Spain Tour

April 21 - May 2, 2018 Go Ahead Tours

May 2 - May 12, 2018 Phil and Marcia on their own.

Attendees: Phil Hofer, Marcia Hoefer, Connie West, Connie Ellis, Georgia Wilson, Brian, Lisa, Peggy, Jacque, Heather, Sandy, Barb, Sue, Pam, Nancy, Larry, Leslie, Sonja

Snezanna was our guide.

Grand Circle Tour Of Spain. Cost of tour with options, $7900/2.

18 Spain Tour

Off we go on another European adventure. This time however, we are part of a tour for two weeks, Go Ahead Tours and a former teacher with Marcia is our leader, Georgia Wilson. There are 18 in the tour which is a nice size. Many are former teachers. 15 women!

We’ve been preparing for this trip for quite some time. What clothes should we take. Which communication equipment to take. Etc. In the past, I’ve taken my lap top computer. This time I will try using the much smaller tablet… I’m currently planning to take my larger digital camera on this trip so I can use a good telephoto lens. I don’t like the weight but it should provide better photos.

April 22, 2018 Over the Atlantic.

Hola. We are on our way to Spain. Our flight delayed by an hour. We are flying in a relic, a 747. Many airlines are eliminating these from their fleets. Who knows, this may be our last time in this magnificent aircraft. It is an 8 hour flight to London. Two hour wait for plane to Madrid. Then another two hour flight. We will get there.

April 26, 2018 Spain

It has been hectic attempting to do emails and the journal. Tonight I will try to get caught up.

Madrid. Of course, we landed in Madrid and spent 3 nights in the nH Hotel. First I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. Not because of the room and bed situation bet because of the noise. Air conditioning was not functioning. With windows opened, the traffic and construction noise was way too loud. So, the windows had to be closed which made it very warm in the room. We did survive.

We arrived later than scheduled. We had our get acquainted time with rest of the travelers after a very large meal. A four course meal! That made sleeping difficult.

We went on a bus tour the next day, Monday. We saw many of the sights of Madrid. Later in afternoon we were dropped off. M and I walked to a few sites and then walked back to the

Hotel. Distance was about 2 miles. We had a guide that lead us through the Prado Museum where we saw the art work of Goya and El Gecco. There were many other artists but our guide focused on these two. After our trip thru the Prado, we walked into the nearby park and watched the activities there.

On Tuesday, we took a bus to Toledo, a town south of Madrid, Toledo was once the leading towns of Spain before government was moved to Madrid. Main focus was on cultures of Visigoths, Moors, Jews and Christians. Don Quixote and Sancho were from this area of La Manchu. We also learned that finely made steel knives are made here for two main reasons: Olive oil and good water for tempering the steel.

On Wednesday, we had our bags loaded and we went to the train station. We boarded a bullet train to Cordova, another historical city. Most interesting site was the Mosque Cathedral. The history of. Conquests between Christians and Muslims/Moors is fascinating. The Christians, in this case, used part of the mosque as part of their church. So the cathedral is built within the same 2.5 hectares ters of land, about 7 acres.

After lunch we boarded a bus which took us to Seville and or second hotel. En route we stopped and an olive hacienda and learned some interesting facts about olive oil and how the seeds are collected and the oil extracted. It is a lengthy process and why EVOO is so expensive. Spain is a greater producer of Olivier oil than Italy.

Today, Thursday, we had a guide take us through the older parts of Seville. The old cathedral was fascinating. Afterwards, M and I walked along the river. Had lunch from a small stand. Then started walking back to our hotel. We managed to get lost. Finally called a cab to take us to hotel. Cost was about 5 euros.

April 29, Marabella along the cost of the sun.

After Seville, we headed to Ronda, a picturesque mountain community. It has a great view of the valley. There is an old bridge spanning a river gorge, There is also a well maintained bull ring. After lunch and shopping we went to H10 Hotel in Marbella. Tis hotel is close to the Mediterranean. From here we took a day trip to Gibraltar, the British Peninsula.

Marbella is a resort community that caters a lot to golfers. There are 50 golf courses in the vicinity. Our activity here was mainly going to the marina area. Hotel H10 was nice but too posh. Once again, I wish they would create a tour for less and stay in less expensive places and cheaper restaurants. It will never happen.

Then we went to Granada. The main site here was the Alhambra which was built by the Moors. There may have been some sections built by the Romans. Only one night in this city.

On April 30 we drove a long way to Valencia, a beautiful city along the Mediterranean coast. The central section, old city, was Roman. Crowds were heavy. May 1 is a major holiday here. It is like our labor day. People were in a festive mood. Our hotel was on a busy street. We didn’t get any sleep that night because of street noise and revelers. We managed to get a room change to higher floor and off street. We slept well last night.

En route to Barcelona we stopped at a small coastal city of Pensacola. A quaint spot where we walked around and found a nice soot for beer and sandwich.

Food has been unique. Here are a few names. Tapas, pincots, pig cheeks, a yellow rice dish, etc. I don’t get too involved with food names. No hamburger yet. Some fish. Potatoes. Lots of olives. It is nice to have olives with the beer.

We are filling out our evaluation of the tour. Tomorrow we start another adventure on our own. I’m a little nervous about this as compared to other trips we’ve made over. We will see how it all goes. It doesn’t seem to be as intuitive as Germany, etc.

May 3, Barcelona, Spain

We had a nice ride on bus from Valencia to Barcelona with a pleasant stop in Pensicola. This little, quaint town, was worth the stop. White washed buildings stand out amongst the blue sky… After we arrived in Barcelona and got our room in a Catalona Hotel our guide took us on walking tour of the downtown area and the main market. It was about 3 miles in length. Our legs were really tired at end.

Our tour today took us to an overlook of the city. The big event was seeing Gaudi’s “La Familia”. This is the cathedral that Gaudi designed to follow natural design. It was started in 1912 or so anthe paraboloid. In nature, the paraboloid is common. As are the designs of a sea shell, tree branches, tree root buttresses, etc.  The lighting effects on the inside are amazing.

In afternoon we went to a house designed by Gaidi. Weird is all I can say. Again, he used the nature form. It makes sense structurally but I didn’t like the looks. I’ll add some photos eventually.

Tonight is our last night as a group. We have one more meal together.

May 5 Lleida,

We had a wonderful fairwell dinner at a restaurant not far from the hotel. Sonja’s daughter, Ashley, and her friend, Esther, joined us. I sat next to Esther and we had a nice conversation. The next morning, May 4, we checked out of hotel and walked a half mile where we caught a bus to the airport. We hired our rental car and got on the road. We weren’t sure we could make it to Montserrat but we gave it a try. The drive up the mountain was spectacular. It was really interesting when meeting a bus coming down. Montserrat isn’t that interesting when you are right in it. It is more interesting from a distance. We then headed to Figueres and found a nice hotel in town with a parking garage. Total cost with car park was $104.

The next morning we went early to the Salvador Dali museum. It was a wonderful experience to see the works of this eccentric artist. Now that we’ve been to both of his museums, here and in Florida, I feel like I won’t need to bother Salvador again. I did take a lot of photos of his works. Some are worth using as examples.

From Figures we drove to Lleida. It took a while to find a good hotel. But we did find, Nastasi. We had dinner at a Texas BBQ and then an ice cream at McDonalds.

Well, today is definitely an adventure. We arrived in Ejea shortly after noon. We found Hotel Aragón to be on some small side street. The owner speaks no English. We struggled but got our room. The churches were packed. It was First Communion Sunday. We walked around town mainly trying to find a place to park the car. Spaces are very limited.

We cut our stay here by two days thinking it would be best to move to Pamplona where there might be more English speaking. This has been an adventure. We are learning how to get along without speaking the language. Not doing very well.

We’ve taken a thousand photos. The days when discerning a photo opportunity are gone. Now we just shoot and hope we have time to sort and choose from the digital files.

May 7

Ejea to Ordesa/Monte Perfidy National Park. We had a. Great day today. The National Park was most interesting. The town of Broto is a miniature Estes Park with nice facilities and coffee shops. There wasn’t much traffic which is quite the opposite if Estes. The whole day was filled with natural beauty of the Pyrenees mountains. We even walked a portion of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route for many and the trail on which the movie, The Way was filmed with Martin Sheen. Good beer and food was had during the day as well. There were a lot of motorcycles on the road too.

Our hotel now has 3 more costumers. Walls are thin. Hopefully we will get some sleep. Last night I didn’t sleep well because I wasn’t sure about the security of the rental car. Tonight it is safe in a parking area.

 May 8

Well, managed to check out of Hotel Argon and fill the car with diesel. Then a lovely drive north to Pamplona. We checked into Hotel Blanca Navarre on the east end pf town. We then walked into the main part of the older city. Beautiful, because of the parks and trees.

May 10, Sofia

Well, were are really splurging on this trip. It is probably our year of expensive traveling. We got to this mountain community of Sofia and checked into Hotel Leorno. It is a beautiful place. We took there last room which is a suite with spa type bath. It was their last room. Other hotels we tried to get to were in congested areas and parking was an issue. So we splurged. Cost us about $110.

May 11

We left the beautiful area and headed south to Madrid. We managed to find the airport and get the car returned. Not an easy event. Then we paid a taxi 20 euros to get to the hotel which wasn’t that far away. We are at Senator Barajas Hotel. Tomorrow we will shuttle back to airport for a flight home. Plane leaves at 11:30.

May 12, Flying home. Elevation of 35000’. This is nearly a 10 hour flight. A long time in the air. We’ve already had a nice meal and I’ve had  two small bottles of wine, a short nap and a walk around the back of plane.

I’ve begun reading Ivan Doig’s book, “This House of Sky”. Too bad there isn’t free wifi on board so I could continue reading. It is a library loan book and not one I could download onto computer.

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Epilog.

I usually try to summarize our trip in an epilog. This was our first major trip on a tour. I appreciated it this tome. The language barrier was greater in Spain than we’ve experienced on any of our other trips. So the week we had on our own after the tour ended was difficult. I didn’t mind the driving or the roads, except in cities where streets were extremely narrow, however, the small Fiat managed to fit through them. Sometimes we had to retract the mirrors. That indicates how tight the conditions were. I’m not sure we will travel abroad again without being on a tour unless it is an English speaking country.

So, how did we like Spain? The history was intriguing since the Iberian Peninsula was occupied by the Islamic Moors for over 800 years. Seeing the mosques or remains of them helped picture the takeover of this part of the world. They ruled until 1492 when Christians once again took over. So much will have to be studied again.

Traveling with a group of 16 others was fun. We weren’t too crowded at meals. Our bus driving was comfortable. We got to know each other better. I’d do a tour again if it could be a small group like this one.

The expense was more than  I would like. My estimate is that we paid close to $250/day per person. That may be a bit high so I will have to recalculate our expenses.

$7600 tour with all the options

$1700 airfare

$ 400 tips?

$ 600 car rental and fuel

$ 760 additional room

$ 200 addition food

- $90 remaining cash

$11,170.00

I doubt we will ever go back to Spain. I’m not sure what is next on our travel schedule though we both would like to go back to Iceland and camp around the island with our neighbors. Maybe a cruise to Central America. We will have to sit in the hot tub and just discuss this situation. Go Ahead has lots of tours and they are more reasonable than other tour packages.

Most interesting parts of this trip.

Ronda

Córdoba

Peninsula

Toledo

Off tour

Ordesa and Mount Periodic National Park

Pamplona

End

Amtrak to Winslow, AZ

Journal Entry.

June 19, 2012, Las Vegas, NM.

We are on a new adventure/journey. The Wallaces and we decided to do a train adventure. We are on our way to Winslow, AZ! Here is the story to date.

We left Fort Collins after church on Sunday and drove to La Junta, CO where we spent the night in a Super 8. Debbie Walters and David Ortega met us for dinner at the Boss Hogs restaurant. Weather was hot. Dean and Eva drove their car.

We met our train. On time. At 8:15 am. What a joy to ride on a train. We were on it for 4 hours and got off in Las Vegas, NM where we were going to spend 24 hours. We spent the night in the Plaza Hotel. Interesting this used to be considered West Las Vegas, the Mexican side of town. The hotel has been refurbished and was wonderful to stay in. We were in Room 322 and Wallaces were in Room 304.

This morning I checked the train status of Amtrak. I was shocked to learn that the train would be about 3 hours late. Now, as I checked it, it will be 4 hours late. So we are spending time walking around “East” Las Vegas. We went to the local museum and read about the early history of Las Vegas. Rough Riders of Teddy Roosevelt era were from this area. The old El Fidel is also being refurbished. It now has 9 rooms available for rent. Now we are enjoying coffee and sweet rolls at Charlie’s Spic and Span. After our time here we will spend time at the Depot and read and wait. Maybe I will write more in this section of my life.

On Train. The Amtrak, Southern Chief finally arrived in Las Vegas at 4:30 pm, 4 hours late. I understand there was a problem with one of the Pullman cars and they needed to replace a pump.

The “downtime” allowed me to read most of the book, “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andrews. It talks about seven characteristics for being a happy and successful person. I’m not too impressed about it but it will be a good discussion at the family reunion.

While at the station in Las Vegas, I took a long walk down the track. There was a large round house no longer in use by trains but is being used by BNSF or the city. I would like to have seen it in operation.

I thought the trains could make up time but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Speed restrictions seem to be common because of bad track or sharp corners. We are now climbing over Gloretta so speed is very slow. Not much hope to gain on the 4 hours lost.

We are enjoying the observation car. Marcia and Eva are playing cards. Dean and I are just drinking coffee and I’m working on the computer.

Albuquerque, NM. We just finished dining in the dining car. A good experience. Cost not much different than regular restaurant. We are now on our way to Winslow but we probably won’t get there until midnight or later.

June 24, 2012

Well, Winslow and the La Posada were great. We relaxed for a full day and then left early the next morning. Amtrak was only 30 minutes or so late.

We enjoyed walking through the town of Winslow. Took photos at the corner where the song “Take it Easy” was depicted.

The meals at La Posada were terrific though expensive.

One of the most relaxing aspects of the hotel was just sitting. I spend long periods outside along the RR tracks watching trains go by. It sounds ridiculous but that was comforting to watch and think about how everything works.

We headed back to La Junta and arrived about 30 minutes late. Not too bad. We got our rooms at Super 8 motel and then headed to dinner at McDonalds.

We arrived back in Fort Collins around noon on June 22, Friday. Marcia and I immediately packed our Corolla with a tent and basic camping gear and headed to Hayden, CO where we would get together with some retired CSFS employees on Saturday at Terry and Rebecca Wattles’ place. We camped at Yampa River State Park just west of Hayden.