Well, the photos should speak for themselves, but here's a little timeline of the activities we've managed to do while living in Pamplona. Our philosophy has been that this may be the only time we will ever live in Europe for a whole year, and almost certainly the only time we do so without children, so we must try to do everything we can to take advantage of the situation. So, throwing caution to the wind, we have thrown ourselves at Western Europe. Here's what we've done:
8 September 1999
Pamplona. Flew into Madrid, drove to Pamplona. During September we made frequent walks around city to get to know the historic district and the layout of our temporary hometown.
16 October 1999
San Sebastián. We took a bus trip, the two of us, to this Basque coastal city. It is very near France and only about 45 minutes from Pamplona. A magnificent city full of 18th- and 19th-century French architecture and gorgeous vistas.
3-9 December 1999
Navarra. Rented a car to make day trips all over the province. This was a spectacular idea. We took advantage of a string of holidays that coincided to explore the region where we live. It is a magnificent place. We only wish we'd had our digital camera back then. But we've got lots of video and prints to share when we come home!
27 December 1999 - 8 January 2000
Florence and Rome. by train, with unplanned day trip to Barcelona. Again, pity we didn't have the digital camera yet, but we do have some pictures-of-pictures. The full story is on the letters page.
31 January 1999 - 4 February 2000
Valencia. 5th Int'l Conference on the History of the Spanish Language. We went expecting to meet my advisor Lucia Binotti there, but with the blizzards in North Carolina, she couldn't come. I had to read her paper! It went well, and we had a wonderful time seeing Valencia.
2-6 March 2000
Paris. Now we know why everyone just says Pais is Paris.
12 March 2000
Bilbao. The Guggenheim Museum. We had a great day in spite of nearly losing our group twice! Great museum.
And there's more coming, including more of
Italy and France, and of course, ¡España!