Toledo, Madrid, Brussels and home...

Thank you Master Yoda for a fun trip!

My son loaned me the mascot for the trip.

The walled medieval city of Avila, Spain

How do you bring closure to an experience like this?  What a rich sociology and history lesson it has been. Many days of hands-on learning with realia, right there for you to manipulate and understand first hand.

After two weeks, I know enough to know that I don't know very much at all about the rich history and wonderful people Spain, but I want to learn more.

Oldest Restaurant in the World: Botin, Madrid, Spain est 1725

Granted, my experience in Spain was influenced by positive phenomena of the Spanish futbol team winning the World Cup in a symphony of Spanish brotherhood, the likes of which I've never seen before, but even without that, it would have been a wonderful trip.  A culture that seemed somewhat politically divided at times, came together in a flag waving, singing and cheering frenzy that united the whole country in celebration their achievement and Spanish brotherhood.

Espana has visible craftsmanship in architecture and art that you can't help but notice.  They take the time, money and effort to add beauty to mundane things.  It is noticeable everywhere in art and on buildings in the smaller, older cities and the larger modern ones.

Plaza at Toledo, Spain

Cathedral at Toledo, Spain

What I walk away with is the feeling that Spanish people are passionate, kind, caring and very giving people that love to be social with their family and friends in a way that is not present in American culture. Unconditional positive regard is alive and living in Spain.  It is noticeable at breezy sidewalk cafes where children laugh and play, way past their American bedtimes, safely in the warm, starlit night.

Toledo, Spain

I was struck with the freedom of the night in Spain, as I saw several older Spanish ladies wandering home alone, past midnight, on tiny dark streets of Toledo, without worrying about their safety.  The Metro in Madrid is also a safe place for even women and children, late at night, in a city of well over 3 million people.  I'm not naive enough to say there is no crime in Spain, but I'm saying there is a level of freedom that we enjoyed in America until about the 1950s, that does not exist in the USA today.  There are many things to appreciate about America, but Spain has many things to appreciate as well.  I'm a lucky guy to be able to visit a wonderful country like Espana.

On a lighter note, when I was in Brussels on the way home, their Manneken Pis, a small statue of a little boy peeing was depicted on this Coke machine to entice passers by with the idea that they needed to drink a Coke.  Not sure how well this ad campaign stimulated sales, but I did take a photo.  Funny, it didn't seem to make me particularly thirsty though :)