Off to Venice and Beyond 2026

Again, we woke up to a gorgeous sunny day. This isn’t my photo - I couldn’t find a good place to take a picture of the whole castle without standing in the middle of a highway.  That seemed a tad risky.  So a Google search located this one from Paradores. After a great breakfast, we explored a little more.  I discovered that the church is not only still intact, but services are held there.   Around back of the church is another deck with more spectacular views. The deck wasn’t in great shape - several loose and broken boards- so I was glad to see these guys making repairs. Angular, quasi star-shaped outcroppings at the corners prevented blind spots where enemies could approach undetected.  The 360 degree views were for defense, not aesthetics. You can see another guard station on the far corner in the above photo.  We decided that John would definitely not qualify for guard duty in one of those. Having lots of time, we decided to drive through several littl...

This morning we woke up to bright sunshine, so we decided to take the drive up through the Pyrenees to Andorra and France that we’d planned to do yesterday. We could see fresh snow on the higher slopes, but the road was dry. We were only about 10 miles from Andorra, so it didn’t take long to reach the border. There was a border crossing building, but no one was there to check our passports. Andorra is the 6th smallest nation in Europe and the 16th smallest in the world.  It’s not a member of the European Union but has a “special arrangement” with them.  The Bishop of Urgell and the president of France are co-princes.  Their politics, economics, etc., are very interesting, to say the least.   Apparently Andorra is a tax-haven and vacation destination.  We saw LOTS of luxury condos and hotels (but it was hard to get photos). And more were being built. John was here in 2022, and he was amazed at how much more development had been done since then. The further we wen...

This morning we disembarked from the cruise ship and set off by car to the medieval town of La Seu d’Urgell in the Pyrenees. After we got off the ship, we needed to go to the car rental center at the airport.  We’d asked the cab driver yesterday how much it costs for a taxi ride to the airport - he said €40.  We shouldn’t have believed him since he was the guy who charged us €12 for a €7.40 fare.  So we loaded up our bags in the back of a taxi and asked how much the ride would cost - €60.  John said we’d been quoted €40.  Driver said €55.  John said nope, and we unloaded our bags, to the disbelief of several taxi drivers who’d been watching. I’m so glad my friend Linda Joslin taught me how to use Uber.  I ordered a taxi van - exactly like the one we’d eschewed - and he arrived in 2 minutes and charged €44 (which included the two airport surcharges).  And the driver was cheerful and helpful.  And we were cheerful. Moral of the story:  whe...