February 19, 2020

The high-speed train glided us across the Spanish countryside - through the Andalucian mountains, olive groves, vineyards, and hill-top villages on our way north from Malaga to Madrid, Spain's capital city. The Renfe AVE had us in Madrid in 2 hours and 30 minutes where we hopped onto the city's extremely efficient Metro to our AirBnB "Hogar Dulce Hogar (Home Sweet Home)". We tried something different this time and chose an apartment outside the city center, but convenient to public transportation. This one was literally steps from a Metro station. We purchased the 10-trip rechargeable card and used it a lot. 

What a difference a week makes. Just days ago we were seemingly all set to ride out the COVID-19 storm in beautiful Cascais Portugal. Today we are still healthy but starting a 14-day self-quarantine, at the advice of the CDC, in Cambridge Massachusetts.

We are not looking at this as the end of our adventure. We prefer to call it our next phase. This post covers the past week, how and why our plans shifted. and some first hand observations of what it is like to travel during this historic time,

Sometimes our visits are influenced by the cheapest flights, and flying to Málaga in the Andalusia region of Spain was our best way to get back to the mainland from the Canary Islands. The fact that it was the birthplace of Pablo Picasso made the decision easier.

​The streets were ablaze in preparation for Carnaval and we heard more non-Spanish speakers than ever in this lovely city on the Costa del Sol that is a surprisingly popular cruise ship stop.