The highlight of the past few months since my last post has been the excellent two weeks that the Wife and I spent in Spain in early June. It was our first long-haul trip since getting married and ... well, I had always felt that I owed her a real honeymoon.
Someone (probably the same woman who came up with the engagement-ring-should-cost-three-months'-salary benchmark) told me that it's the guy's responsibility to plan the honeymoon, and I took on the task with gusto. For almost two months, I did extensive research by scouring travel websites and forums for tips and recommendations. I must have burned hundreds of hours of productivity at work looking through the Spain forum on TripAdvisor.com, and I even memorised a number of Spanish phrases in case we met someone who did not know English (which was pretty often) !
Una cervesa y agua con gas, por favor
A beer and sparkling water, please
If it's really possible to fall in love with a country, culture and people, then we must have felt that with Spain. We truly enjoyed its history, art and cuisine. The Spanish are such a kind, spirited and beautiful people - probably not a difficult thing when your country gets so much sunshine a year !
La Sagrada Familia, the Church of the Sacred Family, in Barcelona. Designed by the city's favourite son Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) as THE definitive monument to God. Started in 1882, scheduled completion in ... 2030.
Gaudi once said, "My client is in no hurry ..." But art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon saw it as "Europe's largest and most cynical job creation scheme"
Tapas !!! Essentially, Spanish dim-sum. While Spaniards usually "bar-hop", eating a few items at one tapas bar and then moving to the next, we usually ended up staying in one place and gorging ourselves silly on the delicious ham and seafood, all washed down with beer, sangria or the generally good house wines.
The chimneys of Casa Mila. Don't they remind you of Imperial stormtroopers ?
The delightful garden in the great hall of Madrid's Atocha railway station.
Ham it up !
The bar at a Madrid eatery named Museo del Jamon, Museum of Ham. Just as the logic of long queues means good food seems to apply in Singapore, here it's more litter = more customers = good food.
The medieval city of Segovia near the heart of Spain, with its cathedral dominating the landscape.
The Alhambra palace complex, near Granada. The Muslims ruled Spain for 700 years until the surrender of Granada to Christian forces in 1492, and traces of their art and culture can be seen and experienced in southern Spain, in places like Granada and Seville.
In case you are planning for a trip to Spain :
- visit the Spain section of TripAdvisor.com and devour every morsel of information
- download one of the excellent free guides from Maribel's Guides
- book your train tickets online in advance and secure the great Web discounts. (In the TripAdvisor Spain forum, search for a recurring post by a poster named BennyMalaga for instructions on booking tickets online)
And pick up a phrase book ! The Spaniards would really appreciate it if you can say a few words in Espanyol.
6 comments:
Wow! You've finally updated your blog :)
I went to Spain about 10 years ago and loved it too! And I even bought Spanish tapes to try and learn a little of their language - donde esta...
One of things on my must-do list will be a cruise in the region. Greece, Portual, Spain and Italy... A long way to go in terms of vacation time and money but I'll do it someday...
u're making miss my 6 week long Spain trip couple years ago!!
Oooo u finally updated your blog! hurray! haaaa
how come my husband doesnt have demale companion that tell him that honeymoon must be planned by the guy??!!!!! damn! he is hanging around too much male testerone!!!
I love spain!!!! I love all gaudi's beautiful novel architectural creation!! We simply do not have such creative minds anymore!!! All the little intricate details everywhere...sigh....u made me wanna dig out all my old spain pictures...
I love seville too except it was little rainy for my liking during my trip.... still its a beautiful city isnt it!
Hi,
After reading this entry of yours, it makes me thinking should I make Spain my next holiday destination? Thanks for sharing all those knowledge you have gathered in your research on Spain.
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