I am back! Went to Barcelona for four days followed by a 7-night cruise to Monte Carlo, Florence (docking at Livorno), Rome via the port of Civitavecchia, Naples, Majorca and back to Barcelona for another three nights. Things worked out so perfectly, I had to pinch myself. Everywhere we went the weather was exquisite and having taken the right kind of clothing, I was ready for any kind of weather other than snow. Plenty of that white stuff waits for me in New York in the coming months.
The highlight was probably climbing Mt. Vesuvius (4000 feet high) in Pompeii. A close second was jamming outside the magnificent, 13th century Barcelona Cathedral with a drummer from Brazil. As my friends, and my hubbie and I were walking through the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter where the Cathedral is, perchance I noticed a young guy setting up his drum set and an electronic tambura right next to the wall of the Cathedral. I was dumbstruck to see the tambura and expressed my surprise to the drummer. Without blinking an eyelid he asked me, "Are you singer?" No more questions asked we jammed then and there though the pitch on the tambura was much too low for me. Out of the blue I picked a song in the supposedly rain-inducing raga amrithavarhsini even as I hoped the gorgeous weather wouldn't be ruined by rain.
Seeing the drummer looking happier by the moment, I decided to finish the whole song running about three minutes, though when I began, this was not the plan. By now a crowd had gathered around us and many of the onlookers began clicking away their cameras. I kept hoping I wouldn't end up on YouTube. At the end of our session, the drummer with a striking resemblance to Christ as many of us imagine the Son of God to be, gave me a CD of his. I was truly blown away by the whole experience. His name is Pedro Collares and the CD is titled, "Organic Healing Sound." I can't wait to hear it.
Oh, yes, another fabulous experience was the train ride from Barcelona to Perpignan, France. While making my plans for my trip, I had wanted to visit a border town in France on my own other than Eze and Menton that were included in one of our land excursion organized by the cruise ship. I also wanted it to be a just a one-day trip. Bingo, Perpignan showed up on my radar screen and further research revealed this town to be a must-see place. After my visit, I could see why. The artist Salvadore Dali called the Perpignan railway station the center of the world. Apparently, he found some of his greatest inspirations at this station: "Following a visit in 1963, the Catalan (Spain) surrealist artist Salvador Dalí declared the city's railway station the centre of the Universe, saying that he always got his best ideas sitting in the waiting room." Personally, I didn't find anything inspiring about the station except that it was quaint.
Photos and videos and other interesting details of the trip to follow soon.
Ciao!
Ro.
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