spain

Entries Tagged as 'spain'

Riding like Quijote

July 9th, 2008 · No Comments · News

During the Day, but Lounging Like the Doncel at Night

I’m not totally hip to the stories, but I’m pretty sure whoever Quijote was, he did some riding. Having done several visits now to visit the In-laws in Spain, it is safe to say that we have distilled things down to a very comfortable routine. Here’s is the template:

Pack for heat and bicycling around Sigüenza.
Fly to Madrid.
Head for Sigüenza.
Breakfast, Ride, Lunch, Nap, Walk or Spin, Merienda, Dinner.
Repeat for as long as we are there.
Pack bikes, go to the airport.

We go to Sigüenza because my wife’s family has their country house there. Sort of like going up to the Camp, kind of like Lyon Mt., but not really. I’ve been biking for decades (!) and in many places, I declare the quality and variety of bike riding around Sigüenza to be 8 out of 10. We are riding both on and off-road. The following map is our comfortable range which we can explore by bike doing 3-5 hour day-rides (me Single Speed w/Trail-a-bike).

Tags: bike·map·siguenza·spain·trip report

Ah, back to the Jungle

July 8th, 2008 · No Comments · News

With stories to tell.

Cool painting, huh? More on that later. In case you didn’t know, I just got back from visiting Spain. Same heat, different humidity. I’m melting.

Funny how a couple weeks off seems to be harder than simply staying and working.

I mentioned a slight problem in a post the day I left. I’m almost embarrassed to say. We discovered that my son’s passport had expired. His slightly legal EU one too. Kind of an issue, especially for a control freak like me. My wife just says, “we’ll go and play dumb”. Great.

Damned if it didn’t work. The only real hassle was with the Air Canada check-in. But after consulting some little book, some manager guy told the agent to issue us boarding passes. Ha! This is after already crossing the US/Canada border to get to the airport in Montreal. Unbelievable! Getting past customs in Madrid was even easier. My wife and son went to the EU citizen line and were basically whisked through. They had to wait for us with the valid passports.

Honestly, I should have known. I once left with a passport that was expiring before I returned. Went to the embassy and had a new one in-hand within 90 minutes. No extra charge. That was 10 years ago. We hit the embassy again first thing in the morning and had a new one on the way within 10 days. Delivery by messenger service. That “skin-of-your-teeth” traveling.

Tags: spain·travel