Observaciones pos-viaje

After a 24-hour travel day yesterday I'm certainly in low-key mode today. The boys, por otro lado, are a bit more keyed up. I guess they're excited I'm home, or maybe they're just getting me back for being gone for 10 days. We'll be fine though, or at least as soon as I get a good night's sleep. Observations from the trip include:

• Spain's standard of living certainly has improved. Streets and buildings in the historic (read tourist) areas are clean and preserved. Hotels are much more modern, with all having private baths and showers; that wasn't a given back in the day. There seems to be many more cars unfortunately, but the country is in good shape, at least in the more visited areas.

• Madrid and Sevilla have become more peaton-friendly. One of the significant connector streets between the Puerta del Sol and the Palacio Nacional was closed and rebuilt as a pedestrian zone. The same has been done with a major street coming off the Cathedral area in Seville. It really enhances the feel of the city and I saw as many locals on these streets as tourists. That said, L'Ville tried that 40 years ago, closing 4th Street- then the shopping hub- to traffic. In effect, it killed downtown as a commercial area.

• Both of these cities have also added bike lanes along major city feeder streets. In Spain they're painted red and are found on one side of the street, separated from auto traffic. I know the dreaded dedicated bike lanes are major bones of contention in many U.S. cities and certainly in Luavull. That said, they seem to have worked wonders b/c I saw SO MANY more bikes in both. Sevilla was practically filled with Euro city bikes, something I never saw in my other trips there. I even found their "Sevilla en Bici" website. Here's the link to the pdf. map of the city. Looks like great things are happening. I'm sort of pissed I didn't take any pics of the lanes, but I had other things going on... OH, the magic of the web. I did a little searching herenthere and found this listing of Madrid projects including a pic of the lane directly across from our hotel, literally. That Unicaja bank is on the opposite corner of the Hotel Convencion. Again, I don't think these plans are perfect; I'm not scared on Louisville streets. But I saw many, many more urban cyclists in Madrid/Sevilla than I ever did in the previous 17 years of travel.
  

• Maroc, Marruecos, Morocco is an interesting and problematic place. We only visited Tangier/Tanger, which we learned is a more multicultural place than much the rest of the country. There are French, Spanish, American and Italian neighborhoods and the upscale neighborhoods are filled with Saudis who do business in the port. That said, the Casbah area is traditionally Muslim. It was quite the juxtaposition, the paradox, seeing all women dressed head to toe, some including covering the face, while American girls roam the streets in in their spaghetti straps, cascading bosoms and butt-level shorts. I can see why such a cultural tension is created, whether justified or not. I liked visiting the Casbah, but I don't need to go back. And the pushy street vendors become very old very quickly.

• I found Lisboa delightful. It's 20 years behind the more touristy areas such as Spain or France, but it retains a charm that's been lost elsewhere. It has also been racially and culturally affected more than the other EU countries. I think many in the U.S. are accustomed to racial diversity, whether it be black, Hispanic, or Asian, and Lisboa reflects that via its Brasilian and African immigrants.

Well, the boys are fighting so here are a couple pics from Madrid. We visited the famous Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Palacio Nacional, Museo del Prado and Museo Reina Sofia. The first pic is taken from the Parque Buen Retiro, which is its Central Park.

This second pic is in front of the Nat'l Palace. These were all streets last time I visited. Now it's a large, new plaza. And the trees help.