The place was packed, but somehow the lines we chose were rarely longer than half an hour. Rob and I rode all 4 of the roller coasters (Apollo’s Chariot twice) and test-rode DarKastle for Andy, who has… motion sensitivities. After deeming it Andy-safe, we text messaged him and he met us at the entrance so we could all ride together. DarKastle was an extremely cool ride: a haunted gothic castle (modeled after the Storybook Castle in Bavaria) in the moving-car 4-D style like the Spiderman ride in Universal Orlando. I highly recommend.

The Loch Ness Monster was the first coaster with interlocking loops (a la chain-link) and I have to admit, it’s getting pretty fogey-ish. Bri’s afraid they’ll tear it down before he gets a chance to ride it. It was the one ride that scared Rob and I to death – they slowed us to a crawl before we took the first loop (the sky cars were flying past us, and those go .5 miles an hour) and we were afraid there wouldn’t be any G-force to keep the train on the track or us in the seats. We did make it to the end alive, although we didn’t go back to tempt fate a second time.

As for other 4-D adventures besides DarKastle, we also did Corkscrew Hill in the Ireland section, as well as the Pirate adventure in England, starring Leslie Nielsen and Eric Idle. (If you recognize either of those names, then you know how chock-full of silly fun that one was.)

Rob and I got soaked on a water ride called Escape From Pompeii, and the three of us checked out the animals… namely, Busch Garden’s famous Clydesdale horses, a donkey named Zipper, several bald eagles, and some wolves.

We rounded out the evening at the night show called Kinetix, featuring rock music and acrobatics, like the balancing-upside-down-on-a-small-pole thing (common with Chinese Acrobats, if you don’t know what I’m talking about but have seen that) and the flipping-through-the-air-on-long-ribbon-ish-curtain-thingies (as seen in Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba) and the super fun-looking flying-around-barely-missing-each-other-on-extra-bouncy-trampoline thing, which is one of my all-time favorites.

Last but not least, let me share with you a sampler of the heat-induced conversations we were having… (It was 90+ in the shade).

Erica, waiting in line for 4-D ride: So, Andy. What are the top 3 best things about being Andy?
Andy, without even blinking: Sim City 4 Rush Hour Expansion Pack, learning about history, and… driving.

[cut to next scene]

Erica, waiting in line for coaster: Know what? You’re pretty fun, Rob.
Rob, nodding in agreement: I know.
Erica, stifling laughter: Yeah? What’s so fun about being Rob?
Rob, after thinking a moment: Riding roller coasters. And chocolate-flavored laxatives. They both give me a rush.

And with that thought…

Well… actually, it took us almost 2 hours to leave the hotel room and another 3+ to show up at the theme park in Maryland, due to various factors, including: 3 people + 1 bathroom = slow morning, trying to find a breakfast cafe, finding the right metro, spending 30+minutes riding said Metro, finding the right bus, waiting nearly an hour for said bus, riding 1+ hour on said bus, walking up the car entranceway to the themepark gates, and so on… as usual, an adventure.

The breakfast cafe was a little bizarre… Andy ordered milk. They asked, “Chocolate milk?” No, he wanted plain milk. Well, there was a 50 cent surcharge for chococlate-less milk. (Did we have “tourist” stamped on our foreheads or what?) Next, they asked us if we wanted to eat outside. “Yes!” we answer emphatically. It took a while for us to realize that just because they *asked* where we planned to eat, didn’t mean *they* planned to bring it out to us. Live and learn.

Six Flags was lots of fun (once we finally showed up) because the park was nearly empty and we got to do everything we wanted, in many cases multiple times. Rob and I rode all the coasters pictured here, both Andy and Rob consumed vast quantities of Dippin’ Dots, and all three of us watched the suprisingly funny wild west show.

We left early and headed back to the hotel, where the boys watched some T.V. (but not the Speaker of the House, as Andy initially wanted) and I turned on my laptop to get some work done.

Tomorrow we’re off again!

Our hotel was right by the Arc de Triomf (yes, spelled like that–the Catalán instead of Castellano kept tripping me up, too) so that was one of the first sights we saw.

Next we went to the Art Museum which looked more like a palace than anything. One of the current exhibions was of fairies, and reminded us of our friend Margarita in Cincinnati. Wish she could’ve seen it. The Place Espanya was neat and gave a nice view. I could see La Sagrada Familia in the distance and it totally whet my appetite for Gaudí archetecture. I cannot wait to see it up close.

We went to the Poble Espanyol, which let me just say was AWESOME. If you ever get to Barcelona, you must check it out. It’s a massive, sprawling trip backward through time, representing various cities in Spain’s past. We had a delicious dinner and left when it was dark, only to come across a wicked cool fountain light show.

The sun was shining, the castle on Main Street was very blue and pink, and the park wasn’t too crowded. There were even storybook stained glass windows and a fire-breathing dragon in the dungeon. I was surprised by the number of things (signs, etc) that were in English, for example a store that was simply called “Gifts”.

We headed into Frontierland (guess that’d be hard to translate into French) and did the Thunder Mesa ride. Afterward, we went to Phantom Manor to see how different it was from the Haunted Mansion here in Florida. The gravestones were pretty cool.

In Adventure Isle, we played on the big pirate ship and did the Pirates of the Carribbean ride. I opted not to go on the Space Mountain ride, and instead wandered around taking pictures.

We caught a parade, rode the train, and then did the Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster, Star Tours, It’s a Small World, and the Storybook ride, which was really neat.

In between all this, we also checked out EuroDisney Studios, which was not nearly as exciting as one might hope. I think we were there maybe half an hour and I took something like 2 pictures.

Alice’s Curious Labyrinth in DisneyLand was my favorite attraction. The hedges were shoulder-high and there was a little castle to climb inside in the center of the maze before finding your way back out.

The tour began on Ring Straße [Strasse], with the Kartner Ring and the Opera House. Here, this street replaced the city walls. All the palaces along this strip go back to the second half of the 19th century.

Next I saw the Mozart statue, the Museum of Fine Arts and National History, the 200 year old town gate, and the Hofburg (Hapsburg) Imperial Palace. The palace has 18 wings and 40 courtyards. Each subsequent emporer went ahead and added on another wing or entire building. At one time, the Hapsburgs also ruled Belgium and Hungary.

I also saw the Heldenplatz, or Heroes Square. It’s been 60 years since WWII and the people plant potatoes there in remembrance.

Next I went by the theater, followed by the Kafe Landtmann, which is 150 years old and a favorite of Sigmund Freud, who lived nearby. Then I saw the university, which was founded in 1365. Vienna has over 100,000 university students. Then I saw the Vienna woods. How could I miss it? The Vienna woods is a forest three times the size of Vienna, the city. And in case you’re wondering, Vienna is not exactly on the Danube, but the canal does run through the city.

Then I went by Vienna’s oldest church, which is a thousand years old, and the St Stephen’s cathedral, which is 800 years old, the oldest gothic building in Austria, and the center of the city. There are 300-some churches and most are Roman Catholic. Some 85% of the population is Catholic.

Vienna also has an amusement park on an island between the canal and the Danube. Its giant ferris wheel was built in 1900 by the same person who designed the ones in London and Chicago.

Vienna has famous coffee houses and a funny coffee history. At first, it was unclear whether coffee was dangerous, so only men were allowed to drink it. Once they were certain that no ill effects were to come of it, women were granted permission to drink coffee as well.

I saw the houses of many famous composers that were born elsewhere, but lived here, such as Beethoven and Mozart. The Hapsburgs were patrons of music and made Vienna the city of music with their generosity.

Next I saw the St Charles church, which is the biggest baroque church and is 300 years old. Then I saw the art temple, in an art nouveau style with a large gold leaf dome.

Vienna, as I’m sure you know, is 400 square kilometers, or 150 square miles. There are 800 parks and 1.7 million inhapitants. 2000 years ago, it was a Roman settlement, and before this, Celtic. The Celts named the river, and the Romans named the city after the river. Nowadays, the city has 23 districts.

I also visited the Schonbrunn Palace, which means beautiful fountain. It was built 300 years ago, and was the favorite residence of Maria Teresa and also Franz Josef. Maria got the palace as a wedding gift, and lived there with her 16 children. (16 children in 20 years! Wow. I hope to stop at a nice, round 2.) The palace ceilings were decorated with boroque frescoes, done by Gregorio Guglielini in the 15th century. There is a rococo gallery with two 23 carat gold plated chandeliers. There are also two chinese rooms, which were trendy in the time of baroque palaces. During WWII, a bomb fell into the palace but didn’t explode. It destroyed a fresco, obviously, but the palace itself was otherwise fine. The original fresco was created in 1761 and restored in 1947, and it was easy to see the difference. JFK met with Russian representatives in this room as part of the first steps toward ending the cold war.

Another room in the palace is the carousel room. At the time, carousel was not a ride, but rather a game much resembling a congo line, but using horse and carriages. There is a painting in this room of the carousel line, with a ball being tossed around–but the ball is actually the head of a Turkish soldier. (It’s fun for the whole family.)

Interesting fact: Emporers and their successors wore red-heeled shoes. No one else was allowed to do so.

Charles I was the last Austrian emporer from 1916-1918. The monarchy collapsed after the end of WWII. He abdicated the throne but refused to renounce the title, because God himself had made him Emporer. (The people didn’t buy this claptrap, so they sent him into exile.)

Napoleon married into the Hapsburg family and his son, Napoleon II, died in this palace.

Another interesting fact: Everyone wore wigs at this time, even the kids and babies. Besides keeping the lice away, it was also a symbol of nobility.

Two Roman emporers were born here in Seville. Amerigo Vespucci also lived here, as did Magellan.

The walls around the city were built by the Arabs, and the gate is called the Macarena. (And you thought it was just a song!) One week every spring, Seville has a flemenco festival.

Cartuja is the new section, with an island and bridges. There’s an amusement park open from 11 am until midnight. It has a section that’s a copy of the Seville harbor during the 16th century.

Valenque is a tent-covered square that actually has air conditioning. Concerts and the like are held here.

A mudéjar style Cathusian monestary here was converted into a ceramic factory by an Englishman. It has since been reconverted back into a church. St James is the patron saint of Spain and his festival is next week.

Seville has the famous bridge you may have read about in the Guinness book of world records. It’s long, flat, and with zero suspension. Oh yeah, and it’s not just foot traffic, either – our bus rolled right across it, and I amazingly lived to tell the tale.

The new bridge in Seville has a funny history. The bridge came first, and the water came second! Once the construction finished, they released the dams and put the river underneath the bridge.

I also saw the cacharro – a statue of Jesus on the cross. The sculptor witnessed a gypsy getting caught and killed on the street and captured the gypsy’s expression for the one on the face of christ.

The Plaza de Toros in Seville is one of the oldest in Spain. (But not *the* oldest – do you remember where that one was?) It is the bullring featured in the opera Carmen.

Seville also has two towers – the tower of silver and the tower of gold. Also, you may have seen the square on film – Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here, as were parts of Star Wars Episode II.

Seville has a monument dedicated to El Cid Campeador in front of the university, magnolia trees with big whilte flowers, and five remaining arches of a Roman aqueduct.

Kansas City, Missouri is the the sister city to Seville, and the name of the avenue to enter Seville for the airport. (That bit of info is for you Missourians, you know who you are.)

The Holy Cross square used to be a synangogue that (of course) was converted into a Catholic church. But then it caught fire and was destroyed and now a monument stands in its place.

Seville also boasts the largest gothic cathedral in the world. It has the mummified “el lagarto” (which is like a crocodile, but more about the size of a large iguana.) Interestingly, “el lagarto” sounds suspiciously like “alligator”. (Things that make you go hmmm…)

The tomb of Cristobal Colón (Christopher Columbus to us) is also in this cathedral. Next year marks the 500th year of his death. He died in Spain and his remains were in the church that became the old ceramic factory that later re-became a church. (You followed that, right?) When his son died in Seville, his widow took the remains of both father and son to the island of Santo Domingo. 200 years ago, Spain lost this island and moved the remains to Cuba for safe keeping. This turned out to be a bad plan, and in 1898, the remains (in terrible condition by this time) were brought back to Spain. Seville recently decided to DNA test everything that was left, so actually, Columbus is in a laboratory somewhere in Houston right now.

In this cathedral, there were lots of glass cases featuring the bones and other visible remains of various saints. As mentioned recently, this is the first time I ever knew people kept this sort of thing in churches for general viewing, and I am getting used to the idea, since in old European Catholic churches, it seems to be the norm. I also learned that the Catholics like to pray to the saints when they can see part of them. I’m guessing this is to feel a connection with the person. (If you’re Catholic and you have some insight on this, please confirm or deny).

This Church has a huge baptism chapel, which is still in use. Just two days ago, some kids were baptised. The walls are adorned with paintings by Murillo. On one, someone cut out the saint and stole it. This was back in the 19th century. years later, someone came across it in the black market. (What they were doing perusing the black market and how they recognized a piece of this random painting, hard to say.) So, it found its way back to Spain. I can clearly see the marks where a big rectangle was cut apart and put back together.

I also climbed 35 floors to the top of the Giralda tower, which has a magnificent view. Afterwards, I ate some ice cream at Rayas, which was delish. Europe not only has a sweet tooth, but very specifically has tons of ice cream.

Tonight we went to a (choreographed) flamenco show, and although it was well-executed and entertaining, I enjoyed the gypsy flamenco much better. Also, the theater we were at tonight had us sitting thigh-to-thigh with the person next to us. People were smoking and ordering drinks, even during the performance. (The girl to my right got a vodka and fanta. Ew.)

I won’t name any names since this is the Internet and all, but there was one girl on the trip who cracked me up continuously because she was always saying the zaniest things. First of all, she said she disliked Spanish cuisine because there weren’t any twizzlers, and she likes to eat a pound a week. (???) She was going to pack five pounds of twizzlers in her carry-on, but she knew she’d eat them all the first week she was here. (!!!) Also, when I asked her if she knew what we were doing tomorrow, she said “Yep – we’re going to see Dante’s windmills.” I blinked, and when I realized what she meant, I cracked up laughing until I got the hiccups (which didn’t faze her in the least, so she must get that a lot.) “Actually,” I mention casually when I finally catch my breath. “I believe Dante is known more for his Inferno. Maybe we’re going to see Don Quixote’s windmills.” (To which she said, “Whatever. All I really want to do is go to the movies, because I’m a big fan of the Fabulous Four.”)

I bought tomorrow’s ticket, then headed for the train. For some reason, the train was packed with people, so I had to stand. The guy next to me instantly began chattering animatedly in what appeared to be gibberish. At some point, he realized I had no idea what he was saying, and asked (this time in Spanish), “You mean you’re not Arabic?” Mark it on the calendar! This is a new one for me. I’ve been mistaken for Mexican, Puerto Rican, Native American, Costa Rican, Indian (free gulab jamun out of that one), and basically anywhere in South America, but never in my life have I been mistaken for Arabic. Once I was able to explain that no, I wasn’t from Morocco, but actually from the United States (which he had never heard of, by the way), he promptly asked if I would like to be his girlfriend.

I politely declined, using my existing boyfriend as my main argument. In his somewhat broken Spanish (with a thick Arabian accent to boot – I was saying “What?” after every sentence) he asked if this boyfriend was actually here with me. No, I answered reluctantly, he’s back in my country, but he is still my boyfriend. That’s OK, he agreed cheerfully, I’ll just be your *Spain* boyfriend.

This completely threw me for a few minutes until I realized the the harem-and-many-wives mentality apparently also applied to tourist girlfriends. I feigned sudden deafness and tried to back away as best I could in a crowded train car. I had a few moments of fear when he continued to argue the point and I discovered we were getting off at the same stop. I managed to give him the slip in the train station, however, and breathed a sigh of relief to still only have one boyfriend.

In Fuengirola, I made my way to the sea and bought a one-way cruise ticket to Benalmadena for 7E. On board I took a bunch of pictures, ate a deelicious ice cream cone, and happened to notice the woman seated across from me suddenly decide to sun bathe topless. I think I see at least one pair of breasts every day. If not on live persons, then on advertisements. Here, nudity isn’t anything to be self-conscious about. People are no more scandalized when they see a nipple (when breastfeeding, for example) than they would be to see an ankle or a knee. Here, your body is just your body.

I got off the boat in Benalmáadena amid a sea of yachts. I walked along the port, which was filled with people, shops, and cafes. I found the aquarium and went directly inside. They gave me the student discount (4.50E) even though I didn’t have my card on me.

The aquarium was small but nice, with a variety of fish organized in logical sections (Amazonian, etc). The tanks were very clear and brightly lit. This was great for my photos, but I don’t know if it is good for the fish. (Anyone know?) I saw a few fish that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, which was neat. One was colorful and shaped like a needle and about as thick as a small crochet hook. (I didn’t get the name of it.)

After the aquarium, I made my way to Tivoli World, which was more complicated than I anticipated. There is only one train stop for Benalmadena / Arroyo de Miel, but that train stop is apparently over 6 km from the port – a bit of a hike. I ended up walking maybe a kilometer, waiting fruitlessly for a bus (several stopped, but they were all heading elsewhere) and ended up taking a cab. As it turned out, the taxi driver wasn’t going to Tivoli World (then why did he pick me up?!) but bizarrely enough, he dropped me off (free of charge) at another taxi, who would be going there. The new taxi cost me 5E, but since I had no idea where I was going, I figure it’s 5E well spent. The train stop ended up being maybe half a kilometer or so from the park, so it was really easy to get home afterwards.

(I had heard of Tivoli because I saw ads for it on the train. I will admit, it was a good month later before I learned what and why it was. But I’ll get to that when that day comes.)

It only cost 4.50E to get in to Tivoli World. The rides (and there were a lot more than I anticipated) operated on the ticket principle. One ticket (or one “tivoli”) was 1E, but armbands for unlimited rides were only 10E. There was a Jurassic area with a giant dinosaur and an American Old West section, which was kind of funny (and for some reason called the “Far West” instead of the “Old West”.) There were fountains everywhere and go karts, bumper cars, and even bumper boats. There were haunted houses, a different Ferris wheel in almost every section, and a wild-mouse style roller coaster. Fearless as I am, the piercing shriek of its brakes on every turn prevented even me from trying it.

I ate dinner in the china section, but without question, my favorite quarter was the Andalusian (southern Spain) area. There was a flamenco show, which was fabulous. The dancers were great and the costumes were amazing. When the show ended, I stopped by a churrería who served me some hot, fresh churros and a cup of steamy hot chocolate for only 2.50E.