Andalusia (Spain) Trip report

[Enrique]

I just went to Spain for a week of vacation.
This is a super long post, so here are the cliff notes:
Sevilla-Beautiful town with the biggest cathedral in the world
Cadiz-Famous port, not worth going to
Córdoba-Beautiful mosque/cathedral
Granada-The Alhambra is amazing and the town is just beautiful, a great place to walk around.
Reina Sofia (Madrid)-Great museum which has the Guernica as its highlight.
Prado- Great museum that has 40% of the works of the great Diego Velázquez. Also a great Goya and Greco collection.

I didn't really edit it, so sorry if its not that nice a read, I just thought it would be worth sharing to anyone considering goint to Andalusia:

Day 1,2 (Friday, Saturday March 16,17): Travel

Travel takes "two days" because of the time change and the fact that we left in the afternoon, hence arriving in Spain at 5pm of Saturday. In the flight I saw a movie and read a bit. The movie was The World Fastest Indian, a good movie that I enjoyed but felt that the ending didn't feel like an ending, which in this case hurts the movie. I wanted to see more of the people around Munro, maybe his trip back or something.

In Madrid, the plan was to eat and go to sleep to have the energy bar full for the next week of constant train travelling. We ate at "Museo del Jamón" a famous place around Spain. The roof of the place is full of different types of hams and you can order many types of tapas, most of which involve ham. Tapas are the spanish food, is a sort of snack that people usually eat in bars, but they are so popular that they offered everywhere and sometimes some restaurants just offer tapas. In this case I had a jamón serrano sandwich and some croquetas. My uncle had squid, which I tasted and was delicious.

Day 3 (Sunday March 18): Sevilla

Woke up early to take the fast train to Sevilla. It covers 540km in 2 hours and 30 minutes even though it stops three times, it was fun taking the train. In the train they showed the spanish movie Un Franco, 14 pesetas. The movie was very funny and very good. It is about Spain in a time when they were very poor and a lot of people went to Switzerland to work to get money for their families in Spain. It is nice that now Spain is affluent and now the immigrants come to them.

In Sevilla we went into the Real Alcazar, a place where the caliphs lived some time of the year (I am not sure, but I think they lived in Granada most of the time). The place was beautiful, I like islamic architecture and the way they decorate. It is nice seeing nice patterns in decoration instead of putting gold everywhere and painting saints all over the place. A nice different style. The garden was incredible, full of palms and flowers and it was enormous.

We walked in the old barrio of Santa Cruz. A very pretty part of town where cars can't go into (too narrow the streets). The little streets are great to walk around in. Feeling very hungry, we ate some paellas. They were horrible, I guess it is our punishment for going to eat on a tourist infested part of town. If you are that hungry and food doesn't taste good it can only mean that the food was horrible. I learned my lesson of not ordering paella at tourist traps.

My uncle went back to the hotel feeling very fatigued and jet-lagged I walked around town with direction to the Maria Luisa park which has a beautiful plaza next to it. The plaza was amazing, it had little artistic tilings to represent every municipality in Spain on the ground surrounding a huge and beautiful building. The building is in an arc looking as a sort of old museum, there are two big spires at each end and in the center there a fountain surrounded by an arc canal. The bridges that let you pass from the fountain area to the building area are very pretty, with gleaming tiles.

On my way back, I tried to be creative and not use the same road. So I decided to go West first to turn East and then East again at the next chance. The next chance was a bit far away and I ended on a road that crossed the river of Sevilla. I walked in an abandoned fair and saw a side of Sevilla which most tourists don't see. It was interesting. I got back on an interesting street and got to see many nice buildings plus the famous gold tower (a tower for sailors when the river was an important trade route). It was nice walking along the river, but not as nice as other rivers in the world.

The day ended watching the Sevilla-Celta match on TV surrounded by people from Sevilla, Sevilla won 1-0, they are tied for first place in the Spanish league with Barcelona, comfortably ahead (5 points) of Real Madrid. A very good day, Sevilla is beautiful.

Day 4 (Monday March 19): Cadiz

We went downtown to try to get in the cathedral but it was packed, so we decided to skip it for another time. We decided to take a train to Cadiz, a place my uncle had never seen (my uncle knows Spain very well since he goes to Spain at least once a year, he is from the northwest part of Spain).

The train to Cadiz took 2 hours, it wasn't a fast train. We walked around Cadiz, saw downtown, the view of the sea, the cathedral, the nice little shopping streets very reminiscent of Coruña. Some people describe Cadiz as a gleaming white port that shined on sailors. I guess it is true that if you haven't seen land in a long time Cadiz will look magical, but for me, the town was not that interesting. The view of the ocean is wonderful and a couple of streets are pretty, but that is all it has (or seemed to have). Cadiz is famous for being the place from where Colón left to discover the America.

When we got back to Sevilla, we tried to go in the cathedral and noticed it closes at 5pm, we were too late. We walked a bit waiting for 8pm to come (restaurants don't open till 8pm, Spaniards take their breaks seriously). We ate at a tapas place that had the best tapas I have had in my life. They were delicious. I had a pollo morruno con cous-cous. My uncle had something that involved jamón ibérico, it was delicious too. What a treat. We vowed to come back the next night, but we didn't.

Day 5 (Tuesday March 20): Córdoba

We woke up earlier than expected and decided to walk around Sevilla. We ended walking all the way to the train station by chance (I love walking around randomly). Not that randomly, we wanted to see a part of town, walked around it then noticed that we recognized a street where a cab had driven before when driving from train station to cathedral. So we took the street and ended in the train station. We took the train to Córdoba.

Córdoba is a place worth visiting (unlike Cadiz). It has a beautiful old town called the barrio judío (jewish district) full of nice walkable streets with white nice buildings that grow geranios (don't know the name of the flower in english) throughout the warm part of the year.

The main reason Córdoba attracts tourists is its mosque. Now it is a cathedral and it is quite funny how people get a little mad when you ask directions for the mosque, they go "you mean the cathedral" before explaining. The mosque is interesting because if has a chapel inside it to make it a cathedral, it is very interesting seeing the arcs that are christian and the ones that are islamic. Impressive difference. The place is beautiful and makes the trip worth it. Inside the mosque/cathedral there are the usual tourist guides. I read it and was amazed at it, the flyer given at the place is very anti islam and pro christian. I haven't had that feeling before while reading a flyer on art, it usually feels impartial, not going into religion or politics to say why that particular art is beautiful.

We walked around the old part of town a long time. We were looking for a famous tapa dish in Córdoba called "pinchitos morrunos" but we couldn't find it anywhere. Finally we found it and it was delicious. We also had "Rabo de Toro" (tail of a bull), which I liked even more. It was a great meal.

We went back to Sevilla to get back in time to see the cathedral. My uncle was tired so I went in alone. The cathedral in Sevilla is the biggest in the world (according the Guiness) and it is nice, although once you see one cathedral it feels like you've seen them all. The highlight of the cathedral is the Giralda, what at a point was a huge minaret. The tower has windows all over the place and you get different views of the city while climbing out, which was more fun that the final view of the town from the top of the tower. It was refreshing that the tower is so wide that instead of steps it just has a curving path that slowly goes up.

At night, instead of eating at the tapas place we went to a restaurant, my uncle was too hungry. I don't remember what he had, I had veal tenderloin. It was quite tasty.

Day 6 (Wednesday March 21): Granada

The highlight of the trip without a doubt was Granada. What a gorgeous town. I have to admit I am biased towards hilly towns, but Granada delivers the goods with beautiful streets, a nice theater, a cathedral, a gorgeous old town and the awe inspiring Alhambra. The Alhambra is where the caliphs lived, a huge castle on top of the hill with a background of a beautiful mountain. The castle has a nice garden, a lot of incredible views and amazing artistry inside it, with the usual islamic patters on the walls.

But, let's put order in the description. When we arrived on train, we met with Carmen and María Dolores. Carmen is the cousin of my uncle's wife. María Dolores is her mother. We talked for a bit at a coffee shop then I escaped to walk around and view the cathedral and a lot of streets. Near the cathedral there was an incident with a gypsy. The story goes as follows:
In Sevilla, I saw how gypsies offered some sort of plant to my uncle for free and he would just waved them away. I thought "why does he not take the free stuff?". In Córdoba, the thing happened again, and I actually stopped and grabbed the thing, the gypsy then went ahead and read my hand. I was ready to leave and then she kept asking for money, I constantly said I didn't have any, so then she got mad and took the leaf back. In Granada, near the cathedral there are many gypsies, and I was waving them away, but one of them was specially adamant, since she saw me put a euro in front of a street performer. She was saying free, I said "I know it's not free, go away", she said "Trust me", I walked away then she grabbed my sleeve and said "respect the gypsy, respect the gypsy, trust me", I walked away faster feeling a bit bad and actually missed the entrance to the place where a couple of kings were buried. When I came back to see it later, it was closed.

In the afternoon we went to eat. I met Carmen's husband Ben. A spanish professor at a big state school in the US that is heading a study abroad program in Spain. Carmen and Ben are really nice people, cheerful, enjoy life type of people, with great abilities in conversation. We ate at a wonderful place, it obviously helps to have people that have lived there long enough to know these places. For starters everyone had berenjena (eggplant) except me, I had an almond soup with egg. In the main dish I had Flamenquin, a granadian dish. It is ham wrapped in another type of ham with melted cheese and it is breaded. It was quite tasty.

The visit to the alhambra was in the evening. It was wonderful seeing the city from the alhambra, especially from the wind tower. The alhambra was certainly the best thing I got to see in Spain on this trip. Seeing the gardens when the sun was going down was unforgettable. I love sunsets and when you are surrounded by such beautiful scenery it is all the more powerful.

At night we went to a tango festival. Granada hosts a tango festival once a year, that is supposed to be very good. I know tango is not a spanish dance, but it was better to see tango in a festival than going to see flamenco in a tourist trap.

After the festival we went to a bar and chatted politics for a while. It was great fun, my uncle is a very funny person and he shines on this sort of situations.

Day 6 (Thursday March 22): Madrid

Took a train back to Madrid, it was a 4 1/2 hour train ride, but I slept the whole way, since I didn't get much sleep after Granada.

I have an interesting anecdote of the metro in Madrid: my uncle tried to open the metro door by putting the ticket on the left instead of the right. So the left door opened, thinking he wouldn't be able to cross in time, I crossed thinking I would give my ticket to him. He actually crossed. I looked back thinking about going back and passing my ticket, but thought it made no sense for 1 euro. Of course, when I look back there are two guards next to my uncle and me asking for tickets since they saw what happened. The fine was 20 euros, but I contested it for a while, showing I had my ticket and explaining the weird events. They were very calm and said "We are not saying you're a criminal or anything, but rules are rules". I get angry about three times a year and this was one of those times, saying how unfair it was and how they should use their criteria, the proof was there that it was an accident (I had a bought ticket that had the time of 1 minute before the event, I think that is proof enough). I kept insisting that it was unfair. Another person came and we kept discussing about it. They said they would bring the police, I said "bring them on", which maybe it was foolish, but I don't think they would put so much effort for 20 euros. My uncle doesn't like to argue at all and just paid the fine. I lost the fight, but it was a funny experience.

I went museum hopping. First went to Reina Sofía, since I hadn't been since I was ten. I really wanted to see "Girl standing on a window" (Dalí) and "Guernica" (Picasso). The museum is very good, but outside of Guernica and the surrealist room, I don't think it is great. The Guernica is amazing and the museum is full of sketches that Picasso did to prepare himself and pictures that a journalist did of the process of the painting. The surrealist room is full of amazing paintings by Dalí and they also show the movies "Un Chien Andalou" and "L'Age D'Or". I only watched the first one, I had seen it before, but I felt like spending 20 minutes was a good investment, not the same with L'Age D'Or considering my ambitious plans for the day. The other great display in the Reina Sofía was a room that had covers of newspapers in Spain during the Civil War. Actually, the university of Illinois provided two websites on it, one in English, one in Spanish. It was very interesting reading handwritten letters from the time.

After that, I walked to El Prado. My main purpose was to see "Las Meninas" again. Take a quick look at Velázquez and Goya. But once inside, I took longer than expected. I saw all of the Velázquez exhibition (40% of his overall work), all of Goya and all of Greco. I am a big fan of Greco. While watching Goya, I was overhearing an art history professor explain one of the paintings. It is amazing how many symbolisms are there that one can't see at first glance, or at second glance or at third glance. I am probably not good at picking symbolisms (I hope I get better), but it was amazing just how much I was missing from those Goya's. Right now, I don't recall anymore of what I saw at El Prado, that is probably because I really did focus on seeing Velázquez, Goya and Greco.

After Prado, I went to the Thyssen museum which is just across the street. A german collector talked to Spain about opening a museum there (he had a Spanish wife) and the government gave him a big building to put a piece of his collection. The collection is impressive, specially the impressionist part with van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas. They also had Kandinsky, Caravaggio. I did a very fast pace walk through the museum only focusing on the Greco hall and the Caravaggio hall. The impressionist aisle was very impressive. I only had thirty minutes but it was worth it.

I walked to the hotel by walking along La Gran Vía. The most famous street in Madrid. It was a 40 minute walk. I got in the wrong hotel (similar name, close to my hotel), found out I was in the wrong place and then found the hotel.
The museum hopping was on my own, my uncle was too tired, he just went an hour or so to Prado. I went to the room to get him to go eat. We ate at Compostela a gallego restaurant. My uncle is from Galicia, so we wanted to go there. I ate two gallego soups, easily my favorite soup, although restaurants don't put the meat that traditional gallego soup has (my grandma used to make this). I also ate some empanadas, it was a very good meal after a great day.

Just before going to sleep I watched 4 hours of TV. We were watching a spanish tv show that was very funny, about life in 1971. Were waiting for it to end, after 4 hours we couldn't wait any longer. It was very funny though, we ended up sleeping very late because of that.

Day 7 (Friday March 23): Flight Back

On the flight I read a big chunk of "The Invisible Man" which I plan to finish today and I watched two movies. Dreamgirls and The Prestige. I had seen The Prestige before and included in my top 10 of the year. After the second viewing I felt happy about my placement in the top 10 based on "this movie will surely be great the second viewing", it was. Dreamgirls was a bit of a torture to watch. I don't like singing when it doesn't seem relevant, specially if the lyrics are very "Trapped in the Closet" (stating what they are doing, if I can see it, I don't need hearing it). I had fun watching Eddy Murphy though.

[Mike Haven]

Thank you for taking the time to write this up for us.

Very interesting. I've been thinking of visiting Sevilla, (it's only a short and inexpensive plane-ride for me in the UK), and I think you may have finally talked me into making the effort.

I love eating tapas, and your mentions of these made my mouth water! There's nothing like fried squid, either, especially when they're washed down with a few glasses of the local wine.

Do you have any photos you could post?

[Enrique]

[ QUOTE ]
Very interesting. I've been thinking of visiting Sevilla, (it's only a short and inexpensive plane-ride for me in the UK), and I think you may have finally talked me into making the effort.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm glad I helped convince you.

[ QUOTE ]
I love eating tapas, and your mentions of these made my mouth water! There's nothing like fried squid, either, especially when they're washed down with a few glasses of the local wine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, the tapas are great. I love how you go to a bar and they give you the tapa of the day for free with your drink.
Actually close to Sevilla is a famous town that I didn't visit called Jerez that apparently makes the best jerez in the world (jerez is sherry in english). So you would probably love the local wine, you should probably add up Jerez to the trip if you are planning on visiting Sevilla. Jerez is a short train ride away (between Sevilla and Cadiz), I probably should have gone to Jerez instead of Cadiz.

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have any photos you could post?

[/ QUOTE ]

I will upload them next week. I won't have access to my computer for another week. Unfortunately I didn't have enough battery power and I don't have pictures of Granada, but I do have of Sevilla, Cadiz and Cordoba. I'll give you a link next week.

[Mike Haven]

We are all looking forward to seeing the photographs, I'm sure.

I have never travelled by rail in Spain. Come to think of it, I haven't been on any train for years. Is it a comfortable, convenient and reliable system for moving around between towns? I suppose cost is all relative, but do you get the feeling you're getting value for money, or that you're being overcharged for the specific trip, (as is the case in the UK)?

[jesusarenque]

[ QUOTE ]
We are all looking forward to seeing the photographs, I'm sure.

I have never travelled by rail in Spain. Come to think of it, I haven't been on any train for years. Is it a comfortable, convenient and reliable system for moving around between towns? I suppose cost is all relative, but do you get the feeling you're getting value for money, or that you're being overcharged for the specific trip, (as is the case in the UK)?

[/ QUOTE ]

In Spain, buses are always cheaper and often times faster than trains (unless you plan on using the super-fast AVE that runs between Madrid and Sevilla).

[katyseagull]

Oh I want to go to Madrid and Granada now! That was an awesome trip report. I love the description of each place and also how you remembered to tell us about the meals you ordered. I always enjoy hearing about food in other countries.

The museum hopping sounds really fun.


Were you allowed to take photos inside the museums or was that against the rules?

Which cities would you have spent more time in if you could have?

[Mike Haven]

Slightly o/t, but you reminded me that I sneaked a photo of a painting that caught my eye in the Barcelona Fort's Museum last year:

[Enrique]

[ QUOTE ]
Were you allowed to take photos inside the museums or was that against the rules?

[/ QUOTE ]

By Day 5 I was out of batteries for my camera, so I didn't even try. But the usual policy is that it is ok to take pictures as long as it is without a flash.

[ QUOTE ]
Which cities would you have spent more time in if you could have?

[/ QUOTE ]

I have visited Madrid a couple of times before and I will probably visit again. Out of those cities Madrid is the one that deserves more time.

I think the time I had was pretty much ideal for the visit. I don't think Granada is worth more than two days and Sevilla is probably not worth more than 3 days. With that I mean you can get the best parts of the cities in that span of time, obviously you can enjoy a longer stay. Granada seems like a very good place to live in, for example. Even though it is a small city, it has a lot of cultural events around it. Although I like the feel of a small city.

It would have been nice to spend some more time in Madrid to visit the Gran Plaza, the Escorial, the cathedral among other things. The last time I went (before this trip), I had a blast when I went to the Gran Plaza and a gallego band started playing a concert there for free. I love celtic music so it was very fun.

[diebitter]

This is a very cool TR. Thanks for sharing [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Enrique]

I have put 22 pictures from Sevilla on this site. I will include the others later, having some problems with my camera.