She and I lived on about $4.00/day, sleeping in youth hostels and sometimes outdoors. Lee was robbed while asleep on the beach in Marseilles, having put her valuables under her head. Mine were in my sleeping bag under my feet and stayed safe. Spain was then (1970) the cheapest country to visit in Europe, and maybe the world. Franco, Spain’s nearly 40-year dictator, kept prices very low to garner lots of foreign currency. A room in a Spanish pension (a nice room with shared bath) cost under $1 (50 pesetas) and I recall some meals for 25 pesetas ($.35) and small glasses of wine for a nickel. The price of the pension did NOT include a bath or shower. Don’t think they had one. For that, you went to the public baths and paid a few cents to get cleaned up every few days.

Why would Europeans go anywhere else to vacation when Spain had 3,000 hours of sun a year, little rain, and was practically free? And great stuff to see. The churches in Seville are everwhere, and date back to the late 1200s, built immediately after the Moors were thrown out of Seville in 1248.

Fascist Franco did not believe in sex outside of marriage for his subjects (social issues were a useful political thing then too) and so if you were visiting Madrid, went out to a bar and came home late to your pension, the gates to your pension would be locked. But no worries! A member of the Guardia Civil was stationed on every corner, and he had a key and would let you in.

This is how Franco kept tabs on everybody. It was obvious and people didn’t like it, but what could they do? It is much less obtrusive when it is your own phone and own car keeping tabs on your whereabouts today.

Franco died in 1975 and things almost immediately changed. Franco had brought back the exiled Spanish prince, Juan Carlos, and raised him like a son, to take over after the death of Franco. He did take over, but, possibly under the influence of his Greek wife, a princess, he immediately began dismantling the dictatorial structures of Spain.

People don’t like living under a regime of constant fear and intimidation. Unwed mothers would often have their newborns stolen by the priests or nuns associated with the hospitals where they gave birth, and were told the babies had died. The babies would be given to childless couples or sold. Such crimes are nothing new.

So, the way you travel with no money, which I also did on another trip across Europe, Africa and India at age 20, is you carry a sleeping bag and tent on your back, plus a stove that uses gasoline (camping gas is not available across Africa) and you cook most of your food. In most of central Africa there were no restaurants, anyway. For me, a backpack with a good belt, that sets the weight on your hips, is still pretty easy to carry. I carried a quart jug and a gallon jug for water, over which I sewed several layers of burlap, so I always had water being treated with iodine, and I would wet the burlap and keep the water cool through evaporation.

For my current trip I bought a cheap one way ticket to Seville for starters. It limited me to 22 lbs in a carry-on suitcase, but my day pack weight was unlimited. So everything heavy went in the day pack, which also weighed about 20 lbs.

It was all good till I checked in at Logan airport, and they would not let me board without a return ticket. Even though Iberia had sold me a one way. So I had to quickly buy a one way home, which I cancelled as soon as I got to Seville, in under 24 hours. But Iberia wouldn’t give me my money back, instead giving me a voucher. This might force me to come to Spain again in 2026.

I can traverse a lot of ground with a light suitcase and a heavy backpack. Both are easy to hoist into the overhead luggage area on planes, trains and buses. And I had zero trouble walking them a mile to my hotel today, after I missed my stop on the grand canal, going up and over many bridges.

I spent a week in Seville, then a week in the Swiss Alps, and arrived in Venice today. The Alps were so cloudy and foggy, there were only brief spectacular views of them. The fog would come in like pea soup and envelop everything in white gauze.

Below, St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. Wait till I show you the close-ups. See how they designed it using different types of marble. It was drizzling today, but the Piazza you see will often get flooded, as do the shops.

Above is the ohter side of St. Mark’s Plaza. There are shops and cafes behind all those first floor arches. I remembered from age 19 that you didn’t go eat at any of the cafes, as they were too expensive. But today I was dying for a drink and I am not poor any more, so I went into one of the cafes. They are all quaint and as atmospheric as can be. The gal at the register made clear to me there there were 3 price lists: one for “to go” (with normal prices), one if you stood at the bar to eat, and a third if you actually expected to sit down at a table. Most people were standing but I, being a Yank, asked to sit down. The menu I was given was a book. I had no patience to read it. Just give me hot chocolate, or a gelato, to wet my whistle please. Again, the price was carefully displayed for me. I didn’t care. Just get me the chocolate. Soon, please. I did not know what I actually ordered.

Soon a sterling silver tray arrived, with a stylish glass water pitcher and an empty water glass. There was also a tiny ceramic pitcher with some hot chocolate pudding inside. There was another small ceramic pitcher with milk in it. An empty cup and saucer. A silver spoon for stirring. Plus a cookie and a little piece of wrapped chocolate.

Yes, I wet my whistle, guzzled the water and slowly sipped the hot chocolate, and waited to see how the Piazza would light up as the sun went down. I realized that since these cafes get flooded out fairly often, requiring frequent renovations, high prices were fair. My hot chocolate with all the trimmings was 18 Euros, or a bit over $21 USD. Since I began coming to Europe in late 2021 to give talks, I have been to this continent 8 or 10 times, maybe more. And the value of the US dollar vs the Euro is now down more than 10% from its peak during the pandemic. This is the lowest its been during my trips. That explains in part why inflation seems to have hit us harder than it has hit them.

Here is something else that $21 hot chocolate supports: an amazing chandelier right out in front of the cafe, under those arches, in which many glass or porcelain angels (their wings are certainly glass) play musical instruments made out of blown glass. See how many instruments you are able to detect.

Murano, an island adjacent to Venice, is world famous for its glass blowing, so you can buy all sort of glass items here. Isn’t this the most extraordinary lighting fixture you have ever seen?

People have believed in angels for a very long time—the art makes it very apparent. Why shouldn’t they exist, and why wouldn’t they be trying to help us turn this world around?

Now I admit I wanted to get you thinking the cathedral was not that impresssive. It’s when you get close up that it comes alive. So here are some additional views.

See how the different types of marble are used as decorative features

These are side views

Now for a better look at details on the front

Remember, this place was built in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, and is on the southern edge of Venice, adjacent to the seas

How old is this place? What style is it?

https://www.venice-museum.com/st-marks-basilica.php

Now, if you want to travel without much money, here are some tips. I took a variety of trains (4) to get here from Switzerland. Two tickets I bought online and 2 I bought at the stations. It was always cheaper to get tickets at the station. Lots of companies, including the train companies themselves, want to obtain that little extra by offering online ticket sales. Remember, they have to pay credit card charges, too. And they have to pay for software and hardware. There was always someone who knew English that helped me out with the purchases.

The tickets inside Italy were pretty cheap. A forty mile trip today just cost 5.75 euros (about $7) while the crowded ferry from the train station down the Grand Canal was 10 euros (about $12) for a 10 minute trip. And I missed my stop. Taxis are very expensive, (including the vaporettos and gondolas, the local boat taxis) so avoid them when possible. The locals all use buses and trains. BTW, Rome2Rio, which does tell you how to get everywhere (so use it, it’s free), has been bought by Booking.com. Booking.com was bought up by (I think) a Dutch company and their prices have gone up considerably for hotels. Avoiding these types of sites allows you to sometimes make a deal with a hotel for better prices, especially if is not a chain. In winter, most hotel rooms are empty, so true entrepreneurs may be ready to negotiate. Hotel prices are down anyway in winter, but if you want to stay for a longer time they may also be interested in the art of the deal.

If you go to Spain, don’t make the mistake I made twice. Spain becomes very difficult for tourists during Spanish holidays. There are a lot of holidays. People travel. It is almost impossible to get into the Alhambra on a holiday weekend, or get on some tours or into some museums. Hotel prices rise dramatically. I missed getting into the Alhambra twice and missed getting into the Cordoba Mosque-Cathedral once because of holidays. Luckily I’d seen each once before. These are two sights worth seeing—they are like Seven Wonders of the World places. Don’t arrive in town only to learn you can’t get inside, like me. Buy tickets ahead and check your dates against a Spanish calendar.

Happy traveling!