The participants on this trip gave glowing reviews; Grinnell College is pleased the trip went so well. This page serves as a reference since trip completion.

Ten days in late September and Early October 2006 - September 28 - October 8

Grinnell College will offer a visit to a lovely part of rural Spain, where a few villages have seen development and other villages nearby little or none. Natural sights are also included; several day hikes on mountain trails or old paths between villages help exprience these areas to the fullest. The most important "must-see" cultural sights of central Spain are included.

Tour leader Anne Pinder was born and raised in Grinnell, Iowa. She graduated from Luther College with a Spanish major, and has lived in Madrid since 1978. Anne has seen most of Spain's fascinating transition from underdevelopment to prosperity, dictatorship to democracy, relative isolation to membership in the European Union. Anne has organized and led walking and biking tours for friends since the mid-eighties and professionally since 2001. She claims there is something very special about active travel in rural areas where travelers are a part of their surroundings instead of just watching through a bus window.

This trip includes many of the top cultural sights in central Spain: San Lorenzo del Escorial monastery, Segovia, Toledo, Avila and Salamanca. The stay in Madrid includes a vist to the Prado and some free time for people to visit other museums or cultural sights like the Royal Palace. In addition to those familiar sights, the trip goes off the classic circuit to visit a relatively unknown area of quaint stone villages south of Salamanca, where donkeys are still a fairly common means of transportation for field work and goats find their own way home after grazing in a communal herd during the day.

Topping off the cultural experience are two day hikes and two part-day hikes. This walking is in very different ecosystems; live oak, pine, chestnut forests, tumbled granite boulders backed by high mountains or old walking paths between picturesque towns. The walks are generally between three and five hours walking time on dirt roads and forest paths; all have short and long routes or bus access along the route . While these walks are optional, they add a great deal to the trip, seeing the cultural sights from a new angle or learning about rural traditions and the environment of central Spain.

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Click here for a list of confirmed travelers.