Spain! Travelling in Retirement II

Poster from the exhibition on the history surrounding Guernica  in the 1930s
at the Reina Elena Contemporary Art Musueum in Madrid.  

We are home from Spain, and I have lots of delights to chronicle over the next several days. But before I delve into the specific pleasures of our trip, I thought I'd do a kind of meta-reflection on travelling in retirement, as the actions of retirement are a main theme of my blog.

First, we had a wonderful  time.  We were fortunate in so many ways.  We had great weather.  We had made great choices in where to visit and  where to stay.  And none of the things we worried about (me, most specifically, what was happening in Barcelona during what seemed from the press to be the tumult of the independence movement).  And all our flights and connections went without a hitch.

But second, we learned something about our abilities to do this kind of trip: i.e., a multi-city, train-organized, tour over a relatively short period of time.  This is the kind of travel we used to do easily, but it was just a little bit harder this time. And it's very different from a month in Budapest or trips out from a European base (as we did during our Fulbrights).

The long and  the short of it, we had fun, but we arrived home exhausted.  Partly this is because Tony got bronchitis about 3 days into the trip, didn't feel very well, and hacked his way across Spain.  But it's also because we probably planned too much.  We did five days in Madrid, which felt great.  But then we did two short trips, one to Segovia and one to Toledo,  both of where we spent two nights, then went onto Barcelona for four days.  Probably next time, we will stay at least three days wherever we stop, because we felt rushed and too much on the go.  We need, or maybe better to say like, to be   more  leisurely.

I also need to try to not worry before stuff happens  (Yeah, well, that's not just a retirement thing.)  I was so worried about Catalonia, but it turned  out the only signs we saw were more flags (Spanish in Madrid, Catalonian in Barcelona).  In fact, the Saturday night we arrived in Barcelona, we walked about twenty minutes to dinner and didn't see a thing.  Later we learned that 750,000 people  had been peacefuly demonstrating in another part of the city.  I also over-worried about tight connections flyng back, but every connection was exactly on  time.  So good things happened (weather, travel, politics) and bad stuff (Tony battling it through the trip while coughing and feeling not great). Bottom line, as we move into  the next decade of our lives, we can still travel in Europe, going from one place to another via trains, wheeling our little suitcases.  But we will probably do it a little less quickly.

I don't plan to do a chronological recap of our trip.  Instead,  I have several thematic posts in mind.  But just to give  an overview;

Madrid:  Four days (not counting the arrival day).  Spent mostly in Madrid's magnificent museums: the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemizsa, and the Reina Sophia (contemporary).

Segovia.  Beautiful small city.  Relatively untouristed.  Unexpected grandeur of the Acqueduct.  Gorgeous views.

Toledo.  Also beautiful small city, but many more tourists.  Beautiful synagogue and cathedral.  Chasing the El Grecos (many in Toledo but spread out so it's hard to get to all of them).

Barcelona:  Modernisme architecture (the main draw for me).  Catalonian enthusiasm with Catalonian flags everywhere.  Fewer toursits than usual.

Everywhere: the food.  Tapas, tapas, tapas, and an occasional wonderful  sit-down meal.  Spanish ham (jambon Iberico) sandwich on crispy baguette-like bread with beer (I never thought I would like beer again but it goes  perfectly with these amazing ham bocadillas.).  Spanish wine.  Cava.  Well, you get my drift. . . .

If you are interested, stay tuned for some more detailed posts about our trip.

#Spain
#TravellinginRetirement