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.