Hassells in the Highlands

We went to France! To Marseille, (pronounced “Mar-say”) in the south of France – to have access to a beach on the Mediterranean, to have sunshine and warmth, and of course, to eat French food. And because we could. What we learned after the fact is that even though Marseilles is the second largest city in France (behind Paris), it has not long been a nice, tourist city. It seems that until about 5 years ago, it was overrun with Mafia and drugs.  Someone decided to clean it all up. It seems they did a pretty good job. We had tourist guides telling us of the many structural changes that have been made in the last 5 years and what a nice city it is now.  (If we had known all of this prior to our trip, it may have caused me to consider someplace else – like Nice.) We stayed in a flat we found on AirBnB – and chose it because of its location and reviews – and for the view. It had this wonderful view of the Basilica Notre Dame (not to be confused ...

                                     Hola!                  Here we are in the Canary Islands. On Fuerteventura, to be exact. "Hola" means "hello" in Spanish, which is the official language spoken here. The Santido Playa Esmeralda Resort It blows my mind that a year ago I had never heard of the Canary Islands, and now I am on one of them!  For those of you who also have never heard of the Canary Islands, they are an autonomous community of Spain, located off the coast of northwestern Africa (below Morocco) The Canary Islands  seem to be THE place that Scots go on holiday, so I have heard from the Scots I know.  They go to Tenerife, in particular.      It doesn't take long to get here and it's pretty cheap - as long as you don't try to come that one week between Christmas and New ...