I wanted to report on some of the details of our extended trip. We visited Spain, France, Italy and ended with 3 days in Prague.
Spain- arrived last week of Sept and the weather was perfect.
Madrid: Ritz Hotel. Great location. If you can't stay at this hotel, at least stay in this area. Short walk to the double decker bus stop which was a terrific way to see the city. One ticket allows you on 3 routes to use all day. We got off and on and saw the city (always work your way to the top!)Madrid was a beautiful city-everyone friendly and helpful.
Segovia-Short trip from Madrid. Charming and the aquaduct was amazing. Only stayed for lunch and a little shopping.
Avila-Short drive from Segovia. Walled city that was hard to manuever. Wanted to see the Parador but we couldn't find a place to park and finally just left.
Cadiz-The Parador: Hotel Atlantico is great. In fact, we never saw a Parador that wasn't a temendous value. We had a 3 room large suite with 2 balconies directly facing the Atlantic Ocean for $235.euros a night (inc breakfast). Even had a jacuzzi. Just drove up on this one since we didn't have a reservation.
Sevilla-Las Casa de la Juderia. Everything you read on this forum is true it is a wonderful place. So charming!!! The amazing thing is that I tried all the usual on line sites and got no availability, called direct and got no availablitity and then read on this forum that they used Secretplaces.com so I thought I would see where they recommended. Lo and behold they listed this hotel and showed availability with a room rate about $70. less than anything I saw anywhere else. I booked our double deluxe w/sitting room for $195. per night a week before we left. I kept telling my husband that I thought it was going to be another hotel with a slight variation in spelling or a room in the basement. But much to our surprise we had a great room (not much of a view-but really didn't care). So I am another fan of the Juderia. Location is great. Sevilla is a hard town to get around (we have driven in Europe multiple times, including many big cities, but none rival Sevilla) We got lost walking one night and called a cab to take us back to our hotel! Loved this city.
Ryan Air--Can't say enough good things about this airlines. We flew several times during this trip and found Ryan Air to be exceptional. Low fares and none of their planes are older than 3 years. Best of all their staff is well above average in efficiency and friendliness. I wish they flew in the US.
Bellagio Italy. Quite a trek from the airport since you must take the bus to the train station which takes you to Varenna, then you take a boat to Bellagio and walk to your hotel. We stayed at the Belvedere Hotel where we had one of (if not the best) room in the hotel. A room with a small balcony (4th floor) that had a panoramic view that couldn't possibly be better. The hotel was nice and the room great, but if we went again we would stay at the Villa Serbelloni--a truly grand hotel right at the waters edge. If you plan to stay at the Hotel Belvedere be advised that it is a long uphill hike to the hotel from the boat dock. Also, I read on this site before I left to ask for a 1st floor room to get a terrace, I was unhappy when they didn't have one for us, but then realized once we had our 4th floor with the balcony that it was much more preferable to the terrace rooms. Rooms have hardwood floors, jacuzzi's and are very comfortable beds. Bellagio is stunningly beautiful and since we were there at the end of season got to see it without the huge tourist throng that many told us about. Also, we ate at La Punta restaurant as a recommendation from a local and found it wonderful. The only negative was an American man and his wife came in half way through our meal (as we enjoyed sitting on a terrace overlooking the water with quiet conversations going on all around us)and he got on his cell phone and talked loudly (to his kids who weren't minding their sitter) for probably 25 minutes. At that moment we were never more embarrassed to be Americans.
On the possitive side, we spent one night in a small bar/internet cafe where we met the owner and and 3 other people and spent one of our most memorable nights. Interestingly, George Clooney is one of his customers since he's a wine merchant and also paints wine bottles. A wonderful night we'll never forget.
That's it for now.

I want to jump on a plane and rush to Spain when I read things like this..thank you!
My son will be there this spring, I will tell him about your posting

Don't be embarrassed to be an American because someone else behaves badly.
Just behave well, and show them not all Americans are so oafish.

TYpically, reports get more people reading if you post subsequent installments as "replies to yourself" keeping it all together.

An alternative is to give the URL to the next part, like this...

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34697065

Especially since the two message headers don't really give any indication that one is part two of the other, this kind of linking is helpful to those reading your report.

Best wishes,

Rex

Don't worry about the boorish American. There are boorish people in every nation on earth. You just notice Americans more because you have a vested interest in how your fellow countryindividuals behave.

In fact, in the last international travel poll I saw, Americans were voted the most polite travelers. (Brits were the worst--I guess the soccer hooligans account for some of that!?)

Thanks for the report. I am also curious about the fact that while there have always seemed to be jillions of Italians using their cellphones whenever I visited, the only "memorable" conversation you "overheard" was the American one.

Perhaps you recalled this because it was conducted in English and not because you actually somehow related to this individual in other ways.