Amazing how plans can change with the arrival of sunshine. After overnight rain and the day dawning rather gloomily we had planned to visit the old town of Carcassonne. But with the sun shining brightly and with a feeling of adventure we decided to drive in the opposite direction and explore the little towns in the hills. The roads were quite quiet and soon we came across a gem of a village, Minerve. The town was set on an outcrop of rock surrounded on three sides by a deep ravine created by a river cutting through the limestone. Minerve is probably one of many tucked away in the countryside with a history going back many hundreds of years. This little village had been on this rocky outcrop for some time before being attacked by Simon de ... read more

Leaving Spain today was not as hard as we would have imagined. The emotional part of the departure was filled with the thoughts of the south of France and Provence so we were quite excited. The physical part of leaving was quite straight forward. Once on the motorway we headed for the Pyrenees and Andorra. We have had a great time in Spain seeing wonderful places, meeting people and listening to the language. We are quite amazed at how quickly the weather girls speak and can get through the forecast in one breath. But new adventures await us so we must move on. Our next destination is a small town, Homps, east of Carcassonne. We have chosen a route through the Pyrenees which means going through the Tunel del Cadi, 5.3 kilometres long and toll charges ... read more

The skies cleared and it was looking like a great day for our first visit to Barcelona. Our hotel is on the AP-7 some kilometres out of the city and we thought it was reasonably close to the railway station. This was not the case so we got extravagant and hired a taxi. The friendly driver didn’t have a clue what we were saying but with help from the hotel staff we were on our way. There was no language barrier, however, when he suggested a drive right into Barcelona! We parted company at the station the best of friends. The scenic trip on the train could be compared to the Wellington-Johnsonville line on the Wellington commuter rail service. Arriving in Barcelona at an underground station makes you wonder what surprise you are in for when ... read more

Blog 58 was supposed to be so short as to be non-existent. No such luck. We packed our bags, loaded the car and set Miss GPS for the road out of Madrid. Simple? Of course it was. We were on our way to Zaragoza for a stop-over before heading to Barcelona , a total of 600 kilometres over two days. Once we were safely on the A2 we put Miss GPS to bed because all roads were heading for Zaragoza We were smiling away thinking how good we are at this navigation thing and missing all the toll roads. But as we know, pride comes before a fall. Just as we came to the appropriate exit we were confronted by a Police barrier and Road Closed sign. No alternative but to continue on and thankfully the ... read more

Once we had sorted out the intricacies of the Madrid Metro and discovered we only had tickets for Metro Norte instead of the whole system we were up and running. The part of the system where we boarded the Metro was smart, clean and the trains looked super fast. Transferring to the inner city network meant travelling on older trains but still clean and comfortable. What a surprise we got when we emerged from the underground at Plaza del Sol. We were in the middle of this enormous protest. The plaza was filled with tents and shacks made from all sorts of materials and police were keeping a watchful eye over the proceedings. There were also the comforts of home in the form of portaloos. Wandering amongst the middle of it was like being in a ... read more