August in Spain 3 - 1st JASHSians Leave Spain
Thursday, August 16
Donna woke me up so we can say goodbye to everyone. They were almost ready to go and I just helped out a bit by taking some of their suitcases outside to be loaded into the trunk. Mary has already arranged for a cab to be out front by 5 am and it came right on time. She gave Stacy her Starbucks Germany coffee mug as a replacement for the Starbucks Frankfurt mug that broke. It was sad to see them go and that we’re going to be by ourselves again, at least for a couple of weeks until the last batch of friends arrive towards the end of the month.
We went back to sleep once they were gone. Robert had some bad news when he came back. At check in, Stacy and Daniel didn’t have their flight from Madrid to the US.
I immediately sent Nestor an eMail informing him of the situation. He’s actually inquired from me through eMail and a phone call last night if their flight was confirmed. I got an acknowledgement from him through his reply.
While on line I posted our London adventures.
Friday, August 17
We’ll have several ‘free’ days before the last batch of friends arrive so Donna and I were thinking of looking on line to see if we can find some cheap flights and accommodations for Barcelona so we’ll have a chance to check out Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Cathedral), the church designed by famous Spanish architect Gaudi. Construction was started in the 14th century. It was so extensive that it hasn’t been completed.
We found some reasonable rates but not till mid September. When we came from Tenerife, our Spanair flight got delayed for more than three hours. For our troubles, the airline gave us a couple of 25% discount coupons. We’ll have to find out how to go about redeeming those discounts.
Nestor sent me an eMail saying Stacy and Daniel called from Atlanta and they finally got their flight from Madrid to the US. The bad news – Nido eMailed and told us they’re missing one piece of luggage and in it is his most priced possession, his old sure-shot SLR camera and yes it still utilizes FILM! Mary sent him a reply that whoever finds it will surely give it back to him because the camera was so old along with the proliferation of digital cameras nowadays that they wouldn’t know how to use it!!
I posted my Germany blog but was unsure of most of the places we visited so I sent Lilibeth an eMail asking her exactly where we went. In the next couple of days I’ll probably have to go back and make some corrections on my Germany blog.
Note: I've already added Lilibeth's corrections. See bottom of 'Germany' post.
While on line I was able to chat with a few people from the Philippines. Our friend Bishop Mallari who was just assigned as President of Assumption University will be going to the States for the Coronation of the Virgen de los Remedios in September. I told him it’s too bad we won’t leave Spain till October 4 so we won’t get to meet. Another friend, Apung Sito (he’s the one who officiated our 30th Wedding Anniversary celebrations in the Philippines last year) is also getting transferred out of his Pilar Village parish of the Holy Trinity. But he may also go to Canada for the coronation. Apung Bobet (as Bishop Robert Mallari is affectionately called) and Apung Sito were the two priests who blessed our home at our housewarming ceremonies on December 23, 2006.
In the meantime my niece Mary Jane said a typhoon is currently wreaking havoc dumping a lot of rain in the Philippines and creating land slides in some areas. She also said that Kong Naring has seen Kong Orling in Guagua since they’ve been back from the States and that he’s doing pretty well on his heart bypass surgery except for some pains on his leg.
On our flight from London to Germany there were quite a few people coughing so Donna concluded I must have caught the cold virus because I developed a sore throat before we left Germany and I now have this nagging cough from a chest cold.
I’ll just have to say it here that we owe our friends Ric Bondoc and Roland Canlas a bundle of thanks for showing us around London and along the same line, new found friend Lilibeth was so gracious in giving us a tour of Wiesbaden, Mainz and Frankfurt. We wouldn’t have seen all those nice places without their assistance.
When we got home Robert prepared a lot of food for dinner. They invited a bunch of their friends. Two of them are the couple (Mark and Flor) that Imelda and Dan met on the plane on their flight to Jerez and another was Rey, he’s the one with the BMW SUV who helped us pick up Emy and family from the airport. After dinner the guys occupied their time playing various games on Robert and Mary’s Wii. One of their guests, Gary liked it so much and said he’ll get his own Wii from the Navy Exchange first thing in the morning!
Saturday, August 18
We just came from church and Robert has already booked our Barcelona flight and accommodation for September. The discount coupons, by the way, aren't as legit as we thought. Donna called Spanair and found out the tickets are more expensive using the coupons. It's less expensive to book Spanair flights on line. I think they gave those away to make passengers feel a little better for their delayed flight.
And we might go to Ronda tomorrow!
Woohoo!!
Donna woke me up so we can say goodbye to everyone. They were almost ready to go and I just helped out a bit by taking some of their suitcases outside to be loaded into the trunk. Mary has already arranged for a cab to be out front by 5 am and it came right on time. She gave Stacy her Starbucks Germany coffee mug as a replacement for the Starbucks Frankfurt mug that broke. It was sad to see them go and that we’re going to be by ourselves again, at least for a couple of weeks until the last batch of friends arrive towards the end of the month.
We went back to sleep once they were gone. Robert had some bad news when he came back. At check in, Stacy and Daniel didn’t have their flight from Madrid to the US.
I immediately sent Nestor an eMail informing him of the situation. He’s actually inquired from me through eMail and a phone call last night if their flight was confirmed. I got an acknowledgement from him through his reply.
While on line I posted our London adventures.
Friday, August 17
We’ll have several ‘free’ days before the last batch of friends arrive so Donna and I were thinking of looking on line to see if we can find some cheap flights and accommodations for Barcelona so we’ll have a chance to check out Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Cathedral), the church designed by famous Spanish architect Gaudi. Construction was started in the 14th century. It was so extensive that it hasn’t been completed.
We found some reasonable rates but not till mid September. When we came from Tenerife, our Spanair flight got delayed for more than three hours. For our troubles, the airline gave us a couple of 25% discount coupons. We’ll have to find out how to go about redeeming those discounts.
Nestor sent me an eMail saying Stacy and Daniel called from Atlanta and they finally got their flight from Madrid to the US. The bad news – Nido eMailed and told us they’re missing one piece of luggage and in it is his most priced possession, his old sure-shot SLR camera and yes it still utilizes FILM! Mary sent him a reply that whoever finds it will surely give it back to him because the camera was so old along with the proliferation of digital cameras nowadays that they wouldn’t know how to use it!!
I posted my Germany blog but was unsure of most of the places we visited so I sent Lilibeth an eMail asking her exactly where we went. In the next couple of days I’ll probably have to go back and make some corrections on my Germany blog.
Note: I've already added Lilibeth's corrections. See bottom of 'Germany' post.
While on line I was able to chat with a few people from the Philippines. Our friend Bishop Mallari who was just assigned as President of Assumption University will be going to the States for the Coronation of the Virgen de los Remedios in September. I told him it’s too bad we won’t leave Spain till October 4 so we won’t get to meet. Another friend, Apung Sito (he’s the one who officiated our 30th Wedding Anniversary celebrations in the Philippines last year) is also getting transferred out of his Pilar Village parish of the Holy Trinity. But he may also go to Canada for the coronation. Apung Bobet (as Bishop Robert Mallari is affectionately called) and Apung Sito were the two priests who blessed our home at our housewarming ceremonies on December 23, 2006.
In the meantime my niece Mary Jane said a typhoon is currently wreaking havoc dumping a lot of rain in the Philippines and creating land slides in some areas. She also said that Kong Naring has seen Kong Orling in Guagua since they’ve been back from the States and that he’s doing pretty well on his heart bypass surgery except for some pains on his leg.
On our flight from London to Germany there were quite a few people coughing so Donna concluded I must have caught the cold virus because I developed a sore throat before we left Germany and I now have this nagging cough from a chest cold.
I’ll just have to say it here that we owe our friends Ric Bondoc and Roland Canlas a bundle of thanks for showing us around London and along the same line, new found friend Lilibeth was so gracious in giving us a tour of Wiesbaden, Mainz and Frankfurt. We wouldn’t have seen all those nice places without their assistance.
When we got home Robert prepared a lot of food for dinner. They invited a bunch of their friends. Two of them are the couple (Mark and Flor) that Imelda and Dan met on the plane on their flight to Jerez and another was Rey, he’s the one with the BMW SUV who helped us pick up Emy and family from the airport. After dinner the guys occupied their time playing various games on Robert and Mary’s Wii. One of their guests, Gary liked it so much and said he’ll get his own Wii from the Navy Exchange first thing in the morning!
Saturday, August 18
We just came from church and Robert has already booked our Barcelona flight and accommodation for September. The discount coupons, by the way, aren't as legit as we thought. Donna called Spanair and found out the tickets are more expensive using the coupons. It's less expensive to book Spanair flights on line. I think they gave those away to make passengers feel a little better for their delayed flight.
And we might go to Ronda tomorrow!
Woohoo!!
posted by reyjay @ 1:00 AM
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