After months and months of anticipation, the trip is finally here!!!! I left home around 10am to meet up at Mar and Amy's house. Kevin was to drive me to the airport while Vern and Bill took Mar, Amy, and Patrice. Suzanne and Clay were already at the airport to catch their flight with Air Canada. We checked in at the British Airways counter and it was fairly easy with no hassles. Afterwards, all 7 of us went to the food court where we just hung out for a bit and grabbed a bite to eat. We said our goodbyes to [View Full Entry]

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Kevin and I woke up really early this morning and drove up to Sylmar to meet up with Keston, Sally, Erika, Rocio, Rick, and the 3 kids. We met everybody at a Mcdonalds in Sylmar off the Interstate 5. After having breakfast, we all set off in our 2 vehicles for the 4 hour drive up to Yosemite. Just before arriving at Yosemite, we stopped in the town of Oakhurst to pick up alcohol, food, and supplies. We finally arrived at Yosemite around midday and stopped at a scenic vantage point overlooking the entire Yosemite Valley. With one of the [View Full Entry]

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Patrice and I packed up my Pathfinder early this morning for our drive up to Monterey to check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We left really early at about 5am for the 4-5 hour drive up to Monterey. It was around 10am when we finally arrived and we headed straight for the Aquarium. It was not yet even noon and we were already sweating while standing in line waiting to be let in. We didn't really come dressed for the weather as it was quite overcast back home. Today in Monterey, the temperatures were going to climb into the upper [View Full Entry]

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The last day of the tour began with an early morning trip to the Spanish Royal Palace. For the past few days, Madrid had been abuzz with the excitement from the royal wedding of Prince Felipe. The wedding took place at the Catedral de la Almudena, adjacent to the Spanish Royal Palace. Now over a week since that historic wedding, here we were standing in the courtyard of where it all took place. Our tour of the Spanish Royal Palace was guided and with all guided tours, I quickly lost interest in what our guide was telling us. Inside, the [View Full Entry]

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Today was another early wake up as we had to reboard our bus for the drive back to Madrid. Before leaving, the entire group gathered in front of the bus for a group photo. Since we were such a small group compared to most Contiki tours, an "official" group photo was probably cancelled. We drove for most of the morning back to the capital, arriving in Madrid just before noon. We were finally back to where it all started almost 2 weeks earlier at the Hotel Praga. The rest of today was a free day as there weren't any planned activities. [View Full Entry]

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4 days of relaxing and lounging in the Balearic Islands have come to an end. This morning was an early wake up as we had to catch our morning ferry to take us back to the mainland. Once we all boarded the ferry, everybody pretty much crashed for the duration of the trip. Back at the port at Denia, we reboarded our Contiki coach which seemed like it had been forever since we were last on it. We continued down the coast to the city of Valencia which is Spain's third largest city. Valencia was the only one night stop [View Full Entry]

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At the breakfast this morning, we met up with some people who were going to Formentera Island for the day. Since we had such a good time there yesterday and there wasn't much else to do on Ibiza, we decided to spend another day on Formentera as well. We caught the ferry over to the island and once on board, we all kind of crashed out on the seats. After 45 minutes, we finally arrived on the island. We all met up at the same moped renting shop that Shea and I had went to yesterday. Not everybody was down [View Full Entry]

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This morning we had an early wake up as we had about a 5 hour drive down the coast to the town of Denia in order to catch our ferry over to Ibiza. It was quite sad to leave Barcelona. We were only here for 2 days and in these 2 days, the city became my favorite city in all of Europe. However, I was very much looking forward to 4 nights relaxing on an island in the middle of the Meditteranean. The ferry ride to Ibiza took about 5 hours and was pretty uneventful. When we first pulled into [View Full Entry]

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Today was our full day in Barcelona. We had another early wakeup but not as early as some of the other days. Colin was going to lead a morning walk tour through the Gothic Quarter. Since last night was a big night for some, the turnout this morning wasn't too big as only about 10 of us showed up. We walked down to the Ramblas and headed into the Gothic Quarter which is the oldest part of the city. One of the first things I noticed was the plethora of bakeries with the sweet smell of pastries, bread, and other [View Full Entry]

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Another early morning wake up this morning as we headed towards Barcelona. By mid-morning we had arrived in Pamplona to have a quick look around. We walked the narrow streets where every July they hold the famous running of the bulls. The streets are barricaded and lined with thousands of people who watch brave, if not crazy people, risk their lives being chased by bulls. We walked down some of the streets where the bulls run. They were mostly lined with tourist shops that sold every imaginable kind of bull related trinket. There was nothing too exciting here, just more [View Full Entry]

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