My Itinerary

I leave Monday, February 19^th, 2007 from Cleveland Hopkins Airport at 3:00pm EST, arrive in Newark, NJ at 4:45pm EST, then depart for Barcelona, Spain at 7:15pm EST. Our plane touches down in Spain at 9:10am on February 20^th. That’s Spain time, which is currently six hours ahead of EST. Oh, and the “us” I’m referring to would be my good friend Libby and I. She’s flying over to Spain with me and will be there until the 26^th. She’s taking a mini-vacation to visit her mother and step-father, Rebekah and Paddy, whom I’ll be staying with for the first three or four weeks of my time in Spain.

Libby and I are planning to spend most of the day we arrive in Barcelona. While there I plan on visiting Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family), Casa Milà, Casa Batlló, and Park Güell. It really seems from my research that Gaudí built Barcelona. J There are museums and other sights I plan on seeing as well, but for the most part I will probably let Libby guide me, as she’s visited Barcelona a few times prior – that and at some point in my trip I’ll be visiting the area again.

So after Barcelona, we will take an overnight train to Sahagún which is approximately 11km from Rebekah and Paddy’s home. They live at a junction along El Camino, which is a roughly 500 mile pilgrimage across Northern Spain which I intend to walk later in my trip. They need some assistance with fixing things up, so in return for allowing me board I’m planning to help them however I can.

Sometime in late April or early May I’ll set out to tour the Spanish countryside. On my list of places to visit include: Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Málaga, Granada, Valencia, and Bilbao, home of the world famous Guggenheim Museum. This will take me south and then up along the Mediterranean coastline, back towards Barcelona and then to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France where the walk along El Camino begins. Google Maps was crafty enough to let me plot out an approximate “path” from St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The walk is paced out to take a month.

Map: St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, FRANCE to Santiago de Compostela, SPAIN

Once I’ve reached Santiago, I’ll make a stop back to Rebekah’s to replenish my things and then catch a cheap flight to Rome, Italy. From here I plan to travel to Southern Italy and then make my way back north. I’d like to spend 3-4 weeks backpacking in Italy seeing as much as I can. One thing I stumbled across accidentally was Cinque Terre, an 11km stretch of coastline along the Mediterranean where five villages are connected by footpaths. The trail is also referred to as the Lover’s Walk, which I had learned about from one of one of my wine workshop instructors last year. While in Italy I’d also like to visit Florence, Bologna, Milan, Venice, and Naples.

From Italy I’ll find my way into France… and then all will be well J I am so excited to get to explore France much more in depth than I did during my last stay in the Loire Valley. I fully intend on basking on the warm sunny shoreline of Nice, traversing the Alps to Strasbourg, seeing the beaches of Normandy, marveling – yet again – at the dazzling brightness of Paris, and indulging in some of my favorite wines in Bordeaux. After having my fill, which will doubtfully be ever, of France I’ll head back to Rebekah’s one last time at some point in August and after a wonderful six months return back to the States.