We have arrived in South Eastern Spain, a little resort town of Torreveija, south of Alicante, which is south of Valencia. We departed Figueres and drove 4 hours to Valencia...we survived a tire blow out on the super highway. Not alot different about changing a tire in Spanish than in English. The drive is very nice and bordered by mountains, orchards, and the sea. We decided to visit Valencia for a couple of days before hitting the resort for a week. Valencia is the orange growing area of Spain and the city is surrounded by groves of orange trees! You know you are in orange country when the trees on the city boulevards are orange trees! We have to pass on our most sincere appreciation to Ingrid, Youssef, and their children for allowing us to stay ... read more

Barcelona is another great European city! It is a, seemingly, more controlled cityscape environment than Paris as it offers larger vehicles, less frantic traffic, and fewer people. Pedestrians and vehicles actually respect and abide by the traffic and pedestrian lights...unlike in Paris. Our first experience with Barcelona was taking an hour to figure out how to use the phone at the airport as we tried to contact the person we were renting an apartment from. Our first day we took the subway towards the waterfront and walked the beach and around the water. We lucked upon the Red Bull World Championship Air Races taking place. Apparently, 1 million people come into town to see these. It was busy! But fun...and we tasted probably some of the best ice cream we have ever had! I am sorry...but ... read more

I know, I know, the first two blogs are long...sorry about that! That is a function of access to the internet more than anything. We are expecting to blog more frequently when we get overseas, so they should be shorter...unless there is just so much to write about! We can only hope... We made it! After 5.5 days of driving, 40.5 hours of sitting in a vehicle, about 3750 km, 4 provinces, 4 states, 5 great lakes, one large water fall, Canada's busiest highway, and a national potpurri of bugs stuck to my radiator, we are in Montreal doing our final preparations for the RTW (round the world) portion of our excellent adventure! I do like to drive and it's a good thing, because driving, sleeping, and eating were all we really did during our trip. ... read more