Austin360 blogs > Globe-Jotting > Archives > 2009 > September > 06 > Entry
Spain on the brain
And so it goes, I go to Spain. It’s about time: a) that I figured out where I’m heading this fall (South America beckoned, then recoiled); and b) that I return to that architectural Elysium eight years after my last visit. (I am older, wiser, slightly crazier.)
I love cities, old and new, big and smallish. My Spain trip will be an energetic hopscotching across a constellation of towns and regions, going like this: Land in Barcelona, spend a few or four days. Train to Valencia. Then to Madrid. Day trip to Toledo. Then Bilbao. Back to Madrid. With, I hope, some time for improvisational sidewinding, say, a skip to one of my favorite Euro ciudads Sevilla.
My desperate jonesing for world-class museums will be slaked, and I will wander the great, shiny halls, iPod implanted in ears, hands in pockets, and perhaps weep. I miss Guadi. I can’t wait for Gehry’s bendy Guggenheim. All that Velazquez. Never enough Picasso. Bring me the Prado, pronto.
My hotel in Barcelona is just off Las Ramblas, which means hustle and noise, tapas and buskers, commerce and rip-offs, billowing pigeons and ballooning hangovers.
I will hang over the spindly ledges of La Sagrada Familia, stroll the sinuous, candied curves of Parque Guell. The diet will be narrowed to red wine and jamon, and life, for a spell, will be reduced to something delicious.
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