Bienvenido!  I hope you enjoy these pictures and comments as much as my niece Tiffin and I enjoyed our tour of Spain for two weeks in May in 2004.  Creating this Web site and labeling my many other pictures has allowed me to remember everything we saw; sort of a second, more leisurely tour.  We saw a lot in two weeks and I had information overload.

We chose a Cosmos tour, their  Grand Tour of Spain.  The tour filled up the bus with 50 people!  Most of the the tour members were British, there were about a dozen Americans, several Australians, a couple New Zealanders and a couple Puerto Ricans.  The tour guide, Claire, was British by citizenship and half Spanish by ethnic heritage.  The bus driver, Jose, was Spanish.

See some pictures.

Itinerary and brief description of each day:

5/14  FLIGHT
We left from Salt Lake City (Tiffin) and Albuquerque (me), meeting in the airport in Atlanta to fly to Madrid overnight.  Not bad if you can sleep on the plane.

5/15  MADRID
We arrived with time to visit the Prado Museum and the Botanical Gardens next door.  We took a taxi with Alberto, another member of our tour group from Texas.  Two impressive paintings in El Prado are the Laboratoria (important because of the use of perspective) and Las Meninas.  After the intro meeting with the Cosmos tour guide, some of us walked a few blocks down the street to the Taberna del Dominquez for some tapas and sandwiches.  We enjoyed our introduction to Spanish food.  Then we walked more blocks to a central area with a fountain and bridge where there were lots of people celebrating the Fiesta de San Isidro, who is one of Madrid's patron saints.  Several children and a few adults were dressed in costume.

5/16  MADRID - ARANJUEZ - CUENCA
We drove to the royal palace at Aranjuez.  On the way we were impressed with the beautiful red poppies growing along the highway.  The gardens at the palace at Aranjuez inspired Juaquin Rodrigo, who was blind, to write one of my favorite pieces of music, El Concierto de Arjanjuez.  Then we drove to Cuenca, a lovely small town.  We had time to visit the old town, see the cathedral, the famous hanging houses, and a fortress for an enjoyable afternoon.

5/17  CUENCA - VALENCIA
We drove to Valencia.  We had several hours in the late afternoon for exploring.  We took a bus to the Plaza Auyntamiento, had lunch next to a lovely fountain, then strolled through streets to see the area, shop, drink horchatas, and to visit the cathedral and basilica.  We had thought we'd do more, but quit a bit early to head back to the hotel.  We could see a building designed by Calatrava from our hotel room.

5/18  VALENCIA - PENISCOLA - BARCELONA
Today we drove up the coast, stopping at Peniscola to see the old town and the castle.  The crenelations were added to the top of the castle for the movie El Cid, made in 1961 with Charlton Heston.  We arrived in Barcelona in time to take the subway to see a bit of Park Guell, designed by Gaudi.  We would have seen more, probably, if we had gotten off at the stop mentioned in the guide book rather than the stop mentioned by someone we asked in the subway.  But we had a nice long walk up a hill with lots of stairs and escalators up to the park.  We saw the top of the buildings at the entrance to the park designed by Gaudi and the city of Barcelona below before we headed back to the hotel for dinner.

5/19  BARCELONA - MONTSERRAT
Started the day with an orientation tour of Barcelona:  visited Montjuic where they held the 1992 Olympics; stopped at an overlook to see all of Barcelona; visited the cathedral; walked around Gaudi's Sagrada Familia.  Then we took our optional tour to Montserrat--lovely scenery up to the basilica and monastery.  Montserrat is about 4000 feet high with interesting geologic formations.  There is a famous black Madonna in the basilica.  We didn't have enough time here before heading back to Barcelona.  The drive is about an hour each way.  After we returned to Barcelona Tiffin and I re-visited the Sagrada Familia, taking elevators in towers on each facade then walking down the stairs.  A very interesting place.  Then we headed to Las Ramblas to stroll down to the Mediterranean.  On the way we stopped to have falafel and then later some hot chocolate and churros, too rich for me.  We also saw human statues and other street entertainment.  Before we headed back to the hotel, we dipped our fingers in the Mediterranean.

5/20  BARCELONA - ZARAGOZA - PAMPLONA
We drove to Zaragoza for our lunch break.  There is wonderful basilica here, El Pilar, next to the Rio Ebro, which we also crossed between Valencia and Barcelona.  An old (Roman?) bridge,  El Puente de Piedra, crosses the Ebro nearby.  Tiffin and I went to the market, also a wonderful building, and bought bread and cheese and strawberries for lunch.  In Pamplona we had a wonderful walking tour of the old town, walking along streets where pilgrims head to Santiago del Compostela and streets where the bulls run in July.  We visited churches, the main plaza, and the bar where Ernest Hemingway drank.  Then we enjoyed pinchos, Pamplona's version of tapas, for dinner.

5/21  PAMPLONA - AZPEITIA - BILBAO - BURGOS
We head north to Bilbao.  The scenery on the way north is greener and more mountainous, reminding me of Switzerland.  We stopped in Azpeitia at Loyola's basilica.  St Ignatius de Loyola founded the Jesuits in the 1500s, after being wounded in a battle with the French in Pamplona and being rescued by some French men.  In Bilbao we had time to visit the wonderful Guggenheim museum, wonderful curved walls of titanium and glass.  We did not visit the exhibits, just visited the gift shop, had lunch, and walked around the exterior.  The book I got in the gift shop shows wonderful spaces for the exhibits, too.  Then we drove on to Burgos.  We walked around only briefly to see the cathedral.

5/22  BURGOS - SEGOVIA - AVILA - SALAMANCA
The day started with a light, misty rain.  There are cork oaks in this area--Portugal and Spain produce the most cork.  We enjoyed a stop in Segovia to see a very impressive Roman aqueduct.  Avila's old town is still surrounded by the city walls.  Salamanca is a very lively university town.   Both before and after dinner we walked around the plaza mayor, along with lots of other people.  A tuna, a university music group, was dressed in costume and singing on the plaza.  Fun!  We were there on a Saturday night and other tour members said the streets were still busy at 2 a.m.  I heard people in the streets all night long--I thought it was quiet for about a minute at 8 a.m.

5/23  SALAMANCA - TRUJILLO - SEVILLA
A long day of driving through the country.  Our guide told us that the region of Extremadura supposedly has  more animals than people.  We saw cows, sheep, horses, goats, and black pigs.  We also saw more cork oaks.  We had an enjoyable stop in Trujillo, where the conquistador Pizarro was born.  We watched kids playing soccer on the plaza and climbed the hill to an old castle.  Then we headed to Sevilla.  After dinner, we went to a classical flamenco show, as opposed to the gypsy flamenco show we saw later in Granada.  I like flamenco dance and music so I enjoyed the show.  One of the women had wonderfully graceful hands.

5/24  SEVILLA
A whole day in one place!  We took the optional city tour.  Museums are closed on Mondays so we did not get to see the Alcazar but we did get to visit the Casa de Pilatos.  The Casa de Pilatos has wonderful gardens and is a good representation of Mudejar and Renaissance styles.  After a stop in the area of the 1929 exhibition, we walked through the Santa Cruz area, with a wonderful garden and lots of shops.  The tour finished with a stop at the cathedral, which is the third largest cathedral after St Peter's at the Vatican and St Paul's in London.  Tiffin and I had lunch (salads and bread) then shopped for souvenirs.  On our way back to the hotel, Tiffin spotted some people eating nachos at an Irish pub close to the cathedral, so we stopped and had some, too.  Yum!  My favorite meal in Spain, though not typical.  I needed those jalapenos.  In the evening we took the optional boat ride on the Guadalquivir river, followed by a very nice dinner near the cathedral.

5/25  SEVILLA - JEREZ - RONDA - GRANADA
The stop in Jerez del la Fronterra was at Don Pepe's, where they have made sherry for years.  Unfortunately we were there too long and our visit in Ronda had to be shorter.  Tiffin and I enjoyed a very expensive lunch and a wonderful view at the posada in Ronda.  The longer lunch also cut into our touring time.  Then I read the map wrong so we only got a brief look at the Puente Nueva before we had to head back to the bus.  After we arrived in Granada we enjoyed another flamenco evening, this time with a gypsy flavor and a belly dancer.  No castanets.

5/26  GRANADA - CORDOBA
After a relaxing morning, we toured the Generalife (garden of the architect) and the Alhambra (crimson castle).  Both are wonderful places to visit, but be prepared for large crowds.  The design of the Generalife was based on three elements:  color, aroma, and taste.  So there are lots of different colored flowers, roses and orange trees.  The rooms at the Alhambra had lots of intricate plasterwork.  Charles V started a palace in the middle of the area, but it was never finished.  Fortunately it waited until after our tour to start to rain.  Saw miles of olive orchards between Granada and Cordoba.  I napped that evening while Tiffin had dinner with the tour group then went to the fair with some tour members.

5/27  CORDOBA - MADRID
We headed to the old section of Cordoba for a few hours of free time to roam through the area and through the mesquita.  The mesquita was a mosque and then the catholics built a cathedral in the middle of it.  The mosque portion is still a very large area.  The columns and arches are fascinating.  We also did some shopping.  Then we headed back to Madrid.  We again took the optional tour, which included sangria and tortillas (basically omelets) in a cellar, then a nice dinner, and a drive around the city for an evening illumination tour to see the buildings and fountains at night.

5/28  MADRID - TOLEDO
We headed to Toledo, about an hour outside of Madrid, for a tour of that old city.  Initially we drove around the old city on a hill then the tour took us through the streets.  We visited another cathedral, which was impressive, though crowded and noisy with construction.  The sacristy has several paintings by El Greco, painted for the church.  I bought a damascene bracelet of Toledo steel to go with a necklace I had bought there in 1972 when my sister and I were on a tour of Europe.  After returning to Madrid, there was another tour of the city during the day.  The royal palace in Madrid is huge.  Some people in our group toured it after our city tour.  Tiffin and I toured one floor of the Reina Sophia museum, which houses Picasso's Guernica.  We then walked to the Plaza Mayor for vegetarian tapas before heading back to the hotel to pack.

5/29  FLIGHT
Flew from Madrid to Atlanta then home.  A loooooong day.