Fortunately there is no traffic and we are at the airport in 40 minutes. We pile out say our final farewell and head to the Iberia check in line. This time I did put the knife in my checked luggage, not to make the same mistake twice. We drop off the check in luggage and with two back packs, one each, we head through security.

Ah security. What a misnomer that is. We stand in a very short line, have our passports reviewed by a person who could care less and soon we are at the security gate. I take out my computer from the backpack; dump all my change in the bin, take off my shoes and breeze through the metal detector. Of course my back pack does not go as fast.

I do not have a knife, the deadly sun screen was already taken what can it be this time, cookies? They ask me to open my back pack and there wrapped in gift wrap are the offending items, 4 bottles of Ouzo. They sell Ouzo in the airport in the Duty Free shop so what is the problem? I can buy it in the airport why not in the city?

Well after a discussion I am told I can not take the Ouzo as it is a liquid and I can not take a liquid across security. So George, Sal and Rick your Ouzo gift is in the garbage at the Athens airport. I sure the world is now a safer place.

Ok we board the plane to fly to Madrid. I am looking forward to a quiet flight, not like the last one where I had to be a doctor. The flight is relatively open and we get out on time. Breakfast of eggs and potato, coffee and juice are offered. Way different from domestic US flights where there is no food service, Europe still has a meal with their flight.

After breakfast we fall quickly asleep and soon awake in Madrid. Here we have a 2 hour layover for the overseas flight to Chicago. As we are waiting for the flight I can not resist a final Iberico ham sandwich I have come so much to enjoy. Since I know they are not available in the US I enjoy it as my last meal in Europe.

As we get ready to board the 9 hour flight a family from the Middle East comes by. There is a Mom and Dad and 9 year old boy and a 4 year old girl in a baby carriage. The girl is wailing. I pray that she is no where near us on the flight, Sometimes your prayers are answered; and sometimes not. This one was not.

We get on the flight into row 24 and also in row 24 in the middle row is our family from the noisy section of the Middle East. I want to sleep because I do not want to sit here for 9 hours but the little girl wants to wail. She proceeds to wail for more then 6 of the 9 hours. Her family did not make much effort to shut her up at all so the little girl had free reign to wail and wail and wail. I was able to get some sleep off and I but really wished they would move.

Well soon the ordeal was over. We arrived Chicago right on time and headed to customs to claim our bags, check back into the US and forward our bags to Detroit. Sounds easy right, not.

We get our bags relatively quickly but when we get Cathy’s bag it looked like it went through a shredder. The top of the bag was all broken and the back was basically torn off. There was no way the bag was going to make any flight in that condition.

I show the bag to the porter who proceeds to tape the entire top of the bag with American Airlines tape. It will hold and will make the bag very easy to find in Detroit! I also ask the baggage handler for a claim for the damages to the bag which they promptly gave me. Nice service even though they destroyed our property.

We leave Chicago relatively on time and head for the hour flight to Detroit. We land uneventfully and proceed to baggage claim to see what new things the airlines can cook up for us. Our bags come out and seem in order, looks however can be deceiving.

We get to the parking lot transfer bus, drive to our car and head home. The vacation is over at precisely 8:30 PM July 4 the moment we get into our home.

I will not go into details as to what we found when we got home but suffice it to say it took us 1.5 days to clean the house up. The bad news is my 100 gallon fish tank went bad and about $250 of tropical fish died. Oh well we still have the memory of the trip right!

One last point of our adventure occurred while we unpacked our bags. As you recall Cathy’s bag was a mess but the contents we fine. My bag was also fine. We had a small travel bag for incidentals and shoes and such. When we opened this bag there was a nice little note from the TSA. It seems our bag was chosen for a random search. NO big deal nothing to hide anyway.

Well it seems that search means also shopping for the TSA because we found the following missing from the bag: The charger to my new cell phone and the charger to my computer. Why they chose these items to take we have no ides but take they did.
Oh well the trip is over and is now a memory. We have over 900 photos to go through and put on line for all to see. We have some nice souvenirs and some gifts for friends and family. All in all it was a great trip and we highly suggest that each and every one of you take the time to go to Europe and enjoy.

Safe and happy travels

Phil, Cathy and Chris
July 6, 2007

July 4 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Since Chris is already with his group Cathy and I head to the subway to negotiate on our own the city that is Athens. The guides are right, you only need two days in Athens to see it all and we have already been her two days so we are off to the market to buy souvenirs.

The market is very relaxed today as there are no cruise ships and many people have already been here so shoppers are light in number and the prices are down. Shop keepers are looking for the sale so the bargains are here for the taking.

We stumble onto one street where they are selling everything at ½ price or less. A shopper’s paradise and we dive in with both feet. We are able to come out with more then half of the items we needed and now it is time for lunch.

We head over to a nice looking café and sit down to a meal of Souvlaki and fries and bask in the relative coolness of the shade. It is really beautiful today with very clear blue skies and a slight breeze. We dine slowly savoring the scene and just enjoying the company.

Soon we are off again for a little more shopping. As we search out the perfect gift the temperature begins to take its toll on us and soon we find ourselves heading toward the subway for a trip back to the hotel a shower and a nap.

After a much needed rest we pack our bags for the trip in the morning and just leave out what we need. Soon we are ready for our final sojourn into Athens and a final dinner.

Athens is surrounded by water so we decide on a fish meal as our final dining feast and ask the hotel concierge for a recommendation. It seems that surrounded by water does not translate to cheap fresh fish.

Our concierge recommends a nice restaurant on the water in Piraeus the port city at the end of the subway line. So far so good, we can get there relatively easily. As we depart Cathy suggests we ask how pricy the place is, so we do. I figure fifty or sixty Euros will buy us a nice dinner. I suggest the price to the helpful gentleman and he agrees the price of sixty Euros EACH should do it. EACH I exclaim, but he says the fish is FRESH. Fresh it better sing and dance for 120 Euro. We pass on the fresh fish and instead head back to the marketplace where we know the food is good and much less pricy.

We once again hit the subway and back downtown where we choose a nice garden restaurant where we almost dined with Chris on our first night. We peruse the menu and settle on a Salad of cucumber and tomato, a grilled eggplant appetizer and the main course PIZZA. Ok the pizza was real good much better then any option in Toledo, and it was made in Greece, so it does count as a final Greek meal right?

Anyway we dine slowly and enjoy our final night on vacation. We say good buy to our host and walk back to the subway for the trip to the hotel and prepare our minds and body for the grueling 22 hour marathon trip home in the morning.

July 3 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We head out again to the subway where we buy a 1 Euro ticket each which we will use all day to get around Athens. Monday is not like Sunday however, as today the subway is really crowded and with the temperature heading to 95 today, it is also hot. But it is still our best mode of transportation so we head again to the historic area.

Using the entrance tickets we purchased yesterday we get into the Roman Agora area and are treated to an amazing site of ruins of ancient Rome. Here we see a marketplace, temples, library and many other buildings all in a very well planned area below the Acropolis. It was amazing what they were able to build 3500 years ago.

From here we go back into the Plaka area where we shop for gifts and mementos. It is now about 95 and we are a little tired and hungry. We stop at a Taverna and order a light lunch of Souvlaki and a bottle of water. The food is excellent and we get away for under 24 Euro. It is now time to head back to the hotel and get Chris’ things and head to his new hotel.

We head back to the subway and our hotel. We get his things and trudge back to the subway, all this on the same 1 Euro ticket we bought this morning. His hotel is about 5 stops away so in 15 minutes we are out of the subway and walking in the 96 degree heat looking for his hotel.

We are in a relatively near run down area of very small streets and hotels that have seen better days. There is even a gas station, something we have not seen anywhere in Athens, so we know we are on the outskirts of civilized Athens. We finally come to his now hotel a little less rundown building with a nice but small reception area. After some confusion as to his name and room reservation we get his key. The rest of his traveling troop has not yet arrived.

We head up to his room on the 5th floor, yes there is an elevator but it is real tiny even by European standards. His room however is actually very nice, clean, bright, large and well appointed with 2 beds, he is sharing a room with Brandon Wieslak. We say our good byes and Cathy and I head down to go back to the subway and our hotel for an afternoon siesta.

As we hit the lobby we see the rest of the Xavier travelers have arrived so we call Chris to come and meet the group. He is excited to see his friends and soon they are all off to their rooms and Cathy and I are now alone in Athens.

We head back to the hotel for a rest during the heat of the day. After showers and naps we are ready to head back to the Plaka area and more shopping and dinner. Once again back on the subway to our main stop where we walk around a little and soon settle into a nice looking café on the very end of a very quiet street. It is now 8:00 PM and time for dinner.

By 10:00 PM we were still sitting at dinner! You see it was very cool this evening, about 75 degrees and we really had no place to be so we sat down talked, drank, listened to the local musician, he played American and Spanish songs all night, and dined. Tonight Cathy had her usual spaghetti and I had Greek Salad with a main course of chicken kabob. Our waiter was very nice and allowed us to sit, and relax while he slowly served our food. He even bought us two after dinner glasses of Ouzo, a Sambuca-like drink which has one hell of a kick. (We had to buy 4 bottles later, but that is another story).

Now since shopping was long closed we walked once again to another subway stop and headed back to the hotel for some well deserved and needed rest. Tomorrow is our last day of vacation in Athens for we take the long and arduous journey home on Wednesday July 4.

July 2 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We ask for the best way to the Acropolis the highlight of any Athens tour. Our hotel directs us to the subway. We were a little hesitant at first since we do not know the system, do not speak Greek and are not sure of the fares but off on a Sunday morning we go down under Athens.

The subway turns out to be very clean and very easy to navigate. There are three lines, Red, Green and Blue. Blue only goes to the airport so we can eliminate that line. Red and Green Connect at a station one stop from our hotel station so we pay the .80 each and head into the subway.

We arrive at the entrance to the Acropolis in about 10 minutes. The subway is A/C active and not too crowded so it saved us 8 Euro in cab fares. We soon learn that we can use our .80 tickets all day and spend many hours traveling the city from end to end on the subway. It is a great way to get around.

So at the Acropolis we buy our 12 Euro tickets which are good for entrance into all the main sites, a great bargain. We enter the area and begin a long slow climb from the city level to the highest point in the city. On the way we see the Theater of Dionysus, several temples and some other artifacts of ancient Greece. The temperature is now well above 90 and we only survive the walk to the top due to a nice warm breeze and shade trees.

The Acropolis is very crowded and we have to negotiate around several tour groups from various parts of the world but finally climb the last steps to the top. It is worth the climb.
The Parthenon is magnificent and is under some level of reconstruction. The buildings around the Parthenon are also beautiful and represent various temples to the various gods of ancient Greece. There is also a modern look out point flying the Greek flag. We explore for more then an hour and really do not notice the heat until we begin the walk back.

Soon we see a refreshment stand and 14 Euros later we have a frozen Strawberry beverage and two Power Aids to replenish our lost water. Cathy is doing very very well and is really walking in the heat with limited issues. Chris is carrying a water filled back pack so we always have water so we are very well prepared. We even have towels and wet wipes to help cool us off so we press on.

Down from the Acropolis we visit the Temple of Zeus. Very little is left but this was the largest temple ever build in ancient Greece and was the site of one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the Statue of Zeus. From here we visit Hadrian’s Wall, which we say last night.

It is now time for some food so we stop in a small café and for 10.5 Euro we dine on sandwiches and water. Feeling rested and a little cooler we press on and go back into the Plaka for more shopping.

We walk slowly through the Plaka and head back to the train station for a much needs return to the hotel and a nap. It is now near 96 degrees and getting hotter. We use our same subway ticket and head back to the hotel.

After a shower and nap we decide to board the subway again and head to the port city of Faliro. This is a port city near Piraeus a much larger port but all the guide books say Piraeus is dirty and the food is bad and overpriced so we go to the smaller port city and were glad we did.

We get off the subway and really have no idea where we are or which way to go. A very nice young lady helps us by giving us directions to walk across a footbridge and follow the road to where you will find many restaurants. Here directions were perfect and in less then 20 minutes we arrive at the water and have our choice of a dozen on the water dining options.

Competition for diners is keen and every place has a menu our front and a “hawker” telling you this is the best place, or we have the best prices, or our fish is the freshest. They will throw their body in front of you or a car to get you to stop and eat at their family place.

We pass the first one or two and come to one that we are told has the best prices. As we walk away he tells me if I came back he will buy me a drink. Not a bad offer. So we walk a little more and the restaurants are getting more and more expensive so we go back to the first place which had a decent menu and reasonable prices. I negotiate a free wine for Chris and I, Cathy did not want any, and we are shown to a table literally right on the water.

Being on the water the weather is now much cooler and we are enjoying the sunset as we sip our wine. Dining in Greece is a slow casual affair. They bring us a basket of bread (1 Euro) and sweet olive oil and a large bottle of water (2 Euro). We decide on a meal and order Spaghetti with fish for Cathy, fried sardines and a Greek salad for me and chicken fillets and French fries for Chris.

We dine slowly and feed the fish that are swimming just off the restaurant floor; I said we are on the water didn’t I? After about 90 minutes we are done eating and just sit and relax as the sun finally goes down behind some tall buildings. Since we still have some light left we decide to walk back across the bridge, use our same subway ticket and head back to the hotel for a well needed rest.

Tomorrow is the last day we spend with Chris as he begins the next part of his journey, 30 days exploring ancient Greece with his classmates.

July 1 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Rick the next part of this story is dedicated to you; it seems the fruit does not fall far from the tree.

We arrive at the airport in plenty of time, 2.5 hours before our flight. We planned to arrive early so we could check in, get something to eat and relax a little before the 3.5 hour flight to Greece.

We arrive at self check in and breeze through the process. We tag our check in bags, get our boarding passes and head toward the security gate. Security Gate hits me! In my pocket is my Swiss Army Knife! Just like Rick many years ago I forgot to put my knife in check in luggage. This is a brand new pocket knife and I do not want to lose it but I have no choice. Our checked luggage is long gone and all I have are pockets and a backpack.

Cathy advises I should tell someone. I ask who and what do I tell them? You know that conversation was going no where so I bury the knife in my back pack and trudge off to security.

There is no line at security so we unpack our computers and cameras and all metal objects, well most metal objects anyway, in the trays and get ready for the fun. A woman in front of us had a cat in a carry cage. She did not want to put the cat through X-ray so she took it out of the box. The cat was HUGE, I mean FAT. It was the biggest, fattest cat I ever saw, and apparently the biggest, fattest cat the security folks saw also. While they were busy with the cat I put my back pack on the X-ray hoping the disturbance over the cat will get me through, almost.

As we pass the metal detector, the guard stops my back pack and asks whose bag is it. Well we know what is going to happen next and I prepare to agree I forgot the knife in the pack, but no. That was not the issue. It seems that he was concerned with a bottle of sun tan lotion I had in the bag. It seems that suntan lotion is a liquid and we all know you can not take liquid on a plane. So he takes my dangerous can of suntan lotion while my pocket knife breezes through. Good trade from my end, so we head off to breakfast.

After a leisurely breakfast we head off to our departure gate and wait 30 minutes to board our Iberia flight to Athens. Soon the gate is open and we board the flight for nice quiet ride. Unfortunately it was not going to be.

Cathy and I settle into row 19 and Chris in 17. The plane is relatively full and we get off just about on time. I like to sleep on planes so I settle in for a nice nap. After an hour I am awakened up so we can get a very nice lunch. I enjoy my meal and settle in for the rest of my nap, unfortunately there were other plans.

As I begin to doze there is significant movement and excitement in the aisle of the plane. I continue to try to nap, but the commotion gets worse and soon there is an announcement “is there a doctor on board” Not me I say to myself, not this time. I try again to sleep and ignore the commotion. Soon about 25 people are all over the aisle chatting, arguing any generally beginning to panic. They ask again for a doctor and soon a doctor comes from the make of the plane. OK so now I can go back to sleep right? Wrong.

I keep one eye open and watch as things go from bad to worse. It seems an older gentleman is sweating profusely, and is looking like he is going to pass out. No one seems to have any idea what they are doing and can not agree on a course of action. The doctor asks for a BP cuff which the stewardess does have on board. He takes a BP lays the patient down and WALKS AWAY. It seems he is an OB/GYN and this is not his specialty.

OK now this is getting ridiculous and I just can not stand by while they try and kill this guy. I walk up to the stewardess and tell her I am an EMT if she agrees I will look at the passenger. She says thank you doctor and now proceeds to do anything I say!

We clear the aisle; I take a pulse and do a general assessment. I need three interpreters because the patient is from Chile and speaks no English. His family speaks Spanish and I do not. The Stewardess speaks Spanish and English so it takes awhile to find out what is going on. So I find out he has been traveling on a plane for the last 24 hours and was dehydrated and suffering from low blood pressure. Since he was hypotensive he was faint. His pulse was strong so we made him lay down put his feet up and I administered oxygen at 2 liters flow. In 15 minutes he was felling much better and was able to sit up and cool down and converse very clearly. Another tragedy averted. I stay with my patient for another 15 minutes and see he is now near normal so I return to my seat to complete my nap. Many thank you’s later there is no time left to sleep as we are landing. So much for a quiet flight.

When we get off the flight I meet with the Paramedics and do a patient assessment report. The EMT spoke perfect English so when I concluded the patient was OK he said “OK then he is not FUBAR!” Hope you all know what that means. I laughed and left to look for our luggage.

Once we get our bags we meet with George the famous Greek Taxi Driver. I hired George over the internet before we left to pick us up from the airport and take us to our Hotel. We pile into a bright yellow Mercedes Benz and literally tie our luggage into the back of the trunk and off we go to downtown Athens and our 5 star hotel, the Titania.

We check in and since we have Chris for three nights they upgraded our room to a two room suite for only 30 Euro a night extra. We change into shorts since it is 35 C (95 F) outside at 6:30 PM and head out to explore Athens.

We are a few blocks from Parliament and as we walk by are treated to the changing of the guard. This is done with much pomp and pageantry and high stepping guards performing a routine that is centuries old. It takes 15 minutes and soon we are walking again toward our destination, the Placa.

The Placa is the shopping center of the city and is filled, and I mean filled, with small stores, stalls, vendors in the street, bright lights, sights, sounds and restaurants. We walk in and out of stores for quite some time and soon are starving. We settle into a small outdoor restaurant for our first Greek meal.

This time we did the local food and not an Italian delight as Chris and Cathy seem to delight in. We dined on lamb and chicken souvlaki with rice and French fries. We share a Greek salad and a very large bottle of water as we are all much dehydrated. For dessert Cathy has a baklava and I tried a local treat, yogurt with honey. It sounds bad but was actually very good and almost was like a sweet ice cream. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

After dinner we continued to walk the city and discovered the Lysicrates monument built in 334 BC. He was a producer of a play that won a local competition and as a prize he got to erect and pay for his monument. Better to lose actually but he built a small monument and it still stands today. We also walked to Hadrian’s Arch. Hadrian donated significant money and building to enlarge Athens and as a show of gratitude the city built an arch in his honor. From here we walked toward the Acropolis but since it was closed we chose not to climb the hill this evening but will do it tomorrow.

We continued shopping and essentially got lost as we went left, right, over and under until we were thoroughly confused so we decided to hail a cab. Unlike Madrid it was very easy to get a cab and in 10 minutes we were back to our base of operations and back in our room.

Tomorrow the three of us will explore the local historic attractions and I am sure continue our shopping.

June 30 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After another buffet breakfast we board our bus to Plaza Major. OK our bus today is public transportation and it cost us one Euro each but it is a bus right? Well the bus is crowded so we have to stand. There is A/C so we are dying hot but we are toe to toe with the locals.

One little girl is sharing a seat with her older sister and notices a small moth on the bus window. Apparently she is terrified of moths. Her mother, like mother everywhere, takes off her shoe and smashes the moth into the window, problem solved. We all laugh. Family in any language is the same. Believe me it is more comfortable to travel on the tour bus but this was a way to get closer to the people.

So we take the bus to the last stop and get off at the bus station and take a short walk to the Plaza Major which is the main plaza in Madrid. We learned yesterday that Madrid is the exact center of Spain. At the center of Madrid is a square where the mile market reads ZERO and there are four major roads emanating from this spot to the four corners of Spain.

The Plaza Major is once again very similar to the Plaza of St Mark in Venice. The center is a statue and the open plaza is filled with restaurants where seating is outside in the beautiful shade. The buildings are filled with high end shopping such as jewelry and clothes and other high end souvenirs. Out of our price range so we leave the plaza and begin to walk the area in search of shopping and we find it, everywhere.

For the next two hours we are in and out of stores of every kind. Indian, Moroccan, Spanish and other stores all selling things for you to take home. Chris finds the perfect gift for Lilly (sorry L I will not reveal the item you will just have to wait) and Cathy finds things for her friends and family. We buy a bull for ourselves and enjoy walking the streets of Spain.

The temperature today was in the mid 80’s and so we were getting a little warm so we decided to find a place to eat. Pizza was the target food. Yes we continue to eat Italian food even here in Spain, but the pizza is damn good and we just can not pass it up.

We try to find a restaurant outside the Plaza since we know the Plaza restaurants will be expensive. Although we could find many fine Spanish restaurants the only pizza was in the Plaza. So back to the Plaza we find a table in the shade and order 2 Marguerite pies and a salad. Beer and water were also on the menu. We slowly dined and watched the world go by. Fifty Six Euros later, I told you the Plaza restaurants were not cheap we decide to get a cab and return to the hotel for Siesta.

There are cabs everywhere so we thought this would not be a problem, wrong. Hailing a cab apparently is an art, one in which we have not been schooled in. So we walk in the direction of our hotel and figure we can get a cab.

Ok so we see a cab coming and wave only to see him pass us by. We did notice however, that in the window was a red sign saying Occupado. So now we know to look for a cab with Libre in the window. Unfortunately we see no Libre only Occupado so we keep walking.

Well it is now about 40 minutes since we started to try to get a cab. The temperature is getting hot and we are beginning to get desperate when a cab pulls up and drops some folks off. Yeah we are saved, wrong again. I try to get into the cab when the passengers depart but the driver waves me off and takes off. We learn this was a radio cab not a local cab. A radio cab is dispatched by a service and to get one you have to call the service. Ok now we have to eliminate Occupado and radio cabs and find the ever elusive Libre cab.

Soon we come to an intersection and traffic is much greater increasing our chances of finding the Libre. Soon sure enough we see a cab at the opposite corner and wave him down. He makes a turn and comes toward us and pulls over for us to get in. We are saved, wrong again.

I tell him we are going to the Hotel Agumar as I enter the cab. The driver begins gesturing wildly telling me to get out and go to the other corner, the corner he just came from to get a cab. Another lessen we learn is that a cab which is facing the wrong direction will not pick you up if you are going in the opposite direction. Since we really did not know where the hotel is we were at a quandary as to how to proceed.

So we continue our walk to the next intersection. Here we stop to figure out where we are and Cathy, ever vigilant now that her feet hurt, spots our white knight. There is a white Libre cab and we flag him down. Ok he was stuck at a stop light but the result was the same, we piled in.

A seven Euro cab ride later we were back at the Hotel and ready for Siesta. Tonight we planned to have dinner on our own and pack for the journey in the morning to Athens.

7:30 PM
After a nice Siesta we dress and depart the hotel in search of a final Spanish meal. We walk along the road to a small outdoor restaurant with and English menu. We sit at a shady table; we are the only once there as it is much too early for any sane Spaniard to eat. We dive into the menu and choose our final Spanish meal. I choose a chicken Paella and Cathy and Chris dine on Pasta Bolognese. Yes the two of them choose Italian food in Spain and they said I have a fixation on Italy!

We top off the meal with a banana split and walk back to the hotel for packing and sleeping. We leave Spain in the morning to enjoy the 100 plus degree temperatures of Greece.

June 29 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today we meet our local guide and head to the Prado Museum. Prado means prairie and is houses in what was once a residence of the Kings of Spain. The Prado is the most famous museum in Spain with a collection of over 8000 canvases and statues. There are only 1000 on view at any time with others houses elsewhere and some in the basement.

Today we learn another advantage of taking a tour. We have an appointment time at the museum, meaning no line. We arrive at the Prado at 9:00 am and are promptly ushered past long lines of “common folk” waiting to see the Goya, Velasquez, and of course El Greco. Another advantage is we have a tour guide well versed in the art contained in the museum and we have little radios in which she whispers but we hear clearly. It is good to be on a tour.

For the next two and one half hours we tour the museum and see up close many of the art we only see in print or on film. We were very up close in fact a little too up close. You see Bill; one of our tour family from Ohio (of course), is very tall and as such tends not to see objects below his knees. (Can you guess what’s coming?). He was walking forward and looking at a canvas to his right and BLAM out of no where comes a bench below knee height and Bill goes sprawling in the direction of some priceless Greco Roman Statue. The Guard rises quickly, face blanched white, not easy for a dark skinned Spaniard, Bill falls fast but bounces off the bench just in time to right himself just before a costly collision. The guard runs over to see if he (the statue not Bill) is all right and after a few watch were you are going looks, we proceed with the rest of the tour, with less drama. Bill of course sustains damage to his leg but the guard is satisfied and returns to his chair.

The priceless art work in the Prado goes on for room after room and is simply amazing but after two hours we are on art overload. It is a known fact that psychologists say that the average person can not take more then two hours in a museum and since we are a little above average we last until 2.5 hours but as a group we have had it. So we leave the museum and head back to the bus for a very short return to the Hotel.

This afternoon some of us are heading to the small town of Segovia another hill top city in which a King built another Castle called the Alcazar of Segovia. Apparently all castles are called Alcazar. So some of us are back on the bus for the 1.5 hour drive, or as I say nap, to Segovia.

Segovia is a beautiful small town that time has forgotten. It boasts three main attractions, The Alcazar, a Roman Aqueduct build 200 BC and still working, and a gastronomical delight roast suckling pig.

First stop is a visit to the aqueduct. It is amazing. More then 90 meters high with arches extending 750 meters it was built by the Romans with out use of mortar or cement. It is held together simply by precise fitting of stone and perfect engineering. The length of the aqueduct is relatively short as there was a small reservoir a short distance from town. With only a modest restoration the aqueduct can still conduct water from the reservoir to town but does not do so now. We take our photos and look for food.

As I said the feature food is suckling pig slow roasted and served as an entire pig on a plate. The pig is only 5 – 10 days old and is slow roasted in a very special spit until it is so tender they cut it with a plate and not a knife. There is a statue in the middle of town dedicated to the chef who invented the feast and past his recipe along so others can prepare this local dish.

We past several of the local restaurants that serve this meal but neither Cathy nor Chris were adventurous enough to partake. We passed up the chance to eat a baby pig and moved along to more normal fare, adult ham sliced thin with cheese and tuna sandwiches.

After lunch we headed to the Alcazar. This castle was said to have inspired Walt Disney’s design of the castle at Disney Land. There is some resemblance but this castle is huge and very well preserved. Among the Kings in residence here were King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Columbus fame. In the throne room we say the two chairs side by side of a King and Queen who both ruled as powerful leaders over the Spanish Empire.

Unlike other castles we saw this one was furnished as it was expected to be when the castle was used as a palace and court. The building is very open and since it was a summer residence it was filled with open courtyards and high windows. Tapestries were on the walls and the furniture was elegant throughout. It’s good to be the king.

The castle was built upon a Roman Garrison so under the castle is a foundation dating back to 200 BC so Segovia was inhabited for a very long time. The present castle was built in the 12th century and with very little restoration looks amazing. After a little shopping we board our tour bus, for the last time, for the trip back to the hotel.

As we arrive at the hotel it marks the official end of the Highlights of Spain and Portugal Tour. Thirteen days of fun, sights, foods and of course wine. Tonight we are all exhausted and a little sad as we will now be saying good bye to some new friends from all over the world. Since there is no scheduled dinner with Trafalgar tonight we retire to our rooms for a little rest and to make our own dinner plans.

It seems however that some people are not ready for the tour to end, however and soon a dinner is planned by 17 of us! We agree to meet in the lobby at 7:30 and to walk along the city until we find a place to eat.

So there we are, Americans, Germans, Australians and Canadians all coming together to have one more chance to make a lasting memory. We walk along for about a half hour and agree to dine at a small local restaurant with outside tables. The temperature is about 70 and the sun is going down soon so we settle in for a pleasant dinner.

Of course no one speaks or reads Spanish and the Korean family that owns the Spanish restaurant speaks no English and some Spanish. I know we will eat something just what however is up for grabs. Soon our waiter comes to the table and we communicate by picture, gesture, bad Spanish and much laughing our drink orders. It if take this long to order a beverage how long will it take to get dinner orders for 17?

We look at the menu; have no idea what it says. On the wall of the restaurant they list a special of the day which is kind of like a Chinese menu idea. Pick one from column A and once from column B and drinks are included. Sounds easy enough so we begin to decipher the food options. With help of high school Spanish, life experience, and Chris’ command of Latin we settle our choices only to be told by the lovely Korean hostess, this is the DAY menu and it is night now. She turns over the menu and there on the back are completely different options and so we order another round of beers as we try once again to decipher the menu.

The Farina family decides on a first course of Spaghetti followed by a Salad and finished off with a Veal Milanese. Ok folks catch this, we are in a restaurant in SPAIN, owned by KOREANS, ordering in ENGLISH, a full ITALIAN meal! Only us!!!!

The food come very slowly as there is no rush in Spain and we appreciate it as we are not in any hurry to say good bye. Our spaghetti comes perfectly prepared in a sweet red sauce. The portion is HUGE. Next came a salad of mixed greens, tuna egg and tomato. It too is delicious and we are well fed, but we just remember we have another course. We have been eating for 90 minutes and we are not nearly done. The veal comes out and the portion is amazing. Try as we might Cathy or I left half each while Chris managed to finish it all.

We talked and told stories for another half hour and by 10:30 we knew the inevitable time has come to say good bye and return to our normal lives back home. We walk back to the hotel and say Adios and promise to send e-mail and share photos. We head back to our room exhausted and ready for the next phase of the Farina vacation, GREECE.

June 28 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We traveled along a highway in the midst of eucalyptus and cork oak trees. We learned how cork oak is harvested and after our lesson I fell asleep! So unfortunately I can not tell you very much about this portion of the trip other then while sleeping I dreamt of playing golf. I did shoot well however.

Chris and Cathy also fell asleep. Chris has commandeered the back seat of the bus so he actually had a very comfortable “bed” to stretch out in. In fact he fell into such a deep sleep that when we stopped for “technical” (bathrooms) he was hard to rouse.

Speaking of bathrooms it is time to learn a little about the Spanish bathroom. Unlike our trips in Italy the bathrooms in Spain are all brand new, well lit and very clean. In Italy the toilet seat is a figment of the imagination as they are all stolen so they are not replaced in the public toilets. In Spain however this is not the case, all are with a seat and in working order. This makes for a very pleasant experience. We only have seen one Turkish toilet so far.

The Turkish toilet is a porcelain hole in the floor with a place for your feet, no seat, and no bowl. It requires excellent aim and significant balance in order to use the Turkish toilet. Fortunately this experience was not a common one for us so we just took a few photos as a memento.

Portugal is the first place we had to pay to use the toilet. They have a great way to get you to spend money. We take our tour bus to a small shop with souvenirs and food. In order to use the bathroom you have to buy something! Brilliant plan. If you buy something you get a receipt and a bathroom receipt. You must take this to the turnstile and then it will open. If you try to use it again it will not work. Cathy buys a water and Chris a coffee. I had to pay extra to go to the bathroom an additional 50 cents as I did not buy anything.

We arrive into Lisbon the capitol of Portugal about 1:30 in the afternoon. We cross the Tagus River on a very special bridge. As we approach the bridge you get the feeling you are in San Francisco because the bridge looks exactly like the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact it is, for you see the bridge was built by the same builders and designers as the Golden Gate so they just used the same plans.

Our 5 star hotel is on the outskirts of the city and is absolutely beautiful. We arrived a little early so not all of our rooms were ready, in fact three rooms were not finished, and Cathy and I had one of the three! The hotel offered our entire troop a free drink as an apology for not having the rooms ready. That was very nice of them.

About an hour later we got our room and decided to go shopping as there is a mall next door to the hotel. Mall may be a little overstatement as there were only about 10 stores most of which were cell phone stores. A quick walk through proved we would not need to spend much time here so we headed back to the hotel.

It was still about 80 degrees, very pleasant so we decided to head to the pool while Chris decided to go to his room and do more home work. Some of you may recall Chris is taking classes in Greece for all of July so he still has much preparation to do before classes start on July 1 so he uses this resting time to catch up on school work.

So Cathy and I head to the pool. The pool is located on the second floor and is virtually empty. We set up some lounge chairs and an umbrella and settle in to read and rest.
After about 20 minutes Cathy was freezing. Although it was 80 degrees there was a slight breeze. She moved from the shade into the sun to no avail. She decided to go back to the room.

We discovered an interesting effect Cathy has on hotel keys. It seems that if she touches a magnetic hotel key she kills the key. We first thought it was the key because it happened earlier in the trip so we got a new one. Well it is not the key it is Cathy. I gave her the key when she left the pool and remained reading my book for about an hour. It was time to get ready for dinner so I headed back to the room. There outside the elevator sat Cathy reading her book. The key did not work and she did not want to co down stairs in her bathing suit. Well I had to go down in my bathing suit and get a new key. We get into the room and decide that the key is now my responsibility.

We shower and get ready for our excursion dinner in Portugal.

Down to the bus we take a quick tour of Lisbon as we head to the ferry for a ride across the Tagus River. This is the same river we saw back in Toledo in Spain. Here however the river is very wide and is actually at the end of the river as it flows into the Atlantic. We take a 15 minute ferry across the river to arrive at our port restaurant.

Dinner was a special fish dinner of all fresh fish prepared in the local style. We began with a plate of Prawns or very large shrimp. These were huge about 6 inches each. The plate must have had 15 on each plate. The prawns all had their head on so some people could not look at food that was looking back at them! You break off the head, peel off the shell and enjoy. Excellent.

Next we had a plate of several fried portions of hot pockets filled with different fish. Some were shrimp, some cod and one was just potato. Following this we had a hot soup of fish and shrimp and prawns. This also was excellent. By now we were stuffed but there was more to come.

Following the soup came the main dish of cod in a noodle dish. We also had rice with shrimp as the starch. All you can eat was the order of the day so we ate very well. All of this was accompanied by bread and red, white and sparkling wine. Beer, water and soda were also included.

After the main course we had a dessert of fruits and cream with coffee. It was now near 9:00 pm and we were just finishing dinner. We left the restaurant and boarded our bus back to the hotel. It was about 10:00 and time for bed.

June 24 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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This morning we have a short ride to the Escorial and the monument to the fallen.

Today is also another memorial; one year ago today I had a heart attack. Thanks to the quick action of my son Chris and the ability of the Toledo Hospital I survived and recovered to be healthy enough to take this trip. I thank God every day for this second chance.

Our first stop this morning is the walled city of Avilla. Still completely surrounded by ancient walls this is the home of St Theresa of Avilla. Outside the city about 1 kilometer from the walls is a four post memorial with a large stone cross. This point commemorates the spot where the seven year old Theresa was stopped by he parents when she left home with two of her thirteen brothers to convert the non believers. She was returned home where years later she once again left and began a life of religious work.

We continue our drive toward Madrid and the Escorial. One our way we made an interesting discovery. Our bus driver, Fernando, was actually a Portuguese Bull Fighter. He began his Matador years as a young man in his home country of Portugal but one fine Sunday he was seriously injured and carries the scars of the bull on his body. He became a bus driver soon thereafter and has been a perfect gentleman throughout our journey.

We arrive into a hill top city where King Philip built a Palace, a Cathedral and The Escorial a burial place for all the Kings of Spain. This is a building from the 16th century and is mostly complete with some restoration. Here we were able to see how a King of Spain actually lived as this was a continuous use Palace and Cathedral from the time of King Philip II.

This was a summer palace and as such was very open with a beautiful garden and several private and public rooms. We actually saw the bedroom of King Philip II in which he died at the age of 82. In his will he requested his successors would keep his private apartment as he left it and they did so we did get to see truly how a King lived and they lived very well. We visited the throne room and the private library and other rooms used for governing and living.

As part of the Palace he also built a Cathedral dedicated to St. Jeronimo (Gerome). As we may recall St Gerome was burned alive for evangelizing in Rome and always wore green as a sign of his order. The King preserved St Gerome’s memory in many paintings and dedication of the church to the Saint.

The church itself is still in use today and is built in the Baroque style so it is very ornate. Weddings, daily mass and musical concerts are still held in the church which is maintained by an order of Monks from the time of the early Spanish Kings. Spain was under a King until 1933 when the last King Abdicated and was eventually replaced by Francisco Franco a dictator who died in the 1970’s.

The highlight of this portion of our tour was when we went below the church and into the crypt of the Kings of Spain. Here we were in the presence of the main Kings of Spain from Carlos V Emperor of Rome as well as King of Spain down to the modern Kings of the 19th century. Here also are buried the Queens of Spain who were mothers to a King. It seems that for a wife of the King to be buried here she must also have produced a son who became a King. So not all the wives of Kings are buried in this special crypt. In any event it was an amazing place to see and to be in the presence of so much royalty.

When we left the crypt we crossed the church, still underground, and into the crypt of the royal families of the kings. Here was room after room filled with tombs on both sides of Princes, Princesses, Wives, Mothers and Children of Royalty. There must have been well over 100 tombs here all ornate and all beautiful.

This was a most amazing stop on our tour steeped in history and a very beautiful palace just on the outskirts of Madrid.

After our tour we headed for lunch as we were all starving. We stopped at a self serve cafeteria where the three of us dined on Lasagna, salad and delicious bread. We followed this up with Gelato, reminiscent of a fine meal in Italy. After lunch back to the bus for the short ride to the memorial of the fallen and the tomb of Franco.

When Franco took power it was through a civil war lasting from 1936 – 1939. This was a bloody period of Spanish history and one in which Spain fell far behind the rest of the industrialized world. By the time Franco gained power and began to settle the region Spain became a second world power and failed to be a part of the industrial revolution. Spain remained a poor country with few wealthy and many poor.

Franco was a dictator who tried to help the people, but was ruthless with his enemies. Growth occurred under Franco but also a police state existed and freedom was restricted. Some people loved him and some hated him but most did not care they were more concerned with the state of their own life.

In 1940 Franco began the construction of a monument to those brave men who died in the revolution. Initially he planned a memorial and burial location for those who fought on his side but soon realized to heal his country he would allow any one who was killed in the revolution on either side.

He built a memorial of monumental proportions. In a mountain within 5 miles of the Escorial, the burial place of Kings, Franco commissioned a Christian Church under a mountain.

The church was built in 19 years by hollowing out the center of a mountain and leaving a natural cavity that comprised a church so large that the Vatican refused to approve the initial plans. You see Franco’s original plan was a church larger then the Vatican itself. Since no church can be larger then the Vatican, France added a wall cutting off part of the church so that the area that was sanctified was smaller then the Vatican by a few yards. Once approved the Cathedral was built and now houses the remains of 35,000 of the 100,000 killed in the revolution and houses the remains of Franco himself.

The interior is breathtaking yet simple. It is a modern church so the decorations are simple but what is there is grand in scale. There church is maintained by Cloistered Monks who say a daily mass and perform weddings on Sunday.

Franco actually wanted to be buried in the Escorial, but since he was not a king he could not. So he built a monument that rivaled the Escorial in size and scope. Franco thought a great deal of himself and his grave certainly shows how much.

We departed the area and headed back to the city of Madrid and checked into our final hotel of the tour. We will spend two nights here as part of the tour, but the Farina’s will spend an additional night in Madrid before we head out to Greece and the rest of our vacation.

Tonight is the group Farewell Dinner where we will once again eat more food then we should and drink more wine then we need. We are sure it will be a meal to remember, but right now some laundry and a nap are in order. More later.

7:30 PM
We board our bus once again for a trip to the old center of the city for our farewell dinner. Our destination is a local restaurant famous for Paella. Since we are early for the locals to be eating we have the restaurant to ourselves.

Tonight’s dinner is amazing. We dine on fine breads, a salad of fresh tomato and tuna filet, then a small fish deep fried (so small you have to eat it with your fingers), and finally the Paella. The Paella was a mixture of fish and meats in a delicious red sauce. Of course all was washed down with red wine (2 bottles for our table of 5). This gastronomical treat was followed by dessert which consisted of a large plate of pastries and cream with black coffee. At the end we had a choice of two after dinner digestives. There was a red sweet beverage (90% alcohol of course) and a green less sweet beverage. Of course we tried both! Chris liked the green and I the red. Cathy passed.

There was much picture taking and the saying of good bye as we prepared for our final day together as a “family on tour”

We head back to the bus and the short ride to the hotel. Tomorrow is our last day on tour where we will go to the Prado Museum followed by a trip to Segovia.

June 27 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It is another beautiful day with bright sunshine and temperatures in the low 70’s. Our bus drive takes us through Lisbon along the Tagus and into the country where at 9:30 we arrive at Fatima.

I really did not know what to expect. We entered the town of Fatima which has grown up around the field where in 1917 from May to October three young children saw the Virgin Mary in a grotto. What was once a field to feed goats and sheep is now a paved plain large enough to hold several hundred thousand of the faithful. The 13th of each month from May through October the crowds are huge but today being the 26th it is relatively empty.

We enter into a park like setting where at each end a huge church is dedicated to the Virgin. Between the churches and set off to the side is a small glass and marble building which covers a small grotto. It is here on this spot the children saw the Virgin. Today the spot is covered and a mass was going on when we arrived.

The grotto shows a statue of the Virgin with a gold crown. Contained within the crown is the actual bullet that was fired into Pope John Paul II. He dedicated his life to the Virgin for saving him from the assignation attempt so he gave her the bullet as a sign of his faith.
Also in the grotto was a large piece of the Berlin Wall. It was part of the Virgin’s prophesy that communism must fall and the word must be dedicated to the Sacred Heart before there can be peace in the world. Although communism did fall there are still parts of the world yet to be dedicated to the Sacred Heart so our world remains in turmoil.

After our visit to the grotto we proceeded along to the main church where another mass was just ending. In this church is the final resting place of the three children the last of which just died in 2002. All three were beatified by Pope John Paul II. The church is modern and very beautiful with a large portrait of the visitation over the main alter.

We left the sacred area and did some shopping for religious articles and of course some coffee and pastry. All in all it was a most pleasant stop. Now we are back on the bus as we drive north to Salamanca.

On our way we stopped at a road side stop for our lunch. We enjoyed home made soup, salad, ham sandwich and goat cheese.

We crossed the border from Portugal and now we are back into Spain. Once you enter the EU you do not have to show passports as you cross between borders. This is very helpful as it make travel much easier.

Salamanca is about 1.5 hours into Spain and we pass through mountains and fields. Once again we see the fighting bulls in the fields. These are magnificent animals much larger then the dairy bulls we see at home. Unlike popular belief the fighting bulls are not always black. Many we see are Roan (red) or White but there are some black. We see them by the hundred all destined to someday meet their matador.

We arrive Salamanca and it is a wondrous site. This is an ancient city with a modern flair. Salamanca is home to many churches both old and new as well as a University. The University was begun by donation of a Palace by a Spanish King. The Palace is still in use today for classrooms but the center of the city is surrounded by academia.

Where there is a college there are college students. The streets and cafes are filled with the sounds of young people laughing, discussing and in some cases studying. This area is steeped in tradition as well.

One tradition involves a frog. It seems that there was a belief that if a student could find the hidden frog in a certain wall behind the statue of a monk, that student was destined to pass their exams. Well tradition aside it is better to find a book then to rely on a frog. To keep the tradition alive, every shop sells all forms of frog. From stone to ceramic to stuffed to plastic they are all there for the student or more likely the tourist to carry on the tradition. To help the local economy Cathy bought a frog.

In addition to University there is shopping galore. From high end Jewelry to the lowest form of tourist junk it is all there for the asking. Chris also helped the economy by buying some tee shirts and a soccer shirt.

One amazing site in Salamanca is the central square. It is modeled after the famous St Mark’s Square in Venice. It is a little smaller and is in red stone rather then white marble, but it is essentially a large square with shops and the ubiquitous café and geleteria. It is filled with students, locals and tourists and is a wonder of sites and sounds.

We walk out the square into the side streets on our free time. We head toward several churches. One was the ancient cathedral now replaced by a newer one. The old Cathedral is now St. Mark’s church and is beautiful in it’s architecture. The new Cathedral, it is still several hundred years old, is down the street and is magnificent outside and in.
After our visit to the church we continue to shop and decide it is time for a slight food break. So we spy a nice pastry shop and buy a large sharable pastry which is a light flake cake with chocolate and vanilla icing…marvelous. All the food, the drink, the pastry and the wines have been like nothing we have had before. It must be a combination of the location and the fine work of the chef. Every bite is a memory as we will carry the weight of each bite for at least a month after we get home.

Our Hotel is a little outside of town this evening and we have just arrived at 7:00 pm. I am writing this in the middle of the hotel lobby as they have FREE internet access and I must take advantage. Dinner tonight is to be a simple affair in our hotel. We dine fashionable at 8:00 and expect to be done in time for a long nap. Tomorrow we rise a 7:00 for an 8:00 am departure for Madrid and our final stop on this tour. But not the final stop for the Farinas. More on this later.

June 26 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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When we arrived at breakfast we learned the difference in a 5 star hotel. The breakfast buffet went on forever. Fruits, juices, cereals and breads were in abundance. To this were added eggs, sausages, potatoes, cheeses, fish and a plethora of other things. If you could not find something to eat here you were not hungry.

One other thing we learned on this trip is how fortunate we are with our cost of gas at home. In Spain the price of fuel ranges from .98 Euros to 1.08 Euro per liter. If we go to the US gallon that is 4.2 liters so the price is $4.11 – 4.53. Converting to US dollars we get a range of $5.46 - $6.02. So out $3.00 gas is really cheap compared to the rest of the world.

Today we board our bus for the local tour of Lisbon with our local guide. First stop is the Jewish quarter, which like the rest of Spain has now Jews. This area was very old with narrow streets and a friendly neighborhood atmosphere. This area is now the area of St. Paul and as such was decorated for festival. June is the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul so on the weekend there is a local festival with food, wine and music much like our church festivals at home only on a more local stage.

After our morning tour we then went on our extra excursion to the towns of Cascais (kass kis) and Sintra. The bus took us along the Tagus River toward the mouth of the river and the Atlantic Ocean. The Tagus her is a very wide river over 3 miles across. This is the same river that flows from it’s headwaters north of Toledo.

Our first stop is Cascais an ocean front resort town. This small yet very attractive city is the home of the rich and famous of Portugal. We pass mansions, hotels and the first golf courses we see in Portugal. The sites are beautiful and we stop here for our lunch and free time.

We stopped at a most unusual Pizzeria. Unusual due to it’s menu. The local restaurant boasts pizza, local Portuguese specialties and a full sushi menu! As we enter the restaurant we fist pass through the Japanese section. We continue on and we pass through the Portuguese section and finally come to an open air under glass Italian restaurant, all under one roof. The pizza was very Italian a nice thin crust minimal tomato sauce and cheese with light oil. It was significantly better then any pizza we can get in Toledo.

After lunch we explore the shopping section. Chris has been searching for a Portuguese flag. Some of you may know that back in the year 1160 the Farina name first appeared in Portugal. So early in our history we were Portuguese before we settled in Sicily, so Chris wanted a flag.

We searched diligently but the only flag we could find was in a store that was closed for siesta. We would continue our search. As we were heading toward our bus we glanced to our left and saw the perfect flag. Five Euros later we had the flag and were back on the bus

We departed Cascais and traveled toward our next stop Sintra the summer home of the Kings of Portugal. Along the way we saw the western most point of land of Europe. This was a rock at the very end of a peninsula known as the Roc. From here we were at the same latitude as New York City and on a clear day our guide tells us you can see the Statue of Liberty. Not likely but we get a good laugh.

We arrive in Sintra and depart the bus for a tour of the summer palace of the Kings of Portugal. The last King was in the early 1900’s. Portugal was the home of 72 noble families that controlled a world wide empire. Over time the nobles lost power and in 1910 Portugal became a republic.

The palace like all the palaces we visited was amazing. This one was built in the 16th century and was in amazing condition after some restoration. Since this was a summer palace it was built in a very open form with gardens and views of the sea. After the visit to the place we were on our own for shopping and resting.

We departed Sintra for the short drive back to the hotel and a well deserved 3 hour break (rest) before our Fodo dinner in a castle.

7:30 PM
We depart the hotel again on our tour bus for a short drive back to the old city and our special Fodo Dinner. A Fodo is a traditional presentation of local dance, song and music. We were also to enjoy a 4 course dinner during the show something like dinner theater.

We enter a side door of a castle that was built in the 14th century and was the only building left standing in center city after the earthquake of 1755. We are seated in long rows with a large stage in front of the tables. To welcome us we are poured a glass of a sweet port wine. We begin dinner with plates of Olives, bread and sausage. Next comes a cold been soup, a traditional dish. After this comes a plate of fish in a red sauce and vegetable and potato. All delicious, but we are not finished. Next comes a plate of steak and more vegetables. Following this we have Flan for dessert. All of this is washed down with red and white wine.

The Fodo music was amazing. There were several dancers performing local dances accompanied by guitar and various percussion instruments. There were songs of love gained and love lost; songs of politics and songs of sadness. We did not understand a word but it was excellent. We all had a great time and gained 2 kilos in the process.

Back to the hotel at 11:00 for a good nights sleep and a wake up call at 6:30. Next we head to Fatima and Salamanca.

June 25 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It seems Chris has a bad stomach all time and as such woke significantly dehydrated and feeling very poorly. Our other traveler was in such bad shape she did not leave her room. Fortunately Chris recovered as the day went on but so far at 7:00 PM we have not seen the other casualty.

Barring the stomach issue, Chris, Cathy and I joined the bus for a guided tour of the highlights of Seville. Here we take a 4 hour walking tour of the major highlights of this once Moorish and now Christian city. We see 800 year old aqueducts, a 1400 year old Moorish fortification, a church built by the Moors and reclaimed by the Christians where it was increased in size to the third largest Cathedral in the world.

Seville is old and new. The Jewish quarter once inhabited by 30,000 Jews was the central area of commerce and dining. Today Seville has only 30 Jews registered and as such Christian influence controls all.

One highlight of our tour was a visit to the home of the highest ranking noble in Spain. Our bus takes us to a Palace in which lives a single old woman of 88. She was at one time the wife of a Spanish Duke and holds 26 noble titles, more then the King of Spain. Although her titles are basically meaningless her wealth and home are amazing.

Following the Palace tour we head to the Gardens of the Queen. Once her private gardens, the queen gave her garden to the people, actually she could no longer afford the upkeep so now a park the people pay for it. The gardens are lush and beautiful with fountains and monuments. Along the river and bordering the gardens was the home of the 1929 Spanish American exhibition. Much like a worlds fair the area had pavilions exhibiting art and life in the US and Spain. Most of the buildings were temporary and so are gone but some were more permanent and are now used as offices for government officials.

We head toward the Cathedral, a Gothic structure in the dead center of Seville. The Moors first built a mosque on this site but once the Spanish took control the area was Christianized and the 1400’s the immense Cathedral to our Lady was complete.

The highlight of the tour is the Tomb of Christopher Columbus and that of his son. Legend has it that Seville, Hispaniola, Madrid and the isles of Jamaica all claim to have his body and all show a memorial to the explorer. In 2006 three of the 4 graves were opened and bone samples were taken and analyzed. Using DNA it was conclusively proven that the bones in Seville were indeed the actual bones of the Discoverer of America. His son Diego is also buried here. He was a Priest and fellow traveler accompanying his father on 4 journeys into the new world. Diego was Christopher’s chronicler and author of the diaries of Columbus and so Seville also boasts the largest collection of the works of Columbus in their library.

The Church is amazing and filled with timeless and priceless works of art, gold and silver. The Tomb is made of Bronze and depicts four larger then life men carrying the coffin of Columbus across a black onyx floor, amazing in size detail and splendor.

Next we are on free time. It is near 2:00 PM and the temperature is approaching 100 F.
This is the time to find some food and some shade. We spy a paella restaurant right across the street from the Cathedral and we head for it. I was told by a Co-worker at my office that this is the best paella in all of Seville so we decide to give it a try.

Good thing we got there early. As we walked over to the restaurant, the outside shaded tables were already full, so we headed to the inside hoping for a table and A/C. Inside was empty so we moved some tables together to accommodate 7 people and sat down. Not one minute later another tour group was given free time and they all tried to get in. Since we took over the open space they were forced to leave. At capacity the inside of the restaurant could hold 15 people and outside another 20 at most. This is very typical of the local restaurants, they may be small but there are a multitude of them. Door after door, row after row you can find a small restaurant so you just have to move a few feet to the store next door to find good food.

Anyway we all order chicken paella which is a dish of two pieces of chicken in a saffron rice with vegetables. The rice is slow cooked for many hours which changes the consistency to a delicious paste like fell similar to pasta. The plate also has olive oil and a red sauce and is absolutely delicious and filling.

After lunch we try walking around a little to do some shopping but the heat and the siesta time get the better of us and we take a cab ride back to our Hotel. Chris did not come with us after the morning tour so we were anxious to see how he was feeling. It seems that a combination of medication, A/C water and rest resulted in a miracle cure. Thankfully he is much better, not 100%, but much better. By tomorrow we all hope he will be back to normal.

When Cathy and I got back we both joined in the traditional Siesta and slept for a few hours. It is now 7:00 PM and still near 100 F outside. In an hour or two we will head out to dinner as tonight we are on our own for dinner.

June 23 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Now, to continue the adventure from last night on the missing purse. We looked all over the room for the purse Cathy misplaced. We told the Hotel Manager to look for it in the laundry in the morning.

Well at breakfast today I explained our situation to our tour guide David. He looked a little perplexed and said he found a purse on the bus this morning! We went to the bus and there it was exactly where she left it yesterday. You see in the morning we were n row three for the tour, later when we returned to the bus we were much further back. She forgot she brought the purse to the bus so we all assumed it was left in the room. Mystery solved and we are now back to complete.

Today we leave Spain for a little while and go to the British Territory of Gibraltar. Most of you will know this as the Rock of Gibraltar. Once an penninsula owned by the Moors the land was captured by the Spanish. Under Franco the area was lost to the British where it remains as a British possession.

I was amazed to see Gibraltar was a modern hustling city filled with history and modern construction. Many rich and famous claim Gibraltar as their home, not to live here but to avoid the high European taxes. If you own a home on Gibraltar and “live there” you can save more then 2/3 on your taxes. So the main industry of Gibraltar is tax law!

We leave our bus and hire a smaller bus where 7 of us pile into for a local tour of the Rock. This place is amazing. Old Moorish fort, mixed in with British Empire army and navy buildings and local homes and expensive condos. All on a rock 5 miles by 7 miles. There are 30,000 permanent people and 360 Barbary Apes.

The apes come from Africa 14 miles across the strait of Gibraltar. They came with sailors as pets, escaped and now form 6 family colonies on the rock. This is the season they have babies and many of the females had babies under their belly. They were cute but are wild animals and must be treated as such.

They have lost their fear of humans and can be aggressive. They also like sunglasses. It seems they are lying around just as cute as can be until they see sunglasses. Then they will suddenly pounce and grab the glasses and run away. Our driver says not to worry; we can buy them back from the monkey stand down the road.

We have included on our local tour a cave of St Michael. This is a marvelous limestone cave with the typical stalactites and stalagmites throughout. They even have a theater built into the cave for concerts.

We drive around the rest of the rock and are dropped off for free time and lunch. The area is famous for electronics, alcohol and the ever present Cuban cigars. Since we do not need either we head of in search of food.

As you may recall this is a British possession and as such they use Pounds not Euros. Another point is the food sucks and is terribly expensive. We look for a nice pub and find one near by. We order up three burgers, they come with a salad, a coke and two pints for Chris and I. The bill 26 pounds or $54. The burgers were meat loaf in nature and upset Cathy’s stomach. Chris and I were starving and would have eaten horse if we had to.
Back to the bus and off to Seville.

On the road to Seville we traveled down the famous road of the bulls. Here all the pastures are dedicated to raising the fearless bulls used in the bull ring throughout Spain and Portugal. Most of the best bulls come from this region. We see them by the hundred most fated to face the bull fighter to see who is bravest and strongest. The bull fight is a strong tradition and there is a spectacle every day.

We arrive in Seville, check into another 4 star hotel, take a nap and prepare for Flamenco night followed by dinner.

6:30 PM we head out to the theater for the Flamenco dance. Our bus takes us to the center of Seville a modern city filled with ancient architecture. We pass Moorish aqueducts, Mosques, the world’s third largest cathedral and many restaurants bars and people strolling the city streets.

We arrive at the theater and our free drink order is taken. Cathy, Chris and I are seated in the front row. Soon the guitars begin to play and the spectacle that is Flamenco. There are two guitars, two singers and three handsome male dancers and six beautiful women dancers. For the next 90 minutes they run through a retinue of songs and dance that is fantastic. This was different from the Gypsy Flamenco in that tonight’s dance was stylish and more complex. Both were fantastic experiences and soon we were shouting “Ole Ole” amid applause.

A short bus drive brings us near the Cathedral and we head to the local restaurant for a meal of fish, vegetables, bread and of course wine and sangria. Tonight’s meal was of a more modest volume a welcome respite from the huge calorie overloads we have been experiencing all week. Good thing too because both Cathy and Chris are suffering from the lousy British food we had at lunch so they did not want to load the pipes so to speak.

We are back at the Hotel now and preparing for our first sleep in…tomorrow we wake at 8:00 PM and depart for a city tour of Seville by 9:00 AM

June 22 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Five AM came really early. We dressed and heading down to the breakfast room for a quick breakfast before a 2 hour drive to the Port where we are to catch a fast ferry across the straits of Gibraltar and onto Morocco Africa.

We all took the opportunity to sleep on the bus before our arrival at the port. We got there a little early so we had time for a coffee and donut. We board the fast ferry at 8:45 for a 9:00 am departure.

The ferry is actually a small well appointed ship. The layout was one deck with open air deck in front and rear with a club room for first class passengers. The vessel has comfortable reclining chairs, good to sleep in, tables, and restaurant. There are windows for viewing and very clean bathrooms. All in all an excellent vessel.

About one third of the way across the strait I see a group of young high school students all sitting in the center of the vessel. Strange but they looked familiar. I looked closer and asked one of the girls where they were from. “Notre Dame HS in Toledo Ohio” came the reply. Small world. They were on tour of Spain and France and were heading to Morocco for a day in Africa. We chatted a while and it turns out several were in the St. Francis Band. I told them Chris was with us and soon Chris was surrounded!

It seems several of the girls know Chris from St Francis and know Cathy from her time teaching at ND. The rest of the trip Chris was surrounded and Cathy spoke with her acquaintance from ND. Note to Lilly, Chris kept his distance and remained fully faithful.

The vessel passed the famous Rock of Gibraltar on our way to Africa. We will be on the Rock tomorrow. Soon the vessel arrived in Spanish Africa where we left the vessel and met our local guide for the trip out of Spain and into Africa.

Since we were leaving Spain we needed our passports to go through passport control. This is a Moslem country and so it is very controlled. We are assured we are safe but are told to be careful. They kept our passports at the border until we returned.

We were in a lush section of Africa. Morocco is an ancient city as well as a modern city. We were heading to the Midas (ancient part of the city). On the bus ride we saw camels, tent cities, and much modern construction. We passed the summer compound of King Faed, and many wealthy estates. Soon, however, as we approached the Midas things changed rapidly and for the worse.

The central city, an area that has been the same for 1400 years, was crowded, dirty, foul smelling and poor, dirt poor. We enter the Midas and our guide picks up tow additional guides to “help” us. More like to protect us.

The old city is just that, old. The streets are narrow about 4 feet wide, and are filled with turns and noise and smells. The shops and stalls are ancient, dirty about 10 feet wide and 5 feet deep. All the food is outside the shop making the narrow street even narrower. People are coming and going, chickens are clucking, sellers are barking and wagons are running you over. It can only be described as mass confusion controlled by generations of knowing what to do.

The shops sell everything. Each section has a specialty. We saw fruits, vegetables, nuts, breads, meats and fish. All are fresh and come in each day where they are sold to the locals who live in the Midas. Food is very cheap. You can buy fresh almonds at 2.2 pounds for 2 Euro ($2.60). Fish comes in every day and is shown in baskets with no ice or covering. It looks confusing and unsanitary but this is a third world country and you really get the idea of what it is like to be poor.

This area is Moslem and as such there are several Mosques for prayer. They pray 5 times each day. They begin at 5 AM, sunrise, again at Noon, again at sunset. Each prayer time is proceeded by ablations or ritual washing of the hands, feet, midbody, face, mouth and inside the nose. Each washing is done three times as the head priest calls from the Minaret to signal the time for prayer. It is all fascinating.

As we go deeper and deeper into the ancient city, some of our troops are getting more uncomfortable with all the smells, commotion and people. Our guide continues to tell us we are safe but “he doth protest too much” and we are not feeling safer.

Soon we are taken to a typical home turned into a shop. It is amazing. Outside is filthy, water in the streets, crowed and small. Inside is huge, brightly lit, smelling of incense and beautiful. We learn that the residence do not want anyone to know how much money they have so they keep the outsides shabby and have a palace inside. Not all are well of but most are not as poor as they pretend.

Any way we are in a carpet shop where all the carpets are hand made in the mountains and are sold as art as well as practical use. We learn a little of how the carpets are made and they then display them with a flourish.

One man explains about the carpet while another unrolls the carpet by throwing it in the air and pulling the other end. The carpets are beautiful and range from a few hundred Euros to 25,000 Euros. Our tour buys two carpets, one for 850 and one for 1300 Euros.

Buying a rung or anything in Morocco involves a process. The process includes much conversation and traditional bargaining. Americans are not very good at this part of the transaction but it was fun to watch. One couple wanted an 8 X 10 carpet. They were taken into the sale room and sat down. After a few minutes they were told the rung was 2900 USD. They did not know what to do so the seller had to tell them! Make an offer and I will counter then you will counter and we will come to a bargain, the chicken was lead to the slaughter. A few minutes later $850 was agreed upon and off to lunch we went.

Lunch was an affair to remember. Fist back out onto the streets for a short walk to the restaurant. We enter a small door into a wide hall filled with light and music from around the bend. We walk along and there we come to the Whirling Dervish. This is a group in traditional costume playing cymbals, drums and whirling in a circle so that a pom pom on a string (dervish) is set to whirling around.

We enter into a lavish restaurant intricately decorated in traditional art. We go to our table to enjoy a traditional Arab meal. We begin with a Tandori coos coos. This is a meal made of flour and rolled by hand for hours in water and salt until it is small and like pastina or rice. This is put into a Tandori pot a traditional cooking pot that is shaped like a triangle with a flat dish at the bottom. The coos coos is added with chicken, potato, carrot, cabbage and other vegetables and slow cooked for hours over an open flame.

The food is then put into the center of the table and each person serves them self a portion. You then add the hot sauce and a sprinkle of sea salt from the Dead Sea. Mix it together, delicious.

Next comes a course of kabobs of meat. These are small tender spiced meat served on a skewer. You are given two skewers but can have as many as you like. This is followed by a salad and is finished off with mint tea to help the digestion. Mint tea is green tea which is brewed with mint leaves in addition to the tea. It is poured into your cup, returned to the pot and returned to the cup. This is done three times to honor Allah.

We leave the Midas and head back to the bus for the trip to the port and return across the straights back to Torremolino and our beachfront hotel.

We are not done yet. We get back to the hotel at 8:00 and we are on our own for dinner.
As we get ready for dinner we run into a little adventure. It seems when we left in the morning Cathy changed her purse into her back pack and believes she left the purse on the unmade bed. When we returned the beds were of course made but the purse was gone. It was essentially empty but we were concerned where it could be. We looked everywhere but nothing. I went downstairs to report it to the Hotel Manager.

He was more concerned then I was. It seems it was possible the purse was accidentally wrapped up into the bed sheets and sent off to the laundry. The laundry opens at 9:00 am and we depart at 8:00 am. I give him my cell number and hope if they find it they can send it back to Toledo. The good news now is Cathy gets to buy a new purse!

We head out to dinner and walk along the beach to a beach front hotel. We are tired of huge meals and looking for something small and not fish! Pizza answers the call. We spy a pizzeria with a beach front table and we sit down with friends, pitchers of Sangria are served and pizza is enjoyed.

As we are sitting there we watch the people promenade along the Playa. Soon some young pretty girls come walking by and glance in our direction. One takes a double take and walks up and says “Chris?”

It turns out this is another group from Notre Dame HS in Toledo. They did not go to Africa and did not know Chris was in Spain. Again Chris was surrounded and spent much time talking about college and his travels to Greece later this month. Some of these girls will see Chris later this year at Band Camp. Note to Lilly, you may want to have a “talking to” with Chris before band camp!

Finally it is 10:00 PM exhaustion sets in and we walk back to the hotel. The weather is still beautiful and the pleasant walk gets us truly ready for sleep. Tomorrow the wake up is 6:30 am. Wow we get to sleep in!

June 21 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today we are to visit the Alhambra, an 8th century palace and residence for the Caliph. The building was begun by the Arabs in 766 and was taken over by King Charles V in 1492. The Arabs were expelled but Charles did not move into the palace directly. Since this was a place built by the Infidels Charles refused to enter but instead added to the palace a residence built in the Christian style. Unfortunately shortly after Charles V married and honeymooned at the Alhambra, his new wife refused to return and they moved to Madrid abandoning the yet to be completed Christian palace.

The Alhambra is both a palace for the Caliph and a city of 2400 which were either related to the Caliph or lived to serve the Caliph. There are audience rooms, residence halls, fountains and gardens stretching of 4 sq kilometers. The palace is magnificent and the best example of Moorish architecture in Spain.

After we finished the tour with our local guide we headed back to the bus for the trip to the coast and the area of Costa del Sol, the coast of the sun where we will spend two nights (time for laundry).

5:00 PM Costa del Sol
Our hotel is right on the ocean. The area is beautiful, deep blue Mediterranean, white sand and palm trees. Our Hotel, the Mirabel, is a new hotel and of the 4 star class. We decide to check in and chance into bathing suits and hit the beach, topless beach that is.

Up to the rooms, quick change and we are headed out to the sun and the sand. We find a perfect spot under a palm, spread out our towels and prepare for a swim in the Mediterranean.

As we walk down the beach we notice several sun bathers, some topless, but all worshiping the sun, no one is in the water. It is about 80 degrees with a warm breeze so the water should feel good, so why is no one in the water? Chris and I walk to the water’s edge and soon find the reason. The water is ICE COLD. We tried to walk in, too cold. So we decide to run in. Big mistake. We get to our waste and the sand below falls away and the freezing water takes its toll, and we run back out. We tried a second time and lasted less then 60 seconds in the water so back to the beach.

Well the view is nice, topless you know, but the pool is very tempting so back across the beach and to the pool. The waster is like a bath tub so we all settle in for a pleasant afternoon before dinner.

We left the pool for a stroll down the playa for some shopping and shopping. Not 100 yards from the hotel is a shopping street of local merchants selling leather, Cuban cigars, clothes, jewelry and Tattoos. I seriously consider a Tattoo (5 Euro) but we did not have the time.

We boarded our tour bus for the trip to Mijas a hilltop town. Mijas is an old city all in white. He you can see the coast of Africa, where we are heading in the morning. In Mijas we saw a church entirely in a cave, walked around the shopping area and finally rested at a corner bar for a beer and a rest. Back to the bus for our 30 minute ride to the special fish dinner.

This was a dinner of supreme quality, taste and volume. Let me explain. Dinner was served Tapas style meaning the plates were piled high with food and you shared it with your table mates. The tables were set for 4 or 6 so we had our own table for the three of us.

First we had sardines deep fired with lemon, delicious. Next came baby claims steamed in lemon and salt water. We were a little cautious at first but after Chris pronounced then “surprisingly delicious” Cathy and I tried it. He was right. We knocked off the entire plate. Next came calamari deep fried with lemon. Salad came followed by fried cod with lemon and salt. There was so much food so far that we could not finish it all so we passed the plates to some of our other tables. After a short rest where we were entertained by Spanish Guitar, and more food. Now we had roasted red peppers in Olive oil, bread and of course red and white wine. We thought we were done, but this was just the appetizer. We were stuffed at this point but the special main course was yet to come.

Our host brought out two huge platters of the specialty of the house. Slow cooked sea bass in a bed of sea salt covered with sea salt and spices. Soon came out plate of bass with potato, vegetable and tomato. Try as we might we could not consume more then a couple of bites. Next followed a pastry for desert with hot coffee. More food then any person should be allowed to eat was consumed. We left the hotel for a leisurely walk on the Playa along the beach and back to the hotel for a well deserved and needed rest.

Tomorrow Africa and a 5:00 wake up call.

June 20 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today we are going to Cordoba to see an 8th century Arab Mosque and a 12TH century Roman Catholic Cathedral with in the same building. Let me explain.

In Cordoba in the 8th century the Arabs built a Mosque under the first Caliph of Cordoba. The Mosque was expanded in the 9th century and again in the 10Th century to cover a full 5.5 acres under roof. The Mosque, facing east toward Mecca was the largest Mosque in all of Europe.

In the 12th century the area was invaded by the Catholics who under the King Ferdinand III converted the Mosque into a Catholic Cathedral. This is the only Catholic Church built by Arabs and is contained entirely within the walls of a Mosque.

The building is only 400 sq meters smaller then the Vatican, the largest church in the world. Holding the ceiling is 835 columns, formerly over 1000 columns held the roof but 200 or so were removed to build the church.

The facility is absolutely incredible, light, airy and beautiful in decorations. It simply must be seen to really experience it.

We also went into the Jewish quarter very near the Mosque. We visited a 9th century synagogue. It too was converted by the King into a Catholic Church. Some once again we have a Catholic Church built entirely by Jews. The building was very simple and small as there were over 100 small Jewish temples during the 9th century. Today there are not enough practicing Jews in Cordoba to hold a simple minion (10 men) so there are no active synagogue in operation.

Our local guide was very informative and helpful as we walked the old city of Cordoba. Our last stop we found our first Gelato store. Three Gelatos were quickly served up and we headed back to the bus for our trip to Grenada and Gypsy night.

Grenada
I was amazed at the size of the city of Grenada. It has a population of 350,000 and a University so there is shops and bars and people everywhere. Cathy and I walked around the city looking at the small shops and such as Chris took a nap.

7:30 Dinner
Dinner in Grenada was at a local Restaurant in the center of the new city. This is a major metropolitan city with high end shopping and night life. The restaurant was a very nice local shop. As we walked in we were handed a glass of Sangria before we went to our table. We dined on local fare tonight which consisted of chicken in olive oil, snap peas in a sweet tomato sauce and French fries!

Each table had a bottle of wine and mineral water for a group of four. Cathy sat with another table only because we arrived last in the group and the tables all set out for four so two families were split up. It was OK as Chris and I sat with two younger people and Cathy say with their mom.

Chris opened our bottle and poured each of us a glass. I tasted the wine and it was a little like vinegar! Chris also felt it was a little bitter but we kept drinking. Soon I asked at the next table to see if their wine was also bitter. It was not. Our bottle turned. Quickly a new bottle was brought out and the rest of the meal went very well.

Tonight we enjoyed Gypsy night. After dinner those of us who paid for the optional entertainment went into a small bus for a ride up into the mountains. Here we left the city for the hills where we stopped at a hill top location where the Gypsies lived.

We entered into a cave like room literally made to look like a cave. It was white walls and ceiling with lights and kitchen ornaments hanging from the walls and ceiling made of brass and copper. The room was about 25 feet long and 8 feet wide. We sat on red painted wooden chairs along both sides of the room providing a dancing floor of 5 feet by 18 feet. Talk about close to the action.

The Gypsies were dressed in reds, whites, black and other bright colors. One singer, one Spanish guitar 4 beautiful women and two handsome men assembled to provide the entertainment.

They performed a series of traditional Gypsy Flamenco dances. They were so close to us that literally the breeze from their swirling dresses and flashing hands cold be felt as the music and dancing provided a pounding beat that made you move your feet back for fear of being stepped on.

Flamenco dance is rapid feet movement with highly stylized hand and facial movement. The feet provide tapping akin to River Dance steps with “music” coming from the feet to accompany the harmony and beat provided by the guitar. The entertainment was amazing.

We departed at 11:30 to return to the hotel. We still had to pack and get ready for a 6:30 wake up call in the morning. It was after 12:30 before we were ready for bed. When do we start the resting part of the vacation!

June 19 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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As I started the car I heard a beeping from the luggage! Knowing this can not be a good idea to have some alarm beeping in the luggage, I asked if anyone had set an alarm. “Not me!” came the resounding reply, yet the beeping continued.

I turned off the engine to hopefully either stop the sound or better locate it. Chris put his ear to the task and located a bag where he believed the beeping originated. NOTHING THERE, yet the beeping continues. We search again in vain; no source but… there it is beeping at us.

Cathy decided to go to the back of the car and in so doing she hears the beep even louder. She make the source discovery, a very loud bird singing his farewell to us and wishing us a bon voyage!

Mystery solved we head to the airport.

We arrive at the airport, breeze through checking and security. Off to Quizno’s for lunch and the 60 minute wait for our flight to Chicago. The flight before ours is almost an hour late in boarding. This does not bode well!

Good News, flight to Chicago goes off without a hitch. We arrive in Chicago with 3 hours to the next flight which will take us overnight to Madrid.

June 16 evening to June 17, 2007
The flight on Iberia was on a HUGE plane. The loaded flight held 385 souls plus crew. They even had a tail camera which showed our plane’s take off and landing! We even had a view of the plane in-flight. Not much to see but very interesting.

The 7 hours flight was smooth, quiet and uneventful. We all slept even Cathy who notoriously does not sleep on a plane. Chris and I loaded up on Melatonin while Cathy hit the nighttime decongestant. No wonder we slept.

June 16, 2007 remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We just took the dogs for their last walk before we depart and so we are now just waiting for the adventure to begin.

Until tomorrow then the plan is to rest well... we may need it!

The Night Before remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It is T-minus 9 days and counting before we head to Detroit airport for a short flight to Chicago, followed by the overnight flight to MADRID, Spain.

We will spend the next 14 days in Spain. We will be on tour with our favorite tour group Trafalgar. The plan is to visit the following cities:
Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, Costa del Sol, Gibraltar, Seville, Lisbon, Fatima, Salamanca, and back to Madrid...I am tired already but that is not all. We spend an additional 3 nights in Greece where we will drop off Chris for the next 4 weeks.

He will be attending classes in greek and latin literature and be traveling the path of St Peter as they explore some of the Greek Islands. He will get 12 college credits and a lifetime of memory.

Cathy and I will return to the USA on July 4 while Chris does not return until August 1.

All in all it should be a fantastic trip. I hope you all enjoy following along as we take another family adventure.

Preparation remains copyright of the author pfarina, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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