This trip's prior planning had seen 3/4 of the ABBA tour planned but such logistics are mega and while ABBA has been decades planning their reunion tour I was not blest with that abundance of time.

However it all fell into place in Spain when Benicassim was decided upon as an overnight stop between Alicante and Spain's largest city, capital, home to the 1992 Olympics and in the news recently as the hub of seperatists movement Barcelona and also home to FCB (Football Club Balcelona)

Having made the trek to Real Madriid and their home stadium in Madrid it was only fair that this visit should include FCB.

After the visit to Barcelona It was planned to visit the Country of Andorra.

Benicassim is one of literally thousands of Spanish holiday destinations on the coast and while they are pretty often the sand is second grade when we look at our lovely white beaches in Australia where you can come and go as you please without "paying to hire a sun lounger, being asked to leave a private section of the beach or acosted by rather large black men trying to sell you everything from a sunhat to an icecream and ofcourse those genuine Lois handbags or ray Ban sunnies all fresh from China.

Our party made our first stop some 100kms along the route for fuel and a break. I refuelled and had just placed the hose back on the pump when the power went out. However unlike a lot of shops the attendant was prepared to process manual cash transactions allowing me to pay and move down the road for breakfast at the Autogrill.

The attendant did manage to get te back up generator into operation after about 15minutes.

Moving on I got seperated and Greg sent a SMS saying all good meet up at our accommodation the Eco Adventa hotel which was very easy to find and arriving early the front counter was happy to allow a limited check in as they too had no power.

Leaving my gear and changing into street clothes I undertook a walking city tour but like the most of Spain from 2pm-5pm it's siesta time and most shops & cafes are closed. This mean no traditional lunch so I found a Burger KIng that like all fast food outlets doesn't close and had lunch there of chicken nugets and yes managed to convey I wanted BBQ sauce, fries and a tea with the bag on the side

Greg & Kerrie had arrived while I was out walking and looking for the local Chinese as it was Friday night.

The hotel pool provided a relaxing swim with the warmth of the sun just right as we were in a sheltered spot.

Tea was a delicious Chinese we had three different plates, pork, prawns,beef and rice and naturally the Won Ton Short soup first. The plates were bare so that was testimony to the quality.

Next morning Tom Tom got us out via a maze of small back streets as benicassim has a lot of resident only or one way streets.

Much of the scenery not only on this leg of the trip but in general reminds me of my rides and drives in both the United States in the South Western States and also in Alberta Canada. The naturally occuring terrain and mountains are almost identical.

The arrivial at our exc Parc del Valles hotel was a delight to have Tom Tom guidance except he waited until I had left the Autovia and then decided about every 600m to shut down often just approaching roundabouts. Apparently he was exhausted, well the message said battery almost exhausted, and could not wait but did respond to my urgent hands off throttle, reach forward pull down, locate with gloved hands the switch, push it in and keep an eye on the traffic at the same time.

We were not fully aware of what to expect from this hotel located in an Industrial complex some 30kms out of Barcelona. The reviews were mixed nothing inbetween but it turned out to be a clean well set up hotel (minus the seasonal pool still under renovations) and we enjoyed our time there.

One of the reasons besides cost was free parking and a city bus stop just a few hundred metres away.

We used this bus, , the number 4to take us to a train and metro station and arriving we became a little confused as we had fronted up to the train station when we really wanted the Metro about 60m away. People as usual were helpful and we soon had worked out the automatic ticket machines remembered we started at The Puig (Pig was easy to remember) and wanted to arrive at Catalunya so off we went noting this Metro while cheap was not as clean as others but did have electronic message boards in every carriage keep up to date with progress and the stations were also well sign posted.

Arriving at our destination a decision was made breakfast first where McDonald's had 4 outlets in that one square, a self order menu in English and clean free bathrooms so that solved we purchased our Hop On Hop Off Red bus tickets as they sold them to Seniors for 25euro against our originally planned Blue Bus @ 40Euro.

We set off on the orange or new city line to visit the beaches, the Arc triomf,world trde Centre,the Olympic area located in Montjui from the 1992 Olympics,poble Espanyol (a typical Spanish village built for the world trade fair and destined to be pulled down but now left as a permanent tourist attraction,the Football Club Barcelona stadium and training facilities,la Pedrera ( a Gaudi's gretest modernistic buildings constructed between 1906 & 1910,The Gothic cathedral,Port Vell,glories-Torre Agbar & the unfinished Sagrada Familia all of which appear in the photo album.

In the afternoon we walked back to La Pedrea and enjoyed a relaxing drink before dinner and the Metro & bus back to our hotel.

The next day we left Spain for this trip as the Big A of the ABbA tour well actually two of the A's beckoned.

I had skirted around the country of Andorra in the Pyreness in both 2015 and again a few weeks ago so I was very happy to visit the Principality of Andorra or as some call it The Principality of thr Valleys of Andorra.

For over 715 years it was a unique co principality ruled by Spain and France (via a Bishop) this lasted until 1993 when a system of Parliamentary democrary was established.

Andorra has a permanent population of only 80,000 approx but receives in excess of 8million visitors annually.

The visitors come in winter for snow sports due to the abundance of mountain resorts and the other year round attraction is that andorra is a tax haven. So money continually flows into the banking establishments and the money from tourist duty free purchases makes it a wealthy country per capita. even to this day Andorra has no Military and it wasn't unltil 2017 that an Andorran Police Corp was established. Should military action be required Spain & France have agreed to jointly supply as needed.

It was interesting as I arrived from Spain the lines back into Spain at the manned border where kilometres long. On leaving and crossing into France no ques infact the border was not even manned.

So we have A for Andorra, B for Benicassim, B for Barcelona the final A came at the end of this section of travel.

I stayed in the capital of Andorra which is Andorra la Vella, so I hope you enjoyed my ABBA tour.