Should I Stay or Should I Go, Round 2

I already know the answer. It stopped being a question this morning. I will cancel everything. I would have done it by now except this morning the internet is so slow the only pages that load, eventually, are 99% text.

So what changed my mind? What overruled my optimistic view of lack of fitness from walking only trivial distances without hills in the last 2 months, tight muscles and loss of range of motion in my right hip from using crutches, and not enough Spanish flash card practice (it’s widely useful at a basic level in Portugal)? I was either being realistic or pessimistic. I’ll never know which.

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I wrote the above yesterday morning. After the usual morning stuff and a late breakfast out, I came home, looked at what I’d written and thought WTF? What was I thinking? For the want of some bandwidth, a trip was saved.

Oh goodie, because my fantasies about visiting this place once a day for the 5 days in Vienna were not wasted: Cakes and Pastries and Tartelettes, oh my! And I won’t forget the Strudel. It’s 300 meters from my hotel.

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But wait, there’s more. Yesterday, between cancel related decisions, I revived the idea from last year of relearning to soar during a week in Australia. Gliders this time, not hang gliders. Only reason I didn’t do it last spring was they were sold out. So, today I booked airfare, flight school, and, as two 3 night bookends to the 7 day flight school, lodging in Melbourne for early Dec. Why? It will be fun. I can afford it. You can’t take it with you. And every year the unknown number of circles around the Sun you have left decreases by one, so carpe diem.

 

 

Travel Whim Met Reality, Part 2

I figured it was time to start monitoring lodging availability for Seville and Jerez de la Frontera. Traveling by whim is good in theory. But just in case let’s see if there will be rooms. There won’t.

May 1st falls on a Sunday. So what? D’oh! May Day is a big holiday in some countries. In Jerez, the week following May 1 is their second biggest event of the year, La Fería del Caballo*. That’s when I wanted to visit. So, instead of Seville and Jerez and overnight trips, it will be Seville and day trips. Jerez is close enough for a day trip. It’s no big deal. Not better, not worse, just different. But I’m sure glad I checked 2 weeks in advance.

*Horse Fair, for the sort of families who have owned horse ranches for generations, plus their friends and social equals. The public has access to the outer layer of the grounds, but the rest is invitation only.

 

 

 

Travel Whim Met Reality

My forearms were hurting a bit from too much mousing but the trip ideas were flowing so I stuck with it for a few days. The result is a plan with my ‘must sees’, interspersed with unscheduled days.

Some destinations could not be left to whim because of price and availability of desirable lodging. Why?  Spaniards away from home for a spring weekend affect supply and prices. Old towns sell out before the new part of town. On hilltops, the upper old town sells out before the lower old town. By ‘sells out’ I mean in the range I’m willing to pay.

The Map of The Plan:

 

#1 Fly to Granada. 3-? nites
#2 Between #1 and #3 with some or all in #2 Seville. 0-6 nights.
#3 Arcos de la Frontera, a hilltop walled town. 2 nights
#4 Somewheres inside the magenta loop. 5 nights
#5 Cáceres in the old town. 2 nights
#6 Salamanca on a weekend. 2 nights
#7 Not on map – #8 Segovia – #9 Not on map. 7 nights.
#10 Cuenca in the upper old town. 2 nights.
#11 Toledo in the old town. 2 nights
Last night in Madrid then fly to Stuttgart.

 

I’m glad I found the advice to book lodging in Amsterdam before buying airline tickets. There was precious little availability for my preferred flight dates. Because I have 11 hrs and  15 mins between arriving from Bangkok and departing for Granada, I chose to stay in the airport in a… well… they call it a ‘Standard Cabin’.

A gatekeeper prevents optimists from bringing anything larger than a carry-on bag into their Yotel (that’s the correct spelling). One must use airport baggage storage or be checked through to the next flight.

Going to a Formula 1 Race

Planning turned to action, resulting in airline tickets and a hotel reservation. We’re still working on the tickets for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

I’ve never seen a Formula 1 race. I’ve vivid memories of Can-Am at Riverside, Indy Cars at Long Beach and racing an off-road motorcycle. Going to Kuala Lumpur is inexpensive, easy and enjoyable, so after coming to Thailand the F1 event was a no-brainer – but procrastination won out. 2014 is the last year F1 has committed to the Malaysian race. Procrastination evaporated.

A friend of mine from the US is a big race fan, travels to watch races and enjoys SE Asia. I don’t remember who suggested it, not that it matters, but we’re going to the race. The plan is to see some parts of southern Thailand that I’ve either dashed through or couldn’t visit because of rough seas at the time. Then we’ll Fly to Singapore, sample Indonesia, explore southern Malaysia, arrive in KL with time to see the city before qualifying days at the track, then flying back to Bangkok.