Report 1969: Five Wonderful Weeks in Northern Spain

By caplanco from Colorado, Fall 2011

Leclerc Sombrereria for hats, San Sebastian
Zara for good value and good looking clothes, several cities
Samarkanda for scarves and eclectic gifts, Girona
Xocolata de Pals for food gifts and great t-shirts Diana Cristo for jewelry, Barcelona
Joi d'arte for jewlelry, several shops around Barcelona
Teatro Liceu gift shop, Barcelona
Re Born for great t-shirts and interesting clothes, Barcelona
Adolfo Dominguez for beautiful women’s clothes, Barcelona
Lady Louquita for a fun variety of stuff, Barcelona

The No Show padded footies that I bought at Nordstrom are great with both the Josef Seibel and Keen Emerald City sandals. They let me walk comfortably with no friction creating blisters, and you can only see a bit of them on the sides.
Keen sandals, Teva hiking shoes and Black Diamond walking sticks were all purchased from Altrec.com with good prices and fast delivery.
Una vaso de agua (tap water) is provided at no charge if you ask for it.
Tissues are seldom provided at hotels or rental apartments, so buy them at the mercado if you need them.
Dress in the coastal towns is very casual; anything goes.
If you go from coastal town to coastal town in Galicia, all of the menus will be the same. It got quite boring after awhile – even for seafood loving M.
If you get a new camera before you leave, do read the instruction book and practice a few times. M hasn’t yet figured out how to zoom in or out.
After reading horror stories about people who turned their rental cars in only to find an enormous repair charge on their credit card after returning home, I took photos of every part of the exterior of the car before we left it. The process at the airport is to just park your car and then go to the rental office; no one looks at it with you.