We're tentatively planning Thanksgiving week in some combination of Madrid and Barcelona - flying into one city and flying home from the other. We like to "embed" ourselves in a city by renting a flat and going as native as possible rather than skimming with hotels and tours.
Given this, looking for advice on:
1) Travel between the two cities - plane, train, bus, or automobile? (see next question)
2) A car - I really don't relish the idea of finding a flat with parking or other some other parking arrangement. How limited would our experiences be without a car? (One of the things on the table is to rent a car for one day to transit between the two cities. That would give us a broader range to enjoy - at least for a day.)
3) The cities of Madrid and Barcelona were picked because there are direct flights to them from the US. Are we making a mistake in focusing on them? Substituting Lisbon (a city I love but my wife has never visited) for one of them is an easy option but it would be a longer transit.
Thanks for any advice!