We have been traveling for about a week now and have learned a few things about Spain. We have been in Northern Spain in the mountains this past week and have loved every minute of it. As in Guatemala, Spanish is a bit troublesome for us but we always seem to get by fairly well. For instance today we were stopped at a road block by the policia and I thought they wanted to search the motor home. Tob thought maybe they wanted to know where we were taking it or where we got it from, anyway we got by with lots of smiles and phrases such as muy poquito espanol, no entiendo or comprehendo and lo siento. I don’t think he was real impressed and we frustrated him as much as he did us and he opted to just let us go.

Traveling around in a motor home has also been quite the experience, considering we haven’t camped like this before. We have listed some of the pro’s and con’s below.

Pro’s
You always have a place to sleep even if you end up in a McDonalds parking lot for the night. McDonalds has free WiFi (and the only place we have come across this past week with functional WiFi)
You always have a toilet, even if Tob describes emptying it as “disgusting!”
You can cook your own food when the kids refuse to eat anything not “normal” or prices seem a bit steep.
Freedom to roam
You don’t have to keep packing and unpacking, just picking up a little.
Vehicle gets 25+ miles per gallon.

Con’s
You have to empty your own toilet (as mentioned above this is Tob’s job :0)
Petrol is expensive and our vehicle is big. Diesel is 1.06 euro per liter which is roughly 5.90 USD per gallon.
You can’t lay down while you are driving (Nojah’s gripe)
Paranoia about breaking any part of the motor home and losing our 600 euro deposit (about $834.00), although I have to say Toby is an excellent driver with many years experience of driving large fire vehicles.
Driving through small towns. You must park outside of town and walk.
Small windy roads and tunnels can be a bit scary for the passenger but the driver says “no problema” (as long as no one’s coming the other direction)
It’s too cold in the morning to get up before 10am (at least I think that’s our problem)

We have been in the Pyrenees mountains in the small picturesque town of Torla with the majestic mountains as the backdrop. We stayed one night in a campground outside of town and two nights in the parque de ordesa’s visitor center parking lot, merely because we were too cheap to pay another 30 euros to sleep in the campground. However we did have access to a washer and dryer while we were at this campground but chose not to use them because we didn’t really need to yet. We later realized this may have been a mistake as I washed all of our underwear in our sink tonight. So far we have not found any laundry services in ANY towns and when we asked a lady today she said no only in campgrounds. On a side note most campgrounds close November 1 for the year, if not soon as we have already found out. Guess we will be the stinky tourists.

We have learned along the way that Spain is a fairly laid back country in many ways, especially out of the large cities. It has taken us a week to get things half way figured out on how they work. For example we would go shopping in the middle of the day and everything was closed only to find out they are open from 0800-10-30 or sometimes 0900-1430 and then again from 1700-2030 or so. Of course we don’t seem to get out of bed until 10 at the earliest so this usually poses a problem. I am not sure what most Spaniards do during the day but even in the city most places seem to be closed when we want to go, small markets, museums, stores of all kinds, restaurants, café’s, etc,etc. I haven’t figured it out yet but it is my mission to report back to you why. However I love the idea. I told Tob I want to work at the Correos (post office) in Torla. Their hours are 0830-1030. He said what about the medical clinic. I said the hours were too long, afterall they were open from 0930-1330.

Anyway, this has been a fun trip so far and we are having a great time just relaxing and roaming around Spain learning new Spanish phrases and seeing new things every day. I will try and add photos for you to enjoy. We are quite a bit more limited with internet access then expected, but will continue to try and keep everyone updated on our travels. So far things are good. Have been on some great hikes, seen beautiful waterfalls, watched some goat like creatures, and have been lulled to sleep by the sound of cow bells off in the pastures. W will be making our way down to a monastery believed to be one of the early homes of the holy grail tomorrow and then through Basque country and hopefully the Portugal coastline within the week.