Spain – Slow Lane Musings

The long span of history

Throughout its history, the Iberian Peninsula has been a land on a crossroad: between Western Europe and Africa and between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, as far as the New World. Today’s Spain has been shaped by groups of hunter-gatherers, explorers, conquerors, traders and migrants from around the world. It has been ruled, in turn, by Roman emperors, Christian Visigoths, Muslim Moors and Catholic monarchs.

Recently, when we walked through the historic districts of Toledo, Seville, Granada, and Cordoba, we saw Roman ruins, Moorish palaces, evocative monuments, ancient mosques, synagogues and monasteries and several treasure-laden churches. We experienced the richness of Spain’s intricate past but we also felt the weight of its history.

From our perspective, the perfect place to get an appreciation of Spain’s complex history is a walled city called Segovia. This small city is just an hour by bus to the northwest of Madrid, in the region of Castile and León. Segovia is worth the detour.

Sights and Sounds of Madrid

We roamed around Madrid for four days this March. The city was enjoying an unusually warm Spring season, and the streets were alive with people going about their business, groups of kids walking to and from school, families and friends sitting together at outdoor cafes and, of course, many tourists like us.

Madrid is graced with majestic architecture, elegant streets, expansive parks, large public squares, imposing monuments, and beautiful fountains. The centre of Madrid has several lively pedestrianized areas, and it is incredibly clean. In many key downtown locations, we came across street musicians. We believe that their presence adds significant charm to the city.

Lively Barcelona

Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia in Spain, really came to the world’s attention when it hosted the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. Since then, the city has attracted an ever-increasing number of visitors, especially during the summer months. With a population of just over 1.6 million, Barcelona had a total of 9.7 million visitors in 2022.

With the availability of cheap flights from many other European cities, it has become a favourite destination for a short break. In addition, numerous cruise ships make a stop there. While tourism has brought tangible economic benefits, overtourism has led to some locals feeling crowded-out in their own city.

We had bought a guidebook on Barcelona in 2003, had watched many documentaries and knew that we would like to visit, but never did. We had some unease about the city being thronged with visitors and were reticent to add to the overtourism problem. That is what has kept us from going back to Venice, a city we love, but that also suffers from being too popular.

Our mindset changed this past year. We came to the realization that there is no sense in delaying the good things until it is too late. Knowing that there were fewer visitors in Barcelona during the winter, we bought a new guidebook and booked flights and a hotel.

We soon realized we should not have procrastinated for so long. We had a wonderful time. The sun shone every day and, like so many before us, we fell in love with this wonderful city.