To : TYNDA@aol.com
Date : Wed, 20 Feb 2002 May 5th, 2001
It has been a strange three weeks in Spain. Cold, wind and rain in the southeast coast, to the first clouds in a month in Jerez and Sevilla to bitter cold and rain in Madrid and Valencia, to hail the size of marbles and accumulating to slush levels on the road along the Costa Brava, ruining 80% of the oranges, to cold in Barcelona and ending in rain in Aix-en-Provence.
The pattern of nice weather as we arrived in each place and then going down hill from there gave us 5 days of the typical sunny warm weather one should find in the places we visited. Five days of good weather in close to a month of travel. Even the ride from Valencia started out in sun after a morning of rain and ended in Barcelona in sunshine after a day of rain and hail. Thank goodness for heated clothing. And I have to say the Spanish drivers, not the best at most times, were very careful during the hail and we only saw one car off the road.
A few words about lodging. In France we usually stay in the inexpensive chain hotels like ETAP or B&B where you get a room, all identical, toilet, shower, sink, desk, TV, and secure parking for 180 to 200 Francs or about $28. In the case of the B&B hotels you can get phone access for 5 ff. This comes in handy with the computer. Even though I have a mobile phone that hooks up to the computer it is nowhere as fast as a real connection. Plus I can have some one call directly to the room if I need to. Spain does not really have the equivalent hotel and if you want cheap then it is Hostals. While some are ok, others are pretty barren and in the major cities only a few will have parking. They are usually older places and often with only two twin beds. I have asked a number of people that work in hotels just why the two beds and was told that the Spanish say they sleep better that way. Actually, German friends of mine also have different mattresses but on one large bed. But now that I think of it even finding a large bed in a top hotel in Spain is unusual and as for parking, many donâ·TMt have there own or they charge motorcycles just like cars. The parking on a weeknight in Madrid is about $15. It really is ridiculous since there are good Hostals in Madrid for $20. Why should I have to pay almost the same to park the motorcycle. This is never the situation in France. You either never pay for parking a motorcycle or they have a special area in the lot for motorcycles at a much lower price.
This trip in Spain, we stayed mostly in four-star hotels. Well, not exactly true but there is a point to this so hang on. Our week at the south east coast of Spain that should have been sun and surf but was wind and rain, was only $165 due to a program we belong to. In Antequera we stayed two days at a Hostal that we had visited before and paid about $25 with parking. In Jerez, three days at $43 with another $2.50 for parking each day. In Sevilla we paid $88 for one night. You can see the prices were going up, but we were, for some reason, going from Hostal or one star to three star hotels. I remembered reading about a program for staying at top hotels at a discount so we went off to visit a friend of a friend with a travel agency. There seems to be two programs. The one we used, you make reservations from a list of mainly four-star hotels. Most require one coupon or Talon with costs about $45. We are talking about hotels that list rooms for $150. We were lucky to find rooms in hotels in good areas of town since we were working on short notice and during holidays. With these coupons you can even cancel and rebook in different locations. If you canâ·TMt find a room where you are going then just donâ·TMt buy the coupons. We also used a voucher for a four star hotel in Madrid that got us a suite for about $55. While these programs are mainly for Spain and Portugal, there are some hotels in the rest of Europe, North Africa and even Asia. One problem is that you can only get the coupons in Spain, but since you can get them at almost any travel agent, you can pick them up just before going to the hotel. The nice thing about the Talones is that you can cancel and change reservations without any problems and not much work. You just donâ·TMt show up by a certain time and they then cancel the reservation. You just use the coupon somewhere else some other time within a year of purchase. Some travel agents will even allow you to return unused ones. With the vouchers, I have no idea how you can cancel the reservation and get your money back.
But we did learn that traveling in Spain in April is not the best time for trying to make hotel reservations at the last minute. On the schedule for this trip was to be our first time staying in a Parador. http://www.spanishparadores.com/ These are usually old castles that have been turned into upscale hotels and again with the Talones, they become very reasonable in price. The Paradors also have their own discount program of coupons for staying a number of nights for a set price. However, most of the Easter related holidays are in April. These are great to watch with all the Ferias and processions for Semana Santa but since it is time off of work and school, it is when the locals take to traveling and filling the hotels.
Ok, back to the weather, the day we arrive in Aix-en-Provence, it is nice. The next day is rain and cold. Then it stops raining for us to get to the boat to Tunisia.
MIKE COAN has his own website which can be visited at the MIKE COAN WEBSITE
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