BARCELONA!

Getting anywhere you want to go from California is hell. Plus throw two dogs into the mix. Getting to NYC was a huge hassle because the plane was three hours late. That meant three more hours of keeping the dogs amused and quiet. We finally rolled into JFK around midnight, got to Debby and Michael Smith’s new apartment in Brooklyn, where we were staying and were welcomed with a fabulous dinner Debby threw together.

Then we made the mistake of going to the wrong museum for the Whitney Biennial, not knowing that the Whitney had moved across the street from our old place in NYC in the Meatpacking District. You could look out our window and see it. Sadly, we thought it was still uptown and went to see the mediocre exhibit that was at the newly replaced museum. It really made us feel disconnected from NYC not knowing that the whole bloody museum had moved downtown!

Dinner with friends cheered us up.  Dinner with friends can always cheer you up, right?

By the time Friday rolled around, we woke up to TORRENTIAL rain. Every 15 minutes my phone would go off with a flood warning alert.  The problem was I needed a mani-pedi and come hell or high water — very high water, I had to have it. Finding taxis, ordering taxis, even ordering Lyft was not only nearly impossible, but a mondo expensive. In the end, it had to be the most expensive mani-pedi in America when you add in the rides to and fro. But my nails and feet look great, which maybe will distract from my morbid obesity. Alcohol, I’ve discovered, really packs on the calories. Being a Jew, I never had a taste for alcohol until the “W” years. Now, I’m a candidate for Betty Ford, where I may be blogging from when I get back to LA.

The trip from NYC to Orly and then Barcelona was a piece of cake because I slept through the whole of it. It’s the only way I can cope with being locked into a seat in the air. We arrived to gorgeous weather and a lovely hotel with a superb view of the famous Cathedral, plus a balcony which is fab for Kukla and Tootsie. We’re here with Jim’s former law partners and their wives (all of us going back to anti-Vietnam war days).  Once we all arrived, had some drinks and tapas, we went out to explore the city in the early evening.

Just below our hotel room, people gather to dance, sing or play music. Late last night we happened upon a spontaneous opera just outside our hotel, that was amazing. These weren’t professionals, but they sure as hell sounded like they were. When we finally returned to the hotel where we were met with by the concierge who wanted to have a “conversation.” Apparently Kukla and Tootsie went mental after we left our room, howling like banshees, and made the people who could hear, very unhappy, as I would’ve been had it been me. We were told we had to meet with the manager the following morning to discuss the matter.

Jim was certain we were going to be evicted. I felt like we were going to be lectured and shamed. So while Jim slept like a baby, I kept was kept awake half the night with nightmares.  The bottom line was Jim and the manager bonded, she didn’t evict us and we’re still here. Only now schlepping the dogs with us everywhere we go. Luckily, Europe isn’t like the US and it’s far easier to bring them. Not into museums, however, where we have to alternate, which we did today, for example, at the Joan Miro Museum. The museum was great and not so large that we couldn’t manage to do shifts.

After a delicious lunch, we wandered back for siesta. It goes dead midday and only comes alive again after sunset. On our walk back to the hotel we came across a gathering of Russians commemorating the end of WW2. I was fascinated by it. Russia has really inserted itself into the public consciousness.

Our anti-Trump pins have been a huge hit. They landed us a spot in a busy restaurant when there was a line, and a spot at the. front of a busy transit line. It makes us very popular and always gives us something to discuss with locals, who hate his fucking guts as much as we do.

People are waiting with baited breath with the outcome of the French election.

A few pics preparing to go from NYC and then Barcelona.

 

For Your Viewing & Listening Pleasure IMG_0176

Front and back of sculpture outside entrance to the Museum. 

 

This is the only portrait in the collection which is particularly interesting to me since I’m into portraiture.