Greetings from beautiful Cadiz, Spain! The weather here continues to be spectacular! Highs in the mid 60’s but a little windy occasionally. Yes, it’s winter coat time in Spain!

Team C&K decided to take one last trip together as Kate is going on to Lisbon, Portugal, then home.

So off to Seville, Spain they go.

I’ve been to Seville several times before so I stayed in Cadiz and the team took the train to Seville from Cadiz, it’s roughly a two hour trip.

Cindy’s talking now,

Greetings from Seville, Spain! Katie and I had an uneventful train ride here and dropped her luggage off at her hotel. Off we went for one last tour together. Let’s go!

Yes, Bull fighting is very much alive in Spain and a huge part of the Spanish lifestyle.

Ok, walking now.

Built as a military watchtower in the early 13th century and was also used as a prison during the Middle Ages.

Continuing our walk, we walked to the Plaza de Espana. This was built for the 1929 Worlds Fair and is a celebration of each region of Spain.

Walking towards the city center. We can feel a 30,000 step day in our future…

Barrio Santa Cruz was formerly the city’s famous Jewish Quarter of the medieval city. We enjoyed walking through the maze of narrow streets and admiring the beautiful architecture. The steps are piling up now!

Seville is famous for its flamenco dancing and has a long history here.

Okay, 33,000 steps later, that’s a rap. Now a walk back to the train station for Katie to see me off. We had to say our goodbyes as Katie will fly to Lisbon, and I’m headed back to Cadiz! Our time traveling with Katie has been so much fun and memorable!

Seville is a beautiful city, but wow, the crowds were massive. I’ve been here a few times, but this was even more crazy than before. Must be the holiday travelers. Now, back to Mike…

Wow, what a last trip by team C&K! 33,000 steps later, massive crowds, sorry I missed all of that😉

TGC and I are in Cadiz until Thursday when we move to Lagos, Portugal.

Strong chance I won’t blog again until then, so Adios and Happy New Year for now!

Auto/ day trips-180

Airplane flights-14

Ferry trips-10

Bus/ mass transit trips-325

Miles driven-22,736

Miles walked- 2,559

Worn out shoes- Mike 4 , Cindy 3

Airbnb stay in -79

Days traveled-311

Country’s visited -28

Buenos Dias amigos from beautiful sunny Mazatlan, Mexico, our final destination on the Adventure! We used the Primera Plus bus line from Guadalajara to Mazatlan. It’s not nearly as luxurious as the ETN line, but after seven hours we arrived safe and sound in Mazatlan. Beautiful scenery on the ride, over the mountains and valleys of central Mexico.

About one hour outside of Guadalajara is the valley of Tequila, with thousands and thousands of agave plants. It takes 7-8 years for an Agave plant to mature enough for harvest, the fields are quite impressive.

Ok, safely to Mazatlan and a return to our condo.

Our condo was old 24 years ago when we purchased it. It’s really old now, in fact four of the five older towers have been demolished and a new resort is in the works (in 10 years or so😳)

Ok, let’s take our last tour together, Mazatlan Mexico 😎👍🍺

Mazatlan is a large city, with over one million inhabitants. It’s both a working city, with the largest port in western Mexico, and a tourist destination with the city flooded with Canadians this time of year, cruise ships, and Mexican Nationals from Guadalajara and Durango on the weekends. Quite a lively place

This time of year is especially busy, with the upcoming Mardi Gras celebration. Mazatlan hosts the worlds third largest Mardi Gras behind only Rio and New Orleans. It’s quite the party.

As you can see, it’s quite the party here, huge😎🍺

Ok, four main tourist areas in Mazatlan.

Olas Atlas and the Central Historico district, very lively at night and mainly restored. Beautiful!

The Malecon, recently restored and great walking, smooth and flat with a sea breeze, wonderful!

Next, the gold zone, back in the day this is where all the action was, now again, redone and booming.

Last but not least, Cerritos beach, this is where we are located.

Ok, can’t have the last blog without any food pics ✔️

Eva, our favorite cake lady

Shrimp taco😎

Pulled Pork taco, it’s all good✔️

Ok, Amigos, that’s it, last stop on the adventure, last post of the blog😥

Wow! What an amazing adventure we shared! Adventure, fun, and sights we’ve never even dreamed about! Thanks so much for joining us on the adventure, we enjoyed your company.

Until we talk again, God bless you, your family and our hope for you is health and happiness!

Adios Amigos,

Miguel and Cindy

Buenas Tartes from beautiful Guadalajara Mexico!

Our journey from Mexico City on the ETN luxury bus was wonderful, safe and relaxing!

We were so lucky to have the two front seats in the top level of the bus with unbelievable views climbing through the mountains and valleys of Mexico.

Tremendous agricultural and ranching area, field after field of produce, and herd after herd of cattle, sheep and goats. We even saw the old school farmer with his two horses plowing the fields by hand, next to a field with a John Deer tractor. Old versus new!

Ok, seven hours gets us to Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city with over 1.7 million inhabitants. After Mexico City, everything is pequeno✔️ We visited here two years ago and loved it. We decided on a short return trip on our way to Mazatlan.

Ok, we are staying at the Historic Hotel Morales in the Centro Historico area. Guadalajara is a very popular area for Mexican nationals, not so much for other nationalities. It’s a fun place.

Ok, it’s late. How about dinner at the world famous La Chata, one of the busiest restaurants in Mexico. There’s a line every hour it’s open, with good food, and traditional Mexican fare.

Ok, one day in Guadalajara and lots to see. This is Cindy’s last day as tour director as I take over those duty’s in Mazatlan 😜

Centro Historico area, just four blocks down the street✔️

Notice the young lady in her Quinceanera dress ( 15th birthday)

Next up, the world famous Mercado of Guadalajara. A giant market with clothes, shoes, produce, meat, restaurants, animals (especially birds), really anything and everything 👍

Ok, the food court 😜 in the Mercado is awesome, lots of different stuff. Here are some highlights 👍

Now you know what all those goats we saw were for😳

Fish soup is very popular in Guadalajara. This lady says hers is numero uno🔥

Tortas with hot sauce poured over like Hattie B’s chicken in Mexico 😎

What’s a day in Mexico without the Tamale lady?

Dessert? Flan of course!

Need your knives sharpened? Your in the right place!

Produce

Meat😳

And more😳

Ok, quick and inexpensive taxi ride (got to love Mexico) to the Tlaquepaque area of Guadalajara, famous for art, gallery’s and fine restaurants. Fun people watching here👍

Fun place Guadalajara is. It’s a real Mexican City! Ok, bus ride tomorrow to Mazatlan. No double decker bus, so just regular seats😒

The end is in sight, let’s finish strong✔️

Hasta Manana amigos 😎

Buenos Dias Amigos. Greetings from Mexico City, one of the largest city’s in the world😳 The flight from Paris to Mexico City was uneventful, and after the normal Mexican hassles at the airport we arrived at our Airbnb, 22 hours after leaving our hotel in Paris. Not bad!

Our Airbnb is in a newer high rise apartment building. It’s a studio with a nice balcony and 24 hour security✔️ We arrived at 10:00 local time so we enjoyed a few cocktails on the balcony hoping to get on Mexican time. No luck, even with going to bed at 1:00 AM we were both wide awake at 4:00 AM. Got to love jet lag.

Ok, we changed the agenda from the original plan and removed Morelia from the trip. We figured out about halfway through the adventure we’d be exhausted when we got to Mexico. So, we also removed the city of Tequila. Good call, we are both ready for a pool chair👍

Ok, off we go. México City has been inhabited by man since 7500 BC with the Aztecs empire building the temples in Mexico City in the 1300’s. Mexico City itself started as an island and the Aztecs drained the lake to build the temples.

Ruins of the Temples of the Aztecs and a model of what they would have looked like back in the day.

Mexico City was, for a long time, the largest city in the world, with a very high growth rate every year. It’s population is projected at 24 million. Its still one of the largest city’s in the world and very, very hard to get around in. The traffic is terrible. We tried walking tours and using the subway, but it was difficult. So we bought a hop on/hop off bus pass to better see the city and then put our plan together to see specific sights. The traffic and pollution is terrible 😳

Ok, let’s get started😎

The subway is very basic, and incredibly inexpensive, 5 pesos (.23) per trip, with 4.5 million people using the subway everyday, crazy, but clean and safe. Police are everywhere 👍

The parks in Mexico City are beautiful and the city is spotless, quite impressive.

Historical center of Mexico City, beautiful!

The name, México City, scares a lot of people, however there are police and security guards everywhere. We saw well over a thousand officers. The larger businesses all have security guards. The three Amigos were even on duty😎

Beautiful city, very clean and we felt very safe. However, the traffic is 24/7!

Need your spirit cleaned?

Ok, let’s get to the good stuff, food! Mexico City has an unbelievable food scene, restaurants, bars, Taquerias and the street scene is huge. Unfortunately, Cindy and I both have had problems with our intestinal tracks in Mexico 😳 so we can’t eat the street food anymore 😥

Food tour🔥

First, of course, the bakery, Mexicans are great bakers, not as technical as the French, but still impressive✔️

Tortilla machine in action. Mexicans eat corn (Masa) tortillas. Flour tortillas are for gringos.

Tow

Tostadas

Street Tacos

Juice

Coffee stop,

Gorditas, fried masa with meat

Tacos el Pastor

What would México city be without Churros

And last, but not least, Tortas, the Mexican sandwich.

Wow, what a great, great food city! I just wish our intestines were not from gringo blood😳

Ok, off to Guadalajara on the bus tomorrow, eight hour ride, but the ETN luxury buses are wonderful ✔️

Adios amigos!

Greetings from the lovely south of France and specifically the beautiful village of Fontvieille, France. It’s fitting, we started our journey approximately ten months ago in an old German village and finished in an old French village.

As you can see from the enclosed map, Fontvieille is in the middle of the south of France. It’s about a three hour drive from Nice, with about €30 in tolls on the highways (wouldn’t miss those toll roads).

We are staying in a beautifully restored early 1700’s Airbnb. The village of Fontvieille is quite small and incredibly beautiful.

Note the wonderful French fireplace, with fires every night👍

The buildings here are interesting, they are constructed from huge pieces of Limestone, some are whitewashed, some stucco. Just beautiful

Next day, bright and early, a short drive to Arles for the largest Farmers market/flea market in the area. Huge and full considering it’s the middle of January.

Baguettes so light and crispy they taste like Angels baked them 😜

Remember, the majority of people don’t have ovens in their homes in Europe, with rotisserie’s very common.

Arles is a lovely city with a long Roman history.

Next day, a driving, walking tour of the areas villages and city’s. Les Baux-de-Provence

Saint-Remy-de-Provence and the surrounding areas.

Tarasque, the medieval river monster, now the hero of summer festivals.

The next day, a walking tour of Fontvieille, again huge Roman influences, note the Viaduct.

We stayed in this area in May, so we went back to visit our favorite city, Uzès, a wonderful village.

Avignon, a beautiful walled city.

Aix-en-Provence, wonderful city.

Last day, you don’t think we’d forget to revisit the world famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape region. Not on our watch🍷😎

Wonderful, wonderful time the last two weeks here in the south of France. I’ve told you before, we love it here. It’s definitely on our redo list, possibly for the winters. Tomorrow, the TGV train to gay Paris for an overnight stay and then Mexico City.

Ha, ya didn’t think we’d visit the south of France without a picture of one of the many Boulangeries. The bread is the best in the world. So light, angels must be the bakers😎🍷

Au revoir

Greetings from the sunny French Rivera! We left cold, but sunny, Munich on 1/3/20, traveling on the S train to the Munich airport. Quick easy check in on Lufthansa Airlines and two hours later we are in beautiful Nice.

The French alps

Quick and expensive checkin at the car rental and off we go on the short trip to Villefranche-sur-Mer, our home for the next week. The Airbnb is a one bedroom apartment, with a beautiful view from the balcony.

The south of France has a wonderful mass transit system, trains, trams and buses. So, bright and early we hop on the bus and travel the short trip to Nice. Wonderful walkable city, walking tour here we go!

Socca, the regional dish, Chickpea flour, olive oil, salt, and water, baked in a hearth oven. We thought it was tasteless, but they love it here, it’s everywhere

We spent the afternoon in our new home, Villefranche-sur-Mer, unbelievably beautiful!

Next morning, back on the bus (€1.50) per trip👍 and all the way to Menton, the end of the line.

Next stop, Monaco and Monte Carlo😎

The world famous Monte Carlo Casino. Never seen so many high end automobiles in my life

FYI, a three bedroom, three bath, 2000 sq ft. Condominium in Monaco, killer view, 24 million😳

Ok, next day a driving trip to Cannes and Antibes. Traffic here is terrible.

Beautiful city’s, very French. Then walking in our lovely village, Villefranche-sur-Mer

Today, tour director Cindy wants to do the world famous driving tour, the three Cornices. Beautiful views, the homes are staggeringly beautiful and pricey, four to 10 million outside of Monaco

Tomorrow a short three hour drive to Fontvieille, a small village and our last stay in Europe, except one night in gay Paris. We love France. We spent two weeks here in May at the beginning of the adventure and two weeks in July for the Tour de France. Hope your New Years is off to a great start.

Au revoir

Happy New Years! With an extra few days in one of our favorite city’s in the world, Munich, we decided to use the wonderful metro system and do a beer hall crawl 😎 and visit some of our favorite spots✔️

The day after Christmas all the Christmas decorations and the Christmas Markets are gone, oh, the efficient Germans

More beer halls 😎

More😳

Our lovely Airbnb in Gröbenzell, outside of Munich. Wonderful hosts and space✔️

Ok, off to the airport for a quick flight to Nice, France and a two week stay in the south of France 👍

Ciao Ciao

A quick three hour easy ride on the TGV ( high speed train) from Avignon to Paris for our last night in Europe. The TGV trains are awesome.

Cindy wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at night so off we went!!

Arc de Triomphe

The Eiffel Tower at sunset.

Staying at a hotel in downtown Paris so we can easily take the train to Charles de Gaulle airport for our flight to Mexico City tomorrow ✔️ Lovely views from our suite

In 2013, when we sold our business in Oregon, it wasn’t in our plans to retire. But, after traveling, we’re finding our groove in traveling. We just can’t seem to stop. And somehow I can’t find a boss who’s interested in employing me for six months a year.

Here’s the map TripAdvisor makes as you file reviews in each city you visit. These are the European city’s we’ve visited since 2013.

Ok, let’s cleanup the Blog and get ready to move to Mexico!

Speaking of the Blog, it’s been great to have so many people join us on our trip. Thousands and thousands have read the blog from over 32 countries! But the main reason I write the blog is so that we have pictures and remembrances to help us re-visit our trip (Cindy has also been writing a journal as we travel, as well) over 130 posts and thousands of pictures. We are looking forward to watching it for years to come.

Car travel- We leased/rented cars for the majority of this trip, we loved it. It allowed us to visit and stay in off the beaten path spots. (Every car had GPS. We wouldn’t have taken this trip without it.) The train is great in Europe, but the car was the way to go for us! Don’t forget fuel is over $7 a gallon in Europe and the majority of highways are toll roads. Boise to Portland would be $30 in tolls in Europe!

Airbnb – We stayed exclusively in Airbnb’s this trip. We enjoyed the vast majority of them and met some of the nicest people we’d ever dreamed of meeting. A couple of duds, but they were always our fault for not doing our homework! Also, while we had some fabulous meals eating out, all our Airbnb’s had kitchens, so I did 95% of our cooking, saving us thousands of dollars.

Agenda- Tour Director Cindy gets all the credit here. Hundreds and Hundreds of city’s large and small, she planned it all with the help of Rick Steves books, TripAdvisor and TripAdvisors Forum section, along with her trusty Michelin maps (which I’m going to bury with her). Awesome job by Cindy, saved us thousands and thousands of dollars on tours and added to the adventure! The memories from this trip are unbelievable. We had a fantastic adventure. So glad you joined us👍

Some numbers that might only interest us, but are kind of fun.

Airbnb stays- 67

Miles driven by Cindy in rental cars- 23,500 Mike 0

Auto trips driven by Cindy-189

Mass transit trips-Bus, train, subway, tram-265

Airplane trips-10

Number of countries visited 28

Ferry trips-10

Miles walked- 2,210

Hotel stays-4

Weeks on the road-38

Pairs of shoes worn out – Mike 3, Cindy 3

Number of beers or glasses of vino😳 Well, you’ve got to say fueled and hydrated😎

What would we do differently? Not much really, everything went relatively smoothly. The only real issue was our cellphones. We couldn’t find a cell phone carrier that covered all of Europe, and carrying our US plan with a European plan would be over $200 a month. So we used Skype. It’s free on the internet and we had an internet SIMMs card for our phones. This is far from perfect, but got us through.

I can’t leave Europe without discussing people, all people. We have traveled for 13 of the last 15 months, US travel, Mexico travel and European travel, we are very lucky! Over that time we’ve met hundreds and hundreds of people from all countries, all races, all religious beliefs and all political beliefs. With very, very few exceptions, the majority of people have been so friendly and helpful to us! It all starts with a smile and asking if they could help us. Don’t listen to people saying the world is falling apart. There’s never been a better time to be alive in the history of the world. Go out there and take a chance. Talk to someone different than you. You’ll find that if we can all just be respectful and listen to each other, we can all get along!

Thanks again for joining us in Europe, what an adventure! On to Mexico City!

Watch out, we need Mexican food, there’s none in Europe!

Happy New Year from sunny and cold Munich and Bavaria. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2020! One of the questions I receive from Blog viewers is where is your favorite places you’ve visited on your adventure? That’s an impossible challenge, but I thought I’d list a few of our favorites from 2019.

Ladenburg, Germany

Merligen, Switzerland

Uzès, France

Madrid, Spain

Cádiz, Spain

Cudillero, Spain

Billgney sur Ouche

France Lynch, England

” The Wilderness ” Fintown, Ireland

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Edinburgh, Royal Military Tattoo

Budapest Hungary, Szechwnyi Thermal Bath

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

Chiusi Italy, Tuscany

Istanbul Turkey, Cagaloglu Hamam

Loutraki, Greece

Salzburg Austria, Augustiner Brau-Kloster Mulln

Munich Germany, Donisl

Happy New Years! Hoping for health and happiness for all in 2020.

Mike and Cindy