Over years past as we contemplated future travel plans, both Heidi and Lee consistantly have thought about settling in to a single location somewhere for a month or so, using that extended time as a way to experience a destination not only as a tourist but also as a local resident. Finding a favorite bakery, shopping at local markets, eating at a variety of different restaurants and sitting in sidewalk cafes watching the world go by sounded like an ideal way to get to really know a place at our own, rather liesurely, pace
Then in 2006 the Cleveland Museum of Art hosted an exhibition on "Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudi, Miro and Dali" which featured the work of these four artists plus a detailed consideration of the late nineteenth century urban environment in which they flourished.
Lee, especially, was hooked immediately and decided that Barcelona would be the ideal location in which to try out our assumptions about an extended residence as a travel option.
Flash forward a half decade or so: after watching a recent short Sixty Minutes' video segment on Sagrada Familia, the "exculpatory temple" to which Antoni Gaudi devoted much of his life and architectural genius (the construction of which began in 1889 and looks to finally be completed some seven decades from now), Heidi blithely said, "Well, we will have to get there sometime soon, won't we?"
You betcha!
However, 2012 had been an particularly busy travel year, what with trips to Costa Rica, Japan, Hilton Head, California and Myanmar all crowding the calendar. Following our return from Southeast Asia in early November, therefore, Heidi had firmly declared a moratorium on travel planning involving anything beyond an occasional drive to Illinois to visit family.
For months thereafter Lee (always willing to pack a bag and be off on yet another adventuure) had waited patiently for any hint that Heidi was once again willing to reconsider her distant travel ban. That casual, off-the-cuff acknowledgement that "we just might have to visit Barcelona sometime soon" proved all the impetus Lee needed to put his (already well researched and outlined) travel plans into action.
Within twenty-four hours, he had airplane tickets and a one bedroom apartment reserved for the two weeks after the CSU academic year concluded in early May!
And that's how all this came together -- a long-held desire to "live" someplace interesting for an extended period, an abiding interest in the world of art and architecture in nineteenth century Barcelona, and a careless remark uttered in the presence of a travel junky.
What else might one have expected under the circumstances?
Lee, especially, was hooked immediately and decided that Barcelona would be the ideal location in which to try out our assumptions about an extended residence as a travel option.
Flash forward a half decade or so: after watching a recent short Sixty Minutes' video segment on Sagrada Familia, the "exculpatory temple" to which Antoni Gaudi devoted much of his life and architectural genius (the construction of which began in 1889 and looks to finally be completed some seven decades from now), Heidi blithely said, "Well, we will have to get there sometime soon, won't we?"
You betcha!
However, 2012 had been an particularly busy travel year, what with trips to Costa Rica, Japan, Hilton Head, California and Myanmar all crowding the calendar. Following our return from Southeast Asia in early November, therefore, Heidi had firmly declared a moratorium on travel planning involving anything beyond an occasional drive to Illinois to visit family.
For months thereafter Lee (always willing to pack a bag and be off on yet another adventuure) had waited patiently for any hint that Heidi was once again willing to reconsider her distant travel ban. That casual, off-the-cuff acknowledgement that "we just might have to visit Barcelona sometime soon" proved all the impetus Lee needed to put his (already well researched and outlined) travel plans into action.
Within twenty-four hours, he had airplane tickets and a one bedroom apartment reserved for the two weeks after the CSU academic year concluded in early May!
And that's how all this came together -- a long-held desire to "live" someplace interesting for an extended period, an abiding interest in the world of art and architecture in nineteenth century Barcelona, and a careless remark uttered in the presence of a travel junky.
What else might one have expected under the circumstances?
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