Spain - October, 2019

At first I did not take Walt's suggestion that we travel to Spain very well.

My lack of enthusiasm had nothing to do with Spain itself. At the time, it was January, and I was absorbed in working out the details of our trip to Australia and a shorter trip to California to visit friends, family, and the redwoods in the northern part of the state. I do most of the trip planning myself because it's fun and it allows us to concentrate on things we want to see, but it's also very time-consuming. I told Walt curtly that if he wanted to go to Spain, he would have to plan it himself.

He took up the challenge and soon announced that the trip would have to be at least six weeks long. His tentative plans included travel to every corner of the country, and he had even expanded the journey to include Portugal - most ambitious for a man who begins to lose momentum after three weeks away from home.

It didn't take long after our return from Australia for me to realize that Spain would be an amazing destination. Editing Walt's ambitious plans down to a more manageable three weeks was not an easy task considering the abundance of famous art and architecture and the allure of the lively culture and tasty food. After much thought, we decided to concentrate on Barcelona, Madrid, Granada and Sevilla, and we also managed to squeeze in a stop in Alicante so we could spend time with an old friend and meet his wife.

Although our plans were disrupted a bit because of demonstrations in Barcelona, the civil unrest gave us a glimpse at the issues that are important to the people in the area.