Spain, here I come

As we started ascending 15,000 feet into the sky, it finally sank in. Are you sure you want to do this? Well, no choice, answered my brave (or practical) mind. Skydiving from 15,000 feet was, to say the least, surreal! The first few seconds of you letting go of yourself are the ones that will stay with you for a lifetime. This experience in the first leg of our trip set our Spanish holiday off to a rocking start—Hola Espana!

I visited Madrid, Seville, Malaga and Barcelona, in that order. My personal favourite was Madrid and I wonder why only about 60 per cent of tourists travelling

to Spain visit Madrid? In fact, while we were planning for our trip, we consulted three people who had been to Spain earlier and none of them had visited Madrid. I had to have it on our circuit—being a Real Madrid FC fan, I couldn’t resist! Madrid is a beautiful, culturally rich city with delightful parks, gorgeous architecture, brilliant local vibe, and a nightlife that is one of the most vibrant globally. An eclectic mix of the old and the new, it is one of the most ‘European’ of all Spanish cities and a must visit in my view.

The first day of our trip entailed a visit to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium for a Real Madrid FC match! To watch Real Madrid voted FIFA club of the century was an experience to cherish. In spite of us going towards the end of La Liga and watching what one would call ‘a dead rubber’, the atmosphere was electrifying. And were we lucky? We couldn’t have asked for more for we saw a galore of goals including a Christiano Ronaldo hattrick.

Barcelona was our next destination, where the highlight was a visit to Enoteca—a two star Michelin restaurant. Barcelona incidentally is amongst those cities with a lot of Michelin star restaurants. These restaurants need to be booked at least two months in advance for a dinner reservation. The best way to experience them is to go for their menus and pair each course with recommended wines. The total experience with wine would cost about 200 euro per person. The food presentation, melange of ingredients, the precise wine pairings, and the wonderful textures and flavours are an experience to savour at least once in a while, and Barcelona would be an ideal place to do so as the wide choice of Michelin star restaurants would help you chose one that suits your palate and pocket.

We next visited a small hill town called Montserrat—an hour from Barcelona city. Montserrat is a mountain-top monastery and has a very serene feel about it. It has one of the most spectacular views of the Catalonian area. They have guided trail tours through the mountain ranges, which we could not traverse due to lack of time (we had to join a wine factory tour) but the mountain peaks did look inviting. What we did do and enjoy thoroughly was tasting cheese from the stalls that the locals had set up all around. Beautiful Sunday morning weather, happy and smiling locals going for the morning mass, wine, cheese and a gorgeous backdrop—what more could one ask for? We were in two minds to actually drop the wine factory tour and just spend the whole day there but didn’t really want to miss the local wine.

The writer is Head-Marketing, Brand and Corp. Communication, Kotak AMC

olmdesk@outlookindia.com