This entry is dedicated to my friend Jerry Swing. No more than 30 minutes on the train and the landscape of Scary Town faded to pastoral wine country. I entered La Rioja on my way to Logroño. Logroño is one of those storybook towns with multiple churches centered by the two towers of La Ronda and bordering a lazy river. It is a stop on the pilgramage and hikers and backpackers were everywhere. It will have its own marathon in two week and runners dashed through the tiny streets of the old town. I stayed in the university district in a dirt cheap hostel, had a beer and tapas in old town, then...

I mapped out a plan to hit Northern Spain before heading to Barcelona. First stop was Zaragoza, a town the guidebooks said was ancient transitioning to modern. The modernism was evident at the train station with free wifi and comfortable red chairs. I continued to see the contrasts at the basillica plaza again with free wifi up against a centuries old church. The trouble began as I wandered toward the Pablo Serrano museum. A man approached and asked me what I thought of Zaragoza, I responded as best I could and he continued talking. He quickly turned into one of those men who wants to be your companion...

My last night in Barcelona was nearly perfect. I could have gotten on a plane back to Phoenix dreaming about my next vacation. Last year, thanks to Dave Dodge, I attended a party in Cannes during the festival. I met Luis de Arquer a musician who had composed a score for a film. He gave me one of his CDs, Musica Para Una Viaje, and I listen to it every time I want to remember my trip to Italy. He lives in Barcelona and we managed to meet up. He showed me his home in Gracia, a Grenwich Village type neighborhood with narrow streets filled with scooters and pedestrians. His Casa dels Musics also doubles as...

So Josh and I have this ongoing debate about my love for Italian style walking shoes and how impractical they are for serious walking. Whatever. They look so cool. Before I left on this trip I bought and returned no less than three pairs of shoes finally settling on a pair of pumas. I have never so regretted a purchase. The suede looks soft but is unforgiving. It has no stretch, so as my feet swelled on my flight over, they ached. When my feet swelled more from the hike around Font, they throbbed. I couldn’t get them off fast enough and walked around Paris in my flip flop Chacos. Not very...

Barcelona has been a city of chance encounters. • On Sunday I met a great woman from San Francisco traveling by herself for the first time. We ended up sharing lunch and talking about the ups and downs of being solo gals in foreign lands. Unfortunately, it was her last day otherwise I’m sure we would have spent more time together exploring the city. • After I left, I went to Parc Güell, the Gaudi designed park looking over the city. It was supposed to be a planned community of sorts with 20 houses. Gaudi’s and one other were the only two built. As I wandered around I saw a man...