2.5OOO...

Our visit to Vancouver is behind us. Beautiful architecture, beautiful outdoors. We didn't make it to the coast. Next trip.

For $2.50 (Canadian) one could ride a bus from downtown to the airport. In a reasonable amount of time (less than 1 hr.) For a 2.1+ million people, it is very good public transit. 

It was hard to see a traffic jam, at least between downtown and the airport.

Wonderful local breweries, parks, and coffee shops. We found a blackberry porter worth a pint or two.

In May, Vancouver way!

We decided to move the great travels few hours west to see how another NW feels like: ocean, snow, cool town. Not a bad destination, isn't it?

Adriatic Coast...

I have been told that it is a nice trip, specially from Pescara to Senigallia. It has been a stage of the Giro. It may be worth a try

The Road to Badajoz...

This is going to be my last post from Galicia, hopefully not last ever. I will be in Denver by the end of the month. The rest of the family is already there.

Moving a household across the ocean is quite an undertaking, even with movers. I have worked on DevRiot some: fixed several bugs, on the .Net Compact side.

Sendoff surfing session with the crew tomorrow. Next posting will be from the Rockies.

Moving to Denver this winter...

In an unusual turn of events, we are moving to the Rockies this Christmas.

Delayed Amsterdam's Pix...

Well, Here are some pictures from our recent trip to Amsterdam. This is close to my syster's home in Jordaan.

This second one I am not sure which canal/gracht was but not far from Lindengracht.

Close to the retail area near Dam Square.

And this last one on our way to the Cleft.

Roasted Chestnuts...

Fall arrived! Harvest time! One of the advantages of living close to one's farming uncle is that you get the goodies. This year are outstanding tomatoes, last year to-die-for wild "setas" (shiitake mushrooms)

Last night, roasted chestnuts picked from trail. And some pictures to share:

The neighborhood:

A day trip to Praia das Catedrais:

P.S. Why the overreaction? Some research units get caught reading DevRiot's feature plan and then tell the whole company to stop visiting the site? It should have touched a weak spot :-}

Winding down?...

Our vacations are winding down. And given the amount incidents during them, we are almost happy they are over. Ready to go back to Santiago and enjoy the Galician waves, and the rain:-}

I finally got a laptop powerful enough to run VS 2005, so devriot .Net will resume.

I am helping some friends' startup (phurnace) developing one of their tools. It feels good when a friend thanks you that one's work did not blow up in front of the VCs and made the point.

This is one of those vacations...

Well, it was not enough with a birth (original plan) and two relatives in the icu. Now the little fellow broke his leg. Not particularly clear when we will be able to go back to Spain but this was not the vacation/work trip we planned.

Back In Barcelona...

I had to come to Barcelona for 4 days. I am still in Barcelona, flying back tomorrow afternoon.

It had been almost 13 years since the last time I came. A lot of construction, and new luxury stores, etc. But still a pleasure to visit.

The Gothic district with its thousands of antiquaries, vintage stores, churches is worth roaming around. There is a small restaurant where Gaudí, Picasso, Dalí, Miró used to hang out. It is still open for business.

Casa Batlló, my favorite Gaudí building, is open to the public, there is a fee to pay though.

The Eclipse plug-in is almost there. The trimmer is a lot more stable. The internal building process plays well with the trimmer.

Just an simple and easy test retrieval interface is missing...

Incognito Thanksgiving!!

The great thing about celebrating thanksgiving in Spain is that we were the only ones doing it around here. This makes for a really short wait a the restaurant :-}

There is this little town called on the banks of the Ulla river. Quiet and hard to notice but it has this little restaurant in a "Pazo" (manor) called "Villa Verde". Endives and Sea urchin salad :-}
Monkfish with Setas (shiitake mushroom) and top-of-the-line galician beef. Plus homemade desserts. :-}Anyways. I have had these snapshots of a trip we took in the early fall (north coast of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and Bilbao) ready to go for a while:

The first one is from Santillana del Mar. Nice town which has great set of prehistoric paintings (in a cave), and historic quarter split mediaval and 18th century architecture.

The second and last are from the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Nice building. The Flower Pupppy is still there but they were about to change exhibitions. The one to the right is on the border between Galicia and Asturias. It is called "Praia das Catedrais". The ocean has eroded the cliffs in such a way that arches formed and pleople can walk through them at low tide, hence the name.

A visit to the pediatrician...

The other day we took the little fellow to get some vaccination shots. Nothing to write home about. He cried his eyes off.

"It was a really stressful visit" we said on our way home, "We even need some home food from Hoover's" ... in Austin.

So the conversation evolved into the spots we missed the most:

A dawn/dusk swim in Barton Springs, any time of the year. The pool's orientation east-to-west is ideal because the sun rises or sets on either end of the pool. I preferred the early morning ones because the crowd was quieter and everybody knew each other (mostly tri-athletes, swimmers, etc)

Sushi at Musashino! Ahh!!!! To be in the middle of Texas this was serious sushi. Unagi was better than any of the SF ones I tried. Uni/monk fish liver was hit or miss. Sometimes the tuna was so buttery that there was no need to chew :-}

The water hole on loop-360 across Ruby's. The City closed that access so we needed to take the "Hill of Life" route. But to be so close to Downtown, it was a privilege to hike down during the week and find just deers and barely somebody else around.

The Alamo Drafthouse: movie classics, weird movies, Chicken Run, pretty much anything, with beer and burgers delivered to your seat!! or "I love Video" on Airport Blvd. A real comprehensive selection of videos.

There will be more on Austin but I need to work on a Linux/Mono widget...

NUNCA MAIS:

It is as valid today as it was back then. This phrase summarized the rage, helplessness, and desire of Galicia when the incompetents in the regional government let the Prestige's oil spill become a case in Keystone cops emergency management.

4 years later, and the new incompetents in the regional government have placed themselves in hands of real-estate mafias whose only interest is develop beyond the real needs of a region, re-editing the Keystone cops episode.

The new incompetents in power here, while knowing that summer fires happen yearly, fired hordes of experienced firefighters because they were not credited galego speakers.

The new incompetents in power belong to what is known in spanish politics "nacionalistas". These think that they can make Galicia better "por decreto". So, to be a firefighter around here one needs to speak galician. La-la land politics. This is the way to protect one's motherland.

What the real-estate development mafias did? Set the sorrounding areas of the cities on fire (Galicia is mostly rural and has a lot of forests) to see if they can get arround the building limitations.

Most of the 127 fires were intentional and around 3 cities.

Again, the rest of Spain has to come in a hurry to protect Galicia from galicians.

Enough ranting, I am going to volunteer...