The 12:00 to Badajoz  The 14:09 to Extremadura  The 17:27 to Lisbon     Rick Blaine had an easier time getting on the last plane to Lisbon out of Casablanca than it would seem Carol and I had in getting there from Seville. Say goodbye to the train-is-the-destination guiding principle for this trip. From here on in […]

Photo credit: Carol Madigan    I think these ridiculously narrow, old city Seville sidewalks are how tightrope walkers train. Yet our’s led directly to a barber shop. No, I’m not belaboring a cliché.  Carol had been “advocating” a haircut since we landed in Europe. But I was crafty enough to put it off by offering, “we’re […]

Photo credit: Carol Madigan    Since the Spanish social evening doesn’t begin until a typical (senior) American one ends, Carol and I were going to have to pace ourselves (read: take a nap) in order to be ready to attend our first professional European soccer game, which didn’t kick off (is that what they call the […]

Photo credit: Carol Madigan The 8:00 to Seville     The worst part of an 8:00 train, besides the airport-like ungodly hour you have to get up for it, is that it’s also too early in the morning for wine while aboard. Add a full, chatty, phone-prone first class demographic, and you have yet another case where […]

Photo credit: Carol Madigan    Given we had a 5:45 a.m. wake up call for our 8:00 a.m. train to Seville in the morning, I was still hoping for a light day. El Retiro Park was a pleasant subway ride, further enhanced by a smiling toddler who wanted to practice waving hello to total strangers such […]

Photo credit: Carol Madigan    As Carol had already confirmed there was nothing in particular she wanted to see here, I’d hoped Madrid would offer a respite from the Sturm und Drang of sightseeing. We were headed for Toledo today, but that was going to be a Hop On Hop Off bus ride, which is a […]

   Since the train ride to Madrid wasn’t a destination, then Madrid would have to be one. Only thing was neither Carol nor I had any bucket lists to scratch off for the capital of Spain. Typical American narrow-mindedness right? Yup. Turns out, a wood-fired pizza place just up the corner from our apartment and a […]

The 12:00 to Madrid     Some train stations try to mimic the airline experience, and Barcelona Sants is one of them. There is a TSA-type bag and security check prior to entering a “gate” area, where you line up before passing through a boarding pass check. Then, an escalator down to the platform, where you stand […]

Photo Credit: Carol Madigan    The mistakes and missteps were beginning to pile up on this trip: The wrong date on the Figueres return ticket, saying “I’m bored” out loud. If you want to maintain a slacker’s approach to travel, you need to maintain an almost pristine record when it comes to screw-ups. Otherwise your slacker […]

   I can’t explain a lot about the things I believe, and trying to explain these two artists is no exception. On the one hand I casually dismissed the one at first encounter; the other I’ve unquestionably embraced since my first experience of him as a teenager. To me anyway, Antoni Gaudi and Salvador Dali both […]