Part 1 - Early September 2025, Barcelona, Spain; Vigo, Spain

Early September 2025 – Start of trip, Barcelona, Spain; Vigo, Spain

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Background/preparation

Bell Tower steps,
La Sagrada Familia

We are off on a European adventure.  Nicida is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of getting her Bachelor’s degree.  At the same time, she is meeting with a few her fellow graduates for a three-day get together in Madrid, Spain.  Finally, we will be visiting various friends and family members along our journey.  Hang on, to see how our multi-city, multi-country tour unfolds.

Our trip process starts with purchasing our flight tickets May.  Planning for this adventure is not as easy as it seems.  Dates and the location for the September ceremony are not determined until a month before we leave, late July.  Finding places to stay and train tickets is not a big issue because the ceremony occurs in late September, after the throngs of tourists subsides.  For scheduling and planning, we build two calendars using Excel spreadsheets, filling in parts that won’t change no matter what ceremony date is chosen. We fit destinations, tours, and family visits into the first 10 days of September and the last days of September, into October.  In between, we have tentative days and locations for either ceremony date.

I work my way down the list of reservations; 6-AirBnb’s, 1-hotel, 7-trains, 3-flights, and untold number of tours.

Once all the dates and locations are reserved, I print out all the paperwork needed to get into AirBnb’s, on to trains, tour buses, and museums.  The stack of papers is thick, but I don’t have to rely on my phone working.

Oh, by the way, one week before we left on our trip I was diagnosed with Covid.