Traveling Spain and Portugal with Austin

Ruth and I promised our four grandsons that we would take them on a trip following their graduation from high school. When Dan graduated from Stow (OH) High School, we took him to Italy. (Note: All of our grandson trips are on my web site, www.drglenn.net under the Travel Icon). Andrew chose a trip of Western Europe and Connor picked Greece, Turkey and several Greek Islands. Austin picked Spain and Portugal (June 17-27, 2011) for his senior trip. In all fairness, our rules specified that the trip should be 10-12 days and that we didn’t want to repeat a trip we had already taken. So who knows what trips the boys might have selected if the above rules had not been set. The good news is that no one complained and each of the boys and Ruth and I really enjoyed all four trips. It we have any more grandsons they are going to be out of luck!!!

Day 1 We drove to Nyack, New York to spend the night with Jo (Ruth’s cousin by birth but in actuality a sister). She offered to house us and take us to the airport the next day. Jo surprised us with a wonderful Spirit of New York dinner cruise around Manhattan! There was a contest on board for the couple who had been married the longest…we didn’t win as Ruth was delayed in the restroom…and the couple who won had been married only forty-six years!!! Maybe we will win next time. What a special start to this vacation!!!

Day 2 After a great brunch at Jo’s, we headed to the JFK airport. Because of a driving rain storm, the flight was delayed nearly two hours, but we finally departed on our Air Bus for the eight hour flight to London. The flight was uneventful. The new in flight entertainment system offered dozens of movies, hundreds of TV show reruns and an endless list of albums and games…all free of charge.

Day 3 We arrived in London several hours late, but had already been rescheduled on the next British Air flight to Madrid…so we only experienced a forty-five minute wait for this two hour flight. When we arrived in Madrid, we were met by the Trafalgar representative who took us to our hotel in the new Mercedes bus we would be using for the entire trip. We got to the hotel in time for the Welcome Cocktail party and an explanation of coming events by our tour director, Alberto (An Italian, now living in Spain who has been a tour guide for fifteen years. Alberto speaks Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French…and thankfully, English) told us the plan for the trip. After checking in, we walked around the city for several hours with Roberta, a new tour mate (medical technologist) from Toronto, Canada. We stopped for dinner at an outdoor café and visited with Roberta. We turned in around 10:00 PM (4:00 PM Ohio time). Luckily for Ruth, Austin and me, we had little trouble adjusting to the time changes and did not suffer from jet lag overseas or at home after our return.

Day 4 The next morning, after a wonderful breakfast buffet (every breakfast on this trip was special, with a great selection of fruits, cereals, meats, eggs and pastries), we headed out on a tour of Madrid with our fellow forty-four tour mates. The largest tour we had experienced before was twenty-

six and we wondered if this was going to be a problem. We can report that although we would have preferred a smaller group, it never caused a problem. Every member of our tour group was fun and very accommodating. We could not have picked a better group with whom to travel.

Madrid is s beautiful city. We visited the 2600 bedroom palace which is now used for state functions. It was built in 1738 and is surrounded by five walls and five moats. Madrid is a city of six million inhabitants and is located on the plains of Spain, resulting in hot summers and cold winters. One of our first impressions, living in Tree City ourselves, was the large number of trees throughout the city. Our guide noted that, after Japan, Spain has the most trees in its cities.

In the afternoon, we traveled outside of Madrid to visit Segovia, an impressive city, standing on a rocky outcrop 3,300 feet

above sea level between two rivers, surrounded by the beautiful Sierra de Guadarrama and colorful countryside. This city has been designated as a World Heritage Site (here after noted as a WHS) and the 13th century castle is reputed to be the model for the Disney Castle. This castle is also the site of the famous meeting of Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella to negotiate the finances for his historic trip to the new world. (Note: I am reporting what guides told us and have not looked up factual accounts of meetings and dates. When I went to Hungary, my friend, Frank Hutterer corrected a number of the things I reported about Budapest…I can only hope he hasn’t been to Spain and doesn’t read this!) The most amazing feature of the Segovia was the Roman Aqueduct, standing 29 meters high and delivering water from the mountains 17 kilometers away. It was constructed more than 2000 years ago, of stones carved to fit together without one drop on mortar, and is intact and still delivering water today (not for drinking as it is lead-lined).

Upon our return to Madrid, we had dinner at the Restaurante La Opera de Madrid, a place noted for fine food and Operatic performances throughout the dinner…a great experience. Following dinner, we toured several fountains and plazas as we returned to our hotel.

Day 5 On to Toledo (WHS). The Spanish pronounce Toledo differently than we do, but not as differently as friends of ours from Chicago, who called us as they were coming to visit us and announced that they were just passing “Two-lee-doo”…the way we have pronounced it ever since.

Ruth and I wondered how Austin would adapt to the tour as there were no young people on the trip. Austin became the “tour techie” on the second day as folks noticed he was always on his IPhone. “Can your grandson turn the flash off on my camera?” soon became, “Austin, show my wife how to delete pictures she doesn’t want.” I think he relished his role as the resident go-to guy for electronics. I want to differentiate

between the words techie and technical as our guide called rest stops “technical stops” and many of us called going to the restroom, “Getting Technical.”

Toledo was once the capitol of Spain, but is now the capitol of Castile. We toured Toledo, visiting the church of Santo Tome’, which houses one of masterpieces of El Greco. The El Greco painting was installed over the tomb of Don Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo (1322). The cathedral took 270 years to complete and was finished in 1492…that was a really big year! Toledo has eighteen different practicing religions (Thus “Holy Toledo,” a phrase used in the States to register surprise.”) and is the home to four cloistered convents (Most of the nuns are from India). We then headed to Granada and wonderful views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

We passed though La Mancha on the way to Granada and I thought I saw Don Quixote…maybe not. This wine country is beautiful.

This evening, after dinner in Granada, we went to the home of a gypsy family to see a flamenco show. Their home was in a cave in the side of a mountain and it happened to be the night that Channel 5 (Madrid) was filming their show for a program special point of interest in Spain, so we got the full treatment. It was great. I’m thinking of getting a flamenco group together later this year.

Day 6 Granada. One of the highlights of our tour was the visit to the water gardens of Generalife (not general life, but I can’t remember what it means…ask Frank!) and the Alhambra Palace (The Red Palace). Our local guide was terrific and said he had been doing this tour for forty years and had lived in the city for his entire life. The guide said we should see the movie, Pan’s Labyrinth, as it depicted the Spanish Civil war quite well…Austin was the only person who had seen it!! This palace is considered to be Spain’s best example of Moorish architecture. We were able to see the Lions of Lyon, twelve lions forming a fountain inside the castle.

On to Costa Del Sol, Spain’s, and one of Europe’s, most popular resort areas.

Day 7 Costa Del Sol. After arriving, Austin, Ruth, Said (from Oman) and I walked the beaches and Austin took a dip in the Mediterranean. We watched a German couple sculpt a sand castle portraying Alice in Wonderland, which they had been working on for almost two months…it was amazing. Ruth treated us to drinks at a beach side café…of course, Said and I eschewed alcohol. After the walk, we spotted a Burger King and for this night only, ate American fast food! Austin swam and we read the London paper.

Day 8 Gibraltar. We are starting to have a problem with Ruth. At home, she calls Orville…Andrew, Austin and Connor at times and now on this trip she is calling our bus driver, Paolo… Alfonso, Apollo and once, Claude (I made the last one up!). What are we going to do with her?

To go to Gibraltar, one has to go through customs as it is a British protectorate. The Rock of Gibraltar is 426 meters high and the entire protectorate is three square miles in area and is home to thirty thousand residents. I passed by “The Rock” in 1954 while on my first Midshipman cruise and only noticed a large rock and some military fortifications. Things have really changed. Now, there are high rise buildings and Gibraltar has become a vacation destination. The “Rock” is home to many caves (including a large auditorium) and hosts 28 miles of highways inside. There are only 60 miles of highways in Gibraltar. At the top, there is a colony of Barbary Apes, 274 in

number, who are quite willing to jump onto your vehicle or unzip your purse to look for goodies. Our local guide for this day was a sarcastic Brit who kept us laughing by talking about the “old” Queen or Ole Winston. He got the biggest laugh as we passed a McDonalds and he called it the American Embassy. One interesting feature of Gibraltar is its airport…as one has to drive across the center of the only runway to get to the center of the city. Opps, red light…we have to stop for that 727!!!

After lunch, we headed for Seville, or as we now say, Sevilla (Sa-vee-uh). (Note: Sa-vee-uh is the only Spanish word I mastered on the trip and I still have to spell it phonetically!)

The weather on the trip was perfect, but that pronouncement needs a clarification as the temperature was 109 degrees Fahrenheit as we arrived in Sevilla. It was so dry, we didn’t perspire, and someone had told me it was 85 degrees, I would have believed them. When standing out of the direct rays of the sun, it was actually comfortable. I would say that like Arizona, southern Spain should be avoided in the summer!!

Most luxury homes are designed with bedrooms on the first floor for summer, living quarters on the second floor and bedrooms on the third floor for winter, as very few use air conditioning (except, according to our director, foreigners). The city has 350 thousand inhabitants and the University of Sevilla has 77 thousand students. Ruth, Austin and I loved everything about Sevilla. The Cathedral of Sevilla, home to Christopher Columbus’ tomb, was completed in the 1500’s and has 44 chapels, is 14 floors high and has the largest floor area of any chapel in the world (Yes, even larger than St. Peters, although St. Peters has a longer main chapel!) This cathedral is the home to the Franciscan order of priests and they are proud of the 21 missions they sent to the new world…even naming many cities in what is now the United States (San Diego and San Francisco

to name a few.) I asked about the ornate cathedral and how they got the money to fund such extravagance. The guide said that in the 1500’s, the Franciscans owned 47 per cent of the gold, silver, cobalt and sulfur mines in Spain and were extremely wealthy. This cathedral has a 15,000 pipe organ and can seat 31,000 people!

Day 9 We were fortunate to be in Sevilla on Corpus Christi Day, one of their most important religious holidays. We watched parades and the city was decorated for the occasion. Shopping was a bit corralled, but Austin and Ruth found many quaint shops for some power shopping. After shopping for several hours we walked by the bull ring and had lunch on a floating restaurant on the River Guadalquivir. Ruth ordered a

wonderful “surprise” lunch (What is it going to be?) and it was not only delicious, but only cost 7 Euros (about $10.50 for all three of us). Almost everything in Spain and Portugal is more expensive than in the states, but still very affordable. We took the C-2 bus back to our hotel in time for another dip in the pool for Austin and newspapers for us.

This evening, we were taken to a hacienda in the countryside for dinner. When we arrived, we were greeted with drinks and a Flamenco dancer performing with elegantly dressed rider astride an Andalucian horse. Following the entertainment we were served a wonderful seven course meal.

After dinner, we were taken to a theater to see a professional Flamenco troop perform…they were different than the gypsy group, but equally as entertaining. One of the dancers kept he eye on Austin and we all teased him about being a married man!!

Day 10 On to Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal. The countryside was rolling and beautiful. We saw hundreds of stork’s nests atop electric poles. In Portugal they say, “Babies are delivered storks,” as we do in the U. S., but our director, Alberto, said in Madrid, they say, “Babies come from Paris.” The trip from Sevilla to Lisbon was long enough that we had to make several technical stops and lunch. The stops along the way were fun…and included new foods we hadn’t encountered before. On this leg, Austin spotted some things he wanted to eat and when he got the checkout area realized he didn’t have enough money as he had selected a meal that cost 13 Euros ($19.50 US). We teased him about it, but the truth is, he was always very prudent with his/our money and this was his only slip up! Our bill was 7 Euros for both us, accentuating his big bill and expensive taste. He teased me the entire trip about a meal I ordered in New Mexico…I was watching my weight and ordered a dish of mixed vegetables…when it was delivered, there were only six peas, six small carrots and several beans in a small dish. Connor, Austin and Ruth have never let me forget about my mixed veggie lunch! Al least I didn’t blow $20 on it!!!

We found Lisbon t be a beautiful city, and as always, our hotel room was large and beautiful. For some reason, we were assigned a newly renovated room for the handicapped and it presented some problems at first. Ruth took the first shower, and since the shower was designed to accommodate a

wheelchair, there was no lip around the shower base, permitting the water to flood the room. We soon learned that we needed to dam up the shower base with towels to prevent another flood. A beautiful suite with a design flaw!

We took a several hour stroll on our own through the shopping area (Ruth found shoes for Jill and herself) and had dinner at an outdoor café in Commercial Square, (site of the original Royal Palace) on the Tagus River (Which stretches over 1000 kilometers…over 700 of that distance in Spain). A famous Portuguese song points out that “while we each grow older, the Tagus remains young.” As we ordered our meal we watched the ships and boats go back and forth before us on this perfect evening. We ate at the exact spot where King Carlos was assassinated in 1908, resulting in Portugal becoming a republic in 1910. This was a wonderful evening with Austin…listening to his dreams and goals for Kayla and himself in the forthcoming years. After dinner, we walked back to our beautiful hotel and now dry bathroom.

Day 11 This morning, Alberto took us on a tour of Lisbon. Lisbon seems much newer that the ancient cites we had been visiting for good reason….in 1755 an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the city and most buildings have been constructed since that date. Many of the buildings are pink and Alberto said the in Portugal folks tell their children to have “pink dreams” as they put them to bed each night. He said that the Portuguese are “dreamers, not a practical people” and sometimes their lack of organization can be attributed to this personality trait.

Portugal was neutral during WWII, so many royal families spent the war years here. Portugal is a progressive country (these dreamers) and were the first country in Europe to outlaw slavery and the death penalty (some dreams are wonderful).

The city is beautiful, with its patterned sidewalks made of black and while limestone. Many of the streets are named for the

kind of activity featured there…Shoemaker Street, Candle Maker Street, Church Street.

We visited El Fama, the famous Jewish area, and one of our fellow traveling couples had gone to services there the evening before. To visit the service, they had had to forward copies of their passports in advance because of the fear of outsider disruptions. Following the service, a surprise dinner was held in their honor. The rabbi in attendance, on sabbatical from Brooklyn, NY, was the author of the prayer book used by their synagogue in Arizona. The couple said that this occasion was one of the most moving experiences in their lives…and, you could tell as they “glowed” when they spoke of it.

Today was Grandson Dan’s birthday and we talked about him a lot.

We visited the Monument to the Discoveries (WHS), which was inaugurated in 1960 during the 500 year celebrations marking the death of Henry the Navigator. It commemorates the many maritime expansions of Portugal and well as the many famous Portuguese explorers…Vasco de Gama and Pedro Alvares Cabral (discovered of Brazil). We then visited the Belem Tower, built in the 16 century, to commemorate De Gama’s expedition. We also visited the aqueduct (1734-1967) which is 60 meters high and 35 kilometers long. It no longer produces potable

water, but is still intact and survived the earthquake of 1755.

Our last tour was to Sintra, Cascais and the Estoril Coast…seaside resorts where the rich and famous have their summer homes. We strolled along the seaside and shopped in their many shops. Ruth bought tee shirts of the boys and me and we celebrated our last tour day by having a “Gelato Lunch,” which Austin listed as his favorite activity of the entire trip. He and I had four dips/four flavors and he said it was the best dessert he had ever had in his life.

We headed back to the hotel to freshen up before our Goodbye Dinner, held at a quaint restaurant in downtown Lisbon. We shared stories of our favorite moments of the trip and said our goodbyes to our new friends, many of whom we will never see again. Many of our new friends touched our lives: the woman whose husband had had a pool accident shortly after their

marriage and was a quadriplegic for 35 years before is recent death…she had a career as a teacher and cared for him at home all those years…a real love story; the woman whose husband died of a heart attack while on a camping trip, leaving her to run the business in her new and unfamiliar homeland; and, other stories of overcoming obstacles and dealing with grief. Ruth, Austin and I counted our blessings…we have had our problems but we have each other for support and can look forward to the future with confidence and hope.

We all seemed a little sad to be leaving our friends, but looking forward to seeing our old friends and family back home.

Back at the hotel, as folks were saying their final goodbyes as we would all be leaving at different times the next morning, a pick pocket took one lady’s person as she was hugging a new friend goodbye. A sad way for that family to end their trip as her camera, with all of their trip pictures, was gone. I made a mental note to send her pictures which included them. We were grateful we had not lost or left any of possessions.

Day 12 An early start to the airport. We tipped Alberto and Paolo, boarded our plane and were off to London and New York. The trip was on time and uneventful, but I would be remiss if I did not tell you one last story which will forever cause smiles and laughter on the part of Austin and Ruth. I was

watching a movie and after trying to replace the Chinese subtitles with English ones, turned to Austin, who was sitting on the other side of Ruth in the window seat, “Austin, help me change these subtitles.” The both jumped as if I had just set off a firecracker! Ruth yanked my headset off and started laughing! I had been listening to the movie with the volume quite loud as I am losing my hearing and didn’t realize I had shouted at them. They claim I made everyone around us jump as if I had shouted, “Fire!!!” I am sure they exaggerated, but it has been the story they like to tell the most often…and Ruth gets tears in her eyes from laughing every time she tells it. I have decided I will not retaliate by telling everyone she calls her car telephone Bluetooth system, BlueTube!

Jo picked us up right on time and took us back to her apartment for a late soup and salad dinner, which was, as always, very special.

Day 13 On the drive home to Ohio, Austin nearly broke his thumbs texting Kayla, friends and family. He was no longer restricted by an “telephone plan” limiting his online time. He told us how much he loved the trip and was happy to be heading home to Kayla and his last few days before he enters the Air Force.

The main theme of the trip seemed to be about religions and kings trying to prove which/who were right…which/who had the most power, which/who could dominate…and many little folks like us suffered from these battles for dominance and the oppression of their leaders. It is still going on today! It is sad!

Ruth and I reflected a lot about the above dilemmas, but mostly about our time with Austin. He has become a fine young man and seems ready to take on the world. He hasn’t been hit with the reality of apartment rent dates, the rigors of boot camp nor the long separations from loved ones yet…but we think he can handle it…he sure is smart enough, as he led us all over Spain and Portugal. Austin was a great traveling companion and didn’t have many bad things to say about his older traveling companions (“Every time the guide says something, half the men say, ‘What’d he say?’”) and was always polite and thoughtful…traits that will serve him well in the future. Ruth and I are glad we undertook these four trips with our grandsons as they will have lasting memories of places and of us…and we will have many memories of special times we spent together. Unlike kings and some religious leaders, our voyage with Austin was about love and encouragement and a deep hope that he will always choose the high road (the road less traveled) as he lives his life and relates to others. He has started his own voyage and his itinerary looks promising.

July 2011