2 weeks in Spain review (Long)

Just recently finished up my first trip to Europe with my fiance’. Went to Spain and the itenerary was as follows

2 days Mallorca
-day trip Soller

5 days Barcelona
-day trip Sitges

4 days Sevilla
-day trip cordoba
-day trip Ronda

4 days Madrid
-day trip Granada

We went pretty big for our very first Europe trip. 16 days total including the 2 travel days. It was a hell of an experience and was mostly positive and I think we did a pretty damn good job with the planning considering we planned the whole thing only 3 months in advance. I will say 16 days is probably too long for us. By time we got to Madrid we were burnt the frick out. I’ll give a quick run down of the trip

Decided to fly into Mallorca to kick it off which caused us to have 2 layovers, 1 in DC and 1 in Zurich but it went smoothly. In hindsight 2 days wasn’t enough for Mallorca we should have done 3. Mallorca was the only place we rented a car since I read it’s easy to drive there. We hit a minor snag fresh out the gate with parking. We booked a boutique hotel that had no parking so the first hour of our trip consisted of driving around for an hour trying to find parking. Once we did we settled in and walked around, drank a couple glasses of cava then took a nap as we were pretty jet lagged.

Day 2 we decided to drive 45 min north to the small town of Soller. Ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. It’s a small, beautiful town with a church in the center and a tram that runs right through the middle of the church plaza and 15 minutes to the port. It really felt like “Europe” if that makes sense.

(Not my pics, didn’t take any here)





That night we had reservations to a fine dining restaurant in Deià, which was also in northern Mallorca called El Olivo. Ended up being one of those “refined palette” a la carte places. It was gross. Pidgeon, eel, cod and whatnot. We had a good laugh over it, though. They had several honeymoon couples that realized they fricked up as well lol

The next morning we took a plane over to Barcelona. 45 min quick ride.

I’ll be honest, the cab ride from the airport to the hotel I thought what a shite hole. Happy to say I was wrong. We stayed just outside of the Gothic Quarter off of Las Ramblas (like a Canal street). We got lost in the gothic quarter pretty much every night and ate and drank a ton. We did see the Sagrada Familia on day 2, jaw dropping.







We also did a lot of shopping. Clothes are a lot cheaper here so we both damn near bought a whole new wardrobe.

Checked out bar Paradiso which was the #1 ranked bar in the world last year. Video of the menu.



Cool spot with unique cocktails but felt like a tourist trap. Cocktails are expensive and they use those huge ice cubes so you barely get any liquid, but it was cool to experience for a drink or 2.

Only did one day trip from Barcelona which was to Sitges which is a small beach town. The weather was chilly and windy that day and not a lot was open but it’s a nice town. Had a cool old beach stronghold with a cannon

Youtube Link

So we spent 5 days in Barcelona and didn’t run across anybody who couldn’t speak English. It’s one of the most convenient cities to visit in that regard. Everyone was nice and the food was great. There are some “seedy” areas that kinda feel like the shitty part of the French quarter but wasn’t a big deal. We walked everywhere we went, didn’t want to deal with the subway. Fiance’ was so godamn paranoid about the pick pocketing so there was no chance that was going to happen, no issues there. Really wanted to catch a soccer match but Barcelona played on the road that weekend.

Our next stop was Seville. We elected to take a train which was 6 hours. This was the part of the trip I was most nervous about because we had a lot of luggage to haul around and we’ve never taken a train before. The Barcelona train station was by far the most hectic of all the ones we ended up going to. Thankfully, we got there really early and were able to navigate through the crowds and got on no problem. The room for luggage is limited but we were the first ones on so we had room for our stuff. The train ride was great, we booked first class and had breakfast and all that good stuff. The views as you got closer to southern Spain were beautiful.

Seville was probably our favorite hub city. It had the gorgeous gothic architecture that Barcelona has but isn’t nearly as crowded. Our hotel was fantastic. Stayed at a boutique hotel that over looked the Seville Cathedral with a sunset back drop. Called hotel Amadeus





Our 2nd day in Seville we took a day trip to Cordoba. The Seville train station was much less hectic. Cordoba contains the famous Roman Bridge and it has one of the most amazing mosque-cathedrals in the world. Also contains the Royal Alcázar of the old Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella which we visited and is where some of game of thrones was filmed.

Bridge:





Mosque-cathedral:







Monarch palace (gardens):







We also walked around the Jewish Quarter. It was nice but the flies were horrible. Our train back wasn’t scheduled to leave until 9pm that night but we were done by 4 so we just bought an earlier ticket at the station. This is when I realized how much cheaper tickets are at the station as opposed to the Train Line app I used for tickets. Whoops.

Day 3 in Seville we took a day trip to Ronda. It was a 3 hour train ride from Seville and we had to switch trains halfway but we didn’t have any issues. The train ride there is almost worth the trip itself. Beautiful ride through hilly southern Spain with olive trees and farms aa far as the eye could see

Youtube Link

I foolishly thought we would have Ronda all to ourselves because there were only a handful of us on the train. I was wrong. It was a Saturday and it was packed with tourists. That being said it’s the most beautiful day trip we took. Another old Roman bridge over a gorge with views that over look the Spanish country side. Also had the best local wine we had on the trip.













Beautiful city but hilly. We got worn the frick out walking up and down. Skipped the Arab baths. Did the water catacombs that go down into the gorge which was cool but a shite load of steps.