Hello from Barcelona!!!

OK, I'm baaaaack! Sorry, but our wonderful hotels along the way have not all provided us with free Internet access...

I'm loving that you have all left me comments. Thanks for staying in touch! :-)

Well, we started in Madrid, visited Avila and Segovia on a side trip, and headed to Cordoba on Halloween. Here, we stayed at Hotel Maimonides, located right across from the Mezquita. It was awesome because our window opened up right in front of this cathedral and former mosque. It was only about 15 feet across from us! This is me in front of the window.



The Mezquita was such an impressive visit and the structure was truly unique and beautiful.


We explored the streets in the surrounding neighborhood called the Juderia (Jewish quarter) and saw lots of nearby historic sites, including the Synagogue, Alcazar de Los Reyes Cristianos, Roman Bridge, and Calleja de las Flores, a little alleyway with flowers where you can see the Cathedral in the background. Then we were off to Seville...

Oh, Seville...I fell in love with Seville. This city is romantic and captivating and charming all at once. Our hotel, Las Casas de la Juderia, was an experience in and of itself! To get to our room, we had to walk through underground tunnels and narrow hallways and cross through what was once 14 houses making up 3 palaces. It sounds like a pain, but it was actually awesome! I've never seen anything like that. It was a beautiful hotel with inspiring courtyards and a gentleman playing piano in one of the homes every night. Seville was stunning. The buildings and the architecture were so picture-perfect. We visited the Real Alcazar, and I was in awe! It's a huge complex of palaces and gardens. The Cathedral in Seville is the thrid largest in the world, and we climbed 35 stories up to see the Giralda. (Yes, my torn tendon on my foot from last year's accident was acting up for a while after some of these adventures!) Then there's the Tablao Flamenco show we saw one night. Awesome. I can go on and on, but I won't. NOTE TO SELF: Return to Seville.





After Seville, we drove to Cadiz for a pit stop and continued on to Tarifa and Algeciras, where we actually saw Africa in the distance. Wow. Then we drove the Costa del Sol, stopping in Marbella (I missed Antonio Banderas cause he was no where in sight!) for lunch. We contiued through Malaga, Nerja and up to Granada by nighttime.

The next day was fully devoted to the Alhambra, Spain's most visited attraction, and its palaces and gardens. What a spectacular visit! From the top of the hill, you get a mesmerizing view of the city below and the surrounding areas. We even saw the Sierra Nevada peak from there. Granada had lots to see but we were only there for one full day.

This morning we got up very early and hopped on a plane to Barcelona, where we took a bus tour of the various areas and top attractions. So far, we've seen lots of unique structures designed by Gaudi and art and sculptures by Miro (Richard's favorite -- just kidding -- ask him about it if/when you see him; he apparently cannot appreciate minimalist art with four black dots on a white canvas. LOL!). There's lots to see in this city, but we have three days before we're back in Madrid on Saturday...

I love France and I love Italy, and I would love to return to both of those countries. Spain, however, has a unique culture that I can relate to and I have to say that it has truly captured my heart! This is one amazing trip.

Hugs to all! Gotta wake Richard up so we can go to dinner! LOL!