Craig and Geoff's third trip to Europe: Winter 2000-01

Monday, December 25, 2000 (Holiday #1: Christmas)

Tuesday, December 26 (Holiday #2: Boxing Day)

Geoff-
So you're all thinking, a singing Jack Nicholson? Yeah, it didn't work. After the show we went to the dance club Heaven, and had a great time there. I had been wanting to go for years as it has one of those international reputations. Surprisingly it's quite understated, located in this enormous vaulted basement. No fancy laser effects or super-duper lighting, just solid fun people letting go to solid fun music.

Wednesday, December 27

Geoff-
It survived 2000 years as the only connection between us and the ancient writings of the Egyptians, and now you can eat its replica! Gotta love it.

Craig-
We had an excellent Indian meal (our favorite British food) and went to the play "An Inspector Calls", which we loved. It was originally a radio play written just before World War II, taking place just before World War I. Its criticism of English classism and society's "every man for himself" attitude was biting, and the layers of broader symbolism were rich.

After the play we met up with Curtis and two friends we met online: Phil and Mike. Phil and Mike took us to a "boozer" (working class pub) in the East End called The White Swan which has an amateur strip contest every Wednesday. It was crowded since most people were off work. As they were calling for people to enter the contest, Geoff started encouraging me to enter. I was afraid I would make a fool of myself and felt timid, but I confessed I was tempted. Geoff persisted, and finally I succumbed to the reasoning that it would be a fun experience I would not regret, and I entered. With the crowd as the judges, I was the clear winner out of the five contestants! So I won £100 (about $150)! It was a lot of fun, and made for a most memorable night for me and our group of friends.

Thursday, December 28

We took the subway from the airport to our hotel (getting a bit lost on the winding streets) and checked in to our nice, large, convenient home for the next 6 nights. We found a good, modern Spanish restaurant in the largely gay Chueca district for dinner, and chatted for a bit (in English) with the couple at the adjacent table, Francois and David, who offered us advice on bars and clubs to check out.

Madrid was absolutely beautiful, with majestic buildings beautifully lit throughout the city center, and lots of people walking about at all hours. I figured out one reason why Spaniards stay up so late: their time zone is way off. All of continental Europe is on the same time zone, whereas the U.K. is one hour earlier. So our flight southwest from London to Madrid required us to set our clocks back one hour, meaning the sun sets when the clock reads probably 2 hours later in Madrid than in London.

Friday, December 29

Geoff-
Madrid recently opened a huge modern art museum, the Reina Sofia, and therefore moved all of their modern art from the Prado to this new museum, including the much heralded Guernica. This meant the Prado holds primarily Christian religious art from the 15th to 18th centuries: not our cup of tea.

Craig-
So we only stayed about an hour and a half. The only work that stayed with us was El Bosco's 15th Century "Garden of Earthly Delights", not for its simplistic moralism, but for its surreal style. It could easily have sat in the Reina Sofia and passed for modern art!

After a siesta we went to the Reina Sofia. Its size was a bit overwhelming, but we thoroughly enjoyed Picasso's works, and some by Dali, Torres, etc. We were inspired to buy ourselves a poster of Torres' luscious painting titled "nudes on the beach."

That night we went to the bar Casa Patas for a midnight flamenco performance, as recommended by our guidebook. They had the popular performer Merenguito, but after an anxious wait we managed to get tickets. We were crammed into a smoky performance space, but the intensity of the performers and the audience's rapture kept us focused. They had two women who did a bit of excellent dancing on the tiny stage, but the focus of the show was music. The music was similar in style to the Gypsy Kings, with intense vocals that border on wailing, and lots of guitar and percussion. The audience clapped along with many songs and yelled "Olay!" in appreciation. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and Geoff had a good time too despite the near-suffocating smoke.

We went out to a couple bars Francois and David had recommended, finding the dance floor of Camp to be a lot of fun.

Geoff-
This ultramodern club looks more like an uber-chic restaurant with its two-story glass window front, tables and cloth textured walls, but the DJs transformed the atmosphere. In the tiny blue-lit basement the DJ stood in the center of the dance-floor mixing 70s disco-tracks into alternative electronica. It was incredible to dance to, except for the fact that there was no air circulation and the heavy smoke clung to my lungs. It was not the first time I left a bar in Spain feeling like I had just smoked a pack of cigarettes.

Craig-
As we were about to leave, a couple of young guys asked where we were from, and were very excited to hear we were from the U.S. They wouldn't leave us alone for the next 45 minutes with their eagerness to talk despite our great difficulty expressing ourselves in Spanish and understanding their thick Madrid accents. I found it fun, but Geoff was a bit tired and not up for communicating.

By this point in the trip I was hitting a wall in my confidence with Spanish. I've forgotten a lot and lost a lot of comfort with Spanish since our last trip to Spain a year and a half ago and the 2 semester classes I took just before that. Geoff's Spanish is almost as good as mine, from his 3 years in high school. Communicating in Spanish was hard from the beginning on this trip, but I had enough enthusiasm to carry me for a while. By this point, however, I was feeling very frustrated and incapable of expression, a feeling really driven home by our interaction at the bar. I remember hitting this point even worse with my French on my trip to the Ivory Coast in 1990. At least on this trip Geoff and I could talk to each other easily.

Saturday, December 30

Geoff-
The Thyssen stands out as one of the highlights of our trip. This amazing museum must be the tightest, most brilliantly displayed collection of any museum I have ever been to. It has exceptional works from every major period of art, works you don't normally see explored in one museum exhibition, Jazz Era New York, late Van Goghs, early 15th century portraiture, and even 1980s Pop Art. I was blown away and found the very Spanish stuccoed bright pink walls and uncovered large windows allowing natural light to stream to the 18th century building housing the museum added charm. For an exceptional collection this museum is not to be missed. From there we walked up the Paseo del Prado, winding our way through the arts and crafts booths hawking their wares, past the main library which resembles a palace, to the Madrid Cultural Center which is actually located underground. As we stepped down, along the side of a waterfall, we walked behind the roaring falls to the ticket booth. Screaming over the thunder of the water we bought two tickets for that evening's performance of a young flamenco group led by Rafael Amargo. We grabbed a bite to eat across the street and I went to a gym in the Chueca district while Craig wrote postcards at a nearby cafe. We met up and skipped off to the performance. The modern cultural center was notable for its seats: large, black leather, executive chair bucket seats that were too comfortable for our tired selves.

Craig-
We did doze a bit, but the performance was very high energy, with intense, fast tap-style flamenco dancing, women with huge dresses flapping about, etc. I was most stunned by the group of women in high heels and long dresses with trains dragging on the ground. They danced with fervor and swished those dresses more than I thought was possible -- and never tripped!

Geoff-
Rested and charged from the performance we went to a fun bar called Liquid where we met an Irishman and his Sardinian boyfriend who were visiting from London and the adorable 18 year old Diego, visiting also from Sardinia, and a few straight local gals who were very fun. They all spoke English which made for some very satisfying exchanges.

Sunday, December 31 (Holiday #3: New Year's Eve and Sunday)

Geoff-
I generally hate crowds and in the US I would not be caught dead schlepping off to some cordoned-off drunk fest where police presence reminds me of the messy night many people are looking forward to. In Spain I threw caution to the wind and went with it. We dragged ourselves over to the Plaza of the Sun where a large clock marks the new year with 12 distinct chimes. The tradition is to pop a grape into your mouth with each chime and in this ridiculous state swig down some champagne. Sounds fine until you realize they don't sell seedless grapes anywhere. But we had fun. We hung out there with Diego, a sweet 18 year old gay boy from Sardinia whom we had met the night before.

Craig-
The main thing I enjoyed about the scene at Plaza del Sol was its mixed-European feeling. We weren't just surrounded by Spaniards; we were surrounded by people from all over Europe. We kept on hearing various languages, especially Italian. (Diego said they like Spain because it's affordable and the language and culture are similar.) This combined with the group we hung out with at Liquid the night before gave me a sense of a fun European cultural mix, where people shift between different languages and everyone parties together.

After we'd had enough of the drunk crowd, Diego and we killed time walking around and singing before going to the big disco.

Geoff-
This is how ridiculous Spaniards are about their late nights: even on New Year's Eve you aren't caught dead going to a club before 2 AM. What the hell you are supposed to do in the intervening 2 hours is anyone's guess. The club didn't even open until 12:30. We did run into Francois and David there and made some new acquaintances. Around 5:30 folks started talking about going to the next club. At 7:00 AM we pulled the emergency break on this Spanish Disco train and found the exit - sometimes you follow the locals, and sometimes you accept your limitations as a tourist.

Monday, January 1, 2001 (Holiday #4: New Year's Day)

Tuesday, January 2

Also in Toledo we got our first taste of Moorish (Islamic) architecture, in the two synagogues we saw there, ironically enough. The most beautiful was named the synagogue of Saint Mary the White, because it was turned into a church of that name after the Inquisition. Similar to the Jewish museum in Amsterdam, they turned the other old synagogue into a museum to educate people about Judaism, starting with the real basics. To me this demonstrates how much damage Europe's history of anti-Semitism has done--non-Jews seem to have no knowledge of Judaism whatsoever. I'm glad to see that now an attempt is being made to educate people and demystify Judaism.

We got to these synagogues just before the siesta, which is more of a factor in Toledo and Southern Spain. A store we'd hoped to go to was closed for siesta, and we decided not to wait around a few hours for it to open again. As we walked down to the bus station we passed this impressive series of arches, with Toledo's coat of arms on the exterior wall.

Geoff-
We killed some time and made our way to La Baraca for our anticipated Paella. The snobbish restaurant seated us very late but thank goodness the Paella was everything we expected. It was matched by a fantastic local red wine that was only $12 for the bottle. We chased all over Spain trying to find that wine again to take home, but it was a very select wine from a small producer so we had no luck.

Wednesday, January 3

We loved the mosque's huge array of red and white striped arches and intricately decorated ceilings and details.

After re-conquering Spain, the Catholics modified the center of the mosque to turn it into a cathedral, with higher ceilings, displays of gold and marble, and Christian imagery:

These changes, of course, break up the beautiful geometry of the original design. I found myself feeling mad at the conquering Catholics for destroying this sacred place, and resentful that we had to pay them to visit "their cathedral". However, they have a prominent display of archeological artifacts showing that the site was a church before it was a mosque. So it certainly complicates the question of who ruined whose sacred space. Such a long, varied history defies simple categorization.

Geoff-
We had a crappy tourist map which did little good in the winding medieval streets that changed names and direction with every turn, and there were many turns. But we didn't care; the old city was small and each turn a joy. We did find our way to the river to see an old Roman Bridge still in use and then down to the edge of the old city to follow its clean and striking wall. The town had converted this into a mini park with reflecting pools, trees and benches.

As we saw in other medieval cities like Toledo and even Carcosonne in France last year the outer city walls often served double duty as sides or backs of homes. This is where we found an old Synagogue, the only one remaining in the town which used to be a Jewish center of learning in the 11th and 12th centuries. The famous doctor/philosopher/Rabbi Maimonodes lived here then. The building is tiny and simple, there are few remnants of the Moorish detailing hand crafted on the walls with Hebrew lettering mixed into the geometric patterns. There is a small loft for women and the remains of a crucifix painted on the walls from when it was converted to a church. A very special place.

Craig-
We then walked over to the Alcazar of the Christian Kings which had re-opened after siesta, so we went there. Even its beautiful gardens and fountains paled in comparison to the mosque that we still carried vividly in our minds.

Before long we caught a bus back to the train/bus stations, had a snack, retrieved our luggage from the lockers, and caught a bus to Granada.

By this point in the trip I was gaining some more facility with my Spanish and feeling a little more capable of understanding people and communicating, which felt good. We were good at reminding each other of Spanish words when we were struggling. On the bus ride we sat behind a boy of maybe 5 years old. Talking with him was still a challenge, but we had no problems with the universal languages of peek-a-boo and bopping him on the head with our poster tube. After a long day, we tired of our games and he fell asleep on his mother's lap and we slept on each other's shoulders.

We arrived in Granada and took a taxi to our hotel, checked in, had a simple dinner, and went to bed.

Thursday, January 4

The main palace was the most impressive, where almost every ceiling and interior wall was covered with intricate geometric patterns in tile, plaster, or wood. The exterior walls are kept very plain. From far away the plaster looks rather plain, such as at left, but you can see on the right what kind of detail lies in all the plaster walls, arches, etc.
 

There were also many beautiful reflecting pools and fountains, plus fantastic gardens:
    

Here you can see a fantastic star-shaped ceiling with windows at the top. The stalactite-like formations remind me of thousands of tiny arches. There were many forms of arches repeated and overlapped in interesting ways throughout the decorations. These ceilings I think of as infinite overlapping arches reaching up into the sky. What a fantastic ceiling to stare up into meditatively!

Traces of color here and there indicate that the plaster was originally painted, with the foreground, or raised part, left free of paint. These color highlights make the patterns even more striking. You can particularly see that in this next picture. The top of the picture shows the closest ceiling to me. Its bright colorful circular shape is a miniature variation on the arches on top of arches I like so much. This was a small indentation in the ceiling, made up of arches of various colors. There were inverse formations of the same kind as well, farther down on the same ceiling -- they came down from the ceiling instead of farther up into it. I love all these playful geometric forms. Farther down in this picture you can see the balconies a level above me and the wall and ceiling above that, with intricate windows:

After we'd finished walking through the main palace and gardens, Geoff was feeling somewhat nauseous (too much pork?), so we went back to our room for a rest, then went back in the afternoon to see the towers and more military side of the Alhambra, which provided for some great views of the surroundings, but weren't nearly so beautiful themselves.

Geoff-
Before heading to bed the previous night we looked at the information the hotel had in the lobby and both were caught by an ad for an Arabic Bath in town. In the morning we asked the hotel to make a reservation. After spending that day marveling at the Sultan's baths and palace we were terribly excited. We took a bus to the other side of the river and wended our way down the curvy cobble stone streets. That's where we took this final farewell shot of the Castle at night - Alhambra in Arabic means red fortress and you certainly see why.

We reached the main road along the river - more like a small stream, spotted the Baths, which were across an ancient stone bridge and walked on. We grabbed a snack at a bakery and then went shopping in the small artisan shops.

Craig-
I felt inspired by all the geometric Islamic decor, so bought myself a pinky ring with a similar style. We also bought a tile in that style for our kitchen.

Geoff-
We bought many gifts for folks and as we began heading in search of a restaurant we stumbled on a sale at a Spanish department store chain. We bought some very stylish clothes for cheap, had a simple dinner and went to the Baths at the appointed time. Their student special, about $9, included 2 hours in the Baths and a relaxing oil rub. We found out from the attendant that the building was an original Arab Bath from the 14th Century but was shut down when Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada, the last hold out of the Moors in Spain. The three story structure included a large covered inner courtyard with three floors of wooden balconies overlooking it. The entrance to the co-ed Baths is on the first floor with a Turkish style tea room on the second floor and a restaurant on the third. In the 16th Century it was converted to a tenement for multiple families with the Baths reserved for them. It was only recently bought and renovated for current use as an Arabic Bath. The intricate tile work and plaster patterns carved into the walls are all modern but feel distinctly ancient. Arabic music plays as you lounge in the steamy shallow baths. Candles give the rooms a soft hazy glow and expel an intoxicating perfume. You can lose yourself staring up at the vaulted ceiling covered with white, green, blue, and maroon patterned tiles that stretch down to the floor and into the bath. Relaxed and repaired we slept well that night.

Friday, January 5

Craig-
Málaga is a big industrial and tourist city on the coast. We chose to stay there because of its beachside location and because they have a parador with excellent views of the coast. A parador is a Spanish government-run hotel in a historic location, this one a mountaintop next to an old Moorish castle. We checked into the Parador, and Geoff wasn't feeling so well, so I went for a walk on my own while he rested. The weather was the warmest of our trip, and the views of the Mediterranean and city were excellent. Here's the view--the bull ring is pretty much the only thing that tells you it's Spain.

There wasn't much else to attract me, though. The ruins of the Moorish castle and alcazar were really ruins with very little of interest.

It was a long walk downhill to the center of town, where I found lots of families with kids walking about, and a strip of shops selling various junk (those Razor-style scooters are even more popular in Spain than the U.S.!) I was headed toward the beach when I realized the streets were closed off and everyone was gathering for something, so I asked what was happening, and decided to stay for the parade. It was a parade to celebrate the three kings' visit to Jesus (in the U.S. I think they're called the three wise men). The floats had almost no relevance to this theme, though, with various groups of costumed children and adults on elaborate floats throwing candy to the crowd. The candy seemed to be the most important part in the crowd's eyes, as everyone, young and old, would dive to the ground to retrieve the hard candies. It was nice at least to see that corporate sponsorship played a very small part in the floats.

After a little while I walked back up to our Parador to meet up with Geoff. We walked back down in search of the gay scene in town, and found the neighborhood overrun with families as they prepared for part two of the same parade! After my second time watching it we ducked into a Chinese restaurant for dinner, famished for something other than Spanish food and ham. The Chinese food was too salty with limp vegetables, but a nice change nonetheless.

Now that the families had left, we found the neighborhood to be quite different. Lots of young adults were hanging out with groups of friends in the public square, drinking from bottles they'd bought at the liquor store. We went to a gay bar and met a friendly group (including a woman who grew up in Detroit). They explained that the nearby town of Torremolinos is where it's at for both nightlife and beaches. We got directions to a few beaches, and hiked back up to the Parador, figuring we'd hit the beaches first thing in the morning.

Saturday, January 6 (Holiday #5: Three Kings Day / Feast of the Epiphany)

We went for a pre-dinner walk. We were not surprised to find few people out and all of the shops closed for the holiday. However, what was striking was the vibrancy and life that the buildings exuded even in this empty state. Seville's charisma!  We laughed at the crazy hyper-Christian street names: Madre de Dios (mother of G-d), Jesus de Gran Poder (Jesus of Great Power), Amor de Dios (Love of G-d), while also being taken in by the very real frankness of the streets.  Some collapsing buildings had intriguing Moorish detailing in unusual places such as beautiful tile work on the undersides of small porches, grand wooden and metal studded doors built for giants and tiles placed at random point in buildings just cuz.

Craig-
We stumbled upon a cool looking restaurant called Sopa Boba, and stopped in for dinner. Their modern, eclectic Spanish/Arab food was a welcome change from the usual Spanish fare.

We went to a gay bar and met a fun group there, people with good Spanish names like Jesus and MariaJose. With a couple of them we had our first extended Spanish conversations of this trip, which felt good. We followed them to a mixed dance club called "Weekend", where we danced until we all dropped around 7.

Geoff-
The club, primarily straight with some mixed undertones, was medium sized and fun. Oddly the entire club seemed to be one big dance floor with movement happening everywhere. Looked great except that this meant no clear pathways. People walking around the club were constantly moving between, among and through our group. This got old quickly, but we went with it. As the night wore down, so did my feet and stamina, the temperature climbed and the group began a funny thing of blowing on each other in this ethereal way, old-man-of-the-sea-ish. At first I was a little thrown but soon Craig and I had joined in. A fun and satisfying night by any measure.

Sunday, January 7

We wandered around the waterfront area near the Torre de Oro (tower of gold), enjoying the weather and scenery. The walkways along the riverfront had lots of embracing couples and orange trees bursting with fruit. What a charming town!

Since this was the first day after the Christmas gift-giving in Spain, we decided to join the crowds at the department stores, where I found some shoes I needed. Then we napped.

For a light dinner we decided to try some small dishes at a Mexican place, but their food was horribly bland. Next door, however, we found a nice variety of tapas, including one dish I loved with a mix of spinach and chick peas. We also had some excellent Spanish desserts there, and bought some bottles of local olive oil to give friends. We found Seville to have a much nicer variety of tapas beyond Madrid's porks and cheeses, and fantastic desserts. The fresh bread we got throughout Seville was not as good, though. It's baked in a different style that makes the outside seem stale instead of crisp. We found these regional differences interesting if not always appetizing.

We were up for a mellow evening, so we went to the Canadian movie, "Five Senses" at the one theater in town that shows movies in their original languages, with Spanish subtitles. It was a very thought- provoking movie exploring the senses and our personal connections to them, as well as themes of loss and personal growth. I absolutely loved it.

Geoff-
My brother says that seeing a movie in another country intensifies the experience, whether or not this is true it was an intense experience none the less. Maybe two weeks of travel together, connecting along the way, building deeper understandings primed us for an evening of deep introspection and sharing. We talked of great memories from our childhoods, strongest smells we remember, images, touch. It was that kind of movie. We also opened up about where we are as individuals. It was an expanding conversation that went into the wee hours. I started off this letter by saying how great this trip was for Craig and I. As many of you know we have talked about having kids in the next year or two and with two friends giving birth in February babies have been on our brains. I have no doubt that our loving relationship will sustain a loving home and family. Throughout the trip we joked about kids names (I like Somalia and Jeremy), how many (I still want 11, Craig says maybe not more than 2), and other fun ideas.

Monday, January 8

There's a waterfall in the middle and orange trees everywhere. Eventually we came to a plaza where a cultural museum and museum of archeology sit. Here's me in front of the cultural museum, isn't it stunning?

Craig loved the Plaza de Espana which has a moat in front of it and this enormous fountain in the middle. The ground was paved with small black and gray stones set in intricate patterns. The wind and light were just right that a rainbow could be seen in the fountain, look closely in this picture and you may be able to make it out.

From here we walked through the University campus, past the Alcazaba, which was closed on Mondays, through the narrow streets and past the white washed buildings of the old Jewish quarter till we found the Cathedral - the third largest gothic Cathedral in Europe. A Moorish tower stands 93 meters high beside the structure. The inside of the cathedral is largely empty except for some stained glass work too high to see, but the sun was just right to send down the most incredible multi-colored light patterns on the floor and walls. Also of note was a humongous five story, 75 feet wide wall of gold that sat behind the main alter. Hundreds of three dimensional miniature scenes of poor, praying people decorated the wall with a tall bleeding life-like Jesus on the cross at the top. Amazing to us now how the irony of images of the poor and humble cast in gold did not and does not strike its creators or the current owners and worshipers of the church. We quickly made our way to the tower, our real reason for coming to the church anyway. The tower has held a clock at its top for almost 400 years and bells for even longer. In place of stairs you walk up a brick patterned ramp which was originally used by the bell ringer who rode up on horseback. The long way up is rewarded by stunning vistas every few turns. If you have ever been to a gothic cathedral and wished you could fly up right next to a flying buttress and look down and around it you must come here. And once you reach the top you have arrived, you need not ever travel higher than this point. Below is one of the views, in the distance you can see the river cutting through the city, the bull ring that sits on the river front promenade (Avenida de las Delices?) and on the horizon sits the shadow of a distant town - undeveloped green hills rolling between here and there.

Craig-
Overall, we really liked Sevilla. My favorite parts were the beautiful tile mosaics everywhere, the variety of good food, the friendly people, and the fact that everything is walkable. We went all over the main part of the city on foot, and nothing felt far. The city has about 700,000 residents, so it has a lot to offer for its small size.

We decided to take advantage of one of its cultural offerings this evening: we went to a performance of the ballet "Giselle" by a ballet company from Berlin. It was the first ballet either of us had seen in many years, and we really enjoyed it. The first act had some flaws, but the second act was fantastic, with its beautiful floating ghosts and passionate dancing.

After the ballet we found the down-side of Seville's small-town cuteness: midnight was just too late to find anywhere open for even a light snack. We even considered McDonalds until we saw they were closing. We decided to walk to the gay area, and managed to find a cool bar/cafe still serving food. We got advice there on which gay bars might be happening, and headed to this rather dead little bar. But there was a fun, attractive-looking group of guys talking, and before long we joined the conversation. Our whole interaction with them was in Spanish, and even with them repeating many things, a lot of it went over our heads. It was a lot of work for us, but fun as well. This night was one of the highlights of the trip for me. I really enjoyed dishing with the guys in Spanish and managing to communicate in a fun group setting.

Tuesday, January 9

We had set aside little time for this and we overstayed what we had budgeted. Slightly panicked we caught a cab back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage and easily made our train back to Madrid, had time to grab dinner in town and subway out the airport. Ironically we sat next to the same Argentine businessman on the flight back as we had on the flight down. We all noted the acclaimed British actress Joan Plowright who was playing with her grandson in the waiting area. As if to remind us of the vibrant colors we were leaving behind a lunar eclipse followed our plane to London with its red glow waving us goodbye.

We checked into the hotel and soon fell asleep.

Wednesday, January 10

Craig-
After shopping, we dropped into our hotel for a quick nap, then had an excellent Italian dinner with Phil and Mike at Spiga in Soho, followed by a drink on our own at the bar "barcode." We weren't up for a big night, so took the tube to the hotel and bed.

Thursday, January 11

Overall, I count this among our best trips. Our last trip to Europe (England and Holland) felt far too rushed, so we resisted the temptation to over-plan on this trip. I'd say it was successful, as we got to see a lot of sites, gave ourselves a few much-needed quiet days, and had a great diversity of experiences. We partied all night, explored sites and museums all day, made new friends, learned from new experiences, enjoyed warm weather, had real quality time together, and saw some excellent performances. I was very happy that we went to the variety of performances we did. Particularly the flamenco music and dance performances gave us a flavor of the local culture that didn't feel at all touristy. Plus I loved the intense music and dancing.

We hope you enjoyed the trip too!