Creating my Spanish Adventure Itinerary

24 Days!

Leaving a home I love for three months isn't as easy as I'd imagined all those months ago when this craziness slipped into my head.  However, as the days pass by and my excitement mounts, it has been a grand journey already...and my house?  I've found a house sitter who will treat it with love...except for the two weeks she's flying to be part of my Spanish adventure!

My questions were:

1.  I know there are many Ex-pats in Spain who are members of the We Love Memoirs FB site. So, I moved just like the song in Ghost Busters, Who are you going to call???  I began methodically combing through the posts from forever ago. I was pleasantly surprised to find more than twenty of my WLM FB friends who either live in Spain full time or go from time to time from their "other" lives. I received great suggestions and lovely invitations.  I pulled out my hot-pink Plumeria Press notebook and started a list by town, person's name, their story and our connections.

2.  Then, I began thinking of the wonderful life connections I have accumulated through the Hawaiian Spaniards FB site and found a trove of information and willing Spaniards to help me there also.  With each conversation, I added names, places and their thoughts to my notebook.  I received bus schedules, train information and their help finding beds for all the nights I would be away from my house in Calahonda.

I found authors, vintners, restaurant owners, teachers and people like me... sort-of jubilados, retired men and women.   And it was just the beginning of my lists...  

There were two towns in Spain I knew must be on the TOWNS TO VISIT list:
Algodonales = I must research flamenco guitars for book 4 of my Callinda Beauvais Mystery Series Flamenco Strings: Uncorked.  And Algodonales has a flamenco guitar making shop...and it is a town where another connection lives,  Jose Luis S. And lucky me - he knows the owner of the shop!  So, I reserved a room at an Air B&B, found the bus schedule and marked that done.

Córdoba = Just because.  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/andalucia/cordoba/introduction
I've seen photos of La Mezquita and my mind has often lingered there.  I want to see it at night and of course, I knew to do that, I must stay in the city overnight... I found a hotel despite it being at the end of their annual fería.

Going solo is a bit overwhelming, but I am hopeful the city will feed my soul and starve my fears.  {Córdoba is a city in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. It was an important Roman city and a major Islamic center in the Middle Ages. It’s best known for La Mezquita, an immense mosque dating from 784 A.D., featuring a columned prayer hall and older Byzantine mosaics. After it became a Catholic church in 1236, a Renaissance-style nave was added in the 17th century.} (Wikipedia)

Next post: I need to speak Spanish!