Two weeks in Spain

[Docwagon 856]

We recently spent two weeks in Spain, and we had a really nice time.  This is our first time using Iberia, and it's a good airline.  We upgraded to premium economy, so that might be part of why, but it was a very comfortable flight.  This is our second time in Spain, but the first time we stayed in Barcelona the entire week.

 

We landed in Madrid and by the time we got through customs and got our rental car it was about 0900.  We went to Segovia for the day, then returned to Madrid to check in to our hotel.  We spent a few days in Madrid.  TBH, Madrid wasn't my favorite.  It was not bad mind you, it's hard to put a finger on it but it didn't seem to have the same level of "local flavor" that so many European destination cities offer.  

 

We then went to Toledo for two days.  My favorite things there were the Alcazar, which has a very nice military museum, as well as a convent that sells cookies through the old turn-table system where you never see the nun.  We walked away from the tourist area and found a nice local restaurant that had *excellent* roast pork.  My son bought a traditional Toledo built knife.  Good times, there.

 

From Toledo, we drove to Tablas Damiel, which is a small national park.  It is wetlands and is kind of like the Florida Everglades, but not exactly.  From there we continued on to Granada.

 

Granada was also a lot of fun.  We visited Alhambra, did a day hike in the Sierra Nevada, hit some other smaller attractions, and also visited their giant mall.  We rented a house in Padul there and did some cooking while we had a kitchen.

 

From there we went Malaga for the day, eating a great seafood meal near the beach and just walking around the tourist areas.  Two big cruise ships had vomited their tourists up on the town, though, and it was rather crowded.  

 

We finished that day driving to Sevilla/Seville.  Seville was a lot of fun, and we did more "non-tourist" stuff there than anywhere.  We found a local park near a bakery and walked there at night, which lead to finding a superb local restaurant.  Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, so we had the pros and cons of that.  Lots of cool architecture and attractions.

 

Next up was Cordoba/Cordova, which was probably my favorite city.  The mosque (now a cathedral) there is very impressive, and there's a partially excavated Muslim city nearby that you can visit as well.

 

Then back to Madrid, hitting a castle out in farmland on the way, which was used in filming of Game of Thrones (Castle of Almodóvar del Río) and this time we stayed on the outskirts of Madrid.  We used that as a springboard to visit some more castles and national parks, and explore the suburb of Madrid that was home to Cervantes.  We did not wander back into Madrid proper, though.

 

We've been home a week now.  The first time I went to drive my Camaro I accidentally pulled forward a few feet when I meant to back up, as I had gotten used to the shift pattern of our rental car in Spain.  Luckily I didn't hit anything and the only damage was to my pride...

 

Pictures on Discord here if anyone is interested:  

 

https://discord.gg/uquJWSpS

 

[GazzaGarratt 10,888]

Some great pictures, Doc. The visit to see Christoper Columbus' tomb must've been a great experience.