Traveler 024,

You are most definitely not alone in your feelings. Many of us on the board feel exactly the same love for Spain, the Spanish people, the culture, the history, the lifestyle, the food and wine … I could keep adding things but you get the idea.

The first time I was ever in Spain (Madrid originally then all over the country) I had taken off after freshman year in college and wandered around Europe - I fell instantly in love with Spain and that has never changed. After college I lived in Australia, the Honolulu, then San Francisco, then Boston, now Charlotte … and I’ve traveled to innumerable other countries over the years. But my love for Spain has never ever changed except to get stronger and more visceral.

Years later I think I might have figured out part of the reason – my mother, whom I never really knew until I was well into my adult-hood, had been born in France but baptized in Spain where she lived until perhaps age 5. Her Godfather was the then King of Spain. My Mother and I are almost exact physical clones of each other: we move identically, we are both writers, etc. Her other kids tell me it is eerie in the likenesses …

Without commenting on the reasons for this, suffice it to say in my heart has always been in Spain – that I feel Spain is my home, & the tears I shed every time I land in Madrid only increase with each return.