Expedition Eldredge

The entire trip took a turn for the better as we passed into Spain (sorry France). We really saw some beautiful places in France, and we can't wait to return to see some of the places we missed. We drove south from Bordeaux until we crossed over the border into Spain, or rather the Basque Country. The Basque Country is absolutely beautiful. In San Sebastian, they speak Basque and Spanish, and signs are in Basque and Spanish.  The look of driving through France after our auto ordeal When we got to San Sebastian, we checked into our moderately-priced room at Pension Nuevas Artes . I don't think we would stay there again, at least in the same room. The mini-bar drinks were cheap, so we drank our local beers and got ready to go to the beach. We stopped at a "chino" and bought a couple more local beers and some towels and hit the beach. Playa de la Concha is huge and perfect. I have never seen the tide at a tourist beach change so drastically in the course of an afte

The following is a harrowing tale. I contemplated calling this post 'a lesson in gas station protocol in France,' but decided against it. Our original itinerary for our 'wedding roadtrip' was as follows:  Day 1: Drive to Tours, France Day 2-3: Bordeaux, France   Day 4-5: San Sebastian, Basque Country (Spain) Day 6: Madrid, Spain Day 7-14: Malaga, Spain  Day 15-16: Valencia, Spain  Day 17: Girona, Spain  Day 18: Lyon, France  Day 19: Home  The trip started out really well. We were very excited to start the trip, and to drive down to Malaga. We drove into France and needed to fill up about 3 hours into the border. At this point, we stopped to get gas at a French gas station. WARNING! In France, the unleaded gas is labeled with the color green. The word for diesel is gazole in French. Having an Audi, Nate put  gazole plus in our brand new unleaded car. For the record, unleaded is sans plomb. You will also know that the gas is diesel, because t

This post has been in my drafts for over a month now, but I am finally getting to post because the wedding is OVER ! Towards the end of April, Nate and I went to Barcelona on a long weekend. For Christmas, Nate had gotten me tickets to see Florence and the Machine. So, after class on a Friday, we took the train to Frankfurt and caught our flight there. We flew Vueling, so it was a cheap getaway in terms of travel.  Once we got in to Barcelona, we had a little trouble figuring out the best way to get to the hotel. We decided on the bus, and then walked from our exit. By this time, it was very late and we were ready to fall asleep. We finally reached Hotel Market in the Eixample district. It was very nice, and we would consider staying there again. On previous visits, I stayed in the Gracia district and down by Barceloneta. Next time, we'll probably try another district, until we really find our favorite.  Once we were up and going, we found a bakery and got two cafes con le