catchgee

This is my first trip report in Fodors. Before I start my report, thanks to all the people who posted excellent reports which have been immensely useful in planning my trip. I also want to thank everyone who has been patient and have taken the time and efforts to answer all my questions. If anyone has any questions related to the report/my trip, please feel free ask me questions and I will do my best to help you.

Background: To give you a background, we are a young couple from New York who are budget travelers. This was our second trip to Europe. Last year we had been to Italy. My favorite travel quote is “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”- Mark Twain

Itinerary:
Barcelona – 3 nights
Madrid- 4 nights
Toledo - Day trip
Cordoba – Day trip
Granada – 1 night
Seville – 2 nights
We flew into Barcelona airport and flew out of Madrid airport and used Bus and High speed trains to travel within Spain.

Tips and Suggestions which I would love to share with other Fodorites:-
-Metro/trains in Madrid start running only at 6 am in the morning and not before that.
-The museum in Alhambra, Granada is open only till 2pm in the afternoon. So be sure to check it out. Neither the ticket nor the person at the ticket office will tell you that.
-If you plan on going for a concert at Pala de Music Catalana, make sure you book your tickets at the “Bigger” auditorium and not the smaller one.
-You can book the tickets for Bullfighting through www.divento.com (It is simple and the website is in English)
-On arriving at Barcelona airport, there is a tourist information center inside the airport. If you ask them for booklets on Toledo, Granada, Cordoba and Seville, they will give it to you. Those books have excellent walking itineraries, good information and are easy to carry.

On the day we were leaving for Spain, I was really excited. I woke up at 7 am that morning and left early for work since I had to leave work at 4 pm to get on the non-stop flight to Barcelona at 7.20 pm that evening. Everything went smoothly in the flight and we reached Barcelona on the 15th morning at 9.30 am. After clearing immigration which was a fairly simple procedure, we were ready to get to the hotel. To fight the jetlag, we had planned on pushing ourselves during the day and sleep when the city sleeps.

Breezy Barcelona: Day 1 : Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia and Mozart concert in Placa de Musica Catalana
After having lunch that I had packed from home, we headed to Park Guell, a park designed by Gaudi and which had Gaudi’s house as well. We strolled through the various parts of the park and it was one of the best places to do people watching. We spent nearly 2 hours walking stopping at different corners where we could watch musicians sing and play guitars, violin, a brass shaped vessel and so on. We sat on Gaudi’s designed bench claimed to the “longest bench in the world”. The park was filled with tourists from Japan to USA. The history of the park makes it a special place. This park was supposed to house 60 residential buildings in the 19th century. However, the project failed and in the end Gaudi landed up having only his house and 2-3 more houses in this park.

Our next stop was the symbol of Barcelona-“La Sagrada Familia”. This cathedral is located right in the middle of the city is equidistant from the mountains and the port. This was Gaudi’s masterpiece too. Gaudi who was inspired by nature used every possible element to construct this church. You will find everything from horses and birds to leaves, trees and branches included in the architectural design of this church. It was indeed a piece of architectural marvel. However, my opinion is that churches /mosques /temples/synagogues should not be charging tourists 7 euros-10 euros as entrance fee plus another 4 euros for audioguide. That is insane!

Our last stop for the day was Palau de Musica Catalana where we had pre-booked our tickets for Mozart concert. Oh! What a lovely evening it was! The auditorium, designed by modernist architect Montaner was beautiful and was one of the many UNESCO World Heritage sites in Spain. On entering the building, we reached a central plaza where there was a bar serving a variety of tapas/wine each for less than 3 euros. Looking at me, my DH already guessed that I am going to try a few tapas dishes. They had good choices for vegetarians. After enjoying the tapas dishes, we explored the beautifully ornamented building from inside and then stepped into our auditorium.

What came to us as a shock was that there were 2 auditoriums in this building (large one and small one) and we had booked tickets in the smaller one (though we had seen pictures of the larger one all over the internet) since their website did not mention the size of the auditorium. You may be wondering what is so shocking about it. The catch is that the smaller auditorium is built in the modern architectural style while the larger one was decorated in the classic antique style and both of us wanted to see the latter. What a bummer! The concert started on time and lasted for an hour. We enjoyed it for the next half an hour after which both of us realized that we were falling asleep, thanks to the jet lagging and the long day at work before we boarded our flight. During the interval, we laughed thinking that people in the seats next to ours must be wondering why this couple walked out when the concert was so amazing! As you may have guessed by now, we went to our hostel and hit the sack.


Breezy Barcelona: Day 2 :Hospital Santa Pau, Casa Batlo and Barcelona Walking “Modernisme” tour
Today we woke up around 9 am and started our day with good coffee and free breakfast at our hostel. The next thing on our planned itinerary was to visit Hospital Santa Pau. They offered tour of the hospital in English at 10.15 am and 12.15 pm. While their website did not quote any fee, we were asked to pay 6 euros at the entrance. The guide offered us a 1 hour tour. On one hand, the architecture of the hospital was stunning and colorful. On the other hand, though our guide was friendly, her English speaking skills were not worth my 6 euros. However, we do not have an option of touring the hospital without the guide.

Our next stop for the day was Casa Batlo. After picking up our english audio guides, we started our tour of Casa Batlo. This house was Architect Antonio Gaudi’s masterpiece. Everything is crooked or weird in this house. The house looks like a dragon with teeth and bones. The interior of the house had so many elements of marine life. Gaudi’s obsession with nature could be seen in every element of the house from mirrors to walls to ceilings and furniture. One of the striking features of the house was its natural ventilation system and the colors. For a house that was built in 1901-1907 period, this was a forward looking house and Gaudi used a very modernistic approach. The terrace represented the dragon’s tail. I thought it was a great experience but 16 Euros per person was steep. However, we learnt later that the only source of money for maintenance of this house was the ticket sales. We later on learnt from another guide that Casa Mila was “value for money” attraction as compared to “Casa Batlo”.

After the visit to this house, we were ready to lunch. We went to a café nearby and grabbed some salad, pasta, pizza, yogurt and coffee. While we were always in a hurry to finish lunch in 10 minutes, the rest of Spain was enjoying its 2 hour lunch. The concept of 10 minute lunch simply did not exist! After placing our order, we got our food in 15 minutes. We finished our lunch in 10 minutes, but the waiter would not come for the next 10 minutes. So we ultimately went to the cash counter and paid off our bill and were ready to run for the next tour.

We reached the tourism office on Placa Catalunya at 3.55 pm for our 4 pm guided tour with 20 other people for the next 2 hours. Our guide was a very friendly person and answered all the questions that my DH and I had. We were like the front bench students in the tour with loads of questions while the rest of the 20 people would simply listen to what the guide has to say. The guided walk was excellent with tons of information about each of the modern buildings, their history etc. The last stop was Casa Asia after which we were on our own.

My DH and I thought 8 pm was too early to go back to the hostel. Since we had heard a lot about the Boqueria market and La Ramblas, we decided to check out both of those. Boqueria market was impressive with colorful vegetables and fruits with 20 different varieties of mushrooms, spices etc. We took a quick stroll around that place and continued walking on La Ramblas. This is the street which divided the old city of Barcelona from the new city of Barcelona. La Ramblas was filled with people, street vendors, some artists and some annoying people posing as statues. It was 30 minute walk before we reached the Barcelona port. This area was beautiful with old buildings. On the center was Christopher Columbus’ monument where he was pointing to the East. Thanks to his sense of direction, the new world was discovered! We had finished our tour of the modern Barcelona areas and were ready to check out the old city the next day.


Day 3 : Barri Gotic Walking tour and Museum of History of Barcelona
What could be a better way of knowing a city than visiting a museum and learning the history of the city? On 17th April, we started our day with the Barri Gotic tour guided tour at 10 am. (This tour does not begin from Placa Catalunya, it begins from the information center which was located at Placa St Jaume ). If I rated the Barcelona Walking “Modernisme” tour 8 on a scale of 1-10, I would rate this tour 5 because too much emphasis was placed on the history of churches. Personally, I get bored of seeing and hearing about church and any saints related to churches. After this tour, we asked for directions to the museum of history of Barcelona and guess what we heard. “The history of Barcelona is buried under the place where you stand. The old Barcelona is below the road where you are standing”. The museum included an interesting collection of roman baths, pre Iberian history, pots and pans from 2nd B.C period onwards and an audiovisual guide for 20 minute on the history of Barcelona. We got audio guides in English too. Overall, very interesting museum which puts things in perspective and helps you understand how this city grew, why this city was popular and how the city changed over centuries.

We completed our tour and then took a coffee break. After that, we wanted to check out the Juderia section of the city. We were transported to a different world where maps did not work due to confusing and winding roads, where roads did not have names or roads which had names were not reflected in our maps. At some point, we decided that we are better of losing ourselves rather than reading the road names. We enjoyed doing so and since we knew Juderia had to end somewhere, we kept walking till we dropped. What I never understood is why is Juderia always a small congested area be it Barcelona/Toledo/ Cordoba and why is that place never accurately described in maps?

My impression of Barcelona: I would say that Barcelona is definitely the cultural, architectural and gastronomical capital of Spain. It is a city which can give you good idea about the history of Spain and can offer Gucci/Prada and other fashionable stores at the same time. The mountains and the port give this city a geographical advantage over many other cities in Spain. Just like any big city in the world, it has its problems like pick pocketing and space issues. Being a big city gal forever, I love Barcelona. Not to forget the party scene in this city!

I will post the reports on Madrid and other cities soon.

tobyo

wow, great report so far! look forward to the rest. and your trip sounds very similar to ours too. we're flying into Barcelona in two weeks(and flying home from Madrid), stay 3 nights then off to Madrid for 5 nights with two day trips too, slightly different in that we're going to Segovia. so I'll be looking for your impressions and adventures in Madrid as well. we are also considering going to a concert at the Palau de Musica so good to know to book the bigger auditorium. can we get tickets as late as one day ahead of a show? do you know? we were going to wing it and see how we feel as to whether we had the energy for a music concert. but I too have seen the pics of the Palau and want to see it too!! so am curious if we'll be out of luck if we decide to take in a concert and try to get tickets after we get there.

thanks for the fun details, I'll hope to catch more of your travels in the rest of Spain!

tobyo

also love that travel quote too

yk

catchgee, great report so far! Your Barcelona descriptions are bringing back wonderful memories for me. I felt like I was there right with you!

catchgee

Tobyo: Thanks for your kind words. Regarding your question on getting the tickets a day ahead, when we went to the ticket counter to pick up our tickets based on our advanced reservations, we saw people buying tickets for the concert for the same day at that time. I think a day ahead should be fine.

yk: Your trip reports are wonderful as well and I have used them to plan my trip.

catchgee

Finally managed to finish writing on Madrid and Toledo...

Madrid: 4 nights
Day 4: High Speed Train to Madrid and Prado Musuem
We had booking for 11 am train to Madrid through Renfe website. On arriving at the station, we went through the security check which included X-ray machines for scanning our luggage. The train was on time and we got into our train. After reading about our plans in Madrid, we went to sleep for the next 2.5 hours. When my eyes opened, we were 30 minutes away from Madrid. The countryside in Spain was exceptionally beautiful. The land was green, the sky was blue and the train journey was comfortable. We arrived at Madrid at 2 pm. It was raining in Madrid. Since we had checked the weather forecast before we left for Spain, we had umbrellas with us. We also had our maps to our hotel ready. We checked into our hotel which was 2 blocks from Grand Via station. The next thing on my mind was obviously food.

After grabbing a sandwich or two, we left for Prado Museum. We had tickets for 3 pm. Prado museum has around 8000+ paintings. We did some research on their website and printed out the paintings we should be checking out if we had 3 hours in the museum. This idea was very helpful because we remained focused and were able to learn more about the popular paintings. Since it was a Sunday, the museum was free after 5 in the evening. So we had 2 hours to ourselves to check out the most popular paintings. Since we were in Spain, we decided to concentrate on the Spanish painters like Goya, Velazquez and El Greco first, followed by Flemish paintings and others. The audio guide was excellent and we really enjoyed the paintings. My favorite paintings includes “The garden of Earthly delights” by Bosch, “The triumph of Death” by Brugel, “The naked Maja” by Goya and how can I forget “The lamb of God” and “Las Meninas” by Velazquez, “The monster” and “ The surrender of the Breda”. Apart from paintings, the museum also had some hidden jewels like some sculptures and gems. We could spend days in the museum, but the museum closed at 8 pm and we thought 3 hours we good time for us. We had dinner at “Al natural”, a restaurant which offers tasty food for vegetarians. Highly recommended place for vegetarians!

Day 5: Monday in Madrid at Palacio Real
We started our day at 1pm with Palacio Real, the royal palace in Madrid. Unlike the other tourists would go from room 1 to room 30, we decided to start backwards since my DH and I were interested more in Armory and Pharmacy section. Not even in a hospital I have ever seen so many jars with such variety of medicines. The other rooms of the palace reminded my DH and me of the Palaco Pitti in Florence. Like any other palace, this was huge and by the time we finished the 30 rooms, we were hungry. Unlike the previous days, we had planned to take a long lunch break and relax today. So we took an hour long lunch at 4 pm. After lunch, we walked to Plaza Mayor which was really huge. The buildings had Baroque style architecture and the plaza was filled with cafes. From here, we walked for another 2 hours discovering life in Madrid, comparing Madrid to Barcelona, the people, the culture, the buildings etc. We went to the “La Latina” area which was supposed to have great tapas bars. Being a Monday, the whole place was dead. The few tapas bars that were opened did not have any vegetarian options. However, we did have our back up plan. We landed up doing a fine dining experience at “Artemisa” restaurant which offered some authentic vegetarian Spanish food. The food was excellent, the ambience was great and we saw many local people. We started off with hummus platter, followed by eggplant and zucchini in some bread topped with almond sauce, vegetarian paella, vegetable croquettes, 2 glasses of wine and ended our dinner with some desert. I agree that we ate a lot, but after all the walking and talking, we were happy to treat ourselves. Once again, a highly recommended place for vegetarians! We enjoyed our dinner and our visit to Palacio Real had been wonderful. So we went home and slept well until the next morning.

My impression of Madrid:
Madrid is a huge city with great museums. This city offers more “value for money” restaurants and hotels than the upscale places in Barcelona for budget travelers. Also, stopping at Madrid is a great way to doing day trips to Toledo, Segovia and El Escorial.


Day 6 - Day trip to Toledo
We had pre booked our train tickets to Toledo through Renfe website. Our train departed Atocha station at Madrid at 9 pm and it took only 45 minutes to reach Toledo. My eyes were wide open the minute I saw Toledo train station. Who could ever call this a train station? It was beautiful, decorated in the Mudejar style and would give anyone the impression that they are in a medieval town. The tourist department was right at the station, so we picked up maps of the city and set out to check Toledo.

Toledo has city walls and is located high above the hill. Most of the people would take bus number 5 from the station to Zocodover plaza which was the main square on the top of the hill. We decided to walk up the hill since it was only a 15 minute walk. After walking for 15 minutes, we reached the famous “Bisagra Gate” of the walled city. After passing through the gate, we were right in front of a medieval building which was once a mosque and then a church and now an abandoned building. We kept walking based on our walking itinerary and passed several towers before we reached Zocodover plaza. Out of curiosity, we walked 50 steps to reach the terrace of one of the towers from where we got wonderful views of the city.

We took a break at Zocodover plaza and had lunch. We were aware that the Alcazar was closed, so we just walked around the outside of the palace. For obvious reasons, all the castles and the royal palaces are always built on top of the hill. The view of the city and the city walls from the Alcazar gates was beautiful and it gives them a geographical advantage for defense. After spending some time there, we went to the Museo de Santa Cruz. It was a hot and sunny afternoon and this museum was a good excuse to escape the heat. While I would expect the museum to have all information in English, it was not the case. My understanding capabilities of any sculpture/ceramic and mosaic work/history were reduced to zero since all the information in this museum was in Spanish. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the museum and got out of the museum in an hour.

Toledo also had a Juderia section of the city which had the famous “El Transito Synagogue and Shepardi museum”. After walking for nearly 30 minutes, we found ourselves in front of the synagogue. This was my first visit to synagogue ever and I was wondering how it would look, what would be inside a synagogue etc. We picked up the English audio guide and sat in one of the corners of the synagogue. To give you some background, the synagogue is a historical building in Toledo, founded by Samuel ha-Levi in 1356. After the expulsion of the city's Jews under the Alhambra decree in 1492, it was converted into a church. This place was also used as a military base during the later centuries. Today it forms part of the Sephardi Museum, exploring the Jewish culture of Medieval Toledo. I was touched seeing this place and the way it had been converted to a church. Nothing has changed in the interiors except for the cross sign. The audio guide was excellent and we spent 2 hours in the Sephardi museum learning the history of the jews, their holy land, their culture and their story of how they were driven out of Toledo. This synagogue and museum is a “must visit” place if you are going to Toledo.

Our next stop was a 13th century Gothic style cathedral (Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes) which was once a mosque. Chains were hanging on the exterior of the cathedral to show freedom of the Christians from the Moors who once ruled Spain. Without getting into the details, I would just say that history is always written by the one who wins the war. Maybe what you see is not what history was!

We next proceeded to Santa Maria La Blanca. Founded in 1203, the Santa Maria La Blanca synagogue is nearly two centuries older than the more elaborate and more crowded Tránsito Synagogue in Toledo. The synagogue was designed and decorated by Mudejar architects and the Islamic influence is readily apparent. The white interior features graceful horseshoe arches and ornamental horizontal moldings. This synagogue was once again converted into a church. Most of the original synagogue remains, including five aisles divided by four rows of seven horseshoe arches, each with elaborate Mudéjar decorations molded in plaster. The carved capitals feature vegetal decorations that suggest Almohad influences and the dark red floor is dotted with decorative tiles. Unlike the El transito synagogue, this one lacks women’s gallery. According to some books, this makes the overall effect is very much that of a mosque rather than a synagogue. I am yet to figure out the difference between mosque and synagogue from an architectural viewpoint. Both have arches and no statues in the interiors. What differentiates them?

Our last stop was Visigoth museum. This museum was located in what was once a synagogue and then a church. By now we had seen enough number of mosques and synagogues converted to church. This museum had some items from the Visigoth times. The Visigoths were clearly not as advanced as the Romans or the Moors. Most the items looked like instruments belonging to the tribes.

We enjoyed walking through the Juderia section of Toledo. We had 1 more hour before taking our train back to Madrid. So we walked back to Zocodover plaza, had marzipan (Arab dessert with almonds and sugar), did some window shopping of Damascus jewellery and then boarded the bus which would drop us off at the train station. We got back to Madrid and were ready to sleep. April 21st was going to be a long day since I had to wake up at 5 am to get the train at 6.30 am to leave for Cordoba. We went back to Madrid that night around 8 pm. The 4th night in Madrid was our last night in Spain, on our way back from Seville. So I wil write about that later.

My impression of Toledo:
Even though Toledo is only 45 min away from Madrid by train, it is one of those cities that puts you back in time. The city walls, the old synagogues and churches and defense towers show how important this city was during the 15th century.

More to come soon....Cordoba,Granada and Seville

noorjahan

Great report! I went to Madrid last November, and I wish I had read ur recommensations for vegetarian places before (I'm not vegetarian but only eat meat that is halal or kosher). I loved Madrid!

tobyo

fabulous!! and thanks for the ticket info, appreciate it.

the alcazar in Toledo is still closed? bummer....was hoping it would reopen in time for my visit. well, good to know, we can plan around that. loved your impressions of the synagogues too. but you didn't see any El Greco? that is one thing on my list when we're in Toledo.

catchgee

Noorjahan: Thank you

Tobyo: El Greco musuem was closed as well as per the tourist dept when we went to Toledo. I am sure you are going to enjoy your trip though.

worldinabag

Great info. Loved the Twain quote. Please let us know where you stayed in each place and a brief review. Fodorites are always looking for accommodation suggestions

yk

Can't believe both the Alacazar & El Greco museum in Toledo are still closed. They were closed when I visited Toledo 2 years ago.

catchgee

worldinabag: Based on your suggestion, here are the hostel details:-

Barcelona: Omni House (2 stops from Passeig de Gracia station)
+ve's: The hostel was in a very good location. The kitchen in the hostel was fully equipped, free breakfast was good and the owners were friendly. We had free internet facility at the hostel.
-ve's: Very small rooms, Very noisy during sleep hours since the hostel is flooded with college kids who love partying late night unlike us who love to sleep peacefully in the night and wake up early morning to enjoy the city. Also, they do not let you use their elevator,so we had to carry our baggage 2 floors.

Madrid: Hotel Acapulco
Highly recommended and the best hostel choice we made in Spain. +ve: Located on the 4th floor of a building (1 block from Grand via station), very friendly staff, clean rooms and excellent service. The staff went out of thier way letting us use thier microwave and they also did the laundry for us. Also, the hostal very peaceful and quiet esp during night time.
-ve: cannot think of any

Granada: Makuto backpackers hostel
+ve: Located in the heart of albaycin, few blocks from San mirador point. Kitchen was good, free breakfast was good.
-ve: Unbearable noise from the neighbouring buildings. We barely slept that night due to loud music and guitar being played somewhere closeby.

Seville: Garden Backpackers hostel
+ve: New hostel, so the rooms are very clean. The staff is very helpful in guiding you about the city. Excellent breakfast and the backyard is beautiful. They offer free city tours and tapas tours for few euros.
-ve: Once again, we heard people speaking very loudly in the lobby at night time after 12, even though the hostel staff had put up notices everywhere.

catchgee

yk: Considering that they don't intend to complete the construction of La Sagrada familia for another 30 years or so, I am not surprised that Alcazar and El Greco museum is closed since 2 years.

catchgee

Sorry for the long delay in posting the rest of the report. Here is Cordoba and Granada and am hoping to finish up Sevilla part of the TR by this weekend!

Day 7th: Day trip to Cordoba.
I was half asleep when I reached the Cordoba train station. After leaving our bags at the security lockers at the bus station, we had 2 sandwiches and good coffee at the bus station itself. We took bus 3 which would drop us off at the Mezquita. At 9 am, we were right in front of Mezquita. Since we entered the mosque before 10 am, the entrance fee of 8 euro per person was waived. However, the audio guide was not available until 10 am.

I got goose bumps the moment I entered the mosque. It was gorgeous and looked big enough to accommodate 10,000 people at a point of time. Later, we learnt the mosque was big enough to accommodate 40,000 people since they had extended the mosque over time. The red and white arches and the arched glass windows were nothing like I have ever seen before. We spent 1 hour walking around the mosque spending time closely checking out the pillars, the mihrab, the central portion of the mosque, the doors, the ceilings and everything. Every column and pillar in the building clearly showed signs of the mosque. Yet, when I reached the center of the mosque, what I saw was shocking! The mosque had once again been converted to a church. I have to point out this interesting fact. Outside the mosque, they had a brochure talking about this history of the mosque. This brochure gave a biased opinion and almost seemed like the church had written this document. For instance, it stated that the mosque had been built by destroying churches in that area and collecting the pillars and columns of those churches. However, the audio guide and other books clearly said that Abd-Al Rehman II had purchased the roman and other columns/pillars of the mosque for 100,000 dinars. Once again, I was convinced that history is what is written by the winner! After picking up the audio guide we spent 2 more hours inside the mosque learning about the architecture, history, the church, the doors and the small museum inside the mosque. As of today, this mosque is used as a church.

As usual, the next stop was Juderia. By now, my DH was bored of Juderias, while I was not. I was interested in learning so much more about the Jews that I told my DH that our next trip should be Israel for which I never got a response. Ultimately my DH distracted me and took me to a Roman bridge followed by the gardens of the Alcazar. However, I managed to spend less time there and once again insisted we visit the Juderia section. Here we visited the synagogue of Cordoba, built in 1350. It is the only synagogue in Andalusia to survive the expulsion and inquisition of the Jews in 1492 and one of only three ancient synagogues left in all of Spain. After the visit to the synagogue, it was time for us to head back to the bus station from where had planned to take the bus to Granada.

My impression of Cordoba:
I am sure there is more to Cordoba than Mezquita. However, the Mezquita itself speaks for the city. We could have definitely spent more time here exploring the other parts of the city. This city has so much to offer than a day trip was injustice to us.

Day 8: Granada
We were in the bus for Granada at 2 pm and we reached Granada by 5pm. During the three hours of this bus ride, I saw more number of olive trees than I could imagine. The last one hour of the journey offered picture perfect landscapes with Sierra Nevada mountains in the backdrop, empty roads and lush green farms. After we arrived at Granada, we located our hostel in Albaycin and dumped our stuff. Thanks to the late sunset in this city, we had a couple of hours to go around.

The first thing we wanted to catch was the sunset at San Mirador point. My eyes brightened up and my tiredness vanished the moment we reached San Mirador point. Oh! What a beautiful sunset point it was. I am sure it is the favorite spot for the love birds, poets and artists from all over the world who come to this city. We spent an hour just relaxing and enjoying the beauty of the grand fortress and the view of the city. After that, we headed to a Morrocon restaurant at the bottom of Albaycin. I was hoping to get decent vegetarian meal. What I got was the most delicious hummus, morrocon veggie platter and dessert that I have ever had. With good middle eastern music in the background, we enjoyed our dinner and walked home with a sense of satisfaction.

Day 9: Granada
This was a big day. I had read online reviews of the Alhambra palace in Granada and thought it might be just another palace. My DH and I woke up at 7 in the morning and were at the ticket office of Alhambra at 9 am. After picking the audio guides, we chalked out a plan of covering Alcazaba before entering Nasrid’s palace at our scheduled time which was 1.30 pm. Alcazaba is at the other end of the palace. So we basically had to walk to the other end of the palace and then walk a little backwards to arrive at the Nasrid palace. We walked 30-45 minutes considering that we wanted to take time to see each and every corner of the palace. The palace looked red in color and with the sun’s rays falling on it, the bricks were shining. I was wondering how the palace would have looked in the 8th century. We saw the Medina which was the lower level of the palace, a town where the local men lived. After walking a little more, we entered Alcazaba which had 3 towers. Walking up each towers, we got stunning views of the city, but obviously for a person like me who sits in front of the computer every day, this exercise was very tiring. By the time I reached the third tower, I sympathized with the guards and soldiers who would have done this every day of their life. We also saw the basins where the local men would stack grains brought from the fields. By the time we finished all of these, I was ready to sit under a tree and eat home food which is what we did. We ate some lentils and bread which I made at night the previous day in the hostel and drank loads of water following which Alcazaba and Alhambra seemed brighter and more beautiful.

It was close to 1.15 pm and we were ready to enter Nasrid’s palace. What followed next was like tale from “Arabian Nights”. We walked inside the palace and the cool marble from the ceiling to the arches and the floors protected us from the sun and also keep us busy. We were lost seeing the intricate work on the marbles, the designs, the history that we learnt from the audio guide and the windows which opened up to beautiful patios. One part of me was really lost while the other half of me was really furious at the other tourists who made so much noise that I could barely listen to my audio guide. The tourist groups were in a hurry to finish the room, the tourist guide was interested in briefing the group about the history of Alhambra at the top of his voice in Spanish and the kids were obviously interested in sleeping or eating or crying. So we had to wait in room an extra 10 minutes for the crowd to go away and then take our time to admire the beauty of this palace.

The courtyard of lions had 124 marble columns and a beautiful central fountain. The whole place was mystical. To add to the mystery, we listened to Washington Irving’s tales of each room. After we finished this part of Alhambra, we entered Charles V’s palace. This palace was in total contrast to what we had seen in the rest of the palace. It was looking like a coliseum from inside. That was the last part of our journey at Alhambra.

It was a long and eventful day. It was time to get back to the hostel and get on to our bus for destination Seville.

My impression of Granada:
A city for artists!!! Granada is a beautiful city which offers great food, the mighty and mystical Alhambra, a small city feeling in comparison to Madrid and Barcelona, beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains and the crooked Albaycin roads. I loved this city and would want to go back to it someday.

lincasanova

beautiful report. thanks for posting!

sara_j

Great trip report and very informative! Did you ever post a report on your visit to Seville?
Thanks!

catchgee

Thanks lincasanova. Thanks Sara_j. Sorry, I have extremely lazy and have not yet written up on Seville. I should do that soon. Thanks.

Dreamon823

Guys,going with the tour on 9/2 will be in most places you went. Any advice on what to take(what I may need) and what to wear not to look as USA tourist?Is Barcelona full of pickpocketers as I read on some reports?

Ifnotnow_when

tt

sap

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