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By buying enough guide books, language instruction materials, maps and literature to have homework remaining by the time the plane is boarding. I started by reading Michener’s Iberia – which was good, but left me wanting to know much more about the history that he skims. And I realized that I have no real idea what lead to the civil war and rise of Franco (the proximate cause of my family leaving Spain), or why there is a Portugal, or what happened to the Muslim inhabitants of Spain, or when “Spain” actually came to exist (to the extent that it does) out of the differing, ancient monarchical regions. Heck, what I think I know about the Inquisition I learned from Monty Python – mostly that it was unexpected. Maybe reading For Whom The Bell Tolls will give me some insight on top of the historical facts from the concise history book? Oh, and to refresh my Spanish? Trying to read selections from Don Quixote de la Mancha in the original. Luckily I found a textbook that has translations of much of the obscure vocabulary used, as well as a quiz at the end of each chapter, which I’ve mercifully skipped. And since we’re spending a few days in Portugal, we’re going to try to learn a few Portuguese phrases, but that might be time better spent brushing-up on Spanish. We will be covering a lot of ground on this trip, so we have lots of resources to help us find good food along the way – although we have had reservations for months at certain of the places we’ll be visiting. And one final impulse buy at the bookstore: a phrase book of slang, rude epithets and sexy talk – just in case.

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