Our Spain Adventure -- Cordoba, Seville, Granada and Barcelona! (Part One)
 

This will be my first time writing a trip report -- I've thoroughly enjoyed reading other trip reports on this site and hope you will find mine just as entertaining and hopefully informative.

My idea for a trip to Europe was to surprise my DH for his 70th birthday -- one night, months ago, he was watching an Anthony Bourdaine CNN special about Granada -- and told me he'd love to go there 'someday' -- and that was the moment Spain became THE destination.

My research began back in December 2013 -- we traveled at the end of March 2014. Research for any vacation, for me, always begins and ends with Fodors....with some TripAdvisor and Rick Steves thrown into the mix. I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone on this site for their advice and PATIENCE as I worked through all the details in planning our dream vacation.

Things I fretted about prior to my trip:

How many days to spend at each location -- we spent two nights in Cordoba, 3 nights in Seville, 4 nights in Granada and 4 nights in Barcelona. In retrospect, I would have cut one night from Cordoba and added it to Seville, and cut one night from Granada and added it to Barcelona. Seville and Barcelona were by far our favorite destinations.

What to wear: I obsessively tracked several weather sites for weeks prior to our trip -- and just the week before we departed, weather overall looked like it would be in the mid 60's -- so I planned accordingly, bringing spring-like clothing. Well.....a cold snap hit most of Spain (certainly the cities we visited) and I found myself purchasing a coat to keep me warm. So the answer here is -- weather is unpredictable! Overall the weather wasn't bad, only 4 days of rain out of 14, but it was much chillier than I expected. I suggest if you travel to Spain in the spring -- a light sweater won't cut it -- bring a lightweight coat (or buy one there like I did).

Another tip: I strongly suggest that you take all the clothing you plan on taking with you and place them in a pile -- then, REMOVE half the items! I absolutely over packed, and wound up wearing only half the clothes I brought with me. Unless you are a heavy sweater or the like, you really CAN wear the same shirt more than once. And you'll probably wind up wearing your really comfortable jeans most often. Dressy clothes can be worn multiple times -- no one other than you and your travel companion will know this!

Shoes: I took my super comfortable Clarks shoes (2 pairs) flip flops, strappy sandals and my sneakers. With all the walking we did, I wore my sneakers the most. I know I looked like a tourist wearing sneakers, but guess what? I am a tourist! And we walked for miles and miles (and miles) every day. The sneaks were the only thing that could keep up with all that walking! And....everyone in Spain wears sneakers, I couldn't tell who was a local and who was a tourist based on footwear alone.

Train schedules: we traveled by train between Madrid/Cordoba, Cordoba/Seville and Seville/Granada. It was easy and efficient. Trains leave dead on time so give yourself enough time to get to the station and find your way. That said, the only station we had to ask for track information was Atocha in Madrid -- the others were relatively small and we needed no direction to find our way to the right track.

Also, something I noted -- we arrived on the red eye from Philadelphia in Madrid on a Monday morning. Not sure everyone knows this, but, planes are not allowed to land in Madrid prior to 7am because of some sort of noise ordinance on behalf of some residential housing next to the airport. So we circled around for a while, then we landed. But we couldn't pull up to the gate until 7am. I'm not sure if this restriction was only for our landing strip only or if it is a general ordinance, or maybe this applies only to Monday morning arrivals.

But, whatever the case, our plane was the first to arrive at the gate. So we breezed through Passport Control, etc., and were at Atocha before 9am. Fearing long lines at the airport, I booked our train trip to Cordoba for 11:30am. Because I had purchased the train tickets in advance, they could not be exchanged for an earlier train. So we hung around Atocha for over 2 hours. You can never gauge how much time it'll take to get through passport control and travel to Atocha, but I just wanted to share our experience with you.

Hotel vs. Apartment rental: I was very hesitant booking apartments instead of hotels for this trip as I've never rented an apartment overseas before, didn't want to carry a lot of cash with me, etc., so I went with hotels throughout. My opinion, now, is that if I stay in one city for more than 2 or 3 days, I will opt for an apartment. Staying in a small hotel room for 4 nights was a real drag and I wish I had been able to have a small kitchen to purchase some of that delicious Jamon Iberico and wine for end of day relaxing. I think there are apartment rental websites that take a credit card for the full rental -- will definitely go that route next time!

Pick pockets: I know there is a real concern about pick pocketing throughout Spain, especially in Barcelona. I bought a Baggalini cross-shoulder bag that I wore under my coat or sweater at all times. But....I really did not notice any suspicious activity throughout our 2 week trip. Not even in Barcelona. Maybe it's the energy I project (I'm a Jersey girl, LOL) or whatever, but I was never confronted. I think it is because I walked with PURPOSE, and was very aware of my surroundings at all times. I saw a lot of tourists just walking around almost in a daze.....and maybe those are the ones who are approached? I was 'eye-balled' by one guy in Barcelona, but I just stared right back with an 'I dare you' look....and he walked away. So my advice is walk with purpose, don't look lost (even if you are) and just be aware of time and place and you should be OK.

Next up.....Cordoba!

Judy_Rosa,

Nice, concise beginning with some helpful hints. Looking forward to the remainder of your report.

So excited to read this report!! Great start!

Excited to read more! Lots of helpful tips!

Wonderful start! Many helpful ideas. Looking forward to more, especially for a trip next year.

Paule

can't wait to read moreof your adventures and taking notes.

I'm on board for this as we are hitting all those places next year. Thanks.

((H))

Thank you all so much! I'll try to get through my notes and post my journey as soon as possible!

CORDOBA

We arrived in Cordoba by train after an overnight flight from Philadelphia/Madrid. We really were jet lagged after spending 2+ hours waiting at Atocha train station in Madrid for our ride to Cordoba, but once we checked in to our hotel we felt more energetic (maybe from being able to finally unload our two overstuffed suitcases).

I booked, as a treat, the rather expensive Hospes Palacio Del Bailio. Worth every penny! Actually, I had a one-night credit on Hotels.com (if you use hotels.com and book 10 nights you get a one-night credit) which I used for this hotel, so the cost for two nights was not astronomical. The hotel has a spa, a great restaurant, ancient Roman ruins you can view through the glass floor in the breakfast room, but most importantly, the most comfortable beds we slept in, in all of Spain. The service and kind hospitality we received here was second to none.

The location of the hotel was a bit of a distance from the main tourist area. This meant that we had to walk about 20 minutes to get to the Mezquita and other attractions, but this in no way detracted from the awesomeness of the hotel itself. But if you want to be in the center of activity, this hotel is out of the way -- and you might do better staying closer to the Jewish Quarter (the NH hotels looked impressive and were right in the middle of the action).

I thought, when I booked this hotel, that I would enjoy 'living with the locals' but as it turned out...the residential area literally rolled up the sidewalks at night and we found ourselves mostly alone walking around at night. Truth is....I am a tourist and I felt out of place in the residential area.

First order of business was....FOOD! Couldn't wait to starting eating my way through Spain! So we found our way to our very first Andalusian meal -- at the restaurant Casa El Pisto. I found this restaurant through researching Trip Advisor and was not disappointed.

We ordered WAY TOO MUCH FOOD -- but it was so delicious. We couldn't decide on which jamon Iberico to order, so we went with the Surtido -- which was a platter of different types of jamon and chorizo, along with patatas bravas (sort of like cubed fries with a mildly spicy mayonnaise dipping sauce), and pisto casero, which is a Cordoba specialty (peppers, onions tomatoes with an egg on top). Delicious! And we had the local beer. We couldn't finish the cold meats platter and had to leave it behind. That made me so sad!

We then made our way towards the Mezquita. Although jet lag was starting to creep in again, we only had 2 days in Cordoba and wanted to make the most of our time. Plus, most attractions are closed on Mondays, and the Mezquita was one of the few that was open...so off we went.

After a few missed turns, we found the Mezquita. There are no words to describe this wonder -- and I won't even try. The pictures I've seen online and the photos I took while there do not fully capture how impressive this place was to see and experience. I had rented the audio guide to get as much information as possible, but I soon stopped using it because it was just too wordy and distracting, and it prevented me from just breathing it all in.

By the way, after that I rarely rented the audio guides - I think they are mostly a waste of money. The only exception is the Alhambra in Granada, I highly recommend you rent the audio guide there because the place is just so massive and so impressive the guide is quite helpful.

But, back to Cordoba...

After the Mezquita we wandered around a bit and just on the other side of the Mezquita we found the Roman Bridge. Beautiful view of the river and a museum on the other side. Great picture-taking location.

Just downriver from the Mezquita and the Roman Bridge is the Alcazar. While the Alcazar was nice and the gardens were beautiful, the Alcazar in Seville is much more impressive. However, we did spend an hour or so visiting the gardens as they were quite beautiful. We then truly got lost trying to find our way back to our hotel. By this time we were really tired and our sense of direction was totally off, even with a map. We made our way home in a really roundabout way, but we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Along the way we stopped and had a cafe con leche and some sweet deliciousness that caught our eye -- this was probably the best part of our entire trip, just sitting at an outdoor cafe or taberna, having a bite to eat and watching the world go by.

I highly suggest that you do exactly this, as often as possible. Don't get caught up in trying to see it "all", because you will miss out on the magic that is Spain.

Dinner was an ordeal -- I hadn't researched Cordoba enough to know where to go for dinner, and we were bone-tired by then. So we walked around the general vicinity of the hotel and couldn't find anything we found appealing, so we wound up eating at our hotel -- and it was delicious! It was a bit pricey, but worth it.

We slept like babies that first night in Spain. Our adventure had just begun!

Loving this report. I can't wait to read the next installment!

My first question after reading your early reports would be, why were Barcelona and Seville "by far" your favorites? We are contemplating a similar trip in 2015, and I have found that trying to create the right itinerary for us is still confusing.

And thank you for spending the time to do this!

We loved all the destinations we visited, but Seville for its light and brightness and Barcelona because it had a mix of modern and ancient.

Cordoba, in my opinion, did not warrant a two-night stay as there isn't as much to see and do as in Seville and I would have enjoyed the extra time in Seville more so.

Granada was beautiful and we enjoyed it tremendously, but again, for us, 4 nights was one night too many -- I would have enjoyed the extra time in Barcelona to perhaps take a day trip to see the Salvador Dali museum, but there just wasn't enough time.

But, that is just my opinion and personal preference, I am certain many on this site would disagree with me.

My best advice is research, research, research!

Buy the Rick Steves guides and the Fodor guide to Spain. Go online -- Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet, etc., and try to get as much information as you can while you put your itinerary together.

Read trip reports and ask questions on this forum, I have found everyone on this site to be really helpful and they gave me great advice!

Following along -- thanks for the detail. I agree with you that just soaking in the 'feeling' of a new place is often the best part. Where you remember, it would be nice if you could mention some of the prices you paid.

Hi Judy_Rosa - I' m enjoying your report. We were in Seville 5 days and felt it was not enough but one day in Cordoba was enough for us. Going back to Barcelona in the Fall so looking forward to reading about your time there. When we don't rent an apartment we make sure there is a fridge in the hotel room so we can enjoy a drink and snacks in the evening.

CORDOBA

We woke up the next morning feeling completely refreshed and ready to take on the city.

Breakfast was cafe con leche and a croissant -- we're not big breakfast eaters so we didn't opt for the hotel's full breakfast -- although the food looked good it was rather expensive (a 'break' at EUR18 or so per person) when coffee and a small pastry suited us just fine.

Off we went -- this time we walked in the opposite direction of the Jewish Quarter and found some Roman ruins just a few blocks from our hotel. Good photo op here but really nothing more to see than the columns.

We were on a mission this morning to find a restaurant called Taberna Salinas -- which had come highly rated on Trip Advisor and on this forum as well. We found it and marked the location on our map as we planned on going there for dinner -- no more mishaps on where to eat for us!

Another thing we did, upon our arrival at the hotel, was book a flamenco show for our last night in Cordoba. The front desk made the reservation for us at Tablao Flamenco Cardenal -- I highly recommend that you attend this particular show. I was mesmerized by the dancers and if you like flamenco and the soulful music that goes with it, this place will blow you away. More on that later...

Cordoba is not that big in area, and although it was a 20-minute walk to the Mezquita, our circuitous walk this morning eventually brought us right back to this area.

We wandered around the Jewish Quarter -- and got lost among the twisting winding streets - so much fun! We found the Synagogue, a very small yet beautifully preserved building that was built, I believe in the early 14th century. The Islamic decoration was striking -- and since we were there on a Tuesday, there was no cost of admission.

Across the way was the Casa de Sefarad, a small museum that highlights the life of Sephardic Jews in Cordoba. It cost only EUR4 to get in and I just loved going through each room that represented different eras of Jewish life - each room opened to a central patio. The atmosphere was just so quiet and peaceful, and Alex (the young man who ran the museum) took the time to talk to me about the history of Sephardic Jews in Cordoba and walked through the museum with me. One of the highlights of my stay in Cordoba.

For lunch, my DH had eyed a restaurant in the quarter that had a beautiful patio. The fact that the place was empty at 1PM should have clued us in to eat elsewhere, but the DH was adamant, so we went in.....and ordered the WORST paella I've ever had. Ever. In any country I've ever visited. As other tourists started entering, I really wanted to get up and tell them to RUN! The paella had 2 small shrimp in it, no meat and the rice was so overcooked it was inedible.

Here's the name of the place -- you've been warned!

Bar Restaurante Federacion de Penas. The worst EUR32 meal we had in all of Spain.

After that disastrous experience, I was determined to stick with the list of restaurants I had researched online before our trip. I highly suggest you do the same!

We had not yet gotten the hang of the tapas experience - and my DH had a hard time adjusting to the 'eat a big lunch and a light dinner at 9PM' thing. So in Cordoba we stuck with a normal lunch and dinner schedule. But, by the time we got to Seville, we were eating like true Spaniards.

After lunch we walked along the river, stopped for a cafe con leche and a delicious dessert at a charming outdoor cafe, bought some souvenirs, and eventually made our way to Palacio de Viana. There are two tours you can take -- a self-guided tour through the outside gardens, or the guided tour that takes you through the palace with views of some of the rooms and inner courtyard gardens. We opted for the first. The outer courtyard garden were so beautiful, even in early spring, that I suggest you go with the full tour. The cost of the garden only tour was EUR5, full tour EUR8.

DH took about 500 pictures of the gardens, wish I knew how to insert them into this blog.

Back to the hotel, more coffee in the hotel's gorgeous patio, and siesta! I cannot tell you how delightful this practice is! We woke up refreshed and ready for our night of flamenco!

We made reservations for 8PM at Taberna Salinas and when we arrived there were only 2 or 3 other couples there......Spaniards eat late! But we had flamenco reservations for 10:30 and didn't want to be late.

Dinner at Taberna Salinas was just OK. We had a grilled meat platter and some fish - can't find my notes on this, but I do recall the meal was reasonably priced at under EUR30, including wine. This place got rave reviews on Trip Advisor, but I found it to be just OK.

We walked back towards the Jewish Quarter, and stopped at Cafe La Gloria for coffee and dessert -- delicious! Totally made up for the 'adequate' dinner.

We found Tablao Flamenco Cardenal easily -- right across the street from the Mezquita and waited for the show to start.

It was mesmerizing! The show started with a single guitar player with no lights on except for a red and yellow spotlight centered on him. Then 2 additional male singers came out onstage and an additional guitarist and played some of the most soulful music I've ever heard.

A flamenco couple then came onstage and performed. I'm not that familiar with the ritual of flamenco, but I gathered that there are 3 short dances, each building up in a sort of crescendo, with the last being the most powerful and energetic. The buildup was phenomenal and I was caught up in the emotion of the dancing and singing.

3 more flamenco dancers came out and did their thing, and again it was a few short dances, each one being more energetic than the previous.

After a short intermission, all the dancers came out onstage and each took turns while the others sat at the back of the stage. It was the most amazing artistic performance I've ever seen. It was eloquent yet frenetic and passionate at the same time. Words cannot not fully express what I experienced, but of all the flamenco shows we attended (Cordoba, Seville and Granada) this one was, by far, the best performance I attended.

It was such a great way to end our visit to Cordoba.

Next up....Seville!

Michelline -- I agree that one day in Cordoba is enough...but I do suggest an overnight stay so that you can experience flamenco. It was an unforgettable experience.

I just saw how LONG this trip report is so far....and I've only covered Cordoba!

Should I keep the rest of the destinations we visited short and sweet?

Actually -- what I will do is start a new trip report for each additional city (Seville, Granada, Barcelona) so that anyone who wants to read about any one of them won't need to scroll through the others to find their city of interest.

Judy_Rosa wrote: "Should I keep the rest of the destinations we visited short and sweet?"

No. Please continue with lots of details. I'm going to Spain in June and I've already gotten some info from your trip report that I did not have before.

Really? That's great!

I will start Seville in a new TR, though.....will mark it as "Part Two - Seville".....

Your trip report doesn't seem long at all, I appreciate the details! I could read about Spain all day. :)

Glad you're enjoying it.....look for my next TR on Seville. It should be up within the next few days.

Sounds like flamenco really got under your skin! I got addicted in 2004, and almost all of my trips to Spain since then has been scheduled around particular flamenco performances ;-). Here's the two major Spanish online flamenco magazines with all kinds of info. The greatest artists tour theaters all around the world all the time. Major flamenco festivals every year in Jerez de la Frontera, Madrid, Barcelona, New York, London, Nimes, Amsterdam and Tokyo. And of course the greatest and most prestigious of them all, the Bienal de flamenco in Sevilla every second year: http://www.flamenco-world.com/
http://www.deflamenco.com/en_index.html

I don't think your report is too long. It's just right and I love all the details.

kimhe! great to hear from you!

Yes, I fell in love with flamenco, it is passionate, soulful and I could not get enough of it!

I didn't get a chance to see it in Barcelona -- not enough time.

Thank you for your kind words Micheline!

Thanks for the trip report. I am looking forward to the Barcelona part since we will be there in two weeks!! I can't wait. :D

That's great - you will love Barcelona.

I'll try to finish this week.

Loving this, and definitely not too much detail!

I also prefer to keep the trip report together, rather than as separate TRs. Much easier to follow the flow that way. I don't mind scrolling down, but I don't like searching for separate reports.

Very nice report. It is not too long. you are very concise in your suggestions and how you re-tell your experience. it sounds so far like you had a wonderful trip.. and what a nice gift for your husband's 70th!

I'm thoroughly enjoying your trip report, Judy, thank you.

I agree about discarding the audios & cameras to just breathe in & absorb a place. I was fascinated by the Mesquite & Cordoba's other charms too.

But it was Granada that won my heart. I'd happily spend a couple of weeks there again tomorrow if I could.

"It was the most amazing artistic performance I've ever seen. It was eloquent yet frenetic and passionate at the same time. Words cannot not fully express what I experienced ..."

Thanks for this lovely description. You make me want to go there tomorrow!

Keep your report coming Judy Rosa. I'm thoroughly enjoying it as we are off to Europe in about 10 days time, part of which will be Granada / Seville / Cordoba / Madrid.

From first glance, it would appear that your travelling style and interests are similar to ours, so I am find it enthralling and with some very useful tips to boot.

Due to popular demand, I will continue my TR within this thread, LOL.

SEVILLE

Ah....Seville. Land of churches and orange trees. I loved Seville the moment we arrived. The fragrance of orange blossoms was everywhere, it smelled Heaven. Unlike Cordoba with its white-washed houses (and equally beautiful), Seville was a splash of color everywhere I looked.

We arrived just before noon, after a pleasant and uneventful train ride from Cordoba. Our taxi ride cost about 8 or 9 euros (same cost as our taxi ride in Cordoba to/from the train station) and the driver had no problem finding our hotel, although he did leave us at the corner street because the hotel's street was too narrow for a car to navigate.

Speaking of train rides, I forgot to mention that we purchased all our train tickets directly from the Renfe website weeks before our trip. I believe Renfe posts their discounted fares 2 or 3 months ahead of time -- I purchased ours about 3 weeks before we departed for Spain and although I was still able to purchase tickets at a discount, I didn't get the cheapest fares because those tickets had already sold out. The Renfe website is a PITA, it took me 3 days to finally purchase all my tickets. My advice is be patient when you go to their site, it is not user-friendly and 8 times out of 10 an error message returns stating your CC didn't authorize the transaction. Just keep trying and you'll get your tickets.

We stayed at the Hotel Rey Alfonso II, right in the middle of Barrio Santa Cruz, up the street from the Cathedral. The location could not be more perfect, it was reasonably priced (USD89/night) and we had a room facing a charming little square that served as the outdoor space for 3 restaurants.

Our room was large by European standards and had 2 french style small balconies. It was perfect!

The only downside is that when we arrived it was warm and sunny (which was actually fantastic!), but the air conditioning was not on and our room was stifling as warm air was coming out of the vents -- opening the balcony doors fixed the problem -- but the noise level at night from the partying in the square forced us to close the balcony doors. It was cooler at night (and we had a few days of torrential rain) so turned out OK. But, if you are a light sleeper and noise bothers you, I recommend you stay in a room that does not face the street -- whichever hotel you stay in.

Also, and I believe this is true for most hotels in Seville (maybe other cities too)....air conditioning is controlled at the main desk and at this time of year (early Spring) the air conditioning is OFF and cannot be turned on. This is what I was told, even though I wasn't buying what they were selling me on this point.

Our room wasn't ready so dropped we off our now over-bulging bags (of course we bought stuff in Cordoba) with the front desk, grabbed the camera and the Rick Steves guidebook and made our way over to the Cathedral.

Maybe it was from spending all those summers as a kid in Portugal (my parents are Portuguese) wandering the cobblestone maze-like streets in Lisbon, but I immediately found my sense of direction amongst all the little winding streets -- my poor DH was consistently lost with no idea of where we were and where we were heading. I loved it! LOL

The Hotel Alcantara was on the same street as our hotel, which is also the location of La Casa del Flamenco Auditorio Alcantara, so we stopped in and purchased our flamenco show tickets for later in the week.

I had my handy list of restaurants with me (researched before our trip) and although I was unfamiliar with their exact location, I put my list together by barrio (Santa Cruz, Arenal, etc.) which made it easier to find eateries I was interested in.

La Azotea Santa Cruz was a tapas restaurant at the top of my list and as it turned out it was just a few blocks away so we went in for lunch. We were ready to 'do tapas' and we were not disappointed with this place. It was SO GOOD in fact that we returned for lunch a few days later.

Here are some of the standouts we tried:
Sangria (drink it!)
Pork Cheeks (eat it! It was delicious -- sort of like a cross between osso bucco and Sunday pot roast)
Blood pudding (eat this! OK, it does sound kinda gross, but it really was delicious. It was deconstructed blood sausage with onion and other spices. It melted in your mouth and was so good I ordered it again the second time we went there.)
Jamon Iberico (OK -- just want to say that we ordered Jamon Iberico EVERYWHERE we ate -- it was that good!)
Chocolate souffle -- no explanation required.

We ordered 'tapas' size of everything and it was the perfect size to share. (Did I mentioned I gained 10 pounds within the first 17 hours of arrival in Spain? Thankfully, we walked so much I was at a net zero gain when we got home!)

La Azotea was not only delicious but also reasonably priced. I think we paid under EUR35 each time and this included sangria and dessert.

With our tummies full, it was time to explore Barrio Santa Cruz!

Really enjoying your report. Saw flamenco dancers when I was a child and
would love to see them in Spain. :)

<It was the most amazing artistic performance I've ever seen. It was eloquent yet frenetic and passionate at the same time. Words cannot not fully express what I experienced ...>

The first cut in flamenco can be very deep, and you obviously experienced the mysterious "duende" that genuine flamenco is all about. The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca wrote that the duende in flamenco is a "power which everyone senses and no philosopher explains". It "brings to old planes unknown feelings of freshness, with the quality of something newly created, like a miracle, and it produces an almost religious enthusiasm".http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...tions_Bibelot_

The brilliant US flamenco critic Brook Zern says that the duende "dilates the mind's eye, so that the intensity becomes almost unendurable... There is a quality of first-timeness, of reality so heightened and exaggerated that it becomes unreal". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duende_(art)

A bit of flamenco promo and three of my deepest cuts:
- Sara Baras danced this martinete in Oslo a few weeks after the 11M Madrid train bombings in 2004:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUs3WvO2HWs
- José Mercé and late Moraito Chico in Nerja in October 2004. Something very like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1eMW9Ia_xA
- Rocío Molina in Antequera in September 2007 is the deepest. Here in Gran Teatro de Córdoba, an unforgettable night in July 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfSclwEVzGk

And now, back to reality ;-)

I am really enjoying your trip report. I love the details.

Sounds like a wonderful visit to Seville! I'm saving this for my trip next year--wonderful details!

Kimhe, I love the youtube selections you provided, and am especially taken with the video of Rocio Molina. Beautiful and so soulful & deep. Thank you for these.

Who wants reality?!