Spain Road Trip Part I - Southern Andalusia (11/06/2021 - 11/11/2021)

The country of Spain holds a special place in my past as it is the first country I ever visited, barely hatched out of my birthplace of Romania. Indeed, the travel bug bit early in this one.

While I had been to Barcelona several times, I had never had the chance to see the rest of Spain and all of its complex history and culture. It was also an opportunity to retrace my long forgotten footsteps over four decades ago. 

This trip was also an experiment in this new-fangled concept of being a digital nomad, and I was lucky enough to be able to work remotely but the question was could I do so effectively? The answer is sort-of.

I began my trip in Andalusia, and in Puerto Banús specifically, a beachfront district within Marbella on the southern coast, which usually at this time of year is home to Finns, Estonians and Russians fleeing the winter, but in the summertime, home to the ultrawealthy and famous.  Due to the impact of COVID on travel, it was especially quiet this winter, and you could see by the copious amount of bird droppings and thick layers of dust on cars parked outside, that some of the seasonal occupants did not expect to be gone for a few years. A more grisly thought was that some other seasonal occupants have since moved on from this world. 

Following Puerto Banús was a daytrip to Ronda, a small city literally built on a precipice. Worth visiting for a few hours, but beyond the novelty of where the city was built, not much to say.

Tarifa was the southernmost point of Spain and the official divider between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean - great place for some seafood by the beach.

Algeciras was a brief visit to just see Gibraltar - which I had wanted to visit but no one for the life of me could tell me what the COVID rules were for leaving the EU and re-entering it by land, and how to get a COVID test within this British territory that served as a thorn in Spain's proverbial and literal bottom. 

Estepona was another cute Mediterranean village with a lot of flowers. 

All in all a very nice start.

Puerto Banús and Marbella

Ronda

Tarifa

Algeciras

Estepona

Lisbon / Lisboa, Portugal (10/31/2021 - 11/05/2021)

It was nice to be back in Lisbon after roughly three decades since my last visit (as a child). I remembered nearly nothing about the place aside from narrow cobble stone roads and the complete inability to find our hotel. In all likelihood it remained mostly the same, albeit now a favourite destination for digital nomads, and wealthy non-EU citizens seeking a second passport for a nominal fee. An interesting coincidence with the 'digital nomad' comment above is that the "25 de Abril Bridge" has a very similar design to the Golden Gate Bridge. Unlike the home of the latter, Lisbon was very affordable, clean and safe. 

It is easy to fall in love with this city, with its tiny cafes and shops amidst a mixture of medieval, Pombaline (post-18th century earthquake that nearly erased the city), and modern buildings. It is heaven for fresh seafood lovers (first time I tried barnacles!), as well as those that partake in the enjoyment of pastéis de nata (custard tarts) - which I very much did. 

I did not have too much time to explore as this was travel for work, nor did I have a chance to go outside of Lisbon. I hope in the future I will have this opportunity.