Hi All!
I went on a trip to Spain from Oct 31 to Nov 12.
Had a fabulous time. Spent majority of it roaming Southern Spain and the last 3 days in Madrid.
Upon arrival in Madrid, caught and AVE to Seville immediatly and spent 4 days there - with a day trip to Cordoba and toured it's famous Grand Mesquita (Mosque). Seville has a very laid back, romantic atmosphere to it. Toured the Real Alcazar, Giralda and hung out in it's Santa Justa District.
From Seville I took a bus to Granada and spent two days there. Sorry to dissappoint all the Madrid fanatics on this board by as I have a personal bias to mountains... Granada was my FAVORITE city
. Early November is also a very good time to visit the Alhambra as the crowds were extremely light and thus I was able to stand often in rooms all by myself and really get a feel for the palace.
After Granada, I took a bus to La Linea and walked over to the Gibraltar border. Fantastic panoramic views of the Atlantic and Mediterranean sides of the strait can be seen at the top of the mountain and of course the famous barbary apes were roaming amongst the Rock tourists everywhere!
The next day I took a day trip to Morocco via a tour group in Gibraltar. They took us to the cities of Tanger and Tetouan ( a small town in the interior about a hours drive from Tanger). Moroccan rural country in the north was much greener than I expected- also very mountaneous and beautiful (sorry my mountain bias is showing again
). It in fact resembles Southern Spain considerably. Thus it's not surprising that the Moors were able settle in so comfortably in Andalucia during their reign in the middle ages!
We had our ferry ride back at 9pm at night. One of my most fond memories is standing on the outside deck of the ferry taking in the very black starry sky, while our ferry is somewhere in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar heading back to Spain.
Upon return, took the train from Algeceris to Madrid. It was a 6.5hr train ride of which the first 4 hrs was spent slowly chugging through the Mountaneous regions of Andalucia to Cordoba (about 1/3 of the total distance to Madrid) Of course I LOVED this part of the train ride.
It even had a stop in Ronda, thus I was able to get quick views of those famous white towns on the edge of mountain cliffs that Ronda is famous for. At Cordoba the engine of the Train was changed to an AVE, the the train just took off like the bullet and did the other 2/3 of the distance in a little over 2 hours!!!
I had a great time in Madrid,did all the major touristy spots via a city tour and visited the Prado, hung out in the Puerta De Sol Area a lot and shopped like mad in it's shopping district. I stayed at the Hotel Plaza Mayor and highly recommend it.
Took a half day trip to Toledo. Our hotel concierge recommended just going on one's own and taking the local buses that depart every 30mins for toledo all day for only 3.75 Euros. So I did that and spent a few hours on a self walking tour in the Old city section of Toledo. Highly recommend it, as compared to other cities, it still retains a medieval city feel. It was very easy to tour the entire city in about 3-4hrs on a leisurely pace.
The only somewhat negative thing to report is that my bag was *almost* snatched in a McDonalds on the Gran Via in Madrid! I was sitting in a quiet corner with my bag under the table on the side facing the wall and away from traffic. However a group of people came stood nearby and started the typical commotion to distract attention from a pickpocket. Luckily someone sitting near me saw what was really happening and stopped it when my bag was only pulled halfway from the table! phew!
Compared to the other cities, in Madrid, one has to be much much more vigilant against pickpocketors. Yes they exist all over Spain, but in talking to other tourists too, we all agreed that one has to hold onto their bags a little tighter in Madrid compared to the smaller cities.
But overall I didn't feel unsafe in Madrid at all once I learned to adjust to the higher pickpocketing threat.
Cheers,
Adventura
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