Main Characters: Coco’s parents, my parents, Coco and me.
Approx date: May 1978
Scene: Lisbon, Gibraltar, Madrid, Nice, and Italy.
The decision had been made. Coco and I would get married in Gibraltar on May 18th. And, the responsibility fell on me to work out the essential wedding arrangements: where to get married, person to officiate, and where the wedding party was to stay. I found an Anglican Church I liked, hired the priest to perform the ceremony, booked hotel rooms and made plane reservations to get the wedding party from Lisbon to Tangiers, Morocco and then a boat from there to Gibraltar. (No flights from Lisbon directly into Gibraltar were allowed by Spain.) Note: The wedding party consisted of my parents, Coco’s parents, Coco and me.
Where I spent most of my “wedding planning” was for the honeymoon. There were 17 days between when we left Gibraltar and when the USS South Carolina (SOCAR) arrived in Venice. I got a map of southern Europe and a current Fodor’s Travel Guide and planned out our itinerary. On earlier excursions from either the Ingram or the SOCAR, I had visited Nice, Rome, Naples, Sienna, Florence, and Pisa and knew them to be good choices to take my new bride. The itinerary I settled on was to fly from Gibraltar to Madrid and from there travel with a 2-week Eurail pass which included in addition to the above cities, stays in Madrid, Amalfi, and Venice. There was no internet, of course, nor did I attempt to use the phone. Rather, using my Fodor’s guide I carefully selected hotels that I thought would be both affordable and charming. Then, using either French or Italian dictionaries (I was reasonably adept in Spanish), I wrote letters in the appropriate language and reserved rooms for us. I received confirmation letters back from each hotel – some were in handwritten script which I took on faith acknowledged that a room was reserved for us.
Back to Lisbon. The SOCAR arrived around May 12. My parents arrived in Lisbon the following day and we went on an adventure to the Po River Valley – the source of “vino verde”. Yuk. Back in Lisbon, Dad and I caught a bus on the morning of the 16th to go get dollars exchanged to various currencies (before the Euro). On that bus ride, my oversized wallet was stolen. It not only had all my cash, but also my passport. By then, the SOCAR had left. So, I had no identification whatsoever. What to do!? The following afternoon, the once-a-week flight from Lisbon to Tangiers was to leave. Coco and her parents arrived around noon and were apprised of our predicament. The whole wedding party went to the US embassy where they all vouched that I was who I said I was. By 10:00 the next morning, the Embassy had me a new passport. Bob replenished my coffers with a generous wedding gift. An hour or so later, the six of us were on a small plane to Tangiers. From there, after an interesting few hours in the Casbah, we took a boat to Gibraltar. It was the afternoon of the 17th.
Once we got to Gibraltar, we checked into our three rooms at The Eliot Hotel: my parents took one room, Coco and her mother took room number two and Coco’s father, Bob and I were roommates in the third room. Between then and noon on the 18th, rings and flowers had been found and purchased, a wedding banquet arranged, and a photographer lined up. We had a rehearsal dinner that night without any rehearsal. Our two fathers were both great story and joke tellers. Bob won the telling contest with the following story:
Willie, a black man from Mississippi, flew to Chicago to visit his cousin, Jim, who had moved to Chicago decades ago. Willie and Jim had a warm reception at the gate and were then walking through the terminal when Jim stopped and pointed to a man who was carrying a large cage. Inside the cage was an animal (it was a racoon). Jim turned to Willie and exclaimed, “Have you any idea what that creature is?” Willie looked at Jim in astonishment. “Jim, you don’t know what that is? You been called that all your life.” Jim turned to Willie with a sense of wonder on his face. “Willie, are you kidding me, is that a real live mother f__ker?”
The wedding ceremony took 15 minutes and at about 2:30 pm a taxi arrived and swept Coco and me away. The banquet was scheduled for 6:00. Coco’s mother turned to Bob and asked, “What will Coco and David do between now and the banquet?” To which he replied, “Melva, I am sure they will think of something.” The banquet was held on top of The Rock Hotel, where Coco and I had a room that night. Everything was perfect – without a doubt, it was the best day to date in my life.
When Coco and I caught the flight out of Gibraltar, I doubt that the two of us had spent more than 50 hours in each other’s presence without being surrounded by friends or family. It was now time for us to get to know each other better. When I recently read Coco’s account of the honeymoon, I learned that by about the 5th day, she had begun to wonder if she had made a huge mistake. Coco thinks playing cards is stupid. On an overnight train ride, around day 4, I got into a poker game with our cabin mates and got so focused on the game I completely ignored my new bride. When we got off the train in Rome, using a bus guide in Fodors, I determined what bus we needed to take to get to our hotel. We loaded our 100 lbs of luggage and hopped on. After a few minutes, I concluded we were going the wrong direction, so we got off and caught another bus. After studying Fodors again, I realized that the bus we were now on was the wrong one. So, we got off with the 100 lbs of luggage. I studied the guide further and realized that the first bus was the right one after all. I informed Coco of this without looking up. Three seconds later I was sent sprawling by her huge heavy purse. Note to David: your young beautiful bride does not suffer fools lightly.
Fortunately, thanks to Fodor’s help, I had done an excellent job in choosing the cities and the accommodations where we stayed. Amalfi was a place I had never been before. It proved to be the most beautiful and romantic place of all. Our room was perched on a cliff overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. Terraces covered with lemon trees laden with fruit surrounded us. We rented a car and drove along the Amalfi coast. The road hugs a cliff that is 500 feet above the sea. Ruins of 1,000-year-old Norman castles hang on the cliffs between the highway and the water. If you make that drive, be sure to include Ravello. It is breathtaking. On one excursion, we stopped for lunch in Naples where I took this photo of Coco with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.
From there we went to Tuscany – Sienna, Pisa and Florence. All were delightful with Pisa our favorite. We spent two extra days in Pisa than planned due to a “charro” (train strike.) The architecture there is just magnificent. Also, Pisa is a college town, and we met many interesting people there. It was in Pisa where we lit the Fourth Candle. (This is a link to that story: https://quotesfromdavid.wordpress.com/the-fourth-candle/
One of our favorite delights was cappuccino – something neither of us had ever experienced. Little coffee shops were everywhere. We concluded that there should be a huge demand for cappuccino in America and we should find a way to make money with it. You think?
From Florence, we took the train to Venice where the SOCAR was waiting for me. By then, Coco and I had become friends. Venice does not hold fond memories for us – for it meant the end of what had been the most special and wonderful experience of our lives.
Our commitment that began on The Rock of Gibraltar has held firm for four and a half decades.