We’re back in Munich from a long weekend in Spain.  I love Spain…ever since I first visited Spain in 1997 I’ve loved the place.  That first trip may not have been perfect, but at least in my mind, over the years, I’ve made it out to be perfect. 

On that trip, most of the time I spent in a small town called Alcocebre, which is on the East coast of Spain.  I stayed with a host family, who are from Madrid (mas o menos) and spend their summers in Alcocebre for the wonderful life on the sea with nice sandy beaches and great seafood.  From there we traveled to Peñíscola, Teruel, Sigüenza, Madrid, Segovia, La Granja palace, El Escorial, and places in between.  It being my first time in Europe, I fell in love with the place.

Thirteen years have gone by since that summer and finally I had the opportunity to visit Spain again, this time with my wife.  As a wedding present, my Uncle Bob and his wife Susan invited us down to spend a long weekend at their house in Javea.  Javea is vaguely similar to Alcocebre in that it is a beach town on the coast of Spain, but this was a very different experience.

This time it was mainly relaxing, sight seeing only as a side.  For me, that’s a huge change from our normal vacation which is pretty non-stop.  It was great, however.  We got to spend a good amount of time with Bob and Susan, had some wonderful food, and met some very nice and interesting people. 

Javea is a much larger town than Alcocebre…or at least than Alcocebre in 1997 anyways.  Javea is much more expat friendly than anything I’m used to and DEFINITELY more expat friendly than Alcocebre was.  Spain is still Spain, though, and the Chopitos (fried baby squid) won me over once more.

Next time I think we’ll head to Málaga…