Some photos from my most recent travel adventures in the stunning Spanish cities of Madrid, Toledo, Seville and Córdoba.
This post is a departure from my normal food content, but I couldn’t be more excited to share some amazing photos from my recent trip to Spain! I used to post travel entries a lot (see these other adventures in Spain, Italy, and Germany) but it’s been a while since I travelled internationally. It was my fiancé Gabe’s first trip to Europe. And our first time travelling together internationally, so I couldn’t wait to experience it with him. We spent a week taking in the sights (and foods) of Madrid, Toledo, Seville and Cordoba, and it couldn’t have been a more perfect trip.
Travelling to Europe always feels like a bit of a culture shock to me. And not because the culture is that vastly different from our own in America, but because everything there is so old. It’s easy to forget that the United States is only a few hundred years old, and even some of our oldest monuments and buildings seem like babies in comparison to the ones in Europe. And we most definitely spent this trip relishing in a few of those nearly millennium-old sites. From the tiny and winding streets of the medieval walled city of Toledo to the intricately tiled courtyards and sprawling lavish gardens in the Alcazar of Seville, every city we visited had its own magical old-world charm.
MADRID
Coming from New York, Madrid feels very much like a city. It’s got that big-city culture, from the famous art museum Museo del Prado (one of the best art museums I’ve been to) to its restaurants, where traditional Spanish cuisine is blended with global influence (like the very Asian inspired meal we hat at StreetXO). But while at times you feel as if you could be in any other city, the magic of Madrid is that you turn a corner and suddenly find yourself on a tiny cobblestone street, or in a gorgeous little plaza shaded by towering trees and heavy with the scent of fresh flowers, and know that you couldn’t possibly be anywhere else in the world.
TOLEDO
Toledo is only a quick train ride away from Madrid, but in a lot of ways it couldn’t feel more different. Where Madrid feels sprawling and endless in its variation, Toledo is a city unto itself within walls originally built by the ancient Romans. We visited on an overcast day, which felt fitting with Toledo’s imposing stonework and gothic cathedral. The cathedral itself is breathtaking. But equally gorgeous are the views of the Spanish countryside from the top of this hilled-city.
SEVILLE
Seville is maybe one of the most charming cities I’ve ever been to. And while I like to talk about the tiny charming streets that you’ll find all over Europe, Seville has some of the tiniest I’ve ever seen. And that’s because (as we learned from our guide on an incredible tapas tour that we took) the city gets so hot, and if you have really skinny streets it means more shade from the buildings. These little streets are like worlds unto their own, but as you wander their serpentine paths you catch glimpses of churches or the famous bell tower of the Seville Cathedral towering above the city.
Three of the city’s monuments stand apart as some of the most important and interesting in the world: the Alcazar of Seville, the Seville Cathedral and Plaza de España. The Alcazar transports you to a different time period (they shot a lot of Game of Thrones here), and almost a different country with room after room of intricate and vibrant tile-work and arched entries into open gardens that feel like gateways to a different world. The Seville Cathedral is as stunning as any I’ve been to in Europe, and extra special for the zigzagging climb to the bell tower where you can bask in a miles-wide view of the city. And the Plaza de España is the perfect place to spend a sun-drenched afternoon people-watching and strolling along the covered walkway.
Seville is also where Gabe asked me to marry him, so it will always hold a special place in my heart, specifically the gorgeous gardens at the Palacio de las Dueñas.
CORDOBA
Córdoba is a small city, similar to the size of Toledo, but where we spent only an afternoon in Toledo, we spent almost two full days in Cordoba. And while at first the winding streets were just as confusing to us as any other city we’d been to, we soon got used to them and could make our way around without the help of maps, giving us as close a feeling to being home as we had gotten on this trip.
Córdoba is most known for two things: the famous Mosque-Cathedral, and the flower-laden patios (courtyards) that the city takes so much pride in. To experience the former, we visited the Palacio de Viana, where 12 different patios run the full gamut from shady and intimate to sun-drenched and sprawling. And the Mosque-Cathedral is unlike any religious structure I’ve ever been to. It combines two completely different types of architecture in a way that feels both stark and seamless. The Alcazar in Cordoba, while not nearly as impressive as the one in Seville, was also a worthwhile visit, if only to climb the tower and picture yourself as a medieval archer defending the citadel.
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