Busy day in Tarragona, Spain

We did an early drive down to the coastal city of Tarragona and got ourselves parked up in a paid parking area near the university... from there, it's an easy walk to go in and explore the city. We were there just before 9am.

The woman at the parking booth said that it's guarded from 8am to 10pm, but that we could stay overnight at our own risk. There are lots of security cameras as well, and we had read of other motorhomes doing the same thing, so we felt pretty comfortable.

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The medieval town of Montblanc, Spain

The weather turned out better than forecast, so we decided to stay in Montblanc a second night. This would allow us to go for a walk around the town and see what there is to see.

Montblanc is a fortified medieval town. People have been living here since around 1100... almost a thousand years!

Grocery shopping in Spain

We woke up at our gorgeous overnight spot and it was cold. -4C (25F), to be exact. I had Max's furnace set for 12C (54F) overnight, so we were comfortable enough sleeping. 

But rather than use up more propane to warm things up, we decided to drive back down to the motorhome area and empty our tanks and do some driving and let the engine heat warm us up.

A perfect overnight spot

There was clear blue sky, but it sure did take a while for things to warm up in the morning. The sun didn't come over the mountains until after 9am, and even then it took a while. 

But, we bundled up and set out on a nice hike up to some pools of water that are a popular swimming area during the summer.

Welcome to Spain!

Spain is not a new country for us. We were first in Spain in 2007 as part of a Portugal visit with Helen and Tony. Then again in early 2017 when we were here for two months doing a motorhome exchange.

This time, we plan to be here for between five and six weeks as we make out way slowly across the south of the country towards Gibraltar on our way to Morocco sometime between January 5th and 10th.

Welcome to Andorra... country number 57

Andorra is a tiny country located high up in the Pyrenees Mountains on the border between France and Spain. It is the 17th smallest country in the world. 

We came here simply to add another country to our country list. It's not really a place you would make an effort to visit unless you're an enthusiastic skier in the winter, or hiker in the summer. So we figured that since we were so close anyhow, now was the time to go!

November Expenses

We had a budget of $2,200 CAD for the month and we spent $2,287 CAD ($1,635 USD). So we're pretty happy with that.

No real surprises from an expenses perspective. We started the month in Prizren, Kosovo and ended the month in the tiny mountainous country of Andorra on the border between France and Spain.

It's finally working!

Last month around this time I told you about the Tiekom SIM card that is a great deal for European travelers.

I had ordered one of these SIM cards while we were in Albania, and had it delivered to the dealership where Max was. But they misplaced the envelope, and so we couldn't pick it up when we arrived there. However a week later they found it, and mailed it to where we were staying in France.

We went through a couple of villages where things were a little tight!

Well, we put in a good driving day on Monday. It poured with rain the whole time! We drove right by a few things that we would have normally wanted to stop and see, but there was just no point.

It was a good day to put on some miles. But when it came time to stop, things just didn't go our way.

It's honestly embarrassing...

Ruth thanks everybody for the birthday wishes. She says she had a good day! We started off by going for a hike. The weather was pleasant, calling for a high of 14C (57F), although it didn't reach that until towards the end of the day.

Obviously a busy spot for hiking. Cars started showing up just after breakfast to take advantage of a nice Sunday.

Heading south through the Rhone River Valley in France

We had a good driving day yesterday as we did about 200 kms (124 miles) through the Rhone River Valley. We are purposely staying away from mountainous areas, although the route we are taking is probably the most direct anyhow. 

There is snow at higher elevations, though it's still a little early in the season to be concerned about it. However, they do warn of needing tire chains starting November 1st, although we do not have any.

On the road again!

So, yesterday around noon I saw a postal van drive by, and minutes later the doorbell rang. Sure enough, it was the delivery we had been waiting for! A couple of hours after that, the tracking number was updated to say our package had been delivered. Too funny. There had been no updates at all since Tuesday when they said it had arrived in France. Not a great system.

But it was a little too late in the day to get any driving done. Plus, it was Black Friday so we were busy with that. Amazon had a lot of record low prices, which in times of high inflation is actually quite surprising.

I knew this was going to happen

So, we are sitting here in Versonnex, France waiting for an envelope to show up. It's all well and good, because it's a pretty spot, and it's been fun visiting with my cousins daughter and her husband. But we would rather be heading further south!

It brings back memories of when we were waiting for a package in Albania last year around this time.

It was a great day in Geneva, up until...

A few stories to tell you today!

The letter we are waiting for still hasn't arrived (!!), so we decided to go into the city of Geneva just for something to do. Also, we had one more of my dad's photos to match up there.

My cousin's daughter Tehya's house is in the village of Versonnex, in France but walking distance to the border of Switzerland, and in total about 12 kms (7.5 miles) from the center of Geneva.

A productive day

We stayed close to the house yesterday, although we did get out for a decent walk without getting very wet. Just a few sprinkles of rain, but it was cool with a high of only about 7C (45F).

Part of our walk was to scout out a route to be able to catch the bus to Geneva. There is a bus stop close by the house, but that one will only take you to the train so you have to connect. But there is another bus on the other side of a big field that will take us directly into Geneva.

Morges, Switzerland, and south to Geneva

Monday morning, we were happy to take advantage of the nice hot shower at Katja and Yves apartment. We were all laughing about how funny it is when you live in a van for weeks or months on end how much you appreciate things that others take for granted... like a real shower and easy access to laundry! 

Yves had already gone to work, but we said goodbye to Katja and got on the road back on the lakeshore towards Geneva. Thanks again for the invite, it was great seeing you guys again. We wonder where it will be in the world that we meet again!

Gorgeous day in Switzerland

We woke up to a cool overcast morning, but the forecast was for clearing skies so the four of us decided to hop in Yves and Katja's little car and they took us for a tour of the lakeshore.

The north shore of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) belongs to Switzerland, while the south shore belongs to France.

Welcome to Switzerland!

Switzerland is not a new country for us. When we were flying Montreal to Bucharest in November 2016, we had a five hour layover at Zurich airport so we took the train into Zurich for a couple of hours. But while we have officially been to Switzerland before, we haven't really seen much of it.

And we weren't expecting to visit with the motorhome at this time of year, but here we are!

A dull dreary driving day

Sticking to the backroads, we managed to put on 180 kms (112 miles) yesterday. 

The weather is exactly as we expected it to be... wet, and cool with a high of about 8C (47F).

Change of plans

Not that we really have plans... just a loose idea to continue driving sort of south west to somewhere warmer!

But now, it seems we are taking a little detour into Switzerland!

Welcome to France!

France is not a new country for us, even though we have spent very little time here. We were in Nice, France (right at the south east corner of the country, near Monaco) back in 2017 for a couple of days.

Yesterday, we left Redange, Luxembourg, and had to drive through Belgium to get to the France border. Along the way, we filled up Max's fuel tank because prices are cheaper in Luxembourg. 

The city of Luxembourg... more photo matching

Yesterday morning, we took the bus from the town of Redange into the city of Luxembourg. And the one hour bus ride bus was totally free. Since 29 February 2020, public transportations has been free for everybody, residents as well as tourists. This is the case for trains, trams and buses!

We were there to match up some more of my dad's photographs.

Welcome to Luxembourg, country number 56

Winter has arrived. Or at least that's the way it feels. Yesterday's high might have been around 6C (43F) although it warmed up in the evening to 10C (50F). This is actually the weather we had been expecting when we arrived back in Europe, and is quite average for this time of year.

Our first stop yesterday was in the town of Bastogne... still in Belgium, but near the Luxembourg border. There, my father had taken one single photo back in 1954, and we wanted to see if we could match it up.

We've been lucky with the weather, but that's about to change

First order of business bright and early on Sunday morning was to vacate the big city of Brussels before there was any traffic. So as soon as it was light enough, we got out of bed and hit the road.

We've been back in Max for nine days now and his tanks are starting to get full. And nine days is about the limit for his fresh water tank as well, so it's getting low. Free motorhome service points are really common in Germany and France, but apparently not so much in Belgium!