The Odyssey

Day 1:
I hop on the car, we drive all the way from Barcelona to La Charite sur Loire, on the Loire River in France, where some family friends have a Chateau (amazing house, 14 rooms).

Day 2:
We go biking. An hour into the ride, and on the furthest point on our itinerary, it downpours. The rain stops just when we get back to the house. I was wearing new clothes. Still, it was lots of fun.

Day 3:
We go across the countryside looking for castles with the family friend, an archaeologist. In the afternoon we go to a village which has (had) a castle. It was demolished in the 16th century, because of a siege.

Day 4:
We go biking again (tempt the devil). It does not rain, and we go very far. We see the line of channels that goes through all of france, for transport. Also, one must say that the landscape is gorgeous.

Day 5:
We go canoeing. Very calm, until at the end there were rapids. My two brothers and I were in the same boat, and it tipped over. My little brother was okay, though very scared. However, my mom was even more scared, and kindof wanting to leave.

Day 6:
Off to Paris we go. 2 hour trip, I play pokemon in the car, time flies. We visit the Eiffel Tower in the afternoon, only Juan and I go up (and we went up all the way).

Day 7:
The Louvre. I believe I'm getting my dates mixed up, but we also had lunch in the Champs Elisees. No, I lie. That was on the same day as the Eiffel Tower. After the Louvre my parents notice a strange bump on my baby brother's back, and go out to the hospital, so I tour alone with my other siblings. We see the Notre Dame (me and my sister, for my brother and I had an argument and he disappeared. Sucks to him, because I had the keys). The bump was nothing to worry about.

Day 8:
We visit les invalides, where Napoleon is buried. Then my parents go to the Picasso Museum, but I rest this one out, watching Desperate Housewives/Grey's Anatomy at home. I missed those shows.

Day 9:
We visit the Musee D'Orsay, which holds the greatest collection of impressionist works of art in the world. I thought of Ami. In the afternoon, we visit Versailles. At night we meet up with our friends from la Charite and I take a walk with my sister and their daughter. Then, we go have dinner in front of the Notre Dame (after hours of searching for a restaurant in our neighbourhood, the Mareill or Marais, I don't quite know). It was that pizza place that's also on Ramblas, Pizza Marzano. Their pizza is amazing.

Day 10:
Car trip all the way down to Navarra, Spain. We get there at 11:30, and it turns out we got the reservation day wrong, and were one day ahead. Nevertheless, the owner gave us no problems in lodging there.

Day 11:
I spend the day in Navarra, my grandparents arrive for lunch with some cousins, and more cousins arrive for dinner.

Day 12:
I take a walk with my Dutch cousin Julia, my brother Juan and my grandmother. The countryside is really nice here too (and the weather). At four I grab the bus from Pamplona to BCN. I arrive at a quarter to 11.

Note: This is a very rough sketch of my travels, because I'm not sure of the exact dates of some things. Also, I left out that we went to Montmartre, the bohemian neighbourhood, where we saw the Sacre Coeur and went down to the Moulin Rouge, which still holds functions. So we decided to have a family dinner watching boobs at a cabaret (no).