In denial, we faffed around for an hour or so doing a final pack this morning, trying to consolidate 6 ½ weeks of travelling and the acquisition of stuff, including a car seat, into two suitcases and a couple of side bags. In the end we got it down to 20 kgs into Sarah’s case, 30 kgs into Gabor’s case, grossly overstuffed laptop bags and camera bags, a backpack, a baby backpack, a baby and a car seat. All was well, and the apartment owners were happy to inherit 30 nappies and a few bits of clothing that Kaspar had outgrown [View Full Entry]

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Another cracker today. Sun shining. Not a cloud in the sky. And ready to give it one last heave as we near the home straight. Kaspar showed preliminary signs of crawling today but ended up repeatedly overbalancing and donking himself on the head no less than 3 times before deciding that sitting in the same place still has its perks. By midday he had 3 noticeable bruises, but again these will be good ground work for headering practice when we get home. We were up early and were rearing to go and catch the first bus from Catalunya Place, which left [View Full Entry]

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Well there is certainly a lot of rumbling in La Rambla at night! In between the women upstairs pacing up and down in their high heels, the slamming of the doors to the apartments, the comings and goings until all hours of the morning, and the super charged fireworks that echo across the city, probably the thing that kept us up most of the night was Kaspar’s new trick of lifting his feet up and slamming them down so the boards under his bed bounce. He’s a fast learner, we’ll give him that! His bed is on the mezzanine floor above [View Full Entry]

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It wasn’t easy to leave Peniscola today, as the shone beat down and we could feel the tan taking shape even at 9am as we gave the apartment a final going over and set about leaving. We had given ourselves plenty of time to get to Barcelona so decided to take the N route (the secondary route, below the toll roads). Generally these roads are pretty good (the equivalent of SH1 in NZ, or better) and you can hum along at 120km/hr, but today was not a good day for the N road to Barcelona. We got stuck behind truck after [View Full Entry]

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Today we thought we would head inland again and check out some of the prehistoric cave paintings that we had read about in many of the tourist brochures. We took a different route south of the one we took yesterday and headed for a village called Ares del Mastre. The day was shaping up to be another hot one and by late morning the car thermometer was registering an outdoor temp of 28 degrees. The road to Ares del Mastre was pretty windy in places and it took us through some interesting country side which varied from olive and orange groves [View Full Entry]

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Today was spent mentally preparing ourselves for our final assault, the Barcelona mission, before we think about returning to Wellington (it seems half a world away). We enjoyed some time at the beach this afternoon and Kaspar had a great time playing in the waves and having his first sea swim (more of a dunking really, but he still loved every mouthful). We've since found out that the official welcome home parade for FC Barcelona, 2006 Champions League champions, was this evening. There were less than 30 arrests and just some mild looting last night, so tomorrow all we'll have to [View Full Entry]

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As decided last night we were going to spend the day inland, most of it at the hilltop town of Morella. We made a pretty poor start by taking the scenic route, making the wrong turn at the town of Calig, and heading in the wrong direction for about 5 kms through a riverbed (dry, of course) and onto a gravel road before we decided to retrace our steps. But, no problemo! It was the start of the day and we can handle mishaps like that in the a.m. - in the afternoon, THAT’s when we start getting ratty about unscheduled [View Full Entry]

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Last night Sarah spent the late evening getting everything packed so we could get to Peniscola in time to enjoy a decent afternoon there. We were on the road by 10am and next year’s world rally champ contender made short work of the 250km up the coast, and we were on the door step of our hilltop pad at lunchtime, even after a half hour pitstop at the motorway diner-cum-hotel to stretch Kaspar’s legs. So, after a quick pick me up and a sleep for Special K we headed down to the old town to check out the picturesque isthmus upon [View Full Entry]

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Neighbouring Gandia, we had read, was worth a visit so we jumped in the car and drove up the road for a gander. Of course, we forgot that no where is really worth a visit on a Sunday as everything is closed. Nevermind, we found a map at the closed tourist - quite a cool idea, it was touch screen behind some safety glass that allowed you to navigate the town and find out a bit about it before choosing what was worth further investigation. Apparently, not much, as although there was an old town, the info didn’t elaborate enough. So [View Full Entry]

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13.05.2006 The day started with a torrential down pour - the type that makes you want to bury yourself under the covers - and we thought we’d be in for a rather drab day, but we were back on the horse after our day off at the beach in Calpe and rearing to go and see what Valencia City was all about. And I can tell you, the bells of St Clemens have nothing on these guys - there are oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits and any other citrus you care to imagine at every turn, even in the middle of a [View Full Entry]

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