Spain

The road trip that changed course

Spain was supposed to be part of a much bigger European road trip.

Pragati and I had arrived in Lisbon on 29 November 2018 with the idea of renting a car, driving from Portugal into Spain and perhaps continuing towards France. I had obtained my International Driving Permit, researched rental-car options and was looking forward to experiencing Europe from the road rather than from trains and flights.

It didn’t work out that way.

Pragati had already been uncomfortable in Lisbon, and her condition gradually became worse. At some point, continuing a long road journey simply stopped making sense. The original plan depended on being able to drive comfortably from one place to another, and we had to accept that circumstances had changed.

So instead of driving from Lisbon to Madrid, I booked an EasyJet flight.

It was disappointing. I had imagined the countryside between Portugal and Spain unfolding slowly through a car window. Instead, we crossed the distance by air because health had to come first.

Madrid

Madrid became an unexpected destination in its own right.

Pragati was still not feeling well, so much of my time in Madrid was spent exploring on my own. That gave me a different kind of freedom. I didn’t have a fixed sightseeing list to complete. I could simply walk around with my camera and stop wherever something caught my attention.

El Retiro Park was one of those places. I spent time walking through the park and photographing the surroundings. The Palacio de Cristal was particularly impressive, and the combination of the architecture, the park and the people around it gave me plenty to look at through the camera.

There were street artists adding another layer to the atmosphere. Madrid felt alive without requiring me to follow a rigid itinerary.

I also spent time photographing the Madrid-Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes railway station. After having travelled through Europe by train on other journeys, railway stations had begun to interest me as much as conventional tourist attractions. They are places where people are constantly arriving, leaving and passing through.

Looking back at the road

The most memorable part of Spain was actually the journey that never happened.

From the aircraft on the Lisbon–Madrid flight, I looked down at the landscape between the two cities and imagined how different it would have felt to travel through it by car. We would have been able to stop when we wanted, take photographs, discover small places and simply enjoy the road.

Instead, we were flying over it.

That moment brought home how completely the trip had changed.

The original European road adventure had included Portugal, Spain and possibly France. The rental car never happened. The long drive never happened. The return journey was eventually brought forward as well.

But Madrid still gave me something valuable. While Pragati recovered, I had the opportunity to slow down, walk through the city and photograph it without worrying about covering a checklist of attractions.

An unexpected part of the journey

Spain therefore doesn’t really stand alone in our travel history. It is closely tied to Portugal and to the European road trip we had imagined in 2018.

Portugal was where the plan began to unravel. Madrid was where we adapted to it.

I had started the journey wanting to drive across Europe. I ended up taking a flight into Madrid and exploring the city on foot with a camera.

It wasn’t the journey I had planned.

But it was still a journey worth remembering.

Sometimes a destination becomes part of your travel history not because you chose it deliberately, but because circumstances lead you there.

Madrid was one of those places for me.