Visiting the Alcázar of Seville, Spain
The final Moorish palace of our travels in Andalusia was the Real Alcázar of Seville. Just when we thought we were ‘palaced out’, we realised we saved a great one for last.
After France, Spain is the European country we’ve spent the most time in, without actually calling home. We’ve visited lively Barcelona on three occasions and it’s a city we could easily spend much more time discovering. We’ve driven across the vast flat countryside of the centre, up into the dramatic Pyrénées Mountains, and along the twisty coast roads clinging to the Mediterranean cliffs. We’ve made city trips to Bilbao and Valladolid and quick stops in Zaragoza and Valencia.
Besides Catalonia, we’ve spent the most concentrated amount of time discovering the unique culture and landscape of Andalusia. We love the stunning white villages, hugging the hilltops, and the dramatic Moorish influences on cities like Granada, Cordoba, and Seville.
Still, there’s a lot of frontier here we’ve yet to cover. Now that our dear friends have made a home in Andalusia, we’re sure to be spending much more time here, so we’d better start brushing upon our Spanish!
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The final Moorish palace of our travels in Andalusia was the Real Alcázar of Seville. Just when we thought we were ‘palaced out’, we realised we saved a great one for last.
We had a wonderful time exploring Cordoba and Granada during our road-trip of Andalusia, Spain. Photographically speaking, both cities offered lots of opportunities.
I had admired the photo in dozens of travel books – row upon row of columns topped with chequered arches. Shadow and light playing with each other as people stand, dwarfed under the soaring ceilings. Before I even knew where it was, I knew I had to visit the Cathedral-Mosque of Córdoba, Spain.
When I first started planning our trip to Portugal and Andalusia, there was one place I absolutely had to visit – The Alhambra and Generalife; a stunning palace complex, complete with spectacular gardens, perched in the hills of Granada, Spain and a UNESCO World Heritage Site to boot.
The Alcazaba and the Gibralfaro Castle overlook the busy port city of Málaga in Andalusia Spain. These buildings were our first taste of the Moorish architecture so common to this region, which we would continue to see throughout our road-trip through Andalusia.
The first overnight stop on our road-trip through Andalusia was in the small but historically rich city of Ronda, Spain. Ronda is famously cut in half by the Guadalevín River, which carved out the El Tajo canyon. Ronda’s Old Town is precariously perched on the cliffs of the 100-metre canyon and is the perfect stopping place on a tour of the Pueblo Blancos of Andalusia, Spain.