Trip to Spain/Introduction

Trip to Spain

We as a family went to an overseas trip after a long time. The last time we went together was in 2004, for a short trip to London and Paris. The kids were younger and not that interested in the trip unless we included Paris Disney into the trip, and we did.

Now it was time again to go somewhere. We had toyed with the idea of going somewhere in Europe. Italy was the usual favorite on the wish list. When it came down to make a final decision, Haleema wanted to go to Spain. Reason: she can utilize her presumed skills in the language. No one objected and that was it.

I had always thought of going to Spain, but never thought of it as a reality. Now that we decided on it, I put in my condition. We have to visit the sites in Andalusia. Saleem wanted to go to Barcelona and Zoha wanted to include Gibralter. My friend and medical college class mate Mubashar Riaz lives in Geneva and I thought of including that too.

We searched a few websites and contacted some of them. We wanted to include all of the above and it became increasingly difficult. I thought of Tipu, the travel and event guru at APPNA, who had been in this field for years. I called him, and we are very happy that he built up a plan for us which included all we wanted. It was cheaper, more economical and more over, he was always available. That includes some scary moments when we were told on arrival to Seville (Sevilla in Spanish) that our next day trip to Cordoba is cancelled and rescheduled for another day which we could not do as we had the tickets for Alhambra on that day. Those who have been to Alahmbra know that the tickets are bought well in advance and cannot be replaced or exchanged for another day. These final minute alterations which included canceling the old car rental and making new arrangements in a few hours could not have been possible had Tipu not been available on the other end of the phone all the times.

Going to a different and a totally new country where you do not know the language or anybody in the whole country can be scary. We went there without a group, had all the arrangements made ahead of time and traveled by train, car and air. Could not have done it on our own, we had thought. Now I think otherwise and feel that one can easily plan the next European trip on one’s own.  But that is now.

I will highly recommend it to everybody who wishes to have an independent trip, to contact Tipu or some one like him.

Over the course of next few weeks, I will post my thoughts on the trip along with the photos. There are many and all are available at flickr.com/nasirgondal.

I am sure that many of the readers of this post have been to Spain and what I write may not be new to them. Nonetheless this has been a trip of a lifetime to me and that is the reason of the desire to share it.

What is was in the end a memorable trip, which has incited me to learn and read more about Spain and her history. Many of my perceived notions about the Muslim history in Spain have been corrected and now I have a different and quite mixed opinion of Islam and Iberian Peninsula.