Trip Report from Cordoba and Granada, Spain
The stunning mosque-cathedral in Cordoba, Spain
This is Part II of my Andalusia, Spain trip report! (Check out Part I over here.) When I left off, we were on our way to Cordoba, Spain by train. Everyone on our train to Cordoba was coughing up a lung — without covering their mouths or anything — so my friends and I quickly donned masks.
In Cordoba, we settled into our cute hotel — check out Hospes Palacio del Bailio, a Virtuoso property where I can add special perks and amenities including a tapas testing menu and a visit to the Roman House from 1 BC — and waited for our private tour guide to pick us up. We toured the synagogue, Jewish quarter, palace, and the mosque cathedral. Cordoba is really visually stunning. We spent a lot of time in the mosque-cathedral, photographing it from all angles. I like private tours because they let you go at your own pace.
I sorta figured we’d be exhausted by this point so I made no plans for our one night in Cordoba. This worked out well because it was Ash Wednesday and my friend Kim was able to go to church. We picked her up after church and headed to a really nice dinner with some language barriers but nice just the same.
Honestly, every meal we had in Spain was fantastic. (Although at one point, we decided “No more potatoes!”)
Before leaving Cordoba the next morning, I had booked an olive oil tasting. Honestly this was such a great experience. We learned so much about the different quality levels of olive oil. (Never judge an olive oil by its color.) We also got to taste the number one olive oil in Spain, as determined by panels of judges. I love educational experiences like this because #1, you get to sit down after all your walking tours and #2, you get to learn new things. We also got to meet some absolutely delightful Canadians. This is a good tip for your travels — consider the balance of activities and walking tours vs. others sort of experiences.
After our olive oil tasting, we headed for the train station for our train to Granada. The train was absolutely PACKED but with fewer people coughing this time.
View of Granada from the roof of our hotel
Granada immediately felt different. Seville felt young and lively, Cordoba felt like it was full of day-trippers. Granada felt like a classy business city. Our hotel had a lovely rooftop deck with a pool which would have been great had the weather cooperated. The views from the rooftop were spectacular — we could see the entire city — and we all looked forward to our trip to Alhambra the next day.
The next morning, we hopped in a taxi and zipped up to Alhambra for our small group tour. (We took a lot of taxis in Granada and found them very easy to use. Local taxis seem to be more popular than Uber.) It’s crazy to think that there were gypsies and homeless people living here before Spain took over the property.
Alhambra from the inside
Alhambra is gorgeous but honestly, by this point of our trip, I was a little toured out and my feet were killing me. We were clocking in 16,000 steps a day, which is about double what I normally do in Florida. (As soon as I got home, I threw out my sneakers. I never wanted to see them again! I bought a new pair from Amazon while we were in the Uber on the way home from Miami airport lol.) I was glad we took a long break after lunch before heading out for dinner.
Alhambra from the outside
I wish I had more to say about Alhambra. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t as cool as I thought it was going to be. I thought the mosque-cathedral in Cordoba was cooler.
On Saturday, our last full day in Spain, we were supposed to go to Ronda, one of the white cities, but when our driver came to pick us up, the weather took a turn for the worse. We were informed that the roads up to Ronda were too dangerous. So instead, we arrived back in Seville around 1:30 pm. While disappointing, this actually worked out well because we had a very relaxing last day. We walked over the bridge back into Triana, where we caught the end of a Lenten procession. The streets were packed in a happy way and everyone was piling into church.
We then went souvenir shopping before probably our absolute best meal in Spain at a restaurant our hotel recommended, El Cairo. It was one of those situations where the reviews on TripAdvisor were terrible but we had the absolute best meal with great service. You just never know. (I also think that a lot of food in Spain is about knowing what to order and we were always happy to give control to our servers.) One of the best dishes of the trip was the artichokes with jamon iberico we head at El Cairo.
Hah the next day, we took a 3:30 am taxi to the airport for our 6:30 am flight. The things we do on vacation!!!
Lessons Learned on This Part of The Trip
Don’t overschedule yourself. Time to wander is good! I joke I like to do just one thing a day, have a late lunch, and call it a day.
Try not to wear the same exact shoes every day. 1. You will get bored. 2. You will kill your shoes. 3. Your feet need a change of pace.
In places where you are unfamiliar with the food, assuming you are not a picky eater, try asking your server to order for you. (But give them a number of dishes you want and a budget you want to stay within.) And definitely have your server pick the wine! We had some delightful dinners that way. I am also just a big fan of asking the hotel concierge where to eat. They know! They get all the reports from their guests and really aren’t going to send you someplace that no one likes.
Bid to upgrade your flight! On the way home, I bid the bare minimum to upgrade my TAP flight from Lisbon to Miami and I was successful! My bid was so low that I really didn’t think it would work, but it did!
Buy travel insurance. Our Ronda tour was cancelled because of weather but that was not covered by their terms & conditions. So we were out about $250. (The tour operator’s argument, which I get, is that the tour guides in Ronda had already been booked for us.) I filed a claim with my travel insurance company and they just responded, asking for more info.
About Krista
I’m a Virtuoso luxury travel advisor based in West Palm Beach, Florida. Prior to moving to Florida to take care of my elderly mom with Parkinson’s Disease, I spent over 11 years living and working in London, England. My career and personal travel have taken me all over the world. To date, I’ve been to 78 countries. Now I bring the joy of travel to others as a Virtuoso travel advisor. I offer a 30 minute complimentary vacation consultation for anyone looking to plan their next trip.
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