First of all, before I get into today's blog, let me apologize for being so behind. We've enjoyed ourselves so much that when got back to the room, I was too tired to do anything but transfer the day's photos. I'll try to catch up soon... but no promises. For our second day in Murcia, we didn't plan on more that walking around the town, so we didn't get up that early. We walked down to the transvia (sort of an above ground metro), and road it to the downtown part of Murcia. After wandering around, seeing the Murcia Cathedral and the Episcopal Palace, we walked down to the river Segura to check out the sights there. The was a very unusual statue (?) of a sardine in the middle of the river, called the Monumento ... read more

We woke up around 9am, and after a cup of coffee we were on way to the beach to catch the bus to the Santa Barbara Castle. At about 10:30 a small bus approached and turned out to the ours. After we boarded, along 5 or 6 others, we rode around the mountain thru a small town at the base and up the road to the parking area. We got off, and walked up to the entrace, and were surprised to find out there was no entry fee. Winding our way up and around, we reached the top level. Here, we took some good photos, then started back down, convinced we'd missed the 40-minute delay between busses, but the bus was there waiting for us. After the 20-minute ride back down, the bus stopped at our ... read more

We woke up earlier today because we had tickets for the Coves de Sant Josep tour and we had to be at the pickup point by 8:20am. We'd asked the hotel staff to order us a taxi for 8am. We got downstairs with plenty of time to spare, and the taxi showed up a few minutes early too. Arriving at the pickup point, we sort of wandered around a bit, making sure we were in the right place, since there were no signs. We noticed a few other people sort of waiting for something, and sure enough, they too were taking the tour also. The bus arrived ontime and away we went, the bus pretty well loaded. It was quite a long trip and one of the guides told us all along the way about history ... read more

We landed in Paris (Charles deGaulle Airport) at about 8am, and proceed thru security, which was pretty crowded, but the folks at customs were pretty efficient and so it didn't take long. Next, we'd been told in Greenville that we'd have to take our bag off and check it in again, so we headed to the check-in counter. Here, we were told that we'd have to pay another 70 Euros for the bag to get to Valencia. Manoli was furious, so she asked the counter rep were Delta Airlines customer service was, and we made our way to a different terminal. I waited outside, having a cig, while Manoli discussed the fee. They agreed that she shouldn't have had to pay the extra fee, or even take the bag off and check it in again, but ... read more

Well, tomorrow we start our Petty Vacation 2023. We'll be going from Greenville South Carolina to Valencia, then along the eastern and southern coast of Spain to Gibraltar. We catch flight tomorrow morning (at 6am!) to Detroit, where we have an 11 hour layover. Yes, 11 hours! Next, we leave from Detroit for Paris France, with another layover, this time only 7 hours... only! Finally, at about 2pm Tuesday, we take our final flight to Valencia Spain. We'll spend a few days in Valencia, then travel to Alicante, where a couple from my Camino Frances 2017 live. Next we go to Murcia for a couple days, then Cartagena for a couple more days. Then we'll be staying in Malaga for 6 days. In Malaga we'll be meeting my niece Salome, to spend some time with her. ... read more