European Vacation - Part Two

Continued from Part One..........

We got into Florence, Italy at 3 a.m. and found a quiet little street to sleep for the night. But as it turned out, we woke up with the sound of people bartering for goods. We had parked in the middle of the town's Market. Had a chuckled about that one.

We explored Florence all day. What a beautiful city and we agreed it was a lot nicer than Venice. No weird smells except for the fragrant flowers everywhere. The minute we arrived into Florence I felt so comfortable even amongst the very old buildings packed with history. We bought a guide book and sat on the stairs of a 800 year old building reading the city's history which helped when we were visiting the many plazas. We enjoyed the food, the shopping, the scenery and the friendly people. I bought a pair of Italian shoes and want to kick myself for not buying an Italian purse, next time. Florence is one place I would enjoy seeing again. We continued to drive in the early evening as it much cooler, only 25 degrees.

We went through the Tuscany Valley and what a sight to see. The land is flat and packed with olive groves everywhere, wineries with fields of grapes and also many fields of sunflowers. We arrived in Pisa because I just had to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It looks weird, this beautiful old, tall building that is leaning to one side. The grounds around the Tower are spectacular and on the adjacent streets ther are cozy restaurants and pubs, a nice place to sip Italian wine while viewing the Tower.

July 19th we drove to Genova trying to find one of Basel's friends he had met last year on his first trip to Spain. We got so lost as we got turned around on this mountain and ended up in Riva where we came across a beautiful fireworks show on the beach. The next day was San Remo and walked with the dogs on a very long, white sandy beach where the van got stuck. Not one person came to help us, but rather sat and watched as we had to dig ourselves out. I said to Basel, in Canada there would be men over to help us no problem, not the case in Italy. Italy is a nice country, but it isn't my cup of tea. Too many people, every inch of land is used, extremely narrow roads, expensive, but along the coast you have a very pretty view of the Med. Sea.

What was going to be our next stop Monaco, but before we knew it, we were out of the country. I think it took us a half hour and we were into France. Oh gosh, what we did see of Monaco was the classiest of all the countries. It wreaks money with gorgeous buildings and well landscaped parks. Plus I don't think I could have even afforded to walk into their stores. There was no parking anywhere as we drove through the country so we continued onto to France.

Driving along the French Riviera was something I will never forget. We went through the towns of Eze, Beaulieu, Pont St. Jean,Villefranche, and Loubet (where we had breakfast under a huge olive tree). Nice, France had the most gorgeous beach with a promanade lined with palm trees that we never did get to the end of. We took a dip in the Sea and read on the beach for our siesta that day. It was lovely with the exception of naked bodies waltzing around. Going topless is the norm in all the places we visited, but naked, not pretty on 70 year old men yikes! Plus the men go for Speedos in France, also not kosher ahah.

We drove through Cannes, France and saw the many buildings advertising the Cannes Film Festival. Cannes isn't a large city and I wonder where the movie stars all would stay. We had supper beside a large fountain in a park and the dogs were in heaven. Lucy ran around the fountain about 100 times as birds where flying just above the fountain. Foxy ran off into the adjacent field and decided to return an hour later for her supper. We spent the night in Nîmes, France which wasn't memorable but the wine was pretty tasty.

We started making our way back to Spain and through part of the Pyranees Mountains and went through Vias, Beziers, Perpighan and tour a detour to Figueres. Figureres is where the Dali Museum is and thought we should see at least one museum on our trip. No such luck, the line up for tickets was about 300 people so that put the kibosh on that idea, but we found a tiny shop that sold the most delicious French chocolates in Spain.

That same day we arrived back in Spain and both of us felt at home again. We were able to speak with everyone we met and realized we didn't lose as much Spanish as we thought we would. We visited Barcelona again and enjoyed a long walk on the beach near the city centre, then poked around the various shops.

One mishap on our trip - That evening Basel and I had gone out for a couple beers and as we were walking along Plaza Antonio Lopez, on our way back to the van a man drove past me on a scooter and stole my purse. He was definitely a pro because he gently lifted my purse from my hand and simply rode into the night. So that night we spent in the police station and left at 5 a.m. with directions to the Canadian Consulate. It was an aweful feeling having all my ID taken from me. Not much money was taken as I forgot to hit a bank machine that night, good thing. I have to replace everything which is a hassle but at least I wasn't hurt in any way, only inconvenienced. It will only take 15 days to replace my passport. The Canadian Consulate deserves a gold star in my books because they were so helpful, pleasant and could speak perfect English but let me practice my Spanish.

We decided to head back to Nerja, via Madrid and on the way we passed through Lleida, Guadalajar, Jaen, Granada, and Málaga. Madrid is 5 hours from Nerja and the countryside has many mountains all which are covered with olives groves. It was quite a site to see and we just wondered how they harvest the olives in these steep mountains.

We were both anxious to get back home to our little Nerja but when we arrived,10 minutes from town, we parked the van and ended up having our last meal on the road while we soaked in the view of the sea and Nerja's lights at night.

All along our travels Basel and I studied our Spanish in spurts. I studied our map book and learned the names of the 25 countries in the European Union and the adjacent ones as well. My geography is much better now, that I do know.

Caravan travelling is an inexpensive way to travel since we bought groceries and fresh produce along the way. We cooked the majority of our meals in the van and only treating ourselves only now and again. Basel loves to cook and he can whip up a gourmet meal in less than a half hour, bonus for me as you all know I am not into cooking like I once was. But I still can make the best popcorn, which was our afternoon snack along with fruit or veggies. haha

The dogs were excellent travelling companions and they both enjoyed the trip more once Basel bought the new van and they were tucked away in their own space. In the old van the dog hair was everywhere and it was grossing us out.

I took one of my favourite books along, Where the Red Fern Grows and I would read it to Basel when the drive got to be a bit boring. This book was the first chapter book I had read to Sarah when she was 7 years old and it still chokes me up. What a beautiful story if you love dogs.

Every night we were so lucky to find the nicest places to park the caravan - near lakes, rivers, parks, and cozy city streets. When none of these were available we would park in a grocery store lot which was handy for shopping the next morning. haha

It was such a wonderful, 3 1/2 week, 7 country, whirlwind trip. We've been back in Nerja 3 weeks and I still get choked just thinking how lucky I was to experience all of this for the first time.