Back home again...

After leaving Llançà yesterday morning, we arrived in Barcelona around lunch time, and had time to visit a few of the city's sights in the afternoon, before meeting up in the evening with my friends who are involved in youth ministry and church planting in the city. Some of these photos above were taken at Parque Guell, with its famous architecture and mosaic "dragon." Others were taken down at the harbour area, where there is a reproduction of a Spanish galleon that may be something like the one Christopher Columbus used when he sailed to the "new world." While visiting a colourful market that is known for its fruit and fruit juices, I had a new taste experience. While Carmelita drank her raspberry and banana juice, I chose a bright pink juice that was made from coconut and pitaya. Pitaya, sometimes known as "dragon fruit," is from a cactus-like plant that is common in Asia and South America.

This morning we were up at the crack of dawn to catch a bus to the airport for our early morning flights. By midday, I was back in Malaga, where Anja met me at the airport. We swung by my house to check on my three furry friends (Anja had been one of the people looking after the cats in my absence) before going to her house, where my car had been parked for the past three weeks. Apart from catching up on emails, the rest of today has had a "cleaning" emphasis: washing the car, washing the settee covers that the cats had been sleeping on for three weeks, cleaning the terrace, washing my holiday laundry.... and, of course, doing some shopping, so that I have food in the fridge again.
Tomorrow and Friday, we'll be meeting as a Villa Rehoboth team (six of us) to pray and plan for the different schools, seminars and retreats that we'll be holding during 2013. Thanks for your prayers.

Last day in Llançà...

This past weekend was the festival of San Juan - sometimes considered by Spaniards, or at least by Catalans,  to be the official start of summer. Of course, school holidays also begin around now, and the sleepy town of Llançà that we've come to know this week was suddenly livened up by an influx of holiday makers and weekend guests. "Our" beach below the house, which was almost deserted when we arrived, was suddenly covered with families and sunbathers over the weekend.
On Saturday evening, we went for a pleasant walk along the shoreline/clifftop that stretches from our part of town to the marina and the fishing port. We'd heard that the San Juan holiday would be celebrated with a fireworks display and a bonfire on the beach. Well, there was certainly a bonfire, but the fireworks turned out to be something of a "free-for-all," with families and individuals all doing their own thing - setting off fireworks all over the beach and even sometimes in the street. If you come from a country where "health and safety" regulations have placed limits on just about any activity that could potentially injure someone, it is a little disconcerting to see children lighting their own fireworks while small groups of onlookers stand within "firing distance." 

We enjoyed our cliff top ramble so much, that we plan to do it again this evening, and wander into beachfront Llançà for one last time. Today is the last day of our little break by the sea, and tomorrow we'll be catching the train and heading back to Barcelona. Of course, we'll still be "by the sea" there, but not so obviously so when you're in the hustle and bustle of a big city. As well as connecting with our King's Kids leaders in the city (who will be gearing up for the summer outreaches happening during July), we hope to see one or two of the sights that Barcelona is known for.

No doubt we'll take a stroll down the Ramblas - a long tree-lined avenue that I remember well from a summer outreach I was part of during the football world cup of 1982. Las Ramblas stretches from the main square, Plaça Catalunya, down to the harbour area where Christopher Columbus stands high on a column, allegedly pointing towards the new world. (He's actually pointing in the wrong direction.) Perhaps we'll also have time to see the famous Sagrada Familia church and the iconic structures of the Parque Guell - both of which were designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. 

Then, early on Wednesday morning, we'll head to the airport. Carmelita will be heading home to Budapest and I'll be flying back south to Málaga. It's been fun to have this short break before launching into the different ministry activities of the summer.

Eating and exploring...

Carmelita wanted to eat paella during our Spanish holiday, but it wasn't on the menu at the restaurant last night. So we bought the seafood and other ingredients at the local supermarket, and I said I'd make some home-made paella today. Apart from the fact that we didn't have a paellera (a large flat paella pan) and I had to use a wok instead, we were pleased with the result and felt it tasted just as authentic as restaurant-made paella. After our Spanish-style lunch and a couple of afternoon dips in the sea, it was time to meet up with our new-found French friends for the short drive to the nearby town of Port de la Selva. It's a small place and so it didn't take us long to walk around it. Then, on the way home again, we drove five miles up twisty mountain roads (with stunning views over the bay) to the old monastery of Sant Pere de Roda, which is more than a thousand years old. Once our exploring was over, we said goodbye to our French friends - who also told us about a bonfire and fireworks on the main beach this weekend for the celebration of St John's day. Then, back home again, I used up our leftover fish and prawns to make a Spanish sopa de mariscos (seafood soup.) This turned out to be another successful culinary experiment, and a fitting end to a fun day.

El Port de la Selva and Sant Pere de Roda. Click to enlarge.

Exploring Llançà

Armed with a little map of the town, we set off yesterday evening to explore the old town and the new port of Llançà. After checking out the Church of St Vincent and the Roman tower in the old town square, we wandered down to the sea and the newer port area, where we planned to have dinner. In fact, half of the restaurants hadn't opened yet for the summer season, most would only be opening at 8 pm anyway, and some of the prices looked considerably beyond our budget. We wandered back to the old town, did our supermarket shopping, and then had dinner in a charming little garden restaurant in the old part of town. We struck it lucky again, and I got into conversation with a French couple at the next table; they were from Lille in the north of France (where I worked as an English teacher for a year in 1979 - '80) and they make the 12-hour drive down here every year to their holiday home in Llançà. When I asked them if they could tell us anything about a local bus service to Port de la Selva, the next little fishing village along the coast, they quickly offered to drive us there this afternoon. (Carmelita is beginning to be very impressed with the friendliness of French tourists. For my part, I've always enjoyed the French, and find them to be very open and chatty if you're able to speak their language.)

This morning, I slipped out into a chilly wind and managed to catch the sunrise at 6 am. Now, however, our balcony (middle floor of the blue shuttered house in the photo) is bathed in strong sunlight that helps to compensate for the strong prevailing wind. I've discovered that the local Catalan people have 33 different words for "wind" - ranging from the tramuntana (the icy northern wind that sweeps down from the Pyrenees) to the ponent (the powerful west wind that we're experiencing this week.) Any of the winds can blow for several days at a time, combining with the rugged rocky coastline to give the Costa Brava (the wild coast) its name. I'm hopeful, however, that today's sunshine will be sufficient to overcome the cooling effect of the wind, and that I can have a swim in the sea again this afternoon.

Lazy in Llançà

It seemed strange this morning to wake up at 6 am (I always seem to wake between six and seven) and realise that I had no train or plane to catch, no teaching to get ready for class, no meeting to attend...  I could hear the tide coming in, with the waves crashing against the rocks in the little cove below our house, and I realised with a smile that I have a few days "holiday" in this charming little town on the northernmost coastline of the province of Cataluña. Yes, they speak Catalán in this part of Spain, and I've quickly realised that it might be more diplomatic to speak to people in French or English than in Spanish. In fact, many of the people we've met have been elderly French or German people who have holiday homes here. We ourselves are staying in a charming little apartment belonging to an American who willingly makes his house available for missionaries who would like to take a short break from their ministry responsibilities.

The sun was just rising as I wandered onto the terrace and looked out at the Mediterranean this morning. No other early risers were about, and it was after 9 o'clock before I saw the first pensioner spreading his towel on the little beach. What language does this one speak, I wondered. My holiday companion (she is actually the YWAM leader over the Central European nations like Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria) said I was a useful person to have around yesterday, as I was able to switch into French, German or Spanish - according to the response of the people we were asking for directions, as we found our way to our holiday home and then worked out how to get into town and find a supermarket. I would flag down a passing car and try to work out which language to choose, as we asked them, "Can you tell us which way to walk into town?"
We struck it lucky, and an elderly French couple told us to jump in the back seat of their car, next to their two little dogs. They drove us on a circular tour around the town of Llançà - down to the port and along to the old village square, as well as pointing out the supermarkets and telling us how to walk back home again.

Today, we had rather a lazy day - reading books and resting from our recent travels. I also went down to the beach two times for a swim. (Going down is easy; climbing up all those steps to the house again requires more effort!) For those of you who have good eyesight, the pink arrow here shows me on the beach, and the blue one shows Carmelita up on the balcony of the house. You can see there's quite a height difference between the two locations! For those of you who don't have eyes like a hawk, you can click on any of these photos to enlarge them.

From the Black Sea to the Mediterranean sea...

My weekend in Romania was taken up mainly with preparing the message that I shared on Sunday evening at the international church of Constanța. Based on an Old Testament story, the theme of the sermon was "Godliness under Pressure" - how to respond in godly ways, even though we are facing impossibly difficult situations where the enemy is really threatening and intimidating us. There was a good response to the word, and I was able to pray with several people afterwards. Then it was time to finish packing my suitcase, as I was leaving early on Monday morning for the long trip back to Spain. The journey went very smoothly this time. I caught a shuttle bus for the 3½ hour journey to Bucharest airport, where I checked in for the 3½ hour flight to Barcelona. There I met up with a friend, and together we made our way into Barcelona by train and underground. It was after 10 pm by the time we reached our accommodation for the night - a little flat belonging to the King's Kids/church planting ministry in Barcelona.  The flat was on the ninth floor, and we were able to see across the city skyline to the Sagrada Familia church - one of Barcelona's famous landmarks.

I did take an hour at the weekend to walk down to the beach in Constanta and check out whether the Black Sea was a good temperature for a swim. I knew, though, that I was on my way to the north of Spain, where Carmelita and I would be staying in the holiday home of a "friend of a friend." Yesterday, we made the two hour train journey to the northernmost part of Spain's Mediterranean coastline. Llançà is just a few miles from the French border and almost everyone we've met since arriving here has been either French or German speaking. I can officially confirm that the sea is much colder here than it was in Romania, and we weren't brave enough to go in for a swim yesterday.... but perhaps that's just because the weather was rather overcast. We'll see if the water temperature improves in the course of the week.

Romanian weekend

My week in the Child and Youth Ministry School came to an end today, and it was encouraging to hear the students share that they'd found the teaching very practical and feel it will serve them well when they leave soon for their outreaches with young people in Moldova and Romania.
I've been asked to speak in an international church service on Sunday evening, so I'll be taking time tomorrow to prepare for that. Then, on Monday, I'll make the long journey back to Spain again. I'll leave early in the morning for the bus to Bucharest airport, and it'll probably be around 9 pm before I finally arrive at my accommodation in Barcelona.