Wednesday 31 October 2012

Hi all.  Janice here.  We are sitting in a sidewalk cafe in Arcachon.  It is a nice sunny day about 15 degrees.  We don't have wi-fi in the apartment so I am sending this from here.

Thursday, Oct 25th -  We got an unexpected hot, sunny day.  We spent the day on the beach about 2 km from the villa.  Had a nice relaxing day.  Ed & Sharon were the only ones to brave the cold ocean water.  We had dinner in town at the same restaurant that we had dinner at 2 nights before.

Friday, Oct 26th-  We went to the town of Camilles for the market.  We did a bit of exploring in the town and then headed for El Solplao.  El Solpao is a cave.  It was a mine and in 1910 the miners discovered the beautiful formations of stalagmites,stalagtites and eccentrics(stalagtites that look like coral or filigree.  The miners never told anyone about this until the mine closed in the 1970s. It was spectacular. We went about a kilometer into the cave(there are 20kms in all).  It was like an underground sea.  Magnificent formations that took hundreds of thousands of years to form. It is the best example of eccentrics in the world.
We had another great dinner at the villa.   

Sunday 28 October 2012

Hi all.  Here are some photos to go with the last blog post. 

 
                                              The mushroom pickers

                                               The field of sunflowers
Roman bridge over San Vicente river
                                            View from the villa
                                           The villa
Another view from the villa
                                              Kitchen
Living room
Mechanical flag man.  We think he is probably in the same
     union as the crash test dummies
                                           On the beach on Tuesday
                                               Wednesday at Huelga beach
                                              Those rocks are sharp
The narrow, narrow road to the beach
Gulpiyuri beach

                                            It is in the middle of a field
This is what you see when approaching the beach 

Saturday 27 October 2012

Hi all. Janice here again. Time to bring you up to date on the adventures of four old teenagers in Europe. 

Monday, Oct 22nd - We left Logrono, Spain on our way to the small village of La Revilla.  We went through some beautiful scenic country, of course on some, but not all, winding roads.  We saw a couple in a field alongside the road picking something and thought it might be truffles.  So Ed turned around and went back and he went into the field and found out they were picking mushrooms.  It had rained recently so that is a good time to find mushrooms.  Inquiring minds need to find these things out.  We did not see any fields of sunflowers in Tuscany but we did see some on our way to La Revilla.  They were not tall sunflowers and were just some volunteers growing after the crop was harvested but we will take what we can get. (pictures to follow) We arrived at our villa about 6PM. We had left a message for our host, Guido, to meet us there but he apparently didn't listen to his messages as we had to phone again and him and his wife came to meet us.  They brought dinner and wine.  The house is very nice.  Up on a hill in a small village.  You can see the Atlantic Ocean from here. We are only a few minutes drive to the beach.  Guido and his wife Rosana showed us around, gave us tips on things to see and places to eat.  After they left we ate the great meal that Rosana had prepared and of course drank some wine.

Tuesday, Oct 23rd - It was a nice day so we headed to a beach that Ed had read about.  It was about an hour away.  We didn't find it but did find another beach that was very nice so we spent the afternoon there.  Ed was the only one who braved the cold water. 
We came back to our villa and had appys before we went to town for dinner.  We are getting Europeanized as we had dinner at 9PM.  We had a three course meal including 2 bottles of wine for 10 euros each.

Wednesday, Oct 24th -  It was a bit of a sun/cloudy day but we headed out to the beach anyway.  We wanted to find an inland beach we had read about.  We travelled about 1/2 hour or so to a small town south of here and we saw a sign for the beach we had looked for the day before.   We turned off to find this beach and of course it was on narrow, dirt road barely wide enough for one car.  We did find the beach but it was high tide so there really was no beach but great scenery.  Of course we continued on down this narrow, narrow, rough, dirt road and you would not believe it but we found the sign for the inland beach.  It was just like finding the hotel in Frankfurt, it was pure dumb luck.  The beach is called Gulpiyuri and it is a National Heritage Site.  It is an inland beach located 100 metres from the coast.  It is in the middle of a field.  You have to walk through the field to get to it.  You climb down  to the beach, which is about 40 metres, semi-circular, with white sand and a tranquil pool.(at low tide, which it was)  It is completely full of water at high tide.  It was a very unique place.  We stayed there for a couple of hours. 
We travelled back to San Vicente de la Barquera (the main town near where we are staying) and walked around a bit, had beer and wine at a sidewalk cafe and did some grocery shopping for dinner.
We had a nice meal at the villa and played some cards before retiring.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Hi all. Just a few photos that go with the last blog installment.

                                            The waves crashing to shore                  
                                                An artichoke
                                              Waiting for lunch in Vinaros
                                            A square in Vinaros    
                                           Ed in the pool at the villa in Peniscola
                                                         Our mixed meat skewer, chicken, beef, pork
                                           On the way to Logrono
                                             A city up on the mountain

                                           A very, very narrow road
                                             Having a drink at the bar at our hotel in Logrono
                                           The creme carmel dessert we had
 Hi All, Sharon here.  Just to let you all know that there are some days we may post more than one blog - it is just that we get behind at times so be  sure  to  check the archived blogs.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday  - Oct 19, 20, 21.  Peniscola -The weather has turned cooler and rainy so we have been relaxing at the Villa and spending time exploring locally.  We had a late lunch on Friday in Vinaros a small town near here, we found a large Carrefour which is  a Supermarket attached to a short strip mall.  The rain started very heavily so we headed back to the Villa, stopped to pick up two pizzas from the supermarket and planned an evening in.  Brenda, Damien and Danica Skyped us - it was wonderful seeing and talking to them.  Saturday morning we woke to a grey drizzly day again so we decided to drive into Peniscola and walk around.  We were able to find a few souvenirs and then it started to pour so we found a restaurant and sat under a canopy and enjoyed an amazing lunch of pasta.  We returned to the Villa, relaxed, played cards and had some wine before we headed out for dinner - do you see a pattern developing?  We went to the local pub and had another scrumptious meal.  Sunday we set the alarm for 6:00am and got ready for the road trip to our next destination.  We planned on having breakfast in Peniscola before we left town, but learned that the Spanish are not early risers and breakfast is not served until at least 9:00am so we proceed on our way.  About one hour later we finally found a restaurant open - it was right on top of a mountain in a small village.  We (Ed) decided that we would tour around this little village before heading towards our final destination and as usual we found a VERY narrow, windy and single lane road that was perched right on the edge of a VERY high mountain.  We drove along this road, with Beulah (GPS) assuring us that we were on the right path, but it wasn't more than a goat trail so convinced Ed to turn around and find a more comfortable route.  Remember this is a single lane road so guess what.......we met an oncoming vehicle and this elderly gentleman indicated that we should back up.  He shut his vehicle off, came over to us and even after Ed told him that we do not understand Spanish, he continued to tell us that we must back up.  He won - we backed up!  We arrived at our overnight destination around 3:30pm - it is a very nice hotel right downtown in Logrono, Spain.  We went downstairs to the bar after a short rest and thought we would have our dinner, but being in Spain, dinner isn't served until 8:30pm.  Later we enjoyed an excellent three course meal including two bottles of wine for 19 euros per person.  Our waiter, Julio did not speak one word of English, but with Ed being so good at charades, was able to make him understand what our wishes were.  A few laughs over that !
An interesting foot note - we have observed "ladies of the night", later in the afternoons sitting at the side of the highway in a lawn chair waiting for an interested gentleman to come along!

Saturday 20 October 2012

Hi all.  Janice here with some photos of Valencia.

                                              This is the opera house
                                           Another view of the opera house
                                              One end of the Hemisferic
                                                   The Hemisferic
                                          The walkway is the Umbracle. The 'eye' is the Hemisferic
                                               The Agora
                                            The Oceanografic
                                           One of the buildings in the Oceanografic Centre
                                            The round sphere is an aviary
                                           Pelicans
                                           By far the ugliest fish I have ever seen. A sun fish.
                                           At first I didn't think it was real it was so ugly and weird.
                                            In a tunnel with fish swimming around and over us
                                             Penquins
                                              Some tropical fish
                                            You have heard of a sea horse, this is a sea dragon
                                            We found Nemo and his twin brother, Frank
                                             Lori walking by a huge tank
                                           Some bright coloured birds in the aviary
                                             Arctic penquins
Museum and the Agora
                                           The Opera House,the Hemisferic, the Museum
                                            Walking along the Umbracle
                                            One last view of the Opera House