Una semana en España

I arrived in Madrid on Friday morning, the 23rd of Sept (2005). It was nice to be back in Spain after such a long absence. My last visit was in March 1976. I was 19, and traveling with S. and M., a couple from down under I had met in Paris. That was early on during my first trip to Europe. I had arrived in February, on the famously cheap route via Reykjavik to Luxembourg offered by Icelandic airlines. I had a lovely few days in Belgium (Bruxelles, Ghent, and Brugge); saw Chaplin's City Lights for the first time, which was a revelation; and had a pleasant visit with a French family in Metz. The couple I met in Paris had bought a VW van with plans to "do Europe" in six months. I joined them for a month, during their Spanish sojourn. The idea was that I'd contribute to the cost of gas, helping them economize. It was kind of a disaster--that is, my relationship with the couple. We lost each other for an hour in San Sebastián, which got S. really pissed off; they bickered and argued (the initials S. and M. are appropriate here), and this reached its climax when S. slapped M. She gave him a real dressing-down and an ultimatum; this was very educational for a 19-year old. The ne plus ultra came when S. refused his wife's pleas for him to stop and fill up the gas tank. It was a Sunday, we were in a sparsely populated area to the south of Toledo, on our way further south, and this (stopping for gas) would have been an absolutely splendid idea. But for S., it was always "later" because apparently in his mind we were supposed to be in a hurry to get somewhere, and had no time for silly things like stopping for gas. He ended up destroying the brakes of the van, trying to coast down the mountainous roads of the region. S. and M. camped out on the side of the road, while I hitched a lift to Villa del Rio, a tiny, dusty town some 30 miles short of Cordoba. When I returned with the mechanic the next morning, S. had forgotten that in continental Europe people drive on the right side of the road. So once he got started, he took off on the left. I was with the mechanic, and we went in pursuit. As we rounded a mountain curve, there we saw the VW van face to face with a large truck, which dwarfed it. In my memory, I see S. close enough to be kissing the truck. The comedy continued when we arrived in town. We were all curiosities to the villagers, especially S., who was strapping and rotund, with a large head of reddish-brown curly hair (a quasi-Afro) and a beard. The children of the town all gaped and laughed. S. didn't like it a bit. There is so much more to this story...and my month-long adventure in Spain. Perhaps I'll have a chance to share that on another occasion.

Back to the present. Spain. The weather is beautiful, it is warm and sunny, and this would be wonderful if not for the fact that the country has been suffering a terrible drought. It is supposed to be raining this time of year, and it hasn't been doing so for a long, long time. My Spanish friends also tell me that it is unusually warm for this time of the year. They have an expression in Spain--I had never heard it before, but it is in the guidebooks--that there are nine months of invierno (winter) and three months of infierno (hell), meaning that the summers here are very very hot--a friend compared it to Phoenix--and then there is a jump directly to cool or cold weather. (They apparently don't distinguish spring and fall from winter, but I am in no position to judge; I remember that March of 30 some years ago, to have been very pleasant!)

The strong colors, the deep blue sky, all of it blessed by the sun. It is a pleasure to walk in Spanish cities. In addition to much splendid architecture, the typical cities are graced with parks and greenery. Because of the pressures of time--I need to go out and enjoy another beautiful day--I am going to dispense with further story-telling for the moment. I plan to publish (on this blog)some additional photos with captions, that I hope the curious and lovers of travel will enjoy. In the meantime, saludos!

p.s. For those with some facility in Spanish, I invite you to check out http://www.buendia.uva.es/2005BoletinEstio/ (click on link for 28 Septiembre) for an interview published by the Centro Buendía, Universidad de Valladolid (who are responsible for my being here in Spain).