Wrap Up For The Spanish Trip

Back In The US

We're back home after our 16 day trip to Spain.

We flew from LAX to Madrid and spent 5 days there.

Among other things, we took a rail trip to Toledo, visited the Prado, and spent some time poking around the Royal Palace. Boy, is it good to be the King!

We had dinner to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary (a little early) at the restaurant La Favorita.

We booked all of this stuff ahead of time on-line.

It saves a lot of time waiting in line to buy tickets, another good tip from Hotel Ameri-Cain.

OK, I got it from Rick Steves. Rick is an American travel writer with a show on TV. He does really good travel books with seriously useful tips, such as don't buy the guide book at the Royal Palace as it is just a collection of useless statistics.

Then we headed for Ibiza.

It's only about a 1 hour flight and is all within Spain so no customs or immigration to go through.

As we approached I noticed that we were coming in from "the wrong end" the normal approach is almost over the hotel in which we were going to stay.

From the hotel balcony, this is what you normally see.

This flight came in over the salt beds, there had just been a rain storm and the wind was blowing in the opposite direction to normal.

Once in the arrival hall waiting for luggage, I ran into this guy.

He was riding this thing like a mini Segway.

I had to go talk to him, turned out he was a performer living in Las Vegas but was from L.A. and had worked in a venue in Huntington Beach at one time.

Small world.

Once there we found our transport after a bit of confusion solved by Madame going and talking at someone.

On to the hotel and meeting up with Teresa and Ron.

This was the view from our hotel balcony in one direction.

This was the view looking the other way.

We enjoyed another celebration of our wedding anniversary on the actual day with Teresa and Ron.

Yes, that is Madame on the end, I'm not out with some young strumpet.

Note the careful placement of the Budweiser.

Later in the week, Anne and I took a boat trip over to Fomentera, about a 45 minute ride as the sea was a bit choppy near the island.

Ron and Teresa did not want to make the boat trip and so decided to walk to the old town of Ibiza and go up to the fort.

Unfortunately, Teresa slipped and fell injuring her wrist.

This is the boat,  Cat Dos, a very fast twin hull.

The Island is a virtual paradise.

And you know what you find in paradise right?

A few days later, we all walked along to Ibiza town to check out the port.

The yacht basin was full of boats like this.

There are yachts, and there are super yachts, and then of course there are Super Duper Yachts.

This is the Mayan Queen IV owned by Alberto Bailleres. 

She is a 92 meter ( a little over 300 feet) vessel which carries a crew of 24.

Mr. Bailleres is rated by Forbes as the 35th richest man in the world and he hails from Mexico.

Some of the boats there were charter vessels, I looked up a couple of them.

$485,000 a week to charter, plus expenses.

Of course the Mayan Queen is not available for charter...

All too soon it was time to leave and head back home.

We flew from Ibiza to Madrid where we spent one night.

The next morning it was back to the airport and off on the 12 hour flight home.

Despite the comfort and room we had, 12 hours is just too long. Most of the flights we take to Europe are 10 hours or less.

Cain-Tours back home travelling light as usual.

Late wire, this just in:

Today, Sunday, we heard that Teresa has a broken wrist!

More news about that when we get it.

Ciao Bella
Norm.

Headed Home

Friday September 18th.
The date above the post shows the 17th, because my blog is synced to California time and this was written in Europe.

We left the hotel in Ibiza yesterday about noon to go to the airport.

We waved goodbye to Teresa and Ron.

We were in the airport and through security only 35 minutes after leaving the hotel.

The flight left a little late and apart from a woman coughing up gold watches across the aisle from Anne it was uneventful.

You see Teresa, the engine was still on when we got there.

It took a while to get to the terminal from the plane as we needed a bus.

The shuttle to the hotel arrived after about 5 minutes and off we went.

I must admit I was a little disconcerted when I saw the neighborhood around the hotel, part industrial part low rent district.

However, the hotel is excellent with first class facilities.

Anne thinks too much attention ws paid to image and not enough to function.

She has a point, the wash basin for example is made of glass and is curved in every direction.

You  put something down and it slides down to the plug hole!  

We are now in the airport of Madrid waiting for the flight home.

It shows on the schedule as 12 hours 25 minutes, lets hope the wind eases a bit.

More soon with a wrap up from home.

Ciao Bella 

Norm

More In Ibiza

Yestrday went to the small island of Formentera, it's about a 40 minute boat ride.

It was a bit rough just before we got to the island, not too bad but just enough to make you remember that you are on a boat.

This is the boat, the Cat Dos.

We rented a scooter to get around the island, not the best of ideas.

As usual we have more shit to carry than ayone else. So it was too crowed on the scooter, and I must admit that I felt unstable on the thing.

So we took it back and got a little car instead.

Then we headed for the Playa..

What a fantastic day!

On  the way back to the port, we passed through this place:

I was thinking that maybe Albert could retire here when Mike cuts him loose at the end of the season.

We were back in the port ready to go, this is the harbor office, the 38 44 4 N shows that it is about 2 degrees further north than Huntington Beach.

Not sure how these two pictures of the hotel got in here.

But you can see Anne at one end of our balcony and Teresa at the other.

More soon from the island.

Norm

Ciao Bella

Ibiza Tours

We have been to quite a few places since my last entry.

We rented a car for a couple of days and visited Santa Eulalia, Portinax, San Antonio and Cala Salada.

We are staying in Playa D'En Bossa just below the town of Ibiza.

This map uses the Spanish spellings of the place  names whereas all of the sign posts use Catalan which is a lot more difficult.

Playa D'En Bossa becomes Platja D'En Bossa.

This is not a big Island, in fact with two days of trips and running around I only used $22 worth of gas.

Of course I did have a 125 CP (cat power) diesel car.

Not enough power to run the A/C on most full size pick up trucks.

Cala Salada

San Antonio.

Of course El Leopardo had to get in on the act.

He could not believe the stuff his Mom was gettingup to 

Oh no, this was not her.

But this was...

Dame Edna with his or her sister.

For those of you unfamiliar with Dame Edna Everidge, she is a charachter played by an Australian guy by the name of Barry Humphries. 

More soon from the island.

Ciao bella

Nom

Trouble

I'm having trouble with the program I use for writing the blog, hence the dirth of updates.

Once I get it going normal service will be resumed.

Norm

Re-Visiting Old Times

We are staying in the same hotel this year in which we stayed in 1973.

It has changed tremendously as you may imagine.

Back then you were provided with 3 meals but had to buy your own drinks.

Now you have two options, all inclusive, which is offered with most package deals from Europe or room and breakfast if you book with the hotel directly.

We have the latter option.

Of course this time the room is much better.

Bath tub with a sea view.

Shower room with a sea view.

In fact sea views in all directions.

Sunrise from the balcony.

Tonight we will celebrate our actual 45th wedding anniversary with Teresa and Ron who were involved in both our original marriage in 1970 and our remarriage in Vegas in 2000.

It promises to be a lot of fun.

Not sure if  Marilyn will be there, but who knows...

Norm 

Ciao Bella  

  

Only in Ibiza

I know that this place is Party Island, but this is the first place I've seen a
Vending machine with both M&Ms and condoms.








More soon from the island.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Day In The City

We spent yesterday in the cenrtral area of the city of Madrid.

It is a beautiful place with fine buildings and wide boulevards.

The main reason for the trip to this area was to visit the Prado museum.

As  with most of the museums, pictures are not allowed, so you'll just have to take my word for it as to how wonderful  it is.

Anne particularly wanted to see the pictures by Velasquez, the Prado has, as one would expect the largest collection in the world.

One of my favorites of his is, Appollo at the Forge of Vulcan; for obvious reasons.

I'll work that in to another blog when I have a little more time.

This is Retiro Park in the center of Madrid; what a marvelous facility.

A huge boating lake in the center, traffic free, what place for the kids to learn to roller skate or ride a bike.

We left this morning for the flight to Ibiza.

A different world....

More soon from there.

Ciao Bella

Norm

Excess in Excess

Today  we had tickets for a visit to the Royal Palace.

Boy is it good to be the King.

The saying is 

"Nothing Succeeds Like Success"

In this case  it is 

Nothing Exceeds Like Excess.

Look at this, they had set the table ready for us and we had just had lunch!

As photography is not allowed in the palace, these are actually pictures of post cards bought in the palace gift shop.

Hey, even the King needs to make a buck wherever he can.

The royal palace.

On the other side of the courtyard is the cathedral.

Guess who?

If the King had known she was coming she would have been on the other side of the bars.

Lots of aristocratic families have been supporters of music over the centuries;  the Spanish Royal family included.

In one room, they have on display, the instruments for a quartet.

Two violins, a viola and a cello.

Each made by Stradivarius!

Now if you had those in the bank....

Norm