Our Honeymoon!!

B and I weren't able to take a honeymoon right after we were married due to time conflicts with school. We decided last year that we would take a honeymoon right after my graduation in May. We discussed a few options, but B was pretty insistant on Europe, as I have never been, and he wanted to go there together. He has a family friend who has a seaside house in Spain that has been oh so generously donated to us, so Spain it was!! B speaks Spanish pretty well, so the language barrier wasn't a deterrent, and since I hadn't been anywhere, I was willing to try anything.

We talked through so many options on locations, time in each spot, what we wanted to do, how much we could spend, etc. We bought guide books, researched the internet, and watched shows on the travel channel, PBS, etc. Finally we decided on 3 days/nights in Barcelona, 6 days in Moraira (the seaside town with the house), 3 nights in Seville, and one night in Madrid. We would have avoided Madrid entirely as it's out of the way, but we are using frequent flyer miles for our tickets (yea!!), and our only options for our dates were to fly into BCN and out of Madrid.

Santa Maria Del Mar


We sat down on Friday night and finalized most of the BCN plans. We've decided on lunches for each day, dinners for two of the three nights, things we really want to do/see, etc. We already have our hotel organized as well.
Lunches include Cal Pep and Mercat de la Boqueria as well as a tiny Catalan place we found on Chowhound.
Dinners so far are Cinc Sentis, a light meal at a tapas bar plus this phenomenal dessert place.


Cinq Sentis
Cal Pep

Things we still need to know:
1. We would love ideas for another dinner place if you have any!!

2. We are still debating between spending all three days in the city or taking a day trip out to Monserrat to hike, enjoy the views, and see the boys' choir. Any suggestions on this decision? Have you been to Monserrat?

3. Where to shop, ladies???? B will only tolerate so much shopping, so this has to be "snuck into" our other daytime activities. Is there anything in Spain (besides the saffron I must bring home for my grandmother) that needs to come home in my suitcase?

I'll do two other posts on the other parts of our trip later, but I'd love to hear any experiences you have had in Spain. What to eat, what to see, what you loved, what to avoid, etc. Did you study abroad there? Fill me in on everything!!!