Facebook page:  Get flash updates and quick notes that complement the longer posts here.  “Like” to get the info in your FB newsfeed:  www.facebook.com/abridgetospain

Monthly e-news:  Get a monthly newsletter about What’s On in Madrid, a selection of exhibits and events plus insider tips on the city.  Sign up by email at bridgetospain (at)  yahoo.es

Travel differently:

Get beyond the usual tourist visit!  Walking tours in Madrid city and surrounding countryside. Participate in scheduled walks September – June, or ask about private tours.  Website: www.apinderinspain.com

Travel bookstore in Madrid:  My favorite place for travel books and maps. Helpful and very knowledgeable.    Website: www.tiendaverde.es

Reference and help sites for expats

Blog Expat:  blogs by expats:  http://www.blogexpat.com/en/directory.htm    This link takes you to their general page, where you can select a topic or a destination. Maybe research your next trip or your next home?  If for some reason you get Spanish, there’s a flag link at top right to change language.

Expat focus:  website with forums, blogs, expat stories from around the world. Learn about expat living in different countries.    http://www.expatfocus.com/

Expat clubs in Madrid:  most nationalities have some kind of club, large or small. Some are social, some are service oriented, some are for networking, some are sports related. If you are a foreigner living in Madrid (or elsewhere in Spain or the world!) you really should think about joining – if you find the right group, it can be the difference between loving and hating your time abroad – meet people, learn about your new home and lots, lots, LOTS more!  A full list is beyond the scope of this page, but here are two Madrid clubs that are close to my heart:

– International Newcomers Club: English speaking social club, mostly women with a few male members. Many nationalities.  Monthly activities, some including spouses.   Website:  www.incmadrid.org

– American Women’s Club of Madrid: Open to all English speaking women, whatever the nationality. This club does fund-raising work for charity, and has a clubhouse in north-central part of the city. Monthly activities, some including spouses. Website: www.awcmadrid.com

That Other Part of My Life 🙂

Grinnell, Iowa:  Fabulous town in central Iowa, my other home! Website:  www.grinnelliowa.gov

Grinnell Herald Register:  Locally owned and operated newspaper in that fabulous town:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grinnell-Herald-Register/166824846662196

Health care costs:  Ok, this is not Spain or travel, but it is a great resource for sharing information about health care costs in major metro areas in the USA so you can get good health care at good prices. What’s the connection? Family!  Website:  www.clearhealthcosts.com

Get in touch!

Email:  bridgetospain (at) yahoo.es

Delete the (at) and add the usual @

As you can guess, that’s a little trick to fool spammers without missing messages from real, live people, and without making you squint at distorted letters or do arithmetic.

And stay in touch! 

Sign up for the newsletter,  a mixture of things about Spain and general culture. 

Go to this page and add your email     https://diverge.substack.com/

If you prefer Facebook to email, you can “like” the Facebook page for the same information   https://www.facebook.com/Diverge-Newsletter-105046508061361/

For ongoing news instead of weekly, mostly about Madrid you can “like” this page:    https://www.facebook.com/abridgetospain

So who is Anne Pinder and what is she doing in Madrid?

Many, many, MANY years ago I did a summer Rotary exchange program in Greece. That may seem irrelevant, but it’s probably the start of my love affair with the Mediterranean. Embarrassing tidbit: I was too chicken to ask for a full year program, nor did I want to miss my senior year of high school.  But exchange programs rarely tell you where you will go when you apply, had I known it would be Greece maybe I’d have made a different decision. Advice for anyone pondering a similar experience, or pondering for their children: if at ALL possible, go for longer rather than shorter experience abroad.

Then came college, and thanks to a fabulous high school Spanish teacher in hometown Grinnell (Iowa), I majored in Spanish, with junior year in Madrid. (that time I wasn’t too chicken for a full year). It was a turbulent year not long after the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. It was also such a fabulous experience that though I had to go back to the USA to finish college, I knew I wanted to return to Spain one day. That happened fairly quickly, though how it happened is a story better told over coffee or wine, not here.

But because I returned so soon, I saw almost all Spain’s “Transition” from dictatorship to democracy firsthand, including membership in NATO, membership in the European Union, the transition to the Euro, among other major landmarks. Lots of political, social and economic change, all fascinating and fairly rapid, so even today there are quirky contrasts of old and new.  And I love those quirky contrasts, the what-ifs, the if-onlys that so abound in Spain.

My other favorite things? Spanish history, especially medieval and Civil War (1936-1939, let us ponder). Any architecture prior to Gothic (Mudéjar, Mozarabe, Visigothic, Romanesque) and some though not all Gothic. Medieval quarters in cities like Girona and Toledo. Gaudí, though not the crowds flocking to his works. Castles (how not), even if in ruins on inaccessible crags. Popular architecture, where low-tech ingenuity creates practical and beautiful structures. Landscapes where humans have worked with, not against nature. Forests, especially beech and oak. Exploring, learning and sharing my discoveries.

And more….. All kinds of walking, from easy to challenging. Cycling. Kayaking and cross country skiing when occasions arise: good snow or kayaks on the right kind of water. Reading, everything from light fiction to fairly deep non-fiction. Writing, though there never seems to be enough time to write for my blog. Photography (amateurish). Sewing and knitting, though don’t have much time for either. Most animals, especially cats and dogs.

My travel philosophy? Done right, travel connects people. Learning about the places we go and meeting new people almost always teaches us that we have things in common as well as differences -and often more in common than we’d ever dreamed of before traveling. Travel enriches, travel answers questions, but travel should also pose more questions: if a traveler returns home thinking they know everything maybe they haven’t really looked or really thought about where they’ve been.

Personally, after all my years in Spain I am STILL learning, and very happy about that!

Welcome! Bienvenidos!

A word about the color green. Traditionally blogs about Spain are yellow or yellow and red, for the sun, for the Spanish flag, for the traditional colors of a flamenco skirt or a bullfighter’s cape.  Why use green here?

Spain is green as well as yellow and red. Pastures, trees, grain in the fields, even the coastal waters; sometimes Spain is very green and many shades of green, depending on the region and time of year.

So this blog uses green to remind us that Spain is not always what we first think or what we see at first glance. There are lots of  surprises waiting to be discovered.

Come explore. Cross the bridge to Spain!