Our Life in Italy
Welcome to our blog! As you can see by the menu, we traveled a lot since we retired in 2015. We moved to Italy In March 2022, and have organized our site to focus on our new life and adventures.
Be sure to follow the links to photos embedded in the blogs. Photos make a difference!
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London to Barcelona
May 1 to May 10, 2016
We'll be spending two days in London, then sail from Southampton on May 3.
Destinations:
Gijon, Spain (May 5)
Vigo, Spain (May 6)
Gibraltar, United Kingdom (May 8)
Barcelona, Spain (May 10)
The internet service is less than optimal, so many of the photos that should be vertical are not. It just takes too long to right them. My apologies.
London
Double-click on a photo to scroll through them.
Smoked salmon prepared by the hotel chef. Delicious!
To Kensington Park, near our hotel.
Gijon and Oviedo, Spain
Vigo and Valencia
We docked in Gijon and all of us tourists gathered in the 270 lounge to be assigned a bus. Once on the bus, our tour leader (forgot her name) explained the trip to Oviedo, which took about 30 minutes.
No tour or photos of Gijon, a city that dates back to 600 BC. Our guide told us the Celts settled there and to this day the bagpipes are the most popular instrument. Cider is the drink of choice. Gijon and Oviedo are definitely cities to return to some day, as there is much history here.
May 6, 2016
Foggy and raining day in Vigo and Valencia., but still wonderful. Again, so much history. And Mike loved walking around the old forts. In Valencia, the view is from Portugal looking over to Spain. There were two forts that built a wall around themselves some time around 800 AD.
The main industry is fishing, and the primary fish is mussels. We had some right from the sea. The waitress apologized that they were small this time of year. Really?
Gilbraltar
What an ugly, rainy day it was. Our taxi took us to see the caves and to Europa, the top of the rock, where the monkeys are. He dropped us off near Main Street, where all the shops are. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and most of them were closed. And he waved his arm to show us where the shuttle bus would be to take us back to the ship. We never found the shuttle and ended up logging nearly 8,000 steps in pouring down rain.
Barcelona
The cold and rain kept following us from Chicago. Ugh. But we had a good "taste" of Barcelona, with its diverse architecture and wonderful food. A return trip will be in warmer weather and possibly just outside of the city, where it's less congested. I truly don't know how the drivers manuver those buses through the narrow and crowded streets.