Saturday 14 June 2008

This One's for You, Amanda

A couple weekends ago we had the opportunity to use our guest room to its full potential. Amanda's friend Jenny and Jenny's husband Justin stayed with us for a bit. They're musicians and were about to embark on one of their many world tours. Before the tour started they decided to stop in Barcelona for a bit and then take a cruise around the Mediterranean. We managed to talk them into staying with us and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

They stayed with us just one night before they left on their cruise and then crashed here a couple more nights after they got back. The first weekend they were here we went out and wandered around the old city for a bit. We took this picture in Placa Felip Neri. If you look just behind me you can see a lot of pock marks on the wall. Apparently during the Spanish Civil War this placa was where many insurgents were executed, hence all the bullet holes. Not a happy thought but it is still a very beautiful little placa. We couldn't help but wonder who made the holes that were ten or twelve feet off the ground. The placa isn't that big so the shooters couldn't have been aiming from too far away and Catalans are certainly not known for their height.

I just thought Amanda might enjoy seeing actual proof that we all met up and had a bit of fun. I should say that Jenny and Justin are both just fabulous. Jenny recently got a job in the Army orchestra and will be going to boot camp in the fall. I don't think Andrew and I ever got over that. We kept bringing it up at random moments during their stay-- walking through Metro transfers, sitting in our living room, whenever the awe struck us. Full on boot camp! She'll be the toughest d*** viola player you've ever seen when she's done.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Think it's great to have these two young musicians to share the sites with. Dad

Andrew and Marie Benson said...

It was really fun. The live in Philadelphia so if we have any down time we might try to get together with them when we're there. I'm afraid things will probably be a bit chaotic for those few days we're all there, though.