Some Closing Thoughts on Spain As We Move On

I’m going to miss Spain. We spent much more time in Spain that we had anticipated, mostly because getting our visa was more involved than we were initially led to believe. The original plan included one month in Madrid and one month “traveling around, you know, like in southern Spain and stuff.” That turned into about five weeks in Madrid and six weeks in other Spanish cities, but we’re done with Spain for now. So, in way of an adios, here are a few unconnected thoughts on Spain that we haven’t had time (yet) to develop into more substantial posts.

• Based on the tourism materials and audioguias, it sounds like Spain’s conquering of the New World worked out well for everyone. I guess physical and temporal distance makes it easier to be loud and proud about Columbus, but we heard no voices from someone who thinks that perhaps not everyone is happy with how things went.

• I would like to learn more about Muslim Spain, but we really didn’t find a lot of information in either history/archeology or art museums. Muslims ruled large areas of Spain for seven hundred years (711 – 1492), and I would think there would be a lot of material or places to learn about said rule, but most of what I know about Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) I read on Wikipedia.
• I really like Moorish architecture. We spent hours and hours looking at the intricate plasterwork patterned tiles, and horseshoe arches in palaces and alcazars. One can get jaded, because it looks just repetitive, but I don’t know, I can’t not stare at it to try and figure it out.

• Spain is politically and geographically divided into 17 divisions called “autonomous communities” (Andalusia, Castile and León, Basque Country, Aragon, and Catalonia to name a few), and Spain is governed more like a confederation of states rather than a single, coherent geopolitical entity. I can’t really put my finger on it, but you will have no trouble figuring out which community you’re in. It’s like knowing when you’re in Texas and when you’re not.

• Of course it’s no surprise to anyone that Spanish grocery stores stock different foods than American grocery stores, but there were a few things caught me either laughing or WTF’ing. Namely: you can buy loaves of bread with the crust already cut off; good luck finding any packaged food that isn’t laden with sugar and/or have a chocolate variant. (e.g., Kellogg’s Fitness Flakes come in regular, chocolate, and dark chocolate); what’s a nut butter?; Spaniards love chocolate – not just chocolate bars, but chocolate in everything and in every configuration.

That’s it. I don’t have a larger, coherent point here. But the more time we spent in different areas made me less and less confident in making blanket declarations about “how things are in Spain” or “what Spain is like.” It’s time to move on, though: we’re already sad that we’ll only have five weeks in Paris.