Epilog

So what did we learn on Wanderung 17? Well, it confirmed our view of ship travel as a pleasant, civilized way to cross the ocean. We had no trouble with time shifts on the way over to Spain by cruise ship, but after the jet journey back to Virginia both Monika and I were kind of groggy and queasy for the next couple of days. We enjoyed the relaxing "at sea" days, but other passengers were clearly bored stiff and anxious to get back on dry land and kick up their heels. We even had the time to each read about 3 books, and reading a good book while watching a calm blue ocean slide by underneath your balcony just has to be one of the most pleasant experiences in life.

I think April and May are a great season to wander around Spain. The weather is predominantly warm enough to be comfortable outside and dry enough to do a wide spectrum of activities. We, of course, tend to walk and gawk a lot, so that kind of weather suits us to a "T". Spain also is loaded with both historical sites and museums that make it easy to put in the occasional rainy day. The scenery ranges from spectacular, snowy mountains in the north that we saw on Wanderung 14 to the dry, semi-desert areas in the south that we saw on this trip.

The driving is very much like in the U.S. with most folks driving safely, sanely, and somewhere near the speed limits. The exception to that general rule was the young men and women on motor scooters or motorcycles, who tended to drive every which way but loose and as fast as possible. I saw several people exchanging what looked like insurance information after accidents while we were driving and walking around the cities of southern Spain. The Spanish Autovias (free interstates) and Autopistas (toll interstates) were generally modern and efficient ways to get from one part of the country to another. Of course, to really see the countryside and the people you should drive the 2-lane highways wherever possible, but that's true in any country I've driven in.

What really makes traveling in Spain pleasant is the people and the culture. The people seem to be uniformly polite and tolerant of the foibles of foreigners. They also were uniformly encouraging in our attempts to communicate even when we mangled their mother tongue. Culturally, the people seem very tolerant of minorities. According to people who live in the culture like Don and George, the Spanish are truly tolerant of racial, religious, or ethnic minorities. However, the Spanish are sensitive, I think, to the class and education of the people they interact with. We might have elicited a positive reaction partly because despite my scruffy appearance I come across as an educated, middle-class American. So if someone tried to be an ignorant yahoo type of tourist in Spain, they might elicit a different reaction from the Spanish folks, but I cannot say for certain.

The only fly in the ointment, in visiting Spain (or Lisbon or the tourist areas of Italy, France, etc.), is the street crime issue. We didn't have anything stolen on this trip, but I left my walking belt at home and stowed my wallet and cameras in my front pockets rather than hanging out for the local pickpockets to practice on. Hannakah, one of our benefactors at the Alhambra, did have her wallet with all her credit cards and ID stolen while walking in Granada, and she remembered being jostled by some young boys so clearly the little thieves were already active for the upcoming tourist season. In fact, the theft from backpacks has become so ubiquitous that I saw many people, maybe a third of the tourists so equipped, who were wearing their backpacks slung in front of them rather than on their backs. Given my conviction that the Gypsy population is largely responsible for this petty theft, I called that style of wearing a backpack the "gypsy fashion".

The other common form of petty theft in the tourist areas seems to be grabbing a purse, pack, or suitcase and simply running off with it. In Barcelona, Toledo, and Madrid we constantly saw signs that warned us to watch our luggage at all times. In Madrid, the Avis car rental office had a remotely-controlled electric lock on the door that would not let you in or out unless one of the employees pushed the control switch. That was a bit of an inconvenience, but cheaper than the other method of holding down theft that we saw at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts, which was an armed guard stationed at the entrance. That struck me as a bit over the top, but we saw a lot of guards routinely stationed in places like fast-food outlets and malls and boutiques, so the street theft problem must be bad enough to warrant all that time, effort, and money.

The theft problem only seems to be that severe where the gypsies congregate, and they seem to congregate wherever the rich pickings are, which is to say the tourist areas. One way to find out if you are in a gypsy zone is to visit the main cathedral in the center of the city. If you see the ragged-looking old women, usually dressed in shapeless black shawl and voluminous skirts, shaking coin-filled cups at you while murmuring pleading mumbo-jumbo phrases, the gypsies are in town and you definitely should take precautions. Besides carrying your backpack in front of you rather than behind, I would advise you to carry the minimal amount of currency and credit cards you will need, stuff any valuables deep in your front pants pockets, and keep your hands pushed firmly down on them. Keep your elbows free to whack out at anybody who starts to crowd you because that's a sure sign that you are being targeted by our little light-fingered friends. I carried a whistle on my key chain with the intent of blowing wildly on it if I was surrounded by one of those wolf packs of gypsy children that surround you and snatch at anything that's loose, but I didn't have to use it.

Monika's innovation for that problem was her theft-resistant purse that has steel cable embedded in the strap to avoid the cut-and-swipe tactic, steel wire mesh on the bottom to avoid the slice open from underneath tactic, and a secured flap over the top to prevent the unzip-and-grab tactic. That purse has prevented anything being stolen from her on the last several trips. Some of our other innovations on this trip also worked out well. My "Twinkle Toe" shoes worked very well for dancing and formal night dinners on board the ship, and they were even comfortable enough for walking on the promenade deck under the moonlight with my Sweetie Pie, while still being collapsible enough to pack easily. I used my hiking shoes for all other walking, so I only had to take 2 pairs of shoes along for the entire trip.

My gray and beige zip pants worked well either as long pants or as shorts, so they each counted as "two-fers" in my abbreviated wardrobe, and all the moister-wicking polyester socks, shirts, and underwear worked exactly as I had planned. I think I have finally found a good functional wardrobe that extends from formal wear to Volksmarching clothes that will last for 3 weeks and can be packed in a small wheeled suitcase, and that's very gratifying.

Electronically, the MP3 player and Sony speakers gave us a good 10-12 hours of music of our own choosing to listen to on board ship and even in the hotel rooms during the driving tour in Spain before the battery finally ran down. Having our entire collection of CDs with us, so to speak, was great fun because we could shift among different genres and albums as the mood struck us. My pocket GPS with basemaps of Spain and Portugal on its chip was extremely useful in keeping us oriented while walking in the narrow, twisting, ill-marked streets in the old-town sections of both Granada and Toledo, as well as occasionally guiding us during the long drives out in Spain's countryside.

Getting all our hotels booked in advance through the bookings.com website worked out very well indeed on this trip. In fact, I was just getting a little suspicious about getting the free mini-bar service in Granada, a free bottle of wine in Madrid, and free parking in Toledo. I think those were all coincidences, really, but it reminded me of the commercials about bookings.com where the guy is continually being offered various freebies when he checks into hotels. Booking in advance did require more advance planning on our part and is harder to execute when you take a loosey-goosey trip like Wandering 15 through Germany, but even then you can use bookings.com or other such websites on a day-by-day basis during the journey as long as you can find internet access.

Some things did not, of course, work out exactly as planned, and all of that can be laid at my door. When we returned home, I found my black suit pants hanging on a hangar in the closet in the suit section, the power cord for my MP3 player on the desk where I had obviously left it, and the small package of cornstarch powder sitting on my side of the bathroom sink just where it should be. So there was no reason I should have forgotten to pack any of those things, and if anyone out there has a foolproof way of packing without forgetting essentials short of having a list of those things permanently tattooed on my body, I certainly would like to hear about it! I have tried to use "remember to take this stuff along" lists, but I keep losing the lists! My current solution was to gather at least some of the things we missed on this trip into a small pile on top of my dresser, where hopefully I will see it and remember to planned, and all of that can be laid at my door. When we returned home, I found my black suit pants hanging on a hangar in the closet in the suit section, the power cord for my MP3 player on the desk where I had obviously left it, and the small package of cornstarch powder sitting on my side of the bathroom sink just where it should be. So there was no reason I should have forgotten to pack any of those things, and if anyone out there has a foolproof way of packing without forgetting essentials short of having a list of those things permanently tattooed on my body, I certainly would like to hear about it! I have tried to use "remember to take this stuff along" lists, but I keep losing the lists! My current solution was to gather at least some of the things we missed on this trip into a small pile on top of my dresser, where hopefully I will see it while packing for the next trip. That may, like Generals who prepare to fight the previous war, be ultimately a futile exercise, but only time and Wanderung 18 will tell!