Lynn's Travel Adventures – Page 30 – "To Live is to Travel." Hans Christian Anderson

Rainy Day in Breton

March 30

Since the weather for today was rainy, we postponed our trip to Mont St. Michel until tomorrow. It’s still supposed to be cloudy and rainy but there’s a possibility that weather will clear later in the day. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

So, we needed a plan B. After breakfast, Peter searched the internet for someplace to go and found a couple of small chateaux nearby. Since they were less than 30 minutes away, we decided to check them out. We made it to the first town of Vitre in only about 15 minutes but ran into our first challenge quickly thereafter. The road on which we needed to turn was blocked off, so we made a few turns to try and get the GPS to reroute us. After driving around, a subdivision for 10 minutes we ended right back at the closed road. But then we noticed that people were driving on it so we though, what the heck, if the locals can do it so can we. So, Peter drove around the do not enter sign and made the left turn. Well….turns out that the town center (where the chateau is located) was closed for we’re not sure what. All the access roads to this main road were closed and there were barricades on all of the curbs. People were lined up with their umbrellas along the street. That’s when we realized that there might be some kind of parade going on…oops. We just kept driving to get out of town but got stuck behind a tow truck that was clearing the streets of parked cars. That’s when we realized it was Good Friday so maybe it was some type of passion play. Anyway, we scratched that chateau off the list and headed to the second, Chateau des Rochers which was only another 15 minutes away. We got there without problem to find no cars in the lot and the door closed. The sign said it was supposed to be open, but we think Good Friday got in our way. So, we scratched that Chateau off the list as well.

Then we decided to head to the larger city of Rennes, which was only about 30 minutes away. That’s when we ran into our third challenge of the day…. we were scary low on gas. When we left the house, we had about 100km worth of gas but in all the driving we had already done that morning we didn’t see a single gas station. We thought that when we hit the main road on our way to Rennes, we’d see something…. nope. So, we turned the GPS back on and told her to find us a gas station. In the meantime, the warning light goes on and since the owner’s manual is in French, we have no idea how many liters we have left. Now we’re starting to panic just a little, especially when the GPS says it’s still 15 minutes before we hit a gas station. Seriously, how is it possible not to have any gas stations for 100 km??? We finally got there just as the warning bell is beeping like crazy. You could almost hear the gas tank guzzling the fuel as we filled it up.

Our to-do list in Rennes consisted of finding Lynn a new pair of jeans (hers had started to tear after the soaking at Chambord), get a SIM card for Peter’s phone, find a place to print/scan a few documents and, if possible, do laundry. We got super lucky and stumbled into a mall where Lynn found a pair of jeans (not her favorite style and too long but no holes so they were keepers). The salesperson at the store pointed us in the direction of a phone store where we got a SIM card that is good for all of Europe. We’re very excited about that as some of you may remember the nightmare we had on our first European adventure when we had to get a new SIM card in every country. It has 5GB of data for 14 days which should be plenty, but we needed it for 4 weeks. So, we bought another activation which we’ll use when this one runs out. It only cost 50 euro for the 4 weeks and since we spent $100 in the first 3 weeks on data, we think this will work in our favor.

The phone guy gave us the name of a place where we could print/scan Lynn’s documents, so we turned on the GPS and headed into the center of Rennes and another errand was checked off the list. The only thing we didn’t do is laundry, but we decided that we had done enough boring stuff for the day. So, we headed to the town of Dinan, about 45 minutes away. We’re so glad we did because it was a very cute old town. We stopped at the main church but Good Friday service was going on, so we just peeked in and left. Most of the restaurants were closed (it was 4pm and most don’t open after lunch until 7pm) but we finally found one and enjoyed a delicious late lunch/early dinner of crepes. That is a specialty in Breton, and we’ve been looking forward to it since we got to France.

Afterward we walked to the Castle. It was built in the early 14th century and is in remarkable good condition. There are no furnishings or decorations, but it was nice to tour it all the same. Here are some pictures from google. Castle of Dinan

Then it was a little over an hour back to our stone farmhouse where we took a wrong turn and met all the farm’s cows. There were quite a few so now we’ve met the girls who gave up their milk for us.

As you can see, it wasn’t the most exciting day but we had a few laughs along the way and the sun came out in the afternoon, so life is good.

Tomorrow night we’re staying in a place near St. Malo and are hoping for a better internet connection so we can upload photos. Thanks for your patience. We’ll chat again soon.

Beautiful Cheateaux of the Loire Valley

March 29

Hello from France. We have a very slow internet connection so there won’t be any pictures over the next few days. But here’s what we’ve been up to since we last posted.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was an early day as we had a 6:30am flight from Lisbon to Paris Orly. So, we were in a cab and on our way to the airport by 4:30. The flight was 30 minutes late, but we still got to Paris at 10:30. We didn’t have to go through customs, so we were on the road about an hour later. We were heading for the Loire Valley which is about 2 hours southwest of Paris. We went economy with this car, so we don’t have GPS in the car. And, once again, we had difficulty with our phone GPS (as soon as we get home Lynn is going to have a come to Jesus meeting with Verizon about the challenges we’ve had since we left for Costa Rica) and had absolutely no idea how to get out of the Paris suburbs. We stopped at McDonald’s where Peter connected to their WIFI and got the GPS running. In case you didn’t know, once you have GPS running, it will continue even if you leave the WIFI area; just don’t turn it off or you’re screwed. We actually weren’t too far from where we needed to be so just a short time later, we were on the toll road and on our way.

We wanted to visit a couple of the famous Loire Valley chateaux and the first one on the list was the granddaddy of them all…Chateau de Chambord. There are over 400 rooms in this place but only 80 of them are open to the public; we saw maybe half of them. It is the largest and most recognizable of the many chateaux in the valley. It was originally built to serve as a hunting lodge for Francis I and took 28 years (1519–1547) to complete. Supposedly Leonardo di Vinci was involved in the design including a beautiful double-curved staircase. Here is a page of google pictures of the chateau; we’ll upload ours as soon as we can. Chateau de Chambord

As we were wrapping up our tour, the skies opened up and we got soaked. Even if Lynn had remembered to throw the umbrellas into her bag, they probably wouldn’t have worked well as it was also very windy. The chateau is far from any other building so by the time we got under shelter we were literally soaked…. just what we both needed after our recent colds. The rain only lasted about 10 minutes, but we were miserable as we headed back to our car. Then Peter had difficulty paying for parking as the machine wasn’t taking either our euro bills or the credit card. While he dealt with that Lynn was on the phone, again, with Verizon trying to fix our connectivity problems. It turns out that the genius who helped us the last time when we couldn’t connect after arriving in Portugal, only set up the plan for 30 days. After 3 phone calls and almost an hour on the phone we finally got both GPS and the phone working. Hopefully we won’t have a repeat of this next month.

We decided to splurge on our lodging last night and stayed in the beautiful Chateau de la Tortiniere just southeast of Tours. Actually, the room wasn’t that expensive, but we ate both dinner and breakfast there and ended up spending more for food than we did for the room. It was certainly worth it though as there was some complimentary liqueur waiting for us in our room and dinner was a 3-course delight. And, of course, the ambiance was amazing. If you ever travel to this area, we highly recommend a splurge. Here are some pictures of that Chateau. Chateau de La Tortiniere

Today (Thursday) we headed back east to visit the Chateau Chenonceau which was also built in the early 16th century and after the Palace of Versailles, is the most visited chateau in France. Lynn is calling this the “girl power chateau” because it was it was designed, redesigned and primarily lived in by women. Francis I took the chateau from its original owner (whose wife was the primary designer) for debts owed and upon his death ownership turned over to Henry II. Henry gave it as a gift to his favorite mistress, Diane. She commissioned the famous arched bridge over the river and added a large flower/vegetable garden. She lived in it for many years until Henry died. Henry’s widow, Catherine di Medici tossed Diane out on her ear and made it her own home. Catherine added more gardens and spent a fortune updating the chateau including add a large hall over the river bridge. This hall was used as a hospital during WWI.

The history continues for another 200 years as women who loved the chateau continued to make improvements. It really is a fascinating story and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around the beautiful rooms. Here are some google pictures of this amazing estate. Chateau Chenonceau

Before we left the grounds, we sat in the car for about 20 minutes trying to decide where we wanted to go next. We decided since we had seen two of the most famous chateaux, we’d head out of the Loire Valley into Brittany. Lynn found a reasonably priced Airbnb not too far from Fougeres. There weren’t many available but we’re very pleased with our selection. We’re staying in a small stone house on a farm. Our host brought us fresh milk from real cows which is absolutely delicious. Dinner, on the other hand, was not so great. We stopped at a large grocery store on our way and Lynn bought a lasagna for dinner. After the first bite we realized that it was actually fish lasagna. Seriously, who does that to lasagna?? So, poisson (fish) is Lynn’s French word of the day. The rest of the lasagna is going into the garbage, and we’ll find something else for dinner tomorrow.

Tomorrow, if weather is good (it poured on our way here) we’ll visit Mont St. Michel and St. Malo. If it’s rainy we’ll come up with another plan. We’re at the farmhouse again tomorrow and who knows where we’ll end up after this.

Guess that’s it for now. Sorry about the pictures but we’ll upload them as soon as we can. We’ve got the Cub game on mlbtv (only audio; internet too slow for video) but our boys in blue are winning the season opener so life is good. Talk with you soon. Love to all….

Final Days on the Iberian Peninsula

March 27

We haven’t posted the last few days as not much happened. Saturday Lynn had a hair appointment while Peter went to a nearby town for market day.

Tiny church in Loulie; It was only as wide as the altarpiece.

Then in the afternoon we drove to the marina and walked on the beach for a few minutes. There was a cold wind off the Atlantic, so we picked up some pretty seashells and headed back to the condo.

Delicious dessert in the resort; apple pie, ice cream with chocolate sticks…. yummy.

On Sunday we took a day trip out to Silves and Foia, the tallest point in the Algarve. It was cloudy on the coast, but it cleared up as we headed into the hills. In Silves we toured the castle then had a nice lunch in the square.

Lunch in Silves at little cafe at bottom of hill

Our little blue Fiat 500; served us well for 3 weeks.

Yesterday (Monday) was a travel day. We drove back to Lisbon stopping at FedEx to mail a box of stuff home and at the Doubletree Hotel to drop off our stuff before taking the car back to the airport.

Then we took a bus back to city center where we strolled down the pedestrian street and had a delicious dinner. The weather has turned quite nice, it was in the upper 60s and sunny in Lisbon. What a change from 3 weeks ago when it poured every day.

Today, we had a lovely day. We went back to Belem to see the things we missed the last time. Peter went when we were here before but that was the day Lynn stayed home and out of the rain. He didn’t see that much that day either as it was raining so hard, he didn’t want to stand in line to buy tickets. But today was a 180 from 3 1/2 weeks ago. It was a beautiful day…70 and sunny.

Our first stop was the Coach Museum. They had dozens of old coaches on display, some were used for ceremonial purposes and others were for everyday use. It was quite interesting. Here are some pictures of the different types of coaches.

These are used mostly for ceremonial purposes.

This was a type of litter that is hooked to four horses.

Coaches for the royal kiddos.

Coach for everyday use.

For mail and passengers. It took 34 hours to get from Lisbon to Porto. It stopped 23 times to allow passengers to rest and to change horses. We drove from Lisbon to Porto in about 2 1/2 hours.

Nice walk in the park on the way to the Monastery

After the museum we walked to the Jerónimos Monastery which is the #1 tourist attraction in Lisbon. The line was crazy long, so it took over an hour to get our tickets. While in line, we took turns visiting the church which was free and had no line. It was built in the gothic style and was very simple but nice.

Crazy long line to the Monastery; by this time we’d been in line for about 40 minutes and still had another 40 to go.

When we finally got into the Monastery, it was a little disappointing. It was built in the 15th and 16th centuries and the architecture was beautiful but there really wasn’t much to see. The building was a large square with a courtyard in the middle. There were only two rooms open and those had exhibits, one explaining the history of the Monastery and the other honoring the life of a Portuguese writer. We thought there might be different rooms with tapestries, paintings, etc., like we’ve seen in other places. But there was nothing like that. There was one large room that had pretty tiles but that was about it. We actually stood in line longer than we stayed but we can cross it off our list of things to see in Lisbon.

Not sure what this room was used for; there were no signs.

By this time, it was almost 4pm so we headed to a nearby restaurant for a late lunch. We decided to split a pizza so we could have dessert. They had amazing ice cream sundaes that we didn’t want to miss. Of course, after having pizza and ice cream we needed to walk off some of those calories, so we walked to the Torre of Belem which was about a 1/2 mile away. It was a beautiful stroll down the waterfront, but we were getting tired so after taking a few pictures we headed back to the tram. Once we got to the city center, we couldn’t find the stop for the bus we needed to get back to the hotel, so we took a cab instead. Taxis are very inexpensive here so it only cost about a euro more than the bus tickets would have cost. And we got to the hotel much faster.

Tonight, we’re just relaxing as we have a very early morning tomorrow. We have a taxi coming at 4:15am for our 6:20am flight to Orly in Paris. It looks like we’re leaving the nice weather behind as the long-range forecast for France is rain, rain and more rain. We’ll keep the umbrellas close and hope for the best.

We’ll let you know how it goes. Love to all.

Quiet Friday in Vilamoura

March 23

This is a short post as it’s been a pretty quiet couple of days.

It should come as no surprise that after a week of Peter coughing up a lung, Lynn woke up this morning with a cold. It’s not bad but she’s super tired so we stayed pretty close to home. The weather made that easy as it was cloudy and rainy all morning and most of the afternoon. This is supposed to be the last of it as the next couple of days are supposed to be sunny.

We had a very nice day yesterday (Thursday). After working out at the gym (the bike really helps loosen Peter’s ankles) we headed west to Cape de Sao Vincente or Cape of St. Vincent. It’s about 90 minutes west and is the southwestern most point in Europe. It was a gorgeous, sunny day so it was a nice drive down the coast. We visited the small lighthouse museum and enjoyed watching the waves crash against the cliffs. After watching the surfers for a few minutes and stopping by the ruins of a fortress, we headed to Lagos for the afternoon. It is one of the most visited cities in the Algarve as there are a ton of beautiful beaches, cool shops and great restaurants. It wasn’t too crowded yesterday but we imagine it will get crazy in the next month.

We had a delicious lunch on one of the squares then took a walk to yet another fortress. Lynn sat this one out while Peter explored. Then it was a bit of shopping before the drive back to Vilamoura. It was a low-key day but very nice.

Tomorrow while Lynn goes to her hair appointment at the spa, Peter is heading to the town of Loule to visit the Saturday market. If it’s nice we might rent bikes in the afternoon and explore Vilamoura.

Not much else going on so we’ll talk again soon. Love to all….

Happy Spring from SUNNY Portugal

March 21

Yes, friends you heard correctly. The SUN IS SHINING!!! Even better is that it was shining most of yesterday and should be tomorrow as well. Three straight days. How exciting is that?!? Actually, as you can see from some of the pictures, it was a bit cloudy yesterday afternoon and actually rained but given that the day was 95% sunny and it only rained for about 30 seconds, we’re calling it a sunny day.

We started yesterday by taking the hotel shuttle to the city. We had a tour of Italica at noon, but we thought we could tour the Real Alcazar first. Unfortunately, the line was crazy long, so we just wandered around the streets for a while until our tour.

Italica is the first Roman city in Spain and is located about 15 minutes outside the city center. It was founded in 206BC and was the birthplace of Hadrian (as in Hadrian’s Wall). The ruins are very well preserved with many intact cobblestone walks and mosaic tile floors. There are also several original Carrera marble pillars. Since the Moors took much of the materials to build their homes, it’s amazing that any of it still exists.

They are still in the process of restoring some of the mosaic floors with a few more sections still to be completed. The first 3 levels of the amphitheater are still in relatively good shape as they had been buried in mud. It was the 3rd largest in the Roman Empire, holding over 25,000 people. That was in spite of the fact that there were never more than 10,000 residents in the city. Apparently, bigger was better and a sign of prestige for the city.

The Neptune house; background is not a pool; just a lot of accumulated rain water

Once we got back to the city center, we went back to the Real Alcazar and found only a few people in line, so we got to tour the palace with relatively small crowds. There were several large school groups but considering how many people would have been there earlier in the day we were glad we waited until late in the afternoon.

The Real Alcazar is a palace originally built by the Moors but was taken over by Peter of Castille when the Christians regained the city in the late 15th century. It is one of the best examples of Mudejar (combination of Moorish and Christian) architecture in Spain. The walls are covered with Christian paintings and tapestries but the Moorish influence can be seen in the tiles and shapes of the doorways. The palace has been used as a set in several well-known productions including Lawrence of Arabia and, more recently Game of Thrones. (Which, by the way, also filmed in the Italica amphitheater.)

Can see the Moorish influence in the architecture

Part of a well-preserved tapestry; the colors were amazing

After touring the palace, we wandered around the old Jewish Quarter looking for late lunch/early dinner. We got back from our Italica tour around 2:30 and went straight to the palace so we hadn’t eaten lunch yet and were pretty hungry. Unfortunately, many places were closing as they stop serving lunch around 4pm and don’t open again for dinner until 8pm. We could get tapas, but we were too hungry for small plates. At 3-5 euros a pop, it could cost a fortune to get enough food to feel full. We ended up eating at Mr. Pizza which is a chain pizza and pasta place. Lynn’s pasta was pretty bad but the pizza, while certainly not great, was edible.

All in all, it was a pretty great day. Just seeing the sun for most of the day was a treat.

View of driving range from our apartment

Today (Wednesday) was another beautiful day for our drive from Spain to the Hilton Resort in Vilamoura Portugal. According to what Peter read, Vilamoura is the largest resort area in Europe. The town isn’t that big but there are a ton of resorts. But there’s enough space between them that we don’t feel like the buildings are on top of each other. The Hilton resort is beautiful. We have a small, but nice one bedroom apartment with a king size bed. We’re very excited about that as most of our beds have been full size. Neither one of us is that big but we’re used to a queen bed so a full seems pretty small. We have a nice kitchen as well as a washer/dryer. Of course, it’s a euro style so there’s actually only one machine but it’s still better than nothing. Lynn has been doing laundry all afternoon and is just about done with the 3rd load.

One of the spa “hot” tubs; it was actually only lukewarm but still nice

There are several pools but being off-season only one of them is open. Peter went for a swim, but the water is super cold, so he didn’t stay too long. There is a spa area with several small pools, so we hung out there for a while this afternoon. We’re here until Monday so we’re looking forward to exploring the Algarve coast.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day so we’re going to head to Lagos, a small town just west of here. We’ll let you know how it goes.

Cadiz and the Seville Cathedral

March 20

Good evening, everyone. The rain stopped yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, so we headed to Cadiz for a few hours. It’s only about 30 minutes from our flat so it was an easy trip. We visited the Cathedral then walked along the Atlantic most of the way around the city center. Being Sunday afternoon there wasn’t much open, but we really didn’t feel like sightseeing anyway. It was just nice to go out and walk in the sunshine.

Beach about 2 blocks from our flat in Puerto De Santa Maria

On our walk around the city center; Cathedral in the background.

Our first stop today (Monday) was to the Navy base to mail a box of goodies home. It actually took longer to get our base pass than it did to get through the post office, so we were on the road to Seville by 11am. It was an easy drive, so we were here by 12:30. Peter said he was feeling “snake bit” after trying to get out of Granada last week and didn’t want any part of driving into another city. So, we’re staying a little outside of town in a Hilton Garden Inn. We checked in early, got our food into the refrigerator and grabbed a cab for the city center. The hotel has a shuttle, but it only leaves at certain times, and we missed the last morning shuttle but arranged for it to pick us up to come back.

We had the cab drop us at the Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold) which is right on the River Guadalquivir. We don’t usually climb to the top of things, but this was only about five stories, so it wasn’t too bad. The view was nice, but a very large group of school kids followed us up, so we didn’t stay too long.

River Guadalquivir from the top of the Tower

After that we headed to the Cathedral as it was only open until 3:30 and it was already 1:30. To tell the truth neither one of us enjoyed it that much. Part of the problem is that we have totally reached our saturation point for Cathedrals. Luckily this is our last one until we get to France next week, so we’ve got a bit of a break. It was also very crowded which took some of the enjoyment out of our visit. It’s a big church but there were people everywhere, some very aggressive about getting their photos. Lastly, while every Cathedral has had iron grates closing off the side chapels, this was the only one that had super tall gates which actually prevented us from enjoying the chapels. Even the choir section was closed off which was a first. Not only was the main altar behind a huge iron grate, but it had also so much gold that it was actually difficult to make out any of the individual carvings on the altar piece. In this Cathedral the audio guide was an extra charge, so we decided to walk around without it.

Unfortunately, by the time we finished in the Cathedral the sun was totally gone. But it wasn’t raining so we decided to walk around the old town. Of course, we walked in the wrong direction and ended up in a totally different part of town. It was still a nice walk but, on our way, back the rain started. We ducked into a restaurant for an early dinner but nothing on the menu appealed to us, so we just had a dessert and headed back out in the rain. By this time, it was 4:30 and our shuttle wasn’t until 6:30. We had no intention of walking around in the rain for another two hours, so we jumped in a cab instead. After resting in the room, we headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.

Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly sunny with only a 10% chance of rain. Of course, it wasn’t supposed to rain today either but we’re hoping for the best. Twenty days of rain out of 21 days of travel is more than enough for one vacation. So, keep your fingers crossed. Talk with you soon. Love from two rain-weary travelers.

Quick Visit to The Rock

March 18

Yesterday (Saturday) started as a beautiful, sunny day in Malaga but that quickly changed as we drove southwest. We quickly hit rain and it was rainy and windy for the rest of the day.

Originally, we had not planned to visit Gibraltar as it was a stop on the cruise we had scheduled for next year. But a week ago we were told by the travel agent that the cruise line had rescheduled the cruise from April 29 to March 27. We decided that we didn’t want an Atlantic crossing that early and certainly didn’t want to have shore stops in weather like we are having this year, so we cancelled the cruise. Luckily it was in time to add Gibraltar back into this trip.

It turns out, though, that cars are no longer allowed at the top of the Rock. We didn’t find out until we had driven a rather steep road about halfway up. We were stopped by a guard who said we couldn’t drive any further. When we mentioned that we simply followed the signs that said “Upper Rock” he told us that they stopped allowing cars 2 years ago and never changed the signs; he said he happens all the time. Well, in that case you would think they’d change the signs as it was not an easy drive up the hill on the narrow, windy road. Apparently now the only way to the top is either on an organized tour which are impossible to get without advanced booking or the cable car, which due to the high winds, wasn’t running. So, we turned around and headed back down the hill. We found a place to park and walked around city center for a short time, stopping for fish and chips for lunch. At least Lynn had lunch. Peter had an English breakfast minus the baked beans. Seriously, who eats baked beans for breakfast?!? Apparently the British, but…eew.

After a quick walk around the square where Lynn picked up some beautiful hand-blown crystal items as gifts, we headed back to the car for the 90-minute drive to Rota. It was disappointing that we didn’t get to see the historic stuff in Gibraltar, but at least Peter got there for a short while.

The plan on the base was to stop at the Exchange (department store) and Commissary (grocery story) and do laundry before settling into our flat in a nearby town. But it turns out that Lynn’s retired ID doesn’t allow her access to the Exchange or Commissary. Naval Station Rota is a Spanish base leased to the American Navy and the agreement says that only Active Duty and their dependents are allowed to purchase in the stores. The idea is that they want everyone else to buy on the economy. While we understand the sentiment, if we could have gotten Cheetos and Fritos on the economy we would have already done so. The ones we had last week were BBQ flavored and, yes, they taste just as bad as they sound. But the good news is that we could access the mini mart which had just about everything we were looking for, including Cheetos and Fritos. Oh…the simple pleasures when traveling overseas.

Then it was off to do laundry in a real American washer/dryer which was very exciting. While waiting for laundry we packed up a box of things we bought over the last 2 1/2 weeks to ship home. Our two small carry-on sized suitcases are packed very tight, and we couldn’t drag these things around for the next 2 1/2 months especially since we’re flying a few times. We’ll take the box to the base post office on Monday morning before heading to Sevilla.

View from our flat; on the far left you can barely see the Atlantic through the clouds and fog,

Our flat in Puerto de la Santa Maria is very nice but the internet is a little spotty. It’s only a few blocks from the beach and if the weather ever clears, we may take a walk on the beach. But Peter is still coughing and has been ordered by the ex-Navy Nurse not to step foot out of the house if it’s raining. Since the sky is pretty dark, we’re probably not going anywhere today.

So, as you can see it’s been a very mundane couple of days. Tomorrow we head for Sevilla which is one of Lynn’s favorite European cities. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for better weather, but we’re not holding our breaths. We’ll keep you posted.

Alhambra and Malaga

March 16

Good morning, everyone. Lynn here. It’s Friday morning and Peter is still asleep, so I thought I’d catch up on the blog.

Wednesday (3/14)

For the first time on this adventure, we finally had a dry day. It was cloudy but it didn’t rain so we were thrilled. We were still in Granada and had seen all there really is to see the day before, so we took it as a rest day. Peter’s ankles were killing him from all the uphill walking he had done the 2 previous days and I was just tired, so we decided to stay close to home. I ventured out in the afternoon to find a place to print our vouchers for Thursday’s trip to the Alhambra. Long story short…. I found an internet cafe advertised online that was open during siesta (2-5pm) and it was just on the other side of the Cathedral, about a 20-minute walk. So, off I went. Forty-five minutes later I discovered that the internet cafe closed down and the address was now a meat market. In the meantime, in order to find the address, I needed to turn on the GPS on my phone which put me over my 100mg of data for the month. On the international plan we each get 100mg/month; not a whole lot but we’ve been careful about when we use data on our phones. In the meantime, our host had answered the message I sent out earlier telling me about a place just a few minutes from the house that would print. Of course, that wouldn’t be open again until 5pm so I went back home.

Pretty square during my hunt for an internet cafe

The evening was spent quietly going first to the print place than out to dinner. As usual we played some Rummikub and headed to bed as we had an early morning on Thursday.

Thursday (3/15)

Peter woke up with a slight case of laryngitis and some congestion. He said he didn’t feel bad, but he sounded terrible. After packing up the car and programming the GPS we set off for the Alhambra which is the main reason anyone goes to Granada. Our “no rain” day streak ended at one as it was raining pretty hard when we left. It was only a 15–20-minute drive and the GPS said we’d arrive around 7:30 so we figured we were good to go. We pulled into the parking lot at 8:20, one hour and 10 minutes after we left the flat. This experience made trying to find our flat in Madrid a piece of cake. The GPS routed us through the town instead of on the highway and we ran into several obstacles along the way (garbage truck that wasn’t moving; stalled car; police rerouting traffic) that prevented us from taking the roads the GPS wanted us to take. Of course, we had no way of explaining to the GPS why we weren’t turning where she wanted us to turn so, she kept driving us in circles. We finally turned off the car GPS and tried using our phone instead. That got us out of the continuous loop but, what we didn’t realize at first was that it was set for “walking” instead of “driving.” Peter finally noticed and changed the setting but by this time we had lost more time driving on the small streets, in the dark and in the rain. It wasn’t the crazy narrow streets that bothered me, but I was getting pretty frantic as time was passing and we had no idea how to get to the Palace. The phone GPS finally got us on the highway but by this time it was after 8am which was the time our tour was supposed to start. Once on the highway it only took about 10 minutes to get to the parking lot and up to our meeting point. Of course, the tour was long gone. If the GPS had routed us on the highway, we would have gotten there with about 20-25 minutes to spare.

Drove on the road next to the river trying to find the Palace; Had walked down that street on Tuesday afternoon. Nowhere near the Palace; in fact, it’s on the wrong side of the river.

Waiting at the Wine Gate for the tour; it took almost another hour, but we finally joined the group.

Once at the meeting point Peter called the tour company and talked with a woman who told us to go to the Wine Gate. She was going to call our tour guide (Anna) and tell her to pick us up there. After about 40 minutes of waiting and 2 phone calls to the agency, the woman told us that she wasn’t able to reach Anna and gave us some suggestions about the free places we could visit. We saw the Palace of Charles V and the small chapel. About 10am when we were talking about leaving, the tour agency called back. They had reached Anna and she was going to meet us at the Wine Gate, which is where the tour takes a short bathroom break.

So, the story has a happy ending, sort of. We missed the first half of the tour, which unfortunately included the Plaza de Nazaríes, which is the Royal Complex and the highlight of the tour. Being the most popular, that part of the tour is timed so that the groups are staggered. Our time was 8:30, which is why Anna didn’t answer her phone when the agency tried to contact her. Here is a google page with pictures of that part of the palace. Nazaries

Also checked out the small chapel while out on our own.

Nazaries Palace from the outside; it was all we got to see. 🙁

It was very disappointing but at least we got to salvage something of the tour. We saw the Alcazaba or Citadel, which is the oldest part of the complex. There are ruins of the homes and baths where the 2000 non-royal inhabitants of the Alhambra lived.

View of the city from the Alhambra. Can see the Cathedral really well.

There were great views of the city but because of the clouds and rain they weren’t as impressive as they would have been if it had been a nicer day.

Then we visited the Generalife which is the garden area. It’s also the location of the oldest palace which the Sultan used as his summer palace. Anna told us that it was several degrees cooler (44C instead of 47C) so the Sultan used it on the hottest days. Our thought was why walk all that way in 116F heat to sit someplace that’s still 111F, but we guess it made sense to the Sultan.

The tour ended at noon so headed back to our car for the drive to Malaga. It is an understatement to say that the morning was quite stressful. It took several hours for the knot in my stomach to go away and when it did, I just felt drained. Peter had also been very frustrated that there wasn’t anything more he could do to help me during our quest for the Palace. But we decided to put it behind us and hope for better things at the beach.

It was a piece of cake to find the highway again and we were off to Malaga. We decided to take the coast road, which is only about 15 minutes longer than the non-coast road, thinking that it would be a prettier drive. It probably would have been, but the rain was pretty bad most of the trip and even when it wasn’t raining it was very cloudy and foggy. We didn’t realize there were so many mountains in this part of Spain; we went in and out of them most of the way down.

After less than 2 hours we arrived in sunshine. After meeting our host at our cute 1BR flat we headed right out to explore. Given that the sun was shining, and we had no idea what would happen today, we wanted to get our sightseeing done in the nice weather. It was chilly but sunny, so we walked down the beach promenade to the city center. Sandra (our host) told us it was a 25–30-minute walk but it actually took closer to an hour as we walk pretty slowly.

We took the audio tour of the Cathedral and the adjacent palace, the latter of which is really just a small art museum. The Cathedral was beautiful but as we’ve said before, they’re all starting to look alike. Like the Granada Cathedral, this one was also done in Baroque style, which I like a little better than Gothic. I’m starting to reach my saturation point of churches, palaces and museums so this should be it until we reach Seville next week.

After that we settled into the square for a light dinner then took a cab home. By that time, we had walked over 20,000 steps (10 miles) during the day, so we treated ourselves to a fast drive home.

It’s actually now 4pm (on Friday) and it’s taken me all day to write this much. Not literally, of course, but shortly after I started Peter woke up, so we had breakfast and then went out to stroll the beach. We stopped for some light refreshments in one of the beach cafes then walked to the main street where we could get a bus to take us to the city center. It was so nice out (cool but sunny) that we didn’t want to waste a “dry” day. Along our route we walked through a large, beautiful park that had a lake and some interesting animals. In addition to the swans (both white and black) we saw a couple of emus and a kangaroo. Not sure what the deal is with the Australian animals, but it was interesting.

The beautiful Mediterranean on a sunny morning

Once back in the city center we strolled along the streets until it was time for lunch. I’ve had a taste for good pasta but haven’t had much luck finding anything until today. In the same square we had dinner last night we found an Italian restaurant and the pasta was delicious. What we liked the most was the modest portion size, enough to feel full without gorging ourselves. But afterward to needed to walk again so we strolled through a large park on the north side of the city center. It was very nice but after a short while the clouds started rolling in. We really thought we’d have not just a sunny day but a dry one as well. No such luck. It started raining fairly hard and since I’d left the umbrellas home, we got pretty wet. Just what we needed with Peter being sick. So, we headed back to the cab line for the 10-minute ride home. Of course, by the time we got here the sun was out again, but we decided to rest for the remainder of the afternoon. I actually napped a little while Peter read.

Tonight, we’re going to have dinner at one of the beach side cafes across the street and tomorrow we head out again. We’re going to stop in Gibraltar on our way to Rota, Spain. We planned to spend a couple of nights at the Navy Base but there are no rooms available, so we’ll stay in town instead.

Guess that’s all for now. We’ll keep you posted. Love from us.

Rest Day in Granada

March 14

Hello everyone. It’s been a few days since we posted but today, we’re taking a rest day so thought it would be a good idea to get caught up on our adventure.

March 12 – Toledo and Segovia

On Monday we took a day trip from Madrid to Toledo and Segovia. We thought about going on our own but since they’re on opposite sides of Madrid (Toledo is about an hour southwest and Segovia is about an hour northwest) we knew that we’d only be able to see one or the other. We found a day trip on Viator that included both of them for a reasonable price, so we were able to see both beautiful cities.

Our first stop was Toledo which was made a World UNESCO Historical Site in the 1980s. It has been ruled by the Romans, Visigoths, and the Moors. In the late 11th century, the town was recaptured by the Christians and has been a Christian city ever since. It was the capital of Spain until the mid-16th century when Philip II moved the capital to Madrid in an effort to “escape” the influence of the Catholic Church, which had its Spanish center in Toledo.

River Tagus starts in Toledo and flows to Lisbon where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Very cool that we’ve seen both ends.

It was actually a sunny day, so we decided to walk on the wild side and leave our umbrellas in the bus. Yahoo!!! The city is absolutely beautiful but of course the old town is on a hill, so we had a lot of uphill walking which is tough on Peter’s ankles. The walking tour lasted about an hour after which we had a little over an hour on our own. We stopped into the Cathedral, which used to be the National Cathedral of Spain until the capital was moved to Madrid. It was very pretty but we’re starting to get immune to Cathedrals as we’ve seen 5-6 in the last week. They’re all starting to blur together.

Most of our free time in Toledo was spent shopping, which is unusual as neither one of us care that much for shopping. One of the things Toledo is known for is knives, swords, etc. The swords for movies such as Lord of the Rings and TV show Game of Thrones were made in Toledo. Many of the Japanese samurai swords are made there as well. We bought a set of 3 kitchen knives that, while not cheap, were much less expensive than if we’d bought them at home. They’re hand forged and are supposed to stay sharp for 10 years.

The city is also known for its gold leaf items. We found some beautiful plates, hangings, jewelry, etc. Peter found a handmade framed piece of Don Quixote and Sancho (Toledo is in the province of La Mancha) that he loved but it was $2500 so we took a pass on that and found one he liked that wasn’t quite as expensive. It’s not handmade but still very beautiful. Then we found a bracelet for Lynn that Peter loved (Lynn liked it too) so we got that as well.

Lynn’s new bracelet with real Majorica pearls

All that shopping made us hungry, and since we weren’t going to have lunch until we got to Segovia, we grabbed a jamon sandwich on our way back to the bus.

Then it was off to Segovia, a 2-hour ride from Toledo. Our first stop was lunch. We found out that in this part of Spain if you’re in a Tapas Bar, you get a free tapas with any drink. So, we had a glass of wine and some delicious tapas all for the low, low price of 5 euros. Not bad. But we were still hungry. We thought about going bar hopping but figured that by the time we had enough free tapas to feel full we’d also be drunk so we found another restaurant where we could get something a little more substantial. Not a big lunch but something to hold us until we got back to Madrid. After lunch we met the group back in the city square for our walking tour.

While Toledo is in a flat area, Segovia is in the mountains, so the sky was quite cloudy and threatening. We regretfully put our umbrellas in Lynn’s bag and it’s a good thing we did as about 20 minutes into our walking tour it started to rain (14 straight days). Luckily it only rained for about 15 minutes, but it was enough to get our feet a little wet.

Segovia was settled by the Celts but was also ruled by the Romans and the Moors. It is most famous for the remarkable Roman Aqueduct which was built around 112AD. It starts in the mountains and runs for over 9 miles before ending in the city. Some of it was destroyed by the Moors so those sections were rebuilt in the middle of the 16th century. It is in remarkable condition and was used for the city’s water supply until the mid-19th century. It’s quite amazing!

Of course, there’s a Cathedral which is nice but nothing like we saw in Salamanca.

The other famous building in Segovia is the Alcazar, a royal palace built in the early 12th century. Our tour price included admission, so we wandered the palace for a while on our own. It was destroyed by a fire in 1862 and was subsequently rebuilt. It now houses a museum for the Royal School of Artillery.

After a 1 1/2-hour drive back to Madrid, we finally made it home around 7:30pm. It was a long day so after a dinner of left-over pasta, we played a couple stimulating rounds of Rummikub before heading to bed. It was a long, but very nice day.

March 13

Yesterday we were out of our Madrid flat by 8:30 for the 4-hour drive south to Granada. Even though we kept driving in and out of rain (15 straight days) the trip was uneventful until the tire pressure light went on in the car. We stopped for air, but the light is still on, even after being reset. The same thing happened to our rental car in Croatia, so we’ll just keep our eyes on it until we get back to Lisbon.

We met our host, Manuel, who gave us all the scoop on the town. Of course, the main attraction is the Alhambra. In reading about tours the other night Peter discovered that it’s sold-out months in advance, which we didn’t know anything about…. oops. Lynn got online frantically looking for tours, tickets at the box office, the Granada Card, anyway, to get in but couldn’t find a thing available until mid-May. Just when it looked like all we’d be able to do is see it from the outside (which is amazing, but still….) she found a guided tour that had a few tickets left but not until Thursday morning. So, we decided to spend an extra night in Granada and go on the tour before we head to Malaga on Thursday.

It was a beautiful, sunny, warm (mid 60s) day and since the forecast was clouds and rain, we decided to see what we could of the town in the afternoon. We toured the Cathedral which had a very nice audio guide and the Royal Chapel. That was amazing as we saw relics from the most famous Spanish Royal couple…. Ferdinand and Isabel. Most notably we saw Isabel’s rosary, crown and scepter as well as Ferdinand’s sword. The highlight was seeing their crypts. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. Here’s a link to a page of pictures from google. Royal Chapel of Granada.

Granada Cathedral is Spanish Baroque Style Architecture; very different from Gothic

Then we started walking to Mirador San Nicolas where Manuel told us was a beautiful view of the Alhambra. He said that virtually of the pictures you find of the Palace are taken from the spot. He marked it on the map, but it wasn’t as easy to find as he made it sound….it never is in Europe. We followed the river but then got lost as we turned to go up the hill. Not lost exactly but we couldn’t find the overlook. We thought that if we just kept heading up the hill, we’d find it eventually. During the climb 3 questions kept popping into Lynn’s mind. 1. Are we going to find this place before one of us blows out a knee or ankle? 2. It the sky going to dump on us (by this time it was quite cloudy) before we get there? and 3. Is the view going to be worth the climb? We finally stopped to ask someone for directions and just a few minutes later we found the overlook and Lynn’s questions were answered: 1. Knees and ankles sore but intact; 2. Still cloudy but no rain; and 3. It was absolutely worth the climb.

We found a restaurant that had a gorgeous view of the Palace, so we sat outside for a while recovering from the climb and treating ourselves to a drink. By this time, it was after 5pm and we wanted to get back down the hill before dark, so we started the walk down. After just a few minutes, though, we saw a shuttle bus that was heading to city center, so we got on and rode down. We still had a 15-minute walk back to the flat but there were no hills, so it was an easy walk. We still needed dinner, so we went to a Tapas Bar for our free snacks with our drink. Lynn’s calamari only had 4 pieces and Peter had one piece of bread with pork and cheese. Certainly not enough to fill us up after not having eaten since the sandwich we ate on the drive 6 hours earlier. But again, we didn’t want to get hammered on drinks to get free tapas, so after strolling for about 30 minutes, we found a nice restaurant that served raciones or half-portions. When the plates came out, though, there was a ton of food. When Lynn asked the server that if this was a half-portion, what did the full portion look like, his response was “it’s bigger”. We’re sure he was thinking “crazy tourists; what did they think a full portion would look like.”

By the time we got home, not only was it dark, but it was 9:30pm. Usually by this time we would be snuggled in our jammies and playing Rummikub or Yahtzee but last night we pretended we were grown-ups and stayed out late. Of course, the Spaniards were just going out as we were coming in but our flat overlooks a courtyard so it’s very quiet. We were in bed just a short time later and slept super late this morning…. Lynn till 7:30 (super late for her) and Peter till almost 10am. It’s 12:15pm now and we just finished breakfast. Since Peter’s ankles took a beating yesterday and we haven’t had a rest day in quite a while, we’re going to hang close to the flat today. It’s cloudy and is supposed to rain but we may go out for a walk later. If it’s raining, we’re not moving out of the flat.

Tomorrow is an early day as we have to get out of the flat and to the Alhambra no later than 7:45am for our 8:30 tour. It should last about 3 hours then it’s off to Malaga. It’s less than 2 hours away so we’re going to take the scenic route and follow the coast. We hope the warm weather stays with us but keep praying for the rain to clear.

Okay, so now you’re all caught up. Thanks for your patience and we’ll talk again soon. Love to all.

Sunday in Madrid

March 11

We started the day by getting back on the Hop On/Hop Off bus as our tickets were good until 2pm. It was about a 15-minute ride to the Royal Palace which was our main stop for the day. It was built in the mid-17th century and has almost 1.5 million square feet. It’s technically the official residence of the royal family, they don’t actually live there. It is, though, used for official functions.

Peter in the one room we could take pictures

We were only allowed to take photos in the first couple of public spaces; not at all in the individual rooms so we pulled a few from google. We did the self-guided tour using the audio guide. The rooms were beautiful, and we really enjoyed the tour. It only took about an hour but then we spent a little more time in the armory.

After the Palace we walked across the square to the Cathedral, but it was the middle of noon Mass, so we didn’t get to see too much of it.

On our way to a large park about a 1/2 mile away we stopped for lunch. This is where we had our biggest challenge of the day, at least Lynn did. She ordered a Romano pizza which was a ham/mushroom pizza. Food came out and the pizza had not only artichokes but olives, which she hates. The waiter took the pizza back shaking his head that the cook had made the wrong one. The second one came out about 15 minutes later (of course Peter is done with his lunch by now) and this one still has artichokes but instead of olives there are red peppers. Called the waiter over again. Shaking his head once more he takes the pizza back and returns just a few minutes later with the exact same pizza minus the peppers. When Lynn pointed out the artichokes, he asked if she wanted a cheese pizza instead. What she really wanted was the pizza she had ordered but it didn’t look like that was going to happen, so she gave up.

As if that wasn’t enough, by the time we left the restaurant, it was raining again. Looking at the pictures of the palace taken from the outside you might think we finally had a nice day…. not so. We stood in line for tickets in the rain and later even though the sun was out, it was crazy cold…. low 40s with a 20-mph wind. Peter even bought a knit hat he was so cold. So now add rain to that (ever try keeping an umbrella open in a 20-mph wind; not happening), Lynn being hungry, and we were ready to call it quits for the day. Luckily, we got on the bus just before our tickets expired. The plan was to ride the rest of the circuit and get off back at the stop closest to our house. It took almost an hour (during which time the sun came out again) and we headed for our flat. Except, wait…. turns out we got off on stop 6 not 7 so we walked in the wrong direction. Once we figured it out and turned around, we decided to stop for coffee/hot chocolate and since Lynn still hadn’t eaten (by this time it’s about 3pm) we had a delicious piece of cheesecake which they served with a scoop of ice cream. It was great but by the time we left the restaurant, guess what? Yep, it was raining again. Luckily, we were only about 5 minutes from home, so we didn’t get too wet. Seriously, this crazy weather is getting really old. We’ve never seen weather conditions change so fast so many times in one day, even in Chicago. But there’s nothing we can do about it, so we never leave home without our umbrellas and cold-weather gear.

Tomorrow we’re off on a day trip to Segovia and Toledo. We could have done it on our own but decided to get a tour instead. Hopefully it will be a small group like we had to Fatima. Talk with you tomorrow.