TUESDAY 12th JUNE 2012BARCELONAA long and rather dreary drive to Barcelona today. Started out OK through some nice country, but the vista very quickly dried out and for the best part of six hours we saw little but scrappy ranch lands and almost desert! Had a few stops along the way at pretty scruffy truck stops and things didn't brighten up until we got to the coast and the outskirts of Barcelona at around 5.30pm!We went straight into the city and after havin...

MONDAY 11th JUNE 2012IN MADRIDAfter a good nights sleep we had a lovely breakfast and then a local guide took us on a city sights tour, where we saw all the major buildings and parks, all reinforcing our positive thoughts of Madrid!There was an optional tour to the ancient city of Toledo in the arvo but we decided to give it a miss and have a lazy one! The girls wanted a haircut so we found a salon just up the road that had someone who spoke English and they book...

SUNDAY 10th JUNE 2012MADRIDNot such a long drive today, so we did not have be on the bus till 8.30am, giving us time to have a lovely breakfast - many tour buses stop at this place so we got familiar stuff - nice scrambled eggs and bacon, plus all the great local fare of cakes, breads and cheeses! Suffice to say we didn't need lunch! Which was just as well because after climbing up through some very picturesque mountains we leveled out on a very barren platea...

SATURDAY 9th JUNE 2012SPAINBit of an issue this morning as three people had their cases broken into last night as we were having dinner! Because we were late in the porters just put the cases outside the room and they were unattended for a couple of hours! Apparently the porters were not hotel employees, but contractors and were very dodgy! No locks on the cases was rather foolish too, some toiletries, a phone and some bits and pieces being taken!So on the road a...