Choosing our last two days in Spain

Jana,
I like your idea about spending an overnight in beautiful Córdoba.

There will definitely be trains traveling on October 12, but make sure to ask your hotel staff if you need to be concerned about taxi getting you to the train station (due to parade street closures)

A few years ago, we traveled from Granada to Sevilla on October 12th, and our hotel staff suggested we leave the city earlier in order to avoid traffic delays due to parade street closures.

I also suggest you book you train tickets in advance in order to save money.

Enjoy your time in beautiful Spain!

Trains will be running. Perhaps one of our more experienced posters will care to guess at what frequency. You'll be able to save quite a bit of money on your post-tour train tickets by buying them soon after they go on sale. I'm guessing that will be no earlier than June, but I'm no expert on Renfe. The cheapest Promo tickets will be non-refundable and non-changeable, so be sure your plans are firm before buying.

I like the idea of Cordoba and would tend to go there since it's comparatively easy to fly back into Barcelona on a later trip and you will have had a fair amount of time in Barcelona already. There is a lot to see in Cordoba beyond the Mezquita. It is a lovely place.

Skyscanner shows nonstop flights for less than $100 from Sevilla to Barcelona, so that's the fast way to get there. You can sleep in Sevilla one more night and take a direct, 45m train to Codoba for the day and fly to Barcelona on Mon.

Actually, Cordoba has a rather large Old Town, and it's a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Hi the Spanish National Holiday (i.e. Fiesta Nacional de España) is akin to the 4th of July Holiday in USA, so yeah it is kinda a big deal lol, most of the major towns and cities have patriotic events/parades (exception being Barcelona for obvious reasons). The main thing is that it's a national holiday, so everyone has the day off, which means there will be a good amount of traveling done by locals during this time. That means you should probably buy your train tickets/reserve hotels as soon as you can.

I like the idea of going to Cordoba and staying there the night, my favorite city in Andalucia. An alternative could be Zaragoza, which is also conveniently on the AVE line between Sevilla and Barcelona. The thing about Zaragoza is that Oct 12th is also the city's major patron saint's day (Fiestas del Pilar), so the city is full of local food/wine, festivities, and events, which may be a good opportunity to connect with the locals (as they say lol)!

After pondering your suggestions we are planning (tho not cast in stone) to take a train in the morning to Cordoba from Sevilla after the tour ends.

Stash our luggage at the hotel (Hotel Mezquita???) and start looking around. On Sunday the cathedral will be open in the afternoon from 3-6pm. We could see the Jewish quarter and a couple of other things before hand. Have a nice meal...

Due to our day there being a Sunday some things are closed (which we understand).

Any thoughts to our currents plans?

Not sure which trains to pursue between the 3 cities. I understand there is Avante and Renfe. Neither of them are selling tickets that far out. Anybody that knows the train ins and outs please share.

Any wonderful restaurants to be sure to try?

Horse and Flamenco shows are not available Sundays?

It should be a wonderful day! Monday morning we would take a bullet train to Barcelona arriving around lunch time. We'll buy the ticket ahead of time so it's a definite thing. We'll be in Barcelona the day before our flight on Tuesday and can see anything we missed the first time or repeat anything we loved. (Gaudi buildings?)

Thank you again for all your comments. I appreciated them all.

KInd regards,
Jana

Renfe is the company that runs the major trains in Spain. AVANT, AVE, ALVIA are just types of trains; they're all relatively fast trains. Don't worry about those different names; just look at the schedule to see how long each train takes. There won't be much difference between AVE/AVANT/ALVIA on the same route (and all three will not usually be available). There may be other, slower trains. You'll probably want to avoid those on longer trips, because they'll waste your precious time.

1.5 days in Seville is not enough. Spend another day there, then up to Córdoba for a day. See if you can find a flight from either Seville or Córdoba to Barcelona. Might be easier from Seville to Barcelona

I don't think there are any commercial flights out of the Cordoba airport, but that's OK because trains to Barcelona can take as little as 4 hr. 34 min.

Rizell, Tell me the special things you would do in Sevilla. J