Category: Madrid

2024 ~ ready for new adventures…Blog 130

I love to travel, really I do. However, this love is not without conditions. I most enjoy travelling with someone, preferably family and close friends, and I like going places that offer the opportunity to be by the sea or ocean. While I appreciate time spent in a city exploring the arts, culture, gastronomy and of course unique shopping, I prefer to spend my time in the less busy, less travelled parts of the world. To be clear, I’m not talking about roughing it, I do appreciate my creature comforts, just more so in peaceful, slower paced locations. 

There are, of course, some things about travel that I find less enjoyable. Like long haul flights that leave you longing for that invigorating walk on the beach where stretching without fear of elbowing another passenger, or flight attendant, is possible. Or how about the challenge of visiting the aeroplane bathrooms? It takes some contorting to rearrange every single thing around you, climb over a sleeping seat mate, and then wait for your turn to once again be a contortionist to fit into the smallest closet size space to relieve yourself. And then you get to do it all in reverse. 

Then there’s the jet lag — oh my! I’ve heard many tips and tricks to deal with it, and some even claim to prevent it; however, the reality is that jet lag is part and parcel of travelling to those amazing, yet to be discovered far off places that call for navigating across various time zones. Great argument there for local travel and road trips!

But still, I love to travel and explore new places, shop in local markets, enjoy local cuisine (except fish, unfortunately), and find those spots that offer moments of quiet and reflection by the water.  

We are starting the year off with a wonderful travel experience, not to new places, but to someplace more familiar. As many readers know, we spent 7 months travelling and living in Portugal and Spain in 2021/2022. To celebrate my departure from full time employment to freelancing (Professional Development Coaching), we are taking advantage of creating our own time schedule. 

Carvoeiro, Portugal is one of the places that won our hearts during our extended time in the EU, so it is serving as our home base for a short time while we enjoy this incredibly beautiful part of the world. But even more fantastic is the time we have to enjoy being with both our kids and their children. This time together isn’t something we take lightly — living in different parts of the world has its challenges! It is simply heartwarming and life-giving to spend time on spectacular beaches with your family. The perfect way to kick off a new year.

So, as we look to the year ahead, what does travel look like for 2024? Perhaps back to Europe, perhaps travel in Canada, perhaps…who knows? What I am sure of, is it will be filled with adventure, exploration, learning, and delight! And more inspirational places to write and create. Stay tuned.

Leave home, leave the country, leave the familiar.
Only then can routine experience—buying bread, eating vegetables, even saying hello—become new all over again.

—Anthony Doerr

Steps 3,4 etc in my publishing journey…Blog #120

What does it take to go the publishing process? Patience, tough skin, open mindedness, patience, tough skin, open mindedness…repeat, over and over!

Seriously though, I’ve learned that the writing of a book, deciding to publish, finding a publisher and submitting the manuscript is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to actually getting a book to the point of publication.

I last wrote about this adventure on January 26th, and since then the process has been wait, review, edit, submit, then wait again. The most challenging aspect has been receiving the feedback and recommendations from the deep edit. Ouch! I know I may not be the best English grammar student – ok, not even close. But to see the word pictures I so lovingly and painstakingly created and scripted, and reflections on happenings from days and years gone by that have etched their learnings into my psyche, placed under the editor’s critical microscope and dissected without consideration of my virgin writer’s feelings, is tough! 

And necessary, and has taught me so much!   

Thanks again to my writing mentor, Karen, I had to take a step back, to become more objective in reviewing the editors comments and recommendations. While the feedback was valuable, I was still responsible for deciding what elements of the feedback aligned with my message, my voice, and my goals. Don’t get me wrong, there was no question whether or not I would accept the many grammatical corrections, the awkward construct of sentences, and the amazing suggestions regarding the structure of the book. Still, what stories remained, the emotions I wanted to provoke, and the seemingly unimportant details were up to me. 

I had three choices: accept the changes, consider what parts of the suggested changes I would accept, and what I would reject. The end result was a better manuscript, and a great deal of gratitude to my editor.

Right now the publisher is working on the book layout, including photographs from my journey, and I have approved the script for the back cover; the editor did an amazing job on that! The graphic designer is working on a few edits for the front cover, which I should be signing off on shortly.

The next big step for me is getting the ARC (advanced reader copy), and sending my book, ‘What if…’ out to a few trusted readers for their endorsements. 

So, as far as I can see, we are on track for a late summer release, and I am excited! For now, I wait, again. 

But that’s just fine – I leave today for Spain, where new adventures await. We will be walking a section of the Camino, sandwiched between a few days in Madrid, Bilbao, and San Sebastian. Stay tuned!

First photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

Second photo by Shane Kell on Pexels.com

Madrid, then farewell Europe…Blog #113

Madrid…what an amazing city! Two days is not enough to really get to know a place, but certainly enough to leave an impression. The architecture is incredible — the buildings, the balconies, and the most spectacular statues everywhere you look. 

We stayed at the Iberostar which, by the way, provided some of the best customer service we have ever experienced. From there we walked, and walked, and absorbed all that is Madrid. 

The first day we just wandered, coming first to the Plaza Mayor then took in the San Miguel Market, offering the most amazing display of tapas I have ever seen! Next we headed to Almudena Cathedral and were awed by its majesty. One aspect I really appreciated was the colour in the ceilings and stained glass windows, beautiful. Fun fact, Real Madrid CF won the EUFA Champions League final the day before we arrived. The following day had them offering the trophy to the Virgin of Almudena, along with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. On our visit, I climbed to the platform where the flowers had been laid…a part of Madrid history. 

Day 2 was a very different experience…though still amazing. We ended the day at the Museo Del Prado . If you have time for only one museum, this is the one. The art is exquisite as are the many statues throughout the museum. We were even treated to a young woman playing classical piano as we wandered the many rooms.  

As terrific as the Prado was, the majority of our second day was spent strolling around one of the most peaceful, beautiful parks I have encountered, Parque de El Retiro If someone were just dropped into El Retiro, they’d never guess they were in the middle of a city hosting a population of 6,714,000 people! So much to appreciate about this UNESCO World Heritage Site: a lovely lake with row boats, over 128 hectares of green space, 15,000 trees, the colourful and fragrant La Rosaleda Garden (with over 4,000 roses), countless majestic statues that tell much of the history of Madrid, and, the park even even boasts it’s own Palacio de Cristal (Glass Palace). What an experience walking through this glass and iron building dating back to 1887. 

The name Parque de El Retiro means Pleasant Retreat Park, a perfect description of a perfect oasis that provided a memorable experience for our final days in Europe.

As I write this post, we are waiting for our final leg home. We’ve already flown from Madrid to Toronto, Canada, then on to Vancouver. In less than an hour, we take the short 1 hour flight to Kelowna…back home. It truly has been an amazing seven month journey, an unforgettable life experience that will take some time to fully process…time to reflect on the ups, downs, joys, tears, surprises, memories created, and life lessons that still come along no matter your age. I have always believed, and now even more so…travel opens our eyes to an amazingly, fantastic world that, once experienced, will change you forever.

For now, we look forward to arriving at the Kelowna airport to the open arms of our daughter and grand daughter…such joy awaits.