Category: Travel
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The Barcelona Operation, Day 5
Again we breakfasted in our flat on croissants from the local bakery, accompanied by what I thougt was orange juice but turned out to be an orange-soy "health" blend with the chalky taste of Tang. Once all of us were dressed and ready, we sortied toward the Museum of the History of Barcelona, located just…
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The Barcelona Operation, Day 4
By Thursday we were getting into the rhythms of the neighborhood. I got up at 7 and went out to buy breakfast. Seven o'clock on a weekday in Barcelona (at least in the old section) is like 6 a.m. in an American city: a handful of early workers are going to their jobs, delivery trucks…
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The Barcelona Operation, Day 3
We ventured into Barcelona's Metro system for a trip to the park complex at Montjuic, at the southwest corner of the city. The subway is modern and efficient (though of course my sample size is very small). From the Metro we transferred to a cable car which runs up the side of Montjuic (it's actually…
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The Barcelona Operation, Day 2
When we woke the air in the square below was full of swallows. Apparently they nest in the walls of the church and come out at dawn to snag bugs out of the air. We watched some of the neighbors playing with dogs down below. Barcelona has a lot of dogs, but no cats. I…
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The Barcelona Operation, Day 1
Dr. Kelly had a science conference in Barcelona this summer, so the rest of us invited ourselves along. The plan was for the four of us to fly over together, spend a week being tourists, then the three non-scientists would come home together leaving her to devote her time to papers and networking during the…
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Where I Do It
I do most of my writing in coffeeshops. Fortunately, I live in an area with a good assortment of places. In Greenfield I can go to Greenfield Coffee, which is a dedicated coffeehouse so I don't have to feel guilty about occupying a table during lunchtime. The chief drawback is that the town of Greenfield…
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Ozblogging: The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Part 2
The three heroic questers set off searching for the plot coupons, and discover a problem which the Crooked Magician really should have thought of: none of them has the faintest idea where they're going. Ojo has lived his entire life in a remote cabin in the woods with a man who says about two words…
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Five Stories That Changed Everything: My Picks
A bit more than a week ago I drove to Boston in order to attend the venerable Boskone convention, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. As always, I spent a lot of my time either being on panels discussing things, or watching other people on panels discussing things. This year one of the most…
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Boskone 50, Featuring ME!
This coming weekend I'm heading back to the idyllic Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston for the second of New England's two big wintertime science fiction conventions, Boskone. Here's my schedule: Friday, 9 p.m.: "The Monster in the Maze" — I get to moderate a high powered panel (Darrell Schweitzer, Paul Tremblay, and Christopher Golden) as…
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Sweringen and Spaceships
This past Thanksgiving I ventured to southern Maryland for a big family dinner. My host happened to live just up the road from St. Mary's City, the site of Maryland's first colonial capital. It's a very interesting site: there are reconstructions of some of the original buildings and some excellent exhibits about how archaeologists combine…
The Cambias Digression 