We decided to go and see Madrid after dark last evening. We used our hop on hop off tickets and set off around 8 pm from a stop very close to our hotel. While we were waiting for the bus we noticed a helicopter flying around over the central portion of the city, very close to our hotel, we wondered why it kept circling over the same location. As we set out on the bus towards the central portion of Madrid we could see more and more people on the streets to the poi...

Another fine day in Seville. Our hotel is in barrio Santa Cruz which is the old Jewish ghetto, complete with white washed buildings and very narrow twisty streets. Pedestrians must duck into doorways when cars come down the street. Navigation is very challenging because the barrio is not laid out on a grid and you have no perspectives, so it is navigation by dead reckoning. Eventually you will pop out onto a square with a church that you can find on your map and ...

Seville is has a completely different vibe than Barcelona. This city is what I would describe as much more traditional, how ever we are in a different region of Spain and Seville is only a city of 700,000 people. Yesterday we toured the cathedral which is the largest in Europe. Very dramatic ( of course ) and ornate. This is the spot where Christopher Columbus is buried as well as his son. We climbed the Giralda (tower of the church ) to get a tremendous view of...

We caught the high speed train this morning at Barcelona Sants station. Spain's Renfe high speed trains are very modern and a luxurious way to travel. We were served an early morning coffee and pastry and later a hot breakfast. The train traveled at up to 300km/hr and was very smooth and quiet. Our trip took us south along the coast for a short distance to Tarragona and then we turned inland towards central Spain. We travelled over 1000 km thru the central part o...