Spain: What can I say about this beautiful country and the lovely people of this country.
We flew down to Barcelona - the city which never sleeps. There is so much to do in this city that it will take good all 4-5 days. We stayed right on Las Ramblas street - which is the party/shopping street in the heart of Barcelona. Ladies - SHOPPING ALERT !!! Amazing shoes, bags and clothes.
We explored places in and around Barcelona - which were truly out of this world - The fountain show, Gaudi's Beautiful architecture, Barcelona Beaches, Tall Penis Building and Sagrada Familia Church. I recommend take the Hop-on-hop-off bus to explore the city. We enjoyed the nightlife of Barcelona the most. A tip for everyone watch out for your personal belongings closely in Barcelona.
The Places around Barcelona are numerous - the ones we explored were Tossa de mar - Lovely beaches and wineries around here, Sitges - awesome coastal drive to and from Barcelona - highlights - Bacardi pub, gorgeous beach and restaurants at the beach side. You must park your car at one place and walk around this town - as you will get a feeling of being in Mykonos or Santorini, Greece - simply beautiful homes and gorgeous verandas with lovely flower arrangements. Montesserat a beautiful monastery in between beautiful mountains with breathtaking views and interesting architecture. You can easily spend half a day here, and you will be lucky if you get to hear the quire singing at the church. If you like to try different types of homemade cheese - you will find many farm sellers right outside the monastery, they even sell figs and nuts which is very tasty and a great dry fruit dessert to bring back home as a souvenir.
After staying in Barcelona for 5 days, we took an overnight train to Granada. We reached and checked into Vinncci Hotel - which was in a close proximity to the Al Hambra. We enjoyed Sangria's and Tapas at the Local restaurants and explored the beautiful 'Al hambra' for a day. Our Hotel had breathtaking View of the Al Hambra - which was a photographic treat for myself. We enjoyed the Flamenco Show in a Tavern here with Dinner which was around 70 Euro per person.
Next we drove upto Malaga, and explored the city - Cathedral, Picasso Muesuem, Plaza de la Merced, Castillo de Gibralfaro and Alcazaba. We had fun filled day here.
Our next destination was Cordoba, we explored Mezquita De Cordoba, Madinat Al-Zahra, Calleja De La Flores, El Cardenal, Sinogoga and Roman Temple. We thoroughly enjoyed an entire day in the streets of Cordoba by feet - I must say it is very easy to explore the major attractions here by feet. We Sipped on our favorite Red Sangria and enjoyed the locals and Andalucian culture - I bought some awesome Spanish Fans from a Blind lady - who claimed she had painted it herself...
After a beautiful drive from cordoba we arrived in Seville, we stayed in the heart of the city, which made it easy for us to explore all the major attractions by feet. We enjoyed the night life and the beatiful historical sights for 2 whole days... I got treated with a chariot ride around the town for one of our evenings there. Lots to explore in this city but the places I would recommend are - Plaza de Espana is simply magnificent, Alcazar is a treat too but you can skip it, The Cathedral and The main city center with its lushful gardens - which reminded us of Hyde park in NY. The highlight for us in Sevilla was the Flamenco Show at Tablao Flamenca - It was truly breath-taking.
Our Next and technically Final destination was Madrid - We had a few meetings here on the first day and so we took it easy just drove around the city and explored a bit - I must admit we were so tired and needed our due rest for next few days - thus we took it easy and had a relaxing day at Madrid overall.
We made a day trip to Toledo - which was the former capital of Spain. We visited the hilly city of Toledo - walked around the city and explored - Churches, Plazas and the Alcazar. It was a treat to visit some local shops here too. We just got a half day here as we had driven down from Madrid and had to get back to Madrid by night.
The next day we First drove up to Avila (about 2 hours drive from Madrid)- which is claimed to be the best city in wall around Europe. Here we were in for a treat as they were having a holy procession at the church, where hundreds of people were all dressed up and marching in the streets of Avila - this was a mere co-incidence that we were there on that 1 day of the year when they have this holy procession for Mother Terressa . We enjoyed every bit of this city - walking around and enjoying the culture, music and food...Segovia
After our Lunch at Avila we drove off to Segovia - where we planned to spend the rest of our day before returning back to Madrid. It took us about an hour and a half to reach Segovia from Avila. Here we first browsed through the Castle and then went to see the Aqueduct - The Aqueduct of Segovia is one of the most significant and best - preserved monuments left by the Romans.
Finally, I would conclude that Spain is huge and filled with culture and history and great people - this was not enough time for us to enjoy the whole of Spain - but it definitely gave us the essence and flavor of it - we definitely will return to Spain and explore more cities and enjoy its wonderful culture, traditions and people soon...
The things I don't recommend are : to go in summer - as 1. it is terribly hot there - thus all the businesses shut down in the afternoon and open late in the evening which is where you waste a lot of your day time. 2. The European school vacations is around the same time, so all the places get very crowded. Best time to travel would be September end or before may end.
We took a train and rented a car for transport. Car is easy on highways but - internal car driving is a nightmare due to extremely narrow and elevated streets, plus You will have to plan your hotels with available parking... usually its easy to find pay and park everywhere. There is nothing free in Spain. Mainly I would recommend to use a car for transportation from one city to the other but then internally you must explore by walking or local transport.
You will also need a day in most of these cities as - the local places has a lot to explore - we in particular enjoyed sipping crispy Sangria every afternoon and just relaxing as everything except a few downtown restaurants would stay open - so we just chilled out and enjoyed locals playing music, dancing, traditions etc.
Last and very important thing you must try to stay in the heart of the city everywhere - we selected hotels, with prime location which helped us enjoy the place and its local surroundings more.
