Spring Fever
After one of the coolest and rainiest months of May in many years (I haven't worn short sleeves even once!), today the sun has risen without almost any clouds and it's starting to warm up. Just in time to usher in June, a few days of good weather are predicted for Galicia. That, and the beautifully long days, have given me wanderlust.
At the end of June I have one week all to myself. On one day of that week I intend to make one of my traditional day trips. I am starting to think about where I can go. I set a goal of a maximum of three hours driving to get to the place. Unfortunately, that limits the places I can visit outside Galicia that are still in Spain. Portugal is closer; the border is just a little over an hour away. But I would prefer to visit there in September, so for next month I'm scratching my head and wondering just how fast I can drive.
Should I visit somewhere I've already been? Last year I went to Las Médulas in León province and wandered through Ponferrada and some mountain villages in El Bierzo. A couple of years earlier I went to Luarca in Asturias, from where I climbed into the mountains where the old vaqueiros used to wander from pasture to pasture. But I want to see somewhere new.
If there were a good train system I would have less of a problem. I could just look up the timetable, choose a destination and that would be that. But the train has kept pretty much to the first tracks laid out in the nineteenth century. Even now that they're building new tracks for high speed trains, they're being built on the same routes from back then. And cutting back schedules. Over a hundred years ago it was very important to be connected to Madrid. Now, people don't see the capital as the end-all of travel, whether for pleasure or necessity. People now want to be connected with other parts of the country without having to go through Madrid to get anywhere else. But the central government continues seeing the capital city as the hub of the entire country and tries to keep the country together that way, figuratively and literally.
And so the train loses passengers and no one seems to want to know why. And I have to figure out where I can visit with my car. Hmmm, could it be possible to wing Gijón this year?
At the end of June I have one week all to myself. On one day of that week I intend to make one of my traditional day trips. I am starting to think about where I can go. I set a goal of a maximum of three hours driving to get to the place. Unfortunately, that limits the places I can visit outside Galicia that are still in Spain. Portugal is closer; the border is just a little over an hour away. But I would prefer to visit there in September, so for next month I'm scratching my head and wondering just how fast I can drive.
Should I visit somewhere I've already been? Last year I went to Las Médulas in León province and wandered through Ponferrada and some mountain villages in El Bierzo. A couple of years earlier I went to Luarca in Asturias, from where I climbed into the mountains where the old vaqueiros used to wander from pasture to pasture. But I want to see somewhere new.
If there were a good train system I would have less of a problem. I could just look up the timetable, choose a destination and that would be that. But the train has kept pretty much to the first tracks laid out in the nineteenth century. Even now that they're building new tracks for high speed trains, they're being built on the same routes from back then. And cutting back schedules. Over a hundred years ago it was very important to be connected to Madrid. Now, people don't see the capital as the end-all of travel, whether for pleasure or necessity. People now want to be connected with other parts of the country without having to go through Madrid to get anywhere else. But the central government continues seeing the capital city as the hub of the entire country and tries to keep the country together that way, figuratively and literally.
And so the train loses passengers and no one seems to want to know why. And I have to figure out where I can visit with my car. Hmmm, could it be possible to wing Gijón this year?
Revel in your week
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