Spanish Wanderings and the Family Tour!

Where the &%#%^ are we?? ... from the Wandering Berkmans!

After a brief stop in Madrid for more (ho hum) dental work (could  I actually be largely done in September??  Poor DB has some ways to go...), we headed by train to check out 2nd city Zaragoza.  Suitable for a long term stay during the winter?  A resounding yes! 

Beautiful architecture, great mass transit, food we've missed, history, affordable, mild winter-- we've added lovely Zaragoza to our "must return for a couple of months" list.  Just outside of city center-- 20-30 minutes on mass transit to get to the main tourist attractions seems to be our sweet spot.  

Day or night, the Catedral-Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar was impressive inside and out.  If you go, look for the two bombs that pierced the ceiling but didn't explode-- they're hanging inside!

We had everything we needed within walking distance, including the beautiful  Parque de los Pinares de Venecia that was hosting a floral and music festival for the weekend.  

Back on the train and off to San Sebastian (Donostia in the Basque language) in the north for 10 days.  Beach and pintxos (tapas) are the draw here for the hordes of tourists who descend on this beautiful city.  We were there in what is considered the cooler off-season  but the place was packed! Just outside our apartment were a bunch of cute cafes-- great during the day but we were glad for double pane windows at night to keep out the noise.  

Stunning beaches and rock formations on La Concha Bay

The local bev is a dry white wine called txakoli, expertly served from up on high. 

Some of the delicious pintxos we sampled. I ate my weight in anchovies, Don in tortilla.  

How do you know when you've just stepped into France when you're hiking part of the Camino de Santiago ?  When T-Mobile bings your phone to say Bonjour! 

A local artist treated us daily to his beautiful sand art and political messages, adding to this spectacular sunset.   

A day trip to Bilbao via train to check it out for a longer stay (yes!) and to see the fabulous Guggenheim. 

Ok, you responded and we aim to please.    Here's the part you've all been waiting for-- the "Out of Towners" portion of this post!  

Booked on the train for a return to Madrid and then flight to Boston, we casually wondered the night before hmmmm what is the luggage allowance on this new train line?  doh!! On further investigation, we found that not only could we not pay for extra baggage as we had on earlier trips, our large suitcases wouldn't even be allowed on!  Mad scramble to cancel train tickets and grab a car rental for the next morning. 

Patience was a virtue the next day as we arrived at the car rental place to find out our automatic car was not available yet.  Their advice-- there's a cafe around the corner.  Have some coffee and come back in 30 min.  In other words, chill, you type-A Americans!  Long story short-- an hour and a half later we agreed to take a manual transmission (I can't drive one and Don is a newbie) and Don bravely tackled the Spanish highways to pull into Madrid 6 hours later .  Disaster averted.  

All going great at the Barajas airport the next day-- fly through security yay!  No need to take out computer or toiletries in quart bags yay!  Then.... our Iberia Air flight is delayed 2.5 hours.  Ugh.  ok-- to the lovely lounge we go yay!  Roll with the punches, that's what we do.  

We check in with the lounge staff-- yup, flight delayed 2.5 hours.  Then why does the board still have the earlier flight time?  Oh, that's an error, we're told.  Until.... it's not.  We check in with her 45 minutes later-- and she freaks, telling us the gate closes in 5 minutes!  Whaaaaattt??? She calls the gate agent to say we're coming, Don arms himself with the 2 wheeled carry-ons and his backpack and I take off running with my backpack to catch that flight!  

Now, some people take nuclear stress tests to figure out heart health.  We recommend running to a gate 15 minutes away with luggage/et al and see how quickly you recover after that.  Between ragged breaths I had to beg the gate staff to keep the door open, that my husband was on his way.   "Find Friends" on the iPhone is a godsend  for that-- this is the 2nd time I've had to show gate staff  Don's location in the airport as they try to close the doors!   As we made our way to our seats, I glared at everyone, daring them to say a word, even one word, and they would hear my wrath!  The flight attendants kept checking in on us, calming us down haha.  

In all our years of travel, this drama has only happened to us one other time, many years ago.  So imagine our surprise when just one week later the exact same thing happens!  

Flight to DC delayed-- will we make our next flight??   When we boarded  we told the flight attendants about the tight connection we would have.  Kudos to the flight attendant who, just before we landed, called out the seat numbers of all of us (and there were many of us!) who had tight connections.  She had us raise our hands and keep them in the air so that by the end of the roll call, half the plane had their hand up and everyone else knew very well who to let off the plane first.  When we hit that gate and the bell chimed, we all jumped up and got the heck off that flight, me first with my backpack, Don behind with the carry ons and his backpack.  Another 15 minute sprint--we barely made it on the next flight.  We should have worked out more in the prior week bc we were huffing and puffing just as bad this time around! Are we too old for this yet??? 

It was a trying 2 weeks of travel, we're not going to lie, with crazy connections,  staying in 7 different hotels/airbnbs in 5 different time zones, but we had a great time seeing so much of the family.    And with Zach joining us for part of the tour it made our visits that much more special! 

Berkman family Cape Cod reunion had to include a day in P-town!

Father's Day and a big bday for Ron (camera shy) in Ohio!

 

Andrew and Zach cooked a feast of a Mexican BBQ one day and we all chipped in to make bibimbap the next day in Wisconsin!

Our amazing Fearsome Foursome-- back together again in Seattle! DIY food tours, Drag Shows, the Pride March, hikes, insightful conversations, lots of hugs.  

We miss them already :(

Don and Javi representing at Pride!

We hit the road again this Saturday the 20th for 2 months in Montreal-- I re-upped my French lessons on Duolingo and Lingoda to prepare and it's playing with my brain.  Poor Spanish-student Don is not looking forward to the language confusion!  He'll have 2 weeks in Spain in September to practice before we head to Athens until November-- more confusion!-- but maybe this keeps us young!  And we're making a concerted effort this time to pare down the contents of our luggage-- one day could we  actually do without one suitcase?? Stay tuned!!

November 2019--
how it all began, leaving Austin and heading to Lisbon to begin our nomadic life!   haha how nubile we were-- little did we know that Covid life was just around the corner oh my (;

Take care, all, stay cool and until next time!

Don and Monica