I’ve sort of fallen behind on writing about my goings-on on my little place here on the internet. It is not from lack of doing stuff. To make the process of catching up a bit more manageable, I will make a couple of posts in the coming weeks, summarizing the things I’ve been up to since this summer, while being light on writing and heavy on images.
First up is my trip to Spain early this August. I went there with my friends Coby & Raik who planned the whole thing out with the intent of both visiting PortAventura (they too are roller coaster enthusiasts), and seeing the total solar eclipse.
Arriving in Barcelona. I picked a seat by the emergency exit. Turns out that doing so on an A321 means that you only get this tiny porthole to look out through, and you can only see through it properly if you lean forward far enough to press your head against the seat in front of you.
KLM lost my checked-in luggage at my transfer in Amsterdam, so we had to spend some time in the morning locating a store where I could buy myself some new clothes. We were out early enough so that the store would be open as we arrived there, giving us some time to look around. There was this alley that looked really neat looking upwards, and I wanted to capture that by taking a sort of vertical panorama pic. I failed, but enjoy this surreal perspective photo of my shoes that resulted.
Our plan for the day was to take the train to PortAventura and spend two days there. During the first day we also visited the adjacent Ferrari-Land with its launched coaster Red Force.
It was fun. Queues were brutal though even with the express pass that we bought.
PortAventura. Red coaster is Dragon Khan, the white is Shambala. Both are by B&M.
I also rode Furius Baco, thanks to which I how have a least favorite roller coaster. I might do a separate blog post about it.
After staying at PortAventura, we went back to Barcelona where we rented a car to drive us to Cainena, a small village close to the path of total eclipse. The had a whole event set up with a big musical stage in a field where people gathered to see the eclipse. The above photo was taken as the eclipse was underway, and you can see the lens flare shaped like the crescent sun!
It was hard to photograph. This is with my phone through the eclipse glasses.
The totality was even harder to photograph, but I don’t think even the best photograph could convey just how surreal and incredible it was to see the total eclipse in person. The transition from a glowing crescent sun to this glowing circle with tendrils happens so quick. All of a sudden, it’s there! Just like the pictures you’ve probably seen before of a total eclipse! But the fact that it is there, in the sky, you can see it*, it’s actually happening! That moment of unreality breaking through into reality. It is hard to put into words.
We then drove to a small farmhouse in the mountains northwest of Barcelona and spent the night there.
It had a view of beautiful Montserrat.
Image credit: Coby
They had dogs there too.
Image credit: Coby
The day after we headed back to Barcelona where I could finally get my luggage back. I got to see a rich tapestry of human behaviors under the stress of having lost one’s luggage waiting in the queue to the luggage service in the airport.
Via the Coaster-Count app, Coby managed to find that there was another coaster credit to get in Barcelona thanks to a tivoli being set up on a street.
Image credit: Coby
You even got a balloon from the ride operator after riding it.
We then rode the train back to the Netherlands and I got to see a bit of Utrecht, including a guided tour of the big clock tower.
I thought it was neat that they made some perspective paintings on top of the parking house for the purpose of being seen only from top of the clock tower.
Finally, I made it home and could celebrate the fact that my luggage came with me. I learned a valuable lesson about making sure your mission-critical stuff is in your hand luggage. It could easily have been the case that I would have packed my wallet with my driver’s license in the checked-in bag, in which case we would not have been able to rent the car and drive to our planned destinations. Maybe it is obvious to the well-traveled but I’ve never been much of a traveling person! At least up until recently.
Here’s to posting again!
* I’m aware that looking at the full eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous and I did not stare continuously at it. My eyesight suffered no ill consequences from this trip.