Madrid, Granada & Seville

To continue our recent 9 day trip to Spain - this picks up after the 4 days in Barcelona.

We took the AVE from Barcelona to Madrid. Great ride. Very comfortable. Once again, I'll stick to the highlights:

Madrid: (2 days)

Stayed at the AC Palacio Del Retiro. A beautiful boutique hotel right off the Retiro Park. Very helpful staff, beautiful room.

Restaurant Highlights:
Casa Paco - recommended by Fodors. Wonderful steakhouse, great wine.
Restaurant Botin - specialties included roast lamb and roast pig.

Sightseeing Highlights:
A Sunday afternoon walk through Retiro Park. Lots of families walking.
El Rastro - a wacky (but huge) flea market
El Prado & Museu Reina Sofia - world class
And the midnight flamenco show at Corral de la Moreria. (I know there have been a lot of discussions online about which show is best, and we are certainly no experts, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely.)

Granada (1 1/2 days)
We took the train (Altaria) from Madrid to Granada. Another enjoyable ride. We stayed that the Parador de San Francisco (within the Alhambra complex). A beautiful hotel and the location was spectacular. Food at the Parador was great, and the access to the Alhambra could not have been easier. Spent the next morning enjoying the Alhambra.

Ruta de Pueblos Blanco (1 day)
From Granada we rented car and drove to Ronda, Montejaque, Grazelema, and ultimately the Arcos de la Frontera. Of all of the towns, we thought Grazelema the most beautiful and the drive through the mountains was spectacular. We stayed that evening at the Parador del Corrigedor in Arcos. A beautiful hotel perched on the side of a cliff. We had a corner room with a balcony overlooking the cliff. It may be our most spectacular memory of the entire trip. The breeze was magical, and sitting on the balcony drinking wine was a highlight.

Seville (1/2 day)
To say that we were even in Seville is probably not fair as the day started with the drive from Arcos to Seville. We had enough time to tour the Cathedral. What a spectacular site. Of all of the churches we visited on the trip, this one was the highlight. Then a quick trip to the Alcazar. Afterwards, we took a table at the Bar Giralda and had one of our favorite meals of theentire trip. The tapas were wonderful. Our favorites were the Moroccan chicken and the Shrimp in Garlic.

From there it was a flight back to Barcelona in order to make our return flight home the next morning. All in all, our trip was wonderful and will provide us many memories for years to come. The people were friendly, the food was fanastic, and the history is impressive.

Thanks again to all of the people who use this Forum. Your insights helped make our trip a huge success. Can't wait for the next one!