MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012 - Today we took a drive up the coast to the furthest eastern point of mainland Spain, Cap de Nau, with a detour into Moraira. This little town was a real find. Firstly, there were no buildings over 3 stories high, a feat in itself on the Costa Blanca. Secondly, there was a lovely little restaurant where Kevin and I had a wonderful lunch - Del Mar Restaurant. www.delmarspain.com The nice thing about this restaurant is that the food didn't look like it had been thrown on the plates, and everything had flavor. I asked if the chef was Spanish, because the presentation looked so different to what we had seen in Spain. He was Bolivian. Tonight we had a farewell dinner with our German hosts, and went to a German-run steakhouse ... read more

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 - After arriving in Barcelona, and meeting with our home exchange lady, Kevin whisked me off to, if nothing else, walk down the Rambla. I decided this might be the week to wear my pedometer. Good job…we have been walking about 6 miles (yes….MILES) every day. The Rambla was fascinating…we found the wonderful Food Market and headed in. The colors are INCREDIBLE - the bright fruits, candies, meats, braids of chilis. The tapas bars that we wanted to stop at, but they were too crowded. Walk, walk, walk, down to the waterfront, then back up, to a tapas place that caught Kevin’s eye for the Octopus salad, and me for all the things on skewers. We didn’t have THAT MUCH to eat, but the bill looked as though we did. We headed ... read more

Sunday, Sept 23, 2012 - Up bright and early in the morning to have a final tidy-up and take the Ackers’ to Montpellier to catch the train. It was sad to say good-bye; the last two weeks had been a laugh-fest. But ten minutes later, trying to get out of Montpellier, it was all a dream. On the road again…. We have decided to NOT eat out so much, now that our bad selves are gone. It’s Sunday - have you ever tried to find something to eat in rural France on a Sunday out of season? We finally found a little take-away, French-style, in Salon for a (yep, you guessed it…) prefixe menu…a baguette deluxe, a patisserie and a boisson for Euro 6.50. We chose chicken baguettes and Far Breton (couldn’t believe my eyes when ... read more

Saturday, Sept 15 - This weekend most of the national monuments and treasures are open to the public free of charge, or almost free, so we decided to take advantage of this…I had a couple of biggies on my list, being Chinon, the home of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Fontevraud, the Abbey where they, Richard the Lionhearted and King John’s wife, Isabelle, were buried. But today we had saved for Chambord, which is one of the jewels of the Loire Valley. After the debacle with all the people at Chenonceau the other day, we decided to get there early, to avoid all the crowds. We were there when it opened and, although we had to pay a small fee, it was worth it. The rooms were beautifully decorated, with wonderful signage ... read more

LET THE VACATION BEGIN!!! SATURDAY - Getting on the Eurostar was a thrill. Feeling it move was even better, because I knew we would be in Paris in a little over 2 hours. We rolled in about 12:15 PM local time, and made it to the hotel about 2:30 since I had to run a bit of an errand….we got on our cool clothes, because it is really warm here right now, and headed out for a walk around the best city in the world. And, yep, once again all roads lead to Place de La Bastille. Ok, this time it was deliberate. Again, I had to do a bit of an errand getting a chip for my Ipad, and after a good walk of about 2-½ miles we started heading back. We stopped at a ... read more