25-26 June

The trip to the airport in Rennes was totally uneventful with the exception of the usual anxiety of finding a gas station to top off the car’s fuel tank. The airport at Rennes is international but driving into it, the approach is on village neighborhood streets, homes and shops, not the usual limited access road designed for easy access for busses, taxis, and cars.

In the airport I always have a problem in security due to the metal in my knees. Every time I have to go through the embarrassing hand pat down. I think next time I will wear shorts so security knows that I don’t have anything strapped to my knees. I do wish we did not live in times like these.

When we boarded the aircraft there was an instant change in culture. The flight was Spanish Iberia and everybody began talking in Spanish at once and loudly, aircraft engine noise outside with aircraft doors open, and the flight attendant making announcements with rock music in the background. The din was almost overwhelming. At that moment we were not in France anymore and the flight hadn’t even left the gate.

Shifting languages is a problem when you don’t know either of them very well. For some reason, even though some say Spanish is a simpler language, the words just do not seem to stick. Shan has a similar problem. We studied pretty hard in the few months before we left for this trip and the last one in 2016. We can understand what we read in many cases, but drawing a word out of our memory and making a sentence is a challenge.

In Madrid we opted for a taxi to the hotel although riding the metro would have been easy and much cheaper. We had the heavy bags which seemed to get heavier every moment, and thunderstorms were threatening.

At the hotel we had a gin and tonic to celebrate a successful arrival. We had forgotten another good cultural difference between Spain and France. In France a gin & tonic is sometimes difficult to find, and lime is even more rare in a bar or restaurant. In Spain the server brings the bottle and pours waiting for you to say: Cuando (when). So we had two huge G&Ts with lime — quite a celebration!.

Monday’s trip to Villagarcia was pretty uneventful also. The Spanish train system, Renfe, is modern and very efficient. Five hours to Santiago de Compostela and another 30 minutes or so to Villagarcia where Nito drove us to the boatyard.

It is great to be back aboard. What is not so great is I want to rest after all our traveling, but there is much to do. After a short trip into Xufre to stock up with a little food we were in for the night and will worry about installing the new stove, fixing the refrigeration, etc., etc. tomorrow.

We heard a "Hello on North Star" followed in his very Irish accent "Bet you can't remember my name!" Very leprechaun-ish! But he was right, we couldn't. Jerry is a storyteller on the boat next to North Star. Moments later we were invited for a glass of wine on another Irish couple's boat, Maureen and Bob, following which we walked to town for dinner. Surprised, all of them found us in the restaurant and it was a late night! Perhaps we needed it.