Today we go to Roses, a town on the Costa Brava near the French boarder. First Ana wants to see Sant Julia de Loria, a little town close to the Spanish border.  We side track there after leaving Escaldes-Engordany to find again there are no little towns on the main roads of Andorra. It is…

The day starts partly sunny and we have a nice view to enjoy on our terrace at breakfast. It is a cool morning and no one has ventured on the to beach below us, even though the sun has cleared the mountain, and now floods the sand with warm light.  We have decided to travel…

Costa Brava is a string of resort towns north of Barcelona. The coast is mountainous and the seaside towns back up to the mountains or are isolated by them. From our perch high on the hillside just east of Roses, we can see down the coast toward many white developments on the mountainsides. In the…

The wind is blowing hard in the morning and my stomach is a little upset. We have late breakfast, do some laundry and don’t leave the condo until 2 p.m.  We decide to drive through a national park to the seaport of  El Port de la Selva. There is a monastery on the way that…

It is partly cloudy this morning and cool on the patio. We don’t have much planned, as we have decided not to visit Barcelona today. The forecast says it is likely to rain there. We are not motivated to go to the beach as it is cloudy. We sit around thinking how we will plan…

The wind has blown ferociously all night. Some overturned porch furniture has been rocking in the gusts and banging against the house. To sleep, I must get up and go out and bring in the chairs at 3 a.m.. Anything light will be blown about. In the morning, we don’t get up  in a hurry…

The sun does not rise until 8 am in Spain. I am looking at the reflection of the sunrise in the windows of the high rise towers miles down the coast. The some of the  buildings are monstrous; I would hate to stay there. Here, across the bay, the hillsides are white with houses and…

I have debated whether I will force a swim into my trip by driving down the hill and going to the beach at sun up, about 8 a.m. But we have a complicated morning ahead of us. We haven’t repacked, as we got in late from Barcelona. We must clean up the kitchen and leave…

This is our fourth European adventure in that many years. This year we travel northern Spain beginning in Madrid and circling west through Salamanca, Fisterra, north to Ribadeo, Balboa, and onto Barcelona. Along the way, we visit the amazing mountains in Picos Europa, see wild horses, bizarre country of Andorra, many cathedrals, art museums and…