Onward Travels

Working on booking onward travel from Valencia right now.  Things can get a bit complicated when booking because you have to consider both travel costs and accommodation costs at the destination and the fact that one or two days can add $200 to a ticket.  In addition, each day is a tangible cost of at least $40 for accommodations, and that is if we managed to get a deal.  Basically, once we finish booking this period, our summer will be booked.  Getting things together to get to Valencia itself was a nightmare though.  We found a great price on a ticket, but it would have had to be either shipped to us in Paris (wouldn't have arrived in time), or picked up in London.  So that wouldn't work.

Rail passage throughout Europe can be booked:

• www.sncf.com
• raileurope-world.com
• eurostar.com

Best rail resource around:

• Seat61

Plus, even though, our desired route was the train, and we could have found another way to book, it was difficult to pay for the train with a credit card.  Eventually we figured it out, but by that time we had already booked a good deal of that trip by plane.  There are plenty of European budget airlines: Ryanair, Easyjet, Tuifly.  However, we really wanted to travel by train. We actually wanted to take a sleeper from Paris to Valencia, unfortunately before we figured out how to get the sleeper booked, it filled up.  So that will have to wait for next time.  For an adventure, check out the Spanish rail website, Renfe.  To be fair there is an English button, but many travelers have reported that part of the site won't work to book travel.  Not to mention, there are pages written on how to book a train period with a US credit card.  Talk about a Spanish Inquisition!

Anyway, Barcelona and then Valencia are our next destinations.  Both will offer respite from our close quarters in Paris. Both places should be large and provide us space.  Plus the place in Valencia is a five minute walk to the beach.  Morocco will be next after Spain.  We will fly from Paris to Barcelona and take a train to Valencia.  Once we get to Valencia, I have to remember to include a few extra days for Andalusia in our travels.  Andalusia is Southern Spain, ie Moorish Spain.  We really wanted to head straight to this region, but needed to spend a bit of time recouping some money, and sometimes the journey is as important as the destination too.  I mean you probably should visit either Madrid or Barcelona if you are visiting Spain, and we figured Barcelona, closer to the sea would suit us.   Photos will follow once we get going, along with stories about our trip to the airport, which will be fun I am sure.