2022 Trips – Spain/Italy

10 months and 7 days (October 17, 2021). That is how long it has been since I booked the tickets. THEY announced a concert in Valencia, Spain for June 25, 2022 – when we would be in Spain! I had already planned a month in Spain driving west to east and had secured points plane tickets home from Lisbon along with booked 75% of our hotels already. Holy cow! Fast, re-do the whole trip and all my hotel points bookings along with plane tickets now home from Barcelona, so we could be in Valencia that night! Booked the concert tickets (which was another adventure using Google Translate to Spanish to get accessible tickets and proving that I had a disability). Don’t tell Andrew! THEN I found out that we were to see them in Seattle – forgot with all that happened to me in the fall of 2020, that I had tickets to a show that was postponed to November, 2021. Which was AMAZING and unfortunate as 4 weeks later, one of the singers, who is very popular with the women, a Spanish singer and bass of the group, passed away suddenly from COVID. I did not care at that time about the tickets – probably the concert in Valencia would be cancelled – it was the ONLY concert in Spain at that time. Our trip was good to go! Still did not tell Andrew though – he was so good to come with me to Seattle (as we had to fly due to COVID rules not allowing us to drive) that why bother him about another concert that probably would be cancelled? I was very careful when making my travel book (which Andrew has access to) – it has all our reservations, tickets, insurance etc. to NOT put the concert tickets in there – however it seemed the concert was going ahead! We left as you know in April – I had not heard anything to the contrary about the concert and I noticed that there were a couple more concerts booked in Europe now and that this was now an “In Memory” concert. I did not really focus on the concert until we were in Granada and we were walking down the street and Andrew said to me “look who is in concert on July 1st!” Oh my stomach sunk. He knows THEY are in Spain! I played cool and said something like – “too bad we will not be here.” We drove to Valencia – arrived at the hotel in good time and decided to go for dinner. While at dinner (it was 9pm) all of a sudden a high volume of distant screaming and roaring happened and it was obvious there was a concert going on nearby. AGAIN I tried to play it cool. I knew we were staying at the AC Marriott Hotel a block from where the concert was going to happen. I had purposely got us “lost” getting to dinner to miss the concert venue but I did not put two and two together that it was an open air venue! OOPS! We are in a hot climate! So on our walk back to the hotel I FORGOT to go the “wrong” way and we walked past the “Plaza de Toros de Valencia” (Valencia Bull Ring) on our way back to the hotel. Got back to our room and about 5 minutes later Andrew said “Did you know that Il Divo is going to be in town tomorrow night?”. There it was – secret was out of the bag! He had looked up who was singing in the Valencia Bull Ring that night (a young Latin singer thus the screaming) and then he saw Il Divo on the list for the next night. So what was I to say?

Here they are! IL DIVO in concert! The accessible seating was on the floor of the Bull Ring – there were only 4 of us with our “other person” and we were seated at the end of Row 12. It was AMAZING to be so close to the stage! We got there at 8pm when the doors were supposed to open (which happened actually at 8:45pm Spanish Time). To walk the route into the ring that the bulls take and to feel the fine dirt between my toes (I was wearing sandals) was bizarre! Pushing my walker was a bit hard – it was like being on soft, baby powder like sand which was on a hard surface somewhere underneath. We had beverages while we waited and it got darker…. At 9:30pm a pre-concert group played, which was interesting as they were singing in English with a Spanish accent! At 10:10pm the show started… yes there are 4 of them – they have an invited guest named Steven LaBrie, who has been signing with them for the last couple of months who does the baritone singing that Carlos used to fill. You almost cannot tell the difference. ALMOST.

Here are some of the videos that I took –
1. Spanish – Titanic Movie – Will Go On
2. English – Somewhere (Encore Number)
3. English – Time to Say Goodbye (Encore Number 2)
4. Spanish/English – Smile
5. English – Motown – My Girl
6. Spanish – Bodyguard Movie – I Will Always Love You

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n4nc14dseniygxn/20220625_235241.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wfhth6gpefuhpp8/20220625_235841.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3t3a37qubkcwvq2/20220626_000641.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7tzqxg9omciwubc/20220625_231613.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bhtu0k71zf93ibc/20220625_232736.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbkomapofull6kb/20220625_234355.mp4?dl=0

We were kind of slow to start the day today. We went for breakfast at the hotel which was a standard AC breakfast buffet. They provided me with 2 pieces of bread (not the whole round loaf that some places have given me) and some cookies. So I made a sandwich to eat later on in the day! In addition, I had fruit with nuts and seeds and yogurt along with the cookies and some Schar gluten free muesli that I had acquired along our trip.

We decided it would be best to “see” Valencia and therefore take a Hop On Hop Off bus tour. So off we went trying to find Stop #2 that was near the hotel – it said it was at the Valencia Bull Ring but we could not find it – so therefore we walked to Stop #1 which was only 10 minutes away and low and behold the bus was there just about to depart! Our timing was great as they depart every 45 minutes. The driver put the ramp down for me so I could get onto the bus and then the problem happened – he could not get the ramp to withdraw back into the bus (electronically). So he had to play with it for about 15 minutes. I guess I will not be asking for the ramp to get off the bus! That is the issue with these hot humid places – mechanical breakdowns if they are not used. The bus ride was good – not too many good pictures as there was a bar right in my way at my seat. We saw the riverbed that was filled in and now houses several attractions in Valencia – the Music Centre, Biosphere, Aquarium to name a few buildings. It also has walking trails. It is a very beautiful feature of the city! We then traveled to the port area, the beaches, back into Valencia town centre and then to the start of the route and finally got off at Stop #2 in front of our hotel – right under our noses! Here are the pictures that I was able to take:

Now, move onto Part II (separate post) to see what we did in the Evening!

We had a nice, relaxing breakfast at the AC Hotel in Murcia. As I normally do, when we go for breakfast, I let the server taking care of the buffet know what room we are in and then that I need “sin gluten” items. This normally takes them to the kitchen area to get me some bread, muffins or crackers – something “bread-like” to have with breakfast. In all the AC Hotels it has been the same except Sevilla where they had the muffins and packaged cookies in a small container the 2 of the 3 breakfast cereals labeled as gluten free. So, not looking at the buffet first, I went ahead and asked the lady for some gluten free items – she gave me a big smile and lead me over to the buffet by the coffee machine and there was a whole gluten free section! It was like being back in Italy! There were chocolate pastries (to heat), Schar croissants, packaged bread, wrapped cookies, 3 gluten free cereals and wrapped muffins! Holy smokes – I was sorry we were only here one night! So I immediately cleaned the top grill in the toaster oven as I wanted to try the chocolate pastries, as I had never seen them before and they needed to be heated! I put them into the toaster for 10 minutes and boom! they were puffed and ready to eat! Very nice! There were 2 in the package – 1 to eat and 1 for a snack later in the day! Like normal, I took croissants and cookies in my purse to enjoy later for a picnic.

We then checked out a couple of hours later and were on our way to Valencia!

I took it easy on the pictures during our 2 hour drive to Valencia – I decided to focus on watching the scenery and knitting for a change! Here are the few pictures that I did take –

In the evening, we went out for dinner to Lemon Grass – a Thai restaurant on “Restaurant Row”. It was an interesting experience – they are more of a “fast food” and “tapas” restaurant – you actually build your dish instead of having a menu of all the wonderful Thai dishes that we normally get at Thai restaurants in Vancouver. So I had a shrimp vegetable dish with the not hot red pepper sauce and it was GOOD! Sort of reminded me of a sweet and sour sauce. Andrew had a chicken dish that was not sharable due to gluten in the sauce. We sat outside and had dinner – it was about 30 degrees out – a very pleasant experience except for the smokers! For more fun details of the night – see June 25th Part II description.

Well, we were up and early to get to the Alhambra tour ticket office by 9:30am to get our entrance tickets for 10am! Again, had an excellent breakfast at the hotel – nothing like a freshly made omelette! We got our tickets and our audio guide on our cell phones and off we went to see the Alhambra buildings during the day this time. We skipped Generalife as we saw it yesterday – our tour time of the Nasrid Palace was at 11:30am and we had to walk from the top of the Alhambra down to where the buildings were located still. Here are our daytime pictures (some might be a repeat…) for your enjoyment! Just to re-orient you, here is the layout again…

Back to hotel, pack and on our way! Good thing for these 4pm checkouts I get!

The drive to Murcia was uneventful and quite beautiful! We covered lots of different terrain from “Grand Canyon” like views from when we came down from the other side of the small mountain that Granada is up against, to prairies which were very dry to a green belt and then down into a valley that looked like it was a conglomeration of a lot of cities that had just spread out. That we took the highway around the side of which was interesting as there was a historic site on the side of one of the hills and I guess they did not want to disturb it but needed the highway so instead they tunneled under it! I am surprised that the tunnelling did not do some vibration damage however I leave that type of thing up to the engineers – the know best! We are just passing through Murcia on our way to Valencia – it seems to be a fairly big city and the AC Hotel is VERY nice – we were upgraded to a suite again! It is nice to be able to spread out, even if it is only for the night. Also we have now mastered Spanish TV’s – did you know there is a setting in TV’s so that you can show a program in it’s native language? Andrew of course figured that one out! So we are having fun in the evening watching some older shows like Big Bang Theory that are not on TV anymore.

Today we are going to the Alhambra! I had tried to buy what I thought were tickets on the real Alhambra website however I could not figure out how to do it – I know that I could get a discounted ticket but it was not appearing anywhere! So we decided to just go there and purchase a ticket at the ticket office which is where I needed to go anywhere to validate my discounted ticket. I asked the hotel what was the best route to take to walk there (it looked simple enough) and the front desk agent was so polite to me and was trying to suggest we take a taxi, however make it sound like it was my idea! Beating around the bush instead of being direct! Sometimes that frustrates me! Once we got into a taxi we saw why – the switchbacks and hill we had to go up – we would have been exhausted before we even started! So now about getting the tickets – the Nasrid palace which is the main attraction was sold out! So instead we bought tickets to the gardens, and as suggested in the Lonely Planet book, we had brought a picnic to have while we were there. The whole area is beautiful – so well laid out! A lot of the upper gardens are not accessible however Andrew was able to run up the stairs and check things out for me and let me know what he saw – basically great views! We had a bit of a run in with a security guard (mainly myself and another lady in a wheelchair), as he interpreted the “rules” for the Generalife palace to be no one with wheels could go into the palace area. When really the rules state not Baby Strollers can go into the palace area. VERY different from walkers and wheelchairs! So we had to sit in the Stroller parking area and watch the people enjoy the palace area (despite there being a ramp down)! Here are the pictures from the Generalife area.

Then we proceeded to walk down the slope from Generalife (J) along path that runs on outside by I and D which is throught the Medina towards the main attractions (A) on the map which are the Church, Palace of Carlos V (Museum of Fine Arts), Nasrid Palace and the Alcazaba. The Medina is an area where there used to be houses and is now more of a archeological site.

Now down in area A, we were able to walk around and get acquainted with the rest of the Alhambra. We decided at that time to buy tickets for the next day (which the ticket office was sold out of) through Viator (tour company) for a self guided tour of the Alhambra. This is also the day we leave Granada so we are coming back at 10am – luckily we had already arranged a late check out from the hotel! So then we walked back to the hotel down the hill = much better than going up! That took us about 45 minutes of walking down roads that are not usually used within the park area which was quite nice – no sun beating down on us!

Now back at hour hotel RESTING, not that we had not walked enough today, I had the BRILLIANT idea, as it was such a nice day and there were very few clouds, meaning it would be a clear night, unlike yesterday with the rain, that why do we not buy the Alhambra (Nasrid Palace) at Night tickets from the official website? So we made a quick decision at 7pm to do so – which meant we had to be there at 9:30pm and we still needed dinner! We were lucky as we got some of the last tickets as when I went back onto the website to look up accessibility information it was sold out! So off we flew in a Spanish world where they do not eat until 8pm and eat very SLOW dinners! We had already had a picnic today so we were looking for something a bit more substantial after all our walking. The hotel restaurant did not meet our dining tastes so we went to find a restaurant I had seen on our walk back from the Alhambra and much to my normal directional sense, I could not figure out where I had seen it. However we happened on another restaurant that would suit us just fine and they did gluten free too! By now it was 8:45pm so we explained to the waiter we needed a fast dinner and he complied – I had caprese salad and Andrew had pasta – both very fast meals. We were right next to a taxi stand and got a taxi very fast up to the lower part of the Alhambra and got to the check-in post at 9:45pm – phew! Only one problem – all the staff where quite excitedly talking to me in Spanish and I did not understand! Ah, I get it – there are stairs down to where I need to be. They will help me and I will go first – so basically that LONG line of about 100 people that have waited for an hour to get in? They can wait until I go down the stairs! I was very thankful that we did have someone interpret this to us – the lady was very nice and helpful! So down the HIGH stairs we went – I was dreading going back up them at the end of the night as my body was tired! Oh wow – it was worth it though – what a beautiful building! Here are our pictures of the Nasrid Palace at night. Oh and one thing to add – after the first 4 pictures below, they whisked us away around the back of the pool area and where it was ramped into the courtyard where the spitting dogs were. We were the only people there plus a security guard. That is why there is no one else in the pictures. We thought this very strange – we were alone for about 30 minutes – we later found out from a different security guard who spoke English that the other 98 people would be joining us – they went on a tour of the back that is not accessible – so take lots of pictures now! We then tried to find a taxi to take us down the hill and could not find one so we started walking! Luckily the Alhambra bus came by instantly, rumbling along so we got on – it was a very rough ride down into the main square of the town through little streets and around corners (it was now 11pm) however we made it in one piece! We then walked the 4 blocks to the hotel with one urgent stop along the way…

And for those paying attention – to get out of the Nasrid Palace there was a ramp at the exit which I took up to the courtyard where the entrance is during the day. So now I know where to go tomorrow for our tickets to see the Palace during the day! Good night!

Granada is making us feel at home today. It is raining! Liquid sunshine! Actually we cannot complain as this country really needs the rain – there are forest fires like we get in BC however due to the extreme heat and if a day of rain is needed so be it! So we just hung out today in the hotel, and went out when it was not raining and did what normal people do – laundry! In the evening, we had a fun experience which we can only put the dots together to try and figure out. We went to a local restaurant/bar that people had reviewed having GF food. We got there about 7:30pm as on the website it said “the kitchen is always open”. We had something to drink and the waiter indicated that the kitchen would be open sometime after 8pm. While we were there, we noticed these display cases on the wall behind me and there were 2 others on the wall across the room by the washrooms and they had what looked like flat pottery plates that had been made by some 6-12 year old children. As we were only a block from the hotel, Andrew ran back to the hotel for me to get my knitting that I forgot, and while he was gone, people were coming over and looking at the display cases behind me and then the ones on the other side of the room (which were a lot more accessible). Where we were sitting, which was at a low table, there was a high bar table beside us and one behind me in the corner (neither were occupied at the time) and it was really hard with my walker folded up to get into the area but people still tried! This continued when Andrew got back – people would come into the establishment, look at the cases and leave. Then 8pm rolled around and boom! All these people showed up and it was obviously some type of celebration or launch party for the “plates” and we then realized there were bigger ones higher up on the walls. The place got quite busy and loud! As we had already gotten our menu and ordered food, we had to stay. So we had a lovely dinner with all these people filling up the inside, outside area and spilling into the street – gathering we presume in celebration of the artists in the boxes. We also recognized a couple of them as they were the younger people attending the event. It did start to calm down by the time we finished dinner however it was some amusement for our dinner time! Tomorrow is the Alhambra – we got to get some sleep!

And we are off again! This time we are on our way to Granada – the home of the Alhambra which is a palace and fortress complex and one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world, in addition to containing notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture.  I have been looking forward to getting to this city and seeing this historic site that I have heard people talk about! It is a short drive for us today – just over 2 hours assuming we do not get lost! Pretty straightforward it looks like but who knows what will happen! We had no issues leaving Cordoba and got onto the highway very quickly! The drive down to Antequerra was uneventful – the views were as to be expected and I was able to knit instead of navigate as we were not driving around corners all the time. Along the way we realized that as acorns are so small and the top pigs in Spain are fed them, that is probably why we see so many Oak trees! There is a plethora of them growing! We passed many villages with white villages – it is quite a stark contrast at times against the green trees – however it also looks very clean and neat! Then we turned east and headed over to Granada – approaching Granada we were surprised to see how “wide” the area was with a swath of white – it seems that there are several towns that are sprawled out up against the low mountain around the city of Granada. As we approached the city, I keyed in the hotel information into my phone so we could figure out how to get there the easiest way. That involved going on the Marriott website to get the address information. Now, I knew there were 2 Marriott brand hotels in Granada and we were staying at one of them. What I had NOT realized when I booked the hotel was it was a 5 star hotel! I knew it was not an AC hotel brand, which we have been staying in for the last 2.5 weeks (low end Marriott – like Holiday Inn Express) but wow – those are some stars it has! We missed the hotel the first time we drove past so I phoned them to get exact directions and the next time we passed by they were out front waiting for us – now that is customer service! The bellman took our luggage and then “toured us” through some rooms to see which one would be the most comfortable for us. We picked one looking over the main street as it had a window looking at something (first room did not have a window, 2nd looked at a wall) and then the bellman delivered our luggage which Andrew was pretty happy about! After that, the bellman parked our car (no idea where). Our room is very nice and this hotel is beautiful! We will be here for 3 days.

What a lovely city Córdoba is! Armed with a city map and some key places highlighted that we should see, Andrew and I embarked on walking to the Old Town to see the main highlight of the city – the Mezquita-Cathedral. It was interesting to read that while originally a Roman settlement, in the 8th century, when the Muslims occupied the area, Córdoba was a the place to come for education and learning in the world. By the 10th century Córdoba had grown to be the second-largest city in Europe. In 1984, the Mezquita-Cathedral was named an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The UNESCO status has since been expanded to encompass the whole historic centre of Córdoba, so now it has more World Heritage Sites than anywhere in the world, with four. Lastly, considering summer is in 2 days, apparently, Córdoba has the highest summer temperatures in Spain and Europe, with average high temperatures around 37 °C (99 °F) in July and August – well from our experience from Tudela to Zamora to Huelva to Sevilla – they all have Córdoba beat this year for spring temperatures above 40°C in June!

So to get to the Old Town, Córdoba has a LOVELY strip of gardens that you can walk down in the middle of the city! Sort of think of them as a very long oblong of a traffic circle (with some places to cross) where cars can go around in one direction only. In fact the road the hotel is on is on another one of these huge oblongs however going in the opposite direction and it has a park in the middle too! In looking for the wall that appeared on the map, we entered into the residential district a bit early, however soon found out way when all of a sudden we rounded the corner and there was a street full of stores – open on a Sunday! The Cathedral was very close by so we went in and took a look – got some more “reduced to free” tickets for having a disability and accompanying person and went into the cathedral. WOW – what an experience that was! To see its beginnings from when it was a mosque to now and how large the building is and how striking it was – awesome! My pictures really do not do the space justice. After we came out of the cathedral – which a bit about that – this is not the first time this has happened – it would not be possible to get into this cathedral if you used a power chair – there were 3 high steps to get in and then there were ramps everywhere and you received free admission – it was almost like you got free admission as you made it that far. Then to leave, the same thing happened again – ramp to get up to the doorway and then boom! Steps down or for the exit a very dangerous small carved out ramp that was not straight. So now I have gotten over that – we proceeded down to the river where there is a historic bridge crossing the river to a tower on the other side. Also, beside the river is an old water wheel and an historic gate to the city. Then we walked past the Fortress of the Kings and back to the lovely garden walk to our hotel! Once back to the hotel and cooled down (it was only a balmy 35 °C) we decided it was time to eat! Neither of us wanted a big dinner tonight so we settled on pizza from Domino’s again! My phone said it was 134 metres away and would be ready in 10 minutes. So we got ready and started walking, and walking and about 1.5 km later got to Domino’s! No idea what my phone’s issue was but that was a nasty surprise! Nothing like working your dinner off BEFORE dinner! So we had yet another picnic in our room and called it a night – tomorrow we depart for Granada and see what trouble we can get up to in that city!

I really liked the hotel we stayed at in Algeciras. They had solved most of the problems that I have run into in other hotels (including high end ones) and was a very accessible hotel. Take going for breakfast. In Rome, we had to have Room Service as the Breakfast buffet was not accessible as it was up a set of stairs. At the lowly AC Algeciras? Yes there were stairs to get to the restaurant and thus the breakfast buffet however I could get myself up there and down without needing anyone’s help! Check this out!

So, now we have had breakfast, we packed up and got on our way to Córdoba today, with a stop in Ronda. Yes, some of you smart cookies might be thinking when you look at this map- why did you go from Seville DOWN to Algeciras and then UP to Córdoba? Good question! It has to do with two people – our friend Leah who told us about the chasm in Ronda and how stunning it is and then my mother who told us that we just could not miss Córdoba and Granada. So listening to those two important people we changed our routing along the south coast of Spain (which we had already see the major cities via the cruise ship) so that we could go UP to Córdoba and then over to Granada. The reservation in Algeciras and Valencia (along with Seville) were firm and either had been paid for or reserved on points when the points were lower and I really did not want to gamble cancelling those reservations so thus, we did an extra couple of hours of driving!

So we set out from Algeciras to Ronda first and these are the pictures along the way –

Once we got to Ronda, we drove through town as we were a bit perplexed where this “chasm” or “canyon” could be as it was flat the way that we entered town (except for the weird round about but that is another story)! So we drove through town and did not see any parking so I could stop navigating Andrew and figure out where to so, we just kept going and voila! we ran into the bridge where it was obvious (with the number of tourists around) that this must be the spot! So we went and parked and guess what! It was 🙂 It is amazing how you can approach and drive through a city that you think is flat and all of a sudden find out it is on the side of a mountain with a huge narrow cavernous gully through the middle of it! Here are our pictures below –

Now we were done with feeling sky high and me with my fear of height and dropping my phone we were on the road again – this time to Córdoba where we were staying in yet another AC Hotel! This one has guaranteed us an accessible room so I am excited to be in a room that is easier to move around in! Allons y!

We had a great drive up to Córdoba and arrived about 7pm. Had a fun experience when getting gas trying to explain in a small town (where my phone was in the car) that they needed more toilet paper in the ladies washroom! Nothing like playing charades in a gas station! Oh, and for those people wondering, gas prices here are about 2.14 Euros a litre. Sounds like gas is about $2.10 back home! That is getting nasty! I expected high gas prices here but $2.10 is a lot! So we got settled and after a quick trip to the Supermarcado as tomorrow is Sunday and everything is closed (Andrew needed beer) we relaxed and had left overs for dinner! Tomorrow we are going to sign see!

Today we changed our plans to go to Tangier and took the day off. It was a multitude of things but primarily Andrew is tired! Driving in Gibraltar was hard on him – with all the tight streets he had to really concentrate on his driving and with all the motorcycles and various people on other types of moving devices like scooters it is a lot to watch out for. They love to drive down between the waiting traffic and sit at the front of the line at a red light and then zoom off! It is quite distracting – even for a passenger! So we basically relaxed in our nice 7th floor hotel room with it’s terrace and spent the day napping (Andrew) and blogging or knitting (Lynda). We were outside until the sun came over the building and it got too hot! Once Andrew was more ready to face the world he found a restaurant that said they do gluten free and we decided to walk the 15 minutes there instead of driving and trying to park. It was a good decision as the parking was underground with only stairs to get to the surface! The restaurant name was “La Mafia Se Sienta a La Mesa” and it is part of a chain of Italian restaurants in Spain. Their website indicated they opened at 8pm and Google said 8:30pm. So we decided to arrive at 8pm as we were unable to make reservations. After a nice walk through a high rise residential area – similar to what we experience in Huleva, we arrived and there were tables out front however the restaurant was closed up tight. So we sat out front, I had brought my knitting so I proceeded to knit away and we watched the “action” in the square – there also were a set of teenage girls sitting at one end of terrace for the restaurant tables and teenage boys at the other side and the catcalling was something else! It became 8:30pm and the restaurant was still not open… what was Plan B? Well we had seen a Domino’s Pizza on our walk – perhaps we would go walk there and order pizza and take it back to the hotel! Just as I was checking out if they had GF options, Andrew saw action in the restaurant and we were saved – they opened at 9pm! However as we were there already they told the teenagers to scram and they did clean and set our table early and got us some beverages to start. It was also interesting to observe the body language going on in the restaurant – it was VERY obvious that the owner had fired her waitress that night – quite the passionate Spanish conversation took place! After dining at several restaurants now, we are presuming that one of the results of COVID is that restaurants do not use menu’s anymore in Spain – I think we have only had the pleasure of using 1 or 2 menus! All the other restaurants give you a QR code (LIZ – this is going somewhere) and you scan it and see your menu. If you have Google Translate on your phone it will also help translate the menu items for you! So then you just point on your phone to what you want (yes you need internet and that can be a problem for International Visitors) and ordering is EASY! At the above restaurant they did have WIFI so Andrew could use his phone too to order (mine already has internet on it) which made it MUCH easier! We had a great meal – I had an octopus appetizer and then curry chicken and rice and Andrew had beef medallions with potatoes and sautéed onions. For dessert we had a new experience – a lemon sorbet that you drank with a straw – homemade! We then walked back on the seaside walk (which had a lovely l’odeur d’low tide) to our hotel!