Wheels on the Go

We were up bright and early (Lynda time) to get going on our drive to the Algarve Region of Southern Portugal. If we had a magic carpet we would have driven all the way to Lagos and seen the beautiful rock formations at the point of land there but, we were under a time limit and not trying to exhaust the driver! So we settled on Faro, taking the toll way there and the secondary road back until we crossed the bridge back into Spain. Getting to Faro was uneventful – Portugal has a really great system for “foreign” plated cars (yes even Spain cars are foreign) where they have an automated toll booth when you enter the country that takes a picture of your car and after you put in a credit card issues you a receipt for your toll account. Then any tolls that you incur, will go onto that credit card – no stopping along the way to pay like in Spain and Italy.

The tollway in Portugal was very nice – apparently the EU had helped fund that road, however to date I have not been charged any tolls yet so I am curious how much our segment from the border to Faro cost us! We drove through Faro towards the marina and were surprised with the amount of tagging that was being done in this town. Some of it tagging that is a nuisance and some of it was beautiful tagging – artwork! Getting close to the water, we immediately got parked in an accessible parking spot that sort of just “appeared” before us! I knew we were in close proximity to where we wanted to be so why not take it! I then understood why it was there – next to it was a knitting and sewing store but it was closed! Darn! Oh well, what would I do with Andrew??? So we walked towards the waterfront and ran into “tourist row” of restaurants and other things like McDonalds (they are still surprising me how unassuming the McD’s are here). We walked around the waterfront and ran into a street market which I just had to check out! I bought my requisite fridge magnet and some tiles that I liked and then, as the temperature was getting hot, stopped in for some refreshments at a ice cream shop where I had a thin chocolate milkshake and Andrew had some coffee ice cream. We then walked back to the car and proceeded along Route 125 which really is like Lougheed Highway along the north of the Fraser River. Cruising along it I saw a random sign for a beach so I asked Andrew to turn off so we could check it out – well what a surprise we got! We drove through what seemed to be a resort of cabins and then to a road with parking (funny enough the 2 accessible spots were free) and a bridge out to what we thought was the beach. So we parked and walked over the bridge which actually took us to a train like the one in Stanley Park – we could walk to the beach – 2 km or take the train – I was free, Andrew was 3.60 Euros round trip. We took the train! What a beautiful beach we ended up at! It had several restaurants, washrooms, souvenir and beach shops and in front THE BEACH. Everywhere were ramps or boardwalks so I had no issues getting around! Going down to the beach there even were beach chaises reserved for people with disabilities and a boardwalk right to the chaise. If someone wanted to get to the water and could not get there in their wheelchair they had the beach wheelchair available for their use! I was amazed! We walked around a bit however as it was blistering hot and we were not prepared for the beach, we decided to go back and continue on our adventure in Portugal! So back to the car we went. Along the way, as it was low tide, we also saw little crabs scurrying around on the mud flats and Tavira in the distance – all those white houses of this area sure stand out and look lovely! So into the car we got and set Google to take us to Tavira and what a route it took us on – we almost drove through some farms the road was so small! However with a couple of turns and patience we were back on 125 and into the town in no time. Tavira was a fascinating town – most of the buildings were tiled! Unfortunately as we drove through it on a one way street, the sun was facing me so a lot of my pictures did not work out. I just have a couple that I was able to rescue. After driving around the town, we were onto 125 again and heading towards Vila Real de Santo Antonio which is right in the south east corner of Portugal – the only way to go is north up to the tollway or east into Spain! So we at that time returned to Spain – so long Portugal and Algarve! Back to the hotel we drove and prepared for our drive tomorrow to Sevilla!

That is my thought for today – 45 degrees outside of the car and 14 degrees inside with the AC fan running almost full speed! Yikes! That is 2 degrees short of the hottest temperature I have ever been in (Uluru, Australia formally known as Ayers Rock)! I did not expect this temperature in Spain, however they are experiencing a heat wave currently – it just keeps waving away!

So let’s get on with today! We left our hotel in Badjoz in plenty of time to go check out the walled city which we saw when driving into the city. We got parked and walked up to the museum which we found was free! Very nice – air conditioned and free! But no elevator… So I checked out the 1st floor while Andrew looked at the other floors and took pictures for me (which I will add to this day hopefully on June 12rh). As the rest of the fort was not accessible and the heat was rising (it was already in the low 30’s, we decided to get out of town and start the 3 hour drive to Huelva. The route that we took is below. Not wanting to backtrack and wanting to visit the lower part of Portugal, I picked Huelva as a place to stop for 2 days so that we could take a day and drive into Portugal. Then we will make the hours drive to Seville and stay there a couple of days. So that is why we took the more direct route to Huelva than the one that went through Sevilla, which was a multi-lane highway. Oh what a ride we were in for! It is a good thing that Andrew has driven lots of mountain roads as that was perfect for this drive. On the other hand, I had to hang on and was unable to knit or do anything during the drive other than take some very interesting pictures – of which half I had to delete! We went up, around, down and over some low mountains – sort of reminded me of a drive that I made with our friends Guy and Leah from Italy to Zurich crossing the Swiss Alps – although those were WAY higher and the road much narrower at times! I will let the pictures speak for themselves. The only sad thing is that we were passed, despite Andrew doing the speed limit (and being comfortable with it) by many vehicles and we ended up being delayed for about 30 minutes due to an accident involving one of those crazy drivers. We did make it to Huelva which is another University city and got settled in our hotel – another AC Hotel by Marriott! These are really nice clean, standard hotels that we really enjoy staying in as we know each time what type of room we will have and what to expect at their breakfasts (which include gluten free goodies)! We went out for an interesting dinner at 9pm a local restaurant and sat on the street and ate some hot tapas which we shared and eventually got back to the hotel at about 10:30pm. It was interesting to see the people change from being locals just wanting dinner to those going out for dinner prior to hitting the club scene! On the way back we passed by what we would use as a tennis court being used as a soccer pitch and quite a competitive game going on! Tomorrow: Drive to Portugal!

And we are off! Well, wait a minute, I do not have a fridge magnet yet! That is the downside of checking out a city during the afternoon when stores are closed! So first, the souvenir store! We know exactly where we are going thanks to the hotel and the excellent Zamora map that the city produces! We even found an accessible parking spot just outside of the old city walls in order to make this job quicker and on the way back to the car got some beverages for the trip (well Andrew’s beer will be given to him after he completes the drive). Now we are ready to rumble! Our first stop, which will be after an our is Salamanca where they have, according to the Lonely Planet and some other sources “the most beautiful main plaza in Spain”. We will have to check it out! So onto the prairies we went, flat and straight south to Salamanca we drove – sort of reminded me of the east/west drive on the Canadian prairies! And the temperature was going up, up, up! When we got to Salamanca it was about 32 degrees – up for a walk anyone? Sure! A very short one and this time I am bringing my water bottle! First stop – fridge magnet! Second stop – town square and wow – it was as beautiful as everyone had mentioned – it would also be lovely to see at night all lit up! Now that I got Andrew safely back to the car (he takes pictures of the street sign where we park in case I get hit by a bus) it was 42 degrees inside it! Yikes! Time for some AC! Hitting the highway the inside temperature of the car got down to 38 degrees and there it hovered for the rest of our trip. Lovely we are in the proverbial heat dome of a teal car! It was interesting that the landscape also started to change at this point too — more like Osoyoos again – tumbleweeds and nothing seemed to survive unless it was heavily watered. We were taking a secondary highway down to Badjoz and it was pretty nice – gas prices were lower too! The only challenge was the big trucks and passing them on the sometimes curvy road. We also stopped at another “picnic” area which was basically a wide open parking lot with a few bushes for shade (which we parked next to one) where we ate the left overs from last nights pizza. We got into sweltering Badjoz at 6:30pm and the thermometer here was a lovely 40 degrees at that time! Driving around the city, which seems to cover a hill, there was a small walled area across the Guadiana river which we might need to check out before leaving tomorrow – looks fascinating! When we got to the hotel, a heat wall hit us when we opened our car doors! The AC Marriott hotel is pretty nice, unfortunately walkie could not fit into the first room they sent us to (these hotel in Europe the rooms are small if not upgraded!) so we had to move to a 2nd room however all is good – it is only one night! Cool fact that I just realized – we are within walking distance of the Portugal border! Badjoz sits barely inside Spain! Tomorrow we are continuing our journey south with a 2 day stop in Huelva before moving onto Sevilla!

Today we spent in Zamora after that long drive yesterday! What a fascinating and beautiful city in addition to being very accessible – ramps and curb cuts everywhere! In the morning we did laundry – how fun! They have “express” laundry where your wash (and your drying if you want to) is done in 30 minutes. Holy smokes the machines hold a lot though! 11kg was the smallest machine for clothes costing 4 Euros. Not to waste time we did a dark and light (which is a new concept for Andrew) and spent 9 Euros (next smallest machine was 14kg at 5 Euros) and were done in 35 minutes! Nice clean facility that was 2 blocks from our hotel, AC Marriott Zamora – the number 1 rated hotel in the city. Then we returned to our “suite” in the hotel and proceeded to air dry all our clothes despite the AC in the room that just would not turn off! Then off we went with the excellent map from the hotel and some hints on where to walk, to check out the town! We are just on the outside ring of the old town so all we had to do is walk into the old town to experience the city. While the city was pretty similar in some ways to Tudela – lots of churches, it was really cool the tiling on the mostly pedestrian streets – the mosaic design. We walked directly from one end of the Old Town to the other and then went down the road (instead of the stairs) to the river walk below where we visited a very old church, no longer in use, and the water turbines which create some energy for the area. They were actually built in the early 1900’s however over time they rotted away and in about 1970 they were re-built again using the designs from the 1900’s (all this I understood from the poster that was in Spanish but some of the words are close to French and I was able to piece some together). Then we continued on the river walk heading back around, past some beautiful bridges – the stone bridge which is very popular and then as the hotel front desk clerk told me (not in any tourist literature) the “Eiffel” bridge which was designed by the same man that designed the Eiffel Tower. At that point, dying of thirst as we had already clocked 10km, we stopped for a drink. Well, I stopped, Andrew had to follow! He had a cervesa and I my standard drink of the day – Coke Cola! In fact I had 2 of them as the bottles were small and the whole thing only cost us 5 Euros – which is so funny as often my Cokes cost as much as Andrew’s beers! Here they were just a single Euro – go figure! Then following the City Wall, we arrived back at our hotel, after making a quick stop for a couple of cans of beer and some sin gluten ice cream for me! All in all an awesome sightseeing day in cooler weather – only about 26 degrees! After taking a break, we found out that a recommended restaurant that also does GF was closed on Wednesday nights so instead we ordered Domino’s pizza as they advertise GF pizza. I was VERY apprehensive about doing this as in Canada I would not order from Domino’s due to contamination concerns with gluten pizza’s. However they seem to have their act together in Spain so I tried it and decided to pick it up just to check out the facility. When ordering I was pleased to see that what I could order was pretty restrictive in terms of items to put on the pizza too. Oh was I surprised! Two ovens and two prep areas! Check out my box and the Celiac program that trained them – I was off to the races to enjoy a wonderful pizza! And it was good! Now off to bed – we have some driving and touring to do tomorrow!

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!

We are now back in Livorno, which is the port city for Florence and Pisa. REALLY a long time ago Livorno was created as Florence, which was a very populous city, needed a port. Now, with trucking and other way of getting goods like by air, it is not as important to them, but it is still a very important port for many of the smaller cities that surround the area. Today, we are taking a late booked Excursion to Lucca. I cannot remember who told me that if we could see Lucca we should. Perhaps it was Leah. Lucca is a completely walled city just north of Livorno. It was a very rich city during the fudal times and instead of being attacked, just paid off the people who wanted to fight it! Now people who live in Lucca are called “Inside” people and people who live outside of the walls are called “Outside” people or “Foreigners” as our tour guide was called. Lucca used to have 100 churches which many are gone, however a few beautiful ones exist still. Some were demolished due to royalty wanting to build a palace and some naturally fell down. If you live in Lucca you are only allowed to have one car and it is very hard to park within the city. Most residents use bicyles – we saw a LOT of people on bicycles and not nice new ones – ratty ones as they are the number one thing that is stolen in the city! Often people pay more for their bike lock than for their bike. So the bus dropped us off outside of Lucca and we walked into the city. It was incredibly hot (about 30 degrees) this day and being in the sun between buildings without a lot of shade was pretty hard walking around. Like once when on the Canadian Prairies with my sister and parents when my mother wanted to visit yet another museum yet it was very hot, when we found out it was air conditioned and we almost ran into it, this was the case for the cathedral we visited – it was LOVELY inside! I personally was impressed with the accessibility of Lucca – the cathedral was ramped – all parts of it! Also many stores were ramped too. I now have a policy of pretty well only going into stores that have ramps and letting other stores see that I will patronize them and not theirs. Anyways, we walked for about 2 hours and I then hit the wall of heat. With about 15 minutes left in the tour I told the tour guide (as we were walking farther away from the meeting point for later one) that I needed to bow out of the tour and get a cold drink. So that is what Andrew and I did and while he had a beer I had my standard Coke Zero. Which brings me to a good point. Andrew learned not to tell me to get him a beer – there were about 20 in the fridge and I had to pick one for him! So he got the one with the purple label – how was I to choose? I do not drink beer! So we people watched, someone bought some hair goodies and a dress and we met up with the tour at the appointed time for the bus trip back to Livorno. Once back at Livorno, Andrew decided to rest and I took the ship’s bus into town – it was my last chance to get a shirt from Italy which I really wanted and had not paid attention earlier in our trip on getting one. The bus driver and I (I was the only one on the bus) ran into a demonstration so the 10 minute bus drive turned into 30 minutes! I got to see more of downtown than I wanted to however we finally made it to the drop off spot. Out I got and started walking around – there were curb cuts and ramps everywhere! I was impressed! However an Italy shirt was eluding me! I found a fridge magnet but no shirt… The lady at the HAL stop told me that the next bus would be there at 6pm so I was back in time however the bus was late and I think on Italian time. So we left at 6:20pm and we got back to the ship 20 minutes later! By the time I got to our room in the pointy part of the ship Andrew was a bit concerned as dinner normally is at 7pm. However we were dining in Canteletto tonight at 7:30pm so there was plenty of time for me to get ready… Off we went to the restaurant and had a wonderful meal in this specialty dining which was part of our cruise package! Even caught a sunset!