Rita Speaks Two

Rita taking a break on the tiled serpentine bench at Gaudi's Park Guell in Barcelona 

I cannot believe we have reached the final days of our Spain tour after covering a big (no surprise, Spain is the third largest country in Europe) part of this beautiful country. Starting off in Barcelona, Catalonia on the Mediterranean coast and finishing off 35 days later in San Sebastian, Basque Country on the Atlantic coast.  Spain is made up of 17 autonomous regions, we managed to visit and learn about eight of them: Catalonia, Madrid (as well as being the capital of Spain, it is also an autonomous region), Castilla, Andalucía, Castilla Y Leon, Galicia, Navarra and Basque Country.

Spain's topography is extremely varied.  During one day of driving from Granada to Segovia we saw nothing but olive trees for hours. On another longer leg from Salamanca to Santiago de Compostela, it was pretty much rough countryside, very little in terms of farming, just rocky outcroppings with very little vegetation. Lastly in Basque Country, beautiful rolling, green hills and mountains which we both loved.  But Geoff kept reminding me that most of Spain's rainfall happens in this region😊. 

Occasionally, language has been a bit of a challenge–although most people, especially in the bigger tourist centers, do speak English, however we did come across “No Ingles” a few times.  Smiles and hand gestures on both sides usually got the message across.  Interesting how many different “official” languages are spoken in Spain.  Spanish (Castilian) is the national language and is spoken everywhere with Catalan (spoken by 17% of the population), Galician (7%), Basque (2%) and in those regions, the signs are in both “official” languages. We found it especially hard to read and pronounce words in the Basque Country.

Because we were traveling to several small medieval towns and villages, we decide to rent the smallest car possible. Not only are the roads extremely narrow, parking is a challenge as well. Our little KIA with stick shift (note to self, next time automatic!!) performed well, and according to Geoff was easy to drive. We kept wondering how we navigated before GPS? Thanks to Sally, she guided us through endless “roundabouts”, on and off Motorways and even advised our estimated arrival time, pee breaks not included! 

The Cathedrals, Churches and Alcazars were amazing, a bit overwhelming for me at times. When I was looking for some “retail therapy” all shops were closed for siesta (2-5 pm).  Geoff, well done on the time management😞. I tried to be more patient while Geoff took hundreds of pictures (really) sometimes we had to visit the same place twice because the light (of course the light) had changed. I don’t SEE what Geoff sees when he takes the photos but I like the results.

It was a busy trip, including scheduled tours, a lot of sightseeing and moving around by train and car. We stayed in six beautiful apartments and six amazing Paradore hotels. Not surprising then, when reaching our final  destination in San Sebastian, an amazing apartment with a spectacular view, we didn’t want to move.  We did not go out for dinner once but enjoyed the "million-dollar" view from our deck with wine and cava  supplied from our landlords winery – a real treat.  It was a good opportunity to start making plans for our next adventure.  No rest for Blogger Boy!!!