We have been away on a very extended trip in Europe. It was great fun and quite challenging to plan and execute. We traveled from Lisbon through Portugal by car, overnight train to Madrid, train to Segovia and Seville, car to Granada, overnight train to Barcelona, train to Arles, a barge cruise on the Canal du Midi, and finally a train to Paris. Except on the barge, which was for the most part a lush decompress, we were on the go most days from early until late usually with a nap in the afternoon. Almost no television (the only things that seemed to be on were soccer and snooker).
We walked a lot and used the excellent public transport in the bigger cities. In the smaller ones most of what we wanted to do was a short walk away. We blogged about the trip as we went along and took probably well over a thousand photos with camera, iPhone, and iPad. Those we have winnowed down to around 700. Each night we'd review what we took and toss the ones that weren't good. We've put together a half dozen montages of pictures--she calls them the highlight reel--and she plans to do a scrapbook.
A typical day had us up for coffee and croissants by around nine. We'd visit a church or museum, grab another coffee, take the metro to another site, visit that, grab a bite to eat somewhere (in Portugal and France that would be around 1300 or so, in Spain later), go see something else or even just wander through a pedestrian mall of some kind, get back to the hotel around 1600, take a nap, and be out again in the evening. In Portugal and France we'd eat between 1900 and 2000, but in Spain it was often later, sometimes as late as 2200 and that was when the locals were just beginning their evening perambulations. It rained in Coimbra, Porto, Madrid, Segovia, and Paris, and was cool for much of the trip, but we managed.
Some highlights: The Cloister of St. Jeronimos in Belem in Lisbon; the Chapel of the Bones in Evora, a field of megaliths outside of Evora, the Ribiera in Porto in the rain, a Real Madrid game, the Prado in Madrid, Guernica at Riena Sofia in Madrid, the Alcazar in Seville, the Alhambra in Granada, the Picasso and Miro Museums in Barcelona, Gaudi's magnificent Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell and La Predrera by Gaudi, the Cote du Rhone circuit outside of Arles, Les Baux (an ancient hilltop castle town in Provence), the Gardens at Giverny and the Monet Waterlilies at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris.
The six days on the barge were the exception. Though we took some side tours by van (yuccchhh!) and cycled a very few kilometres along the canal, most of it was a slow cruise with every need attended to and chef prepared four course meals every night (appetizer, entree, cheese course, dessert with a different wine for each course). The motto one of our fellow travelers, a Brit, created was "I could get used to this."
A couple weeks after my wife made the comment that she'd "fallen into a hole," and now I realize that I have, too. I don't know whether this is normal post action let down or something a little deeper, but I can't seem to get focused and operating. I manage, but just do the minimum. This is the first writing of any consequence (for what it is worth) that I have done since we got back. I have a course starting in two weeks that I need to get set up and running and I keep veering off from doing it. I've even struggled a bit with my not smoking, cheating a few times in the last couple of weeks.
She's been good about not chivvying me about any of it, and I've been careful to keep up with household maintenance things that are my job, and I've been mentally beating myself up about it and trying to think my way through it. It has occurred to me to write my way out, so maybe this is a start. And I am starting to queue up things I should attend to. Back to one step at a time.
We walked a lot and used the excellent public transport in the bigger cities. In the smaller ones most of what we wanted to do was a short walk away. We blogged about the trip as we went along and took probably well over a thousand photos with camera, iPhone, and iPad. Those we have winnowed down to around 700. Each night we'd review what we took and toss the ones that weren't good. We've put together a half dozen montages of pictures--she calls them the highlight reel--and she plans to do a scrapbook.
A typical day had us up for coffee and croissants by around nine. We'd visit a church or museum, grab another coffee, take the metro to another site, visit that, grab a bite to eat somewhere (in Portugal and France that would be around 1300 or so, in Spain later), go see something else or even just wander through a pedestrian mall of some kind, get back to the hotel around 1600, take a nap, and be out again in the evening. In Portugal and France we'd eat between 1900 and 2000, but in Spain it was often later, sometimes as late as 2200 and that was when the locals were just beginning their evening perambulations. It rained in Coimbra, Porto, Madrid, Segovia, and Paris, and was cool for much of the trip, but we managed.
Some highlights: The Cloister of St. Jeronimos in Belem in Lisbon; the Chapel of the Bones in Evora, a field of megaliths outside of Evora, the Ribiera in Porto in the rain, a Real Madrid game, the Prado in Madrid, Guernica at Riena Sofia in Madrid, the Alcazar in Seville, the Alhambra in Granada, the Picasso and Miro Museums in Barcelona, Gaudi's magnificent Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell and La Predrera by Gaudi, the Cote du Rhone circuit outside of Arles, Les Baux (an ancient hilltop castle town in Provence), the Gardens at Giverny and the Monet Waterlilies at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris.
The six days on the barge were the exception. Though we took some side tours by van (yuccchhh!) and cycled a very few kilometres along the canal, most of it was a slow cruise with every need attended to and chef prepared four course meals every night (appetizer, entree, cheese course, dessert with a different wine for each course). The motto one of our fellow travelers, a Brit, created was "I could get used to this."
A couple weeks after my wife made the comment that she'd "fallen into a hole," and now I realize that I have, too. I don't know whether this is normal post action let down or something a little deeper, but I can't seem to get focused and operating. I manage, but just do the minimum. This is the first writing of any consequence (for what it is worth) that I have done since we got back. I have a course starting in two weeks that I need to get set up and running and I keep veering off from doing it. I've even struggled a bit with my not smoking, cheating a few times in the last couple of weeks.
She's been good about not chivvying me about any of it, and I've been careful to keep up with household maintenance things that are my job, and I've been mentally beating myself up about it and trying to think my way through it. It has occurred to me to write my way out, so maybe this is a start. And I am starting to queue up things I should attend to. Back to one step at a time.
