Articles from September 2026

Cartagena & Valencia, Spain Part 7

Cartagena and Valencia road trip: two nights in Cartagena and three days in Valencia made for a memorable final leg of our five weeks in Spain. Between Cartagena’s Roman history, Valencia’s atmospheric Old City and the distinctive culinary treasures of both, these two cities became unexpected highlights of our self-tailored* journey.

Ode to my Travel Agent

When I call this Cartagena and Valencia road trip self-tailored*, of course I mean Roy-tailored. As my inestimable travel agent, he makes sure to consult, confer and so on. But if we’re being honest, he’s in the driver’s seat… this time both literally and figuratively. Does that work for someone as bossy as me? Oh, yes. If anything goes wrong – as it rarely does – he knows that he is to blame and will be energetically motivated to fix it.

All this leaves me as a blogger free to explore the meaning of life, to reflect on the mind-expanding benefits of travel, and to seek out the next gin and tonic on this Spain road trip itinerary.

Cartagena and Valencia road trip; Spain road trip itinerary
Quenching our thirst in Cartagena – okay, it’s with beer – but you get the idea.

Read More

Málaga and Nerja Road Trip: Gibraltar, Tapas and Friends

This Malaga and Nerja road trip post is Part 6 of my Spain road trip series – it started back here in Part 1 Barcelona – and I have just one more to go, Part 7!

We did this Málaga and Nerja road trip – with detours to Gibraltar and Torrox – two months before I fractured my left arm. Writing about it, however, has become a six-week sentence involving sickening self-pity, a thermoplastic wrist splint and painfully slow searches through old and semi-defunct hard drives.

I did eventually find some photographs from our 2009 visit to Nerja, as you will soon see.

Slowed down by a fractured ulna

(How did it happen? I slipped on our stairs at home and came down hard on my left arm. Verdict: fractured distal ulna into the wrist joint. Sentence: 6 weeks in a splint. For my final post on The House that Roy and Verne built, click here. You will even find a photo of the miscreant staircase.)

Read More