My Love for Spain (How My Passion for España Began)

A wonderful waterway and beautiful architecture in Spain — Photo by J. Sharland Day

In October, when we flew into the Madrid airport for the second time, the airport felt comfortable and familiar, even though I didn’t remember much about the layout from the year before, except where the taxis were and the protocol for getting one. That first time in mid-January of ’24, it was raining and we had to wait our turn for a cab while trying to stay dry. It wasn’t raining this year, but then it was October, a much more pleasant time to travel.

Our hostess, for the VROB we had procured, had a cabby waiting for us, complete with a personalized hand-painted sign. I was reminded of when we used to fly into Mexico for the past twenty years to stay during the winter season. At the Cancun airport, we used to see a great many drivers from various resorts, holding up similar placards with the names of those they were to pick up to take to their exciting all-inclusives. We had our own home along the Caribbean and always knew our driver, but I would feel the excitement of those couples or families who were going to enjoy the sun and amenities at one of those big resorts.

At that moment in Madrid, I felt like those people must have felt when seeing their names on a board held up by a driver waiting to be swept away to a resort, or in our case, to an apartment.

Our driver was congenial and informative while driving us to our small, ninth-floor apartment before venturing further out of the city.

We had stayed three days in Madrid the year before, just enough time to get rid of jetlag and see a tiny bit of what the city offered, before we took the bullet train to Zaragoza and then Barcelona to wait for our daughter and son-in-law at another VROB. What an amazing experience those few days were.

In fact, the whole five weeks we were in Spain were spectacular for many reasons. One was simply because it was a foreign country, since I had never been outside North America, and another was because we were in Spain, a place I have yearned to visit. I couldn’t have been more excited winning the lottery! It was an OMG time for me. I felt like I was in a fairy tale living some damsel’s life, especially when we’d spot a castle perched on a hill near a village we’d pass.

When we walked through the narrow alleys in the cities with huge walls of stone on each side, I felt I’d been swept back in time, which made me giddy. There were moments when my heart thundered inside my chest as I allowed my imagination to take me to another era several hundreds of years in the past. Those were thrilling moments as I tried to imagine what living in those times would be like, at least the romantic aspects about them.

In Barcelona that year, we had ordered tickets early to tour the famous unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, along with a mass of other interested sightseers. Antoni Gaudi had taken over the engineering of that building in 1883 with a far different plan in mind after architect Francisco de Paula del Villar resigned. Gaudi’s architectural style was mindboggling. Yet, as we made our way through the crowds in the church’s interior, the contrast of Gothic and Art Nouveau was startling. I couldn’t help but be in awe of the structure while wondering why so much time and money was spent on such a place just so people could pay to wait in line before wandering through its starkness. What was its purpose, except to earn money to finish the building, supposedly by 2028? And then what? As a church, would there still be a fee to enter it? Too many questions and speculations that did not pertain to me because I would not seek out a visit again.

A colorful tiled mural in Spain — Photo by J. Sharland Day

After some tours of the city, the four of us traveled by slow train to Valencia. Because of the train’s many stops, we were late getting into town. We were going to be late meeting our hostess at our VROB, as well as being late meeting friends at a local bar and restaurant because when we arrived at the train station, we were greeted by a huge crowd of people in front of the train station celebrating the Chinese New Year. Taxis couldn’t get in or out. We had to walk to an uncrowded street to hail a cab to take us to our VROB and then meet our friends. It was a frustrating time and not a good start to a new place. But we overcame our frustration and were determined to enjoy every aspect we encountered, good or bad.

After three days of checking out Valencia, which wasn’t tripping my triggers of excitement as other places had, we decided to rent a car to go to our next destination so we could see the country we drove past. Our next stay was in Grenada; we had reservations to see the Alhambra.

When we got to Grenada with its backdrop of snowcapped mountains, we had to maneuver skinny alleyways that we could barely fit through to get to our hotel and unload our luggage before finding parking elsewhere. There were no places to park along the road to the Alhambra, where our hotel was located. And it was extremely cold.

Our hotel was an old stone hotel, although newly renovated, near the gate to the Alhambra, which was just a hop, skip, and jump away, according to the map. But as we began our trek up the hill, huffing and puffing, around the curves and hills to get to the historical estate, we were all breathless from the climb and the unexpected elevation. It was then that I realized how out of shape I was and I needed to do something about that.

The Alhambra was a wondrous complex with its original Moorish influence and I was thrilled to experience that magical, and extraordinary estate with its vast history.

After three days of walking the hilly streets and fighting the bitter cold of January’s winter, we drove to Seville to explore it for a week.

On our way, we drove through a couple of the white villages that the Community of Andalucía was known for. I was charmed and wondered what it would be like to live in one of those sweet villages, some, complete with a castle. I felt the fairy tale aspect of being in this historically famous and old country, which made the United States seem young and innocent.

Seville, too, was a grand experience and the food was especially extraordinary. We walked throughout most of the older part of the city, enjoying the historical sites and the large parks, finding fun restaurants and little theaters where flamenco dancers performed and a riverboat ride up the Guadalquivir River. I loved being in that historical environment, we likely would not go there again. Even though there were lots of exciting things to see, with fun music and entertainment in the big square, the authentic Flamenco dancers in small theaters, and the amazing food, it was too big with too many people to try and enjoy it again.

During our stay in Seville, we took a day trip by bus to Cádiz, the oldest city in Spain. It was an interesting city with a castle wall surrounding the old city. We walked through a museum that showed the history of the city at the time the Romans took over. I wasn’t too keen on seeing that historical aspect of Spain, because I began to see the Romans as bullies who changed the lovely architecture of many buildings and interiors in so many areas, like The Alhambra. Thankfully, in some of the original Moorish buildings, much of the lovely colors and curves of the Moorish influence were still visible.

Tacos and drinks — A marvelous Spanish meal — Photo by J. Sharland Day

After our week was up in Seville, we went by train to Portugal for a week, getting a VROB on the main square in Lisboa. I enjoyed the hustle and bustle and friendliness of that city as we walked an average of five miles a day, interspersed with taking the train and trolly. I didn’t enjoy the food in Lisboa as much as I did in Spain and preferred the overall feeling of stability and solidity in Spain over the more lackadaisical element I felt in Lisboa. Yet, Lisboa was a fun visit and I’d go there again for a couple of days to seek out the artistic cork products made in Portugal, like handbags, luggage, things useful, and things that were just pretty and fun to have.

From Lisboa, we flew cheaply back to Barcelona for a few more days before flying back home via Paris.

The whole trip was like a romantic tale to me. I loved everything about the areas of the countries we explored: the history, the old part of the cities, the people — when there weren’t so many — the food, and I didn’t want our trip to stop.

And so, we planned to go back again last October, to recapture the magic of the places we liked best in Spain, and once again flew into Madrid, as I started to describe at the beginning of this travel story.

This time, we planned to stay in Spain for ten weeks and decided to rent a car for that time to explore whatever area we thought looked interesting and after our week in Madrid, we drove northwest to begin our new adventure.