In the US we have the East Coast and the West Coast but Spain has an East Coast, West Coast and a North Coast. The North Coast is where we spent four days exploring as we headed west. Our first stop on the coast was the city of Bilbao, known in the local dialect as Bilbo, just like The Hobbit. The challenges started as we entered the city. John said it felt like driving into Boston the day after getting his drivers permit. There were no signs pointing to where we wanted to go so I was navigating using the map in the guidebook. It was accurate but drawn for pedestrians so did not indicate the one-way streets nor the pedestrian malls. At least five times we would approach a street only to find we could ... read more

After our final visit to Barcelona we rented a car and will spend the next three weeks touring Spain and Portugal finally winding up in Madrid. We decided to go counter-clockwise around the Iberian Peninsula (as the square-ish peninsula is called) first heading into the Pyrenees. Because it is still winter, our options were a bit limited so we are staying at the lower end of the Pyrenees and headed for the town of Olot. We drove north along the Mediterranean coast then turned inland. It was a rainy day so we could not see a lot of scenery but one amazing site was what appeared to be in a rural red light district. We saw at least 10 women spread over 50 km each dressed like “ladies of the evening” just standing or sitting beside ... read more

“Fine wine and delicious food.” That describes the last three weeks for us. Through a website called Workaway, we arranged to volunteer with a man named Anthony who lives south of Barcelona in Spain seven kilometers from the nearest village. His business is called Wine Pleasures and he was hosting a wine workshop where hand-picked buyers from all over the world came to Barcelona to meet small wine producers from Spain, Portugal and France. The workshop itself was five days towards the end of the three weeks we spent with him. Prior to that we helped him prepare for the workshop and do household chores. A typical day at the house saw me writing blog entries for Anthony’s website, John chopping firewood and both of us washing dishes. In exchange we got great food, a place ... read more

“Unrest Continues in Cairo” said the headlines as we got ready to leave Egypt and head to the relative safety of Jordan. We left Egypt on January 30, five days into the protests and our departure was uneventful. We took a ferry across the Red Sea to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. At one point we could see Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan simultaneously. Wadi Rum The next day we traveled to Wadi Rum also known as the Rum Valley. It is a large desert inhabited by Bedouin and camels. Our primary activity in Wadi Rum was a jeep tour. All along the journey we saw majestic but barren rock formations often rising 2000 feet above the valley floor. At various stops we *climbed a sand dune for the view (John climbed, I did not) ... read more

“Welcome to Egypt” the immigration official said right after we paid him $15 each in US currency to buy a visa. We thanked him as we entered country number 13 on our trip. Ah, Egypt. It is a country that fills the imagination and often exceeds expectations; a country with an amazing past and a rocky present. We are touring Egypt on a group tour but there are only five other people in the group (all of them younger, some much younger.) Our guide is Mikel and our fellow tour members hail from Australia (3), Canada (1) and the US (1). John and Mikel are the only men in the group. We expected to be amazed and delighted by Egypt and our expectations were soon met. On our very first day we went to Giza to ... read more