Portugal and Spain trip report! You've been warned.
1. We spent 12 days in Portugal and Spain in the first half of October, and I will first of all state the obvious: that is not enough time. We knew that when we planned the trip, but at the time, it was either go for 12 days or not go. We were able to do Lisbon (with a day trip to Sintra), Seville (with a day trip to Cordoba), Granada, and Madrid. We'd previously been to Barcelona, so we didn't go on this trip. It was fantastic and amazing, but as is always the case, now that we've been, we'd do a better job if we ever go again. And I really wish we'd had 3-4 more days. Or twelve.
2. I'm not going to try to give you travel advice because of course I'm not an expert. But I have a few observations to pass along. I was a little worried about managing the train. It was a bit awkward the first time, but after that it was a breeze and so much easier than using regional airlines. We did one regional flight, from Lisbon to Seville, because the train connections on that route are awkward and make it into a 12-16 hour ordeal. The flight was a hassle from start to finish, although it did get us to Seville by early afternoon. But for travel within Spain, the train is great. Just go to the Renfe website, choose the English option, tamp down your nerves, and buy your tickets. The farther in advance you do it, the cheaper it is. Or use a travel service, more about that below.
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| Cordoba |
3. I've discovered that my travel tastes have changed. When we were young and adventurous, I wanted to go all the places and do all the things. We were smart enough not to overload ourselves too much on this trip--we went several different places, but we never planned more than one big thing per day. But now that we are old, I think for future trips that involve major jet lag (7-8 hour difference for us from Montana), I would spend at least five days in the first location, then maybe do 3-4 more locations over a minimum of three weeks. Since we didn't really have enough time to get over jet lag on the front end, we were playing catch up with sleep almost the entire trip. We finally adjusted just in time to do it all again after we returned home.
4. Another thing that has changed is that I found myself more interested in Madrid than the smaller towns. The smaller towns were charming and beautiful and more oriented toward tourists, but maybe since we live in a tourist-y area, I wasn't all that charmed. I'm not sorry we went to any of those places-- there was amazing history and architecture and art--but I found myself more comfortable in Madrid. It's a big enough city that the tourists are only a small part of what's happening. I love people watching, and it felt much more like we were seeing the real modern Spain but with fabulous art and architecture everywhere. Probably many people feel the opposite, but I'm glad to know this for my own future travel plans.
5. We thought October would be less crowded and blessedly cooler, but we were wrong. We happened into an unusual October heatwave (it was over 90 a couple of days in Seville), and there were crowds every where--apparently this is the biggest travel year Europe has had maybe ever. I hope those are situations that were specific to this year and if you go, you'll have better luck. That's not to say it was awful, and the locals were surprisingly cheerful and friendly given the heat and the crowds, but it wasn't what we were expecting.
6. One thing that was different than the last time we traveled in Spain (Barcelona, 35 years ago): women used to need a scarf to cover their head and shoulders in a place of worship. So I came prepared, and even had a scarf with me the first day. But apparently this is no longer a thing-- almost no one was wearing a head covering in churches, and there were no signs recommending one (unlike our last trip).
In fact, I was a little worried about clothing in general since I thought that Europeans dress more conservatively than Americans. But not to worry. I could not believe the clothing--teensy shorts, crop tops, low necklines--and although it was mostly young people, it wasn't just Americans. Asians, people from other parts of Europe, locals, pretty much everyone was wearing the minimal amount of clothing-- which was at least in part because of the heat. It was hot. Anyway. Not to go all grandma on youngsters wearing what youngsters will wear, but apparently it isn't even considered disrespectful any more, which is the only reason to worry about it. My shorts with the 7" inseam were completely unremarkable.
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| The Alhambra in Granada |
7. We used a travel service, which we've never done before. In the past, I've used Booking.com for hotels (way before Idris Elba starting making commercials for them)(but what's not to love about Idris Elba, whatever he does). But we did the first part of our trip with friends, and they recommended Tour Tailors, based in Lisbon, so we decided to try them. It's not a tour, per se. You tell them your budget and they make hotel reservations, buy your train tickets, and buy tickets to the sites that require advance purchase or have "skip-the-line" tickets. Other than that, we were on our own. It was great. Highly recommend. There was a 24-hour hotline if you had any problems, but we luckily never needed it.
Regrets? I wish we'd had more time in Madrid. We arrived late one afternoon, had the next full day, and then flew home the next morning. We spent an afternoon in the Prado, but we didn't get to see the Guernica, which is at a different museum that had huge lines waiting to get in-- since our time was so short, we decided we'd rather wander around than wait a couple of hours in a line. We also didn't make it to Porto in Portugal, or the almost-completed Familia Sagrada in Barcelona, or Toledo, or the Basque country--all of which I would love to do--but those would make do-able future trips, so they seemed like acceptable compromises. The only thing I would skip is Sintra, our day trip from Lisbon, but mainly because it was so crowded. We were shuffling along through the royal palace with about a thousand of our closest friends.
Senior travel tip #1: I will never travel again without an inflatable pillow. The one I have is about 12"x16" and it inflates to about 4" thick (I think I got it at REI), but you can under-inflate it and use it to make a wafer-thin hotel pillow work for a 62-year-old side sleeper. In fact (should I be embarrassed to admit this?), I've already traveled for years with a smaller inflatable pillow that I use for between my knees to relieve pressure on my hips. Yup, two inflatable pillows. Insert ribald jokes here, but I am a huge fan.
Senior travel tip #2: If you're choosing between the comfortable shoes and the stylish shoes, pick the comfortable ones. Not kidding.
Oh-- also, totally worth it to pay for international roaming for your cellphone. We're on Verizon, and it was about $100 each to make our phones work throughout our trip. It was invaluable--Google maps, calls, texting, and airline apps all worked just as they do in the US. You just call your cell provider before you leave, they add the extra charge for one month, and then it is automatically deleted.
That's everything I can think of. If you have any questions, comment below or email me and I will answer in a future post. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!