Spain 2023 - part one

When I was a wee adolescent lad, the first "real" adult book I ever read was: "The Sun Also Rises," Ernest Hemingway's seminal first novel set largely in Spain. Years later, after stepping across the border into La Línea during a port visit to Gibraltar in the Navy - now 35-trips-around-the-sun-ago - I've been longing to explore further. Sure.....henceforth I could always say I had been to Spain - my feet solidly on the ground in country - but La Línea, such as it is, isn't really Spain.....to me, it's just another in a long series of border towns.

In the years between that port visit and the present day, I've re-visited Europe a few times - a trip here and there when the boys were growing up, and several after the proverbial nest was emptied, but frequently with more of a focus on that beautiful, seductive, awe inspiring, temptress of Southern Europe: Italy 🇮🇹.  Ahhh, Italy....with your ancient Roman and Etruscan lineage, the Renaissance, the FOOD, your vibrant culture, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and one of the most rich, diverse landscapes in the entire world; over the years I have been absolutely smitten by you. Surly there is no greater European country with as bountiful a history to visit?  Well, after ten gloriously beautiful days in Spain, I can definitively say that there is: Move over Italy....you've got some serious competition for my travel dollar now!

A Brief History of Ancient Spain

In early antiquity, the Iberian peninsula was largely inhabited by Celtic, Iberian, Carthaginian, and pre-Roman tribes. During The Roman Conquest, around 206BC, the entire peninsula was annexed and became part of the Roman Empire. Scattered around Spain, like much of Europe, are the remains of Roman influence and rule...like bridges, aqueducts, and other infrastructure and ruins. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire around 476AD, the peninsula was largely inhabited by the Visigoths, the Germanic tribes that migrated from Central Europe....until the 8th Century, when the Berbers of Northern Africa crossed the narrow straight of Gibraltar to begin the Muslim Conquest of Hispania. Here they established Al-Andalus: a province of the Umayyad Caliphate. Muslim rule of Al-Andalus continued for almost 800 years until 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabella retook the peninsula during the Reconquista, ushering in the foundation of Spain as a country, the Age of Discovery, and the expansion of the Spanish Empire.  

The Plan

Planning a first trip to Spain is no easy task....it's the largest country in Southern Europe with so much to see! We only have ten days, so....choices. Initially we were thinking we'd stick largely to Madrid and the eastern coastal cities of Barcelona and Valencia. We've seen enough episodes of "House Hunters International" to know these are beautiful cities, certainly worthy of exploration for our future expat/living abroad goals. However, in the end we were drawn more to the beauty and history of the Andalusia region and this became our main focus.

We decided on a big loop through the Southern part of the country: Madrid to Seville, Seville to Cordoba, Cordoba to Granada, then back to Madrid. Given this was our first foray into Spain, we chose to city-hop by train, rather than renting a car and doing it all road-trip style like we've done in places like Iceland,  Northern Italy and Tuscany.

Madrid

We arrived in Madrid early (like 5:15am!); we had a significant tailwind and the overnight flight from CLT was under 7 hours. Our normal rule for European travel is: ALWAYS power through the first day. No Naps, suck-it-up-buttercup! Make it to at least 9:00pm local time before even thinking about any sleep. This rule has generally served us well to maximize our sight-seeing time. Of course, rules are meant to be broken!  Given the shorter, direct flight from Charlotte...neither of us really slept...so we first headed to our hotel near the Museo Nacional del Prado to either: Drop off our bags and suffer, or....check in and get a few hours of sleep before hitting the streets.  Thankfully the hotel had an available room; we set an alarm for 10:00am as to not sleep away the entire day. As we found out....life doesn't really seem to get moving in España until after 10:00-11:00am anyway!

The first order of business after our rest was to follow the Rick Steves "Madrid City Walk" audio tour. If you're not familiar with Steve, he publishes a series of travel related tour books, guides, and videos. He's got a corn-ball midwest sense of humor, and goofyness aside, his audio tours are really informative and a great starting place to get a feel for the city (and free!).  We started the tour in Puerta del Sol, the main plaza, or square of the city.....followed the narrow streets of the tour to Plaza Mayor, taking note of sights to investigate further....but then quickly noticed that there were crowds that seemed rather large for an everyday Thursday!?!?

Turns out, November 9th is the Catholic Feast of Our Lady of Almudena, the Saint-patroness of Madrid! We were planning on touring the Cathedral as part of our first day activities, but we couldn't get inside due to the celebration. We did happen to stumble upon the parade in the process and it was wonderful. As part of the tour, we visited La Torre del Oro Bar Andalú, located in Plaza Mayor. The entire bar is essentially a shrine to Bullfighting; it's an excellent place to enjoy a drink, some tapas, and people watch. Despite some negative on-line reviews, we had an excellent experience here and the staff was brilliant.

Next we toured Royal Palace of Madrid, which is the is the official residence of the Spanish royal family and the largest palace in Europe. I didn't take a lot of photos inside....in the best rooms, photography wasn't allowed...but trust me...aside from the gardens, it rivals Versailles in opulence. The audio tour from the gift shop was very informative, but fair warning....overall the interface was extremely frustrating. Michele grew tired of me complaining about the devs that coded it!

After the palace we fueled up on wine and tapas in a cafe, then hit a rooftop bar as the sun was going down. Because we had napped earlier in the am, we spent the balance of our evening tapas-bar hopping and enjoying Madrid at night from the rooftops. It was MAGICAL.

Our second day in Madrid was essentially Museum day. We started with the Museo Nacional del Prado, the national art museum of Spain. It's one of the largest museums in Europe and home to the largest collection of works by Spanish artists. I didn't take many pictures of the inside, becuase frankly nobody wants to look at people's individual photographs of artwork.

From there we had a lovely tapas lunch, then strolled around Retiro Park and the Crystal Palace. The park is enormous! The Crystal Palace is essentially a glass mansion with a year-round tropical climate that was originally built to house exotic plant life from the farthest corners of the Spanish empire, but rumor has it that it was also a human zoo 😱. Unfortunately we couldn't go in due to some reno they were doing.

We then headed to the National Museum of Romanticism, a small, state-owned art museum in an 18th century stately townhouse.

Our final museum of the day was definitely my kind of Museum: Museo del Jamon, or The Museum of Ham. It's actually not really a museum at all, but an upscale deli/restaurant that focuses on Spain's number one delicacy: Iberian Ham, known colloquially as "Jamon." It's similar to Italian prosciutto, but the Spanish will tell you it's much, much better.

Iberian Ham ranges in price and quality - from your basic tapas quality to the €149 a kilo 100% acorn fed premium Jamon. We were pre-gaming here for dinner, so we opted for a sample plate that included a small portion of the expensive stuff. It was sublime and you should definitely try some when in Spain.

We finished our evening dining at Bodega de los Secretos, located in the oldest wine cellar in Madrid, dating from the 17th century. We had our own private nook and the food was delicious.

Next Up: Seville! Part Two, Day One: Here