joannyc, Thanks! Yes, we'll have no trouble spending a few days there.

This must be your photo op view, nice:
http://static.es.groupon-content.net...1219574634.jpg

Is there a place to put in a request for some El Greco designer clouds and light?

<i> > Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca - Synagogue turned church - never a mosque though looks like one. Built as synagogue in 1200 by Muslims, became a church in 1492</i>

Not coincidentally, 1492 is when my ancestors on my mom's side departed Cazorla.

Appreciate all the suggestions. Still trying to wrap my brain around olive oil ice cream, but I found quite a few online recipes and it's sounding better.

Yes, you do have to return to Madrid from Toledo. I put Toledo at the start of the trip, so your first night would be there to relax, and your trip from Madrid to the stop after that would be a bit shorter.

With the Seville decision, it seemed you have extra time and Seville is so lovely and very close to Cordoba, where you are going anyway. We are slow travelers too though, and you always have to make choices based on your own interests. You will enjoy everything in Spain.

There is another option.
Go to Seville from Madrid and just do a day trip to Cordoba by train. It is not far and is quick and comfortable. Because I think Seville is a prettier city than Cordoba, if I did not want to move about and wanted to stay in only one place, that is what I would do.

Thanks Sassafrass, will keep it all under advisement as we do more homework. First we need to get our FF flights and see how that goes. Will look into that shortly.

I think I can answer my own question here:
<i>> Is there a place to put in a request for some El Greco designer clouds and light?</i>

The synagogue turned church, of course.

Here are a couple of photos I took from the Parador:

https://plus.google.com/photos/10755...24457775525793

As much as I like olive oil and ice cream, I don't think I could eat olive oil ice cream! ;-)

Thanks for sharing the photos joan, very nice! Definitely a classic view and worth the effort to get there.

I got our FF tickets with no issue, flying into Madrid and out of Malaga after 23 nights .
Currently the itinerary winds are blowing this way:

Madrid
Toledo
Cordoba (definitely added per above recommendations)
Drive Cordoba - Cazorla - Granada, various stops along the way
Granada
Malaga

The exact number of nights at each location to be tweaked as we do more research.

Planning to skip Seville for a couple of reasons, including the Fodors thread about possible difficulty getting there by train this year. But we could certainly change our minds on that, as we have enough time.

Thinking Madrid might warrant a few extra days, especially if we want to do some of the cool looking day trips originating from there.
kimhe, will plan to hit at least one of your recommended flamenco venues.

Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone once again for their input. Will start another thread if specific questions come up as we do more homework with some guidebooks.

Update: we have zeroed in on an itinerary that works for us, and now I can answer my own question:

<i>In October would we need to pre-book hotels, or could we wing it as we go?</i>

The Ubeda Parador is already fully booked for the entire week that we'll be in that area. I did get the Jaen Parador, and a nice looking little hotel around the block from the one in Ubeda.

But yes, we are booking everything!

Nelson

I just stumble upon one of your comments and you seem very knowledgeable on CO. I want to make sure that I chat with you to plan my trip. So just checking that you get this and you can email me directly [email protected]. We will be spending 8/9 days in CO starting in Colorado Springs and ending in Durango so I want to pick your brain. Looking forward to hearing back

Dave

Hi Nelson, I'm going to respond to you on my trip report, but wanted to say that it's a mistake to you should skip Sevilla. Cordoba is fabulous, but Sevilla is the soul of Andalucía..

I have been looking for the thread you mentioned about it being difficult to get from Madrid to Seville this year, but no luck finding it. Can you reference it? Thanks.

It is usually pretty simple and straightforward. Is there something unusual happening, construction or something?


Have to agree with Crosscheck's opinion about Seville.

Bookmarking for our trip this summer--thank you!

downedl, I saw your thread on Colorado. I am knowledgeable about parts of the State, but less so about where you will be heading. I see DebitNM has already replied. You'll get better advice from her and other Fodorites than you will from me, but I'll drop you an e-mail.

crosscheck, I'll look forward to the rest of your report. It's really a good read! Re Seville: I know our decision goes against popular wisdom, and no doubt we'll miss something important. But in the "know thyself" department, we'll be happy with our slower-travel, fewer-stops itinerary. (Once we spent 3 very happy nights in San Igncaio, Baja, Mexcio, a sleepy little town that most tourists would pass by on the way to someplace else. It was a highlight of the trip in some regards).

That said we did decide to short-change Granada and Malaga by a night each and added them to a new stop in Ronda, perhaps another unpopular decision. These decisions are tough! No doubt we should have booked 4-5 weeks instead of just three.

Sassafrass, here is the thread about the Madrid - Seville trains, construction going on this year. It was hard to find.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...da-seville.cfm

Nelson,
Thank you so much for taking time to bring up that thread. It is most helpful. I had read through several and not found it.

DH and I were talking today about doing a quick trip, week or so, to Granada, Malaga, etc. in May. We usually rent a car in Spain, and kind of meander around, but hate dealing with parking, plus DH is also getting older and does not enjoy the driving so much. I don't like buses either, but love trains, so thought this time, that is what we would do. Guess not! Now, I have to actually plan ahead.

Sassafrass, good luck on your trip. My wife can't do a long bus ride due to unusual extreme susceptibility to motion sickness, result of inner ear damage from an accident. A short bus trip on a mostly straight road could be OK, but no more than that. (We will investigate taking a bus for a day trip from Toledo to Consuegra, but could decide to rent a car for the day instead).

The reason we added Ronda, besides how cool it looks, is the easy train access from Granada and on to Malaga.

We'll have our car only driving through smaller towns in Jaén Province, so presumably the parking and other issues will be minimal. I've read about the nightmare when tourists try to take rental cars into the old parts of Granada, for example.

The more I read about our road trip through Jaén, the more exciting it gets!

Hope you have a great trip.