Spain 2011 Day 14 Sunday June 5

Spain day 14 – Sunday June 5, 2011 – Leaving Spain :-(

GLOBUS: “Your vacation ends with breakfast this morning. (Breakfast)

Wake up call too early at 6am, although we don’t leave for the airport until 8am. They must think we need a lot of time to pack, but we didn’t even unpack the last few days, so nothing to do but eat one last big breakfast and take their small van to the airport, only 15 min. from downtown on a Sunday morning. The group took different departure times, so only a few of us were on this trip.

It was sad to say goodbye to our wonderful guide, Fernanda, who was so very knowledgeable, friendly, and funny, as well as very efficient at seeing that everything ran smoothly. What a job that was with 35 different people. But she said that she loved doing it, and it showed in her personality.

Our driver for the two weeks, Felix, was excellent, driving always smoothly through mountains and tunnels as well as negotiating small narrow spaces. We noticed it particularly when we had a substitute guide for a day, as their laws say only six days driving then one day off. Also they have to have a rest stop every two hours, and we did that too. There should be such controls here in the U.S. considering the rash of tour bus accidents lately. But we never saw even one accident anywhere the whole two weeks, not on highways, not in cities. Very amazing indeed to me.

Another thing about the highways, as well as being so very well maintained and smooth, and litter-free, was that there were no big signs or billboards anywhere in the country side. It made the landscape very enjoyable to view the huge fields of trees, plants, and sunflowers. Another thing about the highways and cities, is that I never saw any accidents, not even one in two weeks. The Spanish drivers must be very very good at driving, unlike some other countries I won’t name.

For the bus trips, we rotated around the seats, two ahead each day so everyone got a chance to sit near the front. Very fair, although some seats were cramped, those in front of the rear door had no leg room at all, and the back row seats didn’t recline so we didn’t like those either. But there were empty rows as the bus was not full, so we could move around at times.

More on Spain later...