Meeting Málaga

Thursday, May 24th, 2018

When we arrived at the Málaga Airport, Señor Honey says “do you think they’ve overbuilt the airport?” It is enormous and it wasn’t until we reached the inner corridors that it was apparent it was a very busy place. 

We headed to the assigned baggage carousel and waited, waited and waited, worry setting in that we would be without our personal belongings. Finally, the lost were found! 

Taxi! We were on our way to “Calle Strachan”. We were dropped off in a square as Calle Strachan was a pedestrian street.

We clattered (click-clack) with our luggage over the marble tiled/ cobble stoned streets looking for our street and apartment address. 

Finally, we had to stop for directions ... we were close, it was the next parallel street. 

Eureka we found it ... we were too early to check in but we were able to drop off our bags, get the keys and complete the paperwork with a promise that the apartment would be ready at 1PM. Perfect.

Off we went for a little stroll and discovery. 

We wandered for an hour and then found a shaded café for a cold water before heading to the apartment.  

We quickly did a little unpacking (not much since we were only staying here for 3 nights) and then it was time to catch a little cat nap. 

The bed was calling our names ... and was super comfortable!

Normally, we wouldn’t do this but I was feeling under the weather and Señor had not slept much at all on the plane.

The whole apartment was decorated in reds and actually was quite attractive but it was it’s prime location that ended up being its best feature. We were very lucky with our choice. 

The view from one of the windows ...


Rested and refreshed, we headed out for more exploring and something to eat. We were spoiled for choice.

After a good wander, we settled on a cute Italian restaurant in the Plaza del Obispo opposite the Cathedral and Museum.

We were seated underneath the orange trees.

It was delicious and all I needed, but as you’ll see Señor Honey was not quite ready to shut off his appetite.

The views from our table in the square ...

Oh gelato ... oh okay twist my arm, yes please! 

We continued our evening stroll heading back to “Apartamento Strachan” ... the Café (Casa Lola) right next door to our temporary home was buzzing with activity, Señor suggests we have a glass of wine and do some people watching. And since we are in Spain, Señor Honey decides he’d like a little tapas with his wine ... some of the famous Iberian ham! 

That’s it for our first day and night in Málaga, it’s still light out at 10pm as we head home.

I’ll be back with more photos and story telling soon ...

Planning and On Our Way Spain 2018

It’s been a long fall and winter. 

For various reasons, we didn’t/ weren’t able to head south to escape the cold, snowy Canadian winter this year so we hunkered down and hibernated for most of the season. 

We had one week of fun in the sun with family in Mexico the first week of January and the warmth of that week faded quickly when we returned to our day to day life in the cold. 

By the first week of February, Monsieur/ Señor had sussed out some flights to Europe, and after much discussion we decided to spend an extended stay in Spain this year.  So no France for me this year ... 

Flights were booked arriving into Malaga and returning from Barcelona. 

We will spend 5 weeks in Spain in May and June 2018.

Once the flights were booked, we first found a wonderfully looking apartment in Seville for three weeks.

The posted info on the website www.veoapartments.com said that it was not in one of the 

tourist barios but a typical neighbourhood.

The San Vicente one bedroom apartment is located in the historic centre, just minutes from the major monuments and sights.

It is part of the “Casa Palacio” dating from the 19th century with an inner courtyard/patio which is beautifully decorated with columns, arches and various tropical plants. 

We were working backwards at this point, now we needed some place in Malaga for 3 nights when we arrived. 

After much searching we found a cute fourth floor apartment “Apartment Strachan” using HomeAway.com.  

We would travel by train from Málaga to Seville. 

We made a conscious decision to not have a car in Seville.

We would pickup our rental at the end of our stay on the 17th of June.

Seville is not a friendly city for drivers and walkers alike  ... 

narrow one way cobble stoned streets in every direction with no rhyme

 or reason.  

 

Monsieur to Señor for a Day!

We are into our second week in Cerét, how time flies! 

It’s Wednesday, September 27th, 2017 and we are venturing across the border into Spain. 

Today we are going to discover the city of Girona, it is only about an hour away by car (80 or so kilometres) 

The following is a description of “Girona” provided by Expedia. 

“Girona is a city in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, beside the River Onyar. 

It’s known for its medieval architecture, walled Old Quarter (Barri Vell) and the Roman remains of the Força Vella fortress. 

Landscaped gardens line the Passeig Arqueològic, a walkway following the Old Quarter’s medieval walls, which include watchtowers with sweeping views.”

Today is Wednesday, May 30th, 2018 ... we are on this year’s adventure in Spain, just doing a little catch up on posts/photos from 2017’s travels.

I will be writing more about Girona later. It deserves a post all to it’s own ... I have lots of information andictures to share. 

Home Sweet Home!

Good morning everyone. 

We arrived home safe and sound Saturday, October 7th after a long day of travel!

                 “HOME SWEET HOME”

During our 32-day adventure we travelled in excess of 19,000 kilometres (or 12,000 plus miles) by planes, trains, automobiles, buses, cruise ship and our own two feet. 

We flew a total of 13,500+ kilometres from Toronto to Paris, Paris to Barcelona and returning from Toulouse to Paris, Paris to Toronto via Air France. 

Our cruise ship travels on the MS Riviera throughout the Mediterranean Sea covered (2165 nautical miles) 4009 kilometres. 

Our lovely rental car “the Orange Captur” transported us over 1285 kilometres of highways, city streets, narrow rural roads throughout France and Spain.

And luckily the built in “Molly the GPS” didn’t take us through any vineyard dirt tracks like it did in 2005.

There was no question that we would not find our car wherever we parked it! The bright orange colour made it easy to find! 

Our TGV train ride from Barcelona, Spain to Perpignan, France was a flying ride of only 159-kilometres ... oh how I forgot how we used to travel only by train while in Europe, a relaxing and enjoyable method of travel. 

I’m not sure how much distance we travelled by bus, taxi and on foot but it seemed like plenty.  

 

We visited/ explored many communes, cities, towns and villages in the countries of France, Italy, Malta, Monaco and Spain.

Using our five senses we fully experienced the life and culture of the many places and people we met during our travels. 

We spent two days in Barcelona one on each end of the 10-day cruise, rented the same apartment “Ciel Bleu” in Céret, France for a couple of weeks and then spent our last week in the Lot Valley visiting “lots”of friends. 

We are just getting ourselves sorted, back into some regular routine and catching up on some lost sleep. 

Still working on laundry and putting things away, did get the grocery shopping done on Sunday in between an emergency call to the plumber (no hot water, yikes) ... bad news is not just a repair, water heater needs to be replaced and we are still dealing with this today (Tuesday) ...it  was a holiday weekend here in Canada celebrating Thanksgiving! 

I’m very thankful for our friends and family for hot showers and a delicious “Turkey Supper”! 

I still have many photographs to cull and edit plus many stories, posts to write and share on the blog. 

I’m writing and posting for Monsiuer Honey and myself so when we are old and grey, okay maybe I should say “older and more grey”  sitting in our rocking chairs we will be able to look at the photos, read the stories & reminisce about our wonderful travels! 

A big part of our travels is meeting up with old friends and making new friends ... so a big thank you for being part of our adventure to you all!

A big shout out to the new friends made in Barcelona from Monsiuer Honey’s birthplace aka Geordie land, South Shields, Great Britain ... Dawn & Ian, Pippa & Darren, and our new friends made on the cruise Kathy and Steve from B.C. and so many others. 

Thank you so much to our New Zealand/ Céret friends, Karen and John! 

Thanks again to our “old” friends in the Lot ... Laury, Clare, C &B (original French Connection)! 

Everyone of you were a special part of our travels! 

A Peak at Palma de Mallorca

Day 3 (Sunday, September 10th, 2017) we arrived this morning and docked at our last port of calls in Spain ... welcome to Palma on the island of Majorca (Palma de Mallorca).

Again, we are free-lancing our sight-seeing. If you haven't figured us out yet we prefer to manage our own time, picking and choosing what we actually want to see. Plus there is the advantage of staying longer in one place.

So we jumped on one of the many shuttle buses provided by the Cruise Line. 

We were dropped off at La Escollera, the seaside promenade opposite the Cathedral in downtown Palma. 

La Seu Cathedral overlooking the harbour ...

Of course today as we started our exploration walk a fine drizzle started to dampen things, us included (and no we didn't bring the umbrella)!

Then the heavens opened with a downpour. We quickly popped into a shop that had rolled out a rack of umbrellas, purchased one and we were off ... now  truly damp and wet (soaked)! 

Time to pop in somewhere for a coffee and warmth ... ah, look there's a Cappuccino Grand Café here too! 

Wonderful start to our day in Palma. 

Ah that's better and we continued with our walking tour. 

What a beautiful city! Both Señor Honey and I commented that we could do a long stay here. 

As I'm writing about the beauty, lushness, the old and new of this city ... I'm searching for some photos and then realized they are on my camera from which I'm unable to download to my iPad. 

So, I'll will do an updated post once we get home to share the other pics (which I think are more reflective of the beauty that we saw in Palma).

Also, realized I have many photos of our first day in Barcelona plus our day in Valencia.

La Llotja is an unique building designed by the architect Guillem Sagrera   ... the School of Merchants, the guild behind La Llotja was founded in 1403 by the King of Aragon. They controlled and protected the local commerce and were responsible for the maintenance of the Port of Palma until the 19th century. The building was originally built as a Merchant's Stock Exchange. 

It has had many uses over the years, a grain warehouse, barracks and during the Peninsular War (1808-1814) it was a cannon factory. 

Gothic style chapel circa 1600

Look at these solariums, many of the buildings here have them ...

After our self guided tour, we returned to the ship for a late light, lunch and some pool side napping  ... tonight dinner was at the Polo Grill (Steakhouse) where we enjoyed the most delicious melt in your mouth filet mignon followed by some scrumptious, sweet treats! 

Key Lime Pie ..

A "Quintet" ... a sampling of everything! The best! 

Tomorrow we are at sea all day ... 

Vibrant Valencia

It's Day 2 of our cruise across the Mediterranean, Saturday, September 9th, 2017 ... and I think this must be the only day we didn't take any photos of our approach/ arrival at the Port. 

Maybe we had too much fun on our first night on the boat  ... and we slept in! 

After our breakfast, we took advantage of the shuttle bus service to the city center. Our drop off was near a beautifully landscaped park near the "Porta de Serrano" one of the gate entrances to the old center. 

A view of the river bed park (old Turia River) ... the river bisected the city in two until the mid 50's when a horrific storm and high tide caused the river to overflow it's banks flooding the city with two meters of water. A plan was implemented that diverted the water.

Turia Park is the largest inner city urban park in Europe, offering many activities for everyone. 

Another wonderful botanical specimen and I don't know what it is? 

For being early mid morning the streets were already busy with many people, locals and tourists alike. 

Once through the gates we wandered away from the crowds and found our way to the main square ... Plaza de La Reina (Queen's Square) in the old town.

Time for a coffee break and some people watching ... we discovered a new "chain" of coffee shops here, so much better than our Tim Hortons and Starbucks. 

Cappuccino Grand Café is full of character and atmosphere, their playlist of music is available on CD and for sale.

Their sign says it all ... "best coffee in town"! 

Is there an opportunity to franchise into Canada? I wonder ... 

The view from the café ...

After our enjoyable "coffee break", we were ready to explore some more ... a little time in one of the many churches.

And don't forget it's Saturday ... that's Market Day for me! 

Our small Farmers' Market in Tillsonburg has lots of fresh, farm produce this time of year but nothing like this ... 

Next stop the Central Market located in an unique modernist building.  

Visiting markets isn't for everyone but it truly gives you a look into the culture and life of the locals especially today the Valencianos. 

The market is divided into sections i.e. vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, and specialty items. 

This market was amazing and I now feel like I'm back in Europe! 

I hope you enjoy the tour as much as we did. 

The architecture and the market offerings were exceptional. 

 We were "hamming" it up a bit today ... 

Señor Honey couldn't believe the size of the red peppers ... all this fresh produce! 

My best advice when market shopping ... don't "scrimp on the shrimp"! 

It's too bad we don't have a self-catering place this week, we'd be cooking up a wonderful paella. 

It is said you must eat a Valencian paella with all its fresh seafood, rice, etc. 

Paella anyone?

We strolled a little further before returning to catch the bus back to the port ... some interesting architecture!

 

I'm saying " The water is a little choppy tonight ... where's the gravol?"  

Señor Honey has no problem with the rocking boat! 

We are new to the cruising life and are trying to pace ourselves, we opted for a light dinner in the Terrace Café tonight with a seaside table (12th floor) ...

just what we needed and there was room for some cheese and sweet desserts. 

Which one do you want? 

Señor Honey's cheese and dessert plate ... On my! 

He says "This dessert was the best"  ... Orange Mousse Cake with Praline Cream, yummy! ... and he had room for the cheese and bread! 

My pick was the Tanzanian Chocolate Cake with Molten Caramel ... oh wait the server also added some ice cream and caramel sauce! 

 

Good night from the Mediterranean ...  departed Valencia, Spain at 7:00pm on our way to Palma de Mallorca, Spain (travel distance 140 nautical miles)

Can you tell we both have "sweet tooths"?