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Friday, March 23, 2012

Let's Hear From Chuck

Dear Family and Friends,

We are now in Barcelona.

 

Today, Chuck is going to post about our trip.


Driving in Spain

We leased a brand new Peugeot 308 diesel sedan for our vacation. I specified that it have a GPS built in. That has been a mixed blessing. When we ask for the shortest route, we sometimes are sent onto jeep tracks. This is a fun adventure, and we have seen things most tourists do not, but the small back roads can be very slow. Most of the time we ask for the fastest route, and are directed onto the motorways, which are as easy to drive as freeways in the United States. The big difference is the tolls. Our latest trip from Zaragoza to Barcelona took about 3 hours of driving and cost about 30 euros.

Navigating in the cities is difficult, even with the GPS voice telling me where to turn. Several times I have failed to get into the correct lane and cannot turn as directed. I have to continue until I am re-routed. Sometimes, as was the case in Santiago, the one way streets can cause the route I need to follow to go back to a missed turn to be over 10 minutes.

Parking at the hotels is sometimes a challenge, but I have learned to avoid hotels which use an elevator to get to the parking. Clarke and Brenda will remember our elevator experience in Cordoba.

We try to limit our drives to 3 hours or less per day, and by stopping several times en route usually take 5 hours to get to our next destination.

The car has proven reliable and comfortable, and I would recommend it.



Chuck

1 comment:

  1. I like the changes in the map--you added numbers.. reminds me of those old numbered pages that you followed and when you were finished you had a neat picture... so far I cant see the picture Chuck.. :>)

    ReplyDelete

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