched precariously on its back. Only in Morocco!

We relaxed for awhile, then made a quick change back at the hotel and headed into the walled inner-city to do some window shopping. Lots of leather shoes, bags, belts, pottery, lamps, carpets, jewellry... we also saw a man selling boiled snails, fresh from the shell, a crippled woman painting with her feet, a seven-year-old girl warning "No photo!" when I pretended to take her picture and a fellow who could run up a wall and do a back flip, all for the joy of doing it... among other things. We ended our walk by watching the sun set over the Atlantic from the top of one of the outer walls of the city. Walking back to our hotel, we ran into Cory Sylvester and Raohl, one of the kitchen staff, and his girlfriend, Ann Usher. They had met a local who was proudly showing them around his town... and who knew of a great place for dinner. Count us in!

Dinner was different, but delicious. We simply sat, and various surprise dishes were brought to us, one at a time, starting with an amazing mixed salad - carrot shavings, slices of onion & red pepper, cucumber, lettuce, cold boiled potato, rice, tuna, olives, grapes & cherries... all in the same salad! Various other dishes came and went (down), including a seafood platter with melt-in-your-mouth swordfish and calamari rings, both of which Tessa & Ella tried, and enjoyed! Everything washed down easily with coca-cola.

And that was the end of day one in Morocco.

To be continued...

MALAGA 09JUL08: The Dark Continent - When travelling around the world, a three hour trip is not a thing to give a second thought to... especially when the destination is as exciting as Morocco, in Northern Africa. And so we set out... we made the 1 1/2 hour bus ride from Málaga to Algeciras, took a taxi to Tarifa (half an hour), and jumped on a ferry, which arrived within a hour's time in Tangiers, Morocco.

As soon as we set foot on dry land, we were accosted relentlessly by "Officials from the Tourist Office", who came at us running from all directions. "Do you need a taxi? Do you want to take a tour? Are you staying overnight... do you need a hotel?"

No, no, and again, no, thank you!

Tangiers is a hot, hustling and bustling city, lots of traffic, and people swarming everywhere with lots to do. And lots of people standing around with nothing to do... but keep an eye on the tourists. We immediately decided to skip Tangiers and head for a town called Asilah, 45 kms down the coast, where Lauree had found us overnight accommodations. We had to ask for directions several times, and finally, a young man with nothing better to do escorted us to the "gare routiere", where he matter-of-factly pocketed the Euros I offered him. Unfortunately, we couldn't use Euros to buy our bus tickets, so I had to race down the streets looking for a bank machine, finally found one, withdrew dirhams and made my way back to the station, just as the bus for Asilah was pulling out... we had missed it. When we asked when the next bus would be leaving, we were told to consider taking a taxi.

Once we arrived at our hotel in Asilah, the Patio de la Luna, we quickly dropped our bags, put on our bathing suits and headed out for a quick bite before making our way to the beach. The chicken couscous and coca-cola hit the spot nicely... and to snack on at the beach, we bought a large bag of the freshest peanuts we have ever tasted, from a local peanut salesman pounding the sidewalks.

MALAGA 05JUL08: Eventful Week - We didn't go anywhere, but lots of little things happened this week.

We had visitors from home! Frederica Wilson and daughter Laurel arrived last Sunday to spend the week with us. Their first impressions of inside Cirque was a midnight bash organized by the technical crew. They had set up a bar, BBQ grill and a flat-bed trailer for a sound stage. The theme was "Bikers & Babes", and everyone was dressed accordingly, with the guys in bandanas and biker tees (skull & crossbones, Harley Davidson, Jack Daniels), and girls in tight skimpy outfits, complete with tatoos and big hair.

The school kids put on an "air band" performance - Queen doing Bohemian Rhapsody, and AC/DC doing Back In Black... stellar! Then a rock band (Balls of Steel) made up of Cirque personnel (Jim "Hendrix" Bevan - Mandocaster, Sebastien Savard - bass, Patrick Burke - guitar/vocals, Sebastien Therrault - lead guitar and me - drums) played a biker set (Steppenwolf, Skynyrd, Zepplin, Guns & Roses, etc.)... it was a loud & "rock"-us success. The party wrapped up around 5 in the morning, but we left much earlier than that, in consideration of our overwhelmed guests.

On Monday we brought Frederica & Laurel on a downtown Málaga walk-about, in 35 degree temperatures. They then watched a performance of Quidam on Tuesday night, with Ella in the role of Zoé.

But wait, there's more!

On Wednesday, Tessa had her first private flamenco lesson with Susana, the woman who has been teaching flamenco on site Saturdays. I arranged for a guitar lesson at the same time. Josanna was surprised at how quickly Tessa picked up the complicated flamenco foot-work. I failed to impress the guitar teacher Juan, however, with my "all-thumbs" guitar technique. After our lesson, I suggested that Tessa show Susana some Ottawa-Vally step-dancing. Tessa danced, and Susana's jaw dropped.

She then got Juan to play an aggressive flamenco passage on the guitar while she clapped out a 12/8 rhythm, and Tessa danced again. Josanna excitedly claimed that Tessa's steps are more-or-less "flamenco!". How about that!

Last night (Friday), Lauree, Tessa, Ella, Frederica & Laurel went to see Susana & Juan put on a public performance of flamenco at their studio. They were all very impressed. I was supposed to go too, but drummer Daniel had a flare up, so I performed two shows of Quidam, my first in Europe, and my first in almost 6 months! I'm not yet sure if I will perform again today...

Also this week, there were several birthday girls back home, all on July 2nd. Happiest of birthdays to Nana, Chelsea & Rylee!

MALAGA 25JUN08: The Barber of Seville - We spent the last two days in Sevilla, only two hours on the train from Málaga. Lauree had arranged a one night stay at the Hotel Simon, right in the heart of the old city. The rooms in our hotel suite were floor-to-ceiling in ceramic tiles, similar in style (and design!) to the palace rooms we had seen in El Alhambra, and would see in El Alcázar. Apparently, ceramic tiles are not just decorative... they are extremely functional too, in reducing humidity, which is why they are used in bathrooms around the world!

Didn't know that.

Sevilla's main attractions were both just a couple of blocks from our hotel - the Medieval cathedral, and Alcábar, the Moor-built palace which housed such royaltly as Fernando and Isabella (of Christopher Columbus fame). The cathedral is enormous, situated on the spot where a Muslim mosque once stood... apparently, the builders' intent was for everyone to think they were lunatics, and consequently, the architecture is crazy with spires, spirals, spasms and spikes!

Inside the cathedral is the tomb of Christopher Columbus (of Fernando and Isabella fame); (most of) his bones were interred there in the early part of the 20th Century... Santa Domingo, where he had been previously been buried, held on to a few bones for safe keeping (and for tourism, no doubt). Also featured in the cathedral is the largest main altar anywhere, a huge gilded floor-to-ceiling carved panel. Completely over the top... but still very impressive!

A climb up the cathedral tower rewarded us with a spectacular 360 degree view of Sevilla.

Back at ground-level, we took a walk over to the Plaza de Toros,for a tour of the local bull-fighting ring... lots of stuffed bull heads and matador suits in moth-balls. No bull fights, though.

Then a walk along the river to the Torre del Oro, a large Moorish look-out tower named for the gold dome crowning the top of it. Then over to the University, which was once a huge tobacco factory, with its own residences, school and hospital. The historic-tobacco-factory-museum part of it was closed, being a Monday. A nice walk, none-the-less.

Evening brought us to a small, intimate flamenco show in the courtyard-type salon of a several-hundred year old house. Great swirling guitar playing, a wailing male vocalist, and two passionate dancers, one male, the other female, put on a fabulous one-hour show. Seville is the birth-place of flamenco, so it was a must-see for our trip.

Our second day in Sevilla was dedicated to El Alcábar, a palace-fortress similar in purpose to, but smaller in scale than, El Alhambra in Granada. There is not much fortress, but the palace is beautiful and well-maintained, and the grounds and garden much nicer (lusher, we thought) than El Alhambra. Both are a recommended must-see, though, for anyone thinking of visiting Andalucia.

We took an afternoon walk over to see the the Palacio National, Sevilla's government buildings, in 38 degree temperatures. The remainder of our day was spent walking around the shaded narrow streets of old Sevilla, stopping routinely for a pitcher of sangria, a glass of cerveza, or a bottle of limonada.

Before leaving for our train back to Málaga, we went to the Barber of Seville, who gave me a short-back-and-sides "summer" trim, which in this heat, was long overdue.

MALAGA 22JUN08: A day in the life - Tessa had her first flamenco dance lesson yesterday. A professional dancer and guitarist from a local band called Kelipé came to site and gave the free lesson to a small group of interested artists. This first lesson was all about attitude... Tessa loved it. The lessons will continue on a weekly basis for the duration of our stay in Málaga.

Lauree and I went with some work colleagues for a team night out at a tapas bar in downtown Málaga. Here are some of the highlights from the evening:

- Málaga is the home town of Antonio Banderas.

- Lauree uncharacteristically ate several thin slices of meat from a hanging dried foreleg of a pig, at the friendly insistance of Irina, our Russian tour accountant. It is a local favourite, and something we find hanging in restaurants everywhere we go.

- I ate some sea urchin... it looked like dog food, smelled like dog food, tasted like dog food, and I was sick as a dog only a few hours later!

- Joao, a new cook from Lisbon mentioned that Lauree has the face of a French woman.

MALAGA 17JUN08: Gibraltar - Yesterday we made our first trip to the United Kingdom... the Gibraltar version.

Gibraltar, a twenty minute train ride and an hour and three-quarters on the bus from Torremolinos, was...just okay. It was interesting seeing the British telephone booths, the Royal Mail post boxes (haven't seen those in Canada for awhile), the Bobbies on foot patrol. We didn't do the shopping we had hoped to do (wanted to pick up some novels for Tessa's English studies), because the day we visited turned out to be a National holiday of some sort, and most retail stores were closed.

We did take a guided tour (along with Cory Sylvester, who made the trip with us) of the "Rock", seeing St Michael's Cave, a natural grotto similar to the Grutas de Garcia near Monterrey, Mexico (the Gibraltarians enjoy classical music concerts in theirs!), the Barbary Macaques, pesky monkeys that run free all over the rock, and the great seige tunnels built by the British that honeycomb the rock. It was all very interesting, and our guide, an arab-looking Gibraltarian named Lionel, did a good job filling us in with the historical significance of everything.

For example, apparently when Lord Nelson was killed nearby, in the battle of Trafalgar, he was brought back to the Naval base here in Gibraltar, then shipped back to England in a barrel of brandy (to preserved him long enough for his hero's funeral). By the time the barrel arrived back in England, a good half of the brandy had been siphoned out by the thirsty crew.

Bet you didn't learn about THAT in your history books!

We then said our goodbyes to Cory, and headed off to Tarifa, Spain, the most southern point of the European continent. Tarifa was terrific! We arrived late, because of time-lost waiting for the next available bus, and we only had time for a quick walk around the narrow cobbled lanes full of interesting bars, restaurants and boutiques. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, then crashed at our 18th Century hotel inside the old town walls, the funky Posada Vagamundos, another great pick by Lauree (thanks Lonely Planet!).

Breakfast was courtesy of the hotel, strong hot coffee, hot chocolate, orange juice, toasted baguette with orange (Seville) marmalade.

Then, it was off to make a recently-learned-of dream come true for Ella... to ride a horse!

We went to a stable just outside Tarifa, where a Swiss miss named Tatia took us out horse-back riding along drover's trails, across fields of grazing horses, cattle (mind the bull!) and a pig, over gentle hill-side slopes, and by the Atlantic seashore.

After our ride, we enjoyed a drinks at the beach bar of the Hurricane Hotel (to which the stable is affiliated). As we sipped our Sangrias, we looked out over the Atlantic waters at the coast of Africa, only 7 miles across the Straits of Gibraltar, and discussed plans for visiting Morocco before our stay in Málaga comes to an end.

MALAGA 13JUN08: Friday the 13th - Nothing unlucky to report here... it is a hot, beautiful sunny day, Ella has two shows, and for the first, a local football club (MálagaCF) is in the audience.

So let's talk beer.

My current favourite is from a brewery in Granada (a delightful coincidence), and is called Alhambra Reserva 1925. It is, in fact, the only brew I have enjoyed enough to include in my top five since coming on tour.

My top five, if you are interested, include in no particular order: Harp, Steamwhistle, Moosehead, Alhambra Reserva 1925, Rickard's Red and Kingfisher.

Oops... that's six.

Okay, my top six. Anyone got a church key?

MALAGA 11JUN08: Alhambra - Our main activity for Day Two in Granada was a tour of Alhambra, the fortress-palace of the Muslim kings of Granada. This place was made famous to Westerners by American writer Washington Irving, who was inspired to write about it in his book Tales of the Alhambra after spending some time there in the early 1800's.

Tessa was captivated by the beautifully-tiled buildings, archways, gardens and fountains - she wishes she could have lived here during it's glory days. She would like to live here when she grows up and sets out on her own. And maybe I can come and live with her!

We had lunch in the court-yard of the Hotel America, a hotel situated within the ancient walls of the Alhambra. The court-yard was small, with the tables very close, but it had a nice fresh atmosphere, large plants, small trees, sparrows flying freely around from table to table...

I didn't notice it... Lauree didn't notice it... even Ella didn't notice it. But eagle-eye Tessa noticed... a sparrow perched in the leafy canopy above us crapped, and it landed on the sunny-side egg served with my lunch. I was just about to trade it for Ella's Spanish Omelette (egg mixed with mashed potato) when Tessa sounded the alarm

Lucky for Ella!

MALAGA 11JUN08: Granada - This weekend was our first opportunity to go anywhere as a family, and anywhere turned out to be Granada, where the last of the Moorish kingdoms flourished until 1492, when Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (of Columbus fame) reclaimed the area for Spain.

We arrived in Granada Sunday morning after a short 1.5 hour bus ride from Málaga. Our accommodations there were wonderful and conveniently located just outside the Alhambra, in a former arab palace (Palacio Santa Ines). We dropped our bags and made a bee-line for Al;ibe, a baños árabes (arabian bath-house), where Lauree had scheduled us in for a couple of hours as a surprise treat.

This was an amazing experience. In a dimly-lit maze of pillared brick archways were a multitude of shallow baths, some soak-in-the-bath warm (like Rob & Diane's pool, but without the noodles and beer!), and others stimulatingly cool and refreshing. We floated silently in the saline baths, eyes closed, or staring lazily at the arabic motif on the cavern's ceiling, breathing in the scented oils and listening to omni-directional arabic chanting to the steady but hypnotic beat of a tablar drum. We each had a turn with one of several massueses before slipping back into the warmth of the bath. We took a brief break from our soak only to indulge in some herbal tea. It was lovely.

Hard-working Lauree found the experience a wee-bit indulgent, but I thought it was spiritual and re-vitalising. It was some well-deserved "us" time. (Although there were three or four other couples in the baths, we could easily avoid them and claim our own private pool!) We all felt just a little bit closer at the end of it.

We then cruised around the old town, exploring shops of exotic silk fabrics, aladdin lamps, arabic tile. We also visited the Catedral. King Fern and Queen Issy (of Columbus fame) are buried in the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) adjoining the church.

Our next new experience was "tapas" - Granada bars are famous for offering it - free snacks while you consume beverages at their establishment. We had smoked salmon on baguette, baked potatoe slices with mayo and "bacon", skewered pork... a different snack served with each round we ordered. This certainly curbed our appetites until it was time to stumble off for our late night dinner reservation.

Dinner was traditional and tasty - tajin de cordero (lamb), tajin de pollo (chicken), couscous, humus, spaghetti (??? - that Tessa!).

And our day was done...

MALAGA 06JUN08: Ella's Málaga Premiere - Last night was premiere night.

The only totally unexpected thing about it was that Lauree missed it... she was out of town, back in Lisbon, picking up some important paperwork from the Spanish Embassy there.

She had left Wednesday morning, early, 6:00 in the morning, but also late, because her flight was scheduled to take off at 6:30 in the morning. She got there quick (told the taxi driver "RAPIDO!") and made it on the plane, after some desperate pleading with the ticket agent.

She was only supposed to be there one night, but the embassy was slow in providing the paperwork, so another night's stay was necessary and... she missed the premiere.

MALAGA 03JUN08: Adios cher amigo! - Yesterday we bade farewell to one of our inner circle on tour. He was originally just "Letitia's dad" to us, but over the past eight-plus months, we have come to know him as Neil, our good and trusted friend.

Good luck on your journey ahead... we will miss you!

MALAGA 02JUN08: JC's & The Irish Fiddler - Busy day yesterday, with a set at two different venues.

As special guests of The Sessionistas, we performed (Jim, the girls and I, with Brendan on bodhran) at JC's, an Irish bar in Torremolinos, the seaside resort town where we are staying. After the set, Rosie indicated that they had another session to go to, in Estepona, and asked if we would be interested in doing a set there too. We were delighted to do so.

An hour and a half later, we were on the other side of Gibraltor! Darn good thing we had Brendan to drive us... the cab fare would have been out of this world! The pub was situated at the marina, a popular night-spot in Estepona, and the owner was a very nice fellow who made us feel welcome (like celebrities, actually!). We played our set, drank some ale (or cranberry juice, for those under-age), bade our adieus, and were back home well after midnight. And it was all well worth it. Thanks AGAIN Brendan.

And thank you, Rosie, Dave & Pete, for giving us some of your playtime!

MALAGA 31MAY08: C U Jimmy's - Last night, the girls and I went with Quidam band leader Jim Bevan to a jam session at a pub called C U Jimmy's in Coin, Spain, a town in the coastal mountain range, about 40 kms outside of Malaga. The session was led by a Celtic music trio called The Sessionistas, who were joined by several other instrumentalists - whistlers, bodhrán players and bone rattlers - and a couple of singers. The players were, from what I could tell, mostly Brits who have retired-early for a life in the sun. A great bunch of people.

One gentleman, a Brit with an Irish heart, was kind enough to drive us home to our hotels after the session (easily an hour out of his way!). Thank you Brendan.

We were invited to join in with the Sessionistas, Rosie (bodhrán, whistle & fiddle), Dave (tenor banjo, mandolin, etc.) and Pete (guitars) at their gig on Sunday... can't wait!

MALAGA 26MAY08: Tessa's Ticking Time-bomb - Tessa appears to have been singled out during our transfer flight from Lisbon to Malaga... by whom, I am not sure!

First of all, she was pulled aside for a "pat-down" at airport security; it might have been the copper-plated deco-belt she was wearing that triggered the alarm, a fashion accessory gifted to her by Julie "Albino" Cameron. No problem, just a little Anglo-Saxon embarrassment.

Her next bit of misfortune could have caused quite a bit trouble. We had landed in Madrid to make our connection to Malaga, and everyone was standing jam-packed in the aisle waiting to de-plane. We suddenly noticed a faint-but-quite-distinct sound coming from Tessa's carry-on violin case. It was the kind of sound you don't want to be hearing on an aircraft.

Her violin case was TICKING!!!

It was her electronic metronome, ticking away at a steady 200 beats per minute! (The metronome has been mysteriously switching on on its own lately...) Fortunately, only we noticed... but Tessa was feeling pretty nervous as she exited the plane, being aware of the implications of carrying a ticking violin case!

LISBON 26MAY08: Our last days are spent - Today, we leave for Malaga, Spain. We have had a busy last few days, saying goodbye to all our new Portuguese friends.

Through the week, we spent a couple of afternoons with our fiddle friend Seoirse, the first at O'Gilin's, and the next at his wonderful third-story apartment, which looks out over a periwinkle-blue sea of blooming jacarandas (I think that's what they are!) that line the avenue. We got together to record a batch of fiddle tunes for Seoirse to work on. This Irish fellow is a true inspiration... a lover of life, literature and fiddle music!

On Saturday, Tessa and I met up with Joana and Vasco, who treated us to lunch at the Pasteis de Belém, then took us to a few more sights around Lisbon - a beautiful gothic church, Igreja S. Domingos, founded in 1241, the serene ruins of the Convento do Carmo, the Elevador de Santa Justa, and the Mãe de Água, the reservoir at the Lisbon end of the magnificant aqueduct, built in 1746. I wish we could have spent more time with this charming couple.

We are sad to be leaving Lisbon, and all our new-found O'Gilin's friends... and there was still so much to see and do!

LISBON 19MAY08: Belém - After a late start, we took the train from Alges to Alcantara-Mar, only a few stops away, where the cruise ships dock. We walked along the Rio Tagus until we reached Belém, a popular and historical area of the city.

Our first must-do was lunch at the Pasteis de Belém, a café famous for its small eggy-custard tarts. Tessa and Ella had decided to forego the traditional tarts, in favour of the chocolate croissants listed on the menu. However, the waiter taking our order very quickly made it clear that the tarts were the only item being served. The waiter was not impressed when we conceded to order ONLY ONE tart each... we were not prepared to take any chances. Besides, Tessa and I had sampled some of these famous Lisbon tarts during one of our early excursions downtown... we were not particularly thrilled by them.

When our tarts arrived, still warm from the oven, we ALL became believers... they were heavenly. Not-too-sweet custard and a light and crispy tart shell, with a liberal sprinkling of cinnamon and icing sugar. Yum-yum!

Needless to say, we ordered a second round.

Then it was down the street to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, an ornate monastery built in the last half of the 16th Century, on the site of the hermatige where Vasco da Gama and his men spent the night in prayer before departing for India in 1497. In fact, local hero Vasco can still be found there, resting in peace in a tomb just inside the door of the main chapel.

Our last stop in Belém was to see the Torre de Belém, a tiny fortress constructed in the middle of the Tagus River between 1515 and 1521, with water-level cannons to discourage potential invaders of Lisbon. The tower is no longer in the middle of the river... a large part of the northern shore of the Tagus was filled in to accommodate urban expansion. It is a lovely bit of architecture, but unfortunately, it had been gaudily decorated for some sort of music video a few weeks ago, spoiling an otherwise perfect Kodak moment.

For a special treat, we jumped in a taxi and headed downtown for a supper of nachos, burgers, fries and beer at the Hard Rock Cafe.

LISBON 18MAY08: Sintra, Take Two - Lauree had not been to Sintra, and we felt the town was well worth a second look. I had figured out how to get there using only the train system, but requiring three different trains. My plans derailed after arriving at an unexpectedly-deserted railway stop and discovering that an all-important connection did not run on Sundays. Taxi provided the easiest solution, and we were soon more-or-less happily on our way.

We arrived in Sintra and toured an estate, the Quinta da Regaleira, built by a local millionaire shortly after the turn of the twentieth century... a magnificant mansion, or "palácio", on grounds littered with caves, dark pools, mysterious tunnels and underground chambers. This fantastic place alone made our second trip to Sintra worthwhile.

Next stop was the Palácio Nacional da Pena, a mountain-top residence used by the Portuguese Royal family throughout the course of the last few hundred years. The palace was well-furnished with items owned by the royals who had lived there, but there was no indication of what may have happened to them. (I have since learned that they simply pulled up stakes and headed for Brazil when Portugal became a Republic in the 1920's)

Our trip home was again aggravated by arriving at the station with no trains. A taxi was a little more difficult to obtain, but Lauree charmed the elderly Portuguese gentleman posing as a security guard into placing a call for us, and we eventually made it back to the apartment, worn out from our day of palace- hopping.

LISBON 16MAY08: Fiddling Zoé - Benoit Jutras had asked Ella to bring her violin to site. She did, and played a couple of tunes for him. He was impressed, and would like to see Ella play something on the violin somewhere during the show, but we are not sure how this is gong to work out.

Nice thought, though.

LISBON 14MAY08: Sintra - Yesterday, we went on a school outing to Sintra, about 45 minutes north east of Lisbon by train. This picturesque little town features several palaces, and a grand mountain-top castle built by the Moors in the 8th Century.

The school kids, Dalyane, Vova, Polyanna, Lisa, Ella and Tessa, paid a visit to the Palácio Nacional de Sintra before lunch, then spent the afternoon trekking to the top of the mountain and exploring the Castelo Mouros.

Ella put in a performance in the evening - a couple of things made it memorable.

First of all, during the finale, Ella and the clown Toto go under the back stage together (lying on their bellies on dollies) in order to appear center stage through a hatch. However, when the cue came, Ella could not find Toto in the backstage area... it turns out he had already gone ahead under the stage and was waiting at the hatch door. Ella made a dash back into the artistic tent to see if he was there, then realized that if she didn't get a move on, she herself would miss the cue. She raced back and scrambled on her hands and knees under the stage to the hatch just in the knick of time to make her cue. In fact, when Toto opened the hatch door, she was a blur as she zipped past him through the open hatch and onto the stage... he was certain she wasn't going make it!

The audience, of course, had no idea this was happening... although an observant enough person sitting within the front few rows might have noticed the big hole in the knee of Zoe's stockings and the scraped knee it revealed!

The other memorable thing - Benoit Jutras, the gentleman who composed the music for Quidam, was in the audience reviewing the show... more news on that later!

LISBON 11MAY08: Mother's Day - Mother's Day or not, Lauree put in a full day's work on site today. And Ella had two shows to perform... when we got home after the evening show, we tried, but were not successful in contacting any of our dear moms back home. Our hearts and thoughts were with you... Happy Mother's Day!

On a musical note, we had some special guests for the second show - O'Gilin's Irish session friends Joana & Vasco. They are also performers in a Portuguese band called Dazkarieh.

Thanks to both of you for coming out!

LISBON 10MAY08: No. 100 - Last night we celebrated Ella's 100th show in Quidam. We shared a bottle of Portuguese Rosé Bruto, and presented Ella with a new Nano iPod (her previous one disappeared from our Veracruz hotel room).

Way to go Ella!

LISBON 07MAY08: Celebrity Sighting! - The site for Quidam in Lisbon is situated a stone's throw from the mouth of the Rio Tejo, which opens up into the Atlantic Ocean. Lisbon is a major cruise ship hub, and one can see several of the "floating hotels" pass by site every day.

During the late afternoon today, a large, elegant-looking cruise ship with a black hull, white deck and a single red and black funnel, steamed past site. Luckily, one of the technicians, Paul Teichgraber, was there to point out that this was no ordinary cruise ship... it was the QE2, one of the last of the great Transatlantic ocean liners, making her to the Mediterranean. Wow.

And speaking of celebrities... there is a new artist on tour with Quidam, the lovely and talented Elena Lev, who executes a dazzling contortion routine while spinning one or more silver hoola hoops on any available appendage. Anyway... she has met several celebrities as a young performer, including PAUL McCARTNEY! You can see a photo of Elena and Sir Paul on her website.

For anyone who is counting, that is only one degree of separation!

LISBON 29APR08: The sky's the limit! - Today, Lauree's wind-surfing skills were put to the test - she got to climb up the outside of the Grand Chapiteau, right to the top!

She was assisted in her ascent by seasoned tent climbers Craig McGregor and Billy Riske. Lauree held onto a rope tethered to a main mast and edged her way up the slippery sloped roof of the billowing big top.

Lauree said it was windy, and very pretty exciting, but admitted she was concerned that her foot might go right through the vinyl tent material... concerned, that is, until Craig demonstrated how durable the tent was by jumping up and down on it like a trampoline!

LISBON 29APR08: Meet The Press... - Busy day today. First of all, Ella was asked to do a 40 minute press conference with the Portuguese media - television, newspapers and magazines. A few minutes before the scheduled interviews, I had to deal with an unexpected panic attack... sweaty palms, quesiness, an overwhelming feeling of dread.

Ella, on the other hand, was being quite calm, cool and collected about the whole thing.

LISBON 29APR08: O'Gilin's Monday Night Irish Session - The Irish session players at O'Gilin's have added a brand new song to their repertoire... St Anne's Reel! They were so impressed by the song (performed by Tessa and Ella the week before), that they all went out and learned the tune. It was great fun playing it with them (very, very fast!) at last night's jam!

Tessa had also done her homework by learning six songs the Portuguese lads do in their sets... the reels The Silver Spear, Maid Behind The Bar and Mountain Road, and jigs Rose in the Heather, Connaughtman's Rambles and Kesh Jig. I can't tell you enough how wonderful it is for Tessa and Ella to be back jamming fiddle tunes!

LISBON 28APR08: ...at the seashore - Today we went to the seaside town of Cascais, a 20 minute train ride from Lisbon. Lauree headed out ahead of us to get a dive in with some of her dive buddies. She ran into a bit of trouble with the train police on the way to Cascais; it seems that her metro pass does not entitle her to travel in that direction, so she was "kicked off" the train. Fortunately, she did not have to pay a fine or anything... she simply purchased the proper ticket and was once again merrily on her way.

I too got into trouble with the authorities... Lauree suggested I pick up a couple of towels from the hotel pool to use at the beach. Ella and I had just done so, and were leaving the deserted pool area when hotel security showed up.

"I am sorry sir, but you must put back the towels."

"Uhh... what?"

"The towels, sir."

I grumbled as I surrendered the towels. "Are you sure you have put back ALL the towels?" the security guy inquired, eyeing our beach bag suspiciously.

So, more-or-less towel-less, we too headed off to Cascais, a pretty little town with huge mansions lining the seashore. We found Lauree with her dive buddies (having drinks on the patio, of course), then made our way to a small, but very nice public beach. It was a little too chilly to swim, but we enjoyed spending the afternoon sunning ourselves, eating, drinking, talking and playing in good company - Jaime, Jesse, M-J and Troy, tech's Neil and Rob (Marr), and new head usher Fabio.

On a final, "cultural" note - Tessa and Ella were shocked that there were a couple of Portuguese girls sunbathing topless on the beach... well girls, just wait until you get to Brazil!

LISBON 21APR08: Noite da música celta - Last night we went to O'Gilin's Irish Pub to participate in their Traditional Irish Jam. We were invited into the jam circle by five Portuguese lads, and despite some minor language and cultural differences, we had a lot of fun jamming out a series of jigs (played VERY fast!), reels and who-knows-what over the next couple of hours. Our instrumentation included fiddles, guitar, mandolin, penny whistle, irish pipes (uilleann) and bodhran.

We recognized only a few tunes on their jam list... Teetotaler, Smash the Window, Swallowtail, Off She Goes... but we did our best to play along with what ever tunes they threw at us. The lads were equally obliging when we took the lead and introduced them to some of our own rather obscure Irish tunes, such as St Anne's Reel, Whisky Before Breakfast, Little Burnt Potato and Frost Is All Over (maybe they are not so Irish?!!)

Our Irish music jam gained some authenticity when shortly into the jam, an actual Irish-born fiddler showed up. He was a colourful spirited fellow who seemed fascinated with the girls, wanting to know all about the musical voyage that brought them all the way to Lisbon. He recommended we pick up a book by Henry Tropic Of Cancer Miller entitled Smile at the Foot of the Ladder. He says it is a delightful book with a circus theme. We'll need to check it out for sure.

We had to leave early (the jam continued until 2 am), but we were invited to come back and jam next week... we'll be there!

We grabbed the train back to Algés station, and set out on foot to complete the half hour trip back to the apartment. Walking hand in hand along the quiet cobble-stoned street that winds its way through this Lisbon neighbourhood, Ella looked up at me and said "Isn't our life great, Dad!".

"It is" I replied, for at that very moment, our life was absolutely perfect.

LISBON 20APR08: European debut - Last night was Ella's Lisbon debut, which also marked her first performance in Europe. Attending the performance as our guest was a visitor from Canada, Kathleen McLeod, a step dancer from London, Ontario. Thanks Kathleen for the provisions... Kraft Peanut Butter and KD!!!

Today we ventured downtown as a family to see the sights. We took the commuter train to Cais do Sodre and walked over to the Placo do Comércio, which features an impressive statue of Dom Jose I and the Arco da Victória, the historical gateway to the city. We then headed up the pedestrian street Rua Augusta, which is lined on both sides with shops.

We roamed around the Castelo de Sáo Jorge, built by the Visogoths in the 5th Century, fortified by the Moors in the 12th Century, and used as a royal residence from the 14th to the 16th Century. The 360 degree views of the city from the castle walls and turrents are amazing.

We finished up our afternoon of sight-seeing at the Igraja de Santa Maria Maier, a beautiful gothic cathedral in the heart of the old city. Its simple but majestic lines are quite a contrast to the over-the-top baroque stylings of some of the churches we saw in Italy... just compare the photo of this church to that of the Duomo di Siena, for instance.

The most memorable sight of the day: Just outside the castle, we saw a very curious looking dog. It looked exactly like a german shepherd, but it must have some Basset Hound or something in it, because it had stumpy little legs. It was the Danny Devito of german shepherds!

LISBON 07APR08: Napoli to Roma to Lisboa - What can we say about Naples (that won't offend someone!). There was a young woman across from us on the train back to Rome who was the perfect personification of Naples: she was loud, obnoxious and we didn't trust her around our things. She actually looked like Rocky Balboa after losing a fight, with her blackened eyes (too much makeup), pierced nose and pierced lower lip. She had skull rings on her black nail-polished fingers, and wore a black and red stripped tee-shirt over some sort of black fish-net body stocking. Although she looked rather dangerous, she was friendly enough (we thought perhaps sizing us up for a mugging), but she had a peculiar habit of talking softly when speaking Italian to the lady beside her, but then bellowing when talking English to us, so that the whole car could not help but hear. On the topic of how we were not thrilled with Naples, she explained that the dirt and decay was all part of that city's charm.

And that may be.

Flew in to Lisbon, and had the worst landing of our lives. It was raining and windy, and the pilot seemed to have very poor control of the plane as we lowered to the runway. The wings were dipping from side to side, the plane would jerk upward, the plane would jerk downward... Tessa and Ella were clutching each other in tears. But, we lived to tell the tale.

We are now checked into our beautiful apartment. We are surely going to be very happy here during our next 7 weeks.

NAPLES 06APR08: The Isle of Capri - We decided to spend our last day in Italy over on Capri, the popular island getaway, both in times past and present, of the rich and famous.

We took a 30 minute ferry ride across to the island, whose main attractions are The Blue Grotto, a blue glowing cave accessable only by rowboat, and the Villa Jovis, built by Roman Emperor Tiberius in the early AD's. We saw neither attraction... rough seas, and a strong desire to just sit back and relax were the main reasons. We had a pleasant day there; the girls went up to the top of the mountain on a chair lift in Anacapri while Lauree and I enjoyed a beer on a sunny terrace. We then went for lunch at a local traittoria.

Our evening spent back in Napoli was somewhat anti-climactic... at dinner, the salad we ordered came with tuna on it and the wine was sour. Fortunately, we had a good bottle of Italian red on reserve back at the apartment (which, it turns out, WAS a palace, used in the 1700's to house family members of the king!).

NAPLES 05APR08: Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum & Pompeii - We took a giant step back in time today, starting with an easy trek up Mount Vesuvius, the only active volcano on Europe's mainland. A commuter train brought us to the town of Ecolano, 25 minutes south of Naples, where we then took a shuttle bus two-thirds of the way up Vesuvius. We walked the rest of the way to the top on a wide groomed pathway. We were able to look directly into the crater, which is completely plugged up with sand and rocks, but there is steam seeping out from cracks in numerous spots to remind us that is no ordinary mountain. There is also evidence of a enormous mud slide down one side of the volcano. We were all somewhat nervous being there, and were quite happy when we were off the volcano, which last erupted in 1944... it is long overdue!

Then we went back to Ercolano, to see the ruins of Herculaneum, which was buried in 79 AD by the same eruption that buried Pompeii.

Herculaneum was truly fascinating. It is a smaller sight than Pompeii (excavation work is more difficult as it is buried under 20 meters of volcanic debris instead of the 4 meters in Pompeii), but it is equally impressive. The highlights for us were the Roman bath house and the Villa of the Papyri, a seafront retreat used by Julius Caesars's father-in-law. We were also very touched to see the skeletal remains of two adults and a child cuddled together.

We hopped back aboard the commuter train, and got off at Pompeii where we spent a good two and a half hours roaming the ruins, but still didn't get to see everything. The baths, the theaters and the amphitheater were all amazing. The body casts of the victims in their final moments of terror and pain was sobering.

Even in ruin, both Herculaneum and Pompeii are beautiful. The carved pillars, the sculptures, the detail of the mosaic floors and the frescos... what a wonderful place to live. We all agreed that life back then must have been pretty good... until Vesuvius erupted, that is.

NAPLES 04APR08: Roma to Napoli - Lauree and I were up early and brought our FEDEX packages to a friendly nrighbourhood Mail Boxes Etc., then picked up fresh pasta noodles with which to finish off our left over pasta sauce, and the rest of the steak from our dinner out the previous night. What a breakfast!

We then backpacked it to the train station, savouring the last of the sights of Rome along the way. Bought tickets to Napoli.

The train was not at the track when we arrived at the platform, and Tessa & Ella were primed to leap on the first available coach and grab a set of four seats together for our trip. When the train arrived, they did their job well, and we had our backpacks stowed and were sitting comfortably ready to play Kings In The Corner while other passengers were still filing slowly down the aisle. We thought it strange, rather suspicious, that passengers were checking the row and seat numbers on the overhead compartments. We knew we were in trouble when a young Italian woman apologetically pointed out that we were sitting in her seat. Assigned seating... we had no idea!

So once again, we were hauling our stuffed backpacks through car after car looking for seats that matched numbers on our tickets. When we finally found them, some people had already staked them out. They relinquished them, however, when we produced our ticket stubs... and they were good seats, too! In a berth!

On the way to Napoli, Lauree read to us from her Lonely Planet, describing how rampant petty crime is there, how they snatch purses cameras and knapsacks on speeding scooters, how whole gypsy families prey upon hapless tourists. This must have planted the seed... in Lauree, at least.

Our first impression of Napoli was not good. First of all, the tourist information both was closed... at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon. Also, we had no place to stay... Lauree had a few recommendations from her Lonely Planet, that's all. We set out to the first address, and found ourselves hopelessly lost on the back streets of Napoli... in fact, all of Napoli is one huge network of dark and dirty back streets! And none of them are named!

It was drizzling, and the grimey streets were now greasy, with garbage everywhere, and dog crap everywhere, and artistically-challenged graffiti everywhere, even on once-beautiful marble monuments. And lots of homeless people, permanently camped out on the steps of churches and civic buildings... one guy had class though - he was sleeping on a ledge, but his SLIPPERS were placed tidily at the foot of his makeshift bed.

And the people are pushy and unfriendly. TWICE we were almost run over by scooters motoring down the sidewalk... because the one-way street didn't go the direction they wanted to go!

However, we did find (what I think is) terrific accommodations... in a building that in another life might have been a palace or something. And at (in my opinion) a very nice location (if that can be found in Napoli), an alley lined with antique book vendors (all in Italian, regrettably). And just around the corner, a street of musical instrument shops! Heaven!

We went for dinner at a local pizzeria recommended by our Napoli landlord. All eight waiters at the pizzeria looked like brothers (the Mussolini brothers!)... and they all looked like mafioso thugs, working as waiters as a front. The pizza was just okay, but we felt unwelcome the whole time we were there in the restaurant. Well, tomorrow is another day!

ROME 03APR08: Hey St Peter! - Today we did the Vatican.

We started early and got into St Peter's Basilica without much of a line up... just us and several bus loads of Japanese tourists. We were amazed by the number of popes, saints and even apostles buried in the basilica... there was a "celebrity" shrine in every nook and cranny. We made our way through the massive cathedral along with our Japanese contingency, snapping photos left, right and centre.

We were once again very impressed with Michelangelo's work... another of his famous works, The Pietà (1498–1499), is in St Peter's. For whatever reason, though, the sculpture is behind a plexi-glass barrier, so we could not get too close a look.

Our next stop was the Vatican Museum, and it seemed it was the next stop for several thousand other people too. We shuffled in line down the sidewalks along two sides of the museum before getting past the front doors of the museum, then shuffled through the Egyptian gallery, the Busts gallery, the Muses gallery, the Animals gallery, the Maps gallery, the Tapestry gallery, the Raphael gallery... by the time we got to the Sistine Chapel, we were worn out from shuffling, and basically just wanted to get out of there!

The Vatican Museum had a lot of very interesting things... and some curious things as well. What Dan Brown wrote about nude male statues being emasculated is sad but true... with only a few exceptions. for most of them.

After the museum, we picked up some panini, ham and cheese and ate lunch in St Peter's Square.

Dinner was at a restaurant around the corner from where we are staying in the Campo de Fiori district. The restaurant, called Hostaria Constanza, is in the basement of what was at one time the popular Roman Pompey Theatre. The pasta we ordered was unbelievable... all four of us claimed it was the best we had had in Italy. The steaks were also delicious, even though the were still mooing when they arrived on our plates.

ROME 02APR08: “There is only so much broken down stuff I can take.” - No more ruins, and no more churches. That was our motto for the day, at Lauree’s request. Our first stop was to see the Bernini fountain at the Piazza Navona, where one of the bishops in the novel Angels and Demons was drowned. We couldn’t get any decent photos of it for our fellow Dan Brown fans, because unfortunately, the Bernini fountain was undergoing restoration, as are many of the landmarks in Rome (being off season, I suppose). We walked down the Via del Coronari which is littered in antique shops that sell interesting bric-a-brac and old paintings, indulged in some gelato at a Lonely Planet recommended shop Gelateria del Teatro, and then headed over to walk along the river Tevere.

We came of the antique district at the Ponte Sant’ Angelo, which coincidently leads to the Castel Sant’ Angelo, the papal fortress also featured in Angels and Demons. We weren’t even looking for this landmark!

We traveled along the Tevere as far as the controversial American-designed Ara Pacis Augustae, which houses ancient Roman panels dating back to 13 BC. Adjacent to this building is the Roman era Mausoleo di Augusto, which is undergoing extensive restoration. We then cut across the fashionable shopping district to finally arrive at the Piazza di Spagna and the famous Spanish Steps, which were crowded with tourists and persistent junk vendors.

From there we went to see a lesser known Michelangelo sculpture of Christ bearing the cross (c. 1520) at the 13th century Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. Outside the church is an intersting Bernini sculpture of a baby elephant that carries a 6th century BC Egyptian obelisk, known as Elefantino.

The rest of our day was spent wandering around trying our best not to notice this ruin or that church, which is a difficult thing to do. We did rest a moment to enjoy the best coffee in Rome at Sant’ Eustachio Il Caffe. This café was recommended to us by the steward on our US Air flight to Venice. Thanks Tony!

ROME 01APR08: When in Rome… - We headed out early in the morning to explore ancient Roma; the Colosseo (80 AD), the Foro Romano, the Palatino, the Arco di Tito, the Mercati Traianei, the Arco di Costantino (312 AD)… we even saw the exact spot, thereabouts, where Julius Caesar got knifed. Wow, a lot of history in this town.

We must look like tourists, however. On our way to the Colosseum, a fellow dressed as a Centurian insisted on us taking a picture of him with each of the girls. He then nonchalantly charged us 5 euros apiece!

After having lunch at the lovely Trevi fountain, we went on to see the Pantheon, once a Roman temple, and presently the only fully intact Roman structure in the city (and only because it became a Catholic church in the 6th century AD). We then headed back to our neighbourhood to walk through the famous Campo de Fiori produce market, and after that, called it a day.

Turns out our apartment building is right next to a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant called the Trattoria der Pallaro. Lauree had a nice long chat out back with the head chef, and ended up booking us in for this evening.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were a little surprised when the chef greeted us at the door, said something in Italian about the “Canadians” and then the elderly Italian woman who owns the restaurant came over to us and began hugging and kissing Lauree and the girls (I was spared, for the time being). We were then seated, and after a long wait (long enough to be annoyed that we had not yet received menus), plates of food arrived at the table… bread, a warm tasty lentil dish, pitted green olives, an anise-flavoured raw onion dish, tiny breaded patties of something veggie… and a jug of white wine. We partook, and then the dishes were cleared, and a pasta course was served, delicious noodles in a white sauce with bits of ham. We polished this off, one and all. Then a meat course, melt-in-your-mouth roasted veal, with curds of cheese, artichokes, and real potato chips (the kids wouldn’t even try them, because Lauree mentioned they might be pork rinds). Then, to top off the meal, some sort of fruit pastry with little shooters of tangerine juice.

Throughout the meal, the little old Italian woman owner would come over to us, pat us lovingly on the heads, or give Ella a squeeze. We couldn’t understand what was going on… were we special guests for some reason, or was it a case of mistaken identity?

At the end of the meal, the little old Italian woman owner came over, and we thanked her, told her how wonderful the meal was, etc., etc. Lauree insisted on getting a bill, and the little old Italian woman owner shook her head, no, no, etc., etc. We did not know exactly what the protocol was, so we waited awhile, then got up from our table, put a 20 euro bill in the pocket of our waitress, and then joined a short line of people paying their respects to the little old Italian woman owner as they left the restaurant. We paid our respects, and were soon out the door.

We were lingering momentarily at the door to our apartment building when Lauree’s new chef friend stuck his head out from the restaurant kitchen door and asked if we would like a receipt. Lauree answered no, but asked if we owed anything for the wonderful meal. The waiter hesitated for a moment, then answered “Uh, yes. 90 Euros”.

Bloody tourists!

TUSCANY 31MAR08: En bocca lupa - We were sad to leave our villa in Tuscany today, but at the same time, looking forward to experiencing Roma. We drove into Florence and dropped the car off at AVIS a little after 12:00 noon. We wanted to arrive in Roma by 4:00, which meant leaving by 1:00, but although the train station was only a few blocks away, we had one bit of business to take care of before heading out. The weight of our backpacks had convinced us that we were traveling with too much stuff, so we had filled two small FEDEX boxes with several pounds of expendable clothing, to send ahead to Lisbon. We needed only to drop them off at an authorized FEDEX depot before going to the train station.

We got directions to a Mail Boxes, Etc., the only FEDEX agents in Florence – we walked a few blocks, then crossed the bridge, then walked north along the river several more blocks to the third bridge, where we would find it right there around on the corner. But it wasn’t right there around the corner. We got new directions, and crossed back over the bridge, continued north several more blocks until we got to the second bridge, turned left for two blocks, then a right, and actually found the Mail Boxes, Etc... closed for lunch, and wouldn’t open again until 2:00. We had an hour to wait!

So, we accepted that we wouldn’t be in Roma by 4:00, and then we too had lunch, pizza with a full litre of house wine.

We went back to the Mail Boxes, Etc. at 2:00, but they wouldn’t send the FEDEX boxes… the owner had apparently had some trouble with FEDEX in the past. She said we could try our luck at another Mail Boxes, Etc. – the outlet by the TRAIN STATION!

Our luck changed for the better when we got to the train station… at 3:50, we managed to convince the ticket agent to sell us 4 tickets for the train to Roma, which was scheduled to pull out at 3:52! We raced through the station with our heavy backpacks, and caught the train!

We are now comfortably settled in at our fabulous two bedroom apartment in the popular Campo de Fiori district of Roma (Lauree did it again!). And we still have the two FEDEX boxes.

TUSCANY 30MAR08: No Grapes, no olives, nowhere! - Today we drove to a little town in the Chianti region called Castellina in Chianti, where we hoped to be able to visit a vineyard and do some wine tasting. We arrived just after 1:00 pm, and were disappointed to find the local tourist office closed from 1:00 to 3:00, for lunch. We decided to kill the time by having lunch ourselves, and enjoyed 4 very good pizzas and a half litre of local house wine.

I should mention that, much to Lauree’s disappointment, there are no grapes on the vine, and no olives in the trees. Just like at home, March is not the growing season in Tuscany.

After lunch, the local tourist office was able to arrange a tour for us, at an estate called Castellare di Chianti, just outside of town. We drove there, and were given a private tour of the cellar and a private tasting of the wines produced at the vineyard. We were not good wine tasters… I think they refer to people like us as “swallowers”. However, after sampling a few glasses of wine, we made our obligatory purchase, bade our farewells, and drove back to our villa without getting lost.

TUSCANY 29MAR08: Touring around Tuscany - Today we set out for Siena, the historical rival city of Florence, with a couple of stops along the way.

The first was at a medieval walled town called San Gimignano, famous for its numerous tall (but rather plain) towers, built to demonstrate the status of the nobles who lived there. This town is definitely gothic in style and flavour… one of the first things we did there was tour the Museo della Tortura (Museum of Torture), which displays instruments and explained techniques used to torture people exhibiting un-Christian behavior, mostly witches. Tessa and Ella also went into a Death museum, but were too freaked out to stay after seeing exhibits showing (wax) people being impaled and people hung upside down being sawn in half.

The town had a medieval market of sorts… we avoided buying any bread or cheese there… the bread weighed in the pounds and the wax on the lumps of cheese looked like it came from burned candles. Several shops sold wild boar meat, and there were full-sized boars (stuffed), furry boars legs and boars heads all over the place. San Gimignano did have the best gelato we’ve had thus far in Italy, though… at an establishment called Gelateria dell’ Olmo.

Lauree, Tessa and Ella liked the look and feel of San Gimignano… simple stone structures, nothing overly fancy. I thought it was okay, but my preference is the renaissance flavour of Lucca or Florence.

An interesting fact about this town… in 1348, plague wiped out much of its population. In fact, this whole region has a history of the plague. Also in 1348, plague wiped out two-thirds of Siena’s population of 100,000 inhabitants, and one half of the people living in Florence. I wonder if Edgar Allen Poe had this region in mind when he wrote The Masque Of The Red Death… especially when you consider the style of masks that are so popular in Venice!

The next, unexpected stop was at the Castello di Monteriggioni, a castle we spotted from the road we were taking to Siena. This castle was built sometime in the 13th century as an buffer to protect Siena from its rival city, Florence.

Then, Siena. This city apparently banned cars from being within the walls of its historic center, but no one is paying much attention, because walking down the narrow medieval streets, we had to keep on our toes to stay out of the path of fast-moving cars, scooters and full size BUSES! This annoyance aside, Siena seems to be a pretty happening place, lots of interesting shops, LOTS of students touring the city.

We visited the Piazza del Campo, the 14th century bowl-shaped square where a wild horse race, dating from the middle ages, is held twice a year. We saw the cathedral, Duomo di Siena, considered to be one of Italy’s greatest gothic churches, with its ornate white, green and red marble façade. We then had more gelato, to see if it would be as tasty as the gelato we had in San Gimignano earlier in the day… close, but no cigar.

On a final note, there was some sort of celebration or festival happening while we were inside the walled city… a parade of drummers and flag bearers in renaissance garb, some serious-faced marching old men, more flag bearers, and then some shuffling old women (perhaps the wives of the old men), with a small tone-deaf marching band pulling up the rear. The cymbal player in the band momentarily deafened the girls with a deliberate, but gleeful crash right in their face!

TUSCANY 28MAR08: Michelangelo’s David - We arrived in Florence by train, much later than planned. There was quite a long line-up outside the Galleria del Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David. As it happens, this week is Arts week in Italy, and admission to all galleries and museums is free. The line moved quickly, however, and within one hour we were passing through security at the gallery.

Forget swimming with dolphins (which we’ve done)… seeing this incredible work of art was a truly spiritual experience.

Entering the gallery and knowing David is there is like going someplace where you know you are going to meet a famous celebrity, like Paul McCartney or Elton John. We went in and immediately noticed him standing at the back of the room, surrounded by admirers. At first, we felt a little intimidated, and stayed back from the crowd, but eventually, we made our way to where he was standing, and simply stared in awe. He is simply magnificent. Thank goodness we did not have to speak with him or anything... we would have babbled like idiots!

Leaving the gallery, Lauree was evidently still a little dazed. She walked out the door and started trampling unknowingly all over some fine art prints a foolish vendor had laid out on the sidewalk to generate some sales. The kids cried out in horror, the vendor started yelling Italian obscenities, and Lauree apologized and scooted down the street.

We then went to the Piazza Duomo where we went up into the elegant dome of the cathedral Santa Maria Del Fiore, constructed between 1296 and 1436. Spectacular images of souls being tormented in hell grace the interior of the dome. After climbing up a seemingly endless series of cramped dark stone staircases, we immerged outside on the top of the dome, were we sat, sipped some wine and enjoyed a panoramic view of Firenze.

Afterward, we went by Dante’s church and house, and spent some time at the Piazza Della Signoria, where the outdoor museum Loggia dei Lanzi, which is home to a dozen or so spectacular marble and bronze statues, including several dating back to 1st Century Rome, and the famous sculpture by Giambologna, The Rape of the Sabine Women.

We had hoped to see Botticelli’s Venus (on a half shell) at the Galleria degli Uffizi, but the offer of free admission had generated a line-up with a wait time of one and a half hours. We may yet get a chance to visit the Uffizi, in a day or two, before leaving for Rome.

TUSCANY 27MAR08: Pisa & Lucca - Our landlord Leonardo came in the morning to drop off wood for the fireplace. We told him of our plans for the day, which included a trip to Pisa, less than one hour away from the villa. Leonardo insisted passionately that we also visit a beautiful walled city called Lucca, and gave us directions for getting to both sights and then home again.

Getting to Pisa was relatively easy, but once we were there, we had no idea where to find the tower. We drove around a little, and finally caught a glimpse of the dome of what appeared to be a fairly large church. Supposing that it must be something worth taking a look at, we quickly found a parking spot, and walked around the corner to the church.

What we encountered around the corner caught us completely off guard, and almost knocked us off our feet – in the middle of an open, very green expanse of lawn was the famous tower, just leaning there in all its glory! The feeling we had was similar to what someone might feel seeing something extraordinary, but something you've heard about all your life, like the Loch Ness Monster, and realizing, wow, it really exists!

Climbing to the top of the tower was a very curious experience. As we climbed the enclosed narrow steps that wind around the wall inside the tower, we began to feel a little off balance, like in the crazy kitchen at the Science and Technology Museum back home in Ottawa. Your brain is telling you one thing, and gravity is telling you another. The view at the top was great, offering a spectacular view of Pisa

After climbing the tower, we treated ourselves to leaning towers of gelato, three scoops!

We then drove to Lucca, and had no difficulty finding the picturesque walled city. Visiting Lucca is like stepping back in time to a medieval town, except that all the people and shops are contemporary. The architecture is all extremely well maintained, and there did not seem to be any modern buildings squeezing in as exceptions to the rule. Both Lauree and I agreed that this is our second-most favourite Italian town so far, with Venice being our favourite.

TUSCANY 26MAR08: A day off, more or less – Upon arriving in Verona, we had booked tickets on a direct fast train from Verona to Firenze (Florence). The train was to leave at 3:15 pm, so we had all morning to kill. There are several churchs in Verona worth seeing, but sleep felt so good… we could hardly drag ourselves out of bed to check out of our centrally-located two bedroom suite on time. We hauled our MEC backpacks to the main piazza, and nursed coffees at a sidewalk café until it was late enough in the morning to order a wine spritzer. Once that was done, and the girls had filled up on a margerita pizza, we set out on foot for the train station, where we arrived shortly after 12 noon.

We still had three hours to go before our train was to leave… so we read Italian newspapers, strolled around the station, loitered a bit, looked for an internet point (there was none), checked out the gift shop, went to buy some bottled water (there was none), went through the Verona tourist guides to see what sights we could have been seeing if we were not wasting our time at the train station…

Finally, we went out to the platform to wait for the train. Platform 1 out of some twenty odd platforms, with trains coming and going every couple of minutes, like a busy airport. Makes me wonder why Canada cannot make train travel viable.

The train arrived, packed with travelers, but we found ourselves a berth, like in the (Harry Potter/Hard Days Night) movie. We had to intrude on a woman already in the berth… we were able to put Tessa and Ella’s backpacks up on the overhead racks, but my backpack and Lauree’s were much to big and heavy, so they lumbered around on the floor of the compartment. The girls were feeling a little peckish, so Lauree got out some stinky cheese to eat with bread. The day-old bread was getting a bit stale, and was making crumbs all over the place. Just when we were succeeding in making quite a mess, the conductor came around to check our tickets.

Oops! We were in a 1st Class compartment and our tickets were for 2nd Class!

We then had to collect and haul our stuff through at least ten cars on a rollicking train before we found another berth to pile into! And another lone lady to intrude upon…

Finally arrived in Firenze at 6:00, half-an-hour late, and scrambled to a tourist information kiosk… we needed to rent a car to get to our Tuscan villa somewhere near Vinci (THE Vinci, as in Leonardo de). Next thing we knew, we were in a rented Ford Focus fighting rush hour traffic… in Florence Italy!

Our Tuscan landlord had sent us directions to the villa, and we had a road map, courtesy of Avis. However, it was the magnificent team effort on the part of the girls, who spotted the crucial highway numbers and critical place names, and told me which way to turn, that got us within spitting distance of our destination. The last stretch was up dark twisting narrow roads along mountain sides with only night air for crash barriers around the curves. We did not know for sure the exact location of the villa, but the landlord’s directions were quite detailed… drive 800 metres up the lane marked Baghera, and “you are there!” We also had the landlords cell phone number. Regrettably, we did not have a cell phone with us that would work in Italy. We found the lane, drove what we believed to be 800 metres, and came upon a cheerful looking rustic stone house, with lights on. With the words “you are there!” in mind, we parked the car, got out and excitedly knocked on the door of the house… the wrong house. The helpful gentleman we had disturbed knew of our landlord, however, and said to continue on further up the narrow lane. We continued on further up the narrow lane, which became more treacherous with each twist in the road. Not having a clue where we were going, or even what we were looking for, however, made it an exercise in futility. We would have to turn around, go back to the house we had just left, call our landlord and get him to come and meet us there. Of course, my three-point turn on the narrow lane brought on screams of terror from everyone, and tearful wailing from Tessa, who truly believed we were all going to die in a fiery tumble down the side of the mountain! We didn’t die, however… we didn’t even tumble a little bit.

We called the landlord (from the house of the gentleman we again had to disturb), who agreed to come to us right away. A few minutes later, a car pulled up. The driver rolled down his window and said “I am Leonardo – you can come with me.” Within a minute we were at the villa, and even in the dark, we could tell we were going to enjoy our stay there. It is a late 19th century stone house, newly renovated, with a fully-equiped kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom (shower, bidee) and a fireplace.

VERONA 25MAR08: Ciao Venice, Buongiorno Verona - Our original plan was to leave Venice early in the morning and head for Milan, with a brief stop in Verona along the way. We were finding our days of sight-seeing exhausting, however, and only barely managed to crawl out of bed at 9:30 am because we had to vacate our lodgings by 10:00. Then to make matters worse, it was a beautiful sunny day in Venice, the nicest since we had arrived… we did not want to leave!

So, we modified our plan, deciding to forego Milan (it is much too intimidating a city to venture into blindly!), and settled back to enjoy several morning coffees on the patio at a waterfront cafe on the Fundamenta Zattere Ai Gesuiti. We then stopped in at the Billa, a local grocery store, and picked up some blood oranges, bread, cheese and bottled water for our upcoming train trip. Finally, when we could find no further reason to delay the inevitable, we reluctantly climbed aboard the sea ferry that would take us to the train station.

Four economy class tickets later, we were enroute to Verona on a modern plastic train. Within a couple of hours, we were standing in the parking lot of the train station in Verona, wondering which bus to take to get us to the historical center of Verona, where we hoped to book accommodations for the evening. A kind elderly gentleman accompanied us on the correct bus, and gave us specific directions for where we wanted to go… “Go down that street and turn left at the arena”.

“That street” turned out to be a narrow cobbled stoned lane flanked on either side by incredible three storied medieval townhouses. “The arena” turned out to be a pink marble Roman amphitheater built sometime in the 1st Century AD!

Lauree found a very affordable two bedroom suite for us to stay overnight in, right in the historical center. Making the necessary arrangements with the little old Italian landlady had been somewhat challenging, but in the end, do-able. The suite was on the third floor of a 19th century building, and you could tell that at one time, the two bedrooms had been one large room. The marble floors were covered over with parquet tile in the bedrooms, and the ceiling and walls were decorated with elaborate plaster garlands and assorted birds, insects and cherubs. The windows had closeable storm shutters, and there was even a small balcony, which none of us trusted enough to stand out on.

We visited the Roman arena, which is in fantastic condition inside, but tragically all but a small section of its exterior wall had been destroyed in an earthquake in the 12th Century. The arena is still used today as Verona’s Opera House.

Another big attraction in Verona is the Cassa del Guillietta (referring to that young lady made famous by Shakespeare), complete with the “Where art thou Romeo” balcony. Any intelligent person would know that it could not possibly be the house of the fictitious Juliet, but it happens to be an actual medieval house and balcony that existed around the time that the story of Romeo and Juliet takes place. In the courtyard, there is a bronze statue of Juliet that apparently brings luck to anyone who rubs her left breast. Sadly, another popular thing to do is to write your name or short message on the wall of the medieval archway leading into the courtyard, which is now scarred ugly with what might be the grafitti of millions, in every colour imaginable. There is a small placard warning tourists that it is an offense to write on the walls, but nearly everyone (not us!) continues to do it.

Late dinner was spaghetti and house salad at a restaurant recommended by a local… very tasty.

Happy Birthday brother Steve! (& Reggie Dwight)

VENICE 24MAR08: Poke him in the eyes! - After a not-so-early start (9:00 am Venice time – 4:00 am Ottawa time), we headed back to the Piazza San Marco and stood in line to take a quick tour inside the Basilica di San Marco. Some Italian lady and her daughter tried unsuccessfully to butt in a few people ahead of us. We then stood in line to go up the Campanile, a 99 metre-tall bell tower adjacent to the basilica. An Italian couple and their young son succeeded in butting in right in front of us as we were entering the tower. Lauree glared at them, but we were on vacation, so… we let it slide. The view from the top of the tower was amazing. And to top it off, on of the massive bronze bells began ringing while we were there in the chamber. Talk about good vibrations!

We then took the sea bus over to Murano, an island containing several dozen glass factories and a whole community of glass artisans.

At a one-man factory, we watched a demonstration wherein an artisan blew some glass and made a rearing horse figurine. We spent a pleasant afternoon visiting the glass shops along each side of the canal before returning to the Piazza San Marco.

Then we headed back into the maze, setting out for the mercato in the Rialto neighbourhood. We became hopelessly lost more than a couple of times, but eventually we found the market place. A vendor in one of the shops there recommended a local trattoria called Al Nono Risorto for dinner. Following his explicit directions, we found the establishment, but had to wait half an hour for it to open. By the time the restaurant opened at 7:00 pm, a line of local patrons had formed… a good sign! Upon entering the restaurant, a young Italian couple butted in ahead of us. There seems to be a pattern here!

We ordered Margherita pizzas all around, Fantas for the girls and a bottle of red wine for the parents (speaking of patterns!). The young woman serving us was somewhat miserable, but the pizzas were delicious!

On our way back through the maze, we came upon a church where a concert recital was about to begin. We treated ourselves to some after-dinner music courtesy of the Ensemble Antonio Vivaldi, which consisting of a concert violinist, two accompanying violinist, a viola-ist and a cellist. The church, Chiesa di San Giacometto, was tiny, seating no more than fifty people, so the performance was very intimate, and the repertoire couldn’t have been better, in that the girls were familiar with many of the pieces… Le Quattro Stagioni, Pachelbel’s Canon, Albinoni’s Adagio in G. The concert violinist, a long cool woman in a black dress, was a wonderful player and expressive performer.

It was the perfect coda to our exciting day in Venice.

VENICE 23MAR08: How do you make a Venetian blind? - Arrived in Venice after a surprisingly pleasant 14 hour flight (not Air Canada), including stop-overs in Philadelphia and Frankfurt, Germany. None of us slept to any real degree; the in-flight movies were entertaining, and we were excited to begin our adventures in Italy.

A shuttle bus brought us from the airport to a transportation hub on the outskirts of the city, where we caught a sea bus that took us down the full length of the Grand Canal, giving us our first impressions of this magical island city.

Venice is breathtaking, with magnificent centuries-old architecture lining both sides of the canal, with its swirling milky green water busy with sea buses, water taxis, and gondolas. It was strange but wonderful to be in a city with no motor vehicles, not even bicycles - you either walk or take a boat.

We were quick to dump our MEC backpacks at our waterfront lodgings at the Don Orione Artigianelli Casa Religiosa di Ospitalita, and set out to discover the city. We made our way to Piazza San Marco, the main plaza of Venice, bordered on each side by the pillared arcades of the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove, and by the enormous Basilica di San Marco, with its gilded 11th-13th century mosaic ceilings and elaborately designed 12th century marble floors. We then explored some of the back streets.

Making our way through the maze of bridges and canals was like being in a game of snakes and ladders… we often found ourselves at a dead end, or walking around in circles and ending up right back where we started. We passed several incredibly ornate churches, one every few blocks in the maze, and browsed in some very interesting shops. Many shops in the San Marco neighbourhood design and sell the Carnival masks Venice is famous for… one shop supplied the masks for Stanley Kubrick’s film “Eyes Wide Shut”. Being a Kubrick fan, I would have liked to have gone back to this particular shop to pick up a mask or two, but there was little hope of finding the place again.

After several hours of wandering, our batteries started to run down, so we stopped for dinner at an off-the-beaten-track pizzeria. We ordered Margherita pizzas all around, Fantas for the girls and a bottle of red wine for the parents. Filling our bellies made our weariness worse than ever (and the bottle of vino certainly didn’t help matters!), so we headed back to our lodgings and hit the sack.

Around midnight, a blaring WWII air raid type siren pierced the night, jolting us from our sleep; it lasted about thirty seconds, and then settled into a steady monotone ENHHHH – ENHHHH for another few minutes. We were worried it was a fire alarm (we’re soooo tired… do we really have to leave our cozy beds?), but a reluctant check out in the hallway determined that the alarm wasn’t coming from our building. Lauree and I fell quickly back to sleep, but apparently Tessa and Ella lay awake, terrified in their beds, for much of the remaining night. We found out in the morning that the siren was sounded to warn residents of potential flooding conditions due to rising sea water levels.

How about that… we got to experience the effects of global warming on our very first night in Venice!

OTTAWA 20MAR08: In the land of dirty snow and pot-holes - The end of March is never a great time to experience winter in the city. We have spent the last four days here in Ottawa, enduring the final days of the Eastern-Canada winter with little relish (and I don't mean the jalapeño variety!), contending with slush puddles earlier in the week, and now biting below-zero temperatures on the first day of spring! Our friends and family are happy to see us (as we are to see them, if there is any doubt)... shivering in the throes of our tropical climate withdrawal.

Our days have been incredibly busy with dental appointments, haircuts, picking up supplies, moving more stuff to storage... mundane but necessary domestic activities.

"Waiter... reality check please!"

VERACRUZ 16MAR08: Our last days are spent - Friday had been a real scorcher in Veracruz... hoses were rigged up to spray a continuous stream of water onto the south-facing top of the Grand Chapiteau to prevent the glue holding it together from melting in the hot sun. The temperature inside the big top reached 45 degrees Celcius... the aerial acts were cancelled in the afternoon show to ensure the safety of untethered artists who could possibly lose their grip on rope or ring due to sweaty palms. Juggler Dad Steve Ragatz was sent in to do his thing as fair compensation.

Saturday was Ella's birthday... we arranged a low-key party for her in the kitchen for during her lunch break from school, and invited her schools chums and the Chinese kids. Ella experienced the Quidam birthday ritual in the artistic tent at the end of her performance the night before... the artists formed a large cirlce around her, sang happy birthday and then pelted her with a barrage of pillows and cushions.

On this day or that, Lauree wrote her scuba diving certification exam, and passed it with flying colours. We knew you could do it... Congrats!

Sunday was our last day... Lauree and I slipped downtown for a lechera at a local coffee house - a small amount of concentrated coffee in the bottom of a cup is topped up with hot scalding milk to create a latte of sorts. Later, Ella performed her final two shows in Mexico, and that was it... the end of a chapter.

VERACRUZ 15MAR08: Ella's Birthday - After a difficult few days of tummy pain (to the point of having to miss one of her performances), Ella is in the mood to celebrate... her 11th birthday!

Happy Birthday Ella darling!

VERACRUZ 12MAR08: Microwave Woes - Tessa has had a string of bad luck with microwaves lately.

In Monterrey, she offered to make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch (and then I had to explain how to make one). The only butter we had was in the little packets restaurants provide, which we kept in the refrigerator. When Tessa found the butter too solid to spread, she put the packet in the microwave and put it on defrost, without thinking to take the foil top off of it. Much to her alarm, the microwave began arcing, snapping, sputtering and smoking! Even though she knew well enough not to put metal in the microwave, she didn't realize the foil on the butter packet was considered metal.

Then, on one of our first evenings in Veracruz, we were making individually packaged instant noodles for dinner. Tessa was being super-anal regarding the amount of water everyone was addng to the microwavable bowl... "Only to the line indicated, or it will boil over!". We each made or own bowls of pasta, with or without Tessa's help. Then she put her own in the microwave and fired it up.

After only a couple of minutes, the microwave filled up with smoke. We quickly turned it off and opened the door; smoke billowed out and filled the apartment. We opened all the deck doors for fear the smoke alarm would go off and/or the sprinkler system would activate.

When the smoke cleared a little and we were able to investigate the cause of the problem, we discovered... TESSA HAD NEGLECTED TO ADD WATER TO HERS!

Strangely enough, the microwave has not worked since, won't even power up. We have had to go our whole stay in Veracruz without a working microwave in our room!

VERACRUZ 11MAR08: Lauree Makes Waves - Yesterday morning, Lauree went for her second dive outing with her aqua-buddies from Cirque. A small chartered boat took the group a good 45 minutes offshore, where the swells of the sea were enough to make everyone on board seasick, including Lauree.

Once she had gotten that out of her system, Lauree and most of the group (those who were well enough) dove to a depth of 23 metres and explored a beautiful coral labyrinth of purple, orange and pink. Experienced diver Neil Forbes claims that Lauree is a natural, and apparently she is also a light breather, which is a real advantage for a diver. Now she needs only to pass her written exam for certification.

While Lauree was busy discovering underwater landscapes, the girls and I were hanging out at the pool, with a new friend named Anai. Tessa and Ella met her at the "Farewell Mexico" party held the night before at a Mexican Biker Bar down the street called PirataX - all Cirque employees were invited, including the local staff (Anai works for Quidam as an usher).

Anai is a delightful girl who will be leaving Veracruz to study theatre in Salt Lake City in August.

Bueno suerto Anai!

VERACRUZ 08MAR08: Traditional Veracruz Breakfast - Yesterday morning, we were treated to a delicious breakfast as guests of the good doctor Pedro Pablo Cepero Vega and his lovely wife Sophia, at one of their favourite restaurants in town, which specializes in pre-hispanic Veracruz cuisine. The meal began with a serving of thick freshly-baked hand-made corn tortillas slathered with tomato sauce and a sprinkle of grated cheese, like little mini pizzas. This was followed up with a traditional Veracruzian breakfast dish; scrambled eggs and chunks of cheese simmering in a red or green tomato salsa (we had one of each), served piping hot straight from the oven in deep bowls carved from volcanic rock. We ate this flavourful egg mixture by folding it into a fresh supply of the hand-made corn tortillas, taco-style. It was so, so good!

The good doctor happened to have his examining tools with him, so he took the opportunity to see how Tessa's ears were doing (they are doing just fine). He was concerned when he heard Ella had bashed her nose... he explained that a nose does not have to be broken to form scar tissue and be left with a permanent hump. He prescribed oral medication to dissolve any scar tissue that is forming and recommended Ella wear a piece of tape across the damaged area to prevent further build up. Who would have known? (Well, the good doctor certainly would... he makes a nice living doing nose jobs in town!)

Sophia also invited us to come to a dance class in town that evening. Tessa, Ella and I went and learned a series of dance steps which kind of resembled a box step, but definitely without the bounce! A gentle sway of the hips was okay, but the body positioning was very formal, like a tango.

Thank you Sophia, and thank you Doctor Pedro Cepero for your kind and generous hospitality!

An interesting thing about the restaurant; an interior wall is built entirely from blocks of coral in mortar, similar to how we might see field stones used in a wall or fireplace. Doctor Pedro Cepero explained that many of the early structures in Veracruz were built in the same fashion, using the abundant supply of coral from the surrounding reefs.

MOST PECULIAR THING SEEN ON THE WAY TO SITE:

Veracruz - a young indian woman at a busy intersection, casually walking from car to car in the stopped lanes asking for spare change... with a tiny baby sucking on her teat.

Viva la leche! Viva la leche libre!

VERACRUZ 06MAR08: I've got some catching up to do! - Lauree scuba dived! On Monday, she went out with Neil Forbes and a few other dive enthusiasts from Cirque for her first open sea dive. She claimed the hardest part was flopping backwards into the water from the side of the boat and trusting she wouldn't sink to the bottom with all the gear she was wearing. She didn