France

I apologize for the lay-off, but I have been busy and sick. . . a rough combination. We got back from France last Sunday evening just in time for me to wish a certain someone happy Father's Day. We spent our nights and the majority of our time over the weekend in the French town of Carcassonne. We explored there Friday and saw the remains of the old castle dating back a thousand years (I always forget how much older stuff is here than in the States). Then the next morning we took a hike up a mountain to see a couple more castles that were perched right on top of some hills. See the pictures below for the views. During the whole trip the weather was cool, so our boat trip down the Canal du Midi in the rain was not that great--and probably has something to do with the awful sore throat and runny nose I have right now. There canal itself would have been very pretty in the sun so try to imagine that in the pictures below. Then on Sunday, we visited an abbey full of monks and the town of Perpignan. Both were very picturesque (even though we didn't actually see any monks) but again, the weather was not ideal.

Sunday when we got back, we walked over to Kitty's Irish Pub a couple blocks away and watched the Brazil-Ivory Coast game. I had one of the best burgers I have ever had (America included) with cheese, grilled onions and bacon. Anyhoo, tomorrow is the biggest holiday in Barcelona during the summer, Dia de San Juan, during which they apparently light tons of stuff on fire all night and blow off massive amounts of fireworks. Should be fun.

Observation of the day: Pharmacies
I'm sick, so this one has to do with getting drugs in Spain. The only thing you can buy in a grocery store here are vitamin c pills (of which I have a large stash). To get anything from cough drops to ibuprofen to Viagra to medicinal marijuana you have to go to a pharmacy. I just thought that was interesting, pictures below.