We have the travel itch again and this time we’re scratching it with a road trip through Portugal, northern Spain and a bit of France. It’s a 20-day trip in a rental car: starting in Lisbon, visiting 9 additional locations, traveling about 1,300 miles to reach nine additional locations and ending up in Madrid to visit our longtime friend Enrique. Enrique lived with my folks on River Street while attending Hillsdale High – many years ago. The map below gives you an idea of our route.

We’ve never been to Portugal so we’re spending time in Lisbon (A) and the second largest city, Porto (C). Porto is the home base for port wine, so we’ll do some sampling and report our findings. In between we’ll go to a small rural town – Belmonte (B) – to see what life is like there.

Then it’s on to northern Spain, starting in Santiago de Compostela (D), with a quick side trip through southern France, and ending in Barcelona. We’ve seen a good part of eastern and southern Spain, from Alicante to Sevilla on previous trips, but we’ve never done the northern route. We may feel adventurous setting out in a rental car but, if my memory serves, Mom and Dad hitchhiked the route from Bilbao to Santiago de Compostela in their sixties.

Santiago de Compostela is the terminus of a pilgrimage many of the faithful walked from France and beyond to worship at the cathedral there. It’s still a popular route but I suspect those making the trek are working on a bucket list item more than expressing their piety. 

We’re making a stop in the town of Gijon (E) not because it has a cool name (it contains “Jon”; get it?). Rather, Gijon is the birthplace of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, an 18^thcentury scholar, statesman, poet, author . . . you get the idea: an illustrative member of the Spanish Enlightenment. Mom used to say that Jovellonos was the Thomas Jefferson of Spain. We’ll stop at his birthplace, which is now a museum, and see if anyone has heard of Lilian Libby Rick. I’m willing to bet that they have, since her PhD dissertation was published in Spain and was (and maybe still is) the definitive catalog and analysis of Jovellonos’ life and work.

Bilbao (F) is of course the site of the famous Guggenheim Museum of contemporary and modern art. The building was designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 1997. Bilbao is also on the western edge of the Basque region. The Basques are a people who have lived for many years in the Pyrenees Mountain region that spans France and Spain. After leaving Bilbao we will drive through the Spanish side of the Basque region before crossing over to the French side (G).

Then on to the Pyrenees Mountain town of Beilsa (H) for a little R&R in a posada (inn) before heading on to the big city of Barcelona (I). Barcelona sports another iconic piece of architecture, the Familia Sagrada. It’s a Roman Catholic church (a “minor basilica”) designed by Antoni Gaudi in his characteristic style that I can’t describe with words; pictures when we’re actually there will have to suffice. The place has been under construction since 1882 and still isn’t done.

Finally, three days in Madrid with Enrique. We’re thinking a day trip to Segovia might be fun. The Prado? Sure, it would be interesting but, hey, we’ve been there before. You’ve seen one Velasquez you’ve seen them all. We’ll want to spend time getting a feel for Madrid and of course visiting with Enrique.

We leave May 21 and return June 10. As always, you’re invited to follow along at jonandjudy.com. I’ll try to send out email announcements when I make a new post. If you’d rather not have your inbox cluttered with my emails, let me know and I’ll take you off the list – no hard feelings!

And as always, your comments as we travel are always welcomed – it’s nice to hear from “back home” when we’re on the road.