The Short Trip to Spain
It is late Saturday afternoon, I’m on a bus that just crossed the border from Spain to Portugal, and I’m listening to a very loud speakerphone conversation (in Spanish, which I understand well enough to know this is just a general catch up) behind me plus a soccer match overhead. I’m also sick with chest crud (not COVID; I tested) and I just keep telling myself “Act like Jesus”. He would not turn around and give this happy woman the glare, but boy do I want to. I see my fellow travelers starting to head that direction as well. It is only Phase Two of today’s journey.
Yes, this week we took a little trip to Spain. That sounds like fun, right? We tried to make it fun and sometimes we succeeded.
We did a short term lease program with Renault that allowed us to drive a new car up to six months, turn it in, or purchase it. If you are in Portugal, you can only keep it 3 months unless you return it to another country. Since we thought we’d probably buy it, we chose a 6 month lease terminating in Madrid. If it turned out we didn’t like the car, we figured we could drive it to Madrid and fly back to Faro in Portugal.
We loved the car (a Renault Captur). The fine print I missed on the paperwork was you can purchase it IF you have a French address. We do not. The other thing we learned far too late is that there are no flights from Madrid to Faro in mid-October. This meant we’d need to get creative with an itinerary. That could make for an excellent trip, but we had constraints.
Enter complication two: cat care. We adopted a new cat two weeks ago after losing a kitty. Our one remaining cat, Annabelle, while lonely on her own, is pretty sure this new cat is a great danger that must be avoided. There is typical new cat adjustment period drama. Sally, the new cat, is actually quite gentle, just younger and bouncy. Annabelle is fourteen, skittish, and not a fan of bouncy. Due to this, we didn’t want to do an extended trip as we needed to board them at the vet’s office where they could be monitored, and that gets expensive.
Dave is a good road warrior, but I have about a three hour per day road trip tolerance. When it gets longer than that, things get exponentially less fun with each passing half hour. We decided to save Seville for a time when we could linger and explore more fully on another trip. Instead, we settled on Córdoba as a midway point on the drive to Madrid, which is four hours away according to Google. It was pushing the tolerance limit, I wasn’t feeling my best, and in no way was I ready for what awaited us in Córdoba.
Our friends recommended a hotel in Córdoba right across from the Mezquita (Mosque) in the old part of the city. We decided to go for it and minimize driving. Would I recommend it for you? If you don’t have a car, yes. If you do have a car, I will summarize it this way: If you do not mind inching along with your car acting as the border collie to people/sheep, then you have passed the first test. If you can drive in narrow spaces and park in tight parking garages with mere inches to get in and out, plus an iron gate that will swing shut on your car, you’ve passed the second test. And finally, if you can get yourself out of a pedestrian area that is off the grid of your GPS, and be comfortable being “that” tourist people feel sorry for, then yes, I will recommend this hotel to you. I am not that person, and the pristine lease car we were originally turning in now has two big dings to prove it. But, Córdoba was lovely and we do think you should go, regardless of your hotel choice. The area around the city center was beautiful and the Mezquita was a true wonder.
When we successfully made it out of Córdoba (it took an hour to get out of the city center), we were off to Madrid. The car was due at 6:00 pm and we made it at 6:05. Thankfully, we had full coverage insurance so the Córdoba dings didn’t cost us money, just our pride and some hours of marital harmony.
We were too tired to really enjoy ourselves the first night in Madrid, plus I was sick enough at this point to take a COVID test (negative, thank you, Lord). We didn’t do our research and just went to dinner at a convenient tapas restaurant and it was a big mistake. Things were in the “not fun” zone. Madrid was a repeat destination for us, so it didn’t feel like we were missing out so much. We had a good rest and did some new things the next day. We recommend the observation deck in the Centro Centro and a great Italian restaurant that was just what we needed to unwind. We left the next morning.
Getting home took a lot of planning. We used Cabify to get around Madrid and to the airport. We flew from Madrid to Seville on Iberia, which was very smooth. We took the airport bus to the Seville bus terminal (easy), then caught a Flix bus from Seville to Faro airport (the one I’m on now). Once we arrive there we will rent another car that we’ll drive for a few weeks until our new car arrives. We ordered a Captur just like the one we leased, but I have read the fine print and I know we can own it this time. It’s all a learning curve.
