¡ Buen viaje!

We spent the longest part of our trip in Spain, two weeks.  We both speak Spanish and we were also interested in seeing first hand the cities and culture we had spent so many years studying.  We arrived first in Barcelona by train.  Did I mention it was a lot cheaper to buy tickets to Paris instead of Madrid from Telaviv?  Well it was by about $100 US.  Since the people we were staying with in Paris were on vacation, and the World Cup was still under way.. we got off the plane and immediately used our eurorail pass to get to Barcelona (Spain was originally our next stop anyway).  We then proceeded to spend a few days in Barcelona recuperating from our almost 36 hours of constant travel.  We sat on the boardwalk, watched the waves on the ocean, drank sangria, ate paella, and rejoiced in the fact that we were finally back on track.

Hostels were easy to come by in Spain and I don't think it was just because we spoke Spanish.  Every train station had a tourist info counter with hostel maps, and even though we didn't always stay at one mentioned in the map, it gave us a good guideline as to what areas to start looking in. We did all our traveling between cities by overnight train except for Toledo where we took a bus from Madrid.

After Barcelona we went to Granada.  The Alhambra was my favorite part of Spain.  Its an old Moorish Castle surrounded by magnificent gardens high on a hill overlooking the city.  Every courtyard and walkway has some type of reflecting pool, water garden or fountain that flows by natural means. The Patio de los Leones is probably the most famous fountain located there. Get a city map at the train station and look up a tourist center.  They can give you the prices, hours, location of the bus up the hill etc... Be sure to take a picnic lunch to eat in one of the gardens.  We chose a rose garden that was so thick with the aroma of roses you could almost taste it.  Heavenly!

Our next stop was Algeciras by Gibraltar.  We wanted to see the Rock, and did, but it was not a major highlight of our trip.  I personally found the pigeons in the Main Plaza of Algeciras to be more entertaining.  I included a picture of one below.

Madrid was last on our agenda.  Many of the museums are free on Sunday.  We went to the Reina Sofia (modern art) museum on a Sunday and were surprised by the lack of crowds.  Probably El Prado was more crowded on the free day but it was well worth the admission price we paid the day before.  I'm not a big fan of modern art but I did want to see Picasso's Guernica. Wow!  El Prado had a lot more art I was familiar with.  Goya's dark paintings were chilling.

Don't forget to have churros and chocolate some morning for breakfast!! (long doughnuts and whipped hot chocolate, better than any you get here).  The Madrid subway was cheap, very efficient, easy to navigate, and covered the entire city. Definitely the way to go.