Spain vacation - random thoughts - June 2015

We just got home from our big vacation of the year... the Andalusia region of Spain was quite amazing and I'm sure we only scratched the surface. Here's the rundown in a nutshell:

Days in Spain: 12
Kilometers in car: 1418 (850 miles)
Deb's Fitbit Steps: 152440
Which is equal to 62.2 miles
And flights of stairs 214 - most of them in Granada

We basically spent time in 5 regions - the beach from Rota to Los Canos de Meca, the African city of Tangier, Morocco, the rock known as Gibraltar, the historic city of Grenada, and the bustling metropolis of Seville.  Along the way, we took almost 1800 pictures and documented the beautiful countryside, architecture, art and food of the region.

As we went along, there were these mottoes which kept going through my brain. They highlight some of the struggles and surprises we encountered along the way.

In Rota: We're open unless we're not - time is relative
In Granada: What comes down must go up - very, very hilly
In Seville: There's a reason why we close in the middle of the day - Hot, hot, hot!
Seville Cathedral: More is more - gives new meaning to the phrase, "over the top"
Me: You can never have enough sunscreen or sangria or a soft enough bed.
5 College students from Texas Tech: We want pancakes so bad, we're willing to walk a mile in this heat to get them.
Tim (Shawn's dad): Is it time for ice cream yet?
Shawn: Wow, these old towns have narrow streets!


We had the great fortune to be in Spain for the Feast of Corpus Christi, 10 days after Pentecost. We were able to see the crowds gathered for worship and for the processional that morning in Granada. We visited beautiful churches that were not only filled with tourists, but also with worship - services for weddings and baptisms and the Eucharist. We decided that faith may be on the decline in some places but not in Spain - church is an integral part of people's lives and in the life of the society.


We walked on the beach, enjoyed the sunshine, and ate outside - a lot.  We had seafood almost every day, and ate a lot of really good ham. We never got good at eating really late, going to restaurants when they opened at 8pm and often the first customers there. We went out in the morning, rested in the afternoon and went out again after 6pm when the sun started going down and the temperatures started dropping.

Surprises along the way:
* A really great hamburger in Seville at "The Good Burger" - like "Five Guys" good.
* You get used to taking the heads off of your own shrimp... really.
* In Spanish tapas bars, tables are for eating and the bar is for drinking, and if you sit at a table you won't get your free tapas, but your feet won't hurt so badly.
* Cathedrals come in all shapes and sizes - baroque, Romanesque, gothic... some filled with light and some dark and mysterious.
* If you're looking for great classical Spanish art, don't go to the museums, go to the churches - that's where the great paintings and sculptures live.
* Eventually, you're going to want a pizza.
* The majority of my pictures are of architecture, tiles, ceilings, windows, doors, floors and food - the sights were mesmerizing.
* Our guide in Morocco said a very wise thing when he was talking about how people of different religions have found peace together there... he said, "I am Muslim and I don't understand everything about your religion and you are Christian and you don't understand everything about my religion, but that shouldn't keep us from being friends." I couldn't help but agree.

Peace, Deb