We expected great things from the cities of Cadiz and El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain – the launching spot for one of history’s greatest voyages. This is where Christopher Columbus, a bunch of sailors and three ships set off to discover a new route to India but instead ended up in America.

If you ever stopped to wonder whether a person’s nationality was more important in history than who provided him the financing for his endeavors, you need look no further than Spain. Columbus, an Italian, is hardly mentioned in the City of Cadiz and even the role of the Spanish Crown in financing his voyages isn’t advertised much.

After a few days, we traveled to La Linea de Concepcion – the Spanish town on the border with Gibraltar and crossed into the British territory for an afternoon of walking, checking out cheap souvenir shops, reading and hearing English for the first time since the USA and enjoying a bit of fish and chips for dinner. The highlight for us, which comes as no surprise to anyone who knows us, was seeing the only monkeys in all of Europe: the Barbary macaques.

We then moved on to the Mediterranean coast city of Malaga, Spain where Picasso was born, orange trees line every street and fill every park, and the Christmas season was in full swing. The museum was a bit disappointing but everything else about the city was invigorating.

Next came a city known around the world for its oranges and paella (rice-seafood/meat-veggies-and-whatever-else-you-want-dish): Valencia. It was sunny with temperatures in the 70sF./20sC., the people were enjoying a four-day weekend, and the place just felt wonderful. We regretted that we hadn’t allowed for more time here (yet again) as it was such a lovely city.

WHAT’S NEXT: The city of Barcelona is next where we are meeting Hel and Rob from Manchester, England – friends we met in Antarctica almost three years ago. We’ll then be moving to their flat in Carcassonne, France (while the poor dears return to their jobs in Manchester) for a couple of weeks. Rob and Hel will then join us, along with some other friends, in Carcassonne for the New Year.

As I said in my last post, it looks like we’ll have to skip Italy, Greece and Turkey as we’re running out of money faster than we thought we would… we’re now looking at the beaches of Vietnam for a cheap month while we wait the time until we need to be in China (early February).

NOTE: My “This Expat Life” & “Writing on Wednesdays” blogs are on hiatus until we settle down in Wenzhou in February 2010. Between now and then, I’ll be writing only about Baby Boomers Traveling. Hope you enjoy coming along with us.

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