10YearAnniversary

Hi Everyone,

I had four parts to my report (sorry it is so long, and at times tedious) and had posted a different message for each part. One wise Fodorite (Kaudrey) suggested that I post them all together as one report in order to keep them together. So, here goes and if you find it way too long you have Karen to blame

Well as promised, since I was provided with so much help from this Forum in planning my trip I am writing a quick report in the hopes that is might be helpful to others. Not sure how long it will end up being so it might have to be broken up in stages.

Madrid:
Flew into Madrid on a Friday at about 2:30pm. First thing to do was to purchase AVE tickets for Madrid to Seville trip from RENFE ticket office at the airport (no line-ups). Found out that you get a 25% discount if you are taking the AVE the same day or next day, but since we were traveling on the AVE in 3 days we did not qualify for the 25% discount. Did save a few Euros, however, by taking the 13:00 train.

From the airport we walked to the Metro which was about a 10 minute walk. This was made easier by being able to take the carts (free) nearly the whole way to the metro which made hauling our packs easier. The metro ride from the airport to our hotel took about 35 mins and was pretty easy. I know this is not a choice for most, but it not only saved us some dollars so we could buy more sangria, but it also gave us a chance to travel as a local. You can buy a 10 ride Metro pass for 5.35 Euros. Got to our Metro stop and checked into our hotel, the Hotel Preciados which I cannot say enough good things about. Very modern and very nice and very well located. The staff was most helpful and the room really impressed us (room 506). In order to combat jet lag, we went for a run around (twice) the Retiro Park which was quite underwhelming after having been at English Gardens in Munich two months ago. Spent the night walking from Plaza Mayor to Plaza del Oriente and were simply excited to be back in Europe.

The next day, and our only full day in Madrid, we started off with the 3 Euro walking tour from the Tourist office in Plaza Mayor. Our group was about 15 and the guide gave us an excellent accounting of the history of Madrid over about 90 minutes. I recommend it. We then decided that we best head to the Prado as if we were to Madrid and did not visit it we would not forgive ourselves. Made our first mistake of the trip by not purchasing the English language headsets that guide you through the museum's highlight pieces (about 82 in total I think). Instead, we bought from the museum library a book on the museum for 10 Euros (which we lost) and started muddling our way through the paintings by reading about them from the book. It was awkward and was becoming too much work. So, we went for a quick pasta dish from the cafeteria downstairs (strictly average) and then decided to "splurge" on the headsets (3 Euros each) and tour the museum in that way. This was way better and we wished we had done this sooner. I cannot recommend the headsets strongly enough, especially if you are like me and know very little about art but appreciate knowing the significance and history of the painting you are looking at.

From the Prado (about 4 hours) we headed back to our hotel for a siesta. When in Rome you know. Headed out for dinner and went through the Plaza Mayor towards the Cava Baja area and had a great tapas meal at Los Lucios. We started with a very good salad followed by the best calamari we had on the entire trip as it was grilled rather than deep fried. After watching plate after plate of scrambled eggs and french fries go past us we caved in and ordered the house specialty and were not disappointed. Very good. From there went to the Botin well past midnight mostly to be able to say we had been there. We were really quite full already and simply wanted to sit down and have a dessert and glass of wine in the famous restaurant. I guess this is not done and although they sat us after we explained what we wished to do, the manager kindly and politely kicked us out as we were not there for a full meal. All part of the memories of a great trip. We decided to end our night at the Cafe del Oriente where the food is average, the sangria is quite good and the setting is spectacular!

Must comment (or my wife would kill me) that we actually ended both nights in Madrid at the Chocolateria near the Plaza Mayor. This is quite a local place (the way we tended to like it) and they serve you fresh churros with a coffee cup of melted chocolate for dipping. And I mean melted "to die for" pure chocolate. This was definitely one of the many highlights of our entire trip and I would respectfully scold anyone who goes to Madrid and does not visit the Chocolateria.

We awoke the next morning to travel to Toledo after a very satisfying time in Madrid. Although Madrid seems to get mixed reviews we really enjoyed it and have very fond memories of our time there. We would have liked to have had more time in Madrid, but that can pretty much be said for each place we visited.

10YearAnniversary

Part 2:

Carrying on, please allow me to first give thanks where it is certainly due. Although I gained much insight and help from many within this Forum, there is one particularly special person who I owe a great deal of thanks to, as do many of us. We used her files for Madrid and Seville and followed her advice as often as we could and she was on the mark most every time. She single-handedly made our trip that much more special through her knowledge, warmth and generosity. Maribel, thank you so very much for how much you helped us. I was very sorry to hear about your Mother and can only offer to you my deepest condolences. This Forum is rich with individuals who provide advice and help to many others, but there is a real void in expertise and spirit with your absence. I hope you will find peace and comfort in the weeks ahead.

We took the Metro to the bus station for Continental bus lines. We chose the bus rather than the train as I had read that the rail line is under construction and is not the best way to get to Toledo from Madrid at this time. I had looked at the scheduled times beforehand and noticed that there appeared to be one Express trip from Madrid to Toledo during the day at 11:00am so that is the one we went for. This turned out to be a very good decision as we got to Toledo in about 45 mins, just before noon. The bus was very comfortable and the ride was quite nice. From everything I had read on this Forum it seemed to be the consensus that the best way to experience Toledo was to stay the night and explore the city once the throngs of day-trippers have left. This was sound advice for two reasons: Toledo does take on a mystical charm once the sun goes down and when you are staying the night you do not feel at all rushed during the day as you really have no schedule that you are required to adhere to.

We got off the bus and headed to our hotel, the Hostal del Cardenal which was fantastic. We loved all the places we stayed at during our trip which was lucky for us, well, it was part luck and largely thanks to lots of reading and researching and spending time on this Forum. The Hostal del Cardenal was a wonderful retreat with amazing gardens, fun history and our room (210) was fantastic with a large balcony overlooking the incredible gardens. After checking in we were off to discover Toledo. We ambled about, had a very good tapas lunch at a place that seemed to be frequented by locals and was a bit off the "main drag" but very busy. This became our proven formula when choosing places to eat, that is to look for places that were a bit off the main drag, seemed to be populated with locals (as much as you can tell such a thing), and was very, very busy. Generally this formula worked very well for us and this time in Toledo was one of them. We also often resorted to simply looking to see what others were ordering and then would call our waiter over to our table and would point to the order and ask for "Uno". We also had a Spanish / English pocket book that was an invaluable tool for us, especially while dining.

From lunch we visited the impressive, yet being renovated, Cathedral. Still, I am always awed and impressed any time I set foot inside one of the amazing Cathedrals in Europe - to imagine the work that went into each one is humbling. Following the tour of the Cathedral we had fun simply wandering around the historic walled city and imagining what it must have been like those very many years ago. Before heading out for the night I went for an amazing 8 km run on the outside of the walled city, especially enjoying getting around to the "backside" of Toledo to see it as it was captured in the famous El Greco painting. This was my favorite run during the whole trip as the views that I was afforded were enough to almost make me stop in my tracks - except that once I stop I have a hard time starting again . As was suggested by Maribel, before going to dinner at the Hostal del Cardenal, we took a taxi to the Parador and watched the sunset from their outdoor patio looking out at the walled city of Toledo. Truly a highlight and a great way to share a couple of sangrias. By the way, we decided early in our trip that 3 servings of sangria qualified as our daily requirement of fruit recommended by the Canada Food Guide. Once the sun had set we headed back to Toledo to have dinner at the Hostal del Cardenal. The dinner was fine, but I think we both realized that we are more tapas eaters than we are fine diners. There seems to be more fun and personality at the tapa bars. After dinner we wandered around Toledo and enjoyed the magic and mystery of Toledo by dark and felt that the city was ours to discover. Done exploring, we retired to the peaceful sanctuary of the Hostal del Cardenal, which was a fantastic place to return to.

Woke up the next morning to go for the same run since the scenery was so spectacular. I know that many would prefer to not exercise while on vacation, but I find it great on two levels: first off, it makes me feel better about eating all the food and drinking all the drink during the rest of the day, and you see so much more of the places you are visiting during a run. Following the run we grabbed breakfast at a local grocery store (which we prefer to do over doing breakfast at a restaurant) and then headed to the bus station to get back to Madrid in order to get to Seville. The ticket guy told us it would take one hour, however we stopped at every little village along the way and our one hour trip took nearly two. This would not have been a big deal normally, except that we were tight on time to make our AVE to Seville and if not for excellent connections from the metro stop at the bus station to the metro stop at the train station we would have missed our train. As it was, we only got there with about 10 minutes to spare and were very glad we had purchased our tickets ahead of time. The AVE to Seville is very nice and sitting in the "Tourist" section is just fine and 2 1/2 hours later we arrived to Seville! Aah, Seville.

10YearAnniversary

Part 3 (are you getting tired yet):

Seville:

Aah Seville! Upon arriving to Seville the first and most difficult challenge of the time spent there is finding the hotel. Even though you might have the street address, as we did, the cab driver had no idea where our particular street was (we understood why later on) so it was good we knew of some key areas nearby, such as the plaza our hotel was nearest to. Upon getting dropped off at this nearest plaza, we now had to set about finding the hotel on our own which was no small feat! We walked around for a few minutes and absolutely dumb lucked into finding our place, the Casa del Maestro. We were originally going to stay at the Hotel Amadeus but upon reading some things about the history and charm of the Casa del Maestro I chose to have us stay there instead. I can't say with certainty that this was a great decision as I think the Amadeus is very, very good, but I also can say it was not a bad decision as the Casa del Maestro was very charming, very romantic and we received amazing service as well as a first rate breakfast each morning on the roof top terrace. And the Escada products in the bathroom were a nice touch as was the comfy living room on the main floor with CD player and available computer for guests to check on emails and playoff hockey scores.

Once settled in to our room (the very romantic Almoradi room) we wandered around Seville to try to orient ourselves and to get some key reference points. Back to the hotel for a little siesta (it was about 33C / 92F while we were there) and then we got ready to go out for our first night in Seville. Our first night was a bit of a disaster as we wandered around lost for a good two hours. We do not normally get lost when we travel, but we did not have good reference points yet and you can get pretty turned around in Seville. We finally got our bearings (and our exercise) and found a tapas bar to sit down to for something to eat. I cannot recall the name which is fine as it was not spectacular although it did satisfy our general formula of locals, off the main drag and very busy. But, we ordered the variety fish platter which was pretty much all deep fried (what is the cholesterol level in Spain) and quite average. The night ended on a good note however as we found an amazing ice cream place (incredibly busy even at 12:30am) and then retired to the rooftop terrace to share a glass of wine, some cheese, and some jamon from a black hoofed pig all obtained earlier in the day from a local deli type place.

Woke up and went for a run along the river which was not quite as spectacular as running in Toledo, but still very nice. Started off our day with an amazing breakfast on the roof overlooking the Giralda and then headed to the Plaza Nuevo for a walking tour with the incredible and charming Concepcion. She is a native Sevillian and is a delight to spend time with. She knows her history very well and delivers it in an entertaining and personable way. Following the two hour walking tour with her we not only understood the history of Seville better, but we also had a great recommendation for lunch and had a much better understanding of our way around Seville. I highly recommend everyone take this tour with Concepcion and do it sooner in your visit to Seville rather than later. We had fresh paella for lunch at the place that was recommended which is on an intersecting street between the two main shopping streets of Tetuana and Sierpes. Most paella you find is frozen but at this place it is cooked fresh each day in a big cauldron and is crowded with locals by 2:00pm for their lunch. Once it is gone, it is gone. We got there at about 1:15 to make sure we did not miss out. Following lunch we joined Concepcion again for a tour of the Cathedral which was again a great experience. This Cathedral is amazing and she showed us the key areas of interest. My wife and I raced each other up the 35 (or is it 37) ramps to the top of the Giralda tower to see some amazing views of Seville. What a beautiful city full of history and romance.

Back to the room for our Spanish siesta and now that we know our way around much better it was time to tackle the city for some great tapas fare based on Maribel's recommendations. Our first place was the reputed genesis of tapas, El Reconcillo. We had lots of fun here trying to figure out what to order, watching them write our bill out in chalk on the centuries old bar and realizing early on that this is not the type of place where you order a sangria and chose instead to simply order cerveza. From our first tapas bar we headed to our favourite, Casablanca. As soon as we walked in we knew we were going to love it. The food looked amazing, the place was packed with locals (or at least they looked and sounded local) and the waiter / bartender was very friendly and helpful. We had a few dishes by seeing what others were ordering and it was all good. We liked to stand together at the bar and try to blend in watching all the goings on. Great fun and great food! We ventured to one last place for some outdoor people watching and sangria drinking (had not had our quota yet) and then to the ice cream place for a midnight bowl of wonderful ice cream. When we find a good thing we stick with it - which is probably why we were there celebrating our 10 year anniversary. We ended the night back on our rooftop terrace with a glass of red wine and a very satisfying day now forever in our memories.

Woke up and went for a run along the river again and then sat down to our relaxing and very satisfying breakfast on the rooftop. We loved this each morning and really got us off on a great note. Not only was the breakfast very delicious, but they also provided wonderful treats and cookies from the nearby La Campana that we took with us for little snacks during the day. We went on our final tour with Concepcion to see the Alcazar. All three tours with Concepcion cost us 19 Euros each and were well worth the money. The Alcazar was beautiful and the gardens were a wonderful place to wander around together after the official tour was over. Following the tour we did a little shopping on the two main shopping streets that are pedestrian only and then we went for a fancy lunch to the Taberna Alabardero for a very nice and well priced lunch put on by the students of the cooking school. It is not only a satisfying experience from an gastronomic perspective, but it is also lots of fun as everyone from the chefs to the waiters to the bartenders are students however the quality of food and service is not even a little bit compromised. Following lunch we spent a few hours shopping along our two main shopping streets which seemed to contain a shoe store every second shop. We did have fun and came home with some gifts for family and friends. Back for a little rest and then out for the night again.

Although we do not typically like to repeat, as there is so much to discover, we had such fun the night before and enjoyed the food so much that we returned to El Reconcillo and Casablanca again, although we ordered different items. It was fun to go back to a place where you are recognized almost as if you were a regular and we seemed to be treated even better our second night there. Cannot say enough good things about both of these places and they were just as good, if not better, on our second visit. After Casablanca we decided to take the horse and carriage ride from the Cathedral to the park and back. It takes about 45 minutes and costs 30 Euros, but I talked our driver down to 25. When we were in Venice on our honeymoon we did not take a gondola ride as we thought it was too expensive and we have always regretted that decision. So, having learned from our mistake we did not pass up on the carriage ride and are glad for it. It was a wonderful experience and we will always remember it. During our travels from the one tapa bar to the other we passed by Alfalfa street and noticed everyone eating these steaming shell-like things at the outdoor tables and decided after Casablanca we would have to come back to try them out. We did get back and sat down outside with the locals and ordered a bowl of what everyone else was eating. They ended up being little snails which I think are called coquinas and the way you eat them is to grab the little heads that are barely sticking out of their shell with your front teeth and then slurp them into your mouth, or at least that is the way we ate them. Pretty tasty even if you are grabbing these little guys by the head to eat them. And of course, we had our pitcher of sangria. We ended the night as we did all others with some ice cream in the plaza and a glass of wine on the rooftop terrace. What a great way to end another great day.

Our final day allowed us to linger over breakfast, as we packed up and got ready to check out. Said our farewells to the ladies running the Casa del Maestro who had been very helpful and very kind to us and then took a taxi to the train station after we ran down to Sierpes street in order to get my wife a pair of shoes she had been thinking about. Hated to say goodbye to Seville but have wonderful memories of our time there and are certain we will be back some day. We got to the train station in order to rent our car from AutoEurope which was very easy and very good. We had requested a diesel with a cd player even though we were only getting a compact, and of course we had rented a car with a/c. We got everything we asked for and were pleased with our little car. Our trip now heads to Portugal so I will not bother posting details of that part of the trip under Spain but will author my 4th installment of Spain on the details of our return to Spain to visit the Extremadura area on our way back to Madrid.

10YearAnniversary

Part 4 (the last one, I promise):

Extremadura:

After spending a glorious week on the beaches of the Algarve, it was time to embark on the final chapter of our trip before heading home to see our three little kids who we were both starting to miss. We drove from Carvoeiro to Seville and the north to Caceres. All tolled the trip took 4 ? hours which was not bad largely due to the fact that traffic was pretty good and we did not make any wrong turns thanks to the expert navigation capabilities of my co-pilot. The only difficult part of the trip was just north of Seville as the road was single lane and windy and there were lots of trucks so it tended to be a bit slow going. But, we made pretty good time and found Caceres quite easily, but now of course the fun was to begin. Although this was our first hotel that was actually listed on the directional signs (we were staying at the Parador), they did not help as much as one would think as they seemed to often be pointing in directions that we could not get to. Or they would point in a direction that appeared to be exactly in the middle of two different streets, of which we would typically choose the wrong one. But, after driving around for about 15 minutes we found our Parador and were directed by some guy to the parking area in behind the Parador. We checked in and were given the Olmasa room which was fantastic although it was located just above the street that was pretty quiet except for the 5am garbage trucks making their rounds. Oh well, those are the things you remember in the years to come. Did what we typically do when arriving to a new place, that is, check in to our room and then set off to discover the town and get our bearings. Compared to Madrid and Seville, Caceres is a much smaller and easier to navigate town with a main plaza just outside the walls of the old city and then a number of pedestrian shopping streets coming off the plaza leading up to their major shopping district. We wandered about and also dropped into the tourist office just off the square to get a map and find out if there were any walking tours available. There were, but they were only in Spanish and although we had learned how to say thank you, please, two sangrias, excuse me, where is the bathroom, etc, we did not feel we were prepared enough for a Spanish spoken walking tour. So, we opted out.

Back to the room for a little rest and then out for the night to explore and get back to our favorite form of dining ? tapas! We wandered about and looked in to some of the shops before having some tapas at some places that seemed to meet our formula, busy with what looked like locals just off the main drag. We found one place that we consumed the most at called Aldarve and especially enjoyed their grilled calamari. Very good. We learned that they do not really have sangrias in this part of Spain but they do this drink that is part red wine and part some sort of sparkling citrus stuff. Also very good. We also witnessed a local procession around the square up to the main church to celebrate Corpus Christi which was fun to be present for. I would have to say that although Caceres has some interesting things to see and is interesting to see the old city, it was not our favourite place, although we did love the Parador and are glad to have been there.

The next morning we did a little shopping to get some things for family and friends after having breakfast back at the Aldarve. My wife, a Starbucks addict, quite enjoyed the Spanish coffee and Aldarve delivered both her coffee and my freshly squeezed oj. After doing some early morning shopping and having a very satisfying breakfast (the egg omelettes, served all day seem to make more sense for breakfast) we headed out of Caceres on our way to our final destination, Oropesa. The drive there took about 1 ? hours and we passed by Trujillo on our way which we considered stopping in to see but decided instead to keep going. We got to the Parador at Oropesa at mid afternoon and loved it right from the start. We were in room 409 and had a lovely view of the Castle. The only reason we went to Oropesa was because they had a Parador that was close enough to the Madrid airport that you could get up at a normal hour and still make your flight. However, we really enjoyed our final night in Oropesa and really liked the Parador.

I decided to go for my final run after checking in to our room. It was about 37C, which I think has to be close to 100F and I nearly died. But, the run was fun as I headed out of town and ran along a road that was framed by pastures containing cows and sheep. Kind of like going to the zoo. Following the run we walked from our Parador to the centre of town (about a two minute walk) and ate at one of the only tapa bars available. One great thing about Oropesa is that it was the only place we visited where we had no trouble finding our hotel, took no time to get oriented, and did not have to take time choosing between many places to eat as the choices were pretty few. The tapas bar in town (Carlos) however was very good and we had a couple of ham and tomato sandwiches for lunch. We returned to our room and turned on the tv for the first time during our trip ? just to see if we had been missing anything during our travels as we had not really seen a newspaper either. We turned on the tv to catch the beginning of Ronald Reagon?s funeral in Washington which was surprising as we did not know he has passed away. We watched for nearly two hours and thought that it was a very nice tribute to Mr. Reagon. We then debated about whether to go for dinner back to the tapa bar or to have dinner at the Parador. We decided that we would go to the tapa bar for a quick sangria and decide from there. Well, we ended up spending the night at Carlos and had a wonderful time. The bartender brought us the Oropesa version of sangria and we again had delicious calamari and even ordered the house special of pig?s feet. We spent the night reliving the previous two weeks and came up with top 5 lists to a variety of things, such as top 5 foods, top 5 sights, top 5 waiters, top 5 sounds, etc. A great final night to a wonderful trip made better by all those who contribute within this forum. We had toyed with heading back to Madrid on this day and bypassing Oropesa altogether so we could see Madrid one last night and visit the Chocolateria one last time, but we chose to stick to the plan and stay in Oropesa are were glad we did.

Got up the next morning and drove to the airport. It was a very easy trip and took about 1 ? hours with light traffic (it was on a Saturday). When we got there we discovered that Madrid has three terminals and we did not have any idea which one we were flying out of. Also, it was a little tricky finding the place to drop off the rental car which is right next to Terminal 1. As luck would have it, we were flying out of Terminal 1 so everything worked out just fine. We checked in our car, checked our bags and then prepared for the long voyage home. It was a very rewarding trip and one that will live in our memories fondly for many years. My wife kept a detailed journal of each day of the trip and it will be something we will enjoy reading together for years. The one sad thing is that I no longer have a trip to plan and so need to set about figuring where our next destination will be so I can busy myself with starting to prepare for it. It might not be for a few years, but I believe that everyone should have an exciting trip on their horizon, no matter how far in the future it might be.

suenew

What a great report, I loved it.
We will be in Seville in July and I really would like to know the name of the ice cream places in Seville?

How did you find about the tours, did you book the concepcion ahead of time?

Was the carrage ride 30E for 2 or for each?

Did you negotation lots of prices in spain, like some places in Mexico.

Thank you,
Sue

artlover

Terrific trip report--especially liked the idea of sangria fulfilling a fruit requirement (hadn't thought of it that way, but will in the future).

Glad you loved Hostal Cardinal in Toledo as much as we did. We also weren't as thrilled with the restaurant as some people have been, but we're not big meat eaters, so maybe that's why.

I think it's great that you keep running on vacation...we just walk about 10 miles a day and consider that exercise enough!

Thanks again for posting. I too fell in love with Spain and have been taking Spanish lessons and planning our next trip!

kaudrey

Great report - 10Year! Congrats on your anniversary - sounds like a great trip.

I drank my fair share of Sangria there, even though I learned from a man I met that Spanish people don't really drink Sangria in bars, they just have it for the tourists (that's what I was told, anyway). Still love it.

Although I haven't yet been to Portugal, I am looking forward to reading that part of your trip as well.

Karen

bettyo70

Isn't Spain so romantic??? I too enjoyed Madrid even though my stay there was very short. I remember going dancing there till 3am and then going next door for the churros and hot chocolate. Also, loved wandering their public squares Next time, I will have to do the walking tours you recommended... You must return there another time to see Segovia (gorgeous medieval architecture and sunsets), Barcelona (inspiring architecture and a walker's paradise) and the Basque country (amazing food and lovely beaches).

marty

Thank you, thank you! I am headed to Madrid the end of July, and you gave me some valuable information.

Myer

suenew,

There's an excellent ice cream place on Santa Maria La Blanca, diagonally across the street from restaurant Modesto and down the street from the entrance to Las Casas de la Juderia.

suenew

Thank you Myer for your recommendation.
We have 10 year old and we all love ice cream at end of the day.

I wish I can bring some to our you and other fodor freinds for their great ideas.

Cheers.
Sue

SharonNRayMc

Now I find this report....I put the URLs in the individual postings to link them together.

Sounds like you had a wonderful, wonderful trip. Happy anniversary. And, why not keep celebrating?

- Sharon

sarh

Do you have contact detials for Concepcion?

SRS

Great trip report! I loved Spain!

sarh,

Here are the details for Concepcion Delgado. Her website is www.sevillawalkingtours.com. We also used her services and thought she was wonderful! If you click my name you'll see my trip report for Spain not too far down.

Sally