Adventures in Paris and on to Spain

We have embarked on another adventure, off to Spain for 4 weeks on a packaged long-stay vacation. Long flight, left Edmonton at 6:10 PM Sept. 29, arrived Amsterdam the next morning. Short layover then off to Paris where we had a 7 hour wait until the last flight. I had done some research beforehand so we bought a day pass on the train & headed into Paris where we visited the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral - both very impressive in their own way.

Our last flight took us to Malaga, Spain on the Costa del Sol where we were pleasantly surprised to see that our luggage had survived 3 different airlines & arrived with us. We were met by our local representative who ushered us into our waiting transfer - a lovely Mercedes - the driver standing there holding a sign with our name, just like in the movies! We arrived in Torremolinos, a seaside city on the Mediterranean & checked in to our room at midnight. Great sea & mountain views, right on the walkway along the beach, buffet meals breakfast & dinner (included in our package) - hope our clothes fit on our way home!

We are spending our free days wandering along the beach, picking up sea glass, fancy stones & shells, stopping for beer or wine at the many restaurants & pubs and window shopping in the many shops. We have several excursions booked, some included, some extra, our first was to the city of Nerja, perched on a cliff above the sea. We visited the caves (Cueves de Nerja) which is a series of vast caverns filled with stalagmites & stalagmites, the tallest measuring 32 metres in length. We also stopped in Frigiliana, one of the typical white villages perched on the side of a mountain - very picturesque. Lunch was a huge seafood paella & pitchers of sangria that just kept coming! There is a group of about 16 here at our hotel that are on the same package, along with others at different hotels or apartments - we travel together & have met a bunch of great folks.

The city of Ronda was our next day trip - it sits on a massive rocky outcrop, straddling a very deep limestone gorge (330 ft deep & 200 ft. wide) and it has been there since well before the 1400's. The "new" bridge was finished in 1793 & joined the 2 sides of the city. Ronda has one of the oldest & the most important bullring in Spain, inaugurated in 1785. We also stopped to visit a Catholic Church built over the remains of a Moorish mosque from the 13th century, very ornate! The streets of many of these "white towns" are very narrow, evidenced by the many scratched & dented fenders on the cars. We made a short stop in the coastal city of Marbella, the seaside home of many rich & famous - yachts, expensive shopping & luxury cars - saw our first Mazerati.

Next stop jolly old England, or the city of Gibraltar, 30,000 British subjects living next to The Rock (of Gibraltar) on a small peninsula of land on the coast of Spain. It has been a British territory since 1713 & an important military post. There are 50 km of tunnels inside the rock, used for housing troops, hospitals, ammunition during the war. We were given a tour of a short section of tunnel, where we were told that Canadian troops were invaluable in constructing the tunnels. Gibraltar is home to 200 Barbary macaques, a somewhat friendly ape, but don't get too close!

The city has a few oddities - you have to drive across the airport runway to get into town and every house has sea water piped in for use in the toilets. We, of course, had to eat fish & chips with mushy peas for lunch, along with a good British ale. We caught a glimpse of North Africa across the Stait of Gibraltar, we head there later this week.

Home, sweet home

Before we started seriously heading north we took a drive to Oatman, Arizona, always a fun place with burros wandering free. Had Navajo frybread for lunch & did some rockhounding around old mine sites. Nice to see the desert in bloom. We left behind the temperatures in the high 30's (celcius!), drove straight thru Vegas & stopped in Mesquite for their $4.99 16 oz. ham steak & eggs. Put $20 in the slots, gave me a decent amount of entertainment, but no cash unfortunately.

We drove thru Salt Lake City, I swear we were in "city" driving for over 2 hours! On to Idaho Falls, dark clouds everywhere, we stayed 2 nights after talking to the kids & hearing about the snow in Edmonton & also forecast for the mountain passes. We spent the day huddled in the RV with the generator powering our 2 space heaters, plus the furnace in the morning - we had awoke to 1C inside & -4C outside! We bought our last really cheap gas - $2.16.

We spent time making sure that all the food in the fridge & freezer was either eaten, tossed or on the list for customs. We arrived early on April 4, Easter Saturday to the border, duly declared our excess alcohol, were asked only about tobacco, firearms, vehicle repairs & were told to have a nice day!! We were fully prepared to pay duty, but I guess it was our lucky day or coffee time for the customs guys. The whole process took less than 5 minutes.

We were lucky to have no snow on the hiways, some on the edges & lots on the hills, in Alberta only patches here & there. We saw antelope & lots of ducks & geese, got photos of a huge flock of snow geese headed much further north.

 We were home by 5:00, greeted by 6 months of mail!
We have managed to sort & deal with the stack of mail, the RV has been emptied & will wait for cleaning till it's warmer. The fridge is restocked & now we will try to settle into our summer routine. Have seen 2 of the kids, will visit the grand babies next week - it's good to be home & around family again!!
Until it starts to get cold again.......

Tucson and beyond, flying north with the birds

We left Mexico behind on March 14, looking forward to getting home to family. We had an easy time thru US customs, searched the freezer for disallowed food & asked about any meds acquired, in particular Cipro. Strange question but apparently it is the only antibiotic effective against anthrax so they keep an eye out for any large quantities entering the US.

We settled in Tucson for a week to do all the touristy things as we had never been there. Of course we took the free camping option of a casino parking lot for all but one night, when we caught up on laundry & sanitized our water tank after dumping our Mexican water. Gas prices were pretty good - $2.219/gallon!

white pelicans over Laughlin

 We toured the Asarco copper mine & got to watch the huge trucks working in the massive pit. Next was the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a full day exploring the nature trails, listening to talks on Gila monsters & rattlesnakes, complete with live animals up close, marveling at the nesting hummingbirds in the walk-in aviary, ducking as the raptor flight show had Harris hawks swooping over our heads & enjoying many animal & bird exhibits.

 

mother hummingbird feeding her baby

Gila Monster

rattlesnake

A highlight for us was the Biosphere 2, the site of a huge dome enclosed “world” complete with an ocean & coral reef, a rain forest, a desert & living quarters. This was used for a 2 year sealed live in experiment for 8 people in 1991-3 where they grew their own food & monitored the environment, studying the feasibility of creating dome homes in the future. It is now owned by the University of Arizona & is used for climate & environmental research. 

ocean, reef below

desert

Of course we did some rock-hounding in the area, at one point ended up on a dirt “goat trail” (not the first time) traveling for miles into the mountains, up to 8000 ft, temp. down to 10C, before we found our way out & back down to Tucson where the temp was 25C.

We couldn’t miss Tombstone since we were so close, took in a re-enactment of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, had beer & burgers at the old Crystal Palace Saloon & visited Boothill graveyard.

We had purchased a booklet giving us 2 for 1 entry into many attractions so we also visited the Pima Air & Space Museum. Lots of military aircraft, even a tiny moon rock on display.

We left Tucson & headed to Casa Grande where we swapped stories with Darwin & Olivia & were treated to their wonderful hospitality, a great visit. On to Phoenix area, a casino again in Mesa, close to the huge Mesa Market, 1500 shops of “stuff”. Spent 2 days there wandering in amazement at the size of it. We ran into 2 sets of folks that we met in La Penita, Mexico & we had previously run into 2 other sets of people from our Mexican travels at other spots in Tucson – small world. We tried our hand at casino bingo, a first for us. We needed lots of help from the cashier on what we needed, but figured most of it out & left poorer than when we arrived. We were surprised by the question of paper or electronic when we bought our cards – you can now use a “tablet like” device that can be loaded with dozens of bingo cards that a “machine” plays for you – you sit there & watch idly & the screen shows “Yell Bingo” if you win! Too technical for us, we played old fashioned paper cards.

We headed north east after our trusty GPS got us through Phoenix to a new rock-hounding area at Burro Creek. They have a beautiful rustic campground where we spent 3 nights, enjoying pie iron for breakfast cooked over the fire, watching migrating birds overhead & 5 Great Blue herons nesting on the cliff above the creek. The desert was in full color, lots of spring flowers & cactus in bloom. We came across our first wild rattlesnake – a Western Diamondback, about 30” long, slithering along on the road. We visited with some Americans who told us of another RVer (an American) who carries 19 firearms & 10,000 rounds of ammo in his RV - & people wonder why we prefer Mexico!

 

Great Blue heron on her nest

We are now in Laughlin, Nevada across the river from Bullhead City parked in another casino parking lot with at least 30 other RVers. It’s hot – 96-100F, hi 30’sC & feels even hotter parked on asphalt. We are enjoying walking along the river walk beside the Colorado River & popping into casinos to cool off. We have been visiting with Mary & Gary & last night we got to cruise the strip in their fancy red Mustang convertible! We took a ride on the Riverboat past all the casinos & up to Davis dam, can’t believe the number of people out on the river in March.  We will be leaving here in a day or two, to do a quick trip north, but we know it will get colder so we a reluctant to leave this heat. Hopefully winter is close to being over up there. Next blog post should be from home, sweet home.

 Still living the dream!