Blogs from Spain, Europe

The night spent at our ‘emergency’ stopover turned in to two, the weather was pretty miserable but we took advantage of the site’s free Wi-Fi to plan our next few stops and devise a daft game: Campsite Croc/Clog Snooker (to do with scoring points if you spot someone wearing a pair of crocs of a certain colour… we had too much time on our hands, yes). With a route planned we headed off on the long, long road to Salamanca, driving past some majestic snow covered mountains on our left as we neared Burgos. Hours later, we made a final stop at an obscenely large ‘E. Leclerc’ supermarket, which was totally empty of customers, to stock up before arriving at our campsite. Over the next few days it’s safe to say that the weather was vile! ... read more

We headed out this morning, in a rainstorm, hoping the roads weren't flooded as it had really poured all night...Lynn drove until Bill's stress level was more than evident, and she turned the wheel over to him.... At that point, we didn't realize we'd be lunching on fish and chips in an English seaside town..... We stopped in Cartagena, to visit the amazing Roman Amphitheater Museum there....the ruins of the the theater (built at the end of the first century BC) weren't rediscovered until 1990! The Muslims had started to built over it, followed by the Christians, right up to the Civil War, when the area was heavily bombed. After leaving Cartegena, we drove up the coast to Benidorm, the template for all over-the-top seaside resorts. Knowing this still did not prepare us for the sheer ... read more

Today we started classes again at Mester. Each week new students come in, so classes are always changing. Mandy and I were put into an actual beginner class with a lot of students from Holland and a mother and daughter from Germany. The students from Holland do not know hardly any Spanish, so we spent most of the class reviewing. Our teacher, still Mar, kept calling on us in class to answer everything. It felt really good to be the one who knows more Spanish than others instead of being the one who is completely lost. It is a good sign that I am learning! Tomorrow they will move the people from Holland into a lower level, so it will just be me, Mandy, and the two girls from Germany. After class I went home for ... read more

We had a beautiful drive here from Granada, via the Sierra Nevadas...a lot less traffic on the autovias than in Italy! We left Granada in rain, but the skies were clear most of the time we were in the Sierras. We drove up to one of the mountain villages for lunch and a walk, and then headed out to the Cabo de Gato, one of the few wild places left on the Spanish Coast... We found an inexpensive hotel with a pool, where we are the only guests! Unfortunately, there were high winds on our first full day here, but wonderful sun....the gusts were up to 40 mph by last night, which made dining in the somewhat enclosed seafront restaurant patio an adventure! Yesterday we hiked to the next beach along the sea, on rocky cliffs. ... read more

So here it is, our last holiday blog. We have already flown from Marrakesh to Barcelona and are having our last night in Castelldefels, a lovely coastal town just out of Barcelona. Sitting on the balcony watching our last Spanish sunset. Our last few days in Marrakesh were quite relaxing. Spent a few days just lazing around both at Riad Khol and at Dar Sabra. Went in to the square again for a bit of last minute shopping and something to eat. Checked out Gilles, the upmarket shopping complex and bought Leanne an amazing silver and amythyst ring. One thing Mick wanted to do was have his picture taken with the Cobra's. We missed it the first night as they had packed up, so we headed back in the next arvo and there they were. After ... read more