Spain 2015: 24 magical days of tapas

Hello World. After an exciting summer of travel, science, and blogging in 2013, I quietly returned to my usual low internet profile. However I am excited to announce that in 6 short days I will be embarking on a new travel adventure! Sean and I are headed to Spain for a road trip. This trip has been 12 months in the planning but don't worry, this is not a Rick Steve's itinerary. Every detail down to the minute has not been planned. This will be our first time renting a car overseas and driving as opposed to taking trains or buses. This will allow us maximum exploration of some very cool areas.

Countdown to Spain 2015

In preparation for this trip we purchased a new digital camera and hope to be sharing some exquisite photos of superior quality (given the last few times it was all iPhone). 

To get everyone pumped up about this trip and encourage you all to follow our travels closely I wanted to post about the general plan.

• Madrid June 15-19
• Granada June 19-23
• Cartagena June 23-25
• Vall d'Uxo June 25-26
• Girona June26-July2
• San Sebastian July 2-7
• Madrid July 7-8

Madrid: So Sunday morning we fly out of Seattle extra early and arrive in New York before catching a red eye to Madrid. We arrive in the heart of Spain Monday morning hopefully mostly adjusted to the time change. We are renting a fabulous apartment off of Airbnb that is right in the center of the city, steps from the Puerta del Sol (Gate of the sun) plaza. The entire Spanish road system (that looks like spokes on a wheel starts here. Puerto del Sol is km 0). Madrid is going to be a few busy action packed days. We plan to dedicate an entire day to the Prado (Giant art museum considered the Spanish Louvre) and a day trip to Toledo.We also plan to visit the Reina Sofia museum which is a modern art museum dedicated almost entirely to Spanish artists.

Granada: Possibly the impetus for the entire trip. In 2013 while spending 12 magical hours at the Louvre, I absolutely fell in love with their Islamic art section. Capturing the beauty and majesty of the world without using recognizable images (such as people, places, plants, animals etc.) is an amazing artistic feat and one that really captures the imagination. My husband seeing my reaction to this collection all but insisted our next major trip had to include the Alhambra which is in Grenada. Other than the Alhambra which we had to book in advance, the rest of our time in Grenada is unplanned. The city is famous for serving tapas free with every drink ordered in a bar, so we might spend a lot of time bar crawling and just recovering from 4 busy days in Madrid.

Cartagena: This is an old Roman port that is a major archeological site. Many roman ruins here have been restored and more are being uncovered. Its proximity to the beach is also a plus. This place has a few unique museums including one dedicated to underwater archeology. This will also be our first time staying in a hotel this trip.

Vall d'Uxo: Totally random stop. We made a pact to limit the amount of time spent in a given day driving. Most of our road trips are 4 hours or less. The drive from Cartagena to Girona would easily be at least 8 hours if done all in one go so we needed to stop somewhere in between. We considered Valencia but that would be like trying to visit Seattle in a day, unfair and frustrating. I literally saw the name of this little town on a map and was like, that is a crazy name, and googled the city. It turns out this tiny town has an amazing secret attraction. There is not even a wikipedia article written in English about it. However this town has caves with the largest navigable underground river.  In fact a small tour company lets people tour the caves via boat. How cool is that? So it is just a one night stop-over with a potentially amazing sight.

Girona: This small city in the Catalonia region is going to be our home base while we explore/ hike volcanoes, the barren rock coast that inspired Dali's surreal paintings, visit the insane museum Dali designed, eat at a Michelin rated restaurant (the area has 25) and take in undoubtedly one of the coolest regions of Spain that most people only know for Barcelona. My husband proposed to me in Barcelona so we might take a train into the city for one day to relive the magic but pretty much we are all about outdoor adventures and stalking the life and work of Salvador Dali. I have been to the second largest Dali museum in the world in St. Petersburg, Florida, my home town about a million times. The Reina Sofia has a large body of his work on display. And the Catalonia region has 3 major Dali places to visit: His childhood house, the house he built for his wife and his insane theater/museum. If you count the inspirational landscapes of the Cap de Creus, that is 4 major places.

San Sebastian: We love San Sebastian. We spent a week there in 2011 and were determined to come back. This isn't really about sight seeing or adventure, it is about spending time in a beautiful city and eating some of the best food on the planet. We are considering taking a day trip to the wine country of La Rioja and to Bilboa but mostly we just want to soak up the magic and charm of one of our favorite places before we come back to reality.

Madrid: Our last night in Spain is back in Madrid. A full circle,  largely for logistical reasons. But it will be nice to spend out our last night in a plush hotel in a city is known for its night life.

There are no words that can describe how excited I am for this trip. I hope you are excited to follow it. The pictures will be plentiful. The stories will be unique. And the posts will be often. Next time I write will be from Madrid.

Countdown to Spain 2015

Museums Gratis

You know what is nice? Updated, informative and interesting museums that are free. That's right in a city where a cup of drip coffee is 5 dollars, some of the best museums are free.

While in Copenhagen we visited two stunning museums, the Post and Telephone museum (my favorite) and the National Museum of Denmark. 

Post and Telephone Museum 

Exterior of the Post and Tele Museum

This museum is not listed in the Rick Steve's Denmark snapshot. I am starting to think him and I have very different interests in tourist attractions. He is great about art and history museums but seems to have little interest in science or just unusual cool things. I read about this museum on the visit Copenhagen website. I saw that it was free and located in a cool neighborhood. I expected it to be a small kitchy museum full of random telephones but instead was amazed to find it was a large updated museum that talks extensively about the history of the Danish post office.

Copenhagen: a city of Awesome

Copenhagen was never before on my travel radar. If not for my work having me fly back through there, I never would have experience the wonderful culture charm of this beautiful city.

The only way for me to fly home from Greenland was to go to Copenhagen. Greenland and Denmark are both countries in the Kingdom of Denmark (whatever that means). Doing a little research before I left, Copenhagen sort of reminded me of Seattle. The cities are about the same size, around the same latitude, have similar weather, recycle, value culture and are both broken up by lots of water (Copenhagen is on an island). So naturally I extended my layover to about a week and turned it into a vacation.

Copenhagen is a wonderful mix of old and new. Despite having been a city since medieval times, most of the buildings were built in the 1700s after a massive fire destroyed over 50% of the medieval city. Afterwards the King decreed that all building must be made out of brick. So most of the city is old (but not super old) brick buildings and then interspersed are sleek modern buildings indicative of Danish design. 

Hello Ice Sheet

While in Greenland, I touched the side of the ice sheet, I flew over the ice sheet, I stood across a crumbled ice ramp from the ice sheet but on my last day in Kangerlussuaq, I finally got to walk on it. We drove that bumpy dirt road all the way to the end. The road ends at the side of the ice. We hiked up a well traveled path with other scientists from KISS onto the ice. Normally this time of year the ice sheet would be a thin layer of dirt and gravel over ice cut with small flowing streams. But recent snow left the ice sheet blanketed in a winter wonderland.

Aerial view of the Ice Sheet

A top the ice sheet

Helicopters and Quick Sand

"I have never landed on sand before so you will have to tell where looks best"

On a crisp sunny Sunday morning we met our Norwegian helicopter pilot on the landing pad. There are no helicopters stationed in Kangerlussuaq except a massive search and rescue vessel.

Search and Rescue Helicopter in Hanger

We had four potential stops picked out. The principle investigators (PIs) had scoured google earth looking for sub glacial drainage sites and found 4 candidates (one heavily researched by another team). Our pilot was new to flying in Greenland, his first summer. Because there is no helicopter in Kangerlussuaq he had to fly a B12 from Nuuk. The B12 is a much smaller helicopter than the Huey used in Thule. And in the Air Greenland colors it looks almost like a lady bug. With only 3 of us traveling this time, I got both a window seat and a headset! So it felt like a real helicopter mission. 

Kangerlussuaq: A whole new Greenland

Quick geography lesson. Thule is almost at the top of the globe. It is 750 miles North of the arctic circle. It is latitude 76 degrees. There is only one city in the world with more people further North and that is in Svalbard. Kangerlussuaq however is right on the arctic circle around latitude 67 degrees and is inland as opposed to on the coast. There is a large sound that connects the town to the ocean.

Totally stolen from mappery.com

While in Thule, I was technically still in the US. Being on a military base is still considered the United States. They didn't stamp my passport until I boarded the plane for Kangerlussuaq. And so most of the people in Thule are Danish or American. The prices for food, goods and postage are all heavily subsidized. 

Greenland however is expensive.

Thule by Helicopter

I had never ridden in a helicopter before. But I am a big fan of roller coasters, I am not afraid of heights and I love to try new things. So of course, I was super excited to go.

We arrived to the Air Greenland hanger on Thule Air Force base with 4 people and a truck load of equipment at 9am. Our plan was to collect two river samples and an ice sample and if possible land on the ice sheet. It was a large helicopter a "Huey", the same helicopters used in Vietnam. It could seat about 9 people not counting the crew  and carry cargo. Weather is always an issue for flying and in Greenland the weather can be fierce but we got a nearly perfect day. Partly cloudy and not so much wind.