At 9:30am on Monday morning our limo to the airport arrived. The international terminal of the San Francisco airport was very quiet so we were able to get to the gate in under 20 minutes, including checking in and security. Fortunately our original middle seats had been replaced with window seats on the United 777.

We took off right on time and the flight was actually pretty short, only about 9 hours and 15 minutes to London. From there we caught a plane to Madrid, and then a third to Valencia, where our friends Jean-Pierre and Matthew picked us up at the airport. They had arrived two days earlier.

We drove to Altea where JP's Mother has a beach apartment where we were all staying. It's in a cute little town and is about 100 yards from the beach. We napped a bit and enjoyed the warm (but not too warm) weather.


Some things are universal...


The beach down the street.


The building on the right is our apartment.

As the sun went down we had drinks on the patio, then drove down to the city center of Altea. We walked up through the maze of tiny streets to the church and plaza at the top of the hill. We had dinner at a wonderful little rooftop cafe, laughing and giggling at each other (I'm sure the people at the next table were wondering what we were so animated about!).


The church at the top of the hill in Altea.


Altea was busy at midnight.


Peeling paint in the shape of home for Matthew.


The wall of the church in Altea.


JP used to sit on the patio at the right when he was a kid.

After dinner we headed back to the apartment and then decided to get some sleep as we had a big day tomorrow.

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