Now, in these dire pandemic times both in Spain, at home in Seattle, and around the world it’s time to post a trip report to (1) help take our minds off of the coronavirus, (2) recall better times, (3) to encourage others to experience Spain when better times eventually return, and (4) most importantly, to thank all of the hosts and people we met in Spain – we hope that you survive the pandemic and can eventually get your lives and businesses back in order. It is heartbreaking. It’s going to be hard … very hard. Hopefully blogs like this, although they are only a tiny drop of water in the ocean, may help a tiny bit as we all struggle to look to the future and to reach a new normal together.
Update 4/25/2020:
A violinist performs for a hospital hit by the pandemic here - we're all one world.
SUMMARY
For one month a year, from early September to early October, my wife and I are the same age. Since during that month we were both 75, we planned a special trip to Spain. It seemed an appropriate destination in these days when intolerance, bigotry, and autocracy are trying to raise their ugly heads both in parts of societies and many of our governments. Spain’s history seems to encapsulate the present time, having alternated between Roman, Visigoth, Islamic, and Christian rule. It experienced a rich multi-cultural harmony at many times, but at others ruthless intolerance. From that history Spain has evolved a unique and fascinating culture.
As usual, we began planning the trip using standard guidebooks. But we quickly graduated to internet searches including blogs by MaiTaiTom’s photo blogs (linked here), Maribel - her guidebooks for Spain were unusually helpful (her website links to her guides), and numerous travel forum postings.
First, here’s a summary of our trip. In a series of successive posts, after I’ve sorted our thousands (thousands plural!) of photos, I’ll comment and post photos of each leg on my blog at Lee’s Random Ramblings. As they gradually get posted, I’ll post links on here.
PS: Throughout this blog you can click on any photo to enlarge it.
We flew Lufthansa’s premium economy from Seattle to Frankfurt where we transferred to Barcelona. The extra leg room and seat width, (and the small amount of additional recline) was worth the extra expense. It was a comfortable flight and we were able to sleep a bit. Unfortunately, I screwed up. I accidentally booked an onward flight to Barcelona that resulted in 5 boring hours of layover at FRA; there were a number of earlier flights we could have taken.
Leaving Seattle
2. Barcelona: 4 days, 5 nights: Highlights: biking, attending a castell festival, seeing some of Gaudí’s and Lluís Domènech i Montaner’s architecture, experiencing Cerdà’s storied city planning, and enjoying the streets and plazas of our favorite areas: Eixample, Gracia, and El Poblenou.
Part 2b - Exploring (Old City, Picasso, Palau de la Música, Cathedral, Parc Güell, Castell Festival, Poblenou, Beach)
Part 2c - Dessert (La Pedrera, Hospital de Santa Creu i de Sant Pau, La Sagrada Familia)
Travel day: flight on Vueling to Granada
3. Granada: 3 days, 4 nights: Highlights: Alhambra and exploring the streets, history, walls, and alleys of the Albaicin
See Part 3a: Granada: Albaycín & Old Town
See Part 3b: Granada: The Alhambra
Travel day: Renfe bus & train to Ronda
4. Ronda: 2 days 3 nights: Highlights: Biking on the Via Verde de la Sierra, seeing how cork is grown, and exploring three varied ways down into the gorge.
See Part 4a: Ronda
See Part 4b: the White Towns and Biking the Via Verde de la Sierra
Travel day: Train to Cordoba
5. Cordoba: 2 days, 3 nights: Highlights: Seeing the Mesquita, the history, discovering that Rome’s Seneca was from Cordoba, and enjoying the pedestrianized major shopping streets near Plaza de las Tendillas.
I’ll post a link to this part of our blog when it’s done.
Travel day: Alvia high speed train to Seville while incongruously watching on the overhead screens a portion of the movie “Green Book” without sound, subtitled in Spanish.
6. Seville: 3 days, 4 nights: Highlights: biking and exploring the Alcazar, Cathedral and La Giralda, and constantly (delightfully) getting lost in the maze of streets.
I’ll post a link to this part of our blog when it’s done.
Travel day: bus to Merida. Other passengers gradually got off at intermediate stops until finally we were the only passengers left. We began wondering if we really wanted to go to Merida.
7. Mérida: 2 days, 3 nights: Merida was a surprise and one of our favorite places: Highlights: Parks, Roman ruins, a fantastic museum of Roman antiquities and history, lack of tourists, and very pleasant people.
I’ll post a link to this part of our blog when it’s done.
Travel day: Train to Madrid
8. Madrid: 3 days, 4 nights: Highlights: Art, Salamanca District, Madrid’s urban experience, and stumbling across a religious procession bearing a gigantic religious paso - (a "float” - I don’t know what to call it) from the cathedral.
I’ll post a link to this part of our blog when it’s done.
On the way home we had a choice of flights: get up early enough to catch a 6AM fight in time to connect to our FRA-SEA nonstop, or leave late in the day and spend a night in Frankfurt. For us, the choice was a no-brainer: spend the night in Frankfurt. The daylight flight back gave us views of Iceland, the arctic, and the Canadian Mountains covered in the fresh snow of early fall.
Most of the travel days between Spanish cities involved only 2 or 3 hours travelling, which usually left hours of bonus time for experiencing the cities.
Our biggest regret: time. In every place we were we needed at least one more day or more.
SPAIN IN GENERAL
Since returning from Spain I’ve stumbled across the book “The Ornament of the World” by Maria Rosa Menocal and the PBS TV program based on it. I wish I had read it before going to Spain; it would have enriched the experience.
Weather: The timing of this trip was set from early September to early October. But we were worried that at that time of year much of the interior of Spain would still be too for us. Coming from Seattle, to us temperatures in the 70’s F seem nice, the 80’s are uncomfortable, the 90’s are hot enough to wilt us, and anything hotter totally melts our remains.
We planned the sequence of our itinerary using the historical averages on the graphs at weatherspark.com to attempt to avoid high temperatures of August and early September and the chance of more rain in October or later. For the most part we were successful. We started off in early/mid September in the coolest location, seaside Barcelona, and worked our way inland to normally hotter places after early autumn began to moderate their temperatures a bit. It worked. It helped acclimatize us and we had beautiful weather, with only 5 drops of rain hitting us in Barcelona during one threatening day, and one day of moderate but easily ignored rain in Ronda. Every other day was beautifully sunny. Only Granada, Cordoba, and Seville were uncomfortably hot in the upper 80’s and low 90’s, but the heat was survivable by taking it easy in the shade during the hot parts of the day.
Eating: Prior to our trip we fretted that we’d have a difficult time adjusting to Spain’s reputed habit of having dinner so late. Fortunately, we’re flexible. I tend to be a night owl, my wife an early bird, so we’re used to adjusting. We still tended to eat earlier than most Spaniards, but never had problems finding a place to eat when we wanted – except in Merida. There, it seemed that NO restaurant was open for dinner prior to about 8:00. We even noticed that an American fast food Burger King seemed to be closed when we walked by at about 7:30.
Of course, like everyone we enjoy good food. But we don’t plan our days around it, and generally treat it as body fuel. On most trips we just stop at anything that happens to be nearby when we get hungry. On this trip we tried a new technique for us: we made google maps of each city in advance pinning restaurants recommended by various sources. Ideally, we could be anywhere and find a recommended restaurant nearby by referring to our phones. Unfortunately, when it was time to eat we didn’t tend to be near any of the places. We did hit a few; some of those were great, some bad. We had more luck asking people where we were staying.
We did have a bit of trouble adjusting to Spanish food. Although not vegetarians, we’re used to eating less meat, more vegetables, and light things (except for potatoes) rather than heavy things … “Northwest Cuisine”, whatever that is. Even most seafood, especially seafood paella, was too heavy for our taste, though we did find some various types of white fish that we very much enjoyed.
Catalonia independence: The trip was bookended by Catalonian independence. Unbeknownst to us until we got there, we flew into Barcelona the day after the massive march for Catalan independence on Catalonia day: see this news report. But when we were there, you couldn't tell that it had happened, other than that Catalonia's flags hung from many buildings and many orange ribbons had been spray-painted on streets.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
But we were fortunate. The center did hold. All was calm for the month that we were in Spain. (Though a few days after we left from Madrid the Supreme Court of Spain convicted some of the separatists, igniting rioting in Barcelona.)
Social life: We are long past the age where night life is important to us. We have heard reports from some that the nightly street life noise was bothersome. Partly to avoid the noise, but mostly because we prefer areas outside of the main tourist and party areas, the noise never bothered us.
Coming from Seattle, which some claim is notorious for the “Seattle Freeze” where people are sometimes said to be more private and less publicly social (I don't know if that's accurate, but I guess some might consider ourselves to be friendly but reserved), we found the social life in Spain's streets and plazas a refreshing and welcome change.
We relished in the plazas, surrounded by restaurants, that were filled with families with kids playing and parents mingling until late into the evening.
From new reports it seems that many in Spain and elsewhere have adapted to the current pandemic necessity. Instead of congregating and socializing in plazas, people seem to be finding new ways of connecting with others, including playing and listening to music with their neighbors on balconies or out of windows. See and listen (turn your speakers on): a short article with a link to an audio-video clip here, a youtube link here, and a photo article from around the world here.
Adversity can bring out the best in most people (and the worst in others).
Continued in Part 2a - Introduction to Barcelona
