And cue Soledad y el Mar by Natalia Lafourcade por favor!

Europe is one of those places that, for me, just gives and gives. Gives inspiration, gives adventure, romance, effortlessness… it remains magical time and time again.

I’ve decided that every two years I need to find my way back to it, and much like our time going to Paris, Italy and Romania, I got to be the partner making the plans, booking the flights, finding the airbnb’s… and eventually convinced Alex that we were actually going to make it happen.

We were so fortunate to have family around to watch our little boy Quinn while we snuck away as “girlfriend and boyfriend” for a perfect 10 days. And they really were perfect.

Traveling to Spain

With an early morning start, we dropped Quinn off to stay with his Loli & Pops, and headed over to the Seattle Airport. We had AMAZING poke (only second to It’s Raw in San Diego) at the Airport. The rest of our travles were rather uneventful hours of hauling suitcases around, riding planes, and taking a metro to our airbnb.

Oh! Except for when Alex puked on our descent into Madrid. That was gnarly, but we made it through, albeit with a little less in our stomachs than we boarded the plane with.

Our first day in Madrid

If I painted, I’d paint Madrid in colors of vibrant rust red laced with gold. This first city in Spain swept us up in a whirlwind of spanish flair. Instantly we knew it would be different than France and Italy with its tapas, hot summer sun, laid back fashion and deep spices.

We were super jet lagged, having missed a night’s sleep, but luckily only had to last a few hours of evening there before getting a night of sleep. So we set out and made the most of our half day! We started of course with wandering the streets and popping in various shops to try a bite.

The style in this part of Spain seemed to be quite casual with sandals, dresses, linens, button downs; it was a very comfortable and beautiful way of being dressy but unfussy. I really loved and admired that!

Jamón Ibérico is well known throughout Spain, and for good reason! It’s a cured ham that reminds me of a saltier, fattier, and tougher prosciutto. We got 100% acorn fed jamón; Alex was blown out of his mind… and so was I.

Church, El Prado, Park Retiro, and Yummies

Sunday we went to the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints church, it was incredible to be there and feel peace.

We then enjoyed seeing the Prado Museum, Park Retiro (where we cracked out our Paris chess skills… Alex won twice, I only once), and got some amazing food from a Michelin Star Restaurant, Kuoco 360. We were so impressed by every single part of the meal. It rivaled some of our favorite Paris restaurants, highly recommend it if you want an extraordinary fusion culinary experience.

Food

We need a block solely dedicated to food, otherwise we’d be doing Spain a disservice. We had incredible food all along the trip. Some of the best ones were little shops we’d pop into, and others were planned. One stop that was well worth it was getting churros and hot chocolate from Chocolatería San Ginés (their chocolate was THICK, and the churros had no cinnamon sugar on it, which I loved!). We also enjoyed argentine empanadas from El trébol, and jamon iberico from Museo del Jamón. On an afternoon we went to Mercado de San Miguel and grabbed various tapas as we wandered… everything was just incredible and opened my palette to so many different flavors. I love how accessible their finger food is. Even at the Michelin restaurant we went to there were various finger foods. It was fun, fresh, and unstuffy!

Seeing Nate

We grabbed a rental car and were off to see Alex’s brother Nate, who is currently serving a church mission in Madrid! It was his free day, so we met up at a park, ate a yummy picnic, played some lawn games and just caught up on how the last year was for him!

Granada

Granada, oh how lovely you were! It was by far my favorite place we visited. This city has been a source of inspiration for a long time, without even having visited it… but now I know why. It’s stunning. The entire city is lined with orange trees, beautiful stone walkways, vibrant florals, and pink hues everywhere you look.

Granada is a vibrant city colored in melon, raspberry, and peach hues. It’s near the Southern edge bordering Africa, so there’s a lively influence of the muslim and moorish culture. Every fiber of the city carries this woven thread of muslim culture: throughout the food, architecture, and celebrations in the city.

We left our airbnb and walked to a few architecture sights that Alex had previously researched, and of course we took the camera! This was the main city, main outfit, and main day I wanted to do lots of photos… so we did!

Sightseeing & Flamenco

We visited the Gardens at Alhambra, it was so beautiful to walk around! The architecture is so inspiring and I just adore seeing all the beauty.

Back at the airbnb, we freshened up and headed back out for a fun evening. We went to a flamenco show at Casa Anna Flamenco and it was absolutely incredible. Filling up our cups with some yummy peach juice, we snuggled into our seats and enjoyed the hour long performance. They taught us that flamenco is an entirely improvised art- none of it is rehearsed; the artists feed off of the energy and music of their group and allow that to guide them. I want to do that more in my art- to allow myself to move and flow with what inspires me, trust in my intuition, and enjoy the process of it!

That night awakened the inner flamenco star in Alex… which I knew existed but never to this extent, ha! He wouldn’t stop dancing all over the streets… it was definitely the highlight of our evening.

We snuck away that night to the outlook of the alhambra. Flamenco artists were playing at the lookout; it was quite surreal. We wandered around and then stoped to grab some tapas on our way home for the evening.

And off we went to Ronda!