Barcelona- episode 7 almost the last

Our final morning in Barcelona was not the beautiful blue sky morning that we'd hoped for, instead we got a cold wet and uninspiring morning. We were both over the wet and cold by this time but we put on our coats and scarves, picked up our brollies and off we went - breakfast, say thanks to the honest lady, and then off to La Pedrera. We realised that there was no chance that the roof would be open so we wouldn't be seeing that but we'd enjoy the rest of it. 

The La Pedrera

And enjoy it we did! The more of Gaudi's 'stuff' I saw the more impressed I was. I particularly like the way almost everything is curves, not straight lines and sharp edges.

I didn't take many photos at all  because using the flash wasn't permitted, not that this stopped some people from flashing away. I get really cross with this behaviour and did actually tell one guy that he shouldn't be using the flash. To his credit he stopped using it, well at least when I  was around, instead of ignoring me or abusing me.

 La Pedrera is an apartment building designed by Gaudi and there's kind of like a museum which explains a lot of his design features such as ways to allow natural light  into the building taking into account. The middle of the building is an open space from the ground to the roof so the windows and tiles change shape and colour density from the top of the building going down to the ground because of how the natural light is less at the bottom than at the top

After looking at all the exhibits and reading all the info and watching all the videos it was time to have a wander through an actual apartment.

This was amazing, indescribable really and well worth the visit. The walls and ceilings join together in soft curves, doorhandles which fit into the hand according to whether the doors are sliding or pulled open. Unfortunately,  I don't remember the details now. Lesson learnt - don't put off writing!

We did get glimpses of the chimney pots up on the roof through windows in the halls and I took some photos, but I wasn't happy with any of them. Maybe there will be a chance to go up and see the chimney pots one day but the weather definitely wasn't on our side on this day. I took photos of the models.

 This is a model of the chimney pots

The model of the interior space and the the changing colour of the tiles and changes to the windows

the one phot I took inside the apartment - an iron warmer

Looking up the interior space

Finally we were back on the street and the only thing we could do was go back to the apartment,  pack our bags and get to the train station. 

Hans, the apartment owner, turned up to see how our our holiday went and apologised profusely for the awful weather which, of course, had nothing to do with him. When the time came to go he insisted that we should get a taxi because this would be more straight forward for us and that it was best to get there with plenty of time up our sleeves. So the 3 of us set off to find a taxi and very easily and very soon, we were in a taxi on our way to the station.

The taxi driver was a 'yelling and horn tooting' guy and it was a lot of fun. His yelling and tooting seemed to be good humoured. The best bit was when he was standing by the boot of the taxi, after helping us get our bags out, and another taxi wentthrough a big puddle on the way  past and the water splashed up onto him. Well, there was a lot of yelling and arm waving then. A really good end to our time in Barcelona.

In the Barcelona train station we had to wait in an area like at an airport before boarding, and it took ages so we were really pleased that we had plenty of time to figure out what we had to do.

The trip back to San Sebastian was uneventful with no stopping in the middle of nowhere. We knew that we would arrive too late for a bus to Azpeitia so we'd booked into a hotel next to the station. It was ok however the next day - still raining - it was a bit of a trek to the bus station so we thought that we'd have been better to get a hotel closer to the bus than the train. Anyway we made it back to Azpeitia - raining there as well - in time for school and that was that. From the couple of fine days when we did a lot of walking, we got a really positive feeling of the city. I really enjoyed Barcelona despite the weather and would love to return one day. 

Well, that pretty much wraps up the Barcelona trip, I hope you've enjoyed reading it and the photos. It has been quite a saga from my perspective any way and I've certainly learnt that it's better to be up to date rather than looking backwards - fading memories and all that stuff!

Back in Azpeitia we had one more weekend and then Barry was on his way back to NZ and in less than 4 weeks I'd be on my way to London for Xmas/ New Year holidays. 

Well, that time has passed and I'm writing this while I'm sitting in the Gate 5 waiting area for the time to board the plane to London, no sign of it yet! Ok, here I go - oops, appears that me and the others waiting here as well somehow bypassed the security system so we had to go back up and be checked over by the police/border control. The guy took a long time to finally stamp my passport and let me get on my way. After looking page by page through my passport, consultations with his side-kick, a hard look at my expired NIE and a hard look at the document which I got a couple of days ago (a real rigmarole) which states that I am to be allowed back into the country he stamped it, gave me a smile and my passport etc and off I went. Right now I'm somewhere between Bilboa and London where it's 9° apparently. 

              LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW.

 

Barcelona - episode 6

Sunday, our last full day in Barcelona and another cold, wet day. Emma and Brit had told us about the Hospital Sant Pau and that they thought that it was worth a visit so on their advice we set off to find it. There is a pedestrian walk, similar to La Rambla, which runs between The Sagrada Familia and the old Hospital Sant Pau but  because of the rain we went on the metro to the stop with the same name as the hospital only to discover that we had arrived at the very new Sant Pau hospital, not the old one. After much consulting of the map and asking for directions we made it to the old hospital - and what an amazing place it is.

 There are conducted tours in different languages and sure enough, by the time we got to the right place inside the hospital grounds the English language tour had gone, but another guide offered to take Barry and I around which was very decent of her. In the chatting it was discovered that she had been Emma and Brit's guide a couple of weeks before, a nice coincidence.

This photo is of a picture of the hospital. The bright light is the reflection of a ceiling light.  

 The front building was the hospital entrance, administration and admission block. Each separate building behind is for the specific areas of medicine. On the left side of each building is a water tower and on the right side is the day room. All the buildings are connected by underground tunnels.

We were getting geared up (hairnets, hard hats and fluro jackets) which we had to wear because it's classified as a construction site when 2 more people arrived. I think that they are Chinese, they spoke very good English, surprise surprise - not, and they were happy to join us on the tour. Turned out they are both nuns. It was great that there were only 4 of us on the tour. It was like we had our own personal guide - a very ernest lady with a real  passion for the hospital. 

  All dressed up and ready to go inside.

It was one of the most interesting places I have been in. Again, it's the thinking behind the design that I really, really like. 

A snippet of background info from Wikipedia -  'a wealthy banker from a Catalan bourgeois family who had emigrated to Paris, Pau Gil i Serra, bequeathed some of his fortune for the construction of a new hospital in Barcelona, the Hospital de Sant Pau. His will stipulated, among other things, that the building had to be the best hospital from technological, medical and architectural points of view, and that it had to bear his name.

As a result, the Hospital de la Santa Creu Board and the executors of Pau Gil's will joined forces and agreed to build the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, a project that solved the healthcare crisis in the city and its environs. The architect commissioned for the job was Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1850-1923), a major figure in the Catalan Art Nouveau movement known as Modernisme'.

The building of the hospital began in 1902 and to was opened in 1930. The bottom line philosophy for the design and construction was that the patients would have natural light, sunshine and fresh air along with beautiful spaces, both inside and out, accessible to them for their use and well being. Rainwater was collected, fresh air vents are everywhere and each building had a  'day room'  with floor to ceiling windows - I simply cannot describe all that this entailed and do this place justice. You'll just have to go to Barcelona and see it for yourself.

The new hospital came into action in 2009 and this one, which has been designated a World Heritage Site, is now under reconstruction/refurbishment and will become a center for international organisations involved in education, sustainability and health. Apparently tours will continue to be conducted during and after the  reconstruction.

 Water tower on the left and day room on the right

  

Looking up

   I think this is where the operating theaters were. Our guide is the lady on the left - they are standing by an entrance to the tunnel system

    

   one of the wards - look at all the windows.

   

 The front entrance from the outside. From here we turned our backs on the hospital and ambled down to the Sagrada Familia

  

   and there it is right in front of us once again.

   

and here we are, too.

It was a shame that the weather was still crappy, not conducive to wandering along all over the place at all.  Sometimes the rain was really heavy and after a while we were just wet and cold so the we headed for the metro and back to the apartment to put more clothes on. 

Karl, of the Ruth and Karl partnership  who'd come to Azpeitia, had told Barry that he thought that La Pedrera, another Gaudi  edifice, was well worth a visit, especially the roof. We'd gone there the day before but the roof was closed because of the weather so we decided that we'd come back another time. However, given that the weather on this day was no different we decided to go there the next morning before getting the train back to San Sebastian. 

Instead we went to find the Picasso Museum. Well, we did find it along with a very, very long queue

The photo was taken just before the entrance and once inside the queue wound backwards and forwards like the queues at airport check-in counters. We reckoned that if we got on the end of the queue we'd still be waiting the next morning. Needless to say we weren't doing that so we called the day quits and off we went to find some dinner. I must have used the flash because it was actually quite dark when I took this photo. Opposite the museum entrance were 2 musicians standing in a doorway playing. The photo below was taken without the flash just after I took the photo of the queue. One of the guys had a violin and the other a small piano accordion. They packed up just after this. Can't say I blame them because it was so, so wet and cold.

   

   Opposite our apartment building is a huge Chinese restaurant - we went in there for dinner and found the biggest Chinese buffet EVER! There was everything, well, except for 'chilli hot' anything. 

it was a decent price and full of Chinese people so must have been ok and enough of a recommendation so we tucked in. It was pretty good, but, I have to say that Kingsland's Canton Cafe still wins hands down, no question. And that was another day done.

The next day we were off to La Pedrera, rain, hail or otherwise.

Another day in Barcelona - episode 5

Not a lot of point sitting about waiting for the rain to ease - this is our Sagrada Familia day after all - so we decided to get the metro there - no big deal really because there was a metro station literally 1 minute, if that, from the door of the apartment building and a metro line with a stop right where we wanted to go to. We were about to head out the door and I suddenly realised that not only did I not have my camera, I couldn't see it anywhere. Sure enough, after searching high and low and then in ridiculous places in the hopes that somehow it had got into a drawer etc. we had to conclude that I had left it our local cafe, the last place we went to the night before. Well, I'm sure  you can imagine how blue the air was and how sick I felt - no camera!!! Even as I write now I can feel the pain. Nothing for it but to trudge off to the cafe in the hopes that it was still there. We were told no, not in the usual place where staff put things that have been found. They told us to come back after 3pm when the afternoon/night shift is on. So, that was that - on the verge of a melt down, much to Barry's consternation, we went to a cafe nearby for coffee and croissants although Barry had most of my croissant, I really didn't feel like eating.

However, here we were in the city of the Segrada Familia and this is the day we will go inside therefore what else could we do but go and see it. Fortunately, we had been given a very valuable piece of information - before going to the Sagrada Familia book tickets on line and avoid the queues! Ha - this Barry did before we went there and what a wonderful piece of info that turned out to be. 

Even in the pouring rain and well outside the tourist season there was a queue that stretched a long, long, long way. All we had to do was go to a different entrance a little bit further along, show the gatekeeper the booking number, which was on Barry's phone, the tickets were then printed and in we went. Thanks Emma and Brit for this info.

 I doubt that we would have stood for hours in the pouring rain to get in but gone back the next day which wasn't any different than this one, as it turned out. In we went, minus the camera, which did actually turn out to be a positive because I would have taken photos, probably hundreds of them, and not one would have done justice to what we saw. IT WAS QUITE SIMPLY AMAZING. The thinking behind the design of just everything is incredible from allowing natural light in according to the time of day to the ventilation and of course more architectural features such as the supports for the ceiling simulating being in a forest. It was a shame that it wasn't a sunny day because I think that the effect of the sunlight coming through the stained glass would have been really something to see. As it was it was still something to see and to read about the reasoning behind the designing of everything involved. Not only are these things inside but they're also outside as well. The information panels are well done and have clear instructions as to where to find the next one. We gave the outside ones a miss because of the weather -  very heavy rain and very loud thunder booming overhead - until we'd finished inside which took ages because we weren't in any hurry except that the temperature was dropping and dropping and eventually I got really cold, Barry is much more resilient to the cold but even he felt the cold after a while. The rain had eased off to a drizzle by the time we got outside so we had a quick look at the statues of saints etc and then into the museum which was well worth the look. Being outside the tourist season meant that there wasn't an impossible number of people in there  and we were able to look and read the info without any bother. We spent quite a bit of time in there as well and then last place to go to was the ............ SHOP ....... oh, yes there's always 'the shop' and we did buy something although now I don't remember exactly what we bought and it's now back in Auckland. Will be a nice surprise for me next June. 

Finally, we were finished at the Sagrada Familia - what a place, what an amazing mind behind the design - fantastic. Personally, I'm not that fussed about the outside, I think it's all rather messy like a hotch-potch of ideas and features and as for the size of it - well, really - did it have to be so overwhelmingly enormous causing lots of people living round about to  miss out on their sunshine. However, inside is just simply incredible. Gaudi apparently said that when it was finished people would come from all over the world to see it and he certainly wasn't wrong about that. I think that it's well worth visiting. 

From there we went to The Hiberian Bookshop, not a usual tourist hang-out but it was written up in one of the guide books and seemed interesting to me. It's not often that I see a bookshop written up in a  tourist guide book so worth a look I thought. After another metro ride and finding our way through little narrow streets we found it. What a sense of achievement we have when we successfully do these things, talking about Barry and I not the all encompassing  'we' being the entire population! Turned out it is a damned good bookshop - all English language books - millions of them. What a find!  I managed to limit my selection to 2. Hah- well done I hear you say. I was mindful that one of us  would be carrying what I bought, I think Barry bought 1 as well. We then headed back to our  'local cafe' to see if the later shift people had picked up the camera and it was put somewhere different than the usual place.

And they had!!!!!!!!! Oh wow oh wow. Turned out that just after we left there the night before a lady had picked it up and HANDED IT INTO THE STAFF, oh yes she did! Oh, the joy that an honest person had picked it up. But where was it? No, not in the cafe but in the hotel behind the cafe because the staff thought that that's where we were staying so they took it there. Off we went to the hotel accompanied by the waiter who'd taken it there and there it was waiting for us to come and get it. The contact details of the lady who'd found the camera were with it and turned out that she works at the dentist just opposite the hotel and in front of the cafe. Unfortunately, we didn't get to thank her personally because when we went there on Monday before we headed to the railway station it was before she began her shift so we left a small token of thanks with her co-worker to give to her. We were so grateful to her therefore  disappointed not to be able to say so directly to her. Actually, I was over the moon to have my camera back. Lesson learnt - be mindful of what I'm doing with it,  i.e. keep it attached to me and do not put it beside me and run the risk of forgetting about it.

Another thing that we'd read about was a candle shop written up in the guide book as the place to go to find gifts that are somewhat different than the usual run of the mill stuff. What else could we do but go and find it. It helped that this candle shop was on the way to where we actually wanted to go, which was to the 'Magic Fountain'. Well, the candle shop turned out to be exactly that - a candle shop - with a few other bits and pieces but really nothing out of the ordinary. But, once again, we had the satisfaction of another map- reading, metro traveling, narrow street negotiating mission successfully completed. 

We had a nice time looking around the shop and chatting to the 2 assistants in our limited Spanish - it was fun and -I took a photo!

she's making candles, literally hundreds of them

Turned out that the fountain is a bit of a walk and by this time the rain was absolutely pouring down and staying dry became a bit of a joke. We just got wet from the ground up because there doesn't seem to be a drainage system to drain the water off the walkways so the water lays on top and the rain hitting the water makes it splash up hence getting wet from the ground up. The fountain was  enormous. Actually the whole area was on an enormous scale - the fountain, the buildings, the open space. Would be an amazing place on a summers evening but then I guess it would be a crush of people. We watched the fountain for a while, a lot of water both in and out of the fountain - all around us and coming down on us. The water of the fountain changed colour and some sort of jazz music was playing over loud speakers. 

 the walkway to the fountain

   

 and finally here it is

We eventually got tired of the wetness and we were getting cold so back to the metro and home we went, first stopping off at our local cafe for dinner. 

 The end to the day was certainly much brighter than the start of the day, that's for sure. Not even the ongoing downpour could put a damper on my delight at having my camera back. 

last Sunday and then Barcelona

Before I continue with the saga of our time in Barcelona I'll write a little about last Sunday when the weather was absolutely superb, a totally stunning day weather wise and it just so happened that I'd arranged to meet up with Bri, the kiwi girl living and working the same job as me not so far from Azpeitia. We decidedto meet in a town on the coast called Zarautz and walk the 2 kms along the coast to the tiny village of Getaria, pop 2,600 so quite a small place sitting on the coast, and back again.To get to Zarautz from Azpeitia I have a 30 minute bus ride and then a 10 minute train ride. I really like using the buses and trains and I wonder if I'll get so used to the countryside and houses I pass that I'll cease to see them. For the time being any way I'm still fascinated by what I see out of the windows. The trialsof public   transport are always present though. Usually the buses and trains are on time, it's co-ordinating buses and trains that can be the problem. I almost missed the bus on Sunday though, not because I almost didn't get to the bus stop on time, I was there with heaps of time to spare, so much time that I went into a daydream and finally looked up to see the bus driving past so leapt up waving my arms hoping that the driver would see me and stop - and he did! I was so relieved and hoped in with a grateful smile and a "muchas gracias" to be greeted with a smile accompanied with a barrage of Spanish or Basque, absolutely no idea, with the usual hands out, palms up, shrugging shoulders body language thing happening. I had absolutely no idea what he was telling me, possibly "wake up" but I gave him a big smile and did the shoulder shrugging, hands out palms up thing and went and sat down happy to be on the bus. It was a bit of amusement for the few people on the bus.

We had a wonderful walk - the sun was shining, the sea was sparkling and the waves were enormous. It was GREAT. We didn't explore Getaria because when we got there we sat looking at the ocean and the people and chatted away for,a while and then it was time to get back to Zarautz, have a pintxo and a beer and find our way to the station in time to get the train which would get me to the bus stop to get a bus without having to wait very long otherwise, the next train would mean I'd have an hours wait for the bus. I wasn't interested in doing that so off we went. I'll do this walk again sometime and make sure I have time to explore  around the little town. I did however take time to get a few photos - 

Getaria. Next time I'll go up the hill on the right

  Looking from Getaria to Zarauta

   Houses behind where we sat chatting 

another house - there are a lot of steps in this little town

  

waves crashing

 and that's about it for last Sunday. It's great to have another kiwi to meet up with, chat with and go to these places with, and I'm grateful that she's happy to pass some time with me.

 

Barcelona - episode 4

I've decided that I've got to condense my writing about Barcelona otherwise I'll be going for ever and time is going. On Friday I'm off to London woo hooo and maybe - just maybe - London will put on a white xmas for me this year.

So Barcelona and the 2nd day of our holiday. This day was another bright sun-shining, blue sky day (could I ever have enough of them) and we strode our way to the Plaza de Cataluña to get on a tourist bus ride. This time we got off the main road walk and instead meandered our way through the interesting narrow alleyways to get to the plaza - nope, didn't get lost. However,  finding our way to the right place to get on the right tourist bus once we got to the plaza was a different story. There are 3 tourist bus routes - red, blue and green - and each has it's own route and each one departs from a different place in the Plaza. It is a big plaza! The ticket lasts for 1 day, not for 24 hour period as in San Sebastian, and our plan was to get the red one first to have a city tour and then change to the blue one which would take us to the Park Geull, which was a good plan but first we had to find the right bus. After a visit to the tourist office and wandering around, becoming disoriented - both of us, not just me - some terse words, we got to the right bus and off we went. Tourist buses are such a good way to see a city, I think I've said this before, and from the top deck of the red bus we saw quite a lot of Barcelona. All of the streets we went along are lined with big trees which make for a lovely city but not for taking photos so not many photos at all from this trip but here is one of some of what seemed like hundreds of taxis waiting outside the main train station

  

don't know what this is about!!!

  

seems there always has to be one of these mmmm

  

our first look at the Sagrada Familia and a bit of an emotional moment for Barry. He has wanted to see this place for many years and here it was, right in front of him, well, at the side of the bus actually.

it is a very strange and gigantic construction, more on this later because to visit the Sagrada Familia is tomorrow's plan. 

 Here we are at Parque Guell, just inside actually. We successfully found our way from the red bus to the blue bus, got off at the right stop, turned the right street corners and into the park.

There is now an €8.00 charge which was introduced just 2 weeks before we got there. We thought it was a bit on the high side. Don't mind paying a reasonable price but ...

well. The entry price gave us admission into the Gaudi part of the park and into the little museum there and, as there was a mile long queue we gave the museum a miss. Also, by this time it was early afternoon and we wanted to have a decent wander around and that's just what we did and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It is a wonderful park. This park was to have had 60 luxury houses privately owned sitting in Gaudi designed grounds and features. It was apparently a dismal failure and only 2 houses got built. Gaudi didn't design the houses but did design the gardens and park features. I was blown away by some of his ideas of design, he was inspired by his observations of the natural world around him as he grew up and in adulthood. I don't have the time to  elaborate on this however for  those of you who are interested there is always 'Wiki' and/or 'google'. 

One of the houses

The pillars to the left of the photo support the flat area which is surrounded by Gaudi's ceramic tiled seating. This piece of flat ground is covered in coarse sand through which rain water is filtered into pipes running down inside the pillars and into huge underground water tanks. This would then have been the water supply for the housing complex and the gardens in the park. It was quite something to see and read about considering he was designing this in the early 1900s. It was impossible to get a photo underneath the pillars because the sheer size of them and the area as a whole. After wandering around under the pillars we made our way up to being on top of them.

Again, impossible to get a photo of the whole of it, or even enough to show the scale so here's this one

It was simply marvelous sitting up here in the sun looking at the people, the view and contemplating just what we were looking at/ sitting on. I found myself thinking about the possibility of building such a seat, albeit  on a much smaller scale, at home. The seat - all ceramic tiles, all curves - has drainage holes through which rainwater runs into spouting running along the other side as in the next photo

 

Somewhere here I read that most of the material he used was recycled material from demolition sites and unwanted factory lots, clay and rocks. the photo below is of a random photographer.

Just joking - random photographer because there's always one, it is of the rock and clay supports for the walkway which runs along the on top of them. Again, all curves. 

The first 3 supports on this stretch had fancy designs but after that time must have got short or maybe, after the woman what else was there! No more fancy designed supports to be seen.

From here we left the Gaudi stuff for a while and went out into the 'Park Ordinary' and on up to the top of the hill to get a panoramic view of the city.

Made it to the top of the hill and then to the top of the rock structure on top of the hill on top of which  stands the obligatory cross.  This is really high up and rather narrow so it took me a little while to stop clutching at the seat and get up for a decent look around. It's certainly a wonderful view.

 

 I think that the tree-lined street on the left is La Rambla where we walked the day before.

The Sagrada Familia in the centre - so, so huge and still not finished. The middle steeple will eventually be as high as the highest crane.

Finally, we made our way down from the top and ambled through the park to have a look at what this house was about

 The house wasn't about anything but the walk through the trees was lovely and we then found ourselves outside Gaudi's house. Not that it was his design but that he'd lived here and had designed what was in it. After some discussion we decided to go in so payed another entrance fee. Barry wasn't impressed by this but I was keen as having had a taste of his designs I was keen to see more. Well, it was certainly worth it and again, impossible to get on film. Everything he designed has curves, no sharp edges and is made to fit with the human form - furniture, door handles, toilet seats 

fancy furniture

We were ages in here and finally it was time to go. One last photo taken after we left the house and it was here we got an idea of what the gardens would have been like if they had been completed.

oops here's another. It's a little blurry, not your eyesight at all. 

after this we went out of the park and down through the streets to get the bus back to the plaza, 

from there we went wandered through the little streets back to the apartment to ditch some of our stuff and then to find somewhere to eat. This time we went in the opposite direction and after much deliberation, poking our noses into different places, reading their menus, moving onto the next place we decided to go back to the first place we'd looked at and had a really good dinner accompanied by a couple of beers. I know that we are not the only people who so this! 

Instead of just walking back to the apartment the way we'd come we decided to go a different way - just along a bit and turn a corner and then along and then .... well, where were we?? 

It's not often that Barry is unsure about the right way to go but lucky for him this time I had a good idea of which way to go which happily for us turned out to be correct. We were so relieved to be in familiar territory that we headed to our local for a nightcap and then to our home away from home, away from home, away from home.

 The next morning, Saturday, we woke up and got such a shock - it was absolutely pouring with rain, just bucketing down. Crikey it was wet.

some photos

I just have to show you some more photos taken along the way throughout our day

   some pretty fancy boots. The cheapest pair are €238.00

 

   a fancy building down near the harbour

    

more fancy buildings, an 'interesting' statue and another huge open space.

 

    a couple of people sitting about

  

 there are some amazing things to see looking upwards 

    the tops of buildings

seagulls on the whale thingy 

   

well, well, look who's here

  another fancy piece of architecture 

some curious looking hats

 el fresco dining is fabuloso!

  

and lastly,simply standing still -  the hardest working person on La Rambla, if not in the whole city. 

 and that's it for the 1st day. All in all another damn fine day