We took a few days off during Carnival 2015 to visit Celo's mother in Spain. Since this Brazilian holiday doesn't exist on the Emerald Isle, we had to use our vacation days. Following our mother-in-law's suggestion, we went to the Andalusia region and were pleasantly surprised by everything we saw, ate and drank. Thank you, aunt! 🙂

Region Summary

Andalusia became an autonomous community in 1982 and is now the most populous and second largest in Spain, with Seville as its capital. Being an autonomous community means having legislative autonomy and executive powers, and being able to be administered by its own representatives. This region has been occupied by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and, lastly, by the Christians.

In the 8th century, the Arabs crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and gave the entire Iberian Peninsula the name “al-Andalus”. Arab rule lasted almost eight centuries and was magnificently fruitful, as the cities gained impressive mosques and palaces, libraries rich in volumes, and silk and leather factories. In the 15th century, Christian kings took over the region and destroyed much of what the Muslims had built.

Today, the region has olive groves, vineyards, extractive and petrochemical industries, but it also lives off its culture, with bullfighting, flamenco dancing and folklore.

Main attractions

• Mosque of Cordoba (For me, the best attraction of all!)
• Alcazar de los Reyes in Córdoba
• Cathedral and Giralda, in Seville (You can buy in advance and avoid the huge queues)
• Alcázar Castle in Seville
• Museum Archives of the Indies (We weren't, but has more than 80 million pages about the Spanish empire in the Americas).
• Alhambra in Granada (It is the most visited tourist spot in the region – you need to book in advance!)
• Albayzín in Granada, an interesting Moorish neighborhood
• San Nicolas Viewpoint in Granada
• Juderías, or Jewish neighborhoods, in every city
• The Pueblos Blancos, where all the houses and buildings are white.
• Wineries for all tastes. (We visited the winery Luis Perez, in Jerez de la Fronterra, and we left there delighted. They really deserve it. highest rating they have on TripAdvisor. )

Summary Itinerary

Taking into account the attractions above that we researched and the number of days we had available, we organized the itinerary as follows:

Detailed posts

To find out more details about the places we visited, click on the links below:

• 1 day in Cordoba
• 2 days in Seville
• 1 day in Jerez de la Frontera and Vejer de la Frontera
• 1 day in Tarifa, Gibraltar and Marbella
• 1 day in Ronda
• 2 days in Granada
• 1 day in Toledo
• 1 day in Madrid

Getting around the region

• We did Madrid – Cordoba and Cordoba – Seville by train. Since there were 3 of us, it was cheaper to buy the table with four chairs, paying 88 euros for it (we bought the tickets on the Renfe).
• We did the rest of the trip by car, as we discovered that the smaller towns did not have train stations, as well as the route Granada – Madrid, to our surprise. We paid 120 euros for the 5 days of rental with Hertz and just over 70 euros for Diesel for the 990 km trip. This was the route we took by car:

Hosting

We book all hotels through Booking.com – my darling! – and for the first time in my life, I arrived at the hotel and the room wasn’t ready for us, but it was quickly resolved. Apart from this detail, we really liked all the hotels we chose and I recommend them all! I’ll put more details and photos in the posts about the cities, but here’s the short list:

• Hotel in Cordoba – Hotel Tryp
• Hotel in Seville –  Petit Palace Canalejas
• Hotel in Vejer de La Frontera – El Molino Houses
• Hotel in Ronda – Hotel Ronda
• Hotel in Granada –  Nuns of Carmen
• Hotel in Madrid –Alhambra Suite

Internet chip

We bought a 10 euro chip from the company at Madrid airport Orange, which allowed us to use the GPS while on the road and access social networks and newspapers. I think it's more worthwhile than just renting the GPS from the car rental companies. We used Google Maps and Waze together, because the latter showed the speed cameras and sometimes other alternative routes. It saved us in Granada, for example, since Google Maps didn't take into account that some streets were only for residents and visitors who entered would be fined. Just a tip!

Food & Drink

Fortunately, we ate very well everywhere we went. We chose the restaurants according to the reviews of TripAdvisor and seeing blog tips, but I'll talk more about them in the posts of each city. 😉

Shopping

I felt like buying all their crafts, because there are so many cool things with Arabic or Spanish characteristics. I don't think I've ever been so excited about the idea of shopping on a trip. I was afraid of going over the 15 kg I bought at the store. Ryanair, but with a lot of care in organizing the suitcase and backpack, everything worked out. 🙂

Travel in photos

Here are some photos of the places we visited (and loved!):