Letting Go In Espana

My husband and I have always wanted to travel to Spain. When we got married, Spain was one of the places we thought about going to on our honeymoon (but alas, backpacking in Indonesia for 6 weeks won out). So 15 years later, we decided to celebrate our anniversary with a big trip and Spain was our destination of choice.

The key to planning this trip was lining up my mom to watch our four kids. Thankfully, all I had to do was mention the idea to my mom and without hesitation she agreed to come out and watch the gang so we could make our dream a reality. Yes, I know I am lucky!

So in mid-May, I booked our flights and train tickets to my new favorite country, Espana!  And after spending countless hours on Trip Advisor, I booked all of our hotels as well.  In the past, we've done most of our travel by the seat of our pants--no advanced hotel bookings, no schedule to adhere to, etc.  But this year, we decided to plan everything in advance.

Our reasoning was simple, we didn't want to waste precious time traveling trying to figure out which hotel to go to, we were not that keen on driving (neither one of us speaks Spanish) and we knew the main cities we wanted to see.

In general this strategy worked out great.  However, it took me a few days  to let go of the fact that I couldn't adjust my plans on a whim (our train reservations and some hotels were prepaid and booked).  Initially, I had a hard time getting over the fact that popping down to Morocco or heading over to the Costa Del Sol just wasn't going to happen on this trip, even if these destinations were only 2 hours away.

I'm sure I drove my husband a little nutty with all of my conversations on how we could tweak our plans but after 15 years he knows this is just part of my fabric.   He patiently listened to me talk through the ins and outs of each possible detour and then lovingly reminded me how great our current itinerary was and all of the reasons why we should just stick to the plan.

Once I got over the fact that I wasn't really missing out on anything and that what I had planned was actually great brilliant as it was, I really, truly enjoyed myself.  So what if it took 3 days to get there, I eventually did.  I think it was somewhere in Cordoba where I let it all go and embraced the fact that we were on an amazing trip IN SPAIN, that EVERYTHING was new and exciting and that best of all I was on this fantastic adventure celebrating 15 years of marriage (sans kiddies--thank you mom) with my best friend.