Both my wife and I do not like spending too long at a resort. We like to look at cities, explore and try to understand different cultures. Our choice on a very belated honey moon was to spend two weeks in London, walk the Camino from France to Finisterre , then a quick few days in each of various Spanish cities, a month in Manchester, and back home.

The walk across northern Spain combined a lot, celebration of life (my wife received a clean bill of health after taking some very nasty medications - we got the news while in London), sight seeing, understanding history, experiencing history, understanding culture, an attempt at reconciling myself with Christianity, spiritual growth, philosophy, and so on. I have read books on the nature of cities, and I found myself studying what I was seeing. Did it fit what I had read? How does my own participation in the Camino fit into the pattern/dance of city life and existence? Also we talked about how one could work and live in the villages, towns and cities along the Camino, how people did things a thousand years ago, and the real differences between Canada and Spain - attitudes that run deep - into the nature of what is family. As well there was a certain ugly mystery that coted Spain almost like a fog (a plaque here, a memorial there, a street sign, a prison...) - the Spanish Civil War - and reflections of the same type of  silence of the embarrassing past with the cruceiro for the Spanish Armada in its rather poor repaired state in the middle of nowhere attesting to the same silence from a different time. This caused me to reflect on Canada and our own attempts at hiding the past and myself and what do I hide from myself? In some ways the differences of Spain helped to form new ideas about cities at home. Either rightly or wrongly, I think I have a bit of a feel for part of what is Spain and where did it come from. I don't feel like I came and saw a few things and that's it.

We spent about 5 days in Barcelona. We tried to do three museums a day. In five days I was burned out. What I really learned from 5 days in Barcelona was that you can not understand much about Barcelona in 5 days.

We spent a month in Manchester visiting my father-in-law's ex boyfriend. We rented an apartment. It was quite different from the Barcelona experience. I was not so overwhelmed. I enjoyed going to all the various museums - taking day trips to the surrounding cities and attending the local Quaker meetings. The ability to connect with a person and a community really improved the experience. I felt like I left with at least a limited feel for the city.

I concluded that to really understand somewhere, a month is not enough. A year maybe. I really wanted to go home at the end of 4 months. I am not really happy about the city I live so I guess I don't make that type of connection.

We did not watch any television that I can think of, outside of stuff in bars. I don't feel like there was time. We were doing too much.

Hope this covers what you are looking for.


We are for Justice and Mercy, and Truth and Peace, and true Freedom. Edward Burroughs 1659