to Spain and back.....

ok, so....I have been to Spain and back since I last blogged.....the first time I went to Spain I blogged daily in internet cafes near our hotels in Barcelona, Bilboa and Madrid, as this was 2002 and personal Wi-Fi devices were either not yet invented or not in my personal possession.....therefore that trip was better recalled in prose than this trip...despite the techy available of instant posting of photos to FB.....the logistics of this trip were as precise as the last....from airline reservations to train connections to hotels/hostels.....and nearly to site entrance pre-bookings....who knew that Park Guell would be so crowded as to require a pre-booked tour time? Thankfully, I had thought to book timed entrance/tower tickets to Sagrada Familia, which was literally crawling with tourists eager to see what progress had been made since a previous tour.... leaps and bounds progress....so much so that the pope has already visited to consecrate the church as a basilica...we are not likely to go back to Barcelona any time soon, as this visit was tacked on to the end of the first pilgrimage installment.... St Jean Pied-de-Port to Pamplona.....when we return to Spain to hike Pamplona to.....somewhere down the Camino we will either arrive in Spain through some other entrance point, or fly in/out of Barcelona without taking extra site-seeing days. Our four-day Camino hike was a good start, but we will lever finish this journey if we only hike four days at a stretch....hoping for at least eight days next trip.....as close to Burgos as possible....we have started a list of lessons learned, such as clothing items that worked and those that did not.....and that changing out socks mid-day prevents sweaty feet from blistering.....much as we envy those we know locally who started at the 100 miles to go mark and walked eight days to get their certificates in Santiago de Compostella....I cannot imagine skipping the beginning...the taxi ride from Pamplona to St Jean Pied-de-Port, the 5 mile up-hill hike to Orisson, the 17 mile hike up and over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles, the up and down pine-scented trek to Zubiri, and the overheated finale to Pamplona....I freely admit that I went a full week without walking at all when we got back....but given that I have a certain level of fitness to maintain I am back to walking 30 minutes on the treadmill in the mornings and an hour in the evenings....hopefully I can shed a few extra pounds between now and out next section...and maybe I can memorize a few more words in the local language before next time as well.....hope springs eternal....