*Sigh*... I wish I had photos. Apart from that, I found this to be an amazing city. For food, for shopping, for sights (Gaudi architecture!) I would say it´s unequalled within Spain. Every Spanish city we´ve been to is special in its own way, and and I liked them all. But for me, Barcelona encompasses everything that is great about Spain. Would come back anytime, with the greatest pleasure! And will not take my eyes off my bag ever again.
Valencia
A nice city to just stroll around. It seemed to be on an eternal siesta - every time we went out everything was quiet and closed, except for late at night. I don´t understand when the Spanish actually sleep, when most restaurants don´t open for dinner until 9pm. Sorry about the lack of photos but they are back at the hotel and I can´t be bothered going back to get them.
Madrid
All roads lead to Madrid, but for a capital city it didn´t actually have that many landmarks to see. The main sights were the Royal Palace which I think could use a more exciting paint job:
The obligatory Cathedral:
And the Prado Museum, which was the highlight and is worth seeing if only for the Goya collection.
Toledo
A day trip from Madrid, Toledo is the capital of Castile-La Mancha. In an obvious nod to their most famous if fictional citizen, you can buy a sword and a full suit of armour in souvenir shops (and good luck getting them through customs). I am talking ofcourse about Don Quixote, the man from La Mancha.
Toledo has a perfectly preserved medieval Old City, which was covered with snow on the day we were there. It´s been years since I last saw snow (not counting St Petersburg), and I was very excited. I wish I could find the exclamation mark on this french keyboard to denote my level of excitement.
Like many southern Spanish cities Toledo has an Old Jewish Quarter, a throwback to the time when Jews and Muslims lived peacefully side by side. But they also had this sign spray-painted on a fence. Not sure if that says anything about local attitudes.
Random tapas photo:
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