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Bruges is a small medieval city in Belgium’s West Flanders province, near the Atlantic coast. Even the grandiose “tourist wonderland” may understate. UNESCO named the whole durn city center as a world heritage site. Lonely Planet, Rick Steves, Fodors and TripAdvisor gush about Bruges unreservedly. ‘Why visit?’ answers itself. A better question for a retired…
Spain may be a sightseer’s Shangri-La, but is still ranked only in second place as a global travel destination, justly or unjustly. The top spot belongs to France, and France is now my next-door neighbor. A Madrid-Paris flight takes about as long and costs about as much as a San Francisco-Phoenix flight I might have…
You now gaze wonderingly at the Château de Chambord, ordered up by King Francis I as a sixteenth century hunting lodge, today often regarded as the single most spectacular of the 300+ castles in France’s Loire Valley. The France tourist will find the château’s 440 rooms (and 282 fireplaces, and 84 staircases) on a 13,000…
Last summer I named two Costa Brava gardens as the most spectacular yet seen in my travels, largely thanks to their spectacular bluff-top views of the glittery blue Mediterranean. I returned last week from a short trip to the French Riviera, feel honor-bound to add a third: Le Jardin Exotique got its start after World…
The blue-shirted innocent at lower right above is about to enter Madrid’s Alsacia station: second to the last on the eastern end of the metro 2 line, in the city’s un-touristy outskirts. Alsacia straphangers can expect weekday subways every three to five minutes for a twenty-six minute shlep to the Sol transit hub in Madrid’s…
5+ years in Spain, and I still marvel at Madrid’s subway like a first-time tourist. I sip tea out of a Madrid Metro coffee mug, festoon my refrigerator with Madrid Metro magnets, pay dues to Andén 1, a local enthusiast group, own their book about the metro and a thicker official history published by the…
Industrialization drove thousands of rural families into Spain’s big cities last century in search of money and work. The fictional story of one is told in Surcos, a 1951 neo-realist film that chronicles the grim disintegration of the Pérez clan amid the temptations and shams of a heartless Madrid. A local screenwriter told me about…
Eight hours, 291 kilometers, through 91 tunnels, over hundreds of bridges: this is the route of the Glacier Express, described by rail guru Seat61 as one of Switzerland’s two most scenic train trips. I had sampled the first before the pandemic, craved a return to Switzerland to round out the short list. Please regard this…
“Tim, your Spanish vocabulary is better than mine!” This wasn’t true, wasn’t close to true, but last month I still felt buoyed by the Spaniard’s compliment as I shuffled to the busy Ventas café counter for our next round of drinks. Capcioso was the word I’d just used, that had so impressed my companion. He’d…
The non-EU expat who logs five legal years in Spain can reach for a glittery brass ring at the end of year five: a “larga duración” residence permit, either for Spain alone or for both Spain and the rest of the European Union. I opted for the second, got it, post today to share juicy…