By Joyce, on December 24th, 2015
 It was time to move from Spain to our next country, Morocco. But first we had to get there. We decided to take the 106 km rail line between Ronda, Spain and the industrial port town Algeciras, Spain where we would board a ferry to take us to Morocco. The train trip is generally regarded [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 20th, 2015
 Our last stop in Spain was in Ronda. It is a pretty, but not necessarily the prettiest of Andalucia’s White Towns—towns in which virtually all buildings were painted white initially to reflect the heat of the sun, and now due to government mandate. But what Ronda may lack in pure beauty, it more than makes [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 18th, 2015
 From Ubeda Spain, we moved on to Granada Spain. This entailed a bus ride of more than 2.5 hours through miles and miles and miles of olive tree groves, interspersed by occasional towns, one city (Jain) an scenic hills. When we arrived, we found a pleasant combination of modern and historic places with some pleasant [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 16th, 2015
 We took a 1/2 day trip from Ubeda to Baeza by short bus ride. Baeza is another small, beautiful, Renaissance-era World Heritage town surrounded by olive groves. It was the first Andalusian town the Christians won back from the Moors in 1226. Settled by prominent knights, it quickly prospered through its Golden Century in the [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 14th, 2015
 From Cordoba Spain, we made our way to Ubeda Spain, a World Heritage town. It won the patronage of a number of powerful men through the 16th century, is a literally a museum of Renaissance architecture. Everything from the remaining city walls, to the churches, the former palaces and even the old city hospital are [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 12th, 2015
 Perhaps if we came to Cordoba before Seville and Cadiz, we would have better appreciated its Old Town. True, it does have a number of narrow streets and alleys of the Jewish Quarter, lined with whitewashed buildings and touristy shops. Then there’s the Roman bridge linking the two sides of the city which is as [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 10th, 2015
 While we were in Cadiz Spain, we took a day trip to Jerez. Tom wanted to explore sherry and Joyce humored him (Joyce hates sherry). We took a train from Cadiz to Jerez De La Frontera and found a pretty town and has a number of historic sites. Jerez has a scenic Old Town, with [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 8th, 2015
 Cadiz Old Town Tour Cadiz is a beautiful old town and we decided to first explore it with a tour. We choose Pancho Tours, which does free tours in a number of cities in Spain (free meaning that you give the guide what you think the tour is worth). This was one of the better [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 6th, 2015
 Seville is the heart of Andalucía. Founded by the Romans and ruled by Muslims for over 500 years, its architecture, art, food and culture is a blend of medieval, Arabic, Renaissance and modern European influences. And what a wonderful place it is…probably one of our favorites in Spain. Santa Cruz and the Traditional Center of [Read more …]
By Joyce, on December 4th, 2015
 On this trip, we only had a brief, two-evening, one day stop in Madrid. And since it was so brief, it was incumbent on us to stuff as much as possible into that time. And we did. We had two brief, but satisfying dinners, one lunch at the hottest and surely the busiest tapas venue [Read more …]
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