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Trip Report - Madrid, Seville, Granada, Barcelona

Trip Report - Madrid, Seville, Granada, Barcelona

Old May 6th, 2004, 12:44 PM
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Trip Report - Madrid, Seville, Granada, Barcelona

We just came back from a 10 day trip to Spain which included 3 nights in Madrid, 2 nights in Seville, 1 night in Granada and 3 nights in Barcelona. We did a side trip to Toledo while staying in Madrid, then took AVE train from Madrid to Seville (2.5 hours), from Seville we took a regional train to Granada (3.5 hours) and, finally, we flied from Granada to Barcelona (1 hour). Transportation in Spain is great, if you reserved the tickets or know what you need to do to get them, moving from city to city is no challenge at all ? we were actually resting on the trains and felt happy we didn?t rent a car. On the other hand, if we tried to fit another city (Cordoba, for example) it would be too much.

About us: I traveled to Spain with my fiancé. We are 29-30 years old. This was my third trip to Europe, first one for him. We grew up in Russia and have been living in New York for over 10 years now. I found a lot of great advise on this site and hope that this report will help or inspire someone too. I will post this report in batches.

MADRID: 3 nights

FLIGHT/AIRPORT:
We flew a non-stop flight on Delta from New York to Madrid ($680 per person, booked at www.FlightCenter.com. We arrived at 9am in the morning at Barajas airport and I picked up AVE train tickets to Seville reserved in advance on www.Renfe.com. The Renfe window is located on the street level all the way to the right past the café. Since I didn't have time to book train tickets to Granada in New York, I purchased them at the same window. There was no line and when we were running late for the AVE train three days later, we were glad we had tickets in our hands. Otherwise, we would definitely miss it.

TAXI:
We took a taxi to Tryp Reina Victoria hotel and paid 19E. A 2E tip made our driver very happy -- he jumped to open a door for me and pull out our bags.

HOTEL:
**** Tryp Reina Victoria (84E per night plus tax). Located on Plaza de Santa Anna, 3 minutes away from Plaza Mayor. We loved it from the moment we pulled over at Plaza de Santa Anna, a square that's full of life 24/7. There are dozens of tapas bars on and around the square, so we ended each evening right in front of our hotel sipping Rioja and trying new tapas. We were warned that it can get noisy at night, so I emailed the hotel from New York and asked for a room on the upper floor facing the backyard. I didn't get a response but when we arrived well before the official check-in time, we were shown to a very nice room on the 6th floor overlooking the backyard. This was our favorite hotel (best value too) in Spain and we stayed at three others during our trip. I've got this discounted internet price directly from hotel's website (actually it's chain) at http://www.solmelia.com/sol/home/jsp/CHomeTryp.jsp

Bull-fight themed elegant lobby, comfortable rooms, good service, superior location - all this made our stay in Madrid truly enjoyable. We would stay there again in a heart bit.

SIGHTSEEING HIGHLIGHTS:
We started our first day in Madrid by sipping coffee on Plaza Mayor. It was still early, there were few tourists and we just sat there for a good hour, enjoying the view. Then, we took a double-deck MadridVision bus. We tried two of three available routes - Monumental and Historico but the first one was more than enough, I wish we knew that. Unlike in Barcelona, all three routes in Madrid intersect at many points, so you pass many the same streets and sights. It would not be a problem if we didn't get stuck in a traffic jam in the northern part of the city and got burned really badly because it was hot and there were no escape from the bus. We left the bus with red noses and burned hands

We enjoyed wondering through Palacio Real (The Royal Palace) a lot and the Royal Armoury where all kinds of fancy weapons and suits of armor are on display. I had to pull my fiancé out of there as the palace was getting closed. Take the audio guide - very helpful. I wish we spent more time on pretty Plaza del Oriente instead of riding Madrid Vision bus and inhaling gasoline in a traffic jam.

We also spent a lot of time at Prado Museum which is certainly worth a visit. I am a big fan of Goya, so I sought out every painting of his and it totally made my day.

What we didn't like? El Rastro flea market held on Sundays from 9 to 2pm. I expected to see people selling antique and fancy items but it was just that -- a flea market: noisy, loud, crowded, dirty, with suspicious faces lurking in the crowd. We left soon.

DINING/DRINKING
We had so much wine on our trip that I can't understand now how I did that every day and then got up in the morning to continue with sightseeing. At first, equipped with just few basic phrases in Spanish we struggled with ordering tapas and wine but later we figured out that "dos vinos tintos" (two red wines) get you started just fine. We quickly overcame our embarrassment and started choosing tapas by pointing to what other people were eating or dragging the waiter all way to the counter to point to tapas we liked.

Best dining experience? Restaurante Botin on Calle Cuchilleros for which we made a reservation a few days before from New York. We were seated downstairs in the "bodega" or old wine cellars. I ordered Menu del Dia (pre-fixed menu) and had roast suckling pig -their specialty - with roast potatoes. My fiancé ordered lamb. Both dishes were superb. We also had gazpacho and garlic soup that we also liked. Topped with a bottle of great Rioja and a wonderful dessert, the bill came to only 55E, we could not believe it. Later, at the hotel we looked at the bill again and realized that the waiter forgot to charge us for the bottle of wine we ordered, but even if it were included, it would still be a great value for such a great dining experience.

Among tapas bars, we liked Cerveceria Santa Ana right on Santa Anna Square and El Tempranillo on Cava Baja #38 but we stopped at so many more bars, some recommended by Maribel and some that we just came across in our wonderings through Madrid at night.

We also noticed a fun place at the corner where Tryp Reina Victoria hotel stands - there was always a line to enter, so on our last night in Madrid we went there as well. We were brought an oversized glass with steam coming out of it (called Volcano for two) and two huge straws. All this was served with small plates of olives, roasted peanuts and tiny tapas. The Hawaiian theme of the place is probably exotic for Madrid, which is why it must be so popular with a young crowd. We thought it was a fun place too.

To be continued.
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Old May 6th, 2004, 01:03 PM
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Vlada,
I'm enjoying your trip report. We just got back from Spain, too, and I'm feeling nostalgic for it.

We also spent a lot of time around the Plaza Santa Ana. It was one of our favorite spots.
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Old May 7th, 2004, 01:07 AM
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cant wait for the rest!!!
I stayed at this hotel 2 years ago and love it.

Now I am going to go back and include Barcelona too.

Last time I went to south of spain for beaches. But this time I'm looking for nice clean beach around Barcelona. I heard even the beaches in Sitges were not great.

I will be driving to Madrid, but may do the train if it's cheaper.

Cant wait for rest of report.

Andrew
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Old May 7th, 2004, 03:53 AM
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I am reliving my trip from 3 months ago through you - can't wait for more!

Glad you guys had a good time.

Karen
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Old May 7th, 2004, 12:15 PM
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Thank you, Karen. I was reading your report with great interest too. To continue with my report:

TOLEDO -- side trip from Madrid.

Following Maribel's advice, we took "Continental Galiano" bus from Estación del Sur bus station. We decided to take a taxi from hotel to the station (5E) and take subway on the way back. We caught the bus that was leaving at 10 am but it turned to be as local as it gets -- it stopped at every corner. Before we reached Zacadover square from where most visitors begin their tour of the town, it was noon. To reach the square we took the local bus #5 from the bus station.

I bought a good map at a kiosk on the square, the kind that had all important buildings drawn on it, so we marked the places we wanted to visit and planned our route more or less while sipping coffee and finishing some pastries.

We started our tour by passing through the Arc de la Sangre, past the beautiful portal to Museo de Santa Cruz, past the still closed Alcazar, and through the narrow streets where we were glad to be lost for a while, finally emerging on a side street with entrance to the Cathedral (the entrance is from a side street, not from the square where everyone takes pictures).

The altarpiece and the choir were absolutely striking. This Cathedral is richly decorated inside and makes you marvel at the complexity of the design of each detail. We took the audio guide which was once again a helpful way to learn some key facts about the cathedral.

If it was dark and gloomy inside, the square in front of the Cathedral was lit with sun and clear of tourists for one peaceful moment. We spent some time there sitting on a bench, looking at the cathedral, taking pictures, smoking a cigarette, turning the map upside down trying to figure out where to go next.

We had lunch at La Tarasca (serves Castilian food) near Cathedral. This place was recommended by many on this board, so we actually looked for it. Our best choice there was "cordoniz a la toledana", roasted quail with savory brown sauce. Delicious!

We passed by many important sites highlighted on the map but seeing The Burial of the Count of Orgaz by El Greco in Iglesia de Santo Tome and walking inside the inner yard of the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes where orange trees are framed by fancy Mudejar and Gothic arches were definitely the most memorable for me. One of the most amazing things that happen when you travel is when you enter some place or pass some building and suddenly you recognize it as something you read about long ago or studied in college. You never thought of it as being "real" and suddenly you stand in front of it and you know it?s always been there. That's how I felt when we entered Iglesia de Santo Tome and I saw The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (I didn't know it was there) - the most famous painting of El Greco - displayed in a special room with bare walls, all by itself, claiming its own space and importance. We saw a lot of El Greco in Prado Museum and in Casa y Museo del Greco but seeing this painting in a church isolated from everything else had a big effect on me.

We left the city around 6pm. The bus ride back was very fast with almost no stops - we must have caught an express without knowing it. We took a subway from the bus station in Madrid and found it easy to use as well as punctual. They have the clock on each platform that shows remaining minutes till the next train. It made us feel nostalgic about Moscow metro that is equally efficient and clean. Can?t say that about New York subway.

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Old May 7th, 2004, 01:14 PM
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I'm really enjoying your trip report! Can't wait for the Barcelona installment. We leave for Spain on Sunday, I'm so excited I can't sit still!
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Old May 8th, 2004, 07:46 AM
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Anika - If you catch this, you may have time before you leave to review the trip report I am currently writing. I have posted all of the Barcelona bits and am writing on the Seville portions now. Perhaps you will see my posting too late, but, then again it may be helpful.

Warning... our report is very long.... might make for good reading on the plane. http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...e=SharonNRayMc

To Vlada - Thank you so much for taking the time to post your experiences! I certainly agree about the wine. Excellent! Seems like we shared a bottle with most of our meals. Can't wait to go back to Spain, so it's great living vicariously through someone else.
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Old May 9th, 2004, 05:58 AM
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SharonNRayMc- Thanks! I remember reading your trip report before. I'd been cutting and pasting things of interest from people's trip reports for a while, but I did this at the office and unfortunately I forgot to copy the file before I left work Friday! We leave for the airport in a few hours, I couldn't sleep so I got up early this morning. Barcelona is at the end of our trip so perhaps I'll catch the rest of Vlada's trip report before we get there!
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Old May 10th, 2004, 08:01 AM
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Anika,

Unfortunately I wasn't able to post the rest of my report over the weekend, so you probably already left for Spain. I am sure you will have great time there ad soon we will be reading your own report!

A tip for trip planning: I found so much information in Maribel's files and in other posts that I felt I had to narrow it down somehow to what we were most interested in, so I created 5 Word docs named after each city on our itinerary and started copying and pasting the most relative info from different sources into my own files under different headings like Dining, Transportation, Sighseeing etc. Then I bought a soft binder that is easy to keep in a bag, inserted dividers with pockets for each city, printed out all our hotel and train/plain reservations, inserted them in the pockets and then inserted all other pages behind each city divider. As I printed out some important schedules from sites like Renfe or Alhambra I inserted them in a corresponding section of the binder too. I even took a step further and typed up a very simple (approximate) iterianry for each day for each big city (Madrid, Seville, Barcelona), so we knew in advance when we are going to visit Palacio Real and when we'll go to Prado. Having all information sorted by city and gathered in one binder saved us so much time in Spain. We would pull the pages we needed for the day and leave the whole binder at the hotel, then put them back and so on. It sounds like this is a little too much (and maybe it is) but due to this pre-planning we didn't have to spend time in the hotel each morning figuring out what to do and what is going to be open.
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Old May 12th, 2004, 02:01 PM
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SEVILLE:

On Monday morning, after staying 3 nights in Madrid, we took a taxi to Atocha station arriving literally 3 minutes before our 9 o?clock train left, so we didn?t have time to enjoy the beautiful in-door garden at Atocha train station. We were glad we picked up our AVE tickets at Barajas airport and had them ready. The train was packed ? that night the Feria de Sevilla , a week-long celebration with flamenco and horse-riding, was starting at midnight, so many people were heading our way. The taxi ride to Barrio Santa Cruz where we were staying was 7E. As we reached Calle Ximenez de Enciso where our hotel was located, the driver stopped the car and made a helpless move. It was like, ?I brought you to the maze, now you are on your own.? The car could not go any further because the cobbled streets were too narrow. We walked on dragging our suitcase and breaking the silence of the narrow streets.

We stayed at a 2-star Alcantara at 120E per night which was a LOT of money for very modest accommodations. Our room was basically a bed with some space around it plus the bathroom. The regular price - 72E per night - was raised to 120E for the week of the Feria and we could not find anything better as the entire Seville was completely booked for that week. But there were many advantages to our modest hotel. Right in the heart of Barrio de Santa Cruz, we were 3 minutes away from the Cathedral, Giralda tower and Alcazar and within walking distance from other great sites and streets. If you are looking for a budget choice Alcantara can be it. Despite the small size of the room, the bathroom is still spacious and comfortable, the rooms are kept clean and the staff is very helpful.

Since we checked-in at our hotel at noon, we limited the sightseeing on day 1 to wandering through Santa Cruz and visiting the Cathedral and Giralda tower. The Cathedral in Seville is enormous. I found it more impressive from outside than from inside. Giralda tower with its 34 ramps was a great exercise and a great way to get a panoramic view of the city.


For two evenings in Seville we planned to go to a bullfight and see Flamenco show the next evening. The bullfight on the day of our arrival in Seville was an important one. It marked the beginning of the bull-fight season and the beginning of the Feria. We made no reservations. I went to several recommended sites but could not figure out how to reserve tickets from New York, so our only option two hours before the fight was to buy tickets directly from the ticket office ? there are two located on the street that leads to the bull-ring from the Cathedral. Not surprisingly, the only tickets left were those in Sol (in the sun). Normally, they should cost around 20E but we paid 34E. The sun was still very strong at 6:30pm but we were lucky because our seats in Sol where right next to Sombra (shade) sector, so as the sun started to go down we were the first to go into shade. The section of the bullring to the left from us was in the sun the whole time and people who hardly see what?s going on - I could tell them from how they were hiding from sun with magazines or just their palms. We were a few minutes late, so we had to wait until the first fight was over to get to our seats which was a challenge in itself because the stone narrow benches leave no space for passing through once people are seated. We rented cushions at the entrance.

Bull-fight is a controversial topic, so I will just say this: when we where there, it felt normal because we were surrounded by people to whom it made sense and who appreciated corrida the way it is. We saw men in expensive suits smoking cigars, nicely dressed women fanning themselves in the afternoon heat, young men sitting in groups, a father who a very young boy and for all of them corrida was something they liked to watch. Watching THEM watching corrida was the most interesting part ? one minute they?d burst into loud Ole! (Bravo) and the next moment the ring would go completely silent because torero was making a dangerous pass with the bull. And I thought that Sevillians enjoying corrida, Sevillians dancing flamenco, Sevillians who have discovered and explored the new world and built this wonderful city over centuries, are all the same people whose spirit that we love so much is shaped by cultural traditions like this one, and so that?s how we took it ? as a centuries-old tradition for them, and as a new cultural experience for ourselves and we didn?t regret we went.

Later after the bullfight we headed to Triana district where the opening of the Feria was taking place. The grand opening of "La Feria de Abril" is "El Alumbrado" (the lighting) which begins every year with the official lighting of the lanterns where half a million little lights are turned on at once, especially at the main gate. As we approached the gate the lights went up and it was beautiful but it was the people who made all of this look and feel very special.

The huge area was filled with ?casetas? ? pretty tents covered with a green or red pin-striped canvas, and decorated with little triangle-shaped flags and striped curtains at the entrance. The inside of the tents is divided into sections ? one for dining and one for dancing with the bar in the back. We didn?t know what to expect but what we saw was amazing: families and friends, many of whom look very wealthy from appearance have their own casetas where they get together, socialize, eat, drink and dance. The entrance is by invitation only, so we soon realized this was a very private celebration and although we could enjoy watching people dancing and having good time we couldn?t really take part in it. There were some casetas that were open to general public but it was different.. Unless you have the invitation or know someone in the caseta you won?t be able to enter.
Even though we couldn?t sit down or have a drink we spent 3 hours just walking around watching beautifully dressed men and women dancing impromptu Flamenco, laughing, kissing, enjoying their holiday.

The highlight of the next day in Seville was drinking Sangria at the bar of Alfonso XIII Hotel, the visit to Alcazar and Casa de Pilatos. Casa de Pilatos is stunning. There were very few people there as this place is kind of hard to find. We were given a private tour of the second floor (you have to pay extra) and I felt exactly like Maribel described it ? I could almost imagine living in this house myself. I thought that the intimacy of this beautiful villa puts you more in touch with Seville?s true grandeur than overcrowded Cathedral and Alcazar but of course skipping any of these places would be a crime.

The restaurant we enjoyed most of all was Modesto located near the entrance to Murillo Gardens, bordering Barrio Santa Cruz. The small clams steamed in garlic and white wine ("coquinas") and fried fish ((?pescaito frito?) were unbelievable.

In the evening of our second day in Seville, we went to see flamenco at Los Gallos in Barrio Santa Cruz, minutes away from our hotel. We went to a later show that started at 11:30pm and I absolutely loved it. This was the first time I ever saw flamenco performed live and it touched me deeply: each woman that came to the stage and performed a special kind of flamenco that she has mastered best brought so my personal expression into it that I thought it was shockingly intimate - I was speechless after the first few performances, and I saw more faces like mine in the small audience . I don?t think it matters which flamenco show you?ll go to ? if you are not a connoisseur you will love it anyway.

We didn?t risk to go back to Triana for another night of the Feria because we knew that although it was a fun place to be we would be hungry and would feel like ?aliens? again. So we stayed in Barrio Santa Cruz, found a bar that was still open (all others closed for the Feria as 80% of the town must have been dancing on the other side of the river). We met an American guy from California, a reporter who was currently living in Seville, studying Spanish and writing about Spain. We drank a lot of wine while exchanging our impressions on everything. I think we left the bar at 3 in the morning.

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