Photo journal/review - Southern Spain & Barcelona

Contributing what I can in case anyone is planning Spain in 2017. I don't have a lot of the ordinary shots of the streets or food, my wife has that stuff on her phone and I will supplement it later. Most of what I have is architectural/landscape, but some may find that interesting or helpful. I also don't have photos of everywhere we went, lugging the camera gets old.

Spent 13 days between basically 3 areas: started in Madrid, went south to Seville (2 nights), day trip to Toledo, night in Ronda, 2 days in Granada, and the rest in Barcelona. It was definitely a lot to do in that time.

Madrid honestly kinda sucked, I'd heard that from a few people before I left and regret not just spending a single night there. It's a big city, but just not a whole lot in terms of interesting things to see. I can see an American studying abroad want to live there, but visiting was a pretty "meh" experience comparatively.

Toledo was interesting, a short train ride from Seville. Very hilly, so be prepared to kinda wear yourself out walking up some steep inclines all day long. We got there around 11am and left on the 730pm train and felt it was just enough time to see what we wanted to. Apparently, the place is known for metalworking, and all the swords/weapons from Lord of the Rings were fabricated there.

Cathedral
Wiki












Monastery - San Juan de los Reyes
Wiki

About 500 years old, pretty massive and you kind of have free reign to explore multiple levels.











One of the best views in all of Spain, in my opinion. Had the cab driver take us here on the way back to the train station.



White Hill Towns
Zahara, Ronda, Arcos de la Frontera, etc.

So these were really cool to see. We rented a car from Grenada and drove out through these towns, up into the mountains. Some great natural scenery, and of course, the White Hill Towns are something to see, particularly as they come up in the distance. The towns are all pretty quaint/low key, but we always found good, traditional food. We stayed in Ronda, the apparent birthplace of bullfighting. These are just scenes making our way from Granada and up through the towns.



Arcos de la Frontera


the gorge which cuts through Ronda











Granada
Very cool, great food and good people. We booked a pretty awesome tapas tour that took us all over the city for 3-4 hours and gave us tips on where to check out the next day.

The Alhambra is biggest attraction of the area, basically the former mecca for the muslims. Tickets needed a few days in advance.












Some other nice museums and churches as well.







Barcelona
Great place, did an AirBnB and it worked out perfectly for us. Metro system there is very efficient, so we had no reason to do anything but walk/train wherever we needed to be.

The Sagrada Familia is something everyone should check out, regardless of whether or not you're a religious type. It's pretty much one of the most unique forms of architecture you'll ever see. It's been under construction for almost 150 years and is projected to finish in 2026.



Opposite side:


Interior:










Traveled all the way there by subway at night and it wasn't lit at all. Did a shitty long exposure to get what I could.


Gaudi, who designed the church, also has two famous buildings he designed in Barcelona, Casa Batllo and La Padrera.

Battlo is interesting to see from the outside, the actual tour on the inside wasn't worth it. Was kind of cheesy, they give you a tablet and it renders fish swimming around inside the room. It's also packed.







La Padrera, we did a night tour of it (have to book in advance) and that was kind of cool. Got to go all through the attic, see how he designed every part of it to mimic nature in some way.

Food in barcelona was amazing. I'll add the names of some of the places we went/reviews when I get a chance. We did Tickets, which was a hell of an experience. Have to try to book online exactly 60 (or 90, cant' remember) days in advance and it's spamming mouse clicks to get a spot....like it used to be scheduling at LSU. We did the "feed me" option where they just simply bring courses they select based on what you tell them you like/don't like, and it was all great. If you ask at the start of dinner if you can see the desert room after, they'll reseat you in there after dinner's over and it's something to see.

Will add more as I think of it.