The first attempt to visit Barcelona and pay homage to the amazing Antoni Gaudi was in 1997. However, exhaustion and a desire to hear Southern English after a semester in England stopped me. I made my goal to return, and so 12 years later I did!
Since I have no great knowledge of good fares, train schedules and the like, I opted to go with a tour group. My Harding roommate, Rebekah, went with me as it was one of the top places she wanted to visit as well. The tour worked beautifully: we didn't have to worry about where we would stay (all the hotels were so nice) or how we would get there (on a coach with giant windows). All we had to do was enjoy the sights. There was enough flexibility that we struck out on our own quite a bit and got to see the things we wanted to see, though the tour covered a lot of them already. We were gone for 12 days and visited Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Carmona, Granada, Peniscola, Valencia and Barcelona. I'll post a few pictures from each city and some of the countryside (a.k.a. the most olives you'll ever see in one place).
The sour orange: all citrus is derived from combinations of the sour orange and sour lemon. This is what my seventh-great grandfather, Count Odet Philippe, brought to Tampa Bay...and you know of Florida's citrus industry! I loved seeing this for the first time.
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