Winding down

My 6 week odyssey is ending and at this point I am looking forward to being home again. It has been a great trip with amazingly beautiful weather, lots of wonderful memories, and time spent with good friends. I have enjoyed every moment.

The following is a quick review of hotels I stayed in along the way.
Paris - Hotel des Arts Bastille ($95 per night) small, clean, extremely basic room and bathroom - would recommend Comfort Hotel Mouffetard Quartier Latin for a little more money.
Provence, St Cecile les Vignes - Hotel La Farigoule ($70 per night) charming, pretty hotel with a nice restaurant.
Provence, Bonnieux - Hotel Cesar ($110 per night) Amazing view but would not recommend. Try Le Clos du Buis - very nice hotel with same view and a swimming pool. St Andre restaurant was good and there is an excellent patisserie at the bottom of the village for breakfast.
Barcelona, Hotel Market ($95 per night) the best hotel I stayed in. Spacious, chic, room and bathroom, great service and a wonderful restaurant.
Madrid, Hotel Lusso Infantas ($130 per night) very nice hotel, lovely room and bathroom, in a good location.
Seville, Hotel Dona Manuela Casa Modesto ( $100 per night) nice, spotless hotel with spanish decor. Spacious room and lovely tiled bathroom.
Lisbon, Hotel Excelsior ($75 per night incl. breakfast) rather shabby, would not recommend.
All in all I did pretty well!

Panic!!!

My bus ride to Portugal was long but uneventful, and I was met at the station by an old friend. It was not until later in the afternoon that I realised I had left my lovely watercolor, purchased in Provence, on the shelf in the bus.

We rushed to the bus station but of course the bus had already left for the return journey to Seville. No amount of phone calls or messages left on the internet got any response so we decided to be at the station the next day when the bus came in. Luckily it was the same driver and he said they had found the painting and it was at the office in Seville. Now to get it back to Lagos where I was staying. He said he would try to make arrangements to have it on the bus the next day, so we are hoping, but I feel very confident that it will all work out.

A night of Flamenco

I have discovered that about nine or ten days is my limit on traveling alone, I simply get tired of my own company. I was therefore grateful when after finishing dinner at a small restaurant in Seville, a young woman who had also eaten alone, approached me and asked if I spoke english and did I have plans for the evening.

She was Australian, in Seville for the first time and had tracked down a Flamenco place that is not on the tourist circuit. We decided to try it and after wandering down some narrow streets we arrived at 2 large, red, barn doors with no signs whatsoever. Inside was a large open space with wooden benches and a small stage, and behind that a lovely, cool, old courtyard with tables and chairs and huge trees.
After discovering that the show would not start until 11pm, we ordered sangria and whiled away the time chatting.

Once the show started the first act was a male singer with a very soulful voice who was accompanied by guitar and the clapping of the women who was to dance later. Then it was her turn. She was a woman around 40,not a beautiful, young, willowy girl, but the passion and earthiness of her performance was stunning.

A wonderful evening was provided by a chance encounter and the willingness of one stranger to approach another.

Stumbling around in Madrid

When you don't speak the language it is sometimes hard to know what is happening in a foreign city. While strolling around I noticed a number of large white screens being set up and I thought they must be having a movie night. After eating dinner I walked out of the restaurant into La Noche en Blanco. The whole center of Madrid was closed to traffic and thousands of people wandered the streets being entertained by films and free admission to certain buildings, all in the name of sustainability for the earth. It was quite a party and went on until 4am so I did not get much sleep.

The next day I noticed a bike race in progress and watched a few riders go by, but not until I turned on the TV at my hotel did I realise it was the Tour d'Espagne!

My birthday!

Thanks for all the greetings, both email and phone. It did feel a little strange being alone on my birthday but I decided to take the train to the monastery Montserrat, high in the hills behind Barcelona. The train ride itself was rather uninteresting until we changed to the cog wheel train which zigzagged up the mountain for a good 20 minutes. It was an impressive climb, and the rock formations and views were spectacular.

The next day involved another of those luxurious 1st class train rides - this time Barcelona to Madrid. I think I have finally figured out that if I paid a little more for my reservation I get the wonderful breakfast. Yeah!

Sometimes I feel as if this blog centers a little too much around food.

Super chic in Barcelona

Our Market Hotel in Barcelona is just as chic as it appears on the web and for a great price! All in black, red, and white with a very modern take on a chinese theme, it is perfect and quite luxurious. Free green apples and bottled water, free use of a laptop with internet, BBC world news on the flatscreen in our room, and a wonderful restaurant where some of the young and hip Barcelonians come to eat, simply completes the picture.

Barcelona is a great city to visit; lovely markets, an interesting mix of architecture, a nicely developed harbor area, and of course the Ramblas where one can meander through the center of town watching the living art or sit at a cafe watching the world go by.

I am now by myself for the next 10 days and decided to spend one of my remaining days in Barcelona visiting the Gaudi structures, the Pedrera house and La Sagrada Familia - his ornate cathedral begun in 1882 and still being finished today.
There is plenty of shopping here and the price of everything is less than in France, but unfortunately when you are carrying everything on your back, each purchase is additional weight so I have really limited myself. Sorry everyone, there will be no gifts!

I have now been traveling for a month - 2 weeks to go - and so far only 3 days with rain showers. I could not have asked for better weather, so here´s hoping it continues.

Provence

Our first stop for 3 nights was at La Farigoule (wild Thyme) a charming little hotel in St Cecile les Vignes, Provence. It also had a lovely restaurant where we ate dinner each evening after spending the day visiting different small villages in the area, and browsing the open air markets for cheese and olives to have a picnic lunch.
In Carpentras I tried to find the maternity hospital where my son was born 32 years ago, but people said it is now a school and is not recognisable. Much has changed in the 30 years since I left Provence. They have caught on to the money that can be made from tourists, and have made paying destinations of places that we simply drove up to in our little old car.

Our next hotel in Bonniex was not as successful except for the amazing view over the Luberon Valley from a small balcony. I did however check out a nice place, Le Clos de Buis which for just a little more had the same beautiful view and a swimming pool! We also enjoyed our meal at St Andre in the center of town. It was market day during our stay and I bought a lovely water-color which had been painted on the date of my birthday which is coming up soon.

After visiting so many of my favorite places and enjoying the most wonderful weather, returning our car in Montpellier turned out to be a nightmare but luckily we had allowed plenty of time. It was the kind of situation where if you did not speak French you were done for, so my friend Deb was really grateful that I do!