Time in Marbella was well spent, core memories made and a perfect mix of relaxing and exploring a new city to give us a boost for the rest of our holiday. After breakfast and a little shopping in Marbella, we jump in our little Dacia and head west. About one hour into our drive to Granada, we decide to stop in the quaint beach town of Nerja. Nerja is a unique beach town, set on cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The town center is easy to navigate lined with shopping stalls, restaurants and balconies. Glad we made the stop!
After a quick stroll and stop for a smoothie, we are on our way again.
From Nerja, its just a one hour drive north to Granada through beautiful mountains and loads of olive trees. We arrive at the Aurea Hotel ready to explore a new city. Interestingly, we check in and take a ‘car elevator’ to the parking garage below the lobby of the hotel, a first for us!
Traveling gets hectic sometimes, and we embrace it (most of the time). This adventure will last almost three weeks, which is why we are especially thankful for the time in Marbella reenergizing for the last stretch. And arriving in Granada, the hectic begins again. We take just a few minutes to get settled in our room, change, and we jump into a taxi to the world renown Alhambra, wandering for hours around this expansive property.
The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. One of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best preserved palaces of the historic Islamic World. The palace dates back to 1238, built as a self-contained city separate from the rest of Granada. The fountains, gardens, and architecture are impressively maintained at a pristine level, making it one of the best attractions in all of Spain.
As we are leaving the Alhambra, our conversation is focused on some connections between the detail in the architecture of Morocco and what we are seeing in Spain. While the origin and the influence of the architecture is different, the detail and design had a striking similarity to our novice minds. Mesmerizing to see and learn about places with such rich history!
Leaving the Alhambra, we start to walk toward town. We quickly realize this town is hilly and old, and we have no idea how long it’s going to take to get places. We snatch another taxi and head toward Las Tomasas for dinner. Upon arrival, Katie ‘accidentally’ orders a bottle of wine, grab a burrata appetizer, they spoil us with some hummus in cones, and enjoy a beautiful view of the Alhambra.
And amazingly, our waiter wouldn’t let us leave without some shots! Seriously, we thought he was kidding at first.
Randomly hop on city bus and make it to Plaza Nueva… kind of. Influenced by some wine and shots, we ask to get dropped off and wander around. Granada comes to life at night!
Day 15 – Granada to Valladolid, maybe next time Seville
Breakfast at Siloe, a cafe close to our hotel. Interestingly, we ordered Spanish omelet sandwiches. Not quite sure what to expect, and it is basically a thickly sliced baked potato on roll, served with mayo. There may have been a tiny bit of egg in there, but not sure. Carbs it is to start the day!
Before we head out of town, we opt to get out into the city for a bit, rather than just jump on the road for our long trip north. Actually, after an evening in the area near the Alhambra, we are pleasantly surprised with the city of Granada. We spend the morning enjoying streets, some shopping and some empanadas.
Granada is set in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The medieval architecture shows off the history of this city, and we thoroughly enjoyed spending the morning exploring the city blocks and alley ways. There is so much more to this city than just the iconic Alhambra!
So, flip back to drinking wine poolside in Marbella. We loved the local Spain wine so much we got it both days we were relaxing at the Amare Hotel. And we loved it so much that we changed our plans when we found the winery was located close-ish to Madrid. Easy decision! We scheduled a tour and tasting for tomorrow. Well, we had a little help from our hotel in Granada. Our Spanish is a little weak, and it wasn’t possible for us to book the wine tour over the phone. So, our gracious hotel, willingly called and scheduled us a special tour, with a wonderful English speaking host. Sorry Seville (original plan), you’ll be rescheduled for our next trip to Spain!
So we are off, on a long 7 hour drive to Valladolid! Winding through mountains, olive trees, and sunflowers, we finally make it to an unknown (for us at least) city 2 hours outside of Madrid, close to the rueda wine region.
Park, find our hotel (Hotel Boutique Atrio), and out for a quick exploration of the city. To be honest, it was tricky finding our hotel. The road/walkway did not look like it was meant for cars, but it is, sometimes…
We arrive late, so we really don’t have much time to experience where we are. So, even after a busy morning in Granada and a long day on the road, we muster up the energy to see what we can. Valladolid is known for its medieval religious sites like the Estatuas de San Pedro y San Pablo Cathedral with its history dating back to the 1400s. It provided some incredible views as we walked on this particular evening.
So…
Beer at Los llustres right in front of the cathedral!
Beer and papas bravas at Zorro Zapato.
Pizza Takeaway at La Romana.
Beautiful city and solid find on a whim, which gets us to our winery tomorrow morning!
Day 16 – Wine Country in Spain
Breakfast at Cafe in Valladolid, and a good time to mention price. Our breakfast, two cups of coffee and two croissants cost less than $5. Throughout Spain, we have enjoyed prices cheaper than most of Europe and back home. We would have paid at least double back home! Seems they are navigating inflation a little better than other parts of the world.
Off to wine country! This was great, except not many wine regions around the world are like Napa with tasting rooms readily available on a daily basis. We have a little bit of time before our tour and tasting, so we pull into what appears to be a nice winery, Reina de Castilla. No tasting available!
Well, its good we have the next three hours to enjoy with Ivan, our host from the Menade Winery. We start with Ivan in the old winery in town, where he shares some history of Spain, followed by the history of the Menade winery. We end up in the old wine cellar, through some tunnels, all while enjoying some tasting straight from the barrel.
The town of La Seca is a special place where the family of the wine makers are from. With only a population of about 1,000, it is a quiet town in the province of Valladolid. Originally, the town had numerous underground wineries in the city center. Most of these underground wineries have collapsed over time. For us, what a unique experience to be able to enjoy a tour through the history of wine making in this region, underground!
From this point, we take a 10 minute drive out to the winery. Ivan gives us a tour of the outside facilities, then brings us in for some more tasting and some homemade treats. The philosophy of the Menade Winery is impressive. Striving for a zero carbon footprint and producing organic wines is the heart of their mission. We were intrigued throughout our tour to learn about their mission, and Ivan showed off his knowledge of wine, history, and Spain, which kept us engaged. Ivan also may have one of the coolest jobs. For three plus hours, we walked through the wine cellars, vineyards, and ended in the tasting area overlooking the vineyards, all while enjoying wine with Ivan. Yup, he gets paid to drink wine with his customers! He’s also impressive in the kitchen, making us homemade hummus, and also provided us with some ham he baked for us. Loved our time with Ivan!
We couldn’t be happier with our decision to head up to the Rueda region of Spain. Of course, we end up leaving with 8 bottles of wine (that’s our limit for travel) and 3 bottles of olive oil.
Back on the move, we head to Madrid. Our last stop on this overseas trip. We have two nights in Madrid, so we know that upon arrival, there is no rest for the weary. However, first challenge, returning our little Dacia to the rental car company. Problem! The rental car return is underground, and gps is not leading us underground. Scott drives around this busy city (like driving in NYC) for almost an hour, looking for something that doesn’t exist. Well, it does, but since no one is answering their phone, it’s impossible. So, scratch that, can’t waste any more time. We will figure it out tomorrow.
During this fiasco, Katie checks into our hotel, Dear Hotel Madrid. It is in the perfect spot in this city, basically walking distance to almost everything we want to experience during our stay. Not to mention, the views from our hotel are amazing looking down at the city from our room and rooftop terrace!
Our evening starts off with, yup, you guessed it, tapas, specifically papas bravas at Dnorte Taberna!
A stroll down Gran Via Street. Looks like Madrid’s version of Times Square, and it is often called the Spanish Broadway.
Then conveniently wander and stumble upon San Gines, who has famously been serving churros and chocolate for over 125 years!
Not tired yet, we continue our exploration with a walk over to the Mayor’s Plaza! Once the center of this capital city, its history dates back to the 15th century!
And at this point, we are cooked. Knowing we have a full day in Madrid tomorrow (our last full day), we walk back to our hotel and gear up for a day of exploring this bustling city!
Day 17 – Madrid
On our last day, we sleep in. A little too tired to get started early, and this city seems to be a little more lively late in the day anyway. We jump start our day with… Starbucks. I guess that officially means we are back in a big city. One of the many beauties of Morocco was not having such experiences. Don’t get us wrong, nothing wrong with Starbucks, it was just nice to get away from the chains and experience small, local offerings.
We finally find our rental car return in an underground parking garage, and begin our day out and about in Madrid. Every block and turn presents style, history and class, which makes the amount of steps we will put in today most enjoyable.
The Palacio Real de Madrid was the official residence of the Spanish royal family at the city of Madrid, although now used only for state ceremonies. Built in 1735, this highlights exactly what we are loving about Madrid. Just wander, and Madrid will shine!
From there, we head to San Miguel Market – holy food heaven! Ummm, although it is quite touristy, we pretty much agree, all food halls should do their best to replicate this experience. Ricotta tapas, ham & cheese croqueta, and tomato & cheese empanadas! Time to let some food pics start doing the talking about how great this place is…
Okay, so heat is now playing a roll in our day. A 30 minute walk to Parque de El Retiro is challenged by the temperature. It’s now officially 100 degrees. We power through to check out this massive park. Created in 1680, this is one of the largest city parks in Spain.
Our next mission is to head to the Mercado de la Paz. A local market in a neighborhood a bit away from the hustle and bustle of Gran Via Street. On the way, Katie finds a little shopping, which actually helps to break up the walking in the heat.
So from here, the walk back to our hotel is about 30 minutes. Not hard to guess how we break up that walk… papas bravas at Bareto. Note about papas bravas. We prefer the style with the additional creamy garlic aioli on top, surprise right?! Which we learn later is the ‘Barcelona’ style. And since we are becoming papas afficianados, we now may have to take a future trip to Barcelona to enjoy their papas offerings :).
Well, now it is HOT. Street temp says 109 degrees Fahrenheit. Oof! Finish off our walk back to Dear Hotel with one necessary purchase, a suitcase. Over this three week journey, we bought a little too much stuff 🤦♂️!
For our last meal, we make dinner reservations at Restaurante Allegra. The combination of Scott’s broken Spanish and the hostess using his broken English, made the reservation phone call a bit challenging :). But this choice didn’t disappoint! A delicious Italian meal located in the part of town away from the hustle and bustle of the touristy area.
Part stroll, part taxi, part stroll back to our hotel. Btw, it’s still 90 degrees at midnight! Wonderful evening to celebrate the end of our time in Spain!
Day 18 – Journey Home
Early wake for a taxi ride. Interestingly, our taxi driver had two phones going, one for reels on Instagram and one for Snapchat 🤦♂️. Somehow we safely arrived at the Madrid Airport.
And sometimes you catch people doing trendy things in random places 🙂
Notes about the Madrid Airport – not easy to navigate, check bags, get through security, train ride to customs, and looooong walk to gate. Good thing we got here early! So, after a 9-hour flight and a delay in Miami, we are thrilled to get home to our puppies!
Another adventure together, and we feel so fortunate to be able to enjoy experiencing the world together. From the markets and deserts of East Morocco, to the beaches, wine, and history of Spain, this trip continued to provide memorable moments. Morocco and Spain, although close in geographical location, worlds apart in culture and lifestyles, and we loved them both! After visiting Spain, we have traveled to 27 countries together. Not sure what is on the horizon, but our adventure to Morocco and Spain has us jonesing for more!
Two Wayfaring Wanderers 