It seems only fitting to end a week of posts about a great food-lovers’ trip to Spain and Morocco with a shot of something sweet. Jaime and David Caldwell had an a “fascinating cultural experience” on their adventure. I’m so happy to be able to share all of their incredible images.

For some couples, travel at the holidays and being away from family would be hard. But from the looks of it, these two had an amazing time just being together in a gorgeous setting. That’s the fountain of Plaza del Triunfo below.

Jaime talks about how they decided on a honeymoon destination, “Spain is always great (David had been before but I hadn’t) and we were both excited to visit Morocco as neither of us had ever been. A friend of ours spoke very highly of Morocco and we couldn’t wait to dive in!”

She adds, “We originally wanted to take a grand tour of Africa – Namibia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Seychelles, but once we took a hard look at flights and due to David’s limited vacation days (due to school), we realized we needed to scale back to a smaller geographic area. Spain and Morocco had the food and culture we were looking for and were very easy to navigate.”

Lots of couples struggle to decide if they should travel right after the wedding or wait a while to take their honeymoon. Jaime’s very glad they pushed their trip off a bit. “Due to David’s school and summer job schedule, we delayed our honeymoon by nearly 6 months. This turned out to be the biggest blessing as we were able to spend time planning and anticipating our trip completely apart from our wedding. Ours was a destination wedding (in New Orleans) with 175 people which required a lot of planning and preparation (as all weddings do) and in the end, we were so glad that we didn’t have our honeymoon right afterwards as it would have added that much more planning. We were able to focus 100% on our wedding and making it a great event for our friends and family and then 100% on our honeymoon and making it a great trip for us. Whether it’s for scheduling reasons or financial reasons, I cannot stress how great it was to separate these two events. It made everything that much more fun and enjoyable for us!”

Thanks again to Jaime and David for sharing their story with us this week. Here’s wishing everyone a Merry-Christmas-in-April!

Jaime and David’s honeymoon took them to Spain and Morocco. The ancient city of Fez (also spelled Fès) was a true adventure for these two. The crowed, crooked winding streets, the shouting shopkeepers and hawkers, the smells and tastes of exotic food transport visitor to not just another culture, but another time as well.

Just wandering through Fez is a lesson in Moroccan architecture.

Jaime says, “Fez’s Medina is labyrinthine with no street signs and winding, path-like streets running in all directions, therefore, having a guide is absolutely essential. Beware of unlicensed guides who will waste your time and money.” They were lucky enough to find Mohammed (a local history teacher and native of Fez) spent an entire day giving us the historian’s view of 5,000 years of Fez. Others interested in arranging a tour can email Mohammed directly.

Above are images of local pottery and mosaic tables being created by highly skilled artisans.

You can’t visit Fez without checking out the leather tanneries. The cow hides are cured and dyed with a mix of pigments and – ahem – pigeon poop. Visiting a tannery is a smelly, but unmatched experience.

On to something much more appetizing… food! Jaime is a food lover for sure, working in the industry. So checking out the local grub of Moroccan was a huge part of their travel. Traditional meals at local spots let them feel like locals.

As Jaime and David know, the best way to learn about a culture is often to skip restaurants and check out the local food markets.

For a true taste of Morocco, these honeymooners sampled from the shops and stalls of the Medina. Jaime says that in the ancient walled city, “there are no cars or motor bikes allowed, this is Morocco 2,000 years ago in the days of Aladdin.”

The Medina is more than just food, too. I absolutely love her shots of local handicrafts like the rugs above.

David & Jaime Caldwell of Cambridge, MA, took some time between their summer wedding in New Orleans and their December honeymoon in Spain and Morocco. The anticipation made the trip all the sweeter for these two newlyweds.

Jaime, who’s a freelance food publicist and recipe developer (plus a part-time foodie/lifestyle blogger) and David, a 2nd year law student at Harvard Law, say this trip was “a fabulous opportunity to explore exotic places with each other.” That’s Seville, Spain below on Christmas Eve.

Jaime adds, “Ours was an active honeymoon with a lot of cultural immersion. I would highly recommend it to those looking to experience something exotic and a bit out of their comfort zones.” For them, food was a huge highlight of the trip. Below is a photo from their incredible 23-course dinner (no, that’s not a typo!) at La Terazza del Casino in Madrid.

That shot at the top is these two on the flight oversees. She says, “David’s parents gifted us with first class tickets to and from Spain. This was the first and probably last time we will ever be able to fly in such style and we enjoyed every second of it from the reclining seats to the free movies to the fantastic dop kits to the delicious multi-course meals!”

Melody and Kevin knew that when you visit Belize, you can’t leave without seeing at least one Mayan temple.

She says, “We loved Lamanai, which has some of the highest and most fascinating structures.”

These honeymooners offered some great advice to other visitors, “If you go, brave the steep steps and climb all the way to the top of High Temple. It is terrifying, but you won’t regret it.”

Kate says: I chose to focus on cosmopolitan Barcelona, but Adeet and I enjoyed the several days we spent with a friend in Granada. The city is rich in history and its masterpiece, the Alhambra, is an architectural marvel. And in Granada Adeet ate his weight in jamón serrano, the dry-cured ham that is a culinary marvel!

We had only one night in Barcelona and stayed at Barcino 147 Bed and Breakfast. Our room was clean and cozy and we had the run of the kitchen for breakfast. The B&B’s central location was ideal since we didn’t have a lot of time to sightsee. Our first stop was Antoni Gaudi’s cathedral-in-progress, La Sagrada Familia. Ascending to the top of the towers in a tiny lift is not for the claustrophobic, but the payoff is spectacular, close-up views of Gaudi’s incredible masterwork. (Sadly, we lost almost all of our photos from our day in Barcelona.) We later enjoyed more of Gaudi’s work and great views of the city in Güell Park, a World Heritage site. Later in the day we walked to the area of the 1992 summer Olympics. Although the Olympic architecture can’t rival Gaudi’s, it is interesting and the waterfront view is beautiful.

Kate says: I had spent a year as an exchange student in Melilla, an autonomous Spanish city in North Africa, and I wanted Adeet to meet my host family. We stayed with them for several days and Adeet fell in love with them and their city. Melilla has a population of around 70,000 people and is home to Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and even Hindu communities. Although it is very much a part of Spain in its language and traditions, it borders Morocco and is part of North Africa, both geographically and culturally.

The city is on the Mediterranean coast, and we enjoyed walking along the “Paseo Marítimo,” a paved stretch that runs along the water. We also explored the old, walled part of the city that was founded by Spain in 1497. Melilla is known for its Modernist architecture and there are many fine examples in the city’s downtown. Parque Hernández is a beautiful park lined with palm trees and is the perfect spot for a leisurely hand-in-hand stroll.

Although the city is dear to me, I wouldn’t recommend it as a sole honeymoon destination. Instead, I would suggest that couples interested in visiting Morocco and/or southern Spain spend a day in Melilla. It would provide an interesting bridge between the cultures of those two countries. There is an airport in Melilla with flights to major cities in Spain, as well as a ferry that crosses the Mediterranean.

Kate says: A note about traveling in Europe… We booked our flights within Europe on the discount airline Ryan Air. We were happy with the low prices, but we did pay in other ways. When we flew from Spain to France, we had to pay an excess baggage fee. We also discovered that the Barcelona and Paris airports used by Ryan Air are actually a good distance outside those cities, so we had to factor in additional travel time (and expense) to get to the airports.

After Bath, we drove about 100 miles to the southern county of Devon. We spent a night in Plymouth (where the Pilgrims set sail, and also where I was born). A highlight was hiking through part of Dartmoor National Park. The park is more than 360 square miles and is a beautifully wild, rugged, open expanse. Prehistoric and medieval monuments dot the landscape, as do ruined tin mines. I would recommend joining a guided tour or stopping at a visitor center for a map before venturing out alone. One could quickly get lost in the open moors! We met ponies and sheep during our walk and delighted in these “wildlife” encounters.

Kate says: Any stress from getting to Kerala soon vanished when we reached The Tall Trees Resort, outside of Munnar. Cardamom, pepper, and coffee are grown on the grounds of Tall Trees, and tea plantations surround the resort. We loved our accommodations—a spacious two-story “cottage” with a large bedroom and modern bathroom, above. It provided a peaceful alternative to the bustling crowds of Mumbai, and we relished the stillness.

We left Kerala from Trivandrum’s international airport on Indian Airlines. Returning to Mumbai was much less adventurous than our train ride to Kerala. However, there was a moment of drama when we boarded our plane. The flight attendants had placed dry ice in the window wells for dramatic effect, and we thought the plane had caught on fire! Once we calmed down, we enjoyed a quick, comfortable flight complete with lunch. Domestic airlines serve meals even if the flight is less than two hours and are known for their excellent service.

Kate says: Our honeymoon lasted three-and-a-half months and spanned three continents. It was an intense journey that provided us with experiences that have shaped us as a couple. At times we felt like contestants on “The Amazing Race” as we navigated different cultures, time zones, languages, cuisines, and train schedules. However, we enjoyed many relaxing and romantic moments as well. We grew closer to each other with each stop on our “grand tour,” and we still fondly discuss many of our adventures.

Traveling to Kerala proved to be one of the most adventurous legs of our journey. Adeet and I traveled from Mumbai, Maharashtra to Thrissur, Kerala by the Konkan Railway. Our train tickets proclaimed “150 Years of Glorious Service,” but any glory was lost on me as I battled a cockroach infestation in our compartment. I ended up spending much of the 20-hour journey sitting in the open door of the train car. This is where the railway redeemed itself. Although I quickly grew sooty from the swirling dust and diesel fumes, I had a view unavailable from the tinted windows of our air-conditioned berth. The winter-parched countryside of Maharashtra eventually gave way to Kerala’s green rice paddies and coconut groves. Women with saris draped above their knees worked in the fields, and children waved as we chugged past their homes.

Stay tuned for the rest of Kate’s India story later today!

Kristen and Dane were well aware that spending time with family – especially family you’ve never met before – is the last thing some couples would want to do on a honeymoon. But for these two newlywed, the opportunity to meet her cousins while they were in Ireland was so exciting.

They traveled down to County Cork in the south of Ireland. Above is the house where Kristen’s great grandfather was born.

Above, Kristen gets cozy with baby cousin Connor. She says, “Some people thought we were nuts to spend part of our honeymoon with family that we hadn’t met in person, but it make the trip even more special. They took us in as part of the family and even made Thanksgiving dinner for us since we were there over the holiday.”

Dane and his new best friend, Darragh discovered a mutual love for Mario Kart on Wii.

Kristen says, “There was a nice contrast between a city and a more rural environment in County Cork. It was great to have people who knew the area and could show us places we’d never see otherwise.”

She adds, “We loved the idea of connecting with family in another country, especially since our marriage is the start of our own family.”