Our plan all along was to spend the end of our travels in Spain, because 1) Spain is nice, 2) we needed a more settled situation to apply to jobs, and 3) Chris’s auntie very generously sent us the keys to her house on the Costa Brava!
(In fun little coincidences, I write this post about my first trip to Spain on the first day of my second trip to Spain. Hi from Tenerife! More on that later!)
Chris had already been to Spain twice, but this was my first time and we had Big Plans.
Catalonia
Barcelona
We started strong in Barcelona, where we visited the Picasso Museum, went to a FC Barcelona match (fútbol!), pinxos/bar hopped, meandered around Gaudi’s art at Park Güell, and drank sangria on a roof overlooking the Sagrada Familia (the most insane church/141-year construction project I have ever seen).
L’Escala
From there my sister met us (everyone say Hi Bridget!), and we headed up the coast to our home away from home in L’Escala, a little Mediterranean vacation town close to the French border famous for its anchovies (dammmnn those anchovies), rugged and beautiful coastline, and totally wild 1988 drug bust. Our living room had sweeping views of the Pyrenees as well as the Mediterranean, with truly spectacular sunsets every night. The off-season vibe was VERY QUIET (like nothing on the beach was open), which suited us just fine for coastal hikes and runs and cooking at home.
We treated ourselves to a 4-hour Catalonian lunch at Casamar Restaurant and I highly recommend this Michelin-starred experience. The long lunch is a core component of Spanish culture,1 so you might as well go big at least once! Even though it’s Very Fancy with gorgeous views of the bay in Llafranc, the tasting menu is only €88!
Andalucía
After a week Bridget left us and we got on the road south for our first 2-week vacation within our vacation.
[Travel tip: We had planned to take the train everywhere, but as it turns out, trains in Spain are expensive and rental cars are super cheap. After being TRULY SHOCKED at the almost €200 per person price tag from Barcelona to Sevilla (yes we should have researched and booked in advance…no we didn’t do that), we mostly rented cars for the rest of our time there (€13/day). Just be warned that Spain is big into speed cameras.]
Andalucía is the part of Spain that most Americans picture when they think of Spain. It’s beautiful and has really interesting architecture and culture — this is the region that gave us Spanish tiles, flamenco dancers, olive groves as far as the eye can see, bullfighting (ick), and elaborate Moorish architecture (Spain was significantly Islamic for almost 800 years!). Famous American authors spent a lot of time down there, influencing American images of the country: Washington Irving, Ernest Hemmingway, and Orson Wells, to name a few. Also interestingly, most Spanish immigrants to the Americas came from the south, meaning that the accent is much closer to the Mexican accent, and therefore (imo) much easier to understand.
Cordoba
My #1 Spanish Attraction was La Mezquita, aka The Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba. If you only see one church in Spain (lol jk jk you will see SO MANY churches in Spain), make it this one. This is one of the coolest buildings I have ever been in, and also a really interesting entry-point into Moorish/Christian history. It began construction in 785 as a mosque, uniquely designed to have “countless pillars like rows of palm trees in the oases of Syria,” was first converted to a cathedral in 1236 when Cordoba was captured by Christians, and finally revamped Renaissance-style in the 16th century.
Timed entry tickets must be purchased in advance. Luckily, at least based on our experience, they don’t oversell tickets so the huge building didn’t feel crowded.
Sevilla
We went to our first flamenco show in Sevilla and it was aaaaaamazing; I always love a cultural dance performance. Flamenco is an art form—comprised of voice, dance, and music—famous for its emotional intensity and originating in Roma/Romani culture. We researched the “best” and found Casa de la Memoria, which is supposedly where the most technically impressive flamenco dancers in Sevilla perform. You’re not allowed to take photos or video, but here’s one I found online — it’s basically the most mesmerizing and aggressive tap dancing you’ve ever seen.
Cadiz
Our next stop was Cadiz, where we had our first (but certainly not our last!) sherry experience. Sherry is a fortified wine (15-22% abv, so stronger than normal wine but definitely not liquor) and comes from the nearby city of Juarez. It was huge in the US in the 1970s—Juarez has struggled a lot economically since that export boom ended—and often gets a bad rap because people think of it as a sticky/strong/super-sweet old lady drink (though idk why we gotta hate what old ladies like?). It can be sweet, but it can also be dry and comes in many varieties. It also goes GREAT with salty olives or anchovies. We stuck to the “authentic” bars: just an old man, a pyramid of barrels, and a piece of chalk to mark up your bill on the bar where you stand.
Ronda
Woooow another top site! I loved Ronda. The weather was perfect autumn colors, the little hilltop town was beautiful, and our guesthouse was right down the street from some of the cheapest and best tapas of our trip (Bodega de San Francisco FTW!). A crazy gorge separates the town into a 15th century “new” section from the 13th century Moorish “old” section. We stayed in Ronda for a few nights while we toured around the “pueblos blancos”
Pueblos Blancos: Olvera, Zahara de la Sierra, Montefrio, and Arcos de La Fronterra
As I mentioned, we’d rented a car to get around, which meant we could stop by every pretty town on our list. “Pueblos blancos” are whitewashed small towns around and about the southern hills of Andalucía. Unsurprisingly, they’re all beautiful.
My favorite was probably Olvera. The drive from Ronda was truly spectacular; big skies and rolling hills completely covered in olive groves. Our first stop was the Monumento al Sagrado Corazón. We walked through a gate and hiked up a little hill to take some photos and marvel at the cathedral and castle in the distance. We then walked back down the hill to find the gate chained and padlocked! It was about 15 feet high, so climbing wasn’t a good option (but yes I considered it). We explored the perimeter to find another exit — nope! Our last resort was to shout and wave at the few random people passing through the square below (sadly, we’re locked in please help! is far beyond my Spanish capabilities). Eventually some kid came running around the corner with a large key and freed us with an eye roll. I just wish I could have explained that the door had been open when we got there!
Olvera also has one of the coolest castles we climbed to the top of in Spain. Don’t miss this one!
Granada
In Granada, our last stop in Andalucía, our clever off-season plan to avoid crowds began to catch up to us. The late November cold rain came in with a vengeance; thus are the trade-offs for low season tourism. Luckily, Granada is the city most famous for giving you a free appetizer with every drink you order so we tapas bar hopped the rain away and no pictures survive!
To be continued…
What am I reading?
Just finished: Katherine (Anja Seton)
Currently reading: Other Words for Home (Jasmine Warga)
Up next: You Can’t be Serious (Kal Penn)
I realize that in this sentence I used “Catalonian” and “Spanish” almost interchangeably. Please don’t come for me. For those unaware of the politics, there’s some long-running separatist drama between Catalonia and Spain, so much so that we didn’t see ANY Spanish flags in Catalonia. People understandably have strong feelings, but I’m not about to wade in so I’m sticking with the facts (our restaurant served Catalonian food, long lunches are part of the culture in all of Spain).