A day of minarets and palaces as well as tracking down the cheapest drinks in Marrakech.  Dinner in the main square again tonight - chicken and better coucous than i can make.  Watched the passing parade of snake charmers, monkeys, henna tattooists and transvestite belly dancing...

Marrakech

Change of continent, change of scene.  We arrived in Marrakech this afternoon.  We are staying in a riad only a few minutes walk from the main square.  The riad is an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the streets.  Off to find some dinner...need to brush up on our french as it is widely spoken. Coffee in the main square is like being in a James bond movie.

Santiago de Compostela

We have made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela albeit via car.  The town is filled with pilgrims who have walked the Camino de Santiago.  This translates to either lots of zealots carrying walking sticks or retirees wearing expensive North Face outdoor gear.
The town is beautiful and we have spent the day visiting the cathedral, the markets and wandering through the old town.  Kirk has not embraced his Catholicism whilst here.

Douro Valley

We are staying in the town of Tabuaco in the Douro valley in Portugal.  The hotel is a restored 17th century mansion.  The hotel also owns  a vineyard outside of town where we were able to see them making the wines as the harvest started last Sunday.  We also managed to taste a few...

Porto

Bom dia
We are now in Porto with Karen and Ricardo.  Yummy chook for lunch then port cave tour and tasting in the afternoon at Taylors.

More Cambados

Weather report windy, rainy & much cooler.
Went for a nice walk & nearly got blown of a bridge.
Gotta love staying in a Parador, especially out of season on a Sunday ... just vegged out with movies (Lucky Kirk went to the geek part of Paris & got the cable for Ali's PC to the TV)
Had mid-morning (11:00) coffee, we wished we hadn't already had breakfast when they served up free pastries, as we couldn't eat them all.
Went out for dinner .. had a few wines & they gave us free food ... never had dinner .. nice tapas
Off to Porto tomorrow .. may have some port.
Then to the Douro valley on Tuesday ... may have some port.

Cambados - a seaside town in Galicia

More successful with the driving and directions today although the gps seems to think it is ok to travel on goat trails at 90 km per hour.  The Spanish know how to pour a proper Tanswell gin and tonic - nip measures here are for wimps.
Staying in a parador where the room size has got a lot bigger.

Greetings from Galicia. We decided to wing it today and drive around the Galician coast and just stay where we landed. A nice drive but had some issues finding the hotel and ended up getting a local man to guide us (we followed him in his car) to our hotel. Anyway all good now. We are staying in Feas near Carino and have a lovely view of the water. Even without the several glasses of tempranillo Kirk's lisping is getting worse.

We are currently in Cudillero after the day driving (some sweaty palms) and walking at the  lagos de cavangos in the picos de europe.  Tonight we sat at bar juilio in the main drag of Cudillero watching the passing parade.

Cangas de onis

Hola
We are at cangas de onis in the picos de europe a mountainous region.  We tried the local sidra (cider) but we are not so keen.  But at 2 euros a bottle it iscertainly cheap.  Kirk had his first chocolate con churros today and likely to not be his last.

Santillana del mar

Hola
Kirk and I are now in santillana del mar a medieval town in Cantabria Spain.  We went to Altamira cave (reproduction) only as the actual has been closed for 10 years due to too many visitors.  The cave has 15,000 year old drawings.  In the town of comillas we visited a gaudi designed summer house - gorgeous.
We have rented a car - citroen c4 for the next week or so.
Sidra (cider) is the local specialty in these parts so may sample some tonight.
No wifi access in this medieval hotel so i am hanging out the window accessing community wifi.

Happy birthday to kirk

As usual kirk struggled through another birthday in a horrific location - poor poppet had to suffer through a day of a stunning walk, relaxing on the beach and then a degustation dinner in san sebastian's old town.  He realised he was here 10 years ago for his 42nd birthday - poor poppet.

Hola desde San Sebastián.
Just had some lovely tapas, followed by some liquor 43.
For those of you who don't know this drink, think killer vanilla bean.
Our room has an accident safe shower, if you fall over it's not big enough to get up enough speed to (say) break your arm (Hi Steve).
France is like a half-way house between North & South Europe.
- It is cheap (south)
- It is kind of efficient (North)
- The food is good (South)
- The trains run "on time" (North)
Sunny weather & some beach, good dinner booked for tomorrow night :-)

Today was spent buying  food for dinner at Lussac market and then having lunch in Arcachon.  We went to the largest sand dune in Europe for a stunning view of the area.

Another busy day in paradise.
We were actually too early for the local vegie markets.
TODAYS LESSON FOR FUTURE TRAVELLERS
Berries from the "local" markets are much better than those from the supermarket.
Don't know if this applies for all vegies, but expect so & won't bother testing the hypothesis, will just go to the local markets.
Went for a wine snovelling course @ Chateau Siaurac, it was terrific, consider it recommended.
Had some great wines & learned lots.
Then unch and a wander in St Emilion.

Phew that coffee took a while.
The wine gods have been happy with our efforts on the last few nights.
We are keeping the dead soldiers on the windowsill as a tribute, am not sure that it is wide enough for a week.
We arrived in « Maison Haute », which is in Bayens, Puisseguin (not pronounced pissed again).
We have a 4 bedroom place with family & friends coming & going during the week, it's great.
There has been a pattern established, up by 09:00 for breakfast, off to the local markets to get some coffee & organise lunch & dinner by 11:00, back home for lunch at abt 12:30, a few hours of leisure & then a lot of hours of eating & drinking.
repeat.
We are having difficulty spending more that $AU10.00 on wine, but we are bravely putting up with this.
The local markets are just amazing, we forget that Sydney is an expensive city. It's hard not to laugh when you can get 2 KG of beautiful tomatoes for about $3.00, and a 6-pack of wine for $40.

St Emilion

This is a beautiful town with the religion of wine.
As tourists you should always respect the local religion.
We did.
Recent travel details will be updated after coffee & croissants :-)

We hired bikes today and rode along the loire river and up through the vineyards to montsereau.
A 32 km round trip and a slightly sore bottom.

Greetings from Saumur another gorgeous town in the loire valley.  The weather is getting warmer - it was 28 degrees today.  We took a tour of the Combier distillery which makes triple sec and absinthe - very tasty.  Kirk has bought himself a hat which has given him Bieber fever.  If he buys some coloured wayfarers i know i am in trouble.

Kirk has also discovered that boulangerie does not mean "Closed" as Alison has been saying, but really means "nice, friendly, come inside"

We are rationing ourselves to 1 chateaux and 1 church per day. Today's was chateaux de chenonceau and cathedral st gatien which has been a religious site since 371.
Kirk keeps stopping at boulangeries and buying chocolate croissants - an important food group for him.
How come they are only 1.10€ here ..Australians are being robbed !!!!!

Today we went to Amboise where Leonardo de Vinci spent his last few years at chateaux du clos luce.
Eating lots of goats cheese...yum

Je arrive Tours

After a difficult trip, involving a 5 minute walk, a 10 minute wait for the train, a 45 minute trip & a 10 minute walk at the end.
DOING IT TOUGH
There is some sort of town fair on in Tours, have no idea how big it is, we started walking at 12:30 & gave up at about 3 PM without a clear idea of all the borders.
The receptionist said "all over" & we no longer think she exaggerates.
Being France there is an ample supply of
- Wine
- Food
- Pastries
We may go back for round 2 a little later.

Last day in Blois in the Loire Valley, pronounced blu-a, not blaahhhhhhh as we thought. At least in France one can try & pronounce the names, in Iceland we stopped after the third letter, which is much safer on your throat.
We did a circuit of old houses of the rich and very rich, some lovely Chateaux. We went to Chateaux Chambord - the big daddy of the chateaux. It was built as a hunting lodge but at 426 rooms I think it got away from them a bit. Also went to Chevery where the descendants still live.
It made us home-sick for Rozelle, so much like our own home, although we don't have a kennel with 100 hunting hounds.
Tonight we have decided to stay at home, our last "home cooked meal (not in a shared kitchen)" was in San Fran.