Long time no talk 😜 We picked up our friends, Jim and Jill Harbin, at the Dijon train station on 7/6/19, after their long trip from Portland. After enjoying a Charcuterie plate alfresco with a delicious selection of local vinos at our Airbnb backyard, we hit the road the next AM for beautiful Beaune and the wine region of the Rhône valley. We visited the city and several caves! Beaune is a lovely city, particularly if you enjoy vino😎

Highly recommended!

We then moved to Northeastern France to the Vougécourt area. Specifically to watch the Tour de France We stayed in a renovated barn via Airbnb.

We wanted to see the finish of stage 4 in Nancy, so off we go in the trusty Peugeot. Tour guide Cindy, the GPS and clean living 😏 dropped us right into the finish area of stage 4. We arrived three hours early as it’s completely bonkers at the finish. Roads are closed hours before the race and they have quite the street party as thousands of people wait for the riders.

We even pounded on the panels holding spectators back, awesome 👍😎🍷🇺🇸 As the adrenaline builds suddenly the riders appeared and disappeared, it’s over in minutes. What a rush.l

Then the parade of tour support and people.

Quite an impressive show. Then the next day we decided to see the start of Stage 5 in Saint-Die-des-Vosges. It’s about a two hour drive, so off we go. Again, tour guide Cindy and the GPS take us to the starting area, amazing. The start was similar to the finish, get there early , lots of waiting then they are off with a great rush of adrenaline!

Quite fun and quite the adventure!

The next day we decided to visit the lovely Alsace valley, famous for its white wines. We also visited Kaysersberg, close to the German boarder, lovely.

A little wine tasting and tour guide Cindy gets us home😎🍷👍

The next day, 7/12/19 we drove the Harbins to the train station in Nancy where they went on a long trip to Amsterdam.

Cindy and I are driving to Paris today for a four day visit!

Great time with Jim and Jill, we are great for the local winery’s 👍😎😏

Cheers !

This is quite an amazing area. We are staying in the small village of Bligny-sur-Ouche, in the beautiful Côte d’Or area. Above us the countryside is farming land, wheat and hay fields.

Castles and Château’s are very common. You are just driving down the road, and there they are. Shocking to us from Idaho.

The valley below Bligny is called Rhône Grand Cru region. It’s world famous for white, Pinot and Beaujolais wines. It’s a world class destination for vino. Hundreds of tasting rooms. We are doing our best to help the local economy 🍷😎

A water lock system, called Canal de Bourgogne, was built to handle transportation back in the 1400s. It still works today.

Milk cows are everywhere and cheese making is common. They are called Fromageries. Delicious.

We are way off the beaten path. No tour buses for days😜

Small villages and city’s are everywhere, so beautiful.

The area is lovely and we are getting a little R&R away from the city. Our friends, the Harbin’s, arrive this afternoon into Dijon after a long flight from PDX, then a train ride. I won’t be posting for a while as we are moving to Vougécourt, France and trying to watch the Tour de France. And possibly a little 🍷

Au voir 😎

Long day driving from San Sebastián Spain area to the beautiful Cote d’Or valley here in France. Nine hours of hard driving on the toll roads (€50 in tolls) had us arriving safely at our next stop, Bligny sur Ouche France. We checked into our Airbnb which is in the countryside, very lovely.

The views are lovely!

We found the local Boulangerie, the work of angels 😎

We spent the last two days visiting the world famous Cote d’Or valley which is famous for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Beaujolais. We visited several of the hundreds of wineries and tried their vino. Excellent🍷

Visited several city’s/villages in the valley, and beautiful!

WW1 memorials everywhere as several battles were fought in this area and many died to keep us free. Please remember that on the 4th of July 🇺🇸

Amazing place, Chateaus are very common, unbelievably beautiful!

Tomorrow, the upper Cote d’Or valley and more vino tasting 😎👍🍷

God bless America on our nations birthday 🇺🇸

Today marks ten weeks into the adventure, with some statistics that many only interested us.

Total miles driven- 7300

Miles walked, through Cindy’s fitness tracker-592. That’s 60 a week 😳

Auto trips-39

Mass transit trips-37

Airplane flights-1

Bottles of wine drank-😳

Bottles of beer drank-😏

Au Revoir

We drove five hours in the trusty Peugeot to the Basque area of Spain and France, San Sebastián. The area is made up of many towns and is on the boarder of Spain and France. Boise has a small Basque population and several people we met were familiar with Idaho because of the Jaialdi Festival held every five years in Boise, celebrating Boise’s Basque heritage.

Today, Sunday, we noticed quite a few people dressed in traditional Basque outfits, we stop one and asked what was happening. He told us it was a day celebrating San Marcial Day when the Spanish defeated the French sending them back to Bordeaux. We are in France when he’s telling us this😳

We are staying in Hendaye on the French side. Lovely city with great beaches.

Everywhere in France are memorials of soldiers killed in WW1 and WW2

In the afternoon we drove to Biarritz, a very upscale and happening place with the younger crowds.

Then on to Saint Jean de Luz, lovely city and beach’s. Paella at the beach?

Today, up bright and early, and a trip to the areas largest city San, Sebastián.

An Ironman was underway.

Might have found the perfect Pain au Chocolate. Oiartzun Pasteleria

Walked the city, then home to Hendaye and a walk on the beach,

Long day tomorrow, nine hour drive to the Dijon (Burgundy area) of France where we are staying in Bligny sur Ouche. Our friends, the Harbin’s, are joining us at the end of the week 👍🍷🥖😎

Au revoir.

Wow, the sights here are unbelievable. I was going to post once for the two days here, but that’s not enough, so…

These are Horreos, they are everywhere and we’re built in the 1800s when the area was developed for crop storage.

Yesterday, we did a short driving trip in the Cudillero area. First stop, six kilometers away. This area is popular with hikers, lots of them on the road 👍

Playa del Silencio is on a one way road and unbelievably beautiful. Again our I phone does it no justice.

Next, a quick trip to Cabo Busto , again unbelievable!

Then to the small Port of Puerto de Vega, in the town of Luarco. Just stunning!

Next, a late Spanish lunch in Cudillero to celebrate our time in Spain

Cindy, grilled prawns.

Mike, the local specialty, seafood casserole. Ham, fried eggs, sautéed shrimp, bay eels and French Fries 😳

Unbelievably beautiful. Off this AM to San Sebastián, close to the boarder of Spain and France. This is the Basque region.

Adios amigos 😎

We left Porto after the epic blowout party of St. John’s and Portugal behind and took the A4 highway to the northern Spanish city of Cudillero, which is located on the Atlantic. It was a 7 hour drive using the toll roads, with €30 in tolls. No way around this one😳

The town is very small, less than 600 people, nice change for us. The directions to get to our Airbnb were simple, take the exit #243, drive into Ovinana, park at the church and we’ll meet you. Did as instructed and two minutes later we are at our Airbnb. Lovely place, it’s a l’cabana, building off of a main house.

We met a new friend!

Unbelievably beautiful and very few tourists!

The climate here is very interesting, the area gets 25 inches of rain a year, and it rains basically two inches every month. The area is so green and lush, the humidity is very high here. Hydrangeas grow wild!

Again, we love it here, so quiet and peaceful! Might have to come back someday 😎

Driving trip today on the coast of northern Spain, then a visit of the city of Cudillero and a late Spanish lunch. It’s our last night in Spain, moving back to France tomorrow, with a 4 1/2 hour drive ahead of us. We are staying in the San Sebastián area, the Basque area of Spain/France 😎👍🇺🇸

Adios amigos!

Leaving Lisbon( the Portuguese call it Lisboa) and driving the 3.5 hour drive to Porto left us with a chance to stop by lovely Coimbra, a small university town on the Mondego river.

We arrived into the historic city center of Porto, the city which Port wine is named after. We met our Airbnb host and stored the trusty Peugeot in a parking garage with a car elevator, a first.

The view from our penthouse is quite lovely.

Our host informed us we are so lucky, we are here for the St. John’s Festival. It is Europes largest street party😳 It’s basically a 3 day party that hits high gear at 12:00 midnight on Sunday. Right in our wheelhouse😎

First a couple pictures of the city. Porto wine boats used as advertising for near by Port bars.

The city has some festival traditions. BBQ pig.

The traditional meal of sardines and bbq peppers.

Bonfires in the streets for the foolhardy to jump over

And of course, plastic play hammers to hit strangers on the head for good luck. They make an obnoxious noise and have whistles. Perfect.

It’s a huge, fun, beer drinking, Port swilling party, Portugal’s Marci Gras on Port. The fireworks at midnight were awesome. They also light special balloon luminaries to fill the sky. lucky us, we got to watch the fireworks from our balcony! It’s quiet a show😎

Today a drive up into the Douro River valley and Pinhao where the Port grapes are grown and the Port is distilled. Lovey area, lots of river cruises.

Tomorrow, a 5 hour drive to Cudillero, Spain. It’s a small town on the northern coast of Spain. We are planning something different, a couple days of rest. We’ve been traveling hard and need a little break. Especially after St. Johns😎

Adios amigos 😎

,

We made the trip from Sevilla Spain into Portugal using the old highway system to try and avoid toll highways as tour guide Cindy had projected tolls of €60 using the new freeway. Remember, nothing is free in Europe😎

A 7 hour drive later with several stops we arrived at our Airbnb in Lisbon.

We are in an apartment building with safe parking for The Peugeot, crime is very high in Portugal😳 Portugal is a very poor country that has infrastructure problems, it’s very dirty and not pretty outside of the tourists areas. The majority of the city was destroyed in an earthquake in 1775, so it’s now laid out in grids, unusual for an old European city. Portugal’s economy crashed in 2010 and is now on the rebound with the help of tourists.

We got started walking bright and early the next day. Close by our Airbnb is the Pantheon

Lisbon has these really cool 1920s electric street cars that run all over the city. The city itself is very hilly.

We rode, then walked to the Castelo de Sao Jorge, the castle of Lisbon and it’s highest point

Things are a little different in Portugal.

We walked all day and used the metro to shuttle around, 15 miles walking 😳

The next day, metro and regional train to Belém, home of Jerónimos monastery, Torre de Belém, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and thePadrao dos Descobrimentos

Quick late Portugal lunch, cuddelfish😎

Back to the Airbnb to do laundry and get ready for tomorrow. Driving to Porto and the Douro valley, home of Port wine.

But first, a stop at the local food market for a quick beer to celebrate 25 miles walking in hilly Lisbon.

Adios amigos 👍😎

I’ve told you before, tour guide Cindy did all the planning for this trip. I helped with Airbnb’s and restaurant/bar recommendations. I usually read about the city and area we are visiting the night before we tour the city/area. Cindy is the planner! Thank goodness!

So, with that in mind, we checked into Sevilla which is pronounced Sa Ve A, not Seville.

Sevilla was founded, again by the Phoenicians, and later was a Roman city. It was overtaken by Muslims until the 1200’s when it again became part of Christian Spain. It is the burial sight of Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan sailed from here when he circumcised the world. Sevilla became rich as it was the Royal Harbor for all goods coming to Spain from the new world, which for 100 years was a lot. The buildings in the city reflect the money the city had in the 1500’s.

Sevilla is a wonderful, beautiful city, very walkable (26 miles in two days) and is clean and safe. It is also the unofficial home of the flamenco and man do they love the Flamenco here.

We stayed in a clean, comfortable Airbnb close to the old city walls and walked everywhere. It was nice not to have to take the bus/metro to get around.

The highlight in Sevilla is the Plaza de España. Awesome

Great, great city! As beautiful as Florence, only bigger. It can hold the crowds as the squares are huge. Bullfighting is still very popular here, next show Thursday😳Long drive tomorrow as we’re on to Lisbon Portugal 👍

We left beautiful Jerez de la Frontera driving though the Andalusian mountains to Sevilla. The drive is through the National Park of the Andalucians, It’s a world recognized drive and as it is Sunday, it was full of bicycle and motorcycle riders. The pictures below do no justice to the views, nor show the steepness and narrowness of the road.😳

The road was first built by you know who, the Romans in 100 BC. Unbelievable engineering! The views and the drive are breath taking.

Next we drove through Benaocaz, a small town in the hills.

Next Grazalema, a lovely town tucked in the steep hills.

Then on to Ronda, which was very busy as it was Sunday afternoon. Not only were the tourists out, but the locals all come out to socialize on Sunday. Lovely city, one of Hemingway and Orsen Wells favorite places🍷😎

Unbelievably fun day with so many sights and experiences. Tour guide Cindy is on fire😎.

Checked in safely to our Airbnb, not quite like Jerez de la Frontera, but it’ll get the job done😎👍

Happy Fathers Day,

Adios Amigos from Sevilla 🍷