Trip Report: Andalucia and Madrid in November

The Day-by-Day Details

I’ve described each day, because I like to see what people are able to accomplish and how they organize a day. However, the bold formatting should help those who just want to see the main sights that we visited.

If I don’t specifically comment on a sight or activity, assume we enjoyed it. If I don’t comment on a meal, assume it was okay but nothing special–many of our tapas meals had some hits and some misses. It took us a while to figure out what tapas we liked, and we rarely ordered enough at any one place to feel like we could say which we preferred.

November 4–Madrid Arrival evening: We were tired from our flight and only had a few hours, so we did part of the RS Central Madrid walk, with a stop to have tapas at a touristy, but fine, restaurant on Plaza Mayor and an ice cream near our hotel.

Seville: 5 nights

November 5–Transfer to Seville and Barrio Santa Cruz Walk
We arrived on the train from Madrid shortly before noon. We were met by the apartment host, who introduced us to our apartment. As soon as we could, we set out to have a tapas lunch at the La Sacristia, which was generally good, and do a leisurely RS Barrio Santa Cruz walk. After more so-so tapas at La Moderna and some ice cream, we called it an evening.

November 6: Food Tour, Las Setas, and Church of the Savior (El Salvador)

We began with a 4-hour Devour Food Tour. I was really looking forward to this, since I’ve heard so many raves about food tours. Although our guide was engaging and we learned about food and culture in Seville, this was not one of my favorite activities. There were only five of us on the tour and we made seven stops. The best stops were for jamon in the Mercado de la Encarnacion and three stops for sweets, including churros at the RS-recommended El Commercio, cookies from the nuns at a convent, and pastries at the RS-recommended Confituria La Compana. We went to only one true tapas bar, where we each got to order one tapa, so we learned less about tapas than I had hoped. We also had bocadillos and fried and marinated shark. Overall, the food was fine and there was more than we could eat, but I wasn’t wowed by it. Someday I will try another food tour, but I think we might have done just as well on our own with the RS recommendations, especially since at least 5 of our 7 stops were recommended in the RS guide.

After the food tour, we enjoyed the views at Setas de Sevilla and visited the Church of the Savior (El Salvador), ending the day with dinner at Al Wadi, very close to our apartment. The tagine was good.

Seville Continued. . .

November 7: City Walking Tour, Cathedral, Plaza de España and Maria Luisa Park

After a good breakfast at Canasta, we met our guide at Plaza Nueva for a City Introduction tour with Concepcion Delgado’s Sevilla Walking Tours, highly recommended by RS. There were 20 people, so we were split into two groups of 10–our group with Concepcion’s colleague Marina and the other group with her colleague Mercedes. This was a fast-paced and engaging tour that gave us a great overview of the area north of the Cathedral and Alcazar and the Barrio Santa Cruz, as well as a wealth of historical and cultural information. Communication with Concepcion before the tour was great, and the tour was easy to book and well worth the very reasonable cost.

After a very short stop for a snack at Cerveceria Giralda, we visited the Sevilla Cathedral on our own, using a combination of the RS tour in the guide book and the audiotour available at the Cathedral. This ended up being confusing, because the RS tour goes counterclockwise, but the audioguide goes clockwise. We wished we had taken a Cathedral tour with Sevilla Walking Tours. Of the five Cathedrals we visited, this was probably fourth on our list, although the high altar is impressive. After the Cathedral, we had some tapas at Taberna Coloniales and took the tram a few stops toward Plaza de España and Maria Luisa Park. Both were beautiful, and we enjoyed exploring the area and walking back along the river to Barrio Santa Cruz and our dinner reservation at the very pleasant Restaurante San Marco, located in a former Arab bath. If we had more time, I would return to the park with a picnic for a longer visit.

November 8—We began the day with a visit to the Museo Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija, highly recommended by forum friend CWSocial. The visit included free exploration of the ground floor and a tour of the first floor living quarters in English. The Condesa de Lebrija saved an extensive collection of Roman mosaics from the nearby site of Italica from destruction. The mosaics, tiles, and pottery in the mansion are gorgeous, and the English tour by an enthusiastic presenter was terrific. Along with the Alcazar and the City Introduction walking tour, this was one of our favorite activities in Seville.

After a quick lunch of a jamon and cheese bocadillo, we made a short stop at the General Archive of the Indies because my husband was intrigued that it houses the historical records of Spanish exploration. Then we met with Concepcion Delgado’s colleague Mercedes and two other couples for our tour of the Royal Alcazar. This was another great tour, full of information about the history of the palace and the Mudejar decorative elements.

We ended the day at the Casa del Flamenco, followed by a tapas dinner at Bar Las Teresas. The show included three dances–a short one by a couple, a long one by the woman, and a moderate length one by the man. I was surprised that the woman wore a simple black dress–I was expecting the ruffled dress I associate with flamenco. The guitarist was very good. While I enjoyed the performance, I felt no desire to seek out more flamenco.

Seville continued and Granada

November 9–The only activity we had planned ahead for the day was a lunch reservation. We began the morning with a leisurely and enjoyable visit to the Museo des Bellas Artes, which emphasizes paintings by Zurburan and Murillo. It was not crowded and we enjoyed the paintings. Our lunch at La Brunilda was without doubt our best meal of the trip (cod fritters with pear aioli, duck confit, grilled Iberian pork shoulder, and an amazing chocolate dessert). The service was also excellent. I wish we had gone there for dinner earlier in the trip, as the food was much tastier than anything else we had at the many tapas bars and restaurants we visited during our time in Seville.

After lunch, we followed the RS Triana walk, including a short visit to the Ceramic Museum and a stop at the Capilla de los Marineros, where we saw their beloved statue of the Virgin, La Esperanza de Triana. We never made it to the Basilica de la Macarena, but enjoyed seeing La Virgen de la Macarena’s rival in Triana. Since we had had such a good lunch and needed to pack, we just picked up some food for a light dinner in our room.

Granada: 2 nights

November 10–After traveling to Granada by train, we explored a bit and visited the Granada Cathedral and the Royal Chapel. We began dinner with some croquetas at Bodegas Castaneda, but it became so crowded that we moved to another busy but relatively quiet and good restaurant, Las Manuelas, recommended by our hotel.

November 11–The Alhambra and Albayzin Walk
Today was our day to visit the Alhambra. We entered at 8:30 and visited the Palace of Charles V before our 9:30 entry to the Nasrid Palace. The Alhambra was a highlight of our visit–everything about it exceeded my expectations. After our 4+-hour visit, we had an enjoyable outdoor lunch at La Mimbre. This was one of the few outdoor meals where I didn’t need to wear my fleece, which was great. We walked back to our hotel via the Cuesta Del Rey Chico–this was a bit challenging because it’s fairly steep going down the hill on the cobbles. After a brief rest we took a cab to Stop 3 on the RS Albayzin walk, and continued the walking tour to the San Nicolas viewpoint. Later that evening, we returned to the Albayzin for a good dinner with a view of the Alhambra at Carmen de las Tomasas.

Our visit to Granada was one day too short, so we didn’t get a feel for it as we did in Sevilla, Córdoba, and Madrid. And we didn’t get to visit the Basilica of San Juan de Dios, which was on my list. However, choices had to be made with how we allocated 15 nights in Spain, and I have no regrets because we really liked Córdoba, coming up next. . .

Cordoba

Córdoba: Three nights

November 12—Roman Bridge, Museum of al-Andalus Life, Patios, and Equestrian Show
When we arrived in Córdoba, we knew that we had several days of rain ahead of us, so we wanted to be sure to take advantage of the last day of good weather. We had eaten a sandwich on the train so we would be ready to tour as soon as we checked into our hotel. We began with a walk over the Roman bridge and a visit to the Museum of al-Andalus Life. The upper floors of the museum included some interesting models of the Alhambra and Mezquita, as well as scenes of daily life in Córdoba. At this museum, we began to appreciate the historical importance of Córdoba and were amazed to learn that it was likely the largest and most sophisticated city in the world in the 10th century. The climb to the museum roof was worth it for the view of the Guadalquivir River and the old town.

When we finished visiting the museum, we headed to the San Basilio neighborhood. We purchased tickets for the Equestrian Show at the Royal Stables and then picked up tickets for the Route of the Patios. While charming, the patios were so crowded that they were hard to enjoy. In fact, we never made it to one of the patios, because the line to enter was just too long. However while walking along the route, we stumbled onto one patio that only requested 1 euro donation, and another that was free. These patios were much less crowded and every bit as lovely as the ones on the formal route. After the horse show we went to Meson San Basilio for dinner. This was probably the least touristy restaurant we visited. Portions were huge, and we ordered too much food. While the food was generally good, we learned that we are not fans of flamenquin–which we found too dry and kind of bland. When we left there was a huge crowd of locals drinking in the bar and outside on the street.

Cordoba continued

November 13–Guided Tour of the Mezquita, Jewish Quarter Sights, Hammam al-Andalus

The highlight of the day, and of Córdoba, was our guided tour of the Mosque-Cathedral (Mezquita) with Maria Font. There were only four of us on the tour, so we were able to ask plenty of questions of Maria, who was an excellent guide. This is truly an amazing place, and we enjoyed it just as much as the Alhambra. The whole idea that the outer part of the mosque was preserved and a Cathedral was built in the middle of it is mind-boggling. Maria explained how the mosque was expanded several times during the period from 10th to the 12th century as the city grew, and then how it was consecrated as a cathedral after Córdoba was conquered in 1236. After the one-hour tour, we spent at least another hour using the RS guide to explore further some of the chapels and additional features of the Mezquita. Both the mosque and the Cathedral are gorgeous and this was one of our favorite experiences of the trip.

After a quick pizza lunch at a restaurant named for the Córdoban Jewish philosopher Maimonides, we visited the Jewish quarter, including the synagogue and Casa de Sefarad. Casa de Sefarad is in a restored 14th Century home and focuses on Spanish Jewish history and customs. A fascinating temporary exhibit features the contributions of Jewish artists to comics, from Popeye to Batman, Superman, Captain America, Spiderman, the Avengers, and the Black Panther, to contemporary work by Michael Chabon and Art Spiegelman, among others.

It was raining and our feet were getting very wet, so we headed back to our hotel, where we took a piece of cake from the adjacent cafe to the hotel’s covered patio and relaxed for a while before getting ready for our 5 pm visit to the Arab baths at Hammam al-Andalus. I knew that we wouldn’t have time for the Hammam in Grenada, but when I looked it up I learned that there were a few other locations, including Córdoba. I booked us for the Minna-15, which includes 90-minutes in the baths with a 15-minute massage. (I wanted the Minna-30 for a 30-minute massage, but there were no appointments available by the time I booked, so I recommend booking a few weeks ahead if possible.) This was incredibly relaxing, and a great choice for a rainy evening. We ended the evening with a very good dinner at Patio Romana (thanks to GeoffB for the recommendation), where we finally ordered the characteristic and delicious Andalusian dish of fried eggplant with honey. Probably because of the rain, we had the restaurant almost to ourselves.

November 14—Palacio de Viana and Museo Julio Romero de Torres
The forecast was for rain later in the day, but there was no rain in the morning when we set out for Palacio de Viana, walking at a leisurely pace and stopping at two churches and the Roman ruins on our way. When we arrived at the palacio, we learned that there would be a tour of the mansion at 1 pm, so we visited some of the 12 patios and then joined the tour. The tour was in Spanish, but we were given a brochure that let us follow along with the high points. The guide seemed excellent, but of course we missed the details of her presentation. When the tour ended, we were able to leave for a quick lunch under umbrellas in the square in front of the palacio and then re-enter to finish visiting the patios. We were part way through lunch when the rain started up, and by the time we finished touring the patios it was really raining. We made a short visit to the Museo Julio Romero de Torres (some good paintings) and headed back in the rain, with a stop for churros to go at a small cafe near our hotel. We enjoyed the churros in the hotel lounge, and then rested and dried our feet before heading out for a very good dinner at Taberna Ordonez.

November 15—Transfer to Madrid and The Royal Palace
This was another rainy day. Our apartment wasn’t quite ready when we arrived at 11:30, so we left our luggage and grabbed a light lunch at a nearby cafe before checking in and walking to our scheduled 2:45 tour of the Royal Palace. On our way to the Palace, which was only a 10-minute walk from our apartment, it started to rain hard. The palace is huge and over-the-top opulent. We used the RS guidebook tour and downloaded the palace audiotour’s Express Tour for our visit. One highlight was a mosaic table made of incredibly tiny pieces, and the ceilings and furnishings were gorgeous. By the time we finished with the palace, we were overwhelmed, so we skipped the Armoury (no interest) and the kitchens. Enough was enough.

On our way back to the apartments it was pouring, and even with good rain jackets and umbrellas we were completely soaked from the knees to our feet. So we did something we have never done and that I never expected to do in Europe–we ordered room service and watched Netflix. This was surprisingly fun and cozy given the weather.

Day/Night 12 —Guernica, The Prado, and RS Gran Via Walk
We began the day with a short visit to the Reina Sofia to see Guernica. I confess that I’m not much of a Picasso fan, but his style and the subject of Guernica are a perfect fit. We were moved and impressed by Picasso’s vision. We had a little time to explore a few other rooms, and then headed to the Prado for our 12:15 reservation. Once again, I have to thank GeoffB for suggesting the 90-minute guided tour of the Prado in his trip report. It was absolutely outstanding, giving us some history of the Prado and a deep appreciation of about 10 paintings, some of which I would have just walked by if I was on my own. Along with the Alcazar in Seville, Alhambra in Granada, and the Mezquita in Córdoba, this tour was the fourth Wow of our trip.

After the tour, we had a good lunch in the Prado’s cafeteria. Rick says it’s underwhelming, but we thought it was fine and certainly convenient. We had reserved audio tours for after the guided tour, but decided we needed some time outside in the improved weather, and would return to the Prado for more on our last day in Madrid. We did the RS Gran Via walk, with a stop for pricy drinks at the Bar Chicote, once frequented by Hemingway and other celebrities.

We ended the day with a good dinner at Dudua Palacio, near our apartment and recommended by the very helpful front desk staff.

Day/Night 13—Day Trip to Toledo

We weren’t originally planning to visit Toledo, not because we weren’t interested, but because we didn’t think we had time on this trip. A friend of my husband’s convinced him it was a higher priority than another day in Madrid. We were expecting Toledo to be crowded with day trippers, but it wasn’t at all, and the weather was chilly but pleasant.

We followed the RS Toledo walk, with our first stop at the Cathedral. This was one of our favorite cathedrals and favorite sights in general. The gorgeous high altar, the choir and organs, and the unique altarpiece called the Transparente are all spectacular. And then there’s the art in the sacristy, including several El Grecos. Just amazing.

We continued on the walk toward Santo Tomé to see another famous painting by El Greco before stopping for lunch at Restaurante Placido (thanks to Christine for the recommendation). By now it was too cold to consider eating outside even at lunchtime, so we enjoyed lunch in the courtyard (covered now, as were all of the courtyard restaurants at this time of year).

We wanted to stop by the El Greco museum, but it’s closed on Mondays, so we turned around and headed back up the hill to Plaza Zocodover, with a stop for some Mazapan to go. At the plaza, we hired a taxi to take us on the Panoramic Route. The impressive views from across the river made it very clear why Toledo’s position was so advantageous.

We visited the free Santa Cruz museum (with more El Greco paintings!) and then had a bocadillo at the plaza before walking to the train station and returning to Madrid.

Day/Night 14–The RS Historic Core walk, Royal Botanic Garden, and return to the Prado

A completely sunny and cool day was ideal for some time outside before our return to the Prado. We did the RS Historic Core walk, but started at the Royal Palace end of the walk, and walked in reverse to the Puerta del Sol. Along the way, we stopped at the Mercado for a vermouth and olives. We would have loved more time at the Mercado, but we pressed on to the Royal Botanical Garden. The garden was free for some reason, and we enjoyed our walk, although little was in bloom. I’d love to see it in the spring. At about 2:00, we returned to the Prado, where we started our visit in the cafeteria. Then we picked up audioguides and went back to see some of the paintings we had seen on our previous visit and many additional paintings, spending about another hour and a half. We incorporated the rest of the historic core walk into our return to our apartment, with a notable stop for churros at San Gines. These were the best of the three churro stops we made during our trip, although we enjoyed them all. After returning to our apartment for a while, we would have liked to head back into the historic area for dinner, but we needed to pack and decided to return to Dudua Palacio for dinner. This turned out to be a good choice, because everything we ordered was delicious and it was a relaxing ending to our last night in Spain.

November 19: The Flight Home
Our flights with a change in Frankfurt were uneventful with plenty of time to make our connections, but I will try not to connect there in the future due to the steps needed to board the planes while carrying our suitcases and the busing between some planes and the terminal. We did okay, but given our creaky knees I’d prefer to avoid it.

Some final thoughts

It was easy to travel in Spain. Five of our six train trips were on time or early, only one trip was about 30 minutes late. We did need some cash, as several sights and small shops only took cash.

We gained an appreciation of tours on this trip and will book more in the future. Even on the larger tours (about 20-25 people) at the Palacio de Viana and the Prado, we learned much more than we would have on our own.

Thank you for your helpful report; it was a smooth read and I learned about sites we failed to visit during our trip. I enjoyed learning that you also had a great experience with the Prado guided tour.

I enjoyed your report. I have been to most of the locations you visited but did not do everything you did!

We had days of rain in a trip to Sicily. We just gave up one afternoon, went back to our air Bnb and hid under the covers for a few hours. The place we were staying served dinner or otherwise I am sure room service would have looked really good.

Sometimes you just can’t fight the weather.

Another lovely report, Barbara N! You saw so much! And now I am convinced I need to head back to these places yet again.

For some reason, I had not pictured November as chilly (although weather can be changeable and do what it wants).

Barbara, I’m so excited to read this! We did this area in February of this year (well not Madrid or Toledo), so it will be interesting how your trip was different.

Barbara.
THANKS for such a detailed trip report. You certainly got a lot of stuff in there. You have convinced me to look into private or small group tours.

Great report. thanks,
joanne

Barbara N - it sounds like you had a great trip, and even made the best of a rainy evening! It's a shame that the Cordoba patios were so busy. My visit was also in November, though I went first thing in the morning. Hard to say if that made the difference.

"I felt no desire to seek out more flamenco."
As you know, I can't commiserate with you on this one, but I can understand it's not everyone's (ahem) tempo ;-)

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the Museo Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija! I've taken note of a few things for my next visit, including the 90 minute Prado tour - thanks to you and also to GeoffB. I've also taken note of La Brunilda restaurant in Sevilla, along with your exact order - hoping those will still be on the menu ;-)

Oh, this makes me want to go back!

GeoffB--The Prado guided tour was so good that we are planning to do guided tours at our San Francisco museums, even though we have visited them many times.

BethFL--I tried to plan our days with some flexibility for the weather, but there is only so much you can plan for!

TexasTravelMom--The weather in Andalucia was hot the week before we arrived. The day we left the temperatures had dropped so much in Madrid that they had to de-ice our plane before takeoff.

Thanks for such a great trip report! I have been to Spain several times as it is one of my favorite countries and your report makes me want to go back.

What a great trip report! Thank you for taking rhe time to post it. I loved reading about your balance of tours and self-guided activities. And the night in with Netflix was a totally reasonable call!

And I'm with you about transferring through Frankfurt. Taking a bus down the active runway/tarmac and lugging bags, even carryon size, up the stairs into the plane was not something I will repeat if I can help it in the future.

Barbara, I'm so glad you had a wonderful trip to Spain! Sounds like you were able to do everything as planned. I'm delighted that you made it up to Toledo and enjoyed your lunch at Restaurante Placido.

Looking forward to seeing your photos at our in-person travel meeting.

Christine

Tammy: I’ll be interested to hear the main differences. There are so many choices to make when planning an itinerary.

ronjo: I hope you report on your tours after your trip. The RS guide suggests several private guides.

CWSocial: I thought of you when I wrote my flamenco comments! You and Christine inspired the trip, so thanks!

Sherry: There is so much to see and do, it would be great to return.

Thank you for the excellent trip report, Barbara. It brings back so many wonderful memories. I'm really happy that you gave Cordoba (my favorite Spanish town) enough time and saw so much. I hope more people will be inspired to explore its charms.

MorganMurphy: We used to do almost everything self-guided because we are readers and thought we could get all of the information we needed by reading in advance or on the trip as we used the excellent info in the RS guides, but I'm now convinced that tours add a lot of value and will be looking into them more.

Christine, You are motivating me to get going on my photo book!

Chani, I'm so glad that you are well and back on the forum. Despite the weather challenges, I think that Córdoba was my favorite location. I'm glad we had enough time there and in Sevilla to see some of the "secondary" sights. Using just Córdoba as an example, the Museum al-Andalus and the Casa de Sefarad added depth and context to our visit that we would not have fully appreciated if we had only visited the Mezquita. I would have gladly spent another day (or more) in every location, but our trips are usually limited to about two weeks for family reasons.

Thanks for another great trip report! Despite the weather you were able to get to so many sights. Even your rainy day rest sounds like fun! Flexibility is the key to a memorable trip. Your report also shows the value of discussing plans with others to help in getting the best experiences. Looking forward to your photo book, but no pressure :)

Carol, Thanks for reading. I’m about 3/4 through my photo book. Holiday preparations have to take priority! I hope to see you at the travel group meeting.

Wow, thank you so much for this helpful trip report.

We leave in 10 days for our 18 day trip to Andalusia and Madrid, and this is incredibly helpful. I expect February weather to not be better than your November weather, but it will likely be be better than in Seattle!

Great report!
I have made three trips to Spain. So I suspect you will return, unless you have already been to Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao.

Just my 2 cents for others planning to visit Spain:

With booking.com, I trust the numeric reviews but not the verbal. Why? Because I have seen how much my own reviews get edited. I find TripAdvisor’s verbal reviews more useful. I do book with booking.com.

I am so glad you toured with Concepcion. When we were in Seville, she was not yet an industry and our tour was with her. Excellent!

I understand about the food tour. Recently, I took a food tour with Culinary Backstreets. I had resisted because of price and length of time but it was wonderful. I hope to do ione again.

I am a big fan of out of season travel. But we went to Granada and Seville in May and the jacaranda trees in bloom blew me away.

Your conclusion that you needed another day in Granada makes loads of sense! Others might steal a day from Cordoba.

Ivana: Thanks for reading. I hope you have a wonderful trip!

NYCMOM: The only other place we have been in Spain is Barcelona (5 nights in 2019), so there is still a lot more to see.

I chose to give the extra day to Cordoba instead of Granada because I had a feeling I would really like it, which I did. So no regrets, other than wishing we could have added a few more nights to the trip!