I have a very good friend who, despite the fact that I'm on my fourth (soon to be fifth) US passport with several Visas and multiple entry stamps, and my second (soon to be third) Irish (EU) passport, gives me zero credit for ever having crossed my threshold on the way to exiting the United States with the intent of entering a foreign country. Well, Maureen and I just returned from a 20 day whirlwind tour of Spain and France. Actually, it wasn't all of Spain and France, details to follow. And at the risk of being accused of "Photoshopping" myself into a European vacation, and there is that possibility I might be accused of such a transgression based on past experience, I've included some pictures. You can also view Maureen's Facebook page (linked here) for a more complete photo history of our trip.
Now, on with the trip. We flew into Madrid with our good friend Scott flying the first officer seat, and were able to meet him and his flight crew for dinner that evening. Funny, until the day before the flight, neither of us knew the other was on the same flight. Maureen and I stayed the night at a great hotel. I was not confident that Maureen had not booked us into an albergue or hostel for which she has grown very fond. Thankfully, the hotel was quite nice. We arrived in Madrid early enough for our Pueblo Ingles orientation (more on that later) and entertained ourselves with a Free Walking Tour of Madrid. The free walking tours are always fascinating. Basically the tour guides work for tips. The first free walking tour we ever did was in Edinburgh, Scotland a few years back (pre-covid). I don't know if anything the Edinburgh guide told us was true but he was hilarious! Maureen and I have tried to make time for the walking tour in each city we've visited since. The tour in Madrid was great, and we had walked a bit of the city prior to the tour. Our next stop, La Alberca, Spain.
Our real adventure started the following day when we loaded onto a bus for La Alberca, Spain and the wonderful Hotel Abadia De Los Templarios Resort. On the bus were most of the native English speaking volunteers and Spanish speaking English students. Oh, did I mention, Maureen and I volunteered to help Europeans trying to learn or improve their English though an immersion program run by Pueblo Ingles. We paid for our own travel and incidentals but were provided a room and meals for our time and efforts.
So, each of us volunteers paired up with a student for the ride and off we went. We spent the 4 hour drive getting to know some of the students who were mostly young adults, professionals, sent by their companies to improve their English. When we arrived at the resort, Maureen and I were put up in a nice two bedroom villa, one student upstairs and us downstairs. It was much nicer than a hostel, however we did have two single beds in the room and Maureen had me washing my "unmentionables" in the sink for a week. That was just another day traveling for the veteran Camino pilgrim, Maureen. I personally wasn't crazy about that arrangement but I survived. The Pueblo Ingles immersion program is very intense, 11 hour days (9:00 AM to 10:00 PM, minus 2 hours mid-day for a siesta). 9:00 AM breakfast, 2:00 PM midday meal, and 9:00 PM dinner, and all meals were mandatory (as part of the socialization). So, we earned our keep.
Maureen and I like to travel for very different reasons. I describe her travels (inaccurately I'm sure) as a quest to discover all of the ABCs. Another Beautiful Cathedral or Another Beautiful Castle. I much prefer to travel to visit family and/or friends. And as it happens, we have family and friends all over the world; Brazil, Argentina, Ireland, France, Thailand, Taiwan, and Canada, just to name the countries off the top of my head. Maureen and I have had a number of exchange students from around the world over the years that still think of us as "mom and dad." And I have an exchange student "sister" from Brazil, currently living in France, and her daughter, our "niece" still living in Brazil. That sort of family! This part of our trip with Pueblo Ingles worked for both of us.
Our group was very small, six students and 8 volunteers. I understand that 20 to 50 students and an equal number of volunteers is more typical, but we were at the resort in the off season, early February. The program is very structured. There are one-to-one student/volunteer sessions. Group discussions with 4-6 group members, half volunteers, half students. Mock phone and conference calls and individual presentations by both the students and volunteers. And last, but not least, theater (small skits prompted by Lord Samuel, our program director). Because the group was so small, and because the volunteers outnumbered the students, it was impossible not to learn a great deal about each other's families, dreams, likes and dislikes. So you can imagine, there was a bit of bonding going around. We arrived as strangers but left as friends and family. So now I have several more "Friends and Family" to travel to visit in the future, and I'm being encouraged to hit Duo Lingo and polish up my (actually learn more than 19 words of) Spanish so I can do just that.
Mock news cast made by my group! (Watch to the end for outtakes).
After our week with our new friends, we were back in Madrid for a day.
Maureen and I were up early that Saturday morning in Madrid, and after a relaxing two and a half hour train ride, we arrived in sunny Barcelona, the high speed train averaged 297kmh (roughly 185mph). Maureen and I jumped off and headed to our apartment, which was another good find by my personal travel ninja, Maureen (primarily because it had a clothes washer, but no dryer). The apartment was a little less than an hours walk from the train station, and so with everything on our backs, we hoofed it across town.
Did I mention we walked everywhere? If it was within reason and we had no connections or appointments to make, we walked. Just in the 4 days we spent in Barcelona (as I'm writing my notes for this blog), I've walked more than 77,000 steps, which roughly works out to 40 miles+, averaging about 10 miles per day. And that included about 1/4 of my Saturday spent on a train. Also, as a side note, Maureen bought backpacks for her and I (I got mine for Christmas) to use on this trip. The packs were small enough to take on planes as carry-ons, which turned out to be a great idea. However, because of their compact size, what we could carry for a three week trip was extremely limited. And that's all well and fine until you consider that we traveled in February, which means we had to be prepared for cold and rainy weather, which meant we needed some bulky winter items. I'm just grousing, we managed just fine, and it was good experience for planning our next trip.
During our week in Barcelona, Maureen and I took a free walking tour (of course) of the Gothic Quarter, which turns out NOT to be Gothic; and, took tours (not free) of Park Guell, Casa Batillo, and the Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi Projects. The Sagrada Familia, which started construction in 1882, has yet to be completed. However, they do have an anticipated completion date of 2033. Everything Gaudi designed used constructs of nature and had loads of religious symbolism. So I believe that even if they could finish before 2033, they will not, because Jesus lived to be 33 years old, and that's just the sort of thing Gaudi would do!
Thursday, we were up early for our 5 hour bus ride to Carcassonne, France. The main attraction is the fortified castle that is the Medieval City of Carcassonne and a couple of medieval cathedrals (ABCs). There is also a medieval canal that is part of a network that traverses France from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Our apartment in Carcassonne was the best yet, at least after we figured out how to get the hot water going. This apartment had a washer and dryer!
A little disappointing, but due to our off-season travel, there were no Unofficial Walking Tours offered in Carcassonne. Not to be denied, Maureen and I did avail ourselves of the paid self-guided tour of the castle and ramparts. We also stumbled upon Saint Michaels of Carcassonne, built in the 13th century. Maureen and I spent our couple of remaining days walking the city, medieval and new, and strolling along the canal. We managed to locate a favorite coffee shop that was always open when we needed an espresso and danish. Seems Maureen forgot from her extensive travels in Europe that absolutely nothing is open on a Sunday morning, except our coffee shop of course.
With our trip nearing it's end, all that was left was the travel home. Of course that didn't mean the adventure was over. On Monday, we got up, packed and had a leisurely coffee and breakfast and just had to kill some time until our 1:30 bus from Carcassonne to Barcelona. Just one problem. We had been traveling on a 24:00 hour clock since we arrived in Europe. It didn't occur to either of us that our tickets for 1:30 meant 01:30 AM. Which meant, Maureen and I were standing on the side of the road wondering why; 1. we were the only two there, and 2. why there was no bus? After a brief discussion with the bus driver headed in the opposite direction, we discovered our error. We did manage to secure new bus passes for that evening and still managed to get into Barcelona that day, but not without a little anxiety to liven things up! After all that our flight out of Barcelona was delayed 3 hours impacting our connecting flights all the way back to Asheville. We did a little finagling and managed to get home a couple hours earlier than we would have otherwise.
Soooo.... After a missed cross country bus out of Carcassonne, France, a three hour delay on our flight out of Barcelona, Spain to NY that ultimately resulted in us rerouting through Miami, a missed opportunity to stand-by for an earlier flight to Charlotte, but a successful stand-by in Charlotte that got us to Asheville after 22 hours of travel (instead of 24 hours), we arrived back to our home the same day (barely) we started our return trip.
Now Maureen and I are safely back home relaxing in our den with Buddy curled up between us. And of course, Maureen is in the planning stage for her next walking trip (Camino) trying to figure out how to convince me to meet her in Italy this fall (good luck with that!). I think I might just get back into my Duo Lingo app, brush up on my Spanish, and make a return visit to see my new friends in Spain. Maureen can meet me in Madrid.
