Lesser Known Sights

From Seville, we enjoyed a day trip to Cadiz.

In Barcelona, I think the Modernista St. Pau Hospital Complex deserves much more attention that it receives in the RS guidebook. A 10 minute walk from the Sagrada Familia, it is a complex of Modernista buildings designed by Montaner, who also designed the Palace of Catalonian Music.

We also enjoyed a day trip to Tarragona from Barcelona.

Barcelona:

• Absolutely Sant Pau.
  
• The city is awash in sites of interest to those who like modernista architecture. Only a few (Casa Batllo, Casa Mila/La Pedrera, La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell and the Palau de la Musica Catalana) are heavily visited. I won't list a bunch of others here but will mention a couple of indoor possibilities in case you're unlucky with the January weather: The small Museu del Modernisme Catala in the Eixample and the modernism section of the huge Museu Nactional d'Art de Catalunya on Montjuic are both worthwhile. The latter (where I spent 5 hours, despite not being a great fan of Spanish art) has a large art collection and some lovely old church frescoes, giving you more bang for your entry buck.
• If the weather is decent, wander around Gracia and/or the Eixample, looking at the facades. The local maps often mark buildings of interest so you can figure out which areas may be especially interesting. One block off the Ramblas you'll be the only tourists around.
• Barcelona has a great many art and decorative-art museums. I enjoyed the Frederic Mares Museum; the man collected all sorts of things. But taste in museums is so varied. I suggest reading through TripAdvisor's "Things To Do" list for the city to see what sounds appealing. I'd also check at the tourist office about special exhibitions that may be running in January.

Madrid:
- Rick covers the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in his book, but it's never mentioned on this forum, so I think it qualifies as under-visited. The difficulty is that there are not many English-language tours (one a day in May 2015), and it was impossible to find out the schedule or reserve a spot ahead of time. One had to show up before opening time, line up, and hope there was going to be a tour that wasn't already full of package-tour folks. But one could read through Rick's description a couple of times and take a Spanish tour.
- The Botanical Garden near Retiro Park is a pleasant place to spend some outdoor time.

Toledo:
- Rick mentions (somewhat disparagingly as I recall) a group of secondary sights for which you can pay a single entry fee. You get a little plasticized-paper bracelet so you can spread your visits over 2 or 3 days (until the bracelet comes off). Short bilingual tours are included for most if not all of the sights. I found all those sights very worthwhile, and the tours were informative. Your cell phone or tablet will get a workout as you try to find the sights. Trying to cram them all into one day might be a mistake if you want to take advantage of the tours. It's quite easy to miss the starting time when the tours run practically back-to-back.
- To me, a big part of enjoying Toledo is just wandering around in the back streets. 90% of the tourists seemed to be on the path between Zocodover Sq. and the Cathedral.

In Barcelona ...
•Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar
•Caixa Forum, CCCB, MACBA (check current exhibitions)
•Pedralbes Monastery

In Madrid ...
•Basilica de San Francisco el Grande
•Museo Sorolla, Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Caixa Forum
•Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Monasterio de la Encarnación

I've had success with googling "offbeat " to find fun things to do. I found this site that has some fun suggestions.

Some nice suggestions above, such as Santa Maria Del mar in El Born(it’s also very nice to get lost in the streets).
The museum of catalan arts as mentionned is a must. I personally enyoyed the Roman art section.

Close to Cordoba, the Almodovar del rio castle is a must. It’s of the way to Sevilla.
East of the city is Medina Azahara, a moorish ruins site.

Close to Sevilla, Jerez, for the horse school
Close to Granada(it was closed when we went) google caminito del rey. A spectacular walk that reopened 2 years ago. Make sure you look at videos from the past year or 2, not before, as it was very risky and dangerous. It’s completely renovated now.
White hill towns: Zahara is quite spectacular, Grazamela is very charming.

Thank you all so much. I'm busy googling suggestions. Modernists San Pau we keep keep discovering from various sources. It's become a must see site. Lots of other attractive suggestions,

I should note that we will have a car between Granada and Seville only. Everything else will be by train or bus, I will get a few days around Madrid, in Salamica, and around Caceres on my own with a car. Any suggestions for that 10 days would be appreciated though almost every thing on my list is at least arguably a lesser sight.

Trujillo is an interesting out-of-the-way town less than an hour's drive from Caceres. Merida is about the same driving time; it has some Roman ruins and an archaeological museum with impressive (to me) mosaics.

Also check out other guides from the library. Lonely Planet and Moon are more European publications with more comprehensive choices. I jotted a few extras into my RS pages, but found with a sore foot and a propensity to slow travel anyway, I don't get through everything on a list. Also, I am less than halfway through Spain.
I think Lonely Planet also has roadtrips for Spain, so if you have a car, check out some of the areas.
For my next visit, there are numerous castle towns around Madrid that I would do, particularly Aranjez with the royal palace and gardens. If you like art, I think it is Cuenca which is a an old hill town that became an artist colony some decades ago. The old houses clinging to the cliffs are now art galleries.
As an asside, I know Rick's design is to do as much as possible in a short American vacation block, but as well as cut out many worthy places, he rushes through things with 'highlights'. Slowing down letting opportunities come and watching can be memories that last linger than 'what did we do on Thursday again?' Was that alter photo from X, Y, Z, or A church from Tuesday?
There are several minor museums in Park Maria Louisa in Seville. I went to the museo de arte y costumbre. Back in the day as a little girl, I poured over photos of Spain regional clothing. The main draw of this museum are dolls dressed in regional clothing, but I missed the memo that the display was closed for restoration. However, there are rooms of fine lace and embroidery and floors of home activities with good films on ceramic making, farming techniques as well as furnishings.
Museo archeologico in Cordoba was interesting and a great price...free or 1.50E depending on the mood of the guard or your country of origin.

I'll try to go as far as possible from recommending "known" places :)))...

IN BARCELONA:

History: Museu d'Història de Catalunya (1), Museu d'Història de Barcelona (2)

Odd speciality museums (well, sort of!): Museu del Modernisme Català, Hash Museum, Funeral Carriages Collection, Museu del Perfum, Rei de la Màgia (King of Magic), Erotica Museum, Museu de la Moto (3), Museu de la Xocolata

Hicking/walking: Collserola (+info), Laberint d'Horta

(1) I'm a history buff myself, and I consider this one to be one of the best history museums we have here in Catalonia. Albeit their website is only in Catalan, the museum -much like most others here- has all its informative panels in Catalan, Spanish and English.
(2) This is not a single museum but a complex of sites scattered across the city and beyond: http://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/museuhistoria/en/taxonomy/term/441
(3) Catalonia was a leading motorcycle manufacturer for decades in the early 1900s and has a rich history of small independent manufacturers.

OUTSIDE BARCELONA -all reachable by train in (X minutes):

Museums: Colònia Güell -in Santa Maria de Cervelló (20'); Museu del Ferrocarril -in Vilanova i la Geltrú (45') and the museum is by the station; Museum of Science and Industry of Catalonia -in Terrassa (30')

Climbing/hiking: Montserrat (60'), Vall de Núria (105'), Montseny (90') -since you're coming in January, make sure you understand these are natural parks in mountain ranges, so dress appropriately!

Open air markets:
- Vic (90')(Sat morning): Aside from the market in itself, this medium-sized city was an important medieval enclave in this part of Catalonia and has plenty of interesting sites to visit.
- Vilafranca del Penedès (60')(Sat morning): also, aside the market and a brief visit to the town, there's another important reason: to combine this visit with an escapade to the nearby Sant Sadurní d'Anòia (same train line, at 20'), the world capital of cava, and visit one of the cellars. Two stand out: Cordoniú and Freixenet, the first founded in 1551.

There are, literally, dozens of other options... I just listed a few.

-END PART 1-

Also, a very important (and distinct!) trait of any visit here in Catalonia is related to the numerous festivals celebrated during the year. Practically all cities and towns celebrate several festivals each year, be the winter/summer solstice, be cultural, be folk and heritage, etc. so it's important to check the city/town website to see whether one is on the horizon. Tip: google for "name of the town, turisme" to easily find info regarding these and other tourism-related events. Note though that "tourism" doesn't necessarily refer to foreign tourists since we also have a lot of internal tourism in Catalonia. While everybody, local or foreign, is always welcome to any event, note that some of them are not necessarily geared towards non-Catalan speakers, meaning there might not be "translations" to Spanish or English, thus one can perhaps feel a bit "lost" -if you know what I mean. Granted though that sometimes that doesn't matter :).... i.e. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/27/pictures-of-the-day-27-may-2016/revellers-burn-flares-as-they-take-part-in-the-patum-in-the-cata/ A lot of European tourists come in purpose to Catalonia just to attend some of these festivals (La Mercè in Barcelona, Medieval Market in Vic or in Montblanc, Sant Narcís in Girona, Tarracoviva in Tarragona, La Patum in Berga, etc)

I get you have enough to spend a whole Sunday googling now, right?

Enjoy!

-END-

I wasn't thinking about day-trips from Madrid when I wrote my earlier post, but I certainly agree with Maria about Cuenca. The fastest way there is the AVE, because it's on the Madrid-Valencia line. That would be an affordable day-trip (by my standards) only if you could snag one of the super-low promo fares. Be aware that the AVE station for Cuenca is not within walking distance of town. There are buses, but I don't know whether they align with train arrival and departure times, and they may be less frequent on weekends (or at least on Sundays). The town has two good modern-art museums as well as an interesting cathedral (English-language audio guide available). I remember that the cathedral was quite chilly on a hot day in late May. I saw some posted references to at least one walking tour, but I don't remember the details.

I also took day-trips to Chinchon (by bus), which is quite small, and the larger university town of Alcala de Henares (by local train). Alcala has a very pretty historic district, flat and highly walkable. I really enjoyed the appearance of that part of the city. I didn't go inside any "sights" in either city, just wandered around.

If you have a car and are going to Cáceres from Madrid, then as acraven mentioned Trujillo is a wonderful town and well worth exploring. It is like stepping back hundreds of years in time. Many of these small towns in Extremadura give you that impression and that is what makes them so unique and attractive. Nearby Guadalupe with its monastery and colorful plaza is also beautiful. Extremadura has many spectacular sites and is often overlooked by international tourists. I also liked Cáceres very much. If by any chance you travel from Cáceres to Salamanca there are many worthwhile small old towns to visit, such as Plasencia, Hervás, Granadilla. One site not often mentioned that I liked outside of Madrid was La Granja de San Ildefonso. That could be a daytrip. It is a royal palace/gardens/hunting lodge modelled after Versailles. If you have a car in Toledo, a sidetrip to Consuegra to see the windmills and castle perched high on the hill overlooking the town and plains below is recommended. As you do your research, see if you can get hold of the Michelin green guide for Spain. They are older books but I find them very helpful for planning purposes. They suggest routes and do a very good job of listing the lesser known sites in a country. One suggestion for your travels anywhere in Spain, take advantage of the mid day comida del día or menú del día at local restaurants. You will get a great meal that often includes soup or salad, bread, main dish, dessert and wine for a very reasonable price.

Since people are adding places like Trujillo and Merida (both nice, but Merida has more to see), I’ll throw Almeria into the mix. It has a nice castle and market (but it doesn’t compare to La Boqueria). The castle is within walking distance to the center city.

Enric,

Thank you for the wealth of local information. I have indeed spent last Sunday googling.

Thank you to everyone else as well. The Hospital Saint Pau and The History Museum of Barcelona are on our list. We will wander both the old town and the Eixample.

Cadiz looks like a fine day trip. We were thinking of Italica too as while I will get to Meredes, my husband will not. Is it better to take him to Italica from Seville or Tarragona from Bareclona? We will choose one or the other. He's a Romeafile.

Has anyone been to the tombs outside Antequera? That looks like a good stop between Ronda and Granada to us.

Salamanca and Caceres are my two solo bases, but I need a third either to the East or Northwest of Madrid. Any suggestions? The idea is to do a circle from Madrid to Madrid, but I can rent and drop the car anywhere easily reached by public transport from Madrid. I think I should either pickup and/or drop the car in Salamanca, But I could use someplace East, Northeast, or southeast of Madrid for either pickup or return instead. Any suggestions? I could of course just base my ten days between Salamica and Caceres and not choose a third place.

I wish we had taken a cab or a tour to Italica. Smart people could take a bus, but it's a short cab ride from Seville. Even though I loved Tarragona, I can't argue against Italica. Tarragona is a full day trip from Barcelona, but it looks like you could do Italica in a few hours from Seville.

I vote for both Italica and Tarragona!

Segovia would seem the obvious choice as a 3rd base. It would give you easy access for day trips to El Escorial, Avila, Valladolid.

In Seville we enjoyed touring the Museum of the brotherhood that runs the Macarena floats for the Easter parades. https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/la-macarena-no-not-the-dance/

In Madrid we stumbled on this little gem: https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/easter-egg-in-madrid-basilica-san-francisco-el-grande/

We also took a train to Montserrat and some sort of gondola type thing up to the monastery and then hiked around up in the hills around it; it was gorgeous. We did this in May many years ago and it was pleasantly warm that time of year.

We also went to the Dali museum in Figuerres; really excellent if you have any interest in Dali.

Hi Jen!

I would highly recommend Italica if you are interested in Roman ruins. The amphitheater is breathtaking in person, and there are also remains of the village itself, including some mosaic flooring. If you're a Game of Thrones fan, this is also the site of a scene from the most recent season.

In Sevilla, for something a little off the beaten track, consider a trip up Las Setas in the Plaza de Encarnación. Its official name is the "Metropol Parasol," but is colloquially known as las setas for its mushroom-like shape. Las Setas is a modernistic structure that provides one of the best views of the city besides the Giralda, and admission includes a postcard and a drink at the top. The view is good during the day, but my favorite time to go up is when it is dark- all of the city's monuments are lit up in golden spotlights. Make sure to double check the opening hours so you don't miss out. For great food, try La Chunga, but beware, it gets busy as it's very popular with locals!

Enjoy your trip!
Aspen

Italica vs Tarragona - if you have a car, Italica is a good choice. There are some fine mosaics and an amphitheatre. I was there several years ago, they've probably (hopefully) excavated even more of the site. Things I didn't like: it took a long time to get there and back by bus, English explanations onsite were minimal and the €10 guidebook I bought in English offered little more and was heavy to carry around. I day-tripped to Tarragona by train last year, and I was disappointed by the Roman ruins. There is much more to see there and I enjoyed the day, but for Roman ruins choose Italica! Just plan to see it on your way out of town with the rental car.

Festivals in Andalucia include the huge week-long feria in Sevilla that probably starts around April 15 next year, the horse festival in Jerez and one or two smaller ones in Cordoba around the beginning of May. Check for dates and decide if you want to be part of them or avoid them.

I don't know what's in the RS book, so I'll tell you about lesser sights I've discovered and enjoyed.

Cordoba - a folk museum in the tower at the foot of the Roman bridge, the archaeology museum, La Casa de Sefarad (with the inexpensive inhouse guided tour), Palacio de Viana, Museo Julio Romero de Torres
Sevilla - a new museum, not yet on everyone's radar is the Palacio de las Duenas
Ronda - Museo del Bandolero, the bullring and its museum, Centro de Interpretacion del Vino
Between Ronda and Granada - The Pink Lagoon (Fuenta de Piedra) - if the flamingos are there, El Torcal for hiking, Antequera for the prehistoric dolmens and interesting medieval center.

I am in Toledo now and there are plenty of obscure places here. Please don't do it as a day trip. There is the Hospital of Infants...or Tapestry museum affiliated with the Cathedral (free with Cathedral proof of purchase). I love the repurposing of spaces. This was essentially the orphanage of the Cathedral for centuries. The other treasure is Santa Cruz Museum. Not actually lesser known but it was almost empty and had wonderful el Grecos. I had to make do with these as the el Greco museum was closed the days I am here. Anyways, Santa Cruz has some interesting temporary exhibits and the these show the size of the original building (massive) and a lot of roof lines, fresco bits, carvings...the space itself is just a find, and often one would not see a church so close to the ceiling.
The Toledo tourist map has a list of a lot of sites and their costs and hours. They have a number of good bracelet deals for entry to lesser sites.
As I am finding, even with three weeks myself, I never have enough time in any of the cities. Shortened winter hours really cut into things particularlymif they also close for siesta, though many don't...and Sunday short days and Monday all day closures.....and travel hours.

Bellesguard in Barcelona: one of Gaudi's lesser know creations.

Bellesguard in Barcelona: one of Gaudi's lesser know creations.

TALKING ABOUT ROMANS...

For those visiting Catalonia:

-TARRAGONA (100km south of Barcelona, 1h by high-speed train, 1:30h by commuter train)

It's, with a difference, "the" most iconic place to visit in Catalonia for those Romeaphiles (?). Tarragona is a city initially founded by the Iberians around the fifth century BC but it was during the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, from 200 BC, when Tarragona flourished. Named Tarraco by the Romans, it was established as the glorious capital of the whole Tarraconensis Roman province that covered most of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and part of Portugal) after the reform of Augustus around 27BC. For the next centuries, Tarraco became de facto one of the most important cities in the Roman empire, not only in its status as the capital of the biggest western province of the empire but also as a vibrant centre for commerce and cradle for important figures of Rome's political upper echelons.

Today, Tarragona (former Tarraco) is a medium-sized city (pop 120,000), still with one of the most important industrial ports in the Mediterranean and a potent chemical industry around it. Visiting Tarragona today, one can discover a lot of remains of its ancient Roman past, among which the Praetorium and the Roman Circus -with an impressive capacity for 30,000 spectators-, the open-air Amphitheatre, several temples, the remains of the city wall or the Paleochristian necropolis among other. In 2000, the archaeological ensemble of Tarraco has been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. For more information and some images here.

Also importantly, since 1999 there's an annual festival, TarracoViva, celebrated around May. Over several days, a large number of exhibitions, workshops and conferences show visitors Tarraco, one of the most magnificent cities at the time of the Roman Empire. These events take place at Roman monument sites such as the old city walls, the circus, amphitheatre and aqueduct. In these spectacular settings, different groups give demonstrations of how competitions of gladiators and equine sports took place, or what different aspects of daily life were like in a Roman city. The Festival also features concerts of ancient music, conferences on heritage promotion, a season of archaeological films, and workshops on wine tasting and Roman cooking. The majority of activities at the “Tàrraco Viva” Festival are free. Their site is here yet they must be having a glitch or something because the site has been in shambles for the past few days (as of today Nov 12th!). Keep an eye on it but in the meantime find more here

--END OF PART 1--

-BARCELONA
Contrary to the city of Tarragona, during the Roman Empire Barcelona was "just" a small Roman colony mostly addressed to retired army officers. Picture a modern spa resort for officers, ha! Thus, while there are a number of Roman remains in Barcelona, among which the remarkable underground ruins at the MUHBA in Plaça Reial, these are not comparable to the impressive ones in Tarragona.

For those really into the Roman history of Barcelona, our City Hall has a great site with a trove of information -unfortunately is only available in Catalan, therefore use Google Translate! A superb resource it's a 3D software created by the Virtual City Modelling Lab of the Polytechnic University of Barcelona alongside the Archaeology Service of Barcelona that you can download for free here and that allows you to discover a rendered version of Roman Barcelona in 3D alongside a wealth of information about that period of history in the city. Now bear with me as it's a bit tricky: the webpage is only in Catalan BUT the software has an English version. In the mentioned webpage, locate the sentence "Salve visitator!" and click on the right button underneath, the one with the word "Descarregable". It will download a 100Mb ZIP file containing this software. Unzip it and click on player.html. It'll take a while to load, but when it does, click on the icon labelled "Configura" and then click on top of the word "Catala" until you see "English"... voilà, done!, now you can navigate thru the Roman Barcelona on your PC/MAC. Ah yes, because of technical limitations, this software runs on Firefox and on Safari only. Despite all this hassle, the end result it's really worthwhile, trust me!

Barcelona also has a small festival honouring its Roman past celebrated in mid-June, in the neighbourhood of Creu Coberta, north-west of the city This festival is centred around daily aspects and activities of the ancient Roman inhabitants of the city rather than military activities and combats, so expect little spectacular "action". One can find, for example, workshops on cooking and poetry, street markets offering tastes of recipes, perfumes, demonstrations of hairdressing and cosmetics, decorative arts, etc... everything related to the Roman period, of course! However notice this is a festival organised by a private non-for-profit of Roman scholars and academic enthusiasts, therefore its scope is far more humble than TarracoViva and also their activities are not confirmed until way close to the date of the festival. Unfortunately, its program is very dependable on sponsorship. Also, keep in mind this is not 'a tourist attraction', meaning that while everybody is welcome to visit, expect most workshops and conferences to be in Catalan, the local language. Still, and since many of the activities of the festival are free, one can enjoy the sights.

--PART 2--

-BADALONA (15km from Barcelona, a short 10' train ride)
Named Baetulo in Roman times, this small city located just a few kilometres from Barcelona was founded in 90 BC when the few Iberians that lived in the area where gradually assimilated by the Romans established in Barcino (Barcelona). Badalona has a small museum worth visiting as well as the remains of an Iberian settlement in the outskirts, the Poblat Ibèric del Turó d'en Boscà. More info (only in Catalan and Spanish) here.

-OTHER
There are several other places around Catalonia where one can visit remains of our Roman past, the DIY "Route of the Roman Catalonia"

Enjoy!

Jen, a few more:
1. In Barcelona, I very much enjoyed the Museum of World Cultures, very near the Picasso Museum. It focuses on cultures from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceana. It has a limited number of beautiful works, wonderfully displayed, very relaxing. My type of thing, maybe not yours.
2. While in Barcelona I took a day tour called “Medieval Villages of Catalunya” which visited the ancient villages of Besalu and Rupit and not-so-ancient Tavertet, plus a lot of mountainous countryside. A great day,
3. In Cordoba, there is an interesting museum in the tower just over the bridge near the Mesquita and the large arch. The museum has sort of dioramas which bring to life the major figures from the heyday of life 8n Cordoba. I enjoyed that hour or so in Cordoba.
Enjoy Spain!

I'm always amazed by the generosity on this site. You've given me my Google marching orders. Thank you all.