Iberia, exploring new places.

We are trying something new as a present to Ben for an epochal birthday and to both of us for our 40th anniversary together.  We are taking a guided tour!  

We have always wanted to visit northern Portugal and northern Spain, two parts of Iberia that we have never seen.  We last visited Portugal in 1983, the year after we met.  We have been to Spain several times, of course, but we never made it north to Galicia or Bilbao.  This trip we will visit there as part of a group of 18 to Lisbon and Oporto in Portugal and then to Santiago de Compostela, Leon, Bilbao, the Pyrenees on the Spanish side and finish in Barcelona for a few days.

We have been to Barcelona several times, but we will have a re-tour of many of Gaudí’s buildings, including the nearly complete Sagrada Familia basilica.  We will also see John’s longest friend in the world—since 1949 when they met on a kerb at age 4 in the Derby suburb of Littleover in England.  He and his wife life retired to rural Catalunya.

Our departure day is Tuesday, May 3, so we have begun all the packing and getting ready, making sure our Covid vaccinations comply with Portuguese entry regulations. 

We had originally planned the trip through Odyssey and John’s alma mater, Brown University,  alumni office, but the trip did not have a strong enough response.  So we changed the date to take exactly the same tour, but with a group of folks of whom we know nothing.  We look forward to meeting new people and exchanging experiences.  From the list we have been given, they are from all over the United States, and all the others are male/female couples.  

Brother Andrew and Lorraine

Allegheny Valley Freak Storm

In retrospect, this past year has been reasonably busy with even a limited amount of travel.  We visited family in Massachusetts and Connecticut three times, including a cousin’s wedding on the Connecticut River, had a few days in Rhode Island with friends, and a week-long visit to Pittsburgh, where we met in 1982, for a distant cousin’s wedding in the country in the hills northeast of the city, and a chance to see old friends.   We also visited our old house there, meeting the new owners who found us during remodeling through a post-card stuck in a skirting board for over 35 years.  It had fallen off a table and got caught!  

John's Birthday Maine Lobster

John’s nephew married in Kennebunkport, Maine, last October so we had a pleasant time at the resort overlooking the Atlantic where he and his wife got married.  We also had a quick trip to Columbus, Ohio, in January for a very sad family death. On a brighteer note, we spent part of this month with our family in Washington.  Our grandsons filled our time and our house for a week.  Visits included the new dinosaur exhibit at the Natural History Museum, and an excellent exhibit of what the future may look like at the old Arts and Industries Building, constructed in 1881, and opened for a short time for this exhibit.

Artificial intelligence mimics Ben, and tyrannosaurus rex has lunch.