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| View from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Barcelona |
So, having lived in the middle of the Iberian peninsula (Valladolid) from 1978-81, right after Spain emerged as a nascent democracy after the Franco dictatorship regime, how did I end up devoting my time and energy to plan my retirement years in Barcelona? Well, first, it's important to know that I continued to stay in contact with my friends in Valladolid, at least for the first few years. But over time, as I got more involved with my career, my 18 year involvement with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, and my first long-term relationship with Joe, I began to lose the vision of one day returning to Spain to live there. Joe and I did take a few trips to Spain, visiting Valladolid, exploring the southern half of the Iberian peninsula by car, enjoying the sun-drenched beaches of Ibiza and later the Canary Islands. Each time I visited I felt I was back in my element. Yet, I no longer thought or planned for a way to return permanently to Spain. That is, until I met Tom.
Tom and I started our relationship in 1995. After a few years of establishing our relationship and our life together, in 2003 we decided to take a Mediterranean Cruise with the gay cruise group, Atlantis. Since Barcelona was our home port, we decided to spend time there after our cruise. This was Tom's first time in Spain and it was really my first time in getting to know Barcelona. We both loved the city. And upon seeing Tom's enthusiasm for Spain I later asked him if he might at all be interested in the possibility of living in Spain one day. Happily, he was thrilled about the idea. And thus my dream to move back to Spain was reborn.
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| Park Gruell - Barcelona |
Since then we have taken many, many vacations to Spain, visiting a number of cities including Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Sitges and of course Barcelona. Even though Tom enjoyed our stay in each of these places, he felt the most at home in Barcelona. In 2006 we decided to spend a month renting an apartment in Barcelona to get a feel for what it would be like to live there. We loved it and in that trip expanded our network local friends in the city. We continued to cultivate these friendships and in 2013 I celebrated my 60th birthday and hosted a dinner party in Barcelona for our local, American and other international friends. It looked like Barcelona would be our future home town.
Sadly, soon after that celebration, Tom and I decided to part ways. There are many gifts that I received from my relationship with Tom. One of those precious gifts was reviving my dream to move back to Spain and one other was influencing my desire to make Barcelona my new home.
