Thanks Karen, we are on the Valencia flight. CDG will be the challenge!

Safe travels and passages for Grampies!

Have a good trip and good luck with Charles de Gaulle!

I’m sympathetic to how you’re feeling about being so close to the epicenter and having it seem almost normal where you are. I have some of the same feelings myself even though we’re barely inside of Spain and 300 miles away.

I think you’re making the right decision about the bikes and Costa Rica, btw. We’ve looked at biking there several times in the past ourselves for probably some of the same reasons but I could never convince myself that it was a good biking destination for us.

This is so inspiring. Ordinary citizens are streaming to Valencia to be a part of the clean-up effort. Here’s an article from today’s NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/03/world/europe/spain-floods-valencia-volunteers.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Thank you, Sue..agreed!

We solved this issue by taking photos of what is placed in the containers/suitcases before we closed the lids or zipped up the suitcases. This way you will have proof of what is where instead of trying to write it down on a piece of paper and then you end up losing the paper!

That is so true. We still feel peripheral to the situation which is unfolding mainly in villages south and west of the city. There is little evidence in Valencia city.

The number of muddy young people we saw walking home with plastic bagged feet was quite startling. It is heartwarming to see. We have luckily not been really cĺose to any of the seriously affected areas, but from what we are hearing it us pretty grim.

So different to be close to the action as opposed to watching from far away. It is heartwarming to see so many people volunteering to help with the cleanup ❤️

The last news item we read well over two hundred people have died and dozens more are still missing. People are still trapped and desperate for help. Our hearts break for their families and loved ones. It is a tragedy. So good to see young people volunteering and helping as best they can.

The clueless Grampies will live to ride again. Seriously, after seeing the news reports and speaking to some of the locals we feel very lucky. No one really had much, if any, advance warning and if we had been in a slightly different place at a slightly different time the outcome could have been grim.

We really literally almost were swept away by the events of Tuesday. If we had been a little bit further south or west it might have ended very vadly for us.

You really were lucky. Ever since I first read about this disaster I’ve been thinking about how easy it would have been for you two to have been lost in it. There’s risk in everything of course, but this one was really frightening.

Were you ever lucky, being so close and not affected by the storm!