After a week in Burkina Faso we need to post a blog as there is so much to tell and show. We have almost 400 pictures from the past several days, way too much to include on a blog. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and while I believe that to be true, our pictures however still do not truly capture our experience. It is very difficult to describe Africa, and our experiences. So an extra long blog follows, and together with the pictures, hopefully provide a glimpse of a totally unique experience: Nadine’s mother (Marie) met us [View Full Entry]

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For the first time in our trip we are seeing a culture that is significantly different than ours. Tunisia is where Nadine and her family lived for a year when she was 14 years old. Her and her sister (Annie) went to a French school in Sousse for a year. So Nadine is trying to go down memory lane…but apparently, Tunisia has undergone many changes in the 27 years since Nadine went to school here. She remembers the roads being clogged with horse or donkey driven wagons, bicycles, and people. Today the roads are still clogged…but now with other cars, trucks, [View Full Entry]

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We have arrived in South Eastern Spain, a little resort town of Torreveija, south of Alicante, which is south of Valencia. We departed Figueres and drove 4 hours to Valencia...we survived a tire blow out on the super highway. Not alot different about changing a tire in Spanish than in English. The drive is very nice and bordered by mountains, orchards, and the sea. We decided to visit Valencia for a couple of days before hitting the resort for a week. Valencia is the orange growing area of Spain and the city is surrounded by groves of orange trees! You know [View Full Entry]

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It is great to escape the City and get into the country to see the more natural side of Spain. I do find it very unique and wonderful and throw in the Mediterranean and it is very special indeed. Language…a mile a minute I would like to retract any complaint I have ever made about the French speaking too fast…the Spanish put them to shame! It is almost comical to listen to news casts or conversations and trhe spead with whcih they seem to converse. It truly is amazing! However, it is discouraging when trying to understand a new language to [View Full Entry]

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Barcelona is another great European city! It is a, seemingly, more controlled cityscape environment than Paris as it offers larger vehicles, less frantic traffic, and fewer people. Pedestrians and vehicles actually respect and abide by the traffic and pedestrian lights...unlike in Paris. Our first experience with Barcelona was taking an hour to figure out how to use the phone at the airport as we tried to contact the person we were renting an apartment from. Our first day we took the subway towards the waterfront and walked the beach and around the water. We lucked upon the Red Bull Wor [View Full Entry]

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Paris...I am impressed! We rented an apartment in Paris, so we are living amongst the Parisans and living as they do. So we go to the boulangerie every morning for a fresh, warm baguette or crosissants and in the evening for bread for our meal, and at lunch to eat with our meat and cheese. In the neighbourhoods, you will find boulangeries, boucheries (meat shops), fromageries (cheese shops), and many convenience stores (i.e. gas bar booth size) with fruits, veggies, and the necessary daily food items (including a large selection of wines...of course). It can be quite the walk around to [View Full Entry]

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I know, I know, the first two blogs are long...sorry about that! That is a function of access to the internet more than anything. We are expecting to blog more frequently when we get overseas, so they should be shorter...unless there is just so much to write about! We can only hope... We made it! After 5.5 days of driving, 40.5 hours of sitting in a vehicle, about 3750 km, 4 provinces, 4 states, 5 great lakes, one large water fall, Canada's busiest highway, and a national potpurri of bugs stuck to my radiator, we are in Montreal doing our final [View Full Entry]

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Okay...tomorrow's the day!! The movers are coming to take away the potpurri of stuff we are keeping. Actually, we have done a really good job of purging our decades of packratting (I use the plural...Nadine would point squarely at me...guilty as charged!). Now we only require two 18 wheelers to fit what's left . Nadine was kind enough to make large piles of my stuff to go through to purge...I never saw any piles for her! It has been a long road to getting ready in the relatively short period of time. We learned our house sold about the third week [View Full Entry]

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