Reno to Walnut Creek

It is not an auspicious way to start a trip. After our flight from Reno to Oakland yesterday we waited at the baggage carousel to claim our bags. Duke’s bags came but mine didn’t! Southwest had lost my suitcase! We filed a lost luggage claim form. I had visions of buying a new wardrobe in Europe, not necessarily a bad thing.

Allison and Maddie picked us up and we headed for Walnut Creek. About halfway there my phone rang. It was Southwest saying they had found the bag. We turned around and got the bag. Thank goodness!

We’ve had a fun few hours visiting here in Walnut Creek. We went to see some lady bugs.

Then we played at the park and went out for hamburgers for dinner. This morning we went for a hike. This afternoon we will be on a Norwegian airlines flight from Oakland to Barcelona.

Heading to Europe – Looking for Input

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Duke and I will be on the road again soon. We are heading to Europe. Our plans are to  spend 5 weeks in Spain and then head north for another 3 weeks.  We will fly home from Estonia. You can see our itinerary below.

This link has a Google map of our route.

If you have been to any of these places and have suggestion of things we should do or see, or places to eat or stay please let me know.  We have all our reservations for Spain but beyond that we are pretty much open. I really appreciated the excellent suggestions we got for our last trip!

I am also excited because we are meeting up with friends from Reno and will be travelling with them for parts of the trip.

Here is our itinerary:

  1. Barcelona, Spain
  2. Madrid
  3. Sevilla
  4. Cadiz
  5. Ronda
  6. Malaga
  7. Granada
  8. Ubeda
  9. Cazorla
  10. Córdoba
  11. Madrid
  12. Cuenca
  13. Alarcón
  14. Lorca
  15. Mojácar
  16. Xàbia
  17. Teruel
  18. Alcañiz
  19. Tortosa
  20. Palau-Saverdera
  21. Vic-Sau
  22. Cardona
  23. Andorra
  24. Lleida
  25. Sigüenza
  26. Madrid
  27. Barcelona
  28. Paris, France
  29. Amsterdam, Netherlands
  30. Berlin, Germany
  31. Krakow, Poland
  32. Warsaw, Poland
  33. Suwalki, Poland
  34. Kaunas, Lithuania
  35. Vilnius, Lithuania
  36. Riga, Latvia
  37. Tallinn, Estonia

San Jose, Costa Rica

Our last full day in Costa Rica. Tomorrow we fly to Houston and then to San Francisco. Today we checked out the Costa Rica Jade Museum. It’s a five story relatively new building and very interesting.

Our last dinner of the trip was at La Diez Parilla Argentina, quite near our hotel. My steak was tender and tasty and the service was great. They told us they had only been open four months.

Cachi

This morning Duke and I hiked up the trail that we scoped out yesterday. It starts just above where we are staying and goes up, up, up. It was only about a mile total and 500 feet elevation gain but it felt pretty steep. The humidity is so high here that my glasses fog up when we hike and sweat immediately starts running off my body.

The rest of the day we just took it easy and enjoyed this peaceful spot.