Rowkin Rovings Blog

Awoken at the ungodly hour of 5.00am by the alarm to catch our 5.30am taxi to the airport. It also started with a bit of an ominous incident where we managed to jam the lovely antique lift in our hotel. Luckily there was still the more modern service elevator in working order.

Things then went further downhill as our taxi driver thought he was Schumacher reincarnated and commenced to speed through the 50kph streets at 120kph. We got google translate to find us the word “slower” in Spanish which we promptly tried to convey to him. He decided we weren’t worth listening to and decided to ring his good Papa on the phone and ignore us. Di then briskly wrapped him on the shoulder and screamed at him “Papa ma lenta ” trying to embarrass him into slowing down. He was weaving in and out of the traffic which was surprisingly busy for that hour of the morning and braking hard. Finally we got him down to100kph by which time we were on the motorway. Where are the cops when you want them. We had been told the ride to the airport was 30 minutes and this clown took 17 minutes. No tippo for boyo!!!

Shaken and slightly stirred we checked in and the bags were booked all the way through to Calgary. We are getting savvy now after Fras lost his bags for eight days when he went to Australia in March, and took photos of them plus they both have Apple Air Tags inside them.

We discover that the flight from Madrid to Frankfurt which was 2 ½ hours long had us sitting apart. Usually for short flights it doesn’t bother us but with a limited time change in Frankfurt it would have been better that we were together. So, we ask the chick at the boarding desk who with a supercilious smile on her dial told us that the plane was full and not going to happen, but the good news was that we were boarding in the same zone – like green washing, this is admin washing. Di couldn’t help herself and with an even more supercilious smile said, “well, that is truly exciting”. A simple, the plane is full and sorry there is no possibility would have been sufficient – so she got named the supercilious Luftwaffe cow. As you can gather, things were not off to a good start for what was going to be a 22 hour day.

Once we got to Frankfurt we checked to see if our bags were following us onto our flight to Calgary.

We were in luck – they were moving in the right direction. Whilst we have been away, we have also been able to follow Toque as we put an air tag on her collar just in case, she ran away looking for us.

She has been super busy going into work with Ruth nearly every day as it is the end of the tax year in Canada and Ruth works for an accountancy company. Ruth has set up Toques portable cave under her desk and that is where she snoozes until Ruth decides to go to the toilet in which case Ruth has company.

Whilst waiting at Frankfurt Airport we used the opportunity to call our good friends Horst and Elfi who live about 50k from the airport. We don’t often get the opportunity to speak to them on the same time zone.

It seemed like we had to walk about three kilometres to get from our arrival gate to our departure gate at Frankfurt airport but not a bad thing considering we will be sitting on our bottoms for the next 9+ hours.

It seems like such a long way when you see it on a map like this, but we count our blessings that at least we still do not have to go that extra distance over the Pacific. We are thankful for small mercies🤪. Actually the flight route was interesting as he went well north of Scotland and way up northern Greenland and we never touched on Hudson Bay.

By some luck and a bit of fancy footwork we secured a whole centre row of four seats which we proceeded to make home for the duration of the trip. We both managed a couple of hours sleep as we knew we needed to get onto Calgary time zone when we arrived.

Wouldn’t you know it, Calgary turned on the weather for us in good old Calgary style – light snow and a high of +3c. It is a hell of a shock when you have just had 27 days of the most exquisite weather.

Hit the ground running by dropping the bags home, heading out to get food supplies and going around to Ruth and Bruce to pick up the furry one. Toque obviously adapted well to being with the guys as she seemed torn between Ruth and Di as to who she preferred to go to. Ruth had three things to say about Toque – she adored the way that Toque would look at her in such a loving way; would never let Ruth be without her company (including the toilet); and how something so small and adorable could be just so damn bossy🤪.

She settled in well at home especially as we allowed her to sleep on our bed but only as a special treat.

So, a few stats on the trip. We came in just slightly under budget which was nice as we didn’t scrimp whilst we were away.

Stats below are for Di – Fraser’s would be higher if he had been wearing a Fitbit.

Total step count was 320,516

Average steps per day were 12,821. Would have been higher if five days hadn’t been taken out feeling unwell.

Hope you have enjoyed following the blog as much as we have documenting our trip. Overall our trip exceeded expectations and would highly recommend visiting Spain and Portugal.

Watch this spot as there is a good chance we are off to Germany for three weeks in September.