Together, Glenna and I have been to Spain twice.  Our first trip was a week-long stay in Barcelona in November 2009.  Our second trip was a longer three-week tour in March/April 2016, starting in Madrid and working our way south to many of the famous tourist, cultural, and historical sights.  Both trips were awesome, and I surprisingly loved Spain way more than I thought I would.  If I could pick a city in Europe to retire, I think I would choose Madrid. 

Spain is in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, sharing a border with Portugal and France.  It has a long history of being conquered by the Roman Empire and several Muslim powers.  Christians slowly reconquered the country in the early 1400’s and were a world superpower by the end of the century, a status they maintained until the 19th century. In 1975 (after Franco’s death), Spain became a democratic constitutional monarchy and joined the European Union in 1986.  Spain has an aging population of 49.5 million people with Madrid as its capital.