Thursday, July 5, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
the last leg !
Well what can I say ??? The photo s say it all I think ! The atmosphere there was just mighty , from our exceptional vantage point on the red sunbeds we could see the racing out in the bay , behind us there were mant T.Vs so you could see exactly whay was happening , and wow was it exciting ! Also very nice for the princesses to have little boy getting us drinks all day !! well Emer , the pilot had to drive . We spent the whole day there and left about 6.30 and drove 400km to Torrevieja where Barry Barrable (ex fr ) has a bar called Durty Nellies ! Barry was in Malta but Brian was there his bro who also used to work with both Emer and myself a million years ago ! got there about 10pm and no hotel booked , and believe me a gin and tonic was much more important than a hotel after 400km. Anyway Brian made a call and we were sorted , happy days !Our third hotel on the beach !!
Left there the next morning and headed to Pereleja to see my house , which was a shell ,but did the business pretty quickly and after many phone calls to Dublin it was imperative that I got to Marbella that night ,SO we drove to Granada and thanks to Dave (and google Earth ) and Rick , my sat nav we found the alhambra , which was absolutely amazing , we spent 2 hours there , its an absolute must see place , its on the list of entries for the next 7 wonders of the world so check it out ! Granada was a beautiful city too , I had skirted it twice on my way up to the sierra nevada skiing and only saw high rise blocks , but this time we drove into the heart of the city and wow very grand old streets with stunning old spanish architecture , I ll definitely be back .
Left there and drove to Marbella , dialled Terrasana from malaga and ordered our food and arrived there about 8.30 where we ordered margaritas and toasted ourselves !! we had driven in total 1600 miles . It was a fab trip , very different to last year , the coast of spain is absolutely stunning and the landscape the whole way along , was just breathtaking , Much more mountainous than I realised and much more vegetation than you d think too . I would definitely reccommend this to all of you would be euro drivers !! Next year who knows , We both are keen to drive through the alps , Switzerland especially for me , I ve done it in winter but would soo love to do it in summer so watch this space !!!!!!
Left there the next morning and headed to Pereleja to see my house , which was a shell ,but did the business pretty quickly and after many phone calls to Dublin it was imperative that I got to Marbella that night ,SO we drove to Granada and thanks to Dave (and google Earth ) and Rick , my sat nav we found the alhambra , which was absolutely amazing , we spent 2 hours there , its an absolute must see place , its on the list of entries for the next 7 wonders of the world so check it out ! Granada was a beautiful city too , I had skirted it twice on my way up to the sierra nevada skiing and only saw high rise blocks , but this time we drove into the heart of the city and wow very grand old streets with stunning old spanish architecture , I ll definitely be back .
Left there and drove to Marbella , dialled Terrasana from malaga and ordered our food and arrived there about 8.30 where we ordered margaritas and toasted ourselves !! we had driven in total 1600 miles . It was a fab trip , very different to last year , the coast of spain is absolutely stunning and the landscape the whole way along , was just breathtaking , Much more mountainous than I realised and much more vegetation than you d think too . I would definitely reccommend this to all of you would be euro drivers !! Next year who knows , We both are keen to drive through the alps , Switzerland especially for me , I ve done it in winter but would soo love to do it in summer so watch this space !!!!!!
Americas Cup
So off we went by taxi to Port Americas cup , now this for me was the highlight of the whole trip , Ill load photos of the day so you ll understand why !! Oh and BTW wherever its on in 4 years time ,we re there !
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Valencia
I m writing this now and it feels like a million years ago so much has happened since then !
We drove from Roses to Valencia , stopping to take a look at santa marguerita and Empuriabrava , a lot of the houses here are built along connecting waterways and have their own jetty at the end of the garden with their boat tied up , it looks really cool .
Into the supersol and stock up the fridge as we need to get to Valencia asap. I swear they knew I was coming , every juggernaut in Spain was on that leg of the trip , definitely more of them than cars ! Quite gruelling for the pilot so when we eventually arrived at our hotel which was right on the beach the other side of Valencia I had been cute enough to phone ahead and book myself a massage ! Simply heaven , a celebratory bottle of vino that had been chilling in the car fridge was opened and the girlies raised their glasses and patted themselves on the back for surviving such an awful drive !!
The Americas cup has already started and Valencia is absolutely buzzing , we took ourselves off into town and the crack was simply mighty Many New Zealanders obviously mad people all out to party in Spain . We slept with the patio door open that night as we were so close to the sea and the wind had picked up , It was pretty awesome listening to the waves breaking outside our window . I woke up at 5 a.m to a massive storm with serious thunder and lightening which was quite spectacular to watch , but I was concerned about getting out to see the racing later , the seas were sooo rough .
Anyway , I was right I got a call later to say it was not likely that the spectator corporate hospitality boat that had our names ,would get out , but fear not a table has been reserved for us at the Foredeck club at port americas cup ! Hey , I will be honest and say at the time I was disappointed I soo wanted to be out there , Emer on the other hand was quite relieved as it was still unbelievably rough and windy .
!. We got "the phonecall " from our contact at the Americas Cup and yes all was sorted for us access all areas
We drove from Roses to Valencia , stopping to take a look at santa marguerita and Empuriabrava , a lot of the houses here are built along connecting waterways and have their own jetty at the end of the garden with their boat tied up , it looks really cool .
Into the supersol and stock up the fridge as we need to get to Valencia asap. I swear they knew I was coming , every juggernaut in Spain was on that leg of the trip , definitely more of them than cars ! Quite gruelling for the pilot so when we eventually arrived at our hotel which was right on the beach the other side of Valencia I had been cute enough to phone ahead and book myself a massage ! Simply heaven , a celebratory bottle of vino that had been chilling in the car fridge was opened and the girlies raised their glasses and patted themselves on the back for surviving such an awful drive !!
The Americas cup has already started and Valencia is absolutely buzzing , we took ourselves off into town and the crack was simply mighty Many New Zealanders obviously mad people all out to party in Spain . We slept with the patio door open that night as we were so close to the sea and the wind had picked up , It was pretty awesome listening to the waves breaking outside our window . I woke up at 5 a.m to a massive storm with serious thunder and lightening which was quite spectacular to watch , but I was concerned about getting out to see the racing later , the seas were sooo rough .
Anyway , I was right I got a call later to say it was not likely that the spectator corporate hospitality boat that had our names ,would get out , but fear not a table has been reserved for us at the Foredeck club at port americas cup ! Hey , I will be honest and say at the time I was disappointed I soo wanted to be out there , Emer on the other hand was quite relieved as it was still unbelievably rough and windy .
!. We got "the phonecall " from our contact at the Americas Cup and yes all was sorted for us access all areas
Monday, June 25, 2007
Bay of Roses (Sat /Sun )
We left Brieve and and drove South through the languedoc area, vineyards the sun shone for a change we didnt eat biscuits ! 475km later arrived at Bay Of Roses Spain , Emer had already sourced the Terrazzas hotel which was on the beach and we decided that it was time for vegging in the sun having covered so much so quickly in such awful weather conditions , wine removed from the fridge the celebration began we had finally hit the Med .
A few texts and phone calls later to both John Aungier and Ian Switzer the girlies had a list of hot spots in Roses . Roses is a beautiful horseshoe shaped bay with a rocky headland that is not unlike the peninsula (howth )at home actually !
We walked for miles the next day and Emer has now decided that a property here is on her list of wants !
The wind came out of nowhere (which was obviously great for The Americas cup in Valencia ) so we had to make do with the private garden for ray catching instead of the beach .
Planning the next few days over dinner that night we were an interesting sight in the restaurant with maps sat navs treo for web info all over the table !!
So Monday we ll leave here and cover about 450 km along the coast of Spain to Valencia where the Americas Cup awaits us , We re both soooo excited about that so fingers crossed for access all areas
A few texts and phone calls later to both John Aungier and Ian Switzer the girlies had a list of hot spots in Roses . Roses is a beautiful horseshoe shaped bay with a rocky headland that is not unlike the peninsula (howth )at home actually !
We walked for miles the next day and Emer has now decided that a property here is on her list of wants !
The wind came out of nowhere (which was obviously great for The Americas cup in Valencia ) so we had to make do with the private garden for ray catching instead of the beach .
Planning the next few days over dinner that night we were an interesting sight in the restaurant with maps sat navs treo for web info all over the table !!
So Monday we ll leave here and cover about 450 km along the coast of Spain to Valencia where the Americas Cup awaits us , We re both soooo excited about that so fingers crossed for access all areas
Sunday, June 24, 2007
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