Luke Reynolds

Denouement Dashboard - Spain

Luke Reynolds -

This is the place I will cover the stats of each country as we go.

As usual, follow along at:

And follow along HERE, of course…

Anyway, let's get into it:

Spain: 24-30/10/23 then 8-10/11/23

Tracks:

The next country on the trail, Andorra, is messing me up a little here. There’s no way I’m assigning the driving distance from Barcelona to Andorra as kilometres in Andorra’s summary. We were only there for a night. And it is tiny. So that distance can stay as Spain’s…

P.S. I am jumping back into this post out of order to add our stop in Zaragoza on the way back to Madrid from Carcassonne. We had to drop off the car in Madrid after the Mediterranean French loop before the flight to Milan.

Planes:

  • Malta - Madrid = 1,659 km

Automobiles:

  • Madrid - Barcelona - Andorra = 626 + 197 km + about 50km in driving/Ubers around cities = 873 km in our Volkswagen, ‘Miguel’…
  • Carcassonne - Zaragoza = 576 km
  • Zaragoza - Madrid = 322 km

Walking:

  • 39.2 km

Total = 3,469.2 km

Expenses:

Rough rules: I will count the flight (or bus) TO that country as an expense IN that country.

Total expense: $5,692.56 AUD (This includes the car hire fee that is attributed to Spain…)

Total Days: 9 Days inclusive

Expense per day = $632.50 AUD/Day

(This is a little confounded by days and days of car hire outside of Spain that are still attributed to Spain’s spending, because we payed for it in Madrid…)

Expenses Breakdown (mathematical, not emotional):

The ’fees and charges’ came from cancelling a shitty AirBnB that would have had us sleeping in a shitty boat in a marina with no toilet…

The ‘transportation’ includes the car hire for days spent outside of Spain.

Travel Bingo:

  • The Influencer - IIIIIIIIIIIII

Lots of women around Barcelona having photoshoots…

And Madrid is a very fashionable, trendy place to be seen.

An explanation of Travel Bingo is here.

Relevant Media:

  • ‘Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona’ I suppose…
  • ’Rosalia’ is from Barcelona, I think.

Culinary Corner by a Non-Foodie:

  • I’m told that Madrid is a good food place, I’m just not enough of a foodie to notice, sorry…
  • Barcelona has heaps of Tapas places for those that are interested.

Tips and Tricks:

  • Madrid - The Prado Museum needs a booked ticket, even in off season.
  • Barcelona - The same goes with La Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera.

Recommendations:

  • Don’t book an AirBnB to stay on a boat in a harbour. I mean, why would you do it…?
  • If you have to choose one, go for Barcelona over Madrid.
  • Zaragoza was a surprising, nice little stop over on the long drive back to Madrid. It has Roman ruins in the centre of town.
  • La Sagrada Familia is probably the most beautiful structure in Europe. It really is staggering. Book a ticket. Have a look around.

Summary:

  • Outside of the major cities, Spain looks poor. The drive from Madrid to Barcelona is marked by abandoned buildings and factories and dilapidated towns. I think my general vibe of the place is reflected by high unemployment, high cost of living, low wages.
  • Madrid - Meh, to be honest. Traffic sucks. The streets are ancient and impractical. I thought there was a sharp disconnect between inner metro Madrid (old town, victorious avenues, statement imperial infrastructure), which was admittedly beautiful; and the outer suburbs, which looked like soviet satellite cities all brown and isolated.
  • Barcelona - I like Barcelona. It feels like a more organised and less politically retarded Buenos Aires. Something that I’m sure the Argentinians would take as a compliment, and the Spaniards as a slur… It is walkable and green. And the ’niceness’ of looking at things is just as ‘nice’ as Madrid but more of an artsy, Gaudi tone. La Sagrada Familia is one of the cooler man-made things I’ve ever seen. And a grid network of streets makes things simple.

Thanks for reading along.

The next country update will come... after the next country.

Weekly updates will come...weekly.

Luke.