Spain

July 5 Mallorca, Spain 

Took the bus into Palma today just to have a quick look around.  Very nice city, with huge boats in huge marinas.   Would that be nice!

 Caught the bus back and then went for a swim in front of the apartment!  That was great!  This is a very nice place, but many tourists, mostly from England and Germany it seems.  

July 4 Mallorca, Spain     

Another very lazy day!  Just drank a lot of coffee and relaxed.  Took a walk into the city centre, only 5 minutes away!

July 3 Mallorca, Spain     

The  owner of the apartment drove me to a beach about 7 km away.  It was very nice.  Lots of sand and rocks, but very busy!  Spent the day walking and exploring and swimming! 
Always have to have an event during the day, so my first swim I got stung by a jelly fish!  And then the next time a wave hit me as I was climbing out of the water on the rocks and a put my foot down on a sea urchin!  Oh well.  Just getting closer to nature. 

So nice, just to do nothing!  Other than that a very lazy day, not a lot of sleep!

July 2 Mallorca, Spain  

Well an easy day.  A 40 minutes flight vs overnight boat....

I arrived and was able to get to the bed and breakfast, in a private apartment, without much problem!  I only missed the bus stop by 1 stop!  But have arrived and the place is great.  Right on the water.  No sand but rocks for swimming from.  It is still very nice.

I arrived and the downstairs neighbours came up for a visit, it was 3 am by the time I got to bed.  Great time even though one of them spoke only a little bit of English.  Turns out they are from Uruguay and live here.  And just so happens that Uruguay won the football match that night so they were very excited.  The one guy even gave me his hat!  I gave him a Canada pin.

July 1 Valencia, Spain    Happy Canada Day from Spain!

And officially my first day of leave!

Off for breakfast and then to travel agent.  I could not bear the though of another overnight long trip after yesterday!  Ended up with a plane ticket to Mallorca and then to Barcelona.
I received an email from a couple on line that had a reasonable bed and breakfast place, close to the beach, in a small city outside of Palma.  They got me at a time when I needed to spend some time not on the go, so decided to try it.  Will see what it is like!

Then off for a walk through the park.  Except this park runs for miles around the city centre.  Beautiful.  There are football fields, tennis courts, walking paths, sculptures and of course fountains.  There is also several fairly new buildings that house the art museum and the oceanographic displays plus other things.  I was headed to the port to see the site of the America's Cup.  Found it after about 2 hours of walking.  Much of the 2007 buildings are still the same as they have the 32nd cup signs everywhere.  Down to the manhole covers are America's Cup!  But there is some 33rd, 2010 Cup.  Nothing around really to see.  There were a few racing boats, most on racks.

Then I went to the beach.  I stopped for a beer on way back to hotel.  Ended up talking to the waiter for about an hour, as I was the only customer!  His english was very good.  He is an masters student of Industrial Engineering, working for the summer.

He told me that the previous weekend was the Formula 1 race, which explains all the tires and stands everywhere. I actually walked down some of the track as it runs by the America's Cup site.  

He also had me try Horchata, a 'famous' Valencian drink.  I have no idea what it is but not too bad.  Like milk with vanilla in it.  I will have to google it when I have reliable internet.

June 30 Valencia, Spain

Up early to catch an 8.30 am train!  Was an interesting ride.  Mostly flat country as the train went back through Cordoba, and then on to Valencia.

Many orange tree groves but also many grape vines, many are very young as they have not yet been staked or wired up.  At least that is what I think they are.

Actually the 8 1/2 hour train ride, turned into 9 1/2 hours.  But fairly entertaining.  A lady sitting in seat across from me was telling stories most of the way that was keeping everyone around laughing.  I have no idea what she was saying, but she definitely had the floor.

There was also a young girl from Bolivia that lives in Valencia now, who was visiting her Grandmother in Seville.  She had some english so there was a little bit of conversation.  Arrived exhausted even though I had done nothing but sit!