The Rain in Spain Never Fell on the Plain - Did I miss anything while I was gone?

Saturday, October 21, 2023

We returned Friday from a tour of northern Spain, our first travel since fall 2018 when we toured Croatia. We had the best two weeks of weather ever and missed the rain in NYC. We were hoping to bring back some of that nice weather - maybe tomorrow. We traveled with Insight Tours for the second time. There were a batch of Aussies, Filipinos, Canadians and some Americans, so it was a very international tour.

I won't bore you with too many details other than to say we landed in Madrid a day before the tour began to peruse that city for the first time and loved what we saw in the 3 days we were there. Then we headed north to a variety of places along the north coast of Spain, which I had visited briefly only once before on trip sponsored by my then boss at the DOE to establish a robotics partnership with a middle school in Queens and in a small town. That was in mid-January I think 2005, so it was pretty chilly then.

The tour guide told is this was wet and chilly season for northern Spain but we were high(temps) and dry -- we ended up in Barcelona where it was also expected to rain but never did. This was a return to Barcelona after 20 years and we loved it more than ever and stayed an extra 3 days. 

From the vantage point of a tourist, Spain seems to work. Clean, efficient, seeming to be flourishing on so many levels, I can see living there if things get iffy here. Barcelona especially. But I think I'd have to go beyond the two Spanish words I know.

A few pics from the top site in Barcelona -- Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, 150 years under construction. I love anything Gaudi -- check out his work.

We went to Parc Guell too. 

I have hundreds of photos, many of my wife and I eating and drinking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I miss anything while I was gone? I heard something about AmyGate in the UFT. Hmmm, sounds intriguing. Maybe I'll weigh in later. My UFT chat pals did a pretty good job of keeping me informed. I did miss a few ex bd and Retiree Advocate meetings, so my UFT updates are a bit rusty. A good thing, maybe? But darn, missing those Ex bd dinners while forced to eat paella was a chore.