Friday 2nd December 2022
We woke reasonably early because of the time zone change but still didn’t get away too early. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast included in our accommodation, attempted to chat with our Portuguese/French speaking hostess. It was challenging but we managed to get what we needed. I used google translate to thank her for a lovely stay, beautiful accommodation and breakfast. It always makes them smile. I tried to learn the correct pronunciation of a couple of words, and also that some of the words I was saying had different endings for different gender. Don’t know how they will handle this with the Non-binary people of today’s age. We headed back to the room for DB to formulate a plan for our city walk in Lisboa (Lisbon). I hate the way we change the spelling of places in other countries, so I always try to use the correct spelling. We headed off at about 10am for the short drive to Lisboa, we arrive there at about 11.30am, a little later than we had hoped. We secured a spot in another squeezy underground parking station. It had been tricky getting in to the city centre and as always I am in awe at David’s calmness in the midst of a challenging new city. He does so well. We head down to the esplanade along the waterfront which is surprisingly very crowded with tourists. It is probably the most tourists we have seen all holiday. Our first stop is Commerce Square and the equestrian statue of King José I. We then walked through the main shopping street of the city with boutiques, souvenirs shops, patisseries and restaurants lining the pedestrian mall. We then went to the Santa Justa Lift and then walked a distance to see the Sao Jorge Castle via Rossio Square, unfortunately there was a very long queue to get in and we didn’t really have time to wait. Today’s city visit is to be short as we need to drive at least 500km of our 3000km we still have to get to Ben’s by Tuesday afternoon. We walked all around the castle trying to find a vantage spot to view it from above but we should have realised that it was at the top of the hill and we needed a helicopter or a drone to view it.

“Sao Jorge Castle occupies a commanding position overlooking the city of Lisbon and the Tagus River. The strongly fortified citadel dates from medieval times and is located atop the highest hill in the historic centre of the city.” We should have read this description before we set out this morning and we would have saved ourselves about a 30min walk trying to see it. Oh well, it was a lovely walk through the back streets of Lisboa Old City with its colourful buildings and many mosaic tiled facades. It truly is beautiful. We continued back down to the city centre where we tried some street food from a couple of the Christmas market stalls. David had a suckling pig wrap with lettuce and straws (our crisp french fries) and I had a plate of mixed sausages. We then also had a little pork pie followed by a Portugese tart for dessert. No dinner for me tonight. After walking over 10km in 3.5 hours we decided to get on the road at about 3pm. We will struggle to make the required distance again today. We are definitely making life more difficult as each day goes on. The plan was for David to get us out of the city on to the motorway and then I would have a drive. Unfortunately for David, I was comatosed by then and couldn’t wake up enough to drive. He managed to drive a total of 340km, another fail, we wanted to do 500km today.

“Lisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2.”

“Commerce Square, which was completely rebuilt after the devastating earthquake of 1755. It is 35,000m2 with the equestrian statue of King José I.“

“Santa Justa Lift is a vertical street lift which offers views over the downtown area, the Rossio Square and the Sao Jorge Castle.The lift was built in 1902 and was originally powered by steam before being converted to electricity in 1902.  It has a neogothic iron lace exterior and is an impressive piece of engineering. “

“Rossio Square has been one of Lisbon’s main squares since the Middle Ages, it is laid out in beautiful wave-patterned Portugese paving with two baroque fountains.”

Thursday 1st December 2022
Today is to be the start of our quick trip through Portugal. We left some of our breakfast groceries at the shop last night, so after a quick walk to purchase them again we were on our way at about 10am. We walked to the parking garage near our apartment, unfortunately the parking is quite expensive in the cities, we were only expecting 24hrs (25 euro) but unfortunately we were there 40 hours so it was 50 euro. Ouch! Oh well, we had a couple of good nights in Sevilla and the accommodation was pretty cheap. We headed on our way to Portugal, the traffic in Sevilla was quite hectic but once out on the motorway it was clear sailing. It was like a ghost freeway there was so little traffic. Whenever we came out of a tunnel David said it felt like we were the only survivors of the holocaust until he saw the next car. We finally crossed the border at 10.50am. This was a little time consuming as we came to a toll checkpoint where we had to register our credit card so it could charge us automatically via cameras and number plate recognition cameras. After working out how to set this up, we were on our way again. We then drove along the freeway for a short time, then David decided to head out towards the beach. This was unsuccessful as it was more time consuming and there wasn’t a great deal to see. We drove through the town of Olhao and a few others. In the end we popped back on the motorway and enjoyed the scenery from there. We stopped at Praia da Marinha and did a hike along the Seven Hanging Valleys trail. This was a coastal walk with views similar to that of the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria or the rocks at Maitland Bay. It was a very pretty coastline with lovely white houses along the coast as well. We were lucky the rain was imminent but didn’t eventuate. Thank goodness. The walk took us about 2 hours and was a welcome break. We then continued on our way at around 3.30pm. We have had a time change as we crossed the border and we are now 11 hours behind Central Coast time. We were going to try to get as close to Lisbon as possible tonight. We drove through some beautiful lush green farmland. It appeared they just built the freeway away from all the towns as we hardly passed any in the afternoon drive. We fell a little short of Lisbon and are staying in a little room at a small town called Landeira. It is run by a lovely lady who only speaks Portugese and French, and very little English. We only have the basics of Portuguese again – Hello – Ola, Goodbye-Adeus, Please – Por Favor, Thankyou-Obrigardo, Yes-Sim, No-No and toilet. We managed to communicate most things but used google translate by talking into the speaker which converted it on the fly. Life has been made so much easier when you travel with the new technical tools. They are good for some things.

Wednesday 30th November 2022
Today we decided to spend the morning with Shona and Mark exploring the city of Sevilla. It was a lovely Old Town with many, many churches, a bull-ring arena, palaces and a wooden mushroom. We walked for hours and hours. We then enjoyed a lunch of mixed paella, Sevilla pizza and a variety of desserts. It was a very nice lunch. We then headed to the Cathedral (12 euro each) which was magnificent. The opulence was beyond belief. There were little alcoves in all directions with all different artefacts (chalices, tabernacles, vestments) plus statues, paintings and many, many altars. We then walked up the ramps of the tower. The view on every level as we went up the ramps was different. At the top the cityscape was spectacular. Church spires everywhere along with the many white buildings made for a very beautiful view. There were many bells at the top of the tower and we were lucky enough to have them ring whilst we were up there. We said goodbye to Shona and Mark at about 4.30pm as they are ontheir way to Cordoba tonight. We have decided it is too late to continue anywhere today, so we booked another apartment and continued touring the rest of the city. We walked down by the river, to the golden tower, then to Spain Square which was a magnificent building with amazing ceramic ornamental railings and then we walked back to our hotel. We managed to secure tickets to the Flamenco performance (34 euro each for premium tickets with a drink) at Teatro Flamenco. We had enough time to collect our bags from the car, checkin to our apartment, get changed and head straight to the theatre. We had fantastic reserved seats and enjoyed the performance immensely. There were four female and one male flamneco dancers, two singers and an amazing guitarist. Flamenco dancing is like an aggressive tap dancing with clapping, strong movements and skirt twirling. The performance was amazing. We both enjoyed the hour show immensely. We came out to wet pavements, it must have rained whilst we were in the show. We enjoyed pizza by the piece for dinner (2.50 euro a piece) and a cookie each. We walked passed a few more amazing buildings on the way home. We have had a very full day and night and are totally exhausted. We have done a few calculations on ways to get m]back to Benny over the next 6 days and they are both very long. Directly through Spain and France is 2656km 25hrs or through Portugal, Spain and France is 3435km 33 hours drive. Either option is a very long way over the next 5 or days. Eekkkk! Looks like I will have to do some more driving. Wish us luck!

Tuesday 29th November 2022
We are now dragging the chain a little. Too tired to plan the night before we are still deciding where we are going at 10am this morning. With no decision made we decided to just head west towards Portugal and see how far we get. We went the coast road and the scenery was beautiful again. We passed a huge wind farm and then a large solar farm, some lovely villages atop a hill with the church centre and prominent. We came across a town called Cadiz over a large spit which looked interesting as we drove through, so we found a parking spot and went for a walk. There was some beautiful colourful buildings, a cathedral and an amazing coastline which we walked along. David enjoyed watching the swell and was missing paddling. We walked further along the coastline and out along a raised path to San Sebastian castle, unfortunately this was closed so we could only look at it from outside the gate. We walked back to the car and headed on our way again. I made contact with Shona and Mark, our desert travellers and friends from Avoca who were at Sevilla tonight and we organised to meet up. They are staying in a 2 BR apartment which they offered for us to share. We arrived at Sevilla (Seville) at about 5.30pm, found a 24 hour parking garage (25 euro for 24 hrs) and joined them in the Old Town of Sevilla. We had a chat and headed out for tapas for dinner. We tried a couple of unusual dishes with potato, tuna, cheese, ham and capsicum. It was quite a nice meal, although definitely not enough food for the boys. Neither of them were fussed on ordering anymore so hopefully DB doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night hungry. We sat around chatting until late when David found a free flamenco dancing place that had a show at 11pm for 90mins. So at 11.45pm we headed out to find it. Unfortunately when we arrived it had just closed, so we missed out on this one. Maybe next time. We haven’t made it to Portugal yet, but we are getting closer.

Monday 28th November 2022
Sorry this is so late!
We had a very busy day, we were still deciding where to go this morning as the last couple of days had caught up with us. Finally we decided we would head to Gibraltar. So off we went, the drive was about 2 hours from where we were in Torremolinos and was very scenic. The white buildings contrrasting with the landscape, it was very pretty. When we arrived at La Linea we parked in the Sta Barbara Parking station and walked to Gibraltar. This is part of the UK so we had to go through a border check and had our passport stamped for exiting the Spain. We continued our walk to the city centre, walking across the tarmac of the airstrip and up the main shopping street which had the usual boutique shops, lots of Christmas lights and decorations. After a quick stop at the tourist informations for a map we headed on our way to the summit of the Rock of Gibralta. We encountered a couple of obstacles along the road by the way of road closures and no entry signs which extended the start of our walk along the streets but we finally made it to the Nature Park (entry 16 pounds each). We started the walk at the Jewish Cemeterry and then went up the side of the cliff along a trail with amazing views of the ocean, passed wild macaques who were right on the trail rock walls. A bit too close for comfort for me. A local suggested we carry a rock in case they came to close or tried to get too friendly and to advance on them if they did. Nice hints for the unaware tourist. We contnued the hike up, I think it was about 480m of elevation by the time we reached the top. We enjoyed the view up there and got talking to a couple from Australia who had also made a quick dash from Faro in the south of Portugal to go to the tennis on Sunday as well. Not quite as mad as us as it is only about 4 hours, but very patriotic all the same. We then headed down the other side of the rock along road trails to the sights along the way. One of these was St Michaels Cave, which was a hig cavern with stalactites and stalagmites, an amazing light show and they even have performances in there. It was very interesting and pretty. It has a lot of history. We encountered some more monkeys that werre fed by the tour guide/taxi drivers to sit on tourists shoulders and they were very active. A bit too active for me. We the went to the skywalk which was a glass bottomed shelf out over the cliff. Then to the suspension bridge. Unfortunately by the time we got to the underground seige tunnels and the Moorish Castle they were closed. We then continued our walk back through the border control to the car. We hiked for almost 7 hours and 16km all around Gibraltar. It was a great day. We found some dinner at a local Chinese restaurant and headed to our hotel. We were both totally shattered. I couldn’t even download my photos nor type my blog. So sorry it is a couple of days late.

“Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory and headland, on Spain’s south coast and is self-governing in all matters but defense.. It’s dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, a 426m-high limestone ridge. First settled by the Moors in the Middle Ages and later ruled by Spain, the outpost was ceded to the British in 1713. Layers of fortifications include the remains of a 14th-century Moorish Castle and the 18th century Great Siege Tunnels, which were expanded in WWII. Gibraltar is most famous for The Rock of Gibraltar, a 426 meter high limestone rock rising out of the sea. The rock can be seen for many miles. It is home to the Barbary Apes, a type of tail-less macaque which are the only wild monkeys in Europe. English is the official language of Gibraltar but many people also speak Spanish and the local language, which is called Llanito and has a mix of Mediterranean words in it.”

Sunday 27th November 2022
Well, so much for a good night sleep. Our hotel is party central, live music, dancing and lots of noisy revelry. It took me until about 2am to get to sleep and David wasn’t much better. Our plan didn’t quite go to plan but we are excited to go and watch the Aussies in the Davis Cup Final. Yeehah!

We head out for a quick walk along the foreshore at Torremolinos. It is a mediterranean Surfers Paradise with grey sand and no waves. We head back by 11am and decide we need to be on our way by 11.30am even though it is only 15mins drive away. we don’t know where the parking is, how many people to expect and the receptionist said it will be hectic.

When we reach the stadium we have no idea where to go so we do a 360° of the roundabout and see some people heading in to a dirt patch on the side of the road about a 5 min walk to the stadium, so we follow them. It was perfect, we park the car, have a quick bite to eat and a cocoa cola to keep us awake and head over to the tennis stadium.

The vibe is pumping, live music, food stands and people everywhere. We have a chat to one of the few Aussie groups we see, they have been here all week watching the Aussies. We get in trouble for our lack of green/gold clothes but we explain we didn’t know we were coming. We manage to find a couple of Aussie flags, don on our Avoca club caps and join in the celebrations. It was fantastic.

At about 12.30pm we head in side. It was very exciting, the music was pumping inside as well and the adrenalin starts to flow. We are both all smiles and ready to support the Aussies in their difficult task today. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be today. Thanasi Kokkinakis (rank 95) was out played by his opponent Denis Shapovalov (18) from Canada 6-2 6-4, then Felix Auger-Aliassime (rank 6) beat Australia’s Alex de Minaur (rank 24) 6-3 6-4, Alex had a few chances to break Felix’s serve but he pulled out the big ones and even though there was some really good tennis, we lost in 2 rubbers. That meant the doubles decider was not required. We had a great day, the atmosphere was really good especially when there was a long rally and great skill. We are still really happy we made the drive yesterday.

We came home for a little rest before heading our for dinner. We tried grilled sardines on suggestion from the hotel and then a seafood paella. They were both really good. I shouldn’t have had the tiramisu but I did. It was very nice.

Saturday 26th November 2022
Never say never. We had plans to hike the French Pyrenees today and tomorrow, but whilst David was keeping abreast with the news, we saw that Australia had won the semi finals of the Davis Cup and the final is on tomorrow in Málaga in France. After a little investigation about distances, tickets and accommodation, we decided to give it a go.

So we booked our tickets, a little expensive (150 euro each) but we decided you only live once and we might win our first Davis Cup in 19 years. So off we go as quick as we can (about 10am) as it was a very long way to drive. 1336km and about 13 hours was the google estimate. Initially we thought we would drive for about 9 hours today and then do 4 hours on Sunday before the tennis starts at 1pm. After a few of hours driving we decided maybe we should just go the whole way and have a sleep in, in the morning rather than 2 days of driving and the stress of getting there on time. So I booked some accommodation about 15mins south of the tennis and we were set. We drove from Toulouse to the border near San Sebastián in Spain (about 300km) and we paid about 25 euro in tolls. The scenery of the French Pyrenees was spectacular. Snow-capped mountain range at its best. It was the most spectacular drive. We then drove from the north of Spain border with France all the way to Torremolinos near Málaga which was almost 1000km and the Spanish tolls were only 15 euro. The roads were fantastic and I managed to drive for almost 4 hours. I did an hour before San Sebastián and then another few hours between San Sebastián and Madrid. Bailing at 4.445 when we were about 30km out of Madrid. This gave David the very hectic peak time through a major city. Lucky he is a legend.

We enjoyed some beautiful scenery although Spain was a lot browner than the lush green fields of Switzerland.

We managed to find a truckers type cafe at about 7.30pm, have an almost quick hamburger and chips (only 4.50 euro each) Spain is so cheap for food compared to Switzerland. My first communication in Spanish, which was a bit tricky. We learnt the basics again (Hola, Adios, Gracias, Por-favor, Lo siento, Si and No) our few mandatory words, which usually give whoever we are talking to a chuckle.

David continued driving and we arrived at our hotel in Torremolinos at 11pm. A great effort for such a long way. A few quick pitstops and driver changes, lunch on the way. It is the first time we have driven this far in one day in a very long time. It was awesome to have made it. We will try for a good nights sleep and a sleep in for the tennis tomorrow.

Friday 25th November 2022
Well, decisions didn’t come any easier this morning. We know we are too late to head to Portugal as it is a full 2 days to drive to the southern most part and then we only have 6 days to explore to northern Portugal and then we have a full 3 days drive back to Benny’s. Oh well, we haven’t ruled it out yet, the weather is inclement for today so we decided to head south west towards the French Pyrenees and see what develops. We went to the Spanish Pyrenees in 2016 which we really enjoyed, so hopefully we can find a walk or two that aren’t under snow before we continue on again.

So we had a big day driving as the map will show you, through beautiful countryside, amazing snow-capped mountains, it was sunny and dry one minute, pouring rain the next, and a lot of drizzling rain. After David got us through Lyon where there was so much traffic, I had a drive for about an hour until the rain was torrential and I could hardly see. David took over for a while and then I drove again for about 40mins. That was a big increase on my last effort and was enough to give David a little break. We finished the day in peak hour traffic driving through the centre of Toulouse which has a population of about 500,000. It was hectic, dark and raining. David survived it, so after 8hrs 44mins we had travelled 694km further away from Benny and spent over 50 euro on tolls. France really hits you hard.. We are now 1492km from his home and 15 hours drive time.

Thursday 24th November 2022
Happy birthday Paul, Hope you have a great day.
The sky is a little blue this morning so we drive back to in to Geneva for a walk around the city. It is quite a lovely city but I am disappointed to not see it under lights last night. We walked along the waterfront, through the Christmas Markets in the park, passed the fountain again and then into the city centre. We saw the cathedral, the town hall, many fancy shops, lots of specialty chocolate shops (we even went in one and bought 10 chocolates for 12.20CHF, about 2AUD each). David said he would have to say “They are very good chocolates” swiftly followed by “They are also very over-priced”. Hehehe! Surprise, surprise. It was a lovely walk as we just meandered around the city, happening upon the tourist spots along the way. We returned to the car park which was located in a very good spot but at a cost as usual. Only 10CHF for 3 hours. As always David doesn’t like this cost, but for me it is about the ease of doing what we want. We could have parked for free at CERN and done Park and Ride but that cost more and was more time consuming. So I see it as a win, win situation, I just need to blindfold DB when I pay for the parking. Mind you, this holidays he has been a lot more accepting of extra costs, which is amazing. The parking station was a very tight squeeze, don’t know how we got out of there without any damage.

We then drove to a little town called Annecy in France. A place with fond memories from 2014. We enjoyed a walk around the Old Town plus the Christmas markets. We tried a Sugared Bretzel which was quite nice, a lot nicer than the savoury ones. Then headed home to our apartment for dinner.

We are struggling with a decision as to where we will head next. Tomorrow’s forecast is for rain so our walk to La Tournette summit at Montmin is out, which is a shame. That was a revisit to a summit we didn’t reach last time because of the weather and we were running out of time. Also there may be snow at the top. Oh well, when we went to sleep a decision had not been made. We are getting worse. We think we may have left our run to Portugal a little late.

Wednesday 23rd November 2022
We slept last night in France and today we will go back in to Switzerland and then more than likely we will sleep in France again. The small distances required for travel to more than halve the cost is worth the miniscule effort.

Firstly, we will have a walk around the town of Evian les Bains on the banks of Lake Geneva. This is where the Evian mineral water comes from. We walked through the main street which had some lovely buildings and many driftwood sculptures which are on display from the beginning of December for a few weeks. It was interesting to listen to a new language again. We then walked to the Cachat Source in town and like all tourists filled our water bottle with spring water, drank from the continuous stream of water and watched the locals fill their supply of water into portable water bottles. One man had about a dozen 1.5 litre bottles he filled and carried home, we assume. It is said to have healing properties and assists with kidney ailments. I need to bottle it and bring it home for you Mum. We then walked through done to the lakefront and continued a lovely walk back to the car. The buildings were again lovely, there were many more sculptures and we even passed an outdoor olympic pool with diving platforms into the lake. It was then time to sample a pastry again justy because we are in France. A scrumptious plain croissant. It was as expected delicious. It makes the ones from anywhere else left wanting.

We then drove for about an hour through the city of Geneva. Back in Switzerland again. They are all set up for the Christmas markets and we are hoping to do a night walk tonight, weather permitting. We have now gone to CERN which is the location of the Large Hadron Collider e. David is very excited and hopes to do a guided tour. They only take 14 people and you can’t book, you just turn up and register and if you are lucky you get to go. Well he came back from the reception with a big smile on his face. He has registered for the next tour in 30mins. Yay!. Before his tour we had a look at the “Universe of Particles” exhibition. This was enough for me and I left David to enjoy his afternoon of brain exhaustion.

CERN prompted conversation with us this morning that always ends the same way. It starts out with David explaining in the most basic level and terms about atoms, elements, protons, electrons and neutrons. After a while it gets too difficult for me and I always end up with the same response – that it interferes with my belief in God and because it is so scientific and a bit beyond the average persons understanding I struggle with it. I always end up asking “Why people need to know all the detail about, Where do we come from? Where are we going? What are we?”, instead of just enjoying life and what it has to offer. I just simplify it, and when I wonder those questions I just answer myself with “Wasn’t God incredible to create such an amazing world.” For David it doesn’t cut it and we laugh about our differences. It also makes me feel quite naive and to put it bluntly “Stupid”. Oh well, I also feel a little sad that it is just too difficult and wonder how many people are on my level and how many are on David’s, but there are more that are also way beyond his level of understanding. Anyway. He is on his tour and I will let you know how it goes later with my 2nd instalment of today when I have internet reception.

“The Cachat spring – formerly known as the Saint Catherine Fountain – is the most famous of the many natural sources in Evian. Built in 1903, at the same time as the pump room opposite, the spring runs all year at a constant temperature of 11.6C. This mineral water spring is why Evian is known all over the world. It is named after Gabriel Cachat, owner of the garden in which it flowed at the end of the 18th century. The therapeutic qualities of the water were discovered by Count Jean-Charles de Laizer, an aristocrat from Auvergne. Fleeing the French Revolution, he stayed in Evian from June 1790 to September 1792 at Gabriel Cachat’s home and drank the water every day. His kidney stones, having made him suffer for years, disappeared rapidly. Analyzed as early as 1807, this water was recommended as a cure for kidney and bladder diseases and became increasingly popular as table water from the 1860s onwards. The Cachat Spring belongs to the Evian mineral water company.”

“Jet d’Eau, literally meaning ‘water jet’, is the huge Fountain on the Geneva Lake, in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Jet d’Eau is one of the tallest fountain in the world. Originally, in 1886 they built the fountain to control and release the excess pressure of a hydraulic plant at La Coulouvrenière. Shortly it became remarkable symbol of the city and so it was amplified and relocated to the center of the Lake. The Fountain presence gives the power to the place, every time you look on its majesty you are reminded that you are in the powerful and well organized country. Soon after being finished, the fountain became the symbol of strength, ambition and vitality of Geneva and Switzerland. Its strong engines pump 500 liters of water per second to the height of 140 metres.”

“Universe of Particles, CERN.
Everything in the Universe is made of particles. Where do they come from? What is the origin of the laws of Nature? At CERN, the Large Hadron Collider – the most powerful accelerator ever built – provides a unique tool for scientists from more than 100 nations around the world. Collisions produce new particles that are studied using giant detectors, to give us more insight into the mysteries of the Universe. Find out more about the fascinating world of the smallest and the largest dimensions.”

I had a quiet afternoon reading in the car whilst David really enjoyed his tour of the CERN facility – a definite science nerds experience. He visited the Synchrocyclotron – CERN’s first accelerator which was operated between 1957 and 1990. He also went to the ATLAS Visitor Centre and he watched a couple of videos, one proving the existence of the Higgs Boson. If you need any more detail you will have to ask David about it.

We had intended to walk around Geneva tonight but the weather had other plans for us. We are having a quiet night in, out of the rain.