hello all!!! With help froma great fren....has drawn up the plan below....please, give my your comments/advice...much appreciated....:

Arrive in Mad on 7 Mar 04
Staying in Mad on 7, 8, 9 Mar 04
pop over to Toledo on 10 mar 04, hope to stay in a parador there
Return to Mad on 11 mar 04 to catch my soccer match
Travel to Sevilla on 12 mar 04,
Staying in sevilla on 12, 13 Mar 04
Travel to Granada on 14 mar, stay the night
travel to BCN on 15 Mar, stay the night of 15, 16, 17, on 18 make a day trip to Monstserrat
Travel to Girona on 19 Mar 04, stay the night on 19, and 20. Hope to go to Rose...anyone think i should go to Madremanya too?
return to BCN on 21 march 04, catch a plan to paris

I can actually give up 1-2 days from Paris to Spain if need be.....any advice/tots?

Thank you!!!

PS: posted similar thread in multimadrid com too...

[originally posted by Au on 01-13-2004 07:27 PM]

Thanks all for the response! oohh....me getting so excited as each day passes!
Booked the air tixs last night already...so happy. There's been a slight change in my plan now as I realise the Real MAD VS Bayern match is on 10 Mar, and not on 11 Mar...also am able to arrive on 6 Mar now! Hurray an extra day for us!!!

So here's my updated plan:

Arrive in Mad on 6 Mar 04
Staying in Mad on 6 & 7 Mar 04
pop over to Toledo on 8 Mar 04, going to try what Sel had recommended...
Return to Mad on 9 mar 04, stay there for 9 and 10 Mar
Travel to Sevilla on 11 mar 04,
Staying in sevilla on 11, 12 Mar 04
Travel to Granada on 13 mar, stay the night and also 14 Mar
Travel to BCN on 15 Mar, stay the night of 15, 16, 17, on 18 make a day trip to Monstserrat
Travel to Girona on 19 Mar 04, stay the night on 19, and 20. Hope to go to Rose...anyone think i should go to Madremanya too?

My flight from BCN to Paris is on 22 Mar 04 though, meaning I have an extra day to spare.....any advice on where to add an extra day?

BTW I will be taking Adriano in Madrid - I am just amazed at the speed of Alberto for responding to my emails!!!

Tks all!!! Pls keep more advice/opinons coming!!!

It doesn't sound much like a Honeymoon to me - too much moving around. Of course if it's structured around Euro 2004 (and your Bride is agreeable), that's fine. If Sunday, 7 Mar is a nice day, go over to Retiro Park around 11:00 AM. Enter at the corner where the Puerta de Alcala is. You'll enjoy the sometimes excellent street performers. You'll be in Barcelona when the Fallas de San José are happening down the coast in Valencia. If it were me I would cut short my stop in Barcelona/Girona and spend a couple of nights in Valencia.

Tks Eddie...u r right...more backpacker's style than honeymoon..
Can you people out there help me to think...sigh....so much to see and do in Spain!!! Should I cut out some place liek Sevilla? Oh dear....pls help! Here's my plan again:

Arrive in Mad on 6 Mar 04
Staying in Mad on 6 & 7 Mar 04
pop over to Toledo on 8 Mar 04
Return to Mad on 9 mar 04, stay there for 9 and 10 Mar (Hee...Real Mad VS Bayern !)
Travel to Sevilla on 11 mar 04,
Staying in Ssevilla on 11, 12 Mar 04
Travel to Granada on 13 Mar, stay the night and also 14 Mar
Travel to BCN on 15 Mar, stay the night of 15, 16, 17, on 18 make a day trip to Monstserrat
Travel to Girona on 19 Mar 04, stay the night on 19, and 20.
Flying off from BCN to Paris on 22...so hv extra days to spare...

Tks!

Don't worry, you're not moving around too much, you guys will have a blast. I don't know how crowded Montserrat is in March, but when we went in June of 2000, we stayed overnight, after all the tour busses left, and we had the Basilica all to ourselves, as well as a quiet visit in the AM to the museum which has some fantastic artwork. I strongly recommend that you spend the night at the hotel up there because it's beautiful, food is fine, and the scenery is fantastic. After 4 pm the place is deserted. The tolling of the bells every hour might keep you up all night, but, hey, you're on your honeymoon, so who cares?
By the way, I don't know about your finances, but if you want to save some money in Toledo, you can stay at the Hotel La Almazara. It's beautiful, near the parador, and has fantastic views of the city, for maybe a quarter of the price.

Aidance, u r so sweet! Tks so much for your response! We would really love to see as much as we can and yet not compromise on ease n relaxation...tall order, huh...
Problem would be lugging our stuff around...so must strive to pack light...and yet we know dressing over there can't be too vagabond...simply jeans, tee, n sneakers/trainers just won't cut it. Plan to pop over there to do some shopping for dressier stuff and yet we don't wan to waste time shopping...oh boy!

But hey, tks alot for the Monsterrat suggestion! We'd heard it's a great place too...do you recall the name of the place u stayed up there?

As for Toledo, u'd guessed ti right! I have actually planned to stay at the Parador, but from this site I have heard of other great hotel/hostale recommendations that would be cheaper and not that far out from the central area...

Alright....shall try to review our plans again....Tks!

Keep your views coming, folks!

Dear Au,

I don´t want to make your life more difficult but sometimes (specially in Madrid) it is not the city you visit but the places you hit within that city. If you want to tell us what kind of things you like I could recommend you some places. One more thing, how are you going to get football tickets from Singapure? I am having problems getting them and I live in Madrid!

Cheers,
Andrés

OH dear...u mean the tickets are on sale now? I got a friend living in BCnwho said sales usually start 1 week before.....so it looks like we would hv problems getting tickets!!! What would u advise then? Meanwhile i think I better check with my friend on whether he can help to get hold of tickets.....Thanks for the alert!

Just a note. First, it's true that some of these soccer games are booked in advance and very demanded, but I think that, by law, they have to leave a 10% for the very day of the match.

I was to see Real Madrid - Lokomotive (realise okomotive is NOT)BAyern, and I had no problem in finding a ticket the very day. Even being a cheap entrance, which are the most dificult.

On the other hand, you can ALWAYS buy a ticket, because there are agencies and re-sellers who sell them up to the very last minute. The question is: how much would you pay? Because sometimes it's a small fortune.

I wouldn't recommend you this system, however, there is always the uncertainty of wether there will be or not tickets, plus the prices, plus sometimes (scarce) tickets could be false (although they are sold in the whereabouts of the stadium).

Buying through the net is not a good system, hovever. I have seen advertised in the net tickets with a price 4 to 8 times their price, to sell them to foreigners.

The Montserrat hotel is Abat Cisneros. Here's a link from Frommers web site: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/moreaccom.cfm?h_id=36329
I notice they didn't seem to raise their prices much. As for packing light, I always pack just one carry on for a Europe trip. Check Rick Steve's web site for suggestions. You won't "waste time" shopping, you'll just automatically shop as part of the travel experience. You will want to buy clothes and most especially shoes. Have a great trip!