We have been going non- stop for more than a month.

Whirling through Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Malaga, and even a quick pop into Gibraltar with museums and parks and galleries and monuments checking off our list.

We took high speed trains and nonstop buses. We were always on the go.

And then, because the border was open, we decided to hop on the ferry and visit Morocco for a week…like the highlights…like all over that huge country…the medinas in many of the major cities, the desert, the mountains, the valleys…

Then an hour flight back to Sevilla and a whirlwind look around there…

WHOA! This is not how we travel.

Don’t get me wrong. We have loved absolutely every moment of of our trip so far. We’ve seen some amazing things and we’ve made some friends along the way. We’ve seen some spectacular art and learned some history that wasn’t in any academic book I ever read.

But as we wandered along the narrow, cobbled streets from the bus stop to our quiet accommodations in a neighborhood in Faro, Portugal everything slowed down.

We’ve booked four days here. There’s nothing specific on the agenda. Well, we’ll take a ferry out to the beach and we’d like to see the Benagil caves.

We’ve already found a favorite restaurant, and the farmers market was amazing.

But it’s nice to just amble through the streets, to take the time to look over the selection of tomatoes, to say “Bom Dia!” to the people you pass on the street. It feels good to stop at a courtyard and listen to a band. It’s really the point of taking a holiday.

Sure we’ve ticked off some adventures on the travel list, but let’s face it…sometimes, you just want to hang out, talk to people you meet (your Spanglish with a couple of Portuguese words thrown in is fine…besides, everyone speaks English), and just wander down one more alley in case there’s something cool to discover.

The next stop is Lisbon and the pace is bound to speed up again, but sometimes you just need to slow down.