Night train

We decided to catch a night train to Nice. It saved on accommodation and time. It wasn't a particularly great trip. We had to change trains at Cerbere (sp?) just on the French/Spain border. There was nothing there and the toilets were disgusting. The overnight train itself was very basic. We probably only slept about half the trip - fitfully at that. Still, I got to see the sweep of the Cote D'Azur - The French Riviera - at night with all the lights.

Okay....got to go. Less than two minutes of time left. Updates will be whenever we have some spare time....too busy now!

Long time - no blog

Well, we've been travelling like mad to get across to Croatia in time to meet Steph, Michael and Jackie (their landlady!). Currently we are in Verona. We've had a lovely day but are heading to Bologna this evening as the hotels are expensive in Verona. The Arena has Aida on at the moment so prices are probably higher than normal.

Since the last blog we've been to:
- Granada
- Valencia
- Barcelona
- Nice
- Verona

That's a lot to tell you about in the 10 minutes or so of internet time I have left. Here goes though...

Granada was fantastic. It is the site of the Alhambra. A famous fortress. A lot of it is in excellent condition. We've taken quite a few photos to show you later. Granada was one of the places we really wanted to go to but for a while we didn't think we'd get there. We even got up super early to join the queues for the tickets available for the day (as all the pre-bookable ones were sold out well in advance). After a 6am wake-up in our Grenada hotel with the intent of being in the queue by 7am we couldn't find the place. We drove around in circles and didn't join the line until nearly 8am. We were concerned that we wouldn't get tickets or the only tickets would be available in the afternoon (they only let a certain number of people into the palace every half hour) and we really needed to get going. We'd hired a car but needed to return in within three days in Barcelona. Quite a bit of driving involved! In the end we got a ticket for 11:30am. That gave us a couple of hours to look around the rest of the place too. Brilliant, it was and well worth it.

Valencia was okay. Not especially exciting but pretty enough.

Barcelona was good. We've both been there before but it was good to get a better look at it. The tour bus was excellent. We got on and off that several times. Spent 4-5 hours touring the place seeing one of the parks, several churches (including Sagrada Familia) and Guell Park (with a lot of Gaudi's work).

I'm going to stop this blog now before I run out of time. I'll start a new one on our trip to France.

Transport hick-ups

Well, we´ve struck our first major transport problems. We were hoping to catch an overnight train to Barcelona, but there´s nothing available for days...if then. We´ve looked at day trains and different routes. We´ve looked at flights and ferries. All have been too expensive or not available. Instead, we´ve gone for a hire car. This is costing us 150 Euros for three days but it can´t be helped. We are hoping that we won´t strike this problem too much. School holidays have brought a lot of people down to the Costa del Sol so this might explain the problem. We´ve had a quick look at trains from Barcelona and it doesn´t look too good at the moment. We´ll sort something out I´m sure.

We´ve also just seen that British Airways staff are striking next week that could effect our friends getting to Croatia. All fun and games. At the end of the day, we are on holiday and just have to make the most of things. It might just hit the budget a bit more than we hoped.

At least the second part of our trip (Turkey and Egypt) is mostly on tours so we won´t have to arrange anything there and we know what the costs are.

By the way, we didn´t do much today. Went to the beach briefly and tried to organise our journey. It was still quite enjoyable though.

Ronda

Mel and I went up to the town of Ronda last night. When I say "up", I mean it. The town is about an hour from where we are staying. Most of that trip is up into the mountains. According to the Lonely Planet, it has an elevation of 725 metres. It´s a cliff-top town so you get some awesome views out over the plains. Ronda also has the oldest remaining bull ring...frequented by the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles. One presumes that they were just spectators! There are some lovey buildings but, apart from the view, the most spectacular thing to see is the Puente Nuevo (new bridge?) completed in 1793. This spans a gorge and connects the old town and the new.

It´s a very different place from Arcos de la Frontera was despite being another hilltop town. Arcos only has an elevation of 185 metres so the views from Ronda are that much better. Arcos had lovely little winding streets that don´t happen to nearly the same extent in Ronda. Ronda also feels much bigger but the population is quite similar. I guess that might just be the layout of the place.

We had a pleasant meal. Mel had some Partridge that just fell off the bone. I had some rather nice Cod. Our vegetables were over-cooked. We understand that this is quiet common in Andalucia (all over Spain?). A bit of a shame as the fresh fruit and vegetables are great. Apparently you can get Tamarillos here. We went looking the other day but they´d sold out. I wanted to introduce Mel to them as she´s never heard of them. Tamarillos are also know as Tree Tomatoes. They are a fruit that has some simularities with a passionfruit except they can be a bit tart. Lovely with a little bit of sugar. Just halve them and dig out the contents...yummy. Maybe we´ll find some before we leave Spain.

The Rock!

We went to Gibraltar today. We arranged to meet up with our friend Aretha. She´s from Gib but lives in London with Steve Harris who I went to primary school with. Aretha´s Dad conducts bus tours when he´s not doing his usual job (with immigration). So, Aretha kindly arranged for the four of us (Mel, myself, Jayne and Petra) to go on a tour with herself and her Dad. We had a wonderful trip around Gib. Of course, we got to see the Apes - several hundred of them live wild on Gib. Hopefully we´ve got some good shots of them. We had lunch with Aretha in the main square.

Gibraltar is only about 30 mins drive from where we are staying. Amazingly close. We came home mid-afternoon but headed out in the evening to do some shopping. I had to buy sunglasses to replace the Raybans I´ve managed to lose already.

Anyway, that´s about all for now...it´s getting late.

Estepona

We are in Estepona at the moment. Actually, we are at Mel´s friend Jane´s boss´s place outside Estepona. The place is pretty fantastic for a holiday home. There are five bedrooms, a pool, three cars (Jeep Cherokee, 4WD VW and something else equally impressive). We expect to be here for the rest of the week. We went down to Marbella yesterday. It´s quite built-up and very busy. It reminds me of the Cote D'Azur on the South Coast of France (think Cannes and Nice), but more intense.

We bought a whole lot of food for the house. We also had to buy me some sandals. My old ones have worn out already. Actually, I did buy them four years ago in the Canary Islands for about four pounds but they have had a lot of use in the last few days.

I also managed to lose my Rayban sun glasses. I´ve borrowed a pair for the moment but that will be my next big purchase. Oh well, these things happen.

It´s nice to be relaxing at the moment and we are planning some day trips while we are here so we won´t be bored! It´s actually a nice break after all the bits and pieces we had to sort with regards to packing, cleaning and generally sorting things out in the UK.

Seville in the Sun

We´re in Seville at the moment. Possibly getting overcharged for the hotel as it was supposed to be 50 Euros a night but the cheapest room they had on arrival was 70 Euros. But the place is lovely. It´s called Amadeus and has the theme you would expect - including two pianos and lots of musically themed objects around the place. It´s just down the road from the old town with lots of tiny backstreets (you can reach out and touch each side of the alleys very easily). We´ve had lovely Paella for dinner with Gazpacho soup for a starter. Delicious. All enjoyed sitting outside in the warm winter air.

We had a bus tour this evening. The city has some wonderful buildings. The tour was a little disappointing as there was very little commentary. Avoid the red bus tour. The green bus tour might be better...but then again!?!

We started our travels in Jerez in the Spanish provence of Andalucia. We did this because the flights were cheap and we want to get to Estepona to see friends by Saturday. Jerez is quite nice though. We had a good wander around. One day is plenty though.

Then we went to Arcos. A fabulous hill town with winding streets again. It´s only 30 minutes away by bus. We got to have a nice meal sitting outdoors. Seems to be the thing to do in Spain in Summer.

Tomorrow we will catch the train to Malaga and then find our way to meet our friends at the airport. From there we will all go to Estepona.

The plan is to do a day trip to Gibraltor on Saturday. It sounds like we might be able to catch up with a friend (Aretha) who lives in London but is from Gibraltor. She´s going to be visiting family.

It´s great when you can catch up with friends will travelling!!!

The movers are coming...

Well, it's good-bye PC. The next blog entry won't be until we're on holiday. Yippee!!

The movers arrive around noon tomorrow. It's amazing how much you accumulate. Even after countless trips to the charity shop and lots sold on eBay we've still got lots to send. I hope it doesn't cost too much!