We wake to the sound of church bells and crying seagulls.  The church bells are lovely, the seagulls really screechy, but not so harsh as crows.

  It rained last night but the sky seems to be clearing a bit so we can go out and about and not get wet. 

  Last night the Red Sox, like the best team in baseball played the Astros, one of the worst, and managed to lose!  I tried to go to MLB.com but the site was too busy probably from all the baseball news of yesterday. 

  I’m off on a wild tangent this morning thanks to my pal Eileen.  See below.

Ru

Hi Ruth,

The photo you labeled Valkyries is two characters from the cartoon Asterix.  There is an Asterix amusement park somewhere in Europe!”  from one of my two college roommates, Eileen.

Thanks Eileen, how you know this I don’t know and won’t ask.  Best to George too!

http://en.asterix.com/index.html.en is the website for those of you who also thought these folks were Valkyries and this kid is so cute I don’t mind posting the photo again.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix (French: Astérix or Astérix le Gaulois, IPA: [asteʁiks lə ɡolwa]) is a series of French comics written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo (Uderzo took over the writing after the death of Goscinny in 1977). The series first appeared in the French comics magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959. As of 2012, 34 volumes have been released.

The series follows the exploits of a village of indomitable Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid, which gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonist, the titular character Asterix, along with his friend Obelix have various adventures. The "ix" suffix of both names echoes the names of real Gaulish chieftains such as Vercingetorix, Orgetorix, and Dumnorix. Many of the stories have them travel to foreign countries, though others are set in and around their village. For much of the history of the series (Volumes 4 through 29), settings in Gaul and abroad alternated, with even-numbered volumes set abroad and odd-numbered volumes set in Gaul, mostly in the village.

The Asterix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into over 100 languages, and it is popular in most European countries.

The success of the series has led to the adaptation of several books into 12 films: eight animated, and four with live actors. There have also been a number of games based on the characters, and a theme park near Paris, Parc Astérix, is themed around the series. To date, 325 million copies of 34 Asterix books have been sold worldwide, making co-creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo France’s bestselling authors abroad.”

Gallia Est Omnis Divisa in Partes Tres (All Gaul Is Divided into Three Parts).   The only thing I remember about Gaul is that it was divided into three parts and that was from two years of Latin of which I only remember the passive endings of something. 

http://frenchculture.org/books/interviews/interview-alex-alice   “As you look forward to the American release of Alex Alice’s graphic novel Siegfried II: The Valkyrie (available May 21 from Archaia), read an interview with his translator, Edward Gauvin. Here, he discusses working in different formats, the challenges of fantasy, and some of his favourite French and American comic artists.”    Funny that I never read that comic but I do sort of remember seeing it now that I read about it here.  But I’m not much for any comics now.

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/13316 is an article that compares German Richard Wagner composer of the Valkyries to Italian Verdi composer of  La Traviata …… the music to the film Pretty Woman.”  Both, of course, wrote other pieces but as a child I danced around the house to The Ride of the Valkyries.  dun da da dun dun,  dun da da da!   And I’ve seen Pretty Woman several times.  Intellectual vs emotional is one way the article’s author Patrick West describes it.  I’ve no clue how a small kids dancing around the house to Wagner = intellectual image, but maybe it was.  But then I am better at research than watercolor, watercolor needing much emotion to get it right.  Anyway, this “off on a tangent” came about because I wanted to see if anyone out there in Google Land thought as I did about the Asterix being Valkyries. Funny all that I remember from elementary school but how little I remember from most college classes.   But now I’m done and off to get ready for the day exploring more of La Coruña.  You’re probably beyond ready for me to be done.  

Actually one more thing… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Brisco_County,_Jr.  The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.  was a great one season western-scifi that had Valkyrie characters.  If you never saw it, get the DVDs because it was clever and funny and created by the same folks who did the script for one Indiana Jones movie.

These are not Asterix characters…at least I don’t think so.  It’s a close-up of the mannequin from the shop scene.  As for the purple and blue cans, they’re probably something I’ve not heard of either.   

Actually the mannequin reminded me of a Picasso face and it probably isn’t such an odd thought as he and his family lived here during Picasso’s teen years. 

" Casas Museo de A Coruña. House museums.

The Picasso family lived in A Coruña for five years, when the artist was an adolescent and the city influenced his creation. The Picasso House Museum conserves some of these works and is identical to when the painter lived there.”  http://www.coruna.es

I’ll make it a point to visit his house…if I can find it.

Hola,

  Here’s a first look at La Coruña. 

Ru

“The charisma of La Coruña

    Often-overlooked La Coruña in northern Spain is just the place to find good food, fabulous beaches and a dash of culture.”

http://www.theguardian.com

It was a horror getting here (which we’re not quite over) but I’m already in love with La Coruῆa.  Just down the street and around the corner is the Provincial Library which I only discovered on my way back from finding both the Galicia and La Coruña Tourist Offices.  Last night on our way for a light dinner we had walked past what was the Galicia Tourist Office.  I returned this morning and they were very helpful but told me I really needed La Coruña Tourist Office and explained to me how to get there. On my way I discovered a wonderful area of shops and restaurants and an Artist Association but not La Coruña Tourist Office.  I can’t imagine how I missed it the first time I walked across the Maria Pita Square as there was a huge white i on the front and corner when I finally found it.    Several kind people had tried to explain to me in very slow Spanglish (more Spang than lish) where La Coruña Tourist Office was located, but finally a man who must have seen me walk by one time already, took pity and walked part way with me and pointed just across the plaza where the office was located.  I couldn’t see it or really understand him so he crouched down and touched the stone street to indicate that I should cross the plaza to where the stone street was and find the office.  He was right!  I honestly think my timing was off and the office had opened after my first pass by and that’s when the signs had been put out.  Who knows!  As I finally did find it that’s what’s important.  It will definitely be a fun area to explore, La Coruña’s old city.  

http://www.galiciaguide.com/Maria-Pita-square.html is a link to info about Maria Pita Square about a 10 minute walk from DoraMac.  Now that I know where it is, I can find lots of places located around it. 

Hola,

   Before I write about La Coruña, which is an exceedingly charming place! I want to just share some of the bright spots or our passage.  They were few and far between, but they were there.  I definitely think some higher power created rainbows because they really do lift your spirit after stormy weather as clichéd and hackneyed as that sounds. (Yes I do know there’s a scientific explanation, but when you’re in the middle of the ocean science isn’t so consoling as a rainbow.)  And dolphins, playful creatures who come to visit and entertain with their dives and twirls when you need something to make you smile. 

   Now we’re back to reality and the security of a marina for the time being.  And speaking of reality, it rains in the summer?   I can’t remember the last time we had rain in the summer.  Our past years in Turkey, North Cyprus, Israel  and Tunisia, when the rain stops for the summer months, it STOPS!  Every day is a laundry day.  No problem with motorbike travel.  Not no more!  I had to use the marina dryer this afternoon because an early evening shower came along.  I’d hung laundry out about 4 pm which seems late, but the sun (usually) shines until 10 pm.  Not today.  Tomorrow either as thunderstorms are forecasted.  “Passing strange!” to quote Othello (which means stranger than strange) but I’m reading The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown and there are lots of references to Shakespeare.  Anyway, here are a few photos from the bright spots of the passage.

And from those who shared sea sick stories, here’s some advice from my cousin Ernest; "never eat nothing before embarking on a boat".   And this from New Bedford  friend Beth’s commercial fisherman cousin…” just eat crackers and avoid fluids.”  

Ru

The bright spots in our passage to La Coruña: some of the bright spots being Randal’s ability to fix what needed fixing for us to make it to La Coruῆa.

Hola,

  I can only remember being seasick one other time in my life and that was in 1970, my first evening at Outward Bound.  We’d driven from Amherst, MA to Rockland, ME many hours, met the OB people who gave a brief orientation and then told us to sail to some island whose name I’ve forgotten.   Our sailboat was a 30 foot two masted pulling boat with a funny shaped sail.  After forever when one of the group who actually knew how to sail got us to this particular island, we sat off the island in the surf trying to guess what we were supposed to do.  While just sitting there rolling gently around I got seasick.  I attributed it to having eaten nothing since about noon and it was then late in the evening.  One of my OB group offered to help me off the boat but managed to snag his foot on something which landed us both in the water.  I crawled my way to shore.  Thankfully that was the only time during my 26 days of Outward Bound that I was sick.  Other folks were sick every day. Other folks probably learned to sail, I just tried to get through everyday which, for someone who’d never been sailing, rock climbing or repelling, or even really camping was like a series of final exams for which I was ill prepared.  I still don’t know how to sail or much else to do with boats.  I’m just not a boat person.  Things don’t make sense to me that instantly make sense to other people.  And the only thing I know about machines, and that’s what a boat is, a machine,  is that they will stop working at the worse possible times.    If you can’t fix them, or fix them enough, you’re done fore.  Thankfully Randal can fix them or fix them enough so we’ve been okay.  This last passage had too long a list of things not working.  And to top it all off and return to the point of my Outward Bound story, I got seasick…twice.  Actually the second day was a “sick headache” that became much worse from the Ibuprofen, Sturgeron, anti- nausea pill  cocktail I took to make it go away after two hot showers didn’t work.  I think the first day’s bout was caused from too much acid in my stomach from the big bowl of cabbage salad followed by a frozen banana.  I’d been fine until I ate that and then, not good at all.  Randal wasn’t particularly sea sick the first day which was a blessing as he usually is the one to be sick.  During the second day both of us were sick and exhausted from the huge swells and winds, most having been not forecasted by two different weather models.  By the third day I was over being sea sick but that’s when DoraMac got ill.  Fuel filter issues and GPS issues.  The final straw, late afternoon day 4, was when the autopilot stopped working and we had to hand steer the boat.  I’m not great ever at hand steering, but in rolling seas!  Well I got better because I had to, but not by much.  So we stopped for a night in a lovely bay Camarinas which looked and smelled like Maine and was quiet and lovely.  That was last night.  Today was actually a very pleasant cruise with no winds, relatively flat seas, and great speed.  La Coruῆa is a really interesting city and we might have time to explore.  Lots of boat issues need to be resolved before we even think about crossing the Bay of Biscay which would only be 2 nights, but still; things need to working perfectly, at least when we start out. 

  I didn’t call this email, “passage from Hell” because I know I’ve used that before.  I hope I can call it the “final passage from Hell.”  And the thing is, seasoned cruisers probably would have thought it no big deal. But then, as I tell everyone, I might live on a boat, but I’m really not a cruiser.

Ru