I'll take the backpack with wheels please!
In and around San Diego, United States
Dear friends and family,
(I am testing out this travel blog site that I will use to send trip reports while we are gone. Please take a moment to respond to this email so that you will receive our trip reports while we are gone. Thanks!)
Well, it is about three weeks till lift off for our nearly month long trip to England, Spain and France and I am already packed... well half packed anyway. Let me back track for a moment...I sprained my back about two months ago attempting to lift a large plastic bin filled with papers (heavy papers) while organizing our messy garage. I was in severe pain for weeks, not able to sit, lay down or walk comfortably for any length of time. Knowing that we carry our luggage on our backs and our trip was only a few weeks away I was in a state of panic!! How am I ever going to truck around Europe with my backpack on my pained back??? Thus, it was then I decided that we must purchase new luggage for our trip. (one of many 'musts' that have been purchased for our upcoming trip!) Well after much research we ended up purchasing the Osprey Meridian Convertible Backpack- at a huge discount thanks to mom and dad Robinson. Convertible means it can either be carried as a backpack or strolled along behind you as wheeled luggage. AHH! The best of both worlds! I was so excited when we the new packs arrived I decided to pack it up with some of my stuff and carry it on my back while walking around the house - just to see how it felt on my nearly 40 year old back. I am sure my neighbors must have thought I had gone nutty! Nevertheless, I am relieved to say that it felt fine on my back and so my new convertible pack sits in the corner of the living room half packed ever since!
This trip may not even take of as scheduled though. We sent all three of our passports into the US Passport Office for renewal over two months ago. It turns out that instead of the normal three to six weeks it used to take the Passport office to turn around a simple renewal....it is now taking at least three months and sometimes up to six months! LOVELY. Why is nothing simple anymore? From what I understand we can call our Congressman and hope that they can pull some strings for us and expedite them so we can leave as planned. We'll see. I am praying, keeping my fingers crossed, and rubbing buddha's tummy just to cover all the bases!
I will keep you posted on how it goes!
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler The Robinson Family
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1
One week till lift off!
Well, this is our second entry in our travel blog...we are one week away from the start of our trip. So far this has been a trying couple of weeks.... Continue reading »
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2
WE GOT EM!!!!
We got em! Our passports... we finally have them in our hot little hands... I have never been so happy to see an envelope arrive from the US Govern... Continue reading »
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3
London Whirlwind Visit
What a time we have had in London! We arrived right on schedule, the plane ride was smooth...except for the cute little baby that started to cry ev... Continue reading »
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4
Desde el aeropuerto al Centro
The airports in Europe are a great melting pot of people from literally everywhere around the world, we were in line for customs with people from J... Continue reading »
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5
Dana's Turn to Write
So, I guess it is my turn to write something. Our little apartment is fourth floor (5 strories up) on the corner of an ancient building, itself... Continue reading » -
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Picasso lived on our street!
So today was the first Sunday of the month, which is FREE day at the Picasso Museum. We took our time walking through the narrow streets on o... Continue reading »
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Our last full day in Barcelona - July 4th 2007
Well, today is our last full day in Barcelona. I am very sad...I could spend a month just living here getting to know the culture. Tomorrow we pick... Continue reading »
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8
Dana on Cadaques
Ah, Cadaques. What a city; or a village, I guess. We drove a couple hours out of Barcelona to a city that we found because travel guides note it as... Continue reading »
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48 hours in Cadaques Spain
After our week in Barcelona we picked up the rental car and we drove out of the city (without Navi – and we didn’t even get lost!) and found our wa... Continue reading »
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10
Suprised by the Roman Ruins in Nimes
From Cadaques we drove into Nimes where we were to meet Tristan and Anne. We arrived in Nimes around 4pm only to find out that there was a HUGE con... Continue reading »
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11
Florac meets hippieville
The following morning, after our night at the hotel in Nimes, we met up with Tris and Anne at Anne's fathers house just outside of Nimes, in Vestri... Continue reading »
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12
Millau pronounced mee-yo
After Florac we drove to a little town called Millau, population 22,000. Millau is known in within France for it's glove making and we noticed many... Continue reading »
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13
Toulouse...what's so great about Toulouse???
We made it into Toulouse and found our hotel by some stroke of total luck. We got off the interstate and then in a matter of a few seconds got tota... Continue reading »
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14
A comfortable bed in Bayonne
We arrive in Bayonne feeling a little bit better all around and now we are within an hour or two of our destination which is Pamplona Spain.
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Four days of sunshine and warmth in San Sebastian Spain
After our wonderfully exhausting visit in Pamplona we returned our rental car and hopped on a bus to San Sebastian which is just about one hour nor... Continue reading »
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17
Voila! There you have it.
(In France they have a saying, Voila, which means 'there you are' or 'there you have it'. People will say it when they put a plate of food in front... Continue reading »
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