well we did it. we got our lease car back to madrid, in one piece and with not a scratch on it. pretty good effort really. just over 15,000 ks of motoring through 10 countries! we have had a good time in Spain, but as you have probably noticed, we havn't had a lot of time on the internet. we have either had to pay or the time has been limited. And this blogsite requires a bit of time. The accommodation in Spain wasn't as cheap as we would have liked, because we couldn't really camp - for one, the ground was too hard, another, it rained quite a bit, and then lastly it wasn't that cheap, so you were better off to pay the extra and get a decent night's sleep. our first night in Spain, we stayed in a Refuge, which is like a youth hostel, but they give you meals included in the price. So we had dinner and breakfast and a comfortable night's sleep for $148 euros - it sounds better in euros - we are taking our accountant's advice, and trying not to convert back too often! europe was exensive really, but worth it and we were able to do such a big trip because of the kindness of all the people were knew and were able to stay with.

In spain, we saw some fantastic scenery, in the pyrenees - the cliffs and surrounds were huge expanses of grey and orange. We did one big day walk in a national park , where we walked through beech trees and much to Stu's delight, we saw a chamonis and its fawn, on the hillside. We also saw some of the great eagles and vultures they have in the hills too. no deer, although there were plenty of signs to say they were around The waterfalls in the national park were a highlight - and some natually terraced, quite beautiful sitting beside the river and eating our lunch in the heat of the sun.

After the pyrenees, we went further south to Huesas and ended up in a hostal, which had no cooking facilities, but that didn't worry us, it had a balconey and we managed to do the old kiwi thing and start up the cooker out there and eat cheaply. Red meat is still expensive andhard to get good quality - so we have taken to cooking up chicken, very tasty with onion soup mix and spuds! We visited a grand old monstery in this region, which was once a castle built in the 11th centruy to keep out the moors. it was built on a cliff top and the views accross the plains were expansive. it would be a freezing place to live in winter. the kids loved using the gps guide and learnt quite a bit about romanseque archtecture and lifestyle.

From there we haeaded to Zaragoza and saw the famous bascilla, where every good catholic goes to kiss the column of the virgin Mary. It marks the spot where the apoltlse James had a vision of mary in yr 40.ad. The catherdral was orginially built in the 15th century, but the spot has visited for hundreds of years - it was quite elaborate and it was interesting for the children to see how devoted the spanish people were to this church. There was also a market there, where we saw a few musicians, sweet and savory sellers, huge hunks or ham and other dried meats and salamis. it was so packed, that iwasn't that enjoyable for the kids and I - (we were all too short!) however we did get to rub shoudlers with the locals. visited an old roman theatre here as well and tim was intrigued to see how they built it, it even had an awning on it. built and used between 1 and 3ad. Wwe then ended up near another monstery in a camping ground, nr calataydud. the soil was very red here, lots of almond growing and sunflowers - we saw plains of sunflowers - amazing. it rained for two days here, and the monstery gardens weren't worth paying $100 nz for, so we did our diaries and took a drive around the district .Then wer were in madrid mode and went to Guadalajara just before madrid - thank god we didn't press onto toe madrid because finding a place to stay there was a real mission. there was some sort of event on and the next day it took us three hours to find our accommodation, mainly because we chose to go to the car dealer first and the directions there were not good enough for us to comprehend, and as a consequence we ended up driving around in cirlces and down roads never intended! you can imagine the conversaton in the car! eveutaly, after patiently working our way down the same road for the third time, we turned off onto the right road. madrid is just a mesh mash of motorways .... so you couldn't just turn around and go back if you made a mistake, it was more like 20 minutes later.... we just flew by the seat of our pants in the end.

we flew out yesterday, so i am actually writing this from chile. which has so farbeen very enjoyable because we had someone met us at the airport, through our flowerexporter and friend. very spoilt we are. anyway, before we left madrid we stayed in Baraas, the airport town and had a fantastic hostal. hostal aeropuerto was owned by a famous tolerdro, rafael sanchez vazquez- and much to stu and the kids delight, they got to meet the fella, who is now in his 70s!! he gave them pens and authetic spears used to p****the bull with - we never got to see a bullfight for real, but stu and the kids watched a bit ofthe gurelsome display on tv - yes, it does require a lot of skill - but really, its a bit blood -thirsty for me! better get this finsihed off. hope you are all well and happy we will up date on chile soon. we are about to rent a car here and take off to the north for some sun and beaching!