The whirlwind trip: Southern Spa

The trip of a lifetime: Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Seville, and Merida all crammed into a week…where to begin:

Madrid;

Madrid was very interesting to visit, because in comparison to Barcelona’s old city their old cities streets are very wide and the layout is much more open. It definitely felt like the D.C. of Spain to me since it had a much more civic and grand scale than Barcelona. It's also a much newer city than Barcelona and that definitely shows.

Highlights:

-“Power viewing” at the Prado, which is the largest painting gallery in all of Europe.

-Having my first churros and chocolate since I’ve been on this trip…actually not my favorite

-seeing the Cathedral de Saint Ma La Real de la Almudena

-Seeing the Guernica

Cordoba;

The next day we got up bright and early and headed over to Cordoba. On our way out of Madrid we found out that there was a car bombing in Madrid earlier that day so they were doing random checks on the highway. We didn’t get stopped but there was tons of traffic and it took us a while to even get out of Madrid, but finally we got to Cordoba. Cordoba is a really awesome city. If you ever just need a break from life to chill out think and see lovely, lovely things go to Cordoba! The city is extremely small so there really isn’t much life but at the same time it is very relaxing and peaceful.

In Cordoba I have never felt so safe in the built environment either in Barcelona or at home. When we wandered the streets at night they were empty but it wasn’t scary or eerie; it was nice, peaceful and still.

Highlights:

-Haman baths

-wanderi

ng the city

-Mosque of Cordoba

Granada:

After visiting the mosque we headed pretty much straight away to our next destination – Granada! I think Granada and Seville are tied as my favorite cities on this trip. For different reasons they are both completely awesome cities

Granada has a very interesting and somewhat odd juxtaposition of a built environment focused around the ancient Alhambra vs. the built environment of a completely new city. The procession that takes y

ou from the new city to the old is very interesting and I think it is reinforced by the actual physical action of having to go up a hill to reach the older part of the city.

Highlights:

-watching the sunset behind th

- Alhambra from the Saint Miguel Mirador.

-The Alhambra

Seville:

Seville is the city I love with my other half. Every section of the city is beautiful, open, tropical and warm

Highlights:

-cathedral of Seville

-the Alcazar

Merida:

Merid a was a small city that we went to at the end of our trip. It is mostly known for it's Roman ruins although there is an excellent museum by Moneo there as well.

Highlights:

-Roman ruins
-Moneo museum