Well, our Spain trip started out with Lindsay and I sprinting through the airport in London to make our flight, only because I had too heavy of bag to check at the airline counter and too cheap to pay the extra 50 Euros to check the entire bag. Yep, I was one of those people who was at the counter going through my suitcase holding up people in line while I pulling out books, shoes, hair products to cut down the weight of my bag. I kept handing Lindsay more things, I think she had more of my stuff in her two carry-on bags than I did. Finally with three handbags full of shoes and books and a laptop we sprinted through the airport…only to be the last people to board our flight. But we made it!!
Our flight was entertaining, between Lindsay taking pictures of everything and everyone. There was a little boy climbing over the airplane seats and we chatted with the Spanish women next to us about Spain and adventure we were about to embark on.
We meet up with Alan and he introduced us to the “Royal Carthago”, our home for the next few months. She was a beauty. A 1994 Carthago Volkswagan Caravan, sleeps 3 with a sink, stove, refrigerator and plenty of storage. We had so many great moments with the Royal Carthago. My personal favorite is that we could park it almost anywhere. We had some incredible views of sunsets and sunrises. Although we didn’t see many sunrises…
We could also have lunch anywhere we wanted to…whether overlooking the sea or sitting outside IKEA.
I appreciated traveling via Caravan so much! Compared to our earlier travels of having to be on a set schedule or worrying about where to catch the next train or bus – it was such freedom! I think that it is the American in me. I loved being able to see so many different places and every night was a new adventure!
Of course along with any fabulous adventure, there were the not-so-fun things. A few of our top moments include:
1. Lindsay doing dishes
2. Drying the Laundry (it took 3 days for all of our laundry to dry!)
3. Finding a camping spot in the dark then realizing you are at a church and waking up to church bells every hour…and we made this mistake twice!
4. Getting the Carthago stuck. I got it stuck in the sand, thank goodness for some nice people to help us get it out, and the other one…well let’s just say Karla suggested going around the tunnel, but Alan decided we would be ok…you think the name of the tunnel would have been a clue. It was called “Mini Tunnel”….
and my most-not-so-fun moment in the Carthago…finding a place to go the bathroom first thing in the morning. Let’s just say, I had to dig myself a hole in the sand flats of a National Park for this morning experience. Alan was restricted to a 100 yard distance from me…I appreciated him not using the zoom lens on his camera.
