Thursday - November 14

After a good night's sleep.....we had a very productive day!    Hoping we've got this jet lag taken care of?     Sunny, but windy....Mark bundled up and raked a bunch of leaves.   I did laundry, put lots of piles of this and that away and did some online Christmas shopping.   We both ran some errands in the afternoon including a grocery run.    Probably another "early to bed" and get our bods back in the central time zone.

 

A few other tidbits about our trip.    There were 135 passengers and a crew of 90.    Mark and I took a day trip (2 buses) to Sevilla and enjoyed Spain's 4th largest city all day long.    Back to our yacht for a wonderful BBQ on the top deck followed by dancing.

 

The scenery thru southern Spain was magnificent and such a wide range of terrain from mountains to desert to very flat land and big agricultural area.

 

Almeria is the driest city in Spain - not one drop of rain since May. 

 

Each night as the Wind Spirit was leaving port, they had "Sail Away" when we passengers would go on the top deck and once we were underway and out in the open water, they played this beautiful music "1492" as the sails were unfurled one by one.    Talk about thrills and chills!    Just get goosebumps thinking about it!    The actual song is

 "Conquest of Paradise"

Wednesday - November 13

We are home!    After 2 weeks of 70's and sunshine, it was 18 in Chicago this morning and a dusting of snow on the roof tops and ground!    But 66 degrees coming Sunday!

 

Paul, Kathy, Mark and I spent last night in the windy city as it would've been around 4 AM (on Portugal time) till we got home and at this point, we were ready for bed!  And look who we had breakfast with this morning?

 

Michael was in Chicago on business and we met at the Hilton (O'Hare)!  

 What a special treat to end our travels. 

     We really enjoyed our Windstar cruise on the Wind Spirit - 8 wonderful days on the Mediterranean sailing from Barcelona to Lisbon with stops in the ports of Soller, Valencia, Cartagena, Almeria, Malaga and Cadiz.  Spain is so clean, language was not an issue and soaked up lots of history, culture and architecture visiting museums, palaces, castles and cathedrals/basilicas/churches.   We motor sailed a total of 1500 miles.   Average speed was 10 MPH and sails were up 60% of the time.    Food was very good and  Mark celebrated his birthday on the 7th with a bit of fanfare and cake from the crew after a full day in Malaga (one of our favorites).

 

So back to reality and my head is a'spinnin' with the thought of Thanksgiving just 2 weeks  away.     We have a jillion leaves to rake (not till the snow is gone and it warms up), laundry to do, shopping, wrapping and pack up Miss Daisy before we leave for NC the 26th and then onto FL and leave Daisy in storage till we return for Christmas with Philip, Annette and Luke. 

 

Hope all is well with you?   Good to be back on the blog but promise I won't share the 2,500+ pictures Paul and Mark took!   Now won't that be fun sorting thru?    HA!

  

Celebrating Grandpa's birthday tonight at Steak 'n Shake with

Anne, Patrick, Liam and Connor

 

 

Sunday - November 10

Hello from Lisbon, Portugal where we arrived this morning ending our wonderful cruise on the Wind Spirit yacht.    Going to take in the sites thru tomorrow and flying to Chicago on Tuesday!    Nice to have WiFi here at our hotel and catch up on all the news from back home!

 

So very sad hearing the news of the typhoon devastation in the Philippines.   Several of our crew/staff were from there and anxiously waiting to hear from loved ones.

 

Hope all is well.....it is 5:15 PM and we are ready for the Wine Bar and dinner that was recommended as a "must visit" by Cloud 9 (our husband/wife team who entertained us nightly - Gary and Julia).

Monday - November 4

Hello from Valencia (Spain’s 3^rd largest city after Madrid and Barcelona).    It is VERY windy here today! Mark and I took the shuttle bus from our yacht to the city centre for breakfast, browsing the shops and people watching.   Valencia is a large port city and again, enjoyed the architecture of the area.   Paul and Kathy chose to do a cooking tour to learn to make paella.

But we so enjoy the charm and ambiance of the smaller towns and yesterday sweet Valldemosa  was a real treat.    We were on the island of Majorca in the port city of Soller.    Those of us who chose this tour saw spectacular scenery and many trees (olive, almond, lemon and orange), along with a tour of a monastery, palace, a walk thru the town and a popular potato pastry for this region.

Our weather has been superb – lots of sunshine with cool temps in the mornings and evenings and daytime, in the mid-upper 60’s-70’s    The food is wonderful!    We are having a fabulous time on this “Splendors of Southern Spain” cruise.

Tonight we leave for Cartegena

Saturday - November 2

Hello from beautiful Barcelona, Spain where we are soaking up so much history and enjoying this beautiful, charming city and all it's architecture and charm!    Having a wonderful time with Paul and Kathy and been walking, walking, walking - along with eating up a storm (tapas, paella, pastries, and then wine, sangria and beer)!!!!   

 

We enjoyed our short time in Lisbon, too, and looking forward to when we return in a week .   

 

The ship departs this afternoon from Barcelona, so Kathy and I have some browsing at the shops and pick up some chocolate treats (very big here).

 

November 1 (All Saints Day) is a very big celebration day in Spain......many businesses and schools were closed.    Dancers were performing, music was playing and it was quite a joyous day.    After a long day of touring Barcelona, we went to 6:00 Mass at the Cathedral.     The BIG highlight of our day was touring the Sagrada Familia (enormous basilica that was started in 1882 by Gaudi and expected to be finished in 2026 - UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

 

And now....here's our babies on their First Halloween!

Little Princess

The "Hulk"