Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 8

No, I’m not a fugitive. But I have been running. Running through Spain, and Gibraltar, and a very short stint in Paris. Actually it’s been more like fast paced walking. But running sounds better. And it’s shorter to write. Why the rush, you might wonder? And rightly so. Well, I’m on my way somewhere, and I’m not flying. My destination is beyond Spain, and even Gibraltar. But since my road passed through the one, and near the other, I decided to at least see something along the way. Just passing through, taking one train and then the next, and the next, only ever seeing what passed by my window, isn’t for me. However, Europe is expensive, so lingering too long, comes with its drawbacks too. So a fast paced trot it was. My first stop was ... read more

Our train to Tarragona did not leave until noon, so we did not need to get up overly early. We took our time getting ready, went down for our last breakfast in Barcelona then back to pack and head out. We had booked our taxi the night before, since we are in a pedestrian only zone, so the taxi has to have permission to get in and out. The taxi arrived on time, but getting back to the road took a bit longer than expected, hitting dead end after dead end. Finally, we were back on the Rambla and off to the train station. The delay did mean we went straight from the taxi to the train, no time to explore the station itself. Interestingly, the train stations in Spain have airport style security, all bags ... read more

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As you may have picked up by now with various blog entries this season, we have been moving much quicker than we normal do (or typically like). We have said many times that we are actually travelers that also enjoy sailing and find it a great way to move around to various places of interest (albeit at a slow speed!) This season we realized that we aimed for a destination farther than we should probably have planned. With overnight passages the distance is definitely doable, but we typically enjoy moving along a coast slowly so we can take in the sights and even take day trips inland when we can. This season with factoring the distance as well as the winds that seemed to be against us most of the time, it was not as relaxing ... read more

So we get to Barcelona and there is supposed to be a private taxi waiting for us - well this seems to be a recurring issue in our travels as once again we could not find a man with our name on. However, after pacing and pacing I see Fairbairn name on a really well dressed gentleman’s board. So we follow him and get into the lift and these two ladies follow us in and the gentleman with us said watch yourselves, so now I am thinking we are going to be murdered. But no, they were pickpockets and had managed to open Mike’s man bag (we will talk about that one later!) but fortunately for us the top thing in Mike’s bag was his inhaler and tablets - so all I can say is it ... read more