Spain has turned out to be a real highlight for us despite a rather unpleasant experience shortly after our grand entrance (see Road Ramble). Traveling south from Madrid we made our way to the cool medieval town of Toledo that’s famous for its rich history of sword and armour making. If you’re in the market for a new sword, or suit of armour, this is definitely the place to go. Our campground was just a pleasant 20 minute walk down the hill from one of the old city gates. Onward we drove to Cordoba where we visited the Mezquita, one of the most interesting buildings we have seen so far. This huge “Mosque/Cathedral”, in relatively good condition, dates back 12 centuries surviving turbulent times. It’s very unique Christian-Islamic architecture is quite fascinating to experience all under one roof making for an interesting story and walk through. The close by palace and gardens are also worth mentioning. The drive from Cordoba to Granada was very beautiful and went by way to quickly. In Granada we had to pre-arrange our tickets to visit the famous Alhambra Palace as they only allow a limited number of visitors per day. This is a massive and impressive complex that also has a very colourful Moorish (Arabic) history dating back to 1238. This was the last Islamic stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and fell to Catholic Monarchs in 1492. Later on it even survived Napoleon who tried in vain to blow-it-up. This large complex also has the same very impressive mix of architecture all situated on a magnificent hilltop setting overlooking the old-town and valleys below. Besides the many fun little shops in the old-town, the massive 16th century Gothic Cathedral was also an impressive site to see. A little further south and we were greeted by the sandy beaches of the Costa del Sol. We stopped for the night in Nerja to pay tribute to George and Oksana’s old stomping grounds from their mid eighties travel adventure. This stretch of the Mediterranean is very well utilized and you find an abundance of hotels, resorts, strip malls, shopping centres, restaurants, villas, condos and golf courses… Cam. It seemed busy now but they say in the summer months you can hardly move it’s so crowded, and hot too. We’ve ended up in a nice campground in the village of Calahonda (love the name but I think it should be Calaharley instead) that was recommended to us by a wonderful couple from Huntington Beach, California. We first met this amazing couple in Pompei and then again in Rome and now in Calahonda. He’s a retired aero space engineer who worked on a number of projects including the Apollo missions. Between his work contracts, Barbara now 82 and Greg 87 have been traveling Europe off and on for extended periods of time with and without there children since the early sixties. For this trip they loaded their Mercedes-Benz on a freighter in California and picked it up in Germany where they bought a nice new holiday trailer to pull behind it. I thought we were doing well but they make us look like amateurs, they’re loaded with valuable information and great stories but best of all their fun to be around. Last night we all took the bus miles down the coast to a great Chinese restaurant they knew about and then successfully fumbled our way back home in the dark. These two are such an inspiration, I can only hope that we have this kind of health, drive, and courage when we’re approaching our mid eighties. We initially planned on staying in this campground for one or two days but the new plan will see us here for probably ten. Every day It seems to get harder to leave as this entire area of the coast is starting to fill up with snowbirds from northern Europe and many of the estimated half million escapees are from England. We did manage to squeeze in a bus tour to Tangiers, Morocco. It was a very interesting trip but because we had such a quick visit to the port city, I’m sure we missed much of the true blue Moroccan experience. But from what we saw and have heard, keep an eye on this strategically placed city and country because in the next 10-15 years, it will be the number one major centre of commerce for northern Africa. This will be partly due to Moroccans progressive, welcoming and non discriminating nature when it comes to business and religion. We really have enjoyed almost everything about Spain and would love to spend another month exploring it but the clock is ticking and people tell us that Portugal is also great so we’re now looking forward to our time heading north along the Portuguese West Coast.

Road Ramble:

We never expected to be traveling for the better part of a year without a few negative experiences, but four rip-off’s is enough already. We told you about the pick-pocket in Germany, our bogus parking ticket in Sicily, and our really bogus bus ticket infraction in Florence. Now unfortunately we have to add a “break-in” to that annoying little list. It happened about an hour after we entered Spain when we pulled into the parking lot of a very large grocery chain store at about two in the afternoon. The area had lots of people around and I intentionally parked near the front entrance within the sightline of a busy outdoor restaurant. We did notice some older kids riding there skateboards around and utilizing the side of the parking lot not too far away, but they looked non-threatening and we decided they looked too innocent to be crooks (Not so according to other camper travellers that we have talked to since). We were in the store for about half an hour and upon our return we discovered our motorhome cabin door lock had been punched out and a few things messed about inside. We quickly looked around and found all our obvious valuables were still in place and therefore figured they must have been spooked, running off before any serious damage could be done. It wasn’t until later that we discovered they actually did get away with two back-packs, one having significant sentimental and monetary value. Inside the packs were rain jackets, an umbrella and a few other miscellaneous things but definitely worth noting was Margot’s small address book (no e-mail addresses) that was inside her backpack. So, just in case, if you get a suspicious call asking you to send money to some obscure destination to help save us from imminent disaster, hang-up and fire us off an e-mail instead. As all break-in’s are, this was a very disturbing experience but we do consider ourselves lucky because it could have been so much worse. Thankfully we did get our lock fixed at a dealership in Madrid and again have learned the hard way that in this part of the world you should never leave a motorhome unattended in unsecured locations, particularly along the Mediterranean coast. But for some strange reason however, we can’t stop thinking that possibly those kids on the skateboards followed us all the way from Italy just waiting for the right opportunity to strike. Possibly they work for the transit authority in Florence.

It’s with a broken heart that we post this blog. We have just received word that a truly amazing young gentleman in our newly extended family has tragically passed away following a terrible highway accident near Mission, BC on Friday morning. Our feelings are overwhelmed with grief as we try to comprehend this loss and our deepest thoughts and prayers are with the family.

Barcelona and Madrid:

Barcelona was a pleasant surprise for us and we would consider it to be one of the nicest cities we’ve experienced so far. Clean, safe and organized, it’s a perfect pedestrian city with mega wide sidewalks on mega wide boulevards lined with trees, shops, and filled with people. Countless restaurants, fantastic architecture, and a spectacular waterfront with miles of sandy beach. This is also the home of artist architect Antoni Gaudi and a number of his famous works are within easy walking distance of the city centre. By far the most important of his work is the Church Sagrada Familia and a trip through this basilica is truly an outstanding experience regardless of your spiritual beliefs. You can’t help but be moved in some personal way even if it’s just the architectural splendour of this structure that leaves you in awe. Not bad for a building that’s not yet finished. Construction started in 1883 and still following Gaudi’s design, they hope to have it completed by 2040. As we wandered through the organically themed Cathedral the sound of ongoing construction echoed throughout and almost made it sound alive. Sagrada Familia is now one of the top tourist attractions in Europe and Gaudi himself, who’s buried in the crypt, has hero status in Spain and is considered one of Barcelona’s greatest citizen.
We didn’t spend much time in Madrid as we camped a fair distance away in a famous little town called Aranjuex and took the train into Madrid centre. We managed to squeeze in a very interesting trip to the impressive Royal Palace and then we explored the very crowded city centre area. Known for it’s very high rate of petty street crime, we felt a bit nervous wandering about the packed downtown and we actually preferred the smaller town we camped in. Just a short walk from our campground, through beautiful Royal parks, was another splendid Royal Palace called “Chiquitren” and it was used as a spring retreat for the Spanish Royals. The Royals called it the “Farm House” but it’s not like any farm-house we’ve ever seen.
We will now be heading towards the south coast with stops in Toledo, Cordoba and Granada along the way.

Road Ramble:

I actually had a ramble topic for this blog but in light of the recent events at home I find it hard to ramble on about anything. Instead, we would like to leave you all with a message of love, especially to our children, Kristen & Erik, Cam & Lia, whom we are missing a lot right about now. Make the most of every single day and remember to hug the ones you love.

We’ve covered a lot of ground in a very short period of time as we pointed our bow in the direction of southern Spain. It’s been two weeks since we left Rome but it feels more like a few action packed days. After a nice visit to Siena we wound our way through the beautiful Tuscany countryside and found our well hidden campsite in Florence. Excited about checking out this epicentre of the renaissance, we headed out early the next morning with Michelangelo’s famous statue of David squarely in our sights as our first cultural contact. You know, it’s amazing how quickly ones attitude and opinion of a place can change with just one negative experience, like a transit “rip-off” first thing in the day, yes… Another! “Bogus Ticket” (Check-out the “Road Ramble” to fully appreciate our still boiling blood). Trying hard to overcome our anger about such an unjust experience we did manage to have a decent day exploring much of this fantastic old city and after waiting in line for two hours to see David, for one brief moment, we were so overwhelmed that we completely forgot about our most recent Italian ill-treatment.
We drove from Florence to Pisa where we made a quick guest appearance with the tower, such a remarkable site to see from close-up. The Italian Rivera is truly “eye candy” all the way to Monte-Carlo where Monaco itself then becomes the crowning jewel. Lucky for our bank account, we just missed the mega Monaco Yacht Show just below the Casino. But Jim, we did find a nice new blue and white boat for you, it’s the one in the harbour photo attached. Along the way to Monaco we got a glimpse of the salvaged ill-fated Costa Concordia at dock, such a sad sight and story. From Monaco we zipped along the interesting beachfront of Cannes looking for movie stars but only found miles of empty wet sand… they must have all been in Venice for George Clooney’s wedding.
We drove inland along Napoleon’s trail through Grasse (Famous for the development of French perfume) to impressive Avignon with its famous bridge and song “Pont du-Avignon”. A quick and interesting drive along the French southern coast finds us now at the doorstep to Spain with Barcelona just next door and Madrid not far away. The weather is chilling, the Fall colours are beautiful and the warmth of southern Spain is now calling our name.

Road Ramble: And yet another Bogus ticket.

When traveling in Italy forget about the Mafia or petty crime on the streets of Rome; instead, watch out for the sneakier and even “legal” local municipal scams. Yes, we did get a second bogus $80 ticket and this time it was for improperly stamping a bus ticket.
We were very excited to arrive in Florence and experience all the culture and beauty. When checking into our campground the lady said we could purchase our bus tickets from her so I asked for 4 (2 to travel into the city centre, and 2 for the return trip). To our surprise, she said there was a single ticket that could be used for two people but it needed to be stamped on the bus in both directions. We thought to ourselves what a great idea having two kinds of tickets therefore saving paper and reducing garbage. So we headed for the bus with ticket in hand. When we looked at the ticket it said “Validate on boarding the first vehicle” which we thought we did when “punching it” as we entered the bus (It did not say to validate for each rider using this ticket and therefore punch the ticket twice). So, when the “transit agent ticket lady” asked to see our ticket we had no concerns whatsoever. When she told us that we were in violation we were shocked, we tried to explain to her what had happened and that we misunderstood the two punch process but we had purchased our tickets at full price and she could phone the campground to check our story. She became loud and aggressive and would not even consider the awkward and difficult situation we found ourselves in. She told us we were in Italy and therefore we should speak and read Italian, then we wouldn’t have this problem. Obviously she was not a leading ambassador of tourism. We could tell that other people on the bus were concerned about her lack of reason, understanding and judgement and also the way she was treating a pair of confused city guests about to spend money in their city. One nice local lady even tried to reason with the agent on our behalf but got the same rude treatment that we did.
We did become upset about the complete unfairness of this situation and wanted to talk to a transit company superior or supervisor to explain our situation but she said she was going to call the police if we didn’t pay now. We said fine because we had not broken any laws by intent and possibly the police could help us reason with this lady. When we explained our story to the police officer we could tell he felt the whole situation was unnecessary and should never have happened, but he had no choice but to support the transit agent. We produced our identification, and she wrote-up a violation for $55 Euros ($80). We had understood that we would now walk into the main terminal with the ticket agent and speak to a supervisor to explain, with her present, but as we went further inside the terminal she pointed at a ticket office line-up and walked away shouting something to us in Italian. After waiting in line for some time we explained what had happened to two different desk agents and were told that the issuing agent had used very poor judgement in issuing this fine and implied that she should have shown some discretion considering the unusual circumstances involved, but they could not help fix this for us. Needless to say, we were a bit upset for the rest of the entire day. Upset about the added expenditure, upset about the embarrassing confrontation, upset because of how unjust, uncompromising, unfriendly and unfair this experience was for two confused travellers. We paid the fine to the agent at the counter and she felt so bad that she suggested we write the transit authority… good luck! When we explained what had happened to the campground lady, she was furious as this has happened before and seemed to be a regular scam. She had already written the transit company a number of times and the local newspaper about this apparent abuse of ignorant tourists and was told the practice would end… good luck! After two bogus municipal fines in Italy, we leave feeling a bit disappointed about the local authorities but we’re now looking forward to a more friendly experience in Spain.