1:22:42 Ran a different route on 'my' trails today. This time I ended up running a little lower than yesterday - in the valley on a road that turned out to be a dirt road leading to some really old farm houses (some of them still habited, some of them abandoned). It was very nice, the earth smelled old out there, you could almost imagine seeing some of these farmhouses in the 13th and 14th centuries. Yesterday the conference took a tour outside of Girona proper to some natural areas that were created from eruptions of a series of vocanos that surround the area. We saw a beechwood forest and some interesting geologic formations (many of the people here at the conference are geologists that use a certain type of statistical technique that Dean worked on for his dissertation). Then we went to a city that has been referred to in documents written in 1052 AD. The city is called Besalu, and as in many old cities in Spain once had a very large (relatively, it is estimated that there were about 2000 inhabitants of the city proper in the 14th century) population of Jews. These Jewish residents were forced to move into "Jewish quarters" (read, slums) in the late 12th and early 13th century until they were expelled from Spain (or killed) in the late 14th century. Most of these old cities have incredible Jewish quarters that are still preserved, including their ritual bathhouses. Usually these quarters are also attached to very very old Cathedrals and town squares. After our tour we had a dinner (there were about 45 of us total) at a very nice restaurant in the old city - it was my first real dinner in almost a week - they made me a very nice grilled vegetable platter (no starches). I am getting a little tired of potato sandwiches! Next week we will have a refrigerator and stove so we can cook our own meals. Well, I am off to get some work done so I can relax next week. Have a good weekend bloggers. I might not be logging in next week - it is likely I won't have internet access again until we get back to Barcelona next Friday. Happy running. | 