Author: Helena Feldstein

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Day 3 – Madrid

After walking over 8,000 steps this morning, we returned to the hotel to rest a bit. Our big breakfast meant that we didn’t need to eat lunch. I caught up writing my blog and added many of the pictures from our activities during our first two days here.

By 6:00, we ventured out to decide about a dinner venue and find a hat for Jim. Unfortunately, he left his Panama hat in the overhead bin on the plane here. It was an older one but…

We looked at several restaurants but most were empty. The busy places hosted folks having a beer (very popular) or wine as a late afternoon break or sometimes for breakfast!. Madrid is definitely a late night town, unlike Ajijic. We walked up Gran Via to a little corner outdoor cafe for a tinto verano for me and a beer for Jim. It was the perfect place to people watch and relax.

Finally, it was dinner time, around 8:00. We opted for a light dinner of garlic shrimp and a Spanish omelet (potatoes and eggs) that we shared. It was tasty and just the right amount of food. Afterward, we walked a few blocks more to Preciado, an area filled with great shops, buskers, and a gelato shop or two. No hat stores to be found.

We went into the local department store, Corte Ingles and there were beautiful Panama hats, not unlike the one Jim left behind. In Mexico, they are about the equivalent of $30 US. Here, they were $170-220 Euros! Yikes! Looks like he will be hatless for the trip, unless he finds something in Egypt. Unlikely…

By 9:30, we were ready to walk back to our hotel. The crowds on the route back were still animated and ready to continue having fun. It is past our normal bedtime but we can still hear people out and about, having a late meal.

After walking ove 15,000 steps today, we were ready for bed. Tomorrow, we have a free morning before we leave for our flight to Cairo. The weather here has been so enjoyable. Egypt will be much warmer, in the mid to high 90’s. Can’t wait!

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Walking on Gran Via Boulevard

Gorgeous Brickwork
Penthouse Available?
Rebozo painted on the building
Primark Department Store
Avocado is back!
Fridge from the 50’s
Record players to sell
Tons of options with ham
Museum of Ham winners
Royal Palace
Apartments with balconies
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Day 2 – May 23 – Awake in Madrid

After a shower and lots of enthusiasm, we woke up around 3:00 PM. We walked (really only a 20 minute walk) toward Plaza España with its incredible architecture, where we saw the Royal Palace, beautiful parks, and finally the Mercado San Miguel. We visited this amazing place on our last visit and it is definitely NOT TO BE MISSED. There are a myriad of pictures of our walk today and the spectacular food offerings in the Mercado.

The first thing is to walk all the aisles and peruse what excites you in food and beverages, then seek out a place to sit where, once found, required taking turns to get wonderful food and not lose your seat. Jim found some tasty beers and I had my favorite, a tinto verano. This is basically a beverage of lemonade with a little red wine. Since our first visit here in 2017, it has been my go-to drink.

While Jim was selecting his lunch, I became acquainted with the couple sitting next to us. Both are physicians from Colombia, who now live in Barcelona and were visiting Madrid on a holiday. They were darling. While I was finding something wonderful to eat, Jim began a conversation with another couple sitting across from us. They were a charming couple who met in Venezuela (she is from Germany with the bulk of her family there, and he is from Venezuela) but live in Malaga, Spain. His mother and sister live in Dallas, TX and while in their early 50’s, they are semi-retired and love to travel. She wants to go to Mexico to check out retirement in our beautiful country and we encouraged them to visit us in the near future.

The lovely walk back to our hotel, seeing so many others enjoying the end of the day, was a perfect end of another day in Madrid. We are looking forward to enjoying tomorrow.

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Day 1 – The Flight to Madrid

What is the start of a vacation without a minor glitch or two? No boarding pass available online or at the kiosk, so we had to wait in a long line to check in at the counter. We arrived at the airport three hours before departure so no big deal.

We spent a lot of time yesterday organizing our carry-on and under seat bag so we wouldn’t be over weight. It is amazing how quickly you can accumulate 10 kilos! You never know whether it will be weighed  but the counter agent never checked and the small amount that we were over didn’t become an issue. One glitch averted!

When we checked in, the seats we selected and paid for, on the aisle nearer the front of the plane, disappeared. The plane was full (a 787 Dreamliner) and the new seats we were given weren’t too bad but only one was an aisle seat. Once boarding began, the gate agent was able to secure a second aisle seat and we were both happy. Second glitch averted!

The ten-hour flight was easy. As I write this, we are almost half way to Madrid. It looks like we will be landing earlier than expected, 4:20 AM instead of 5:00. It will be challenging to figure out what to do until we can check in at our hotel.

We arrived in Madrid and could both go through immigration in the EU line because I have my Czech passport. They didn’t give Jim a hard time using his US passport, so it was very quick and easy. Forget about getting a bus into town. They don’t run early enough. A taxi ride was much easier and we were taken directly to the hotel.

For those of you suffering with the heat in Ajijic, the high in Madrid will be 76F and currently, at 6:40 AM, it is only 50F. Brrr!

The hotel is nice, well-located, and the staff was very pleasant about checking us in and arranging a clean room earlier than the normal afternoon check-in. The desk was just waiting for guests to depart to help us out.

By 9:30, we were in the room, charging all the devices (thank goodness for lots of plugs) and hopping into bed for a few hours of sleep. It came quickly…

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Our Next Trip…

On May 22, 2024, we will be heading for another adventure. We are taking a non-stop flight from Guadalajara to Madrid on AeroMexico, which will be a treat to not have to go via Mexico City or the US. Madrid is one of our favorite places and we have a hotel just off the Gran Via, a wide boulevard where museums, restaurants, shops, and the main plazas are located.

We have two days there to get refreshed from the time zone change, re-visit markets and charming places to enjoy tapas, great wines, and ultimately, do a lot of people-watching. The weather in Madrid should be similar to what we are experiencing in Mexico, but a little cooler. In any case, it will be wonderful to experience this elegant city once again.

From Madrid, we fly to Cairo for an amazing visit to see the ancient pyramids, and so much more. We will be taking a cruise down the Nile, visiting Abu Simbel, and ending our Egyptian adventure in Hurghada on the Red Sea, where we will be snorkeling among the reefs. Jim visited Egypt many years ago and usually prefers not to visit previous destinations but he knows that this trip will be the highlight of my travels. Two of the places we will be visiting were not part of his previous itinerary so he will be experiencing a different trip with me.

Finally, we will fly to Amsterdam for five days of sightseeing and activities we have already scheduled. If you don’t get tickets to the various museums at least six weeks ahead, we understand that it is difficult to get tickets as the time draws near. I visited Amsterdam in 1969 and may assume that there have been a few changes in the past 55 years! We’ll see…

After enjoying the canals, museums, food, Jewish venues, and windmills, we will fly to Madrid for our return trip to Mexico. May is a very popular month to travel from this part of Mexico, as we experience the warmest and driest weather of the year. Fortunately, it is early in the tourist season where we will be going, so we shouldn’t have too many crowds wherever we go. The rainy season usually begins in mid-June and we have fingers crossed that it will be a good one this year. Lake Chapala has suffered from a lack of rain since last year, down by at least 45%.

Please watch for specific entries that show the details of our travels. I love to do this and hope that you will enjoy hearing about our travels. Just in case you think that this is our final trip in 2024, we have already booked a wine tour to South America in the fall! We’ll make sure to keep you posted…

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Roundup of the Trip

All in all, we enjoyed the tour. Our guide was excellent, Globus was helpful whenever needed, and we were not too rushed, nor felt that we wanted more. A smaller group would have been preferable and we will make sure of that in the future.

Going to Oceania is well-worth the time and effort. It is different from other destinations most people visit, with unique animals and coral reefs. Some of the foods we experienced are unknown in other parts of the world. They love their beer and coffee, with many coffee shops in the same block. There is no graffiti or many unhoused people. The cities are like the United Nations, with visitors and residents from all over the world, especially from many Asian nations. This results in restaurants with a huge variety of cuisines.

I have many photos that have not been posted but am happy to post them as a separate entry. I know there must be a better way to upload my pictures but so far, I haven’t figured out how to do it easily. Thus, I was behind in creating the next edition of the blog. I hope you enjoy reading about our travels. The next big trip is to Europe in May, 2024.

By the way, after a call from the Fiji Airways staff in LA that they found our bag without a baggage tag, they were kind enough to convince Volaris to take our bag on the next flight, despite we were not on that flight. Everything was in place in the bag (including Jim’s CPAP machine), giving us a sigh of relief!

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Day 20 – Nadi to Los Angeles to Guadalajara

We hung around the resort all day until our flight left in the evening for our ten hour flight to LAX. The plan was to meet up with my cousin who lives in Santa Monica but even though we had a six hour layover, we wanted to go to a nearby pharmacy to get a COVID booster and a RSV injection. We decided to eat at the Nadi Airport, knowing that the food on the long flight wouldn’t be worth eating. And we were right!

Once we arrived at LAX, we awaited the arrival of our luggage, which we had to take to the counter for our Mexican flight. We wanted to go to a nearby pharmacy, and return within the three-hour window to check in for the Volaris flight. Getting together for lunch would have been very rushed so, no cousin visit. Hopefully, another time.

Fortunately, we were already at the same terminal to get our next flight. In the past, we had to walk a very long way to get to the Tom Bradley Terminal to board our connecting flight. That was no fun! Volaris offered to check in our carryon bags, as well as our one checked bag which was good. The overhead bins can sometimes get filled up, so getting rid of them was much easier. We watched our bags go away to the plane, including our bright yellow large bag.

We arrived in Guadalajara at 11:15 PM, only to find out that our yellow bag didn’t make the flight, although our carryon bags did. After filling out paperwork about our lost bag, we finally got home at 1:00 AM. Our housesitters were wonderful, even baking a loaf of bread to welcome us.

We fell into bed, our bed, happy to be home from the travel from Nadi. We hope that the bag will show up soon but you never know.

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Day 17 – Sydney to Nadi, Fiji

Fiji is the playground for folks in Australia and New Zealand. They go often and all menus are in Fiji and Australia prices. The Outrigger Resort is on the Coral Coast, about 1.5 hours away by van from the airport. The island is very mountainous and the towns (villages, really) are small and very third world, while Nadi is well-developed and ready for tourists.

The plane was half-filled with “schoolies,” recent high school graduates who go to Fiji for their senior trip. They all were fit and very attractive, wearing as little as possible to begin the fun. They were shuttled to Plantation Island, one of more than 300 islands that comprise this country. I can’t imagine what they will be up to there! Okay, yes, I can!

The resort is one of a group that has locations in Hawaii and other resort destinations. This one looked a little tired but they are in the process of renovating and upgrading the public areas, such as reception, main dining room, and the wedding chapel . The rooms have already been remodeled and they did a good job.

It is a quite large facility, with many buildings and thatched roof villas. All rooms face the ocean, providing a lovely view. The foliage, flowers, and streams are quite beautiful. The frangipani trees are incredibly fragrant and the staff always has one of the flowers (sometimes real and sometimes not) tucked behind their ear. I tried to bring a flower or two back but they wouldn’t have survived. They even have galeana trees, like those in Mexico, with beautiful red blossoms.

View from the room
Water Lilies
Adult Pool

The guests were predominately families with young children. We guessed that the majority of the kids were under 10 years old, with many infants, as well. Fortunately, they had an adults-only pool which was quiet and enjoyable. The swim-up bar didn’t hurt either. The buffet dining room for breakfast and dinner was well-populated with families, as were the other restaurants with ala carte menus. The food was okay. The drinks, however, were very good and unique. Not being much of a drinker, it was a special treat to try some different drinks that I would never have tried before.

Drink Menu
Fiji Drinks Before
Fiji Drinks After

The weather was warmer than Sydney’s and offered some time to just relax, especially after the days of seeing lots of sights. Since we were with five others from our previous part of the tour, we got a good opportunity to really get to know them. One couple from Detroit was a big college football fan (Uiversity of Michigan, of course). The Denver couple was a big University of Colorado fan and the single man with us was a Minnesota Vikings fan. We were not big fans of any of those teams, although Jim does like to see what the Denver Broncos are doing.. Other than that, we enjoyed our time with them.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of fun but we will decide how the ocean looks before we commit to going out. It was a lovely day.

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Days 18-19 – Fiji

Today is a free day to relax and enjoy what the resort has to offer. This tour was to take us to a traditional Fijian village to see their crafts on a speed boat. We decided no, thank you! Instead, we planned a snorkeling trip for tomorrow, our last day in Fiji but again, we will determine if the water might too choppy to go on a sail boat to the snorkel area. It looks like we may be enjoying the pool and another drink or two! I may even have a manicure instead!

By the way, all the men and women wear skirts. It was difficult to tell who was who but we figured out that the shorter skirts were the men and the longer ones were the women. They all sing and cater to your every need. When one server asked if there was a special occasion bringing us to Fiji, we mentioned that it was my birthday. Shortly after, all the servers came to our table to sing and brought a beautiful and delicious chocolate dessert.

Male server
Female Server
Birthday Cake
Singers
Fire dancers at night

Now that our time in Fiji is drawing near, we are assessing the entire trip. It was fun, mainly because we had a cohesive group who enjoyed each other’s company. That makes a big difference. It would have been good to pass on Fiji and spend a little more time in Sydney, especially out of the rain, to see areas that we missed. One couple who returned to Sydney were able to see the Blue Mountains and Bondi Beach without fog, rain, and chill. Oh well…

After two and a half days of relaxing, we were looking forward to our flight back to LA and on to Mexico. Spending three weeks on this trip seemed like a good idea, especially considering the distance from home. We will evaluate how long to be away on our next trip, next May!