La Espana

Things out here have been going well. It's been 3 weeks since we left San Diego and 12 days out here on our own. Over the last 12 days we have visited Amsterdam, Netherlands; Lisbon and Peniche, Portugal; Madrid, Algeciras, and Valencia, Spain, Gibraltar, UK; and Tanger, Morocco. We have been busy and are currently here in Valencia for two and a half days before heading to Barcelona. We've been having good times and experiences - well, except for when our Morocco guide ditched us pissed off in an underground belly dancing club. He had accidentally spent the commission we gave him when he kept ordering drinks. It was tough finding our way back to our hotel. Things are becoming more familiar as we go along. Not hearing English is the big one. Our previous European experiences taught us that we could expect to hear some English from some people. But that is not been what we have found to be true this time around. What we have found is that very few, if any, Europeans in Portugal and Spain (well, I guess Morocco too) speak very few, if any, words of English; and we also seem to be the only Americans around. We don't mind at all though. It has given us a great oppurtunity to practice our Spanish- and it is getting muy muy bien, although still struggling a bit. We are getting used to traffic and signs, both pedestrian and vehicular, sounds and rhythms of places we go; train schedules, Metro lines, ordering food, knowing what we actually ordered, smoked filled bars, Spanish dinner times; but most of all, we are becoming familiar with being comfortable unfamiliar places. We have adopted a few rules of the road for whatever their worth. They are either to keep us in budget or keep us fit, but I am sure that we will continue to adopt more rules as we go along.
Rule No. 1: Use free Internet wherever we can find it. No purchasing hotel Internet.
Rule No. 2: Eat all free tapas before paying for them.
Rule No. 3: Drink beer or wine as often as possible as it is cheaper than soda or water.
Rule No. 4: Speak as little English as possible.
Rule No. 5: No one is allowed to take the elevators or escalators unless with luggage. This rule does not apply if going more than 6 stories up.
Rule No. 6: Do our runs and sit-ups, even if we don’t feel like it.
We have been doing well so far, I think, with going on our runs. They have been really nice and relaxing and really help us get oriented to wherever we are. In a weird way, going for a run helps makes us feel at home a bit too. At home, our runs in the neighborhood or to the beach help us unwind after a busy day. Here, they sort of help us unwind as if we were home and help ease any travel tension or restlessness. Anyhow, the runs have been awesome less one awesome dog. Charlie is missed daily and is spoken of often. I had a dream about her the other night. We were visiting home for only one day and had the opportunity to see Charlie; but because it was only one day we didn’t visit because we thought it would be too confusing to just leave her again. In my dream, I went away crying. I am not really sad though, just missing Charlie. Her soft fur, crazy smile and heavy hugs. But I know she is having a great time with her BFF Leyla and gets to see Bucky and Carson and Kendall. And there is no better place she could be. How we will ever repay Loren and Teague for taking her while we’re gone, I don’t know.
Today we leave for Barcelone where we will spend one night before heading to Milano. It seems that with the availability of trains to the places we have “planned” for this portion of our journey we will be skipping France altogether. I don’t mind too much, but Jason had Marseille on his list of places he wanted to visit. It seems that I will not be able to visit Luxembourg due to train schedules too. C’est la vie. Un otre tempo. We wont be staying in Milano, but it is where we will be catching our train to La Spezia. La Spezia is how will access Cinque Terre, which we hope to hike and put our lock on the Sentiero del Amore. The Sentiero del Amore is on what’s called Lover’s Path where you attach a lock to the bridge and toss the keys into the ocean to secure everlasting love. Our lock was a gift Jason gave me for our first anniversary and I hope to leave it in Cinque Terre. Ok – enough for now. I will update all of you again soon. Until then, we send our love and hope you are all well. Send messages and keep us updated!

PS: this computer is having some trouble uploading pictures...will send some soon, promise.

Days Traveled: 12
Distance Traveled: 15, 085km/9,428mi
Countries Visited: 5