Summer of 2012?

David - I was in Spain this summer (Barcelona, Madrid, Seville) for the first time and the food was wonderful. You could split your time between Barcelona (Mediterranean) and another town along the coast.

How hard is it to go from Madrid to Barcelona? Do you take a train? Id like to see Madrid as well.

Do you have RS Spain/Portugal Guide book yet? If so, good.
If not I would suggest you get one as soon as possible as it had lots of good information that we used in planning our S/P trip including traveling from Barcelona to Madrid.

thank you all.

The high speed train between Madrid and Barcelona takes roughly 3 hours. The train stations in both are very conveniently located to the city centers. 7 days would be about the minimum to do justice to those 2 cities plus a day trip or two (Toledo, Monserrat, Sitges for a beach day?). Definitely good food to be found in both places.

A Mediterranean or Baltic cruise would fit you perfectly. There's literally a hundred different itineraries on various cruise lines. You'd be able to hit many different places in your short amount of time.

What about Greece (if Athens calms) and/or Turkey? We loved both. Did a 7-day cruise through Greek Isles, which also included Ephesus, Turkey and Istanbul, Turkey. We did a Silversea (less than 300 people) cruise, and got an amazing deal two years ago that included airfare. But,you could easily spend 7 days in either just Greece OR just Turkey. We had one full touring day in Istanbul and wish we had stayed an extra day on the end of our journey.
Ephesus is also amazing. Santorini/Rhodes were are favorite ports in Greece. RS offers a 7-day tour of Istanbul, and Tauck Tours has some amazing itineraries, too, if you enjoy group travel (which we do). Happy travels.

Go to Croatia....they have a great coastline with plenty of places to visit.

I was thinking that also, but Spain seems to be the location at this point.

Azores! Easy 4 hr or so flight from Boston (SATA airlines)...great food and the ocean everywhere, as the Azores are 9 islands. Sao Miguel is the big island with lots to do, but the smaller islands are enchanting as well, with less to do but more relaxing. Most everyone speaks English. Not listed in the Rick Steves Portugal book, though, but there are many guidebooks (online) to do your research. Best kept secret of Europe :)

Barcelona to Madrid is very easy and convenient by train. The high speed AVE takes you city center to city center in 3 hours. The train is very modern and comfortable. If you book in advance on Renfe and get the Web discount, the fare in "turista"class is only 47 euro instead of 117 euro. Food is wonderful in both cities. We spent two weeks in Spain last May and ate lots of seafood and wonderful vegetables,

OOH, the Azores, I was stationed on Terceira Island for 15 months in 89-91 and it was great. San Miguel is bigger and I never made it there, but Terceira is beautiful, the capital city is nice (totally blanking on the name), shopping is fun. See if The Basket Man is still working, great stuff, some made to order but he always had some stuff already made, there's also a marble place but not as much little (carryable) stuff. GREAT food, and vinho verde! Now I want to go back!

All great ideas, I need to start reading up on this. As of now, it looks like Madrid, Barcelona, and a little beach time. We may try for 10days.

Now Im thinking of Pamplona (running with the bulls) and doing a bucket list thing. Barcelona and then visiting with family in S. France.

Oh my gosh......if you actually run with the bulls, please report afterward how it went. Now that IS a bucket-list item. I have friends who've watched, but never known anyone who actually participated. WOW. Makes my bucket list look mild in comparison. But, we only live once, so L I V E and watch out for those horns :o Have your travel partner take a video.