Welcome devoted readers to the first blog of this 11-week trip.

Somehow we started in two places geographically north of Boynton Beach that have had much better weather than chilly Florida. Only blue, blue cloudless skies in Lisbon and now three days in Marbella.

But jet lag has fogged us in. We are in a time loop between Eastern Standard Time and Central European Standard Time. Maybe we're mentally lost just west of the Bermuda Triangle. We are still getting up late and waking up late and not doing much.

Today we drove 45 minutes to Old Town Malaga for some tasty local food and gelato followed by a tuk-tuk tour of the western part of the city. Pictures to be posted soon.

The highlight of the trip was finding a nearby Irish pub, where Alex the bartender channel surfed for 10 minutes to find the telecast of Inter Milan's 1-0 victory in Italian Supercup championship. Fearghal, an authentic Irish sports fan, was an ale-drinking delight in the stool next to mine. With the game scoreless and five minutes to play, he admitted that he almost called his bookie back in Limerick to put 1,000 euros down on Inter at kickoff time and he was delighted he didn't. About 7 minutes later, I was dancing on the bar and he was 1,500 euros less rich than he could have been.

The only disappointment of the trip has been that my internet host, travelmap.net, has not been able to link up my GPS tracking app so you guys know where we are. But they are working on it and more content will follow.

I've added a few few names on my contact list and I invite them and my veteran blog readers to look at the other two trips taken in the last 365. Safari to the Rising Sun and Crystal Clear: Athens to Dubai have plenty of content. The Crystal Clear trip has many pictures and videos I posted months ago without telling anyone. Now I did.

Hopefully our GPS map will display future stops in Bilbao, San Sebastian and Barcelona, Spain; the Amalfi Coast and Reggio Emilia, Italy; Basel Switzerland river-cruising to Amsterdam and Albufiera and Lisbon, Portugal.

Get better Seymour and Harvey. Special hugs and kisses for Cameron, Cal, Colette, Sage and especially Shea.

And blue, blue skies for everyone.