Tunnels, monkeys, and caves...too much to see in Gibraltar!

We went back to Gibraltar again yesterday. We were a little later leaving than we originally planned because we've decided to do a day trip on the train to the mountain town of Ronda, and it's taking some planning.

So while Ruth and I went back to Gibraltar, friends Glen and Steve went into La Linea to find out the best way to catch the train to Ronda, which we will be doing tomorrow morning.

Day trip to Gibraltar

We left Casares fairly early Monday morning, and it wasn't a long drive. However, we were also looking for somewhere to recharge the SIM card for our internet, so we stopped at a big Dia grocery store on the outskirts of La Linea.

La Linea is the town located on the border with Gibraltar.

The Griffon Vultures of Casares, Spain

Yesterday morning we waked into the town of Casares. It's about a kilometer and a half from where we were parked with Louis the motorhome. I recorded our tracking to see just how much we would walk around town.

Including the walk there and back, we did 8.4 kms (5.2 miles) in three hours!

Great exercise, and beautiful views!

Finished up our two nights at the campground. So yesterday morning we got Louis's tanks emptied and filled his fresh water. Also had showers ourselves. And we're taking off with a brand new fully charged battery. So, we're all happy campers!

Friends Glen and Steve headed off down to Gibraltar, and we headed inland to the mountain town of Casares. We'll meet up with them there on Monday.

Beautiful walk on the coast, and a new battery!

Woke up to a beautiful blue sky sunny day here on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain.

Our battery was scheduled to show up between 11 and 12, so we knew we had to be back for that. But then we received a phone call from them asking if it was okay of they didn't show up until around 4:00pm. Sure, that was actually better so we didn't have to hang around.

Our first Spanish campground...

Lots to tell you about today. The big news around here of course was that cold weather front that went through southern Spain. They had predicted it well in advance, and the forecasts actually turned out to be fairly accurate. It's the reason we headed down to the coast earlier than we originally planned.

We heard the rain on the roof Wednesday night, and when we woke up Thursday morning there was snow in the hills behind us!

Not warm enough!

We specifically came down to the coast because of a cold front coming through southern Spain. Well it's cold down on the coast too, but not as cold as it is where we were inland!

The huge empty lot where we are parked for two nights becomes a temporary market on Wednesdays. We heard them getting set up before we even got out of bed!

Spain isn't Canada

Of course every country is unique.  Food, culture, scenery, prices, and languages. There’s something so special about each one.

One thing I find interesting about Spain is how old it is. Of course, every country on earth is old, but the culture is so old. Canada still retains a taste of the wild, of being a new country brought out of timber and mountains by settlers.

Back at the coast to meet up with good friends!

It's certainly warmer down here at the coast, but we feel like we're not really in Spain any more! At this time of year there are more British people here than Spanish people! And most of the signage at the local businesses is in English.

So yesterday we drove down from the hills to the coast. We weren't originally planning on coming down here yet, but there's a cold front coming through and even here at the coast it's going to be a chilly high of 10C (50F) and overcast.

We cant get enough of this town. I think we could live there!

The reason we hung around another day at Doña Mencía was because we had seen a marked trail that went up into the park behind the village of Zuheros.

So Ruth packed us a lunch, and we drove Louis over to the trailhead at the base of the town.

5 mile hike to a 9th century castle

Before we left Ubeda, there was one thing we wanted to do. And that was to visit the Sinagoga Del Agua. (Synagogue of the Water).

We like history and this one included some Jewish history, with quite a fascinating story. Back in 2007, a property developer had bought a series of buildings in the historic center of Ubeda, and was going to develop them into apartments, shops, and parking.

A beautiful day exploring Ubeda, Spain.

Yesterday morning's project was to hook up our new inverter.

Louis isn't really really set up for boondocking (wild camping) the way we like to. They have a single marine style deep cycle 12v battery for the house, and of course a normal vehicle battery for the engine.

First time emptying the tanks...

Everybody knows that the least fun part of the motorhome lifestyle is emptying the holding tanks. Well over here in Europe, it's even less fun! First of all, no campgrounds or aires (we explained yesterday what an aire is) have sewer hookups. And the motorhomes all have cassette style of toilets. So there is no "black" holding tank. Simply a small cassette that removes from the bottom of the toilet via an outside compartment.

We do have a "grey" water holding tank. It's actually larger than I expected, and it's located under the frame at the rear of the motorhome.

Free overnight motorhome parking...what a great concept!

There is a great system of free motorhome parking in Europe. The "Aire" system began in France, and has slowly expanded throughout Europe, and even into the UK.

The word "aire" means area in French. These free motorhome stopovers are called "Aire de Service Camping Cars" in France. Now, they are commonly called "Aires", even though there are different words for them in Germany, and Italy for example.

Boondocking in Spain again...never saw another vehicle the whole time

When we were up at the castle the day  before, we had seen a dam in the distance. So when we woke up yesterday morning, we drove over there thinking there might be a park or something. There wasn't, but there was a level parking area so we stopped there for breakfast.

It was a really pretty dam though!

No idea where we'll end up tonight, just the way we like it!

No problems our first night in the motorhome. It doesn't get light until  almost 8:00am here in southern Spain, so we find ourselves sleeping in a little bit. Plus, we don't put any heat on, so it's a little chilly inside the motorhome at that hour as well. Putting the burner on to boil some water warms up this small space pretty easily though.

Speaking of chilly, there was a strong wind when we woke up. And we were heading up into higher altitudes with an expected daytime high of only about 13C (55F).

Our first night boondocking in Spain!

We moved all of our stuff into Louis the motorhome yesterday morning. Not that we have that much stuff...we actually have very little stuff! One trip for our bags, and then another trip for the food.

Did a walkaround inspection, then hopped in the driver's seat and turned the key. Louis has a 4 cylinder diesel engine, and it fired right up...he was raring to go!

We're hitting the road this morning!

Holy cow, we slept in yesterday morning. It was after 8:30am when we woke up! That sure doesn't happen very often.

Did lots of online research yesterday morning because when we hit the road we won't have an unlimited source of internet any more. We'll have to make do with our cellular internet most of the time. And even though it's much cheaper than Canada, we still want to be frugal with our usage.

Our home for the next two months...

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day, with the temperature around 17C (63F) and no wind to speak of. We relaxed for much of the morning and made ourselves a nice ham and egg breakfast before heading out on foot to explore.

The apartment we're staying in is located about a five minute walk from the beach.

A very smooth travel day...and we met Louis!

Yesterday was a travel day, but because we pre-planned a lot, everything went smoothly.

Our motorhome exchange friends Tana and Graham live in Torrevieja, Spain. They are an expat British couple who have an apartment in Torrevieja, but also a small motorhome. For anybody new here at Travel with Kevin and Ruth, they came to Canada to use our motorhome back in June and July of last year. Now, we get to use their motorhome for a couple of months here in Spain and Portugal.

Our best option to get to Spain originally was to fly to Barcelona. But then, we had to make our way from Barcelona to Torrevieja, a distance of about 570 kms (353 miles).

Barcelona was great!

Hopped on the train again to downtown Barcelona yesterday morning.

The T-10 metro transportation pass has really been handy for us. For €9.95 ($14.50 CAD, $10.50 USD) you get 10 trips on the local transportation, and it includes the airport train. Our ten trips are used up as of our return trip yesterday but we'll be back in Barcelona for a night in April, so we'll buy another T-10 pass today and use the balance when we return.

We headed to the main downtown market, the Mercado de la Boqueria.

Mystery solved!

Yesterday, we hopped on the train to downtown Barcelona. It's only about 20 minutes from where we are staying here at Badalona. We only have to take the one train from Badalona station to the Clot-Arago station at a cost of 1 euro ($1.45 CAD, $1.10 USD) each and then we could walk from there.

And walk we did! Whether it be London, New York, or Cape Town, we've learned that the only way to see a city is to walk it.

Well, the day didn't exactly go as planned.

We were wanting to go for a hike in the hills overlooking Badalona. First, we slept in. It never occurred to us to set the alarm. But there is a room darkening blind on the window, and even at 8:30am it was black as can be inside the room. That, combined with a lack of sleep on the plane the night before, meant that it would be easy to lose track of time.

So it was close to 9am when we actually got out of bed.

I think we're really going to like Spain!

Went for a walk yesterday afternoon just to explore the area a little bit. The beach here in Badalona (just up the coast from Barcelona) is beautiful, but it's off season and of course it's not really beach weather, so there aren't many people out. We found a grocery store with lots of selection, and an especially good gluten free food section. It looks like it will be much easier for us to shop and eat here than when we were in Romania in November.

We are in Barcelona, Spain!

And we're a little tired. But, we are sooooo happy to be here. We're pretty much right on the beach in a suburb of Barcelona called Badalona. But, it's only 20 minutes on the train to get downtown. And the temperature is a very comfortable 15C (60F) and the sun is shining and there is no wind.

In short...it's beautiful!

Happy New Year! And, expense report...

A new year is like a blank book, and the pen is in your hands. It is your chance to write a beautiful story for yourself. 

Happy New Year to all of our readers! We certainly plan on writing a beautiful story for ourselves this year, and it starts today, because we get on a plane to Barcelona, Spain this evening! What a great way to start the new year!

We hope you follow along with us every day. It's going to be exciting as we start our two month European motorhome adventure on January 6th!

Sometimes you have to make do with what you've got...

Well, we've been taking a bit of a blogging break the last few days. Just spending time with family, and so we haven't really been doing anything special. Well, it's been special to us...but not really worth writing a daily blog post about.

Of course there's going to be lots of daily blogging going on starting tomorrow when we fly to Spain!

Moldova Tour Guide

Moldova is a very small country, but we recently spent two full weeks there and wanted to condense our experiences into a single blog post so that people who want to visit can have a single reference source.

Despite the fact that we were there for two weeks, we still felt there were areas we didn't see that we would have liked to. So we'll have to return someday.

Only one problem...

Lots of planning going on for the next few months of travel. But, while all of that has been taking up a fair amount of time, we've also been enjoying being with family and friends in Ottawa. After all, this is why we came here!

Christmas Day was really fun. We enjoyed watching our grandchildren open their gifts. At the ages of 3 and 5, they are right into Santa Claus and all the Christmas excitement.

Booked three flights yesterday!

Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions both here and at facebook on where to go after our two month motorhome tour of Spain and Portugal.

Many of you suggested Croatia, and Turkey and of course we really want to go to those places eventually. But logistically, it was going to be too expensive and the flight back to Morocco didn't line up well at a decent price.

So...here's where we're going...

Help us choose a destination!

We had been wanting to visit Algeria in March or April. They don't get many visitors, but every report we have read from people who have been there has been positive. It's a Muslim country, and they have an old bureaucratic Soviet style visa system, so most Westerners simply avoid the place.

But we're not most Westerners.

So I did the research into getting the visa. The first obstacle was that we had to apply from our home country.

Interview on the radio this morning

So, we were up before 6:00am this morning, and walked about 15 minutes from our son's apartment to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) headquarters in downtown Ottawa, Canada. We had slept at our son's apartment to avoid having to drive into the city with possible rush hour traffic problems. We sure do not miss that headache!

We had been told to arrive at 6:30am, and we would be ushered right in for our 6:40am interview.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Woke up to a very Christmas like snowfall this morning. They had been calling for 2-3 cms (an inch) overnight, but we've got more than that now and it's still coming down.

It's all very pretty though. And there's no wind, and the temperature is right around freezing, so it's not really that cold. We can put up with this, especially knowing that it's only for a short time.

One of our goals for our upcoming Spain trip...

My father spent about six months touring around Europe way back in 1954. He was an avid photographer, and he took a lot of slide photographs on that trip. Ruth had scanned and digitized all of his old slides and we now have them all saved on our laptops.

He spent quite a lot of time in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Coincidentally, we will also be spending quite a lot of time in those countries over the next three months.

How we avoid jet lag!

Flying across time zones can be hard on your system. We've done it a lot of times over the past four years, and I think we've learned how best to minimize the effects of jet lag.

They say that going east is harder on your system because your internal body clock has to be advanced, which is more difficult for the majority of people than delaying it. However on this most recent trip, we thought that the reverse was true!

5 Reasons To Bring A Motorcycle Along For Your Next RV Trip

When it comes to taking a vacation, there is nothing that is quite as exhilarating as a road trip. If you want to make your journey much more comfortable (and cheaper), you might decide to get an RV and see the countryside without having to worry about expensive hotel rooms or rates.

While going on an RV trip is rewarding in its own right, one of the best ways that you can maximize your adventure is to bring a motorcycle (or two) along for the ride. Here are five reasons why bringing your motorcycles on your RV trip can transform a great time into an unforgettable one.

The entertainment budget is blown for the month!

Prior to us taking on this lifestyle of travel almost 10 years ago, we had a Christmas tradition with my (Kevin's) side of the family. Many years ago, we used to exchange gifts like most other people. But it got to  the point where everybody already had what they needed, and gift certificates were becoming the go to gift. I didn't see the point.

So we all decided that there would be no more Christmas gift giving. Instead, we would all get together at a good restaurant, and just have a really nice meal and spend some time together.

Trip costs...6 weeks in Romania and Moldova

Well, the numbers are in.

This trip was definitely more expensive than our previous trips. And most of it comes down to the time of year that we were visiting. We kind of compared this trip to when we did Czech Republic and Slovakia back in 2012. It was approximately the same length of time. But we had done that trip in the summer...and this one was in November and December.

We were gone for 45 days, and we spent a total of $4,953 CAD ($3,800 USD) including airfare.

Poor Sherman!

Made it on to our Montreal to Ottawa flight at 7:00am, scheduled for take off at 7:10am. It's just a little twin engine propeller plane seating 24 people. They fired up the first engine, but the outside temperature was -24C (-11F) and they had to warm up a battery in order to start the second engine. This took time, and then when that was done we had to go to the de-icing stall.

So, it was about 7:50am by the time we took off. I can't quite figure why they didn't start doing this earlier...they would have known about the deicing. In the meantime, the interior of the plane was also quite cold. Everyone kept their coats and hats on!

An unexpected hotel stay...

When we left you last, we were in Bucharest airport waiting for our flight to Munich. We're flying with Lufthansa for the first time ever, and it won't be the last. Excellent service from start to finish.

Landed in Munich right on time and found our connecting gate to Montreal. We only had an hour until the flight was expected to board, so we didn't have time to go into the city and explore, like we did in Zurich on the way over.

We don't like cutting things that close!

We had a few hours to kill yesterday,  and our AirBnb host Gloria asked if we wanted to go see the Military Moldova History Museum. Sure. We figured it would be a one hour deal and we would head back home. We probably shouldn't have though. We were still a little tired and wouldn't likely get much sleep on the train.

Anyhow, we left our bags at her place and the three of us hopped on the Chisinau city bus downtown.

A great end to our Moldova visit

It's hard to believe that we will be on the train late this afternoon heading back to Bucharest. And that tomorrow evening we will arrive back in Ottawa, Canada! Our six week trip is coming to an end.

Yesterday we did the drive back from Soroca to Chisinua. There were a few things we wanted to see along the way, so we left the hotel around 9:30am.

Exploring Soroca, Moldova

For breakfast, we went back to the same restaurant here in the Central Hotel. Marcel was off duty, and a woman who didn't speak any English looked after us. No problem, we can order breakfast in Romanian! Sort of!

Anyhow, we each had a cup of tea, and a plain omelette with cheese and salami on the side. Total with the tip was 90 lei ($6.30 CAD, $4.75 USD) for the two of us.

Back in Moldova!

Although technically, we never left. The country of Transistria doesn't really exist, and is still "officially" part of Moldova. But, when you have to go through border checkpoints, getting inspected, and showing your passport, and getting permission to enter...it sure feels like we were in a different country.

So yesterday morning we had to get out of Transnistria. I had read reports where exiting Transnistira can be more difficult that entering!

A country drive in Transnistria

Transistria is actually a fairly long country, at about 200 kms (120 miles) from north to south. But it's only a few kms wide.

Most people who visit only see the city of Tiraspol. But we are not most people, so yesterday morning we hopped in the rental car and went for a drive.

And then we heard a crash...

Wow, we walked about 15 kms (9 miles) yesterday. The temperature was pleasant, with a high of about 9C (48F) but there was no sunshine. Overcast all day,

The apartment where we're staying is on the eastern outskirts of this city of 100,000 people or so. We decided to leave the car parked where it was and walk into the city. We were due for some exercise anyhow. And, we've learned that you see a lot more when you're walking.

Pulled over by the police in Transnistria

After our Purcari wine tour, we had stayed the night at a small hotel in the town of Stefan Voda, only about 20 kms (12 miles) from the winery. It's a convenient location if the rooms at the winery are fully booked.

Not the greatest sleep, because the bed was hard as a rock...but other than that, for 500 lei ($35 CAD, $26.50 USD) a night it was fine.

Then yesterday morning, it was off to Transnistria!

It's not often we talk about politics...

But I felt it was important to give some background on the area that we are now visiting.

We're now in the country of Transnistria. Officially called the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The problem is that this country doesn't really exist.

Oh, it's a country. It has its own border, its own border guards, its own passports, its own government, its own parliament, its own currency, and its own military.  Yes, it's a country.

The best wine in Moldova!

Yesterday, we drove about two hours south of the capital of Chisinau to the little town of Purcari, located on the Moldova - Ukraine border. There, we found the Purcari Winery.

Of course Moldova is famous for it's fine wines. When I began doing research about our trip to Moldova, the name Purcari kept coming up, and so it was one of the places that we really wanted to visit. Purcari is just a small vineyard...but they have a big history!

The largest wine cellar in the world

The other day we visited the underground wine cellars at Cricova Winery. They are listed as the second largest wine cellar in the world. Yesterday, we visited the largest wine cellar in the world!

Yes, the tiny, unknown country of Moldova has the two largest wine cellars in the world.

The one we visited yesterday at Milestii Mici Winery contains over 2 million bottles of wine.