Toledo is an hour south of Madrid and has one of the world's most impressive cathedrals. The Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, built starting in 1227, stands on the site of a 6th-century Visigoth Cathedral that was once used as a Mosque. Constructed in a Gothic style with a French influence, it measures 120 m long by 60 m wide and contains 5 naves supported by 88 pillars and 72 vaults. It is built with white limestone from the quarries of Olihuelas, near Toledo and took over 400 years to complete. Toledo also has the Alcazar fortress and El Greco’s (the artist) village but we did not find time to see them as it would take us a complete day.
From Toledo we drove 3.5 hours to Granada and were in for a surprise. We had done our booking via Airbnb and we ended up at San Nicola which is at a height and oversees the Alhambra. San Nicola is a happening place, but getting there is a challenge due to the narrow, one way streets; GPS does help though. The Alhambra palace and gardens is one of the great sights that you would see in this world. It is a 9th century palace built by the Moor Kings who ruled the South of Spain till the late 1400’s. The design and skill required to build it is exquisite and perhaps we shall not see the likes of it again. Worth a visit and recommended!!
We debated going to the Rock of Gibraltar, Malaga, Ronda and Almeria in the couple of days we had before reaching Barcelona. However, finally decided to drive down east to Valencia (5 hours away from Granada). Valencia is on the Mediterranean and has some nice clean architecture, but perhaps not as many historical monuments as the other Spanish cities we visited. The Gran Mercado (market), plazas and the beaches are all worth a visit. Valencia has its own City of Arts and Sciences which houses Europe’s largest aquarium – the Oceanogràfic, an avant garde museum and an Imax cinema, a short throw from our hotel: Holiday Inn Express.
Spain offers immense possibilities for tourists with the natural beauty of Northern Spain, the South with Malaga, Seville and Gibraltar and even west heading towards Lisbon as options but one has to make choices. We finally headed to our last stop: Barcelona
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