Part 3 - Mid – Late Sept, 2025 – Madrid, Spain; San Malo, France; Palace of Versailles

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Madrid

Palace of Versailles

We are up early for a taxi ride to the train station for an early train to Madrid.  Today, Nicida celebrates her 50^th anniversary of receiving her Bachelor’s Degree.  Two other graduates from her group of friends meet us at the apartment before we head off for the ceremony.  There are about 120 graduates attending this ceremony.  It is being broadcast to other locations for those that cannot make it to Madrid.  With the exception of one notable statement ‘Keep questioning, don’t judge,’ the entire proceedings are in Spanish.  As with all ceremonial programs each speaker has more to say than their allotted time so the program runs an hour longer than planned.  After several speeches, the graduates are announced, then come forward to receive their pins, commemorating the event.  It is nice to see the school photos from when they attended the school, of each of the graduates.  When the 50^th anniversary students are announced, I position myself among many others, for photos of those in Nicida’s class.  Being tall is an advantage this time.  A nice event.  Nicida and I retire to a local Venezuelan restaurant, where we had lunch earlier today.  We enjoy a nice meal while visiting with the restaurant owner.

Part 2 - Early Sept – mid Sept, 2025 – Madrid, Spain; Toledo, Spain; Valencia, Spain

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Madrid

Madrid Street Musicians

Conveniently, the train station in Vigo is located in a shopping mall.  It appears different than when we arrived a few days earlier because our trip back to Madrid is during mall business hours.  The train departs empty, but by the third stop is full of passengers.  Our train ride from Vigo back to Madrid is uneventful. 

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.