Rookie driver alert!
Daniel got his driving license a few weeks ago. Even I was surprised when he told me he was going to finally enrol for driving lessons. It’s true that we have sometimes lamented that we weren’t able to go on road trips, just the two of us alone, but we are also big public transportations fans. However, there are specially some travel destinations that we can’t just visit without a car, for instance we would love to visit Vermont in the fall. I actually have a driving license (true fact) but I haven’t driven for more than 10 years, so I feel almost like I never took lessons. Not really, but you get the feeling!
Dani applied himself and was able to pass both the theory & practical tests at first round. The practical driving test is hard to pass here in Barcelona’s city center, so big yay to the hubs for the feat! *insert wife-y proud face here*
Since he already got his provisional driving ID just in time for our anniversary, we rented a car and went on our first ever road adventure to a cute medieval town called Pals. Do you need a ride? Jump in with us!
The “L”
In Spain, when you get your driving license it is mandatory to carry this L sign during the first year. It has to be displayed in the left top side of the rear car window. Thanks to Terrace House (anyone else an addict as myself?) I learnt that in Japan you must wear two stickers with colorful arrows in the front and back. How is it in your region?
The question we get more often now is when we will get a (second-hand) car. Well, we are not planning on getting any car at all while we are living in central Barcelona. After doing the math, we discovered that for the price of a regular car we can rent every weekend a better car (including all-risk insurance) just next to our home for 4 to 5 years in a row. Also, parking rentals are quite expensive in our neighborhood and we wouldn’t need to pay for any repairs or monthly insurance. I am sure this changes drastically depending on where you are located, but it what works best for us. So, rental drivers it is!
Pals
Pals is a beautiful medieval town in the Costa Brava. The historical town is actually 3km away from the sea and you can’t actually see it from there, but I can tell that you won’t miss the views even a bit when you are walking around the cobblestone streets in such a pristine condition. Its gothic quarter is such a treat, I even commented on how it seemed like a recreation of a town in a theme park (in a good sense!) taking into account how clean and preserved everything was and with beautiful flowers all around.
We chose this town because we had it on our wishlist and was one of those hard-to-get places without a car, thus it checked off two items on our list!
Tripod
We have decided to bring more our tripod on our adventures to take couple pictures.
I realized when trying to print photos for our new wall art (still on the works, it’s taking me ages!) that we don’t have many photos together that I love (I have some though!). So I have the hope that if we are taking many more, the narrowed list of the ones I love will grow.
Specially with a car it is very easy to pack, so we don’t have the excuse anymore. Yet, we are beginners with the tripod, thus bear with us, ha! We are thinking of using the remote controller we use at home when taking photos with Juno, but also the Canon app to see if all the settings are correct, specially focus. Do you have any tips?
One of the things that puts me off when using the tripod, is that the photo & location raises much more attention than when we are taking photos to each other. Also, in Barcelona city is quite impossible because it will either be in great danger of being stolen or tripped down.
Our cat friend
When we arrived in the town, at the first pedestrian crossing, we saw this kitty sleeping just in the middle. When a car was about to get to the crossing we started urging him to move, but he was too sleepy to bother (lazy, just as our Juno!). The car watched us making efforts and the kitty ignoring us, so they started honking. The cat got scared with the sound, but even with that he still moved so very slowly towards us at the sidewalk. From that moment he started following us everywhere, it was super cute!
What does this tote quote make you think about?
If you are thinking about boobs, you are right! I bought this Girly Girl Magazine & Le Bratelier tote bag that was produced to collaborate with the breast cancer investigation this year. I’ve never shared before that my grandma survived this type of cancer and it’s something I frequently have in my daily thoughts. It’s really important that we do checks on our body ourselves to try to be ahead.
In total we drove 300km, I tried to be a good co-pilot by trying to read well the Google Maps navigation tool, enjoyed the sunset driving back home and we got lost at the entrance of Barcelona (which is the usual for lots of people too). Everything without an incident, so good news so far! We’ll be reporting more road trips soon.
I already feel that we are unleashing so many travels: Australia, US, Iceland, Scotland, Greece, here we come!
Enhorabuena a Dani!!! Por aprobar a la primera el carnet de conducir! El pueblo es precioso, Dàmaris estás muy guapa en todas las fotos, y tú Dani estás muy simpático con la L. Me encantan todos los rincones de esta villa!
Oh well done Dani. How great! I bet it must have been a hard test in Barcelona so that’s extra impressive. Your trip looked wonderful – what a great place. Loving your tights Damaris. I know what you mean about photos of you together – we hardly have any nowadays. When we first met we were constantly putting that self-timer on hehe x
Congrats to Dani on getting is license! I still have to get mine haha. I don’t think there’s any sign new drivers need to have on their car where I live, but one of my friends did write “NEW DRIVER” on a piece of paper and stuck it on the back window of her car. However, she found that drivers on the road were meaner/less patient with her when she had that sign up, so she ended up taking it down after a few weeks haha. // I have so many lovely pictures of my friends but not enough with them! I totally get what you mean :P -Audrey | Brunch at Audrey’s
I am totally a prop my camera up on something vs a tripod when I want to take pictures of my husband and I together. Less to carry around and not as noticable… though there is still the chance of someone running off with the equipment. Congrats on the Drivers Daniel!
Yes to Australia!! he he he, you have to come visit the Sunshine Coast though – that’s a must :P I think it’s so awesome to take the tripod and get couple photos, Ben and I don’t have many together but he’s not a camera geek like me so the tripod thing might scare him off completely :P
Mega congrats to Dani for getting his license and first go too! Pals is such a cute town, perfect first place to adventure in! Oh and did I forget to mention…COME TO AUSTRALIA! I’ll be your tour guide :)
This post was the conversation piece of the morning lol. It seems crazy to just rent instead of buying a car for so many days, but I remember my Brother In Law saying owning a car in Brooklyn was more expensive than renting frequently as well. So I guess it is a universal city issue lol
My husband was also pretty surprised by the Vermont thing lol. I mean I was a little too, but those fall leaves are pretty. I guess we enjoy the ones near us a little more (The Delaware Water Gap in particular) but I think that is more of a connivence thing. I suggest checking out Maine- but that would be a long road trip.
This is Dani, Juno & Damaris.
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