What a Trip: Honeymooning in Spain

Where, when, why: We went to Spain for our honeymoon for three weeks in September. I wanted to reconnect with friends from the years I had lived in Madrid as a U.S. diplomat in the 1980s, and Alex wanted to learn about Spanish and Moorish art and culture.

Highlights and high points: We visited several of the pueblos blancos (white towns) of Andalusia. The villages are whitewashed and are starkly beautiful under the strong Spanish sun.

The mosque in Cordoba and the Alhambra in Granada were beautiful reminders of the time when Moorish Spain was a center of art and learning. Although King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain expelled all the Jews and Moors who refused to convert to Catholicism after their reconquest of Granada, they left much of the Moorish architecture intact.

We also spent several days in Barcelona, which is notable for its pro-Catalan, anti-Spanish vibe. Our hotel was on the Rambla, the wide pedestrian artery at the heart of the city.

Cultural connection or disconnect: For me, arriving in Madrid was like coming home. Vocabulary I’d long thought forgotten came rushing back, enabling long conversations in Spanish between me and old friends. Fortunately for Alex, all of the friends spoke some English and some were fluent.

The Joan Miró museum in Barcelona was an unexpected treasure. The collection spans the entirety of his working career, with excellent examples of his work in many different media, including paintings, sculpture and tapestries.

Nothing can prepare you for the first vision of Picasso’s “Guernica” at the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid. It was painted to memorialize and condemn the loss of civilian lives caused by the Francoist bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

The landscape of Andalusia, carpeted with wheat fields and olive groves, is like a painting by Cézanne: all golds, browns and greens. Groves of oak trees are grown for their acorns, which feed the pigs raised for jamon Iberico, Spain’s alternative to prosciutto.

Biggest laugh or cry: Everything went smoothly on our trip until we returned the car we had rented. Someone had scraped the bumper in a parking garage and, although we had insurance, the deductible was higher than the repair cost. In this respect, Spain is just like the States.

How unexpected: We thought the Mediterranean Sea would be warm in September, but when we tried swimming in Marbella, the water was freezing. The water temperature in Marbella is affected by the colder Atlantic waters nearby. We were told that beaches farther up the Spanish coast are warmer.

Spaniards apparently are very conservative eaters: They mostly like Spanish food. For every five restaurants we walked past, four would be selling traditional Spanish foods, such as tapas. We sometimes forget that American restaurants are a wide mix of Italian, Mexican, Thai, French and other cuisines. Although we loved the Spanish food, we would have appreciated more variety.

Fondest memento or memory: Reconnecting with old friends was the best thing about the trip. Spaniards are such hospitable people and make the most out of life. Every night, the streets and cafes are full of people taking their evening “paseo,” or walk. Spain is also a very romantic country — perfect for a honeymoon.

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