Devall Travels

Being stuck with school holidays, and being told by our manager to be "more creative" when looking for somewhere to go doesn't really help. All the other "creative" types are also looking and on top of that, airlines and resorts are adept at pricing their flights and accommodation at a premium to catch the people with kids.... and us silly bastards that work in the Education field. So I am currently looking for places to go where the airfare won't be too terrible and the timeshare "points" will get us a couple of weeks away. Europe apart from Hungary and Finland is way too expensive.  Airfares are about 35-50% of the US fares and for around 25-30% the distance at most. As for RCI. the weekly points costs in Europe is way too high. All the places we have stayed at in the Florida or Arizona have been way less than the shittiest place in Spain. Once again it is a weigh-up job.  Higher airfare to the US but cheaper when you get there, ...

Reggie collected from the kennels. We arrived at 11.29am just as they were going to close the door as they close at 11.30am and not Noon as I had thought.   He was really excited to see us and jumped up into my arms and couldn't wait to get out. He even jumped into the car without being asked! Another holiday over.  Better start planning the next one....  Norway cruise in August.... The next one for me is:   https://paulandneillsexcellentadventures.blogspot.com/ posted from Bloggeroid

Up, packed and breakfast had before we set off at around 10am for the 332km drive back to the airport hotel where Centaur have their rental office. Unfortunately, I had a dickhead moment getting the car out of the parking space and bumped the rear into a concrete post. The underground garages are a forest of posts and some of them quite large to hold the building above up off the ground!  I was just rolling back and "bang".   There was a  minimum of damage, just a little paint chipped off the bumper. More my pride was hurt. It is lucky I opted for the "smart" all inclusive insurance. I hope. The 1.0L Polo seemed very economical to run. Admittedly it is a little underpowered on the autovia but cruised at 110 to 120km/h okay. It was supposed to be full when we left last week but this might have been the gauge rather than the actual level of fuel. I filled up in Badajoz and it took 8.78 gals to the "click" and we had done 313.5 miles. Tha...

After siesta we started to check on the packing. Claire replaced a pair of shoes in Mérida at Decathlon and so that is a straight swap. I am actually hoping that the cases go in the hold. It will save messing about with sponge bags and the liquids in see through plastic bags. I got TomTom from the car and set tomorrow's route to the car hire place with a petrol fill up as near as possible. The rental is full to full. The My Drive app seems to work really well and it can be set as the default from booking.com to save more faffing to set routes to the hotels. Dinner. Another restaurant in Plaza Mayor. Los Portales. Firstly a beer and tapa. Then the €12 menu. Tapa! The menu is three courses and includes a drink. Tonight we had the red wine. Another smooth one. From the restaurant it's walk off the dinner. Final packing and beddybies. Tomorrow the 300kms drive to the airport or at least to the car hire place. TomTom reckons three hours. posted from Bloggeroi...

Another morning of pavement/cobble pounding after a decent breakfast in the hotel. I do like the coffee made with 50/50 strong coffee and warm milk. We had the map of the old town again and filled in most of the blanks from yesterday afternoon. Quite a walk again and my 6000 steps up before lunch. Pix again on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldevall/shares/2e11i6 No Convento Sta. Clara Lunch. Yes. Some pizza type slices from a hole-in-the wall bakery. Very nice. Whether it is just me, but prices seem much cheaper here. Plus when you order a beer or even a coffee there's a free tapa included. Once we had eaten we finished off the old town. Another UNESCO Heritage Site ticked off. I do wish I was on the bike though. Most of the PTW's here are if the scooter persuasion. Although occasionally a real bike appears. Just down from where we are parked in the hotel's garage there is a bike park. One of the Chinese Benelli's was there and looks okay...

Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo After staying in both and on hindsight I might have opted to stay in Cáceres and made a day trip to Mérida. It's not that far on the A66. With Claire's hip problem we ended up driving and parking at or near the Roman sites in Mérida anyway. The Don Carlos is right in the centre of Cáceres and is about £50 a night for twin room with B&B. Has garage underground parking nearby at a cost. Cáceres is a much bigger town and the "centro historico" is very compact and a day pounding the cobbles should work.

After our walk and lunch Claire was feeling tired and so we returned to the hotel for siesta. At 5.30pm or so we set off to explore towards the old city. The hotel Don Carlos is right on the edge outside the old walls. Firstly into the Plaza Duran with a statue some might find menacing due to the outfit being taken by another group of people. Then through Plaza San Juan to Plaza Mayor. A stop in the tourist information centre for a larger scale map of the old town. We managed a small corner taking in Santa Maria and Sant Jorge squares. Tomorrow is a full day pounding the UNESCO World Heritage streets. Photos? See link to Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldevall/shares/7a013H Tbe photos are all mixed up. Those taken on my phone are okay. The clock on my Samsung camera was six hours behind actual time. It looks as though I forgot to change it when we came back from Florida last October!! Once reset to CET from EST some are in the right place!!! ...