Here we are drawing a close to another part of our adventure. We want to say goodbye to southern Spain in a proper way before we head to Portugal, so here we go with our summary of our almost two weeks here.
LIKES:
Melek – Lively cities with beautiful cafes and restaurants around, good historic sites (I love Cordoba), and of course sangria (wine with fruit – very refreshing).
Shane – The history of southern Spain was fascinating since the Arabs ruled it for over 700 years. There is a lot of Moorish architecture to see and I feel like it was enhanced since we just came from Morocco and understood what we were seeing and the culture from where it came.
DISLIKES:
Melek –
-Restaurants serving food after 8pm and not being able to find anything before that
-Not many people speaking English – sometimes hard to communicate
-Not very welcoming people, they don’t care much about tourists
-Many shops close for Siesta including restaurants so it is a bit weird!
Shane – My biggest dislike was about parking. I hate when a hotel list parking is available and then when you arrive they say it is in the public parking structure and they have an “agreement”. Turns out the agreement is for the first hour or two for free, which is not much help when you are staying for a day or two. If a hotel says it has parking available it should be on site and for free. Otherwise just say there is public parking nearby!
WATCHOUTS:
Melek – If you have a car parking in the cities is very expensive and most hotels do not provide parking area!
Shane – I do not have much that you need to be careful about, but do know that most restaurants do not start serving food until after 8pm each night. Until you get on the Spanish eating schedule this can be an issue.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Melek – As the country is full of historic places, you may get surprised by what you see in the cities. I think drinking sangria while sitting outside and watching people roll around could be a highlight.
Shane – I loved my time in southern Spain and would do any and all of it again, but if I had to pick some highlights they would be:
-The mosque turned cathedral in Cordoba. The architecture was beautiful and different than anything else and it was amazing to see such a huge cathedral being dwarfed in the mosque it was built inside of.
-The Neolithic burial chambers in Antequera were so different than the rest of what we saw. Plus, how can you not lie something that is over 5000 years old?
-Seeing Christopher Columbus’s tomb in Seville was pretty cool.
-Of course, Alhambra was a highlight and I am glad we were able to score some tickets at the last minute.
