Season's Greetings from Baja Sur where, though the trees be palm rather than pine, and a white Christmas pretty unlikely, Santa arrived early to greet residents and guests.

We have only been here since mid-October ourselves. Life in Loreto is easier and more comfortable than ever (you can read about recent changes on our house page); but we've become so enamored with the idea of living abroad that starting in September we spent a month wandering around Spain. We put in some time sightseeing in big cities, looked at the Catalonian countryside up close on a bicycle trip, marveled at Moorish architecture, and then settled down for several days of hiking and village life on the Andalucían coast.

We had the idea of Valencia as being like Barcelona but maybe a bit less so, with a few ancient sites but without the tourist hordes of that other fascinating city. We loved it from the beginning, seeing it from our efficient room at the Hotel Zenit, across from the train station. It's a wonderful city for pedestrians, but an absolute paradise for bicyclists. Traffic engineering provides for bikes everywhere, locals rent from fleets of them stabled at convenient automated racks; plus, the city's decision to divert its river, transforming its bed from lethal threat to ubiquitous park, has left a level, car-free zone that all can use and enjoy. We enjoyed it mostly as pedestrians, from the worlds-fair like science pavilion and aquarium at one extreme to the animal-friendly Bioparc at the other, where this group portrait (with sculptural gorilla family) was taken. We tested the trains, buses and subways as well and rate them splendid.

From Valencia we took the train to Barcelona and, staying at a bed-and-breakfast right in the thick of things, we reveled for four days in the Gaudiness of that city, visiting important cultural sites like its Chocolate Museum and spending a day at Monserrat as every good tourist should. Trains, by the way, enable high-speed tourism by matter-of-factly going 200 m.p.h.

Pictures are scarce from this early part of our trip, due to the extremely authentic travel experience of having our camera stolen as we were leaving Barcelona. Along with pedals and some other cycling gear, it was in my 28-year-old REI knapsack, which was stacked with other luggage, and disappeared as our attention was diverted for a moment. Other personal items, including a wallet and my Catalan phrasebook, were found and were returned to me the next time we were in town, but the pictures are gone for good. Imagine a panorama of the Valencian coast, and another from a shady thicket in the botanical garden, stocked with cats available for day use or adoption.

From that low point at the Estació de França life began to improve quickly. We were there to meet a Backroads bicycling tour - you can read their trip description by following this link -- and especially the part about lodging. We were delighted by all three of the places we stayed. Also amazing was the care given by our two guides, Molly and Chema, and their help in filing police reports, arranging to get our stolen goods back, etc., while keeping sixteen other guests happy at the same time. Great companions also. It was Chema who suggested to me that the simplicity of life in the Spanish countryside may reflect not a lack of sophistication, but rather a principled disregard for the superfluous.

From Madrid we visited Toledo too and then we took the train to Málaga and (with one casual stroll back to the depot to collect some re-lost property) put ourselves in the hands of Tour Andalucia -- Gary Montagu's pictures on that site match any that I took, with one exception. In my old life as a municipal employee I got in the habit of taking a picture of the city hall in each place that we visited, to send to my colleagues back home. And thus I have or had a picture of the ayuntamiento in each of the cities named above, plus Ronda, Sevilla, Córdoba, Granada.and Torrox.

That last name may sound unfamiliar, but it was to Torrox, on the southern coast, that we headed next. As this picture of the town suggests, there's hiking to be done here, either in the distant hills or along the sea to an ancient watchtower. Walk Andalucia provided us with a lovely little house to stay in and so much food for breakfasts and lunches that we dined out only once, at the pink-fronted "La Biznaga," one of four restaurants on the spacious square shown at the bottom of the page. The Farmacia just beyond was a lifesaver for footcare and other needs, and the building just beyond that, the one with the flags, why, that's the municipal offices.

The day after our last hike we returned to Madrid, this time by air, and stayed at the Airport Hilton. They didn't have our room ready when we got there, so they gave us an upgrade, to another of the most sumptuous hotel rooms I have ever seen, this one with an all-glass bathroom, including a one-piece sink and counter and sliding doors that met at 90 degrees so that the entire corner opened up into the room. The day after that we flew to Los Angeles, spent a night, and flew back to Loreto.

So that's how we got where we are, this time. For those who missed it, the story of our stay last summer in Seattle is still available (it looks like we'll be going again this year, and for longer). There is a nice picture plus a few words about our trip to Easter Island last winter on our kayak blog at the link below. For a while we were considering a winter vacation in 2012 (maybe another Backroads trip, this time in Viet Nam) but we've decided to take it easy for a while.

Below are some links to other parts of our lives. Happy new year to all!