We know how to see cities in just a few days. We have been doing in most of our lives, because we had jobs that only allowed us to travel 2 or 3 weeks a year. We learned to see as much as possible while stopping in to a city in 2 or 3 days. It is exhausting… but we can do it. Being retired, we now have as much time in the world, so we have transitioned to a bit slower travel. Still working on the transition to even more slower travel, but we are now settled in to at least a week in a location before moving on. But our traveling partners for this portion of our Europe adventure are wanting to see as much as possible during their 2 week vacation, so we have switched back to our old fast traveling style. It is fun to see a lot in a short time and it is really fun to be with people that are so excited to just to see everything. We have been really successful in seeing the best attractions, as well as finding the best food in our latest stops in Granada and Sevilla even though we spent just 3 days in each town.
Traveling with other people really has its perks. We have been taking Ubers from the train station to our Airbnb instead of using public transportation. It makes much more economic sense if you can split the cost of an Uber with another couple. Our 2 bedroom Airbnb’s are also a deal. We seem to get better places when we can share a living room and kitchen. But the best part of hanging with another couple is restaurants. We are still in Spanish Tapas country so a lot of the food is shared. We have tried twice as much stuff because we have been sharing almost everything.
Five years ago, while we still had jobs, we visited Sevilla and Granada for 2 to 3 days each. We successfully saw the big attractions in each place so we planned to do it again with P and K. First stop was Sevilla. This has the one of the best and biggest churches in the world as well as a fantastic old Moorish castle- the Alcazar. Sevilla has a great maze of pedestrian streets downtown plus a lot of fantastic architecture. While we hit the best attractions again, and found a lot of good food, I also was able to get a bike trip down the river similar to one I did 5 years ago. I need to find a way to get at least one bike ride in every city.
I don’t remember much of our trip to Granada five years ago. After looking at our old pics, it appears that we were only there for 2 nights. We did a lot of walking, we saw the cathedral, saw a flamenco show and of course saw the big attraction- the Alhambra. This time we did the same stuff, except skipped the flamenco show, but what I’m going to take from this stop was the great restaurants we found. We really got lucky and hit some really interesting places that are hard to get into in because they are so popular. We really had a great time here. The food was wonderful, the atmosphere in these places were amazing and the people were what really set this place apart. Everyone we talked to- uber driver, Airbnb host, bartenders, and waiters just love this city and love sharing this city with other people. I feel like they generally wanted tourists to enjoy their town and loved interacting with us. I can see us coming back to Granada for an extended stay in the future. And it is another beautiful Spanish town….
Our 2 bedroom Airbnb worked for us just fine here. It was in a great location in the part of town we liked and had an enthusiastic host that loved here town and wanted to make sure we had a great time here.
Next stop- Barcelona!!!