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.

Barcelona, Spain

Our first day is a long one.  The flights are split, 4 hours to New York, 6 hours to Barcelona.  Once there, we wait for Nicida’s sister and partner. We wait, in the airport for their flight, arriving 8-hours after ours.  We enjoy breakfast, then, a few hours later, lunch. 
We call ATT to get my phone to work with the local cell networks.  We pass the time by going for a walk around the terminal, then out to the bus terminal where we watch tour guides lead their guests to the appropriate bus.  Just by observing, we can tell the guide’s head count does not match the number on their list, launching a hasty, organized search for the stragglers.  From our vantage point this is the entertainment portion of our wait.  Nicida and I are convinced that we are not organized tour people.

Tour bus terminal

Finding Nicida’s sister and partner among the hundreds of people emerging from immigration is a challenge, but somehow, we find each other.  Our next task is to make our way to the taxi stand.  We find multiple lines of taxis stretching as far as we can see.  In no time, we are on our way to our Airbnb.  As we are riding to our apartment, texts fly back and forth between me and our Airbnb contact.  She cannot make it for another 90 minutes so we pass the time relaxing at a café with coffee and juices.

Tax agency building

Our contact arrives, right on time, and we are shown the apartment.  The steps up to the apartment are steep, fortunately we only have to go up one floor.  We find the two-bedroom, one-bath apartment acceptable, then start unpacking. 

                                                    One of many street performers

From there we head off to a local grocery store for turkey and cheeses for sandwiches, milk, oatmeal, drinking water, and chips.  We arrive back at the room exhausted with just enough energy to make something to eat, shower, then to bed.  I call my mom telling her of our adventure so far, and find myself falling asleep during our conversation.  Time for bed.

Alternative travel

Since we are in each of the cities for only a few days each, we have come up with a plan of attack to determine what we want to see.  Our first step is to find city tour buses.  This gives us a lay of the land helping us determine what we want to see and what to skip.

La Sagrada Familia

Barcelona has two separate bus tour routes.  A short half-mile walk gets us to the stops for each route.  The tours are good, the buses iffy, unusable seat belts and/or headphone connections for the pre-recorded audio guide.  Our highlights of Barcelona are the La Sagrada Familia, and Park Guell for the unique style of architect Antoni Gaudi.

The Sagrada Familia was designed in 1882.  In 1883 Antoni Gaudi took over the project, changing the original design.  The outside consists of three Facades; Nativity, Passion and Glory. The Glory Facade is yet to be completed.  The Basilica itself is scheduled to be completed in 2034.

Nativity Facade

Passion Facade

Nativity Facade

Be sure to get tickets to tour the inside of La Sagrada Familia, it is unlike any church I have seen. We spend almost three hours taking in the details. 

                                                    Inside La Sagrada Familia

Other sites include the Olympic stadium built in 1929 on Montjuic hill.  It was renovated and used for the 1992 Olympics.

 

La Rambla

The Mercado near La Rambla is a treat; stalls of nuts, oils, cheeses, seafood, sausages, produce, and juices overwhelm the senses with exotic smells, flavors, colors and shapes tempting us to buy and try.

La Sagrada Familia from Park Guell

Park Guell

Park Guell

Monserrat

Basilica de Monserrat

Not in Barcelona, but an hour train ride away, is Monserrat, a Benedictine abbey in the mountains northwest of Barcelona.  It is an easy day trip.  We were told to get there early to beat the crowds arriving by bus.  We have a choice between two modes of travel to take us from the train station up to the abbey, a rack railway or a cable car. 

Yellow aerial tram car
 to Monserrat

Once there, you can tour the buildings and museums, hike the trails, and admire the views of the surrounding mountains and valleys below.  Funiculars departing from the main plaza provide rides up and down to additional hiking trails and vistas.

Travel day to Vigo, Spain

We are up early, first, breakfast, then a walk to the post office to mail postcards, and finally, catch a taxi to the train station.

This is my first train trip in Europe.  It’s a different experience than an airport.  The station is larger, more people and seemingly less organized.  We put on our masks, our regular routine since Covid.  I am nervous at all the activity, the masses of people, and having to learn to wait for announcements.  Nicida is calm, she has done this before, she informs me that this is normal….  First, we sit in a general area waiting for the track number to be assigned, which happens an hour before the scheduled departure.  Once that is announced, we have our luggage scanned. Bottles of drinking water are okay, cameras do not need to be scanned.  Then comes a mad rush of passengers searching for the appropriate line, based on the train car we are assigned to.  Then we wait again…  At the appropriate time the tickets are scanned for each passenger and the slow, broad, line changes into a slow, single file line past the ticket taker, then, the line becomes a fast moving single passenger line, dashing to the appointed car.

Our luggage, two carry-ons, safely stowed above us, allows us to settle in for the ride to Madrid, followed by a second train to Vigo.  The car is full of passengers, I can see why there is a rush to your car, there is limited space for luggage.  On all of our rail trips there always seems to be some room for luggage.

Arriving in Madrid, we work our way through the station looking for our boarding area.  We come to a room packed with people, think – concert sized crowd.  We learn that there is a technical malfunction affecting many of the trains leaving Madrid.  We learn this seems to be a monthly occurrence with these  trains.  We camp out next to the restaurant, keeping our eyes peeled for a table opening.  Our appointed departure time comes and goes, our train time is still not up on the departure board.  We spot a few people starting to leave a table, we pounce, even before they are gone.  An hour later our train shows up on the board – 'delayed' – nothing else.  Finally our train has a time and track assignment.  We start working our way through the ‘concert crowd’.  Two hours after our scheduled departure we are on the train starting our trip to Vigo.

Once out of Madrid, we are riding among rolling hills of sparse vegetation, reminding me of the Pinnacles area of central California.  At 290+ km/hr (180 mi/hr) we speed by fields of sad looking sunflowers.  Spain is experiencing drought conditions.  We pass by burnt out areas from small wildfires interspersed with bright green patches and the light tans of cut wheat.  I feel like we are going across midwestern US, until I spot the tall spire of a 100+ year old Gothic church, or an equally old castle.

We arrive in Vigo after dark.  Our hosts are patiently waiting for us, taking the time to explain how everything works before heading home.  Opening the window, getting ready for bed, we hear sea gulls calling.  The next morning we head out to a local bakery finding empanadas and croissants for breakfast.  We also learn from the servers at the bakery that a local grocery store is just down the block.

Vigo

Shrimp, mussels, octopus
and cheese

Vigo is in Galicia, on the northwest coast of Spain. Nicida’s nephew and his wife live in Vigo, our main reason for visiting.   As I have said before, of some of the locations we visit, ‘you have to want to come here.’  It is a four-hour train ride from Madrid.  It is one of the smallest cities we will be staying at and visiting on this trip, at 480,000.  We walk along the port coming across the 18^th annual Fiesta Do Marisco De Vigo – A Celebration of Seafood.  A large tent is waiting for people, here we can dine on seafood, bread, cheese, beer, wine, hear and see traditional Galician music and dance.  Many of the foods I do not recognize, but I am willing to try.  We return to the small trailers outside the tent to decide what food we wish to order, then purchase those tickets.  Today, we share shrimp, octopus, paella, and pasta.  Being cheese lovers we splurge on a smorgasbord of cheeses, including gorgonzola, and goat, along with a few others the cheese monger recommends, all are tasty, no cheese was left when we finished our lunch.

Imagine waking up to this
outside your apartment window

Lunch taken care of, we wander up town, literally.  If one has their back to the port, you are walking uphill.  If you are walking parallel to the port your path may be level, how far above sea level depends on how far you are from the port.  As we approach the main square we find a large open area with the ‘Merman’ statue, a fish-man hybrid.  

'Merman'

We hear music, street performers at different locations all around the town.  This seems to be quite common as we experience this in all of the cities we visit in Europe.  We meet Nicida’s nephew and his wife spending a few hours catching up with them.  Nicida and I last saw them in Argentina in 2018.  They give us a tour of another part of the port learning how it is being changed so nature; crabs, mussels, fish can thrive in the port, existing with humans.

The next day we start out to tour the shipyards.  I somehow miss the edge of a curb, almost  catching myself on the way down, but don’t.  In slow motion I see my camera landing on the pavement, under me.  It breaks my fall, a bit.  Almost as important, I don’t break the camera.  Immediately, I am surrounded by everyone, including passersby, to see if I’m okay.  I sit on the ground for a bit to feel if everything is in one piece.  It is.  I get up and walk around feeling if I will call it a day or go on with our plans.  A little bruising and a couple Ibuprofens later I decide I feel well enough to go on.

Along the port we spot many shipbuilding companies.  They seem to be concentrating on large fishing vessels.  We see several in various stages of construction.  We return to the seafood festival for a second round of seafood.  Local polka music with two drummers, a 7 – 9 piece brass band, and a folk dancing group, are performing on the stage as we arrive.  After a few songs, the audience is up ‘polka-ing’ too.  We tour a bit more of the town before returning to our apartment.  I feel an ache in my right buttock.  Time for a couple more Ibuprofen.

On the last day of the seafood celebration we stop to hear the music with more folk dancers, and a musical group playing tambourines, bagpipes and singing.  Later, we catch a tour bus of Vigo seeing one of the fortresses, a garden, museum, and Samil beach.  Each of these locations were too far for us to walk to.

Cies Islands

Shore along the walkway -
at low tide

Today, we start our hospital roll call.  Each of us has a malady to report; a hip, shoulder, toes, and knee.

We take a boat to the Cies Islands, an archipelago off the coast of Pontevedra at the mouth of the bay from Vigo.  The Cies Islands are a Nature Reserve created in 2002.  On the tour boat we see how the bay is protected.  The water is smooth.  As we approach the islands, we are exposed to more open water, and waves.  The choppy ride is short as we approach the island to dock.  Back on land we stop for coffee and hot chocolate before starting on our hike to the lighthouse on the highpoint of the island.  Our trail takes us through a Eucalyptus and pine forest, leading to a walkway, high over the ocean at low tide.  At high tide, the walkway is just above the surf, with waves washing over it.  We notice the sign – Walkway closed between 4 and 6 PM due to high tide.  On the leeward side of the walkway is a campground with a series of permanent canvas tents set up for campers to rent.  They look quite comfortable for two people.  The cost is 64 – 74 Euros for the two-person tents.  It appears that campers have to supply their own stove and cooler with food, unless they eat at the on-site restaurant.

A view from the top

Continuing on, we start the climb to the lighthouse.  The air is calm and warm on the leeward side of the island.  Once we cross to the windward side, jackets are required.  Arriving at the lighthouse, we stop for lunch.  Seagulls surround us, eyeing our lunch as we eat.  The mottled brown seagulls are the youngsters, crying all the time for their parents to bring them lunch.  Seagull shadows creep across our sandwiches reminding us again to eat fast or risk losing our lunch to a gull.  The views out to the ocean are beautiful, crashing waves on the rocky coast.  The leeward side is equally beautiful with calm waters lapping small sand beaches.

Another view

As we get to the bottom of the trail we deviate to a quiet beach where the girls remove their shoes for a walk in the ocean.  I can see by the grimaces on their faces the water is cold.  I hang out on the rocks making photos of the scenes.  

The walkway at high tide

It is close to 5 PM as we approach the walkway.  Waves regularly crash into and over the walkway.  Occasionally a brave/foolish tourist quickly walks across, dodging the walls of spray.  We decide to visit restaurant, trying sandwiches and beverages waiting for 6 PM.  Even a 6 the waves still break across the walkway, but not as frequent or ferocious.  Our shoes get wet, and a few drops of saltwater make it on our clothing but nothing worse than that.  Our ride back to Vigo is a bit rough at the start but quickly smooths out as we cross into the safety of the bay.  We say our goodbyes to Nicida’s nephew and wife before returning to our apartment to pack for tomorrow’s train trip back to Madrid.

Thank you for stopping by,

 

Mark