Patricia Harris - 100 Places in Spain Every Woman Should Go

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Writing Away

Copyright 2016 Patricia Harris. All rights reserved.

Travelers Tales and Solas House are trademarks of Solas House, Inc.,
Palo Alto, California. travelerstales.com | solashouse.com

Art Direction: Kimberly Nelson Coombs

Cover Design: Kimberly Nelson Coombs

Cover Photo: Patricia Harris

Interior Design and Page Layout: Howie Severson/Fortuitous Publishing

Interior Photos: Patricia Harris

Author Photo: David Lyon

Production Director: Susan Brady

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Harris, Patricia, 1949- author.

Title: 100 places in Spain every woman should go / Patricia Harris.

Other titles: One hundred places in Spain every woman should go | Hundred

places in Spain every woman should go

Description: First edition. | Palo Alto : Travelers Tales, an imprint of

Solas House, Inc., [2016]

Identifiers: LCCN 2016021829 (print) | LCCN 2016023099 (ebook) | ISBN

9781609521196 (paperback) | ISBN 9781609521202 (ebook) | ISBN

9781609521202 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Spain--Guidebooks. | Women--Travel--Spain--Guidebooks. |

Women travelers--Spain--Guidebooks.

Classification: LCC DP14 .H35 2016 (print) | LCC DP14 (ebook) | DDC

914.604/84--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016021829

First Edition

Printed in the United States

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For David

About ten years ago, I had an epiphany in the back room of Casa Patas, a flamenco club off Madrids Plaza Tirso de Molino. It was 2 A.M ., and the flamenco troupe was packing it in after its second set. Unshaven young men with long black ponytails and half-open white shirts put down their instruments, while the dancer cast aside her block-heeled shoes and crossed her legs to massage her feet. A waitress strutted from table to table taking orders, as two men in the back of the room picked up their guitars and launched into a fiery duet.

I checked my watch: It was still early by Madrid standardsand by my own standards when Im in Spain. I turned to my husband and smiled. We had plenty of time to stop at our favorite spot for a cup of thick, dark hot chocolate before we made our way back to the hotel. Oh, and did I mention it was Tuesday morning after a Monday night out? Mind you, back home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I probably would have been asleep, cozy in my bed, by 11 p.m . But in Spain, I get a second wind for the madrugada , as they call the hours before dawn, and embrace the local passion for life, contempt for sleep, and penchant for the two-hour lunch.

I make my living writing about travel, food, and art, which meansin theory, at leastthat the whole world is open to me. My friends cant understand why I return to Spain again and again, year after year. Sure, its a big country with a lot of ground to cover. But its more than that. Simply put, as I realized that early Tuesday morning, I like the person I become in Spain.

Like many life-altering decisions, my interest in Spain began with no hint of the consequences. In junior high school my modest rebellion was choosing to study Spanish rather than the more popular French. Ive never quite mastered the proper trill while rolling my rs, but I fell in love with the music of the Spanish cadences nonetheless. And I loved the stories that unfolded as my grasp of the language grew. I was charmed by the sweet donkey Platero, enchanted by the befuddled yet chivalrous Don Quijote, and in awe of the fiery Carmen. I hardly knew what to make of the fierce queen who was equal partner with her husband in wresting Spain from the Moors and who had the vision to launch Columbus on his first voyage of exploration. (In my textbooks, Isabels less noble actsthe Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jewswere overlooked in favor of the period of high-rolling prosperity that she helped to usher in.)

When I finally made it to Spain, everything about the countryfrom Crdobas flower-bedecked patios to Madrids raucous Puerta del Sol and Barcelonas bustling Rambleswas bigger, brighter, and more vivid than my wildest imaginings. Getting to know a country is like falling in love. The first time is a giddy experience, and each succeeding date reveals another nuance. For the women who already share my passion for Spain, I hope I can guide you to some new experiences. For those who are embarking on their first blind dates, Im excited to introduce you to a country that has stolen my heart.

Spain is a land where all of a womans senses are suddenly and inexplicably heightened. For this book, I have tried to choose places where I hope you will taste, smell, see, hear, and touch some of the same things that linger in my memory. They have become yardsticks against which I measure the rest of the world. When I name them, the sensations flood back with total recallthe springtime scent of orange blossoms in the Alczar of Sevilla, the salty-lipped taste of sherry in Sanlcar de la Barrameda, the arc of a rainbow over a range in the Picos de Europa, the thrum of motor scooters on narrow stone streets, the luscious glide of a silk shawl against bare skin, the hush of a cave where red dust outlines the hand of an artist from 40,000 years ago, the penetrating heat of the naked sun, the burble of water in desert fountains, the endless blue of a cloudless January day in Madrid, the keening wail of a flamenco singer, the aroma of hot olive oil and the sizzle of shrimp as they hit the pan.... Spain is not just a country to see, it is a full-immersion experience.

The more I thought about it, I also realized that Spains deep, abiding machismo is one of the things that makes the country so alluringboth to men and to the women who love them. The country is arguably the best place for women to get a handle on what makes men tick, whether its a rascal playwright priest, the most celebrated artist of the twentieth century, or the ultimate womanizer, Don Juan.

But it also takes a strong woman to thrive in such a masculine world. Spanish history and culture are full of women who are as formidable as their male counterpartsMara Pita, who thwarted the English invaders in A Corua, or Gala Dal, one of the art worlds most domineering muses. Women continue to break barriers in Spain. They stand as equals with male chefs in Spains radical gastronomy, make indelible marks on the art of flamenco, build wineries and museums, launch the first all-womens marathon in Europe, and even run with the bulls in Pamplona.