Argh, I typed a long answer to you, and then it wouldn't post, and then I back-paged by accident... one of my least favourite elements of lj is its inability to save drafts!
But anyway, I await your resolution of your communication technology crisis :) I would recommend a brand new smartphone with changeable SIM card for all your travels - it has been a boon to just switch to an English phone number with texting and internet that also works in Spain, if somewhat more erratically - but I realise that might be a bit cutting edge.
It is galling to realise that we were so close to you, and yet so far. We will not make it to Madrid this trip, but we are spending the last four days in Barcelona, which should be fantastic: I adore Gaudi, and have never seen any of his buildings. I am impressed that you gave up Raphael for mushrooms; we would consider the snow-dried ham worth it (we brought one back from our honeymoon) but there is enough luggage in our lives as it is.
I would love to visit next year, and see cats and moonflowers, but I think it unlikely, at least for the first part of the year :( My mother had a knee replacement earlier this autumn that went badly, and she is in a cast at the moment as they await the bone healing where it tried to fracture around the implant. We are spending a fortnight in England before we go back, which will be my second visit this year; and I think I will be over a number of times in winter and spring helping her sort out her house, since she must move to one storey, and is on the waiting list for an assisted -living apartment.
Perhaps you might be over in the UK sometime around then? My dates are likely to be flexible, so if you are thinking about coming over, we should use this elusive telephone number of yours and coordinate :)
I didn't have a choice about the Raphaels, sadly. It was a group tour organised by the host and we had a formal dinner afterwards. Anyway it was squeezed in between the end of a meeting and closing time at the Prado, so we would have been chased out anyway. I got the mushrooms and chestnuts on the first evening, after getting to the hotel, and picked up the quinces on the last night.
I need the phone to continue working for at least a bit, because it has a lot of phone numbers on it, and was last backed up a rather long time ago. I will have to change soon regardless, because the local network is moving to 4G exclusively in a year or two. I am thinking of one of the dual-SIM ones from ASUS, which are indeed very handy for people who travel a lot. I hung on to the old one because it has dual-SIM as well, and I was curious to know how long it would keep working (8 years, so far).
My mother is recovering from a knee replacement as well, but hers was straightforward, and she has started cautiously driving again. I hope that yours recovers quickly. I may be able to manage a trip over to the UK in April or May. Some friends of mine have just moved to Paris for the next couple of years, so I will be visiting them anyway. You are welcome to visit in the second half of next year. The house will be a lot more civilised than the flat the last time, I promise, and hopefully it will be a less stressful year than this one has been. I haven't had a holiday since four days in Kyoto in February, and the weekend in Vienna in between Brussels and Madrid last week (I got Sunday and Monday off, since Monday was Austrian National Day).
Brussels is worth a visit, just to walk around and collect madly beautiful Art Nouveau architecture.
But anyway, I await your resolution of your communication technology crisis :) I would recommend a brand new smartphone with changeable SIM card for all your travels - it has been a boon to just switch to an English phone number with texting and internet that also works in Spain, if somewhat more erratically - but I realise that might be a bit cutting edge.
It is galling to realise that we were so close to you, and yet so far. We will not make it to Madrid this trip, but we are spending the last four days in Barcelona, which should be fantastic: I adore Gaudi, and have never seen any of his buildings. I am impressed that you gave up Raphael for mushrooms; we would consider the snow-dried ham worth it (we brought one back from our honeymoon) but there is enough luggage in our lives as it is.
I would love to visit next year, and see cats and moonflowers, but I think it unlikely, at least for the first part of the year :( My mother had a knee replacement earlier this autumn that went badly, and she is in a cast at the moment as they await the bone healing where it tried to fracture around the implant. We are spending a fortnight in England before we go back, which will be my second visit this year; and I think I will be over a number of times in winter and spring helping her sort out her house, since she must move to one storey, and is on the waiting list for an assisted -living apartment.
Perhaps you might be over in the UK sometime around then? My dates are likely to be flexible, so if you are thinking about coming over, we should use this elusive telephone number of yours and coordinate :)
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I need the phone to continue working for at least a bit, because it has a lot of phone numbers on it, and was last backed up a rather long time ago. I will have to change soon regardless, because the local network is moving to 4G exclusively in a year or two. I am thinking of one of the dual-SIM ones from ASUS, which are indeed very handy for people who travel a lot. I hung on to the old one because it has dual-SIM as well, and I was curious to know how long it would keep working (8 years, so far).
My mother is recovering from a knee replacement as well, but hers was straightforward, and she has started cautiously driving again. I hope that yours recovers quickly. I may be able to manage a trip over to the UK in April or May. Some friends of mine have just moved to Paris for the next couple of years, so I will be visiting them anyway. You are welcome to visit in the second half of next year. The house will be a lot more civilised than the flat the last time, I promise, and hopefully it will be a less stressful year than this one has been. I haven't had a holiday since four days in Kyoto in February, and the weekend in Vienna in between Brussels and Madrid last week (I got Sunday and Monday off, since Monday was Austrian National Day).
Brussels is worth a visit, just to walk around and collect madly beautiful Art Nouveau architecture.
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