Spain: Madrid and Andalusia

Since I had never been to Spain previously and I had heard that there was a tremendous language barrier, I thought I'd enlist the help of a local tour company. After doing some research on tripadvisor.com, I sought out Lemon Valley Holidays. Lemon Valley Holidays is a family-run business that operates out of Andalucia, which is the specific area of Spain we were interesting in touring. I can't say enough good things about Nicola, one of the co-owners. She was extremely accessible and responsive throughout the planning process. It was also really wonderful to know that I could work with her to tailor-make a trip that fit our needs.

I booked our flights through expedia.com and Lemon Valley Holidays arranged our accommodations and local transportation, via train. Lemon Valley Holidays also pre-booked walking tours in Sevilla and Granada and made reservations for a flamenco show, the Alhambra, and a special New Year's Eve dinner. To top it off, because Lemon Valley Holidays is local, they have relationships with local establishments. Everywhere we went and everywhere we stayed was authentic, charming, and Spanish. With all that said, I would without a doubt, recommend Lemon Valley Holidays to anyone wanting to spend time in Andalucia. If I have the privilege of going to Spain again, I wouldn't hesitate to contact them for help.

Our Itinerary (December 26, 2009 - January 3, 2010)

Saturday, December 26

Pre-planned:

-Arrive in Madrid, check in hotel
-Walk around, explore the neighborhood, sight-see

What actually happened:

We had a connection in Brussels on the way to Madrid and as can happen with non-direct flights, we made it to Madrid before our luggage. Ugh! At first, things seemed pretty dire because from the bits and pieces we were able to get from airport staff, it seemed like no one knew where our luggage was. We brought our lost baggage claim with us to Hotel Meninas and hoped for more help there. Our concierge made several calls to find out that our bag had been located in Brussels and that it would be put on the next flight. She explained further that it could be delivered by an airport shuttle the following morning. That didn't work for us since we knew we had a train to catch the next day so we planned on picking it up ourselves in the evening. 

In the meantime, we got started on sight-seeing. We were within short walking distance to the Royal Palace so we stopped and took a self-guided tour there. It was lovely and enjoyable but I have to admit that I compare almost every palace to Versailles and in my estimation, no other palace holds a candle to it! Afterward we walked over to the adjoining Sabatini Gardens, which were quite small and simple. We walked further afield to the Mercado de San Miguel, which was a really fun treat. It's a series of bakeries, tapas bars, and other shopping in a concentrated, square enclosure. We bought some sweet things and continued on our walk. We stopped at a pharmacy to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste just in case there was another snafu with our bag. We walked as far as the Plaza Mayor, their big, center-of-town square and then turned back toward our hotel.

There was a metro stop only a block or two away from the hotel. We found it very easy to buy tickets and just hopped on. We could've taken a taxi but not only would that have been more expensive, we wouldn't have had to the opportunity to travel like a local. Evan and I take pride in using public transportation every time we're in Europe. It's so efficient.  I won't go into the whole retrieving-the-bag story but all's well that ends well.  We got our bag!

We kept things pretty low-key that evening because we were jet-lagged. We went to bed pretty early but I was awake a lot and listened to the street noise. Those Spaniards are partiers! :) We spent 8-9 days there and we never got used to having dinner late. If we couldn't find an open restaurant when we were hungry, we'd sometimes skip dinner altogether.

All of our hotels, including Hotel Meninas, were boutique hotels and breakfast was included. I prefer B&Bs over anything because I like to feel at home as much as possible but boutique hotels are the next best thing. We were very happy with everywhere we stayed.

Sunday, December 27

Pre-planned:

-Train to Sevilla
-Check-in to hotel, get out and walk around
-Evening flamenco show

What actually happened:

The morning started out at the Madrid Atocha train station. Normally, I wouldn't highlight a train station but it was really interesting because it had its own little jungle right in the center of things.

When we arrived in Sevilla we took a cab to Hotel Alminar, which was nestled on the side of a narrow street, very quaint and charming, and only half a block away from La Giralda. We also had our own personal balcony that unfortunately, we didn't get to use due to the heavy night rains. We hit it off with our concierge right away. We encountered some of the most friendly and helpful people on this trip. That's not to say we didn't encounter a few grumps because we did...

After we dropped off our things we went on a exploratory walk. We took some quick pictures of La Giralda and then we wandered over to the Real Alcazar or Royal Palace of Sevilla. We bought tickets and took the self-guided tour. It was lovely and the Palace as well as the city was lined with orange trees. Afterward we continued on our walk, which turned into a very long one, and stopped for our first taste of tapas. The most memorable one had "anochas" in it. Evan mistakenly thought that meant nachos when it actually means anchovies. Oops!

We carried on toward the Plaza de Espana, which was built for the 1929 Ibero-American Expo. We took a lot of pictures. I can imagine that it's a great place for people to sit down and picnic and it's adjacent to Parque Maria Luisa. We didn't get to enjoy the Park too much because there were a lot of rain puddles and mud. Had the weather been nicer we would have hung out longer.

We ended up having more tapas at a place not too far from our hotel. Our favorite were the croquetas de pollo. I had heard of lot of negative reviews of Spanish food from my family members but E and I enjoyed it very much. To each his own!

We ended the evening with some pizza in our room and a flamenco show at Casa de la Memoria. I didn't realize until we got there that flamenco isn't just about dance, there's a specific kind of singing or wailing that accompanies it. It was a very intimate gathering with about 40 people in the audience. We enjoyed it very much and would certainly recommend it as a must-experience while in Sevilla.

Monday, December 28

Pre-planned:

-Walking tour of Sevilla
-More sight-seeing


We woke up to rain. I should probably mention that while we were in Spain they got record rains. It was insane! Fortunately, it didn't put too much of a damper on our trip but we probably spent a little more time indoors than we would have normally.

We met our guide Concepcion in a central area and began the tour. In Spain, Three Kings Day (January 6) is actually more significant than Christmas so there were still nativity scenes displayed all over the place. We went inside one administrative or official building and saw a nativity scene that gets more elaborate and spectacular every year. It was pretty cool.

The highlight of the walk was going inside Catedral de Sevilla and getting the inside scoop. La Giralda was originally a minaret with an adjoining mosque. The Catedral was built on the site of the former mosque after the Reconquista and La Giralda was turned into a bell tower. The Church houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus but his bones have been moved around so much I'm not sure that any of him is still there.

After the tour, Evan and I took our own self-guided tour up La Giralda. Despite the crummy weather, the views just got better and better the more we moved up the tower.

We ended the evening with a walk and some chicken paella.

Tuesday, December 29

Pre-planned:

-Train to Cordoba
-Mezquita
-Real Alcazar

We didn't arrive in Cordoba until midday, maybe even a little later. Fortunately, we had a short to-do list and Cordoba is fairly small. We went to Casa de los Azueljos and dropped off our things. The hotel had a lovely open-air courtyard and a cozy breakfast area. In some ways, I was sad to be there for only one night.

We made our way toward the Mezquita, which was a 10-15 minute walk away but first we traversed the old Roman Bridge.

I was so excited about seeing the Mezquita. Aside from the Alhambra, I expected this to be one of the highlights of the trip for me. It was really magnificent. I just wish that we had had a better camera at the time. It was just too hard to capture much of the interior design.

After the Mezquita, we stopped somewhere for a quick lunch. We continued our stroll through the area and stopped to take a look at a very old Synagogue, I imagine one of the few left after the Reconquista. We ended the day by taking a self-guided tour of the Real Alcazar. The lack of lighting from the dreary weather and also, our not so stellar camera failed to capture much of its beauty.

Wednesday, December 30

Pre-planned:

-Train to Granada
-Walk around, sight-see

Granada is very hilly. I wasn't expecting that. It kind of makes you think of San Francisco, but on a less extreme scale. We arrived at Hotel Santa Isabel Real and settled into our new digs. This might have been the nicest place we stayed in during our whole Spanish vacation. We were in the Albaicin neighborhood or the old Moorish quarter. I have to say, that of all the places we visited in Andalucia, Granada had the best preserved Moorish influence. There were a lot of Moroccan food places, tea houses, and souvenir shops. I actually found some end tables in one Moroccan shop that I intended on seeing when I was in Morocco. No such luck! I should have bought them when I was in Granada.

We were also minutes away from an amazing lookout point, Mirador de San Nicolas, where we could observe the whole of the Alhambra complex in the distance. There was also a minibus stop feet from the door of our hotel. We used the minibus a couple of times to go down the hill into the city center and then back up again to our hotel.

We stuck close to the Albaicin our first day/evening and soaked it in. We picked up some Moroccan food and brought it back to our room for dinner that night. Almost needless to say, it was delicious.

Thursday, December 31

Pre-planned:

-Walking tour of Granada
-Self-guided tour of the Alhambra
-New Year's Eve dinner at Las Estrellas Mirador San Nicolas

For the record, I'm sure the walking tour was great, but I really don't remember much of it. If I recall correctly, the guide's accent might have been heavier than the guide's accent in Sevilla. Also, I think it was a bigger group so it might have been harder to catch everything she was saying. That being said, we weaved through some really narrow and interesting streets that I would realize later, resembled the medinas in Morocco.

We caught a local bus, bigger than the mini-buses that would go up and down the hills, to the Alhambra. This was the pinnacle of the trip for me. I had been dying to see the Alhambra for years so I was pretty amped. Once we got there, I understood why you have to reserve tickets weeks, if not months, in advance. The line was huge and this was during low season. What we were able to do was, go to a special machine and enter our reservation number, and then the machine spat out our tickets. Then we joined the line and went right in. Once we got inside the complex we were able to stray from the crowd a bit.

The Alhambra is a huge multi-layered complex. It's a series of several Moorish palaces and gardens. It's like, every new Moorish ruler built on top of what the previous Moorish ruler built. They all tried to one-up each other.

I have to share something that REALLY annoyed me at the time. To an extent, I still harbor some resentment but there's not a lot that could have been done about it. One of the exhibits that I had dreamt of seeing in person was the Court of the Lions. Well, it was under renovation during our visit. There was no way we could take an unobstructed picture of the whole court. I was really disappointed but again, it's not like there was anyone I could blame. We picked to go at that time of year because it was low season and therefore, cheaper, and we thought it would be fun to ring in the New Year some place cool. I guess I'll just have to go back again one day when it's fully operational.

Despite this small setback, the Alhambra was everything I imagined it would be. It was amazing and an absolute highlight of the trip.

We ended our very full day by having a special New Year's Eve dinner at Las Estrellas Mirador San Nicolas. Despite being in Spain, we had French cuisine. We had the beautiful, lit-up Alhambra in the back-drop. It was so gorgeous and worth being at a somewhat stuffy restaurant. The food was amazing but I'll admit it, we ate like Americans. We wolfed down our food so that we were done and paying our bill just after 10:00. We took a short walk on our own and then went back to the hotel where we were given a complimentary bottle of cava (Barcelona's answer to champagne) and two cans of twelve grapes.

We watched the countdown on TV, which took place in Madrid's Plaza Mayor, and ate a grape on each chime of the clock. I believe that each grape is supposed to represent one month in the year. I accidentally dropped one of my grapes so I was worried I was going to have bad luck for a whole month. Looking back on 2010, I don't think that ever happened.       

Friday, January 1

Pre-planned:

-Train to Ronda
-Walk around and explore

I have to say, this was probably the most relaxing part of the trip. Ronda was the smallest city/town we visited and though there were sights to see, I didn't feel like we had to run around town getting to all of them. It was just really low-key and we had the best weather yet. 

We checked into Hotel San Gabriel, which was the biggest hotel we stayed in the whole trip. The view from our balcony of the New Bridge was incredible.

We spent the rest of the evening walking around town and relaxing.

Saturday, January 2

Pre-planned:

-More exploring

We did a self-guided tour of the Ronda Bullring, which is one of the oldest in Spain. I would never see a bullfight, but since it's such an integral part of Spanish culture I did want to see the Bullring and learn a little about the history of bullfighting.

Ronda was a hilly town with beautiful scenery. We took an almost half-day leisurely walk, stopping to take pictures every now and then. We also visited the old Arab Baths. I'm not sure it was worth paying to see them.

When we concluded our walk we went back into town and had an amazing platter of tapas. They served twelve different tapas that they split into two plates, one for me and one for Evan. I wish so badly I could replicate what we ate because it was incredible!

Ronda was so charming, I could have stayed there for a couple more days.

Sunday, January 3

Pre-planned:

-Train to Madrid
-Prado Museum

When we got back to Madrid we didn't have too much more time for sight-seeing and the weather was crummy again. We decided to do a cursory tour of the Museo del Prado. We hit the highlights and then holed up in our room for the night. I felt like we had to go to the Prado because it's one of those big museums that everyone talks about. I don't regret going but I feel weird saying it's a must-see. If you're not into art, then you shouldn't go.      

I loved Spain. We had so much fun. If I had to do it over again, it would be a much slower-paced trip. But you do what you can do, right? We only had nine days to work with and this is how we chose to spend that time. I'd absolutely return to Sevilla for more quality time and I'd like to return to Granada to see the Alhambra in nicer weather. But if I'm being realistic, the next time I go to Spain I'll be visiting Barcelona.

I will add that it's the most English-challenged European country I've visited. That's not to say that it's impossible to get around with no knowledge of Spanish, but it's pretty darn hard. Something to consider. We tried to brush up on our rudimentary Spanish skills before our trip but I guess we weren't very good students.