Author: Lmnei

So off we are going to Zamora – our next stop in crossing the top of Spain (sort of) before we go south! As we were leaving Tudela via the north to catch the toll way (we have previously approached from the south), all of a sudden I thought I was back in Japan! Looking out my window I could swear I saw rice paddies! Sure enough they were! Quite puzzled, I looked up this region of Spain and found out that along with some regions of Italy, they are the largest rice producers of rice in Europe! I will be darned! This area primarily grows arborio rice which is used in Paella – one of their National Dishes and popular in Valencia where we are headed to in a few weeks. Not much to report about the drive other than the toll ways have really nice Service Areas and some nice rest stops! As for the Service Areas, they have a gas station and some type of store or restaurant where you can use the washroom – no questions asked and nothing to pay. The one that we stopped at – again with the giant wheelchair sign which is more like 2 metres by 2 metres at this one – had a nice accessible washroom and in the store, 1 litre cokes on sale – they were cheaper than the 500 and 330ml ones! Go figure! Always happy to participate in a bargain and I was having some issues staying awake as the sun was shining on my side of the car making me sleepy, we picked one up! Andrew pretty well drove straight through until I forced him to take a break at a rest stop – where we observed the trucker ahead of us making quite the meal on his little stove that pulled out from the side of his truck! Quite the set up he had! The temperature was about 29 degrees outside so we stayed in our car, also, this rest stop was not as nice as others – their “rest stops” only have benches – no picnic tables or washrooms and they are just a pull out on the side of the highway – not like the ones in Canada or the USA. And off we went again zooming along at 120 to Zamora! Again, I had a quick nap until Andrew woke me up saying we were being followed by 2 motorcycle cops and what should he do? Ah, nothing, just behave himself and do not speed! In the end, they passed us and then sat behind a truck which slowed down and went ultra slow due to them now being behind him! Once the cops passed the truck we all resumed normal speed for the region. We were on this “bridging” road between the two express ways we had to take at the peak of the route you see below. From a topology standpoint, when we left Tudela, we were in wine country and now we are in flat prairie country – flat as a GF pancake! We arrived at the AC Marriott Tudela hotel without many issues – their traffic circles are a bit different in Zamora – instead of a “circle” you have half circles which you use to turn left and also service roads for the main drags – got a bit of taking used to! I am going to try and get a picture as it definitely it a new way of driving for us! We were pretty tired and did not want to go out for dinner at that point so I tried ordering pizza from TelePizza which was recommended but it was a flop – YES they have GF crusts and are recommended by the Celiac Association however once I got through ordering for Andrew and I (two different pizza’s) and entering the hotel’s phone number if there were any problems, I got a call from the front desk asking if I ordered gluten free pizza! I said yes and the desk clerk said they do not have any GF pizza crusts do I want to substitute? I told him to please just cancel the whole order as I need gluten free. So again, we revert to our back up plan – a picnic on the bed! Good thing we came prepared!

One destination that I wanted to check out was Pamplona. Being an hour north of Tudela, it was going to be an easy drive and we decided that we would take the toll way there and then the “picturesque” drive back via Estella (according to the Europe Drive guide, between Pamplona and Estella is “picturesque” and then the secondary road back to Tudela. So the tollway was no issue and we got to Pamplona with no issues – even found a wheelchair accessible parking spot available without looking for one! We parked, paid for an hour and decided to find the Tourism Office which was nearby to find out what was with the parking metre and why it said only Zone 1 and 2 people could park there until 2pm (it was 11am currently) and if it was like other cities we were finding, we did not have to pay at all. Well, this city is like others – ignore all parking signs, if you have a decal, you are free to park as long as you want! So we just left the car and took the tourism lady up on a walking tour we could do on our own. We sort of abbreviated it so that we would end up back at our car instead of cross town! So here are our pictures in two groups – old Pamplona and the wall and churches. Then, from a bulls perspective, what they see (minus the garbage cans and people walking obviously) when they do the “Running of the Bulls” – which is only 800 metres from one end of Old Town into the Bull Ring. On our way along the “Running of the Bulls” route we did stop for lunch and I randomly picked a place as they advertised a risotto meal for 15 Euros. Well, was I in for a treat! I pulled out my Spanish translation card for Gluten Free and the man said he understood and that Risotto was the Primo course and what did I want for my Secondo course? I really just wanted Risotto but it was a two course meal, so I picked chicken which came with apples. Andrew had a sandwich from the display. We were sitting there (I had my back to the kitchen) and out the man came with a round bread in a basket FOR ME! He kept motioning me me to have it and I was aprehensive as NO ONE has ever given me bread that smelled so good before! So he ran and got the bag and sure enough they had baked this bread for me! It was crusty on the outside and pure softness on the inside. You have to have CD to understand what pure luxury this was! Even Andrew said it was good! He got a sample and that was it! The risotto arrived – cheese risotto and it was heavenly and I was full! So I wrote a note to the waiter and he bundled my chicken up to go! All this cost us 19 Euros including 2 drinks and Andrew’s sandwich and we had dinner for tonight! After that, while walking back to the car, it was afternoon siesta time and everything was closed – specifically a shoe store where they had shoes like the ones I had bought in Barcelona – same Made in Spain – but 5 Euros cheaper! I think Andrew was quietly happy that it was closed as no more shoes right now for Lynda! Instead we went grocery shopping and got some replacement supplies for our continued picnics in various places as I now had used Amazon.es and gotten a insulated picnic bag to carry our items plus a bag of ice. The drive from Pamplona to Estella was uneventful and NOT “picturesque” compared to what we have already seen! So we continued south and on that drive it was quite beautiful – driving through combined wine and grain country in rolling hills… That evening we sat on our terrace on the top floor of the hotel and ate my chicken left overs and had some GF lemon cake (from Carrefour) for dessert! A wonderful end to a lovely day as the church bells rang in the background.

Here is the Running of the Bulls Route!

Oh breakfast me! Check out that FRESH BAKED gluten free bread! All done in its little bag to prevent contamination. Soft inside, hard crust – just what I needed! I saved half for a sandwich later in the day! So today, after our drive yesterday, we decided, also as it is Sunday and a lot of places are closed, to stay in Tudela today and check out the city. What does that mean in a smaller city? Going for walk and exploring the small streets and alleys – what fun! So we set out with our trusty map from the hotel to check out all the cultural sites that they had for us! First, the main square of town, where we had a spot of lunch (garlic prawns) for me and a beverage for Andrew. Now onto the tour! First walking to the church which had an incredibly detailed side door. Next to the church is City Hall. We saw a beautiful painting in an alleyway and followed it to a very old church, still in use, in a narrow part of time. Now we followed the road to the “Three nations” monument (picture did not work out due to sun) however the plaque, which is in Arabic did! I will get that translated from someone I know! The houses along the streets can be quite colourful and it was very interesting to see all the stairs and ramps next next to them (some quite steep!) in the neighbourhoods. Above town you can see that there is a monument up on high. We now walked towards the river Ebro to check out the bridge over the river and saw a huge bird’s nest with a bird nesting in it! Then we walked back into town, through the town plaza and then through the plaza that the AC Hotel was located on. Later that night we went to dinner at Arts which was actually diagonelly across the plaza from the hotel and sat outside and ate a lovely meal – I had a lovely Burrata (cheese) and greens salad where Andrew had pollo (chicken) tacos (which were not gluten free). We then walked back to the hotel on the plaza and sat outside on our terrace for a nightcap!

On the road again! This time in our cool teal Citron hatchback off we go for the next 5 weeks exploring Spain! Well 4 weeks in this car – no idea what car we will get for the last week as you can only rent cars for 28 days at a time… Vamos! It was a pleasant 5 hour or so drive to Tudela, which was our destination. How did I pick this town? Well, it had a Marriott hotel, it was within the 4 hour (sort of) time range that Andrew wanted to drive, and within an hour were some towns to visit such as Pamplona which we could visit easily. We are going to be spending 3 nights in Tudela, which is also something Andrew asked for – not one night here, one night there as he is the luggage valet in this relationship! So there were two ways of driving there – toll roads or not. We chose the not, until we were forced onto the toll road into Tudela. Sometimes land gets in the way! So leaving the coast we saw beautiful mountains which are called the Montserrat Mountain Range. Very different looking from what we have in Canada/USA. Once we had gone along the side of them we dropped down into what Andrew called the “area around Kelowna” and then onto what we would call rolling prairies which totally surprised us! Lots of corn and wheat being grown! At that time we found the car getting a bit warm inside so I looked at the temperature and it was 35 degrees outside! Yikes! More AC is called for! After we past Huesca, more and more fields were upon us however some started becoming wine vineyards too – we were entering wine country! The temperature outside also dropped to 31 degrees – phew! Now on the tollway my views out the window changed and it became a straight shot to Tudela with one deviation – we got off at a rest stop named Tudela by mistake. The only item of note, which I did not take a picture of unfortunately, is they must have problems with the accessible parking as there was one HUGE wheelchair sign – biggest I have ever seen – about 3 or 4 metres by 3 or 4 metres in front of the building. Really stuck out and looked very funny! Now back on the speedway at 120 km/h we get to the correct exit and how does the exit work? How do you pay the toll? Thank goodness no one was behind us as it too a bit to figure out! Andrew needs to drive in Eastern USA more where there are more toll ways… or read Spanish OR listen to the navigator and have patience 🙂 We eventually got to our hotel – AC Hotel Ciudad de Tudela – which is an old hotel that has been remodeled in the middle of the town. It is really beautiful! We were upgraded to a room with a terrace and it is lovely. We went for a short walk after arriving and had dinner on our terrace and called it at night – we shall see what tomorrow brings us!

After having another WONDERFUL breakfast we are off to the Espadrille making appointment and planning on taking the subway – if we can find it! After an hour of walking around not finding the elevator for the station we were looking for and ending up in an incorrect station and the class, which is 20 minutes away starting in 5 minutes, we got into a taxi and made it there – only 30 minutes late! I did let the instructor know that I was having transit issues 🙂 What a fun class and being a person who knits it really helped! I started 30 minutes late and was the first one finished! There were 6 of us making shoes. Andrew was able to sit with me and take pictures of my progress. He was also able to eat the churros and drink the champagne that was brought to the class for me! Then we were off (after purchasing some more leather shoes from the store) and walking to Budget rental, got there just in time before their afternoon siesta! Had a few problems renting the car – the reservation did not transfer over correctly from North America, however it will get straightened out as we now are driving a teal Citron and it is a really fun car! Tomorrow we leave Barcelona on our way to Tudela, which I picked as it has a Marriott hotel and is central to some places that look interesting to visit!

My Marriott status gave us breakfast and oh what a breakfast spread they had! They even had GF items out in the open AND each item on the buffet was marked in Spanish, French and English so at least between the 2 last languages I could hopefully get something correct to eat! After not having a full dinner the night before (we just ate some of our goodies from the grocery store) I was starving! Fruit, fresh yogurt, custom omelettes – the works! We took today to relax and I booked a “Espadrille making” class for the next morning (Friday), just before we had to pick up our car in the same area – on Las Ramblas Avenue. We re-arranged our luggage so that we would be only using one suitcase in hotels and can leave the other one plus the duffle bag in the car when the car was locked up in a safe place. Then we went for drinks at the roof top bar (27th floor) where there also is a swimming pool and then gradually moved down to the restaurant on the 14th floor for dinner (once it opened at 7:30pm). They were very aware of Celiac Disease and very cautious with my meal – I had an excellent curry chicken with jasmine rice and Andrew had shrimp done Catalan style. What we did not expect was the amuse-bouche – cherry tomato gazpacho which had gluten in it! So they served me something else which is NOT on my favourite food list – anchovies, peppers and olives! Andrew was thrilled with the 2nd option! Then for dessert, as I have just not gotten over leaving the ship yet, I had to have crème brule however it was not up to my standards – it was not very custard like – fairly runny! However perhaps that is how they make it here in Catalan Spain. We then commuted 3 floors down to our room in the sky!

It was hard to leave the cruise ship and all the English being spoken, however time to break out on our own! After having a discussion with the taxi drivers in broken English as to what taxi best suited us (the walker confused them), we ended up at the Renaissance Barcelona Fira (which was a change in hotels for those tracking us on the spreadsheet) which I had changed us to when we were given some points for the Westin Hotel in Rome fiasco. What an interesting hotel and a place that my mother would NOT enjoy staying at! We were upgraded to a “junior corner suite” which really just meant that it was a hotel room with the bathroom in the corner – we did not have a corner view! The window was an horizontal “eye” in the sky – you will see in the picture below. Not much light in the room when it was dark! The hotel actually was two buildings close together with a walkway between them in the middle and at the side where the elevators were, a platform on the 14th floor for a restaurant and then the 26th and 27th floor for the fitness centre and roof top pool and bar. The LOVELY glass elevators going up and down between the buildings were very special too – there was no getting away from them! Drove me crazy as I had to keep my eyes closed and sometimes got off on the wrong floor when someone else got into the elevator! I cannot handle glass elevators! That said, it was a very nice hotel! The hotel was also really accommodating, I had let them know that we probably would be arriving around 10 or 11am and they had our room ready! So we were able to have an early siesta and then in the afternoon went for a walk to get some staples that we normally have when travelling – something to take my medication with and some snacks such as turkey and cheese plus some GF crackers. We walked over to the Carrefour store and we found that it was in a huge mall! Google did not tell us that! Also the grocery part was downstairs which we did not know. Luckily a security guard heard us talking as we were leaving confused not finding groceries and pointed us in the correct direction – down the flat escalator (like a moving side walk going down) and BOOM! Gluten free bakery items! I was in heaven! Okay, lets focus on what we really need. Cheese, turkey cold cuts, beer and chocolate milk. Got the first two thanks to Google Translate telling me the name for turkey, sent Andrew off to the beer section and I checked out the HUGE gluten free section. Oh my – check out those pictures! Now to find chocolate milk – little tetra packs will have to do! It was about 30 degrees during our walk back to the hotel and we took it easy the rest of the afternoon and evening and had some of our snack goodies that we had purchased for dinner.

We arrived in Barcelona about noon on May 31st and docked at a slip way father away than when we visited for the day on the Nieuw Statendam. We think it is perhaps due to this being the end of the cruise and the ship needing a lot of work done – such as re-fueling, groceries, and other supplies. So after sleeping in after a wonderful dinner the night before, we explored the Lido deck, which on this cruise we actually had not eaten at yet as my first attempt to was not very successful (they suggested I order from In Room dining instead as the Allergy kitchen serves In Room dining and it would be slow getting food to the Lido) while while I appreciated the safety concern, it would take more time to get food! We were able to dine successfully, I had turkey (which I talked to the chef about and it was made without stuffing inside) and rice and Andrew pizza. No GF pizza on this ship for moi. Then we walked around the ship for a while so I could take some pictures of the flowers and different areas as they do keep them really beautiful! There were a lot of people by this time off the ship on Excursions so we really had a free reign to check out what we wanted 🙂 Also at this time my big toe had been bothering me – I had a pedicure on the Nieuw Statendam 2 weeks ago and it has gotten sorer however with the 14 day gel polish I could not tell if there was something wrong under the nail. So I went to the Spa and had the lady who gave me my manicure of this cruise look at it. She removed the polish and said that I have an ingrown toenail from the treatment and I needed to see the ships doctor. So then I called the ships doctor and they were busy so they said they would call back later. Later they called – just before we went for dinner and they gave me an appointment at 8am. As I am aware that diabetics need to be careful with their feet and I am newly diabetic I did not want to mess around. We had a wonderful last dinner on the ship, said good bye to Piti (from Indonesia) who was our waiter for the whole cruise (except our 2 dinners in the other restaurants). Piti was an EXCELLENT waiter – of all the cruises that we have been on which I think is 9, he has paid the most attention to what is gluten free or not and was the most educated on different menu options. Then we needed to pack. I slept instead much to Andrew’s dismay! Packing can be done in the morning – which is what I did! I was up early and packed my suitcase before breakfast at 7am. Then at 8am I went to the Medical Centre to chat with the doctor. It was very interesting – he was from London and currently has a job offer from a clinic in Victoria (BC) to be a general surgeon. He decided to spend 2 months at sea to decide. So he REALLY wanted my opinion on the BC Health care system when all I wanted was my toenail to be looked at and fixed if possible! Andrew was in our stateroom waiting for me and I had still not packed my knapsack and other electronic stuff. An hour later, he would do nothing to my toe due to the diabetes (doctor is diabetic too and would not do it to himself either) and put me on antibiotics as I have an infection in my toe. Lovely! So I got into the elevator just as they said that all passengers should be off the ship! Oh I hope Andrew just put all my stuff in my knapsack! Sure enough the room stewards were waiting for me along with Andrew and everything was packed – he is so good to me! Said goodbye to our room stewards who have also been wonderful and got off the ship the last time! I am not sure if we were supposed to go through customs or not, however no one was around so we just hopped into a taxi and headed to our hotel! So that is the end of our Cruise segment and we are now in Spain to begin our 5 week long tour of the country!

Now we are in Toulon, France! Moving right along the French Riviera or Cote d’Azure as others call it. We had a beautiful sun rise this morning – all the different colours in the sky and a nice orange sun! We had our last Excursion planned for our cruises (this is our 12th HAL one) to Marseille and Aix-en-Provence. With an early departure for this 8 hour tour we were ready to go! Pulling into Toulon, the captain did a very interesting U turn (according to Andrew) and then when I was sitting on the balcony I saw the exact thing happen with an overnight ferry that came into the port. I almost thought his back end was going to hit us! Please note on the 2nd picture of the ferry that they have the same “thrusters” at the bow of their boat that the Oosterdam has which are directly under our stateroom it seems – they are LOUD when they are used! Anyways, off to shore we went, with one of the steepest gangways I have run into! It took me and two “helpers” to make sure I did not go too fast down the steep incline (they know I only have 1 break). Again, large bus but only 10 people on the tour! First we saw a beautiful painting when driving out of Toulon above the theatre and then we were on our way to Aix-en-Provence. I will leave most of that commentary to the pictures however we had a nice walk around the town and then some free time to do whatever we wanted. As the cruise was ending we went to a grocery store (where we used the shipping elevator to go down to where the groceries were) and then while walking to the square we had seen where I could get a fridge magnet, I ran into a Body Shop where I got some Vitamin E for my skin to keep it in good condition (it is not burnt but dry due to the sun). Then we met the bus driver and were on our way to Marsaille! The tour guide really wanted us to take a picture as we entered Marsaille which you do via the highway through a tunnel but we had picked up so many squished bugs on the highway that the picture did not work out… It was kind of spectactular though to not know there was a huge city on the other side of these tall hills as you drove down through a valley and through a tunnel under the hill and on the other side it was totally different! The bus took us around the sea front and up to a beautiful church that over looks the water. Unfortunately there are over 300 steps to climb to get up to that church and I was aware of that when booking this Excursion so I stayed on the bus, buckled myself in as we were pointing downhill at quite an angle, and had a nap! I felt a bit like I was having a nap while climbing a mountain as that seatbelt really was what was holding me onto the seat. Andrew and the others came back after an hour and he has some pictures that I will add to this post. Then we were back to the ship, via a scenic route through Toulon and off to sea to Barcelona. This night we were dining in the Pinnicle Grill which is the more upscale specialty restaurant on the Oosterdam – I had prepared my stomach all day for the meal tonight and made sure I was hungry! As per normal, I had ordered my meal last night – Jumbo shrimp appetizer, scallop entree with a 12oz Maine lobster on the side and Baked Alaska Lynda style for desert! We were out to sea when we were dining and arriving in Barcelona mid-day so we could sleep in after this huge meal! Oh what did Andrew eat you wanted to know? He had lobster bisque, a lovely steak and creme brulee (which of course is gluten free for sampling purposes)!

Well, we are now back in Villafranche de Mer! Last time we were here we went to Eze which was quite the trip and as no excursions met our interest this time, we decided to spend the day partly on the ship and then take the tender to the town later in the day. So first thing – breakfast in the Dining Room! Then I worked on my posts on our balcony pictured here for a while, took another nap and then prepared to go ashore! On our trip ashore what did we find in the bay? One of HAL’s ships they sold during COVID to Fred Olson – the old Amsterdam. Except for the blue hull, it is now optimized to their colours and operational! So we arrived at the dock and started checking out Villafranche. It is built on the side of a hill and the first “level” had a sovenier shop and several restaurants. As it was Sunday several restaurants were closed. I wanted to get a t-shirt still and my fridge magnet and the little shop was just not doing it and it looked like there was another road of stores above the front street – albiet with a bunch of stairs going up! So we stopped for some gelato (which I did the whole transaction in French including what flavours were gluten free – impressive and thanks to Dorothy) and I then asked the gelato man if there was a way up to the next road above (almost all in French). We had to walk up and around – so be it – happy to go for a walk up a hill and sweat / perspire a little! So up we went and up we went – we realized after a while we had gone too far so down we walked and what had looked like an entrance to a restaurant was actually a lane to the road (lane) above the front street stores of Villafranche. Well, there was clothing and groceries but no souveniers… So I picked a fairly easy staircase to go down and ended up going to the original souvenier store, getting what I wanted (in French) and off we went back to the ship! As Andrew said I was hogging all the towels on the ship with my towel animals, I decided to take a picture of all of the ones our room steward had made for us so far, and let them go. He was very artistic – also had some extra time on his hands!