Back In Canada

We made it home safe and sound.  Easy jet from Valencia to London then Westjet from London to Calgary the next day.  

The flight on Westjet was very nice. (I don't say this about airlines often). The fairly new Boeing Dreamliner was very comfortable, excellent leg room, a good (free) entertainment system, two very nice meals and complimentary wine throughout the flight. Blankets and pillows were also provided.

We arrived in Calgary about 5pm and caught the shuttle to our hotel. We left the car in the hotel parking lot while we were away. The car started and it was free of snow.... a bonus!

We lucked in with the weather on the drive home. The roads wee clear of snow and the winds were light. Two days before, the wind gust were measured at over 100kph on highway 22 and the day after we arrived home in Fernie it snowed.

We are not adapting well to the colder weather.  The snow passed but the sunny skies brought cold temperatures... -17C yesterday morning and not much warmer today. 

It is 3pm now and the temperature is only a little below freezing. The sun feels warm so we are heading out for walk.

We are planing to stay in Fernie for the next 2 months, with short trips to Kaslo.  I am keeping busy with some projects. The first project is to do some modifications to the garage and then I want to replace the front sub-frame on the old VW bus. 

Below are a couple photos of Fernie and Kaslo.  On the left is a shot of " Three Sisters Mountain" taken from our back deck. The one on the right is an aerial shot of Kaslo. borrowed from Facebook.

That's all the news for now...

Valencia

We have been in Valencia for six days, Tomorrow is our last day before flying out to the UK.  The weather has been quite changeable.  Almost 30C and sunny for the first couple of days, then it cooled off with a couple of days of rain. Today it looks like the rain has past. Most of the day it has been sunny with temperature is the low to mid 20s and it is forecast to ne sunny and warmer tomorrow.

The apartment that we have is right in the middle of the city. It is only a few block for the central market and the main tourist part of the city.   The city has been busier that we have experienced in the past. For the last 3 years we have been in Valencia mid November, for the final MotoGP race of the season. Although there are quite a few tourists, it is easy to escape the busy areas and spend time in the local neighbourhoods.

We have been walking a lot, as is our norm.  From our location it is about a 7K walk to the main beach area, if you walk through the park.  The park is one of the major attractions for us.  It runs over 8 kilometres and is about is about 500 metres wide. It is situated over an underground river. There are dedicated walking, running and cycling trails throughout the full length of the park. There are several playing fields as well as a track and field stadium. On the weekend we walked through the park and  most of the facilities where in use. We saw football (soccer) games and practises, a rugby game, a cricket match, some guys playing basket ball and plenty of people using the exercise equipment scattered about the park.

Here is a google walking route from the apartment to the beach.

Below is a couple more photos of the park.  One of several bridges that crosses the park and the second photo is of part of a huge play structure. The structure is of Guliver tied to the ground. The kids can pretend that they are Lillputians.

In this photo you can see Guliver's arm tied to the ground with the climbing net. His face is above the net.

Last weekend we walking to the beach and stopped in one of the beach bars for tapas and sangria.

Here is a photo of an elaborate sand castle

Over the last few days we passed our time searching the stores for just the right gifts but we had time to stop for an afternoon snack and sangria in the old Colon Market before having a short siesta.

So far, as far as cities in Spain go, Valencia is our favourite. We always have a nice relaxing time here.  Tomorrow we are planning to start getting ready to leave and walking to the beach in the afternoon.  After that it is off to the UK, overnight and then a direct flight Calgary on  Saturday. We will overnight in Calgary and return to Fernie on Sunday afternoon.  Not looking forward to the colder weather. That's for sure!

Gaucin

We are spending a week based out of Gaucin. This is the second time that we have stayed in Casa Muñeca, a cute little house nestled in one of the narrow lane-ways.  Last Thursday we went into Malaga and picked up a rental car, a Fiat 500.  We are staying in Gaucin until next Thursday morning then taking two days to drive to Valencia for our last week in Spain before returning home to Fernie.

The town of Gaucin taken from a pathway alongside the highway

looking south-west from our patio.

The castle in Gaucin

Looking north from the castle

  This donkey was blocking trail.

This ceramic tile art is on the wall of the Neptune museum in Estepona

We have been spending our time here exploring nearby towns and the parts of the coast they we have not seen before. It is very touristy all along the coast although at this time of year is is not all that busy.  The beach is almost empty even though the weather has been plenty warm enough to swim. 

There are a ton of restaurants. The prices are a bit higher along the coast but there is also a much better selection of restaurants than there is in the villages.

Yesterday we spent part of the day exploring the village of Casares, located 15K from Gaucin, about half way to the beaches.  We stopped midday for coffee and a snack in a nice restaurant near the centre of Casares.  The photo above is of a typical breakfast meal.  Bread, olive oil (instead of butter) and a blended tomato paste.   Often the bread is white bun called a mollete but in this case the restaurants make it's own grain bread.   "Una tostada con aceite y tomate, por favor."    It is quite good. We eat it often.

 Above is photo of Linda with our rented car. We stopped at a viewpoint just outside Olvera. This little Fiat is fun to drive on the very windy roads. It doesn't have much power so you are constantly changing gears.

Tomorrow morning we are on the road to Valencia. We will take two days to reach our apartment in Valencia. We will put in a longer day tomorrow, about 500K, and we are staying a winery.  The next day we will drop the car off at the Valencia airport on the edge of the city and take the Metro downtown.

Cycling Near Olvera

Last Saturday we drove to San Pedro de Alcantara, on the coast, to pick up our new e-bikes.   We arrived early as Bike Base was opening. Surprisingly, the bikes were  ready to go. After making some adjustment and taking them for a short ride we loaded them into the car and headed back to Olvera.

Luckily, with rear seats folded down, were able to lay the bikes on their side, minus the pedals and front wheel, into the available space.  It was tight fit.

It is such a nice drive from Olvera to the coast. We left Olvera at about 8:40 and it only took us just over an hour to reach San Pedro. Traffic was quite light.  On the way back it was busier but still a nice drive.  We arrived back in Olvera just in time to meet some friends at the little bar, "El Tapir Despitado", located in front of our house.

I've mentioned this bar in the past. It is run by Marlene and Chris, a Belgian couple who live in a nearby town. The bar is only open on select weekends and they only serve drinks and homemade desserts.  It is an out of the way location but it is very popular with those who have been lucky enough to discover it.

It was very nice to have a drink with Bodil and Steen, a very lovely couple from Denmark. We seem to have a lot in common.

We are very happy with the bikes. For the riding that do here, they perfect.  The frames are slightly different but both bikes have the same Bosch motors and batteries.  Below are a couple of photos of the bikes.  

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we rode the bikes.  We put on 115K over the 3 days. Two trips to Setenil and one to Coripe.   Below is a Wikiloc map and ride report of the ride to Coripe.  We rode out on the Via Verde (old rail line) and back on the road.  Linda started with a fully charged battery and finished with about 50% power remaining.  I didn't recharge after the previous day's 33K ride and I finished this ride with about 65% power remaining. (about 83K riding in total)   We both have the 400wh batteries. 

Saturday was also my birthday.  Linda made a reservation at one of the recommended restaurants in town, Mi Pueblo.  We had been wanting to eat at this restaurant for a while now but never managed to find it open when we were ready to eat.  Saturday we had an early 8:30 reservation. It was very nice. Paco, the owner, was very friendly and the food was great.  One the way home we stopped, once again, at El Tapir for tea and desert.  Chris makes all the deserts from scratch.  The one we chose was his special tiramisu.  At his suggestion we split one.  It was wonderful!  Here's a photo....

Yum, yum!

Tomorrow we are moving on from Olvera but we still have a little over two weeks left in Spain.  Yesterday we packed up the moto, the bicycles and a hockey bag full of other stuff and took it all to the rented garage space.

Tomorrow we are off to Malaga to turn in the rental car and pick up another one. Then we are going to Gaucin for a week and then we are driving to Valencia for the last week of this trip.  We are going back to the cute little house that we rented in Gaucin in 2016 and then back the the nice apartment we had last year in Valencia.   We are looking forward to returning to both of these places.

The weather here has been hot and dry. Daytime temperatures have been into the high 20s or the low 30s.  The tempertures are forcast to cool of over the next few day. Highs in the low 20s are anticipated.  Even though is has been quite hot, we have not used the aircon in the house in Olvera. We always get a nice breeze here at the top of the hill and it cools off quickly after sunset.

That's it for now...   More from Gaucin.

Hiking the Sierras

While waiting for our new bicycles to arrive we decide to do some hiking in the Parque Natural de La Sierra de Grazalema.  The north-eastern edge of this national park is located less than 15K (in a straight line) from Olvera.

Yesterday we followed the narrow 2 lane road that wind up into the hills from Zahara. It is great motorbike route, albeit with limited sight lines around the corners, one has to take the corners pretty slowly. A long vehicle would easily occupy 2/3 of the road width in the tight corners.

The top of the pass is call Puerto de las Palomas (port of the doves). There is a viewpoint and a small parking lot. A trail around the high point of land starts and ends at the parking lot.  It is rated as an easy trail. There are no long climbs and the trail is well used, albeit rocky at times. It is only about 3K out and back but the views are spectacular.

                 Below are a couple of photos from the walk around Peurto de Las Palomas.

Today we went back to the park to try another hike.  Los Llanos del Rabel.  For all of this walk we were on a gravel road. It was more like a scenic stroll down into a dry river valley. The steep banks were covered with trees.  We walked about 3K to reach a single track path that looped up the side of one of the mountains.  

At the entrance to this loop we met another couple who were at the trail head sign post. I asked them if they knew how long the loop was.  The answer was interesting!   They told me that the loop was closed due to the dry conditions and fire risk.  Then he asked if we had our hiking permit.  Hiking permit???  He explained that due to the fire risk all hikers were required to obtain a permit. We told him that we did not know about the permit and decided to hike back to the trail head. On the way back we stopped to chat with a nice German couple. They told us that just be chance they discovered that they needed a permit for the hike. They told us that they had been told that the rules were strictly enforced and that the fines for non-compliance were high.    As we started to leave, the fellow told us.... "If you get stopped by the authorities, tell them that you are on our permit but had to leave earlier than your friends."    We didn't see anyone on the way out so we didn't have to make excuses for that lack of a permit but we thought that it was very nice of this gentleman to make this suggestion.

This hike obviously goes through property that is used for agriculture.  Below is photo of one of the many trees in this area.  Also there is a photo of the entrance to the walk.

Can you guess what type of tree this is?  It is not an oak tree.  What are those acorn looking seeds?
The answer is below.  Scroll way down below the photo of Olvera.

An early morning shot of Olvera from the highway.

Hopefully the bikes are ready for pickup tomorrow.....




It is an almond tree.