Normally, vacations seem to fly by, but the two weeks we spent in Spain in May felt like a good, long holiday. We savoured every day, filled up on castles, cathedrals and tapas, and enjoyed almost perfect weather. After spending six days in Barcelona, we then had one day each in Valencia, Cordoba, Granada, Seville, Madrid, and Girona. We finished off with one day in Lyon, France and two days in Vevey, Switzerland.

A few observations of note: Facecloths, hair conditioner and tissues are not standard issue in the vast majority of Spanish hotels; both the dotted and the solid lines on roads in Spain are only suggestions; your Spanish driver will NOT scrape the mirrors off the side of the car going down lanes that would challenge a bicyclist.

I didn’t write a word through the whole trip, though I did spend a few hours the first few days updating files with retailers and distributors for the May 30 release of Penance (Now titled Lethal Waters). The break from all writerly things was just what I needed.

Here are a few pics from our visit to Spain in May. (Seems I can’t take a straight picture to save my life–it’s a good thing there’s software to fix that!)