Adios Madrid

Easter Sunday

A beautiful Easter Sunday here. I hope it is for all of you as well. The scenery driving North from Madrid to Burgos has been lovely. We climbed high in the Cantabria mountains & there was lots of clouds & snow. Once we went down the other side, it was warmer & a very pretty day.

We stopped in Burgos Spain which is a beautiful city. Timing was perfect as they were just beginning Mass in the courtyard of St Maria Church, a huge 13th century cathedral. It was Catholic service in Spanish but I knew of course what it was about.

We traveled on to Bilbao Spain which is near the border of France & on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. We visited the Googenheim Museum-one of several in the world.

I guess this puppy serves no special significance but it is made entirely of flowers.

Our hotel is here in Bilbao, also. Tonight we are staying in a Novotel which is one of the nicest on our journey. Our ride is long tomorrow - Poitiers France. We will stop in Bordeaux to break up the day.

Madrid -Saturday part 2

One final note on Madrid....
The Aussie girls & I went looking for a place for dinner. We passed a sign & Giselle got excited & said "look they have stike! I asked what stike was. Its steak with the Aussie accent. Another big laugh for us! We found a nice restaurant only a block away but no one spoke English & the menu was all in Spanish. One gal must have gluten-free so she was trying to ask what various items were. One was "lomo" so she went "baaaa" & he said "si" so she took a chance on that. She got her lamb dinner. Another wanted steak & she made her "bull" gesture but what she got was beef stew. Another wanted fish so she made faces like a fish & got it. Hamburger was obvious so thats what I ordered, not taking any chances! All in a, lots of laughs. Of course, a pitcher of sangria helped us along LOL!

We wanted butter for our bread so one gal pointed to her yellow sweater, gestured like she was spreading it & we finally made him understand.

It was a fun evening. This morning we are off to Bilbao Spain!

Happy Easter to everyone!

Madrid-Saturday

Spaniards say Madrid is nearest thing to heaven.

My son may disagree as he prefers Sevilla. In fact, after a couple weeks to rest up, I'm going to stay with Cody. Rich & Tasha are taking their delayed honeymoon in Sevilla Spain.

Our bus tour of the city began @ 9 am. Our Madrid guide took us all over the city & turned us loose in Plaza del Sol in city center. There were 6 of us girls who didn't know each other prior to this trip & we've had a ball together. It happens the others are all from different parts of Australia.

After an afternoon of shopping, 4 of us tried to tell a taxi driver the name of the hotel. That didn't work so one of the gals made horns & said "el toro". He understood then & we all had a good laugh. Our hotel is only a block from the bull ring.

We were disappointed that we couldn't see a bullfight tonite. Wouldn't ya know, it's tomorrow. We leave in the morning for Burgos and Bilbao Spain.

Just for my grandson & great granddaughters, I had my picture taken with their favorite characters.

Buenos Dias, Madrid

Today we were on the bus & headed for Madrid @ 7:45. About 2 hours after we left Barcelona, we crossed the meridian for Greenwich Meantime. Hope the picture turns out I snapped as we passed under the arch.

We stopped in Zaragoza for our lunch break. Timing was bad because as we stepped off the bus, the skies opened up. Luckily the main town square is all enclosed with shops & restaurants but it was a cold rain. The main point of interest is the Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar built in 1681. There are 2 bombs inside the church that were dropped in 1936 during the Spanish War in an attempt to destroy the church. They were unsuccessful & these undetonated bombs remain in the church!

Since we were there on Good Friday, there were 7 processions throughout the day. Not being Catholic I don't understand the significance, but the popes/priests wore different colors in each procession. In the one we observed they were wearing green. The "scary" part was that their cloaks & pointy hoods looked like those worn by KKK! I didn't get any pictures because it rained so hard that I went for cover. Then the hail started & the ground turned white. Unbelievable weather.

The bus ride got to be a little boring because I had finished the book I was reading. I couldn't find a thing in English in Barcelona. One can only play so many games of Solitaire or Bejeweled on the iPhone:)

I'm looking forward to a day touring & shopping in Madrid but I hope it warms up. It's only supposed to be in the 50's!

Barcelona by Day

This morning a local guide, Carlos Picasso, took us on a city tour. We got to see Sagrada Familia from all 4 sides, each side telling a different story.

We took a riding tour then & saw the stadium where the Olympics were held in 1992, then on to the top of a hill with magnificent view of Barcelona & the Mediterranean.

After this, we traveled about one hour to the top of Mount Monserrat where there is a monastery. Too bad it was such a gloomy day because the vistas would have been magnificent.

Our guide said it only rains about 85 days a year & wouldn't you know 2 of those days are while we are here:( Shouldn't complain though as these are the only ugly days we've had.

Barcelona evening out

Tonight we went out to dinner @ Tablea Cordobes in the Ramblas Square. What a buffet! The Sangria was flowing, too:)

After dinner, we saw a flamenco show which was interesting to watch. It's amazing how they can move their feet so fast. There was a story being told but it was in Catalan & Spanish so didn't have a clue what it was about. Luckily there is a Mexican couple in our group so afterward they told us the jest of it. Here are a couple of pictures.

Time to say good night. We are going to Monserrat tomorrow.

Hola Barcelona!

Today we drove to Barcelona, crossing into Spain @ 1 pm. It was 7 am for you @ home. It was raining today so it was a dreary day. Tonight we are going to dinner & flamenco show.

Tomorrow we'll have a city tour then a drive to Monserrat in the Catalonia Mountains. After we returned to the city we will be free to roam Barcelona. I plan to ride the subway...no city buses as I don't want to repeat my experience in Rome!

Eze, Avignon and Carcassone France

Today, Tuesday the 3rd, we traveled from our hotel in Menton through Monaco. I'd have thought it would be quite warm along the French Riviera but got up to clouds & the coolest weather so far, ie, in the 50's. In fact, we had rain from Avignon to Carcassone. Luckily it's a day spent on the road, then dinner @ hotel so the rain is not effecting our day.

First stop was a perfume factory in Eze. It is Fragonard perfume which is apparently well known and quite expensive. We were, however, given a tiny sample bottle.

From Eze we headed west to Avignon, "City of the Popes" so named because in 1300's, certain popes wanted this to be the home of the popes. However, the ruling came down that it should continue to be the Vatican. The popes in Avignon rebelled and they were excommunicated.

From Avignon, we traveled to Carcassone, a medieval city, where we spent the night. It was raining so I didnt get a good picture on arrival. 2nd photo taken Wed morn. Both photos taken from balcony of my room in our 4 star hotel!

Monte Carlo

I'm sooo tired that I wrote in earlier blog that we were on the coast of Adriatic Sea. LOL It's the Mediterranean! We were having a contest on the bus today & I wanted to play so I didn't get to nap. We had to count the # of tunnels we went through between Florence Italy & the French border. My guess was 164. We won't know who won til breakfast.

Tonight we went into Monaco for dinner & then saw the Royal Palace & Monte Carlo casino. I didn't go inside as they charged 10€ admission! Those who did go in said the big Vegas casinos are more plush. This place caters to the famous & royalty such as sheiks, etc. There were Porsches & Bentleys in front!

Tomorrow we're visiting a perfume shop. I hope our hotel tomorrow has wifi too.

Till then, Bonjour!

Menton France

As I write this I am in a laundromat in Menton France on the French Riviera. Never would've dreamed I'd ever be here, let alone do my laundry here.

They promised we would have a place along the way to do laundry but no indication how much it cost! The smaller front load washer is 10€ ($13)! To dry, it is 2.4€ for 15 min. I'm glad this will be the only time on this trip that I'll have to do this!

The good news is the wifi is free so I can get y'all got up.

Several of us came to do laundry so we took turns watching over each others laundry while the others scoped out the streets & nearby beach.

Florence (Firenze) Italy-Palm Sunday

This is a beautiful city on the Arno River. Our 1st evening we were taken to a great Italian restaurant that seems to cater to tours as they were all groups of 20-30, about 300 total in the restaurant. There was one bus load from California. First course, cotto and bruschetta. 2nd course spinach & risotto stuffed ravioli and square of lasagna. 3rd course was choice of fish, chkn or T-bone with potatoes. I had steak! 4th course was gelato. That seems to be the typical dessert. The wine flowed quite freely, too, as it has at all of our meals:)

Out tour guide suggested we not buy leather until we got here. There are many leather shops and we got a tour of Pecuzzi, who is apparently the largest leather tailor in Italy. We were told how to identify genuine leather, very helpful as many shops say theirs is genuine Italian leather when, in fact,the goods are made in China. When it arrives in Italy, they put on buttons or some other adornment and it becomes legal to say "made in Italy" or "genuine leather". Buyer Beware!!

After touring many famous landmarks, we were free to wander the streets of Florence for 4 hrs. As in any tourist destination, if you've seen one shop you've seen them all! But I wandered around on the 2000 yr old cobblestone streets until my back couldn't take another step.

I went to an outdoor cafe & had an
order of garlic bread & Coke. I ate & watched the people....people of all nationalities. Of course, it cost me 9€ ($12) for lunch but I will have the sights & smells as a memory.

Today is Palm Sunday so all the church bells in town are ringing. It is really magical! The church in this photo is Santa Croce.

To give you an idea how tiny cars are,
look @ this tiny car. It's about the size of the kids' Barbie car!

Tonight we are having dinner @ our hotel, then tomorrow we go to Monaco on the French Riviera. We are having dinner near the Monte Carlo casino! Ooo Lala!

Off to Pisa and Florence - Saturday

Today we drove to Pisa to see the leaning tower then it was on to Florence. The church & tower were breathtaking. Did you know this tower didn't begin to lean years after it was built? The architect didn't allow for soft ground so by the time the 2nd tier was finished it had begun to lean. They continued building by trying to compensate for the lean but to no avail. It is currently leaning @ 4 meters. In the UK the betting parlors are taking bets on when it will finally fall!

We are spending the next 2 nights in Florence. Our guide says this is where the best shops & best prices are for genuine Italian leather items. Umm, I wonder about genuine Italian men? LOL!

The 1st place we saw as we entered the city limits was the HQ for Gucci:)

Rome - Friday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my youngest great granddaughter, Brenna, who is 2 today! I miss my babies!

We were up @ 6 & on our way to the Vatican. Being part of a tour group has advantages. We bypassed all the long lines to get in. This is 1 of over 100 pics I took in Vatican! I'm not Catholic but I can appreciate the art & history of it all. Our guide was full of much information so I was trying to take notes & pics. I'll never remember 1/4 of the trivia and data I've heard on this trip! The photo was taken in Vatican Museum.

In the afternoon we went to the Colosseum & Forum. It is unbelievable!
As I said, I've taken many photos but remotely I can upload only those taken with my phone. I'm doing the blogging from my iPhone.

Rome was not built in a day but we did a fine job conquering the sites in one day!!

Bus returned to hotel about 3 pm. Many chose to stay in city center & find their own way home. I went back to charge my phone & change the disk in my camera. I have taken over 1400 this 1st wk & filled an 8gig memory card. Luckily I brought 2 with me.

Around 6 pm, I decided to make my way back to city center as there's a bus stop in front of hotel. No problem getting there. Getting home was a bitch!

Just crossing the street to catch same # bus going the reverse of the route seemed logical but I was very wrong. I had the address of my hotel but didn't know where it was, ie, N, S, E or West side of town. (dumb of me, I know) After getting on/off several buses I heard a gal speaking English so I asked for help. She asked the driver & then translated for me. In the end, I got back to hotel 3 hrs after I'd started the return journey. This nice lady was a doctor who had studied Autism in the States to get her 3rd degree.

This is one memory of Rome I won't forget! It wasn't that I was scared cuz I was alone after dark & couldn't communicate, it was that the buses quit running @ midnight.

I won't mention the scary thing that happened because my kids would be upset with me!

All is well.

Rome - Thursday evening

OMG I could not believe the traffic. I thought NYC was bad but this is ridiculous! No wonder everyone drives Smart Cars or Vespas the way they squeeze between cars & busses! In US, the cops would be writing tickets constantly & tow truck drivers would be millionaires!!

We took a bus ride through downtown Rome & were dropped off. We had to walk for nearly a mile because streets were soooo narrow. We walked to Trevi Fountain. So much bigger than I expected but so beautiful. To find love, it is said u must throw 3 coins into the fountain. I did!

Lo and behold, we get to dinner & we had musicians while we dined & one of the waiters asked me to dance to "Unchained Melody"! Our group laughed & applauded. Dont worry I have pics but they are on my camera, not phone, so I'll post later. This happened after 2nd course.

During 4th course, musicians played My Way (by Sinatra). This very tall handsome man in a nice Italian 3 pc suit came into our dining room. He looked around, came over & took my hand to dance! No one more surprised than me! 2 in one evening Ooo Lala! He even kissed me after the dance to rousing applause. I'm glad they took pictures with my camera:)

Before we left, the waiter gave each lady a rose and kiss on both cheeks.

Oh! I forgot to tell you that one group
wanted me to take a photo at their table. As I returned to my table, the waiter pinched my butt! It was such a fun evening. I was only one of 5 single women in the room but certainly the oldest so it was special for me to be chosen over the "young chicks".LOL

Pictures

1st my gondalier
2nd Bridge of Sighs in Venice
3rd Amsterdam canals
4th Throwing 3 coins in Trevino fountain

Off to Rome! - Thursday

The weather has been phenomenal! Haven't had a day that's cooler than 60 except up in the Swiss Alps.

Today we drove through Appenini Mountains into Tuscany area of Italy. Lovely scenic drive. We went off the Autostrade (interstate) to go to Assisi. Our tour guide called the stretch of road "our free massage" because it was so rough. LOL

St Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of all Italy. Its a beautiful city up on Mt Subasio. This church like St Marks in Venice had beautiful frescos painted on the ceilings. Cameras are not allowed in churches so the pictures I took outside I'll have to share later.

We arrived at hotel @ 4:30 & had to be ready to go into Rome @ 6:30.

Posts may be infrequent as some places charging $10hr!!

Venice#2 - Wednesday

This is a beautiful warm sunny day in Venezia (Venice). Having so much fun speaking Italian even if it is only "Good morning", "Good evening" and "Thank you".

First thing we did today was take a gondola ride. OMG! Seemed so unbelievable to me. I really enjoyed the relaxing ride.

Then we went in St Marco Square. No cameras allowed. The artwork is magnificent.

3 young couples, one from Korea, one from Australia & one from Mexico asked me to join them for lunch. We definitely wanted pasta. Sooo many restaurants, so little room. 1st course is bread & drink, 2nd course is pasta, 3rd course is meat or fish. I can't eat like this twice a day! It was 2:00 by the the time we finished the big lunch. Dinner is @ hotel @7. It is true that the Italians love to eat!

Then we had free time to roam the streets and shop. I wandered down several narrow little streets window shopping. I did find gifts for some family members but I still have Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, French riviera & Paris!! I don't want to spend it all in Venice!

Honestly I haven't spent near as much as I thought I would have at this point but lots of time yet!!

We returned to hotel about 5 pm & evening meal was @ 7. I was in bed by 9 completely exhausted.

What do you think of the gondalier? Another possible Mr Right!! LOL!

Venice #1

We arrived at our hotel on the edge of Venice about 5:30 pm. What a long bus ride! We are rotating seats so today I sat in first row. The other seats are comfortable but first row has no leg room. It was like seating in economy on an airplane and seeing what the 'pilot' was doing.

Obviously there are no cars in Venice. To accommodate our bus, the hotel was on the mainland. It was a Holiday Inn with the biggest bed I've ever seen! It was size of 2 double beds. After getting refreshed, we were driven to the dock where we were met by Marco. (Could Marco be Mr Right?? LOL) We boarded his boat & he took us into Venice-about 20 min ride.

It was dark but oh so beautiful! We strolled down some of the narrow alleys/streets on out way to our 1st real Italian dinner. Bellisamo! 5 courses & all the wine we could drink! Italian waiters wearing tuxes, being very charming. It was great!

I have to say our group is a fun group. We mingle well & laugh alot. We had one small dining room to ourselves & we were all taking pictures of each other as one of the memories of the evening.

We arrived back at the hotel about midnight. OMG we have to be up @ 7 for our tour of St Marks Square & our gondola ride.

Off to Venice

Sorry for the delay in my posts but hotel was charging 5€ for an hr's worth of wifi!

We had to b up & have suitcase outside our door by 6:00 am in Lucerne as we had an 8 hr bus ride to Venice.

En route we went thru the Gotthard tunnel which is 17kilometers (10 miles) long - the 2nd longest in Europe. The longest being in Norway. The gov't is building a 57 km (35 mi) tunnel but it will be for trains.

(I downloaded a conversion app on my iPhone that has been helpful for converting different currency, kilometers to miles as well as Celsius to Fahrenheit, etc.

We stopped in Lugano Switzerland for a brief respite. After walking around a bit, I sat at an outdoor Burger King on Lake Lugano (Switzerland). It's 60 degrees here @ 10 am! I know u r asking why Burger King? Well we were crossing into Italy so I wanted to use the last of my Swiss Francs plus I missed having hamburger & coke LOL!

Swiss Francs are worthless basically on the rest of trip. We switch back to Euro in Italy. Then back in London it's Pounds Sterling again. Now u can c why I have a conversion app!

The great thing about the iPhone is that I have been able to talk to family on an app called Viber. It works using wifi so no charge! All the hotels have wifi but nowhere in between.

Next stop was Verona Italy. Picture perfect postcard views of some old Roman architecture! This is the city where Shakespeare was inspired to write Romeo & Juliet. I didn't think to take a pic with my phone so you'll have wait till I post pics from my camera.

Ciao, baby!

Lucerne-Mt Titlis

After the cruise we took a 40 min bus ride into the Alps. To be honest, if you've ever traveled west you've seen snow on the mountains so in that respect it wasn't anything different. What made it special is that it is The Swiss Alps!!

We took a cable lift to 5000' then switched to a 2nd car that rotated as we climbed to 10,000'. OMG I was dizzy the entire time. Had soup & sprite to settle my stomach. In US$ it costs me $25-the Sprite was $6!! BTW, Gas is $9 gallon!!

I took the next cable car back down and it was picking up speed going downhill but the views are breathtaking.

Our guide had told us to prepare for cold but it turns out, I was overdressed. So many of them were not used to cold but hey it's nothing for a Michigander:). Since I came down early I got 45 min to enjoy the sun. It was wunderbar!

We had the rest of the day to ourselves so I went shopping. Two grandsons are getting Swiss Army knives. I wanted a Swiss watch but not at these prices LOL! Switzerland is very expensive.