Tag Archives: Spain

Europe, Spain

The best viewpoints in Granada

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Granada might be the most beautiful city in Spain. Reconquered by the Catholic Kings in 1492, I always imagined a charming city, unique for its Arabic past. But Granada was even better than I dreamed. After years in our wishlist, we finally managed to visit Granada this summer. In August, the city was really hot but we still enjoyed it a lot.

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Mirador de San Nicolás

We travelled from Barcelona to Granada by high-speed train and one of our first stops after a long journey was the famous Mirador de San Nicolás – “mirador” means “viewpoint” in Spanish. Although this viewpoint is the most crowded in the city, it is not the only one. The Alhambra is always present wherever you look around. If you want to enjoy the best views of Granada, don’t miss the following sites.

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Europe, Spain

Morella, a castle with a village

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It was the afternoon of a hot day in early September in Peníscola, we had two Orxates in front of the beach and had a rest while recovering from the heavy humid environment. The day was getting to an end but before we still had to drive eighty kilometres through mountain roads, from the mediterranean coast to one thousand metres high. We were getting closer to Morella when the sky got suddenly completely dark.

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Morella views from the main road

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Europe, Spain

Burgos: a World Heritage Cathedral in Spain

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Spain seems to be a very touristic country. And, indeed, it is, but there are still some places that are mainly appreciated by locals and do not use to appear in the classical routes. When going back to Barcelona after our roadrip through the centre and the north of Portugal, we had to stop somewhere to spend the night. And we didn’t have to think much to choose a destination. We searched the route back home on Google Maps and inmediately decided that we would stop in Burgos. Its extraordinary Gothic cathedral was a good reason for it.

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Facade of Saint Mary

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Europe, Portugal, Spain

The Douro, sailing between Spain and Portugal

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We are used to travel on the weekend or while our (never enough) holidays and thus we try to make the most of our trips with lots of planning and less room for improvisation. But last summer, in Portugal, we had the three things that any traveler needs to decide the destinations along the way: a car, a camping tent and a travel guide.

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On the road

We had travelled through central Portugal from Lisboa to the medieval jewel of Guimarães and our next stop in our way back home was fixed at Burgos (Spain), a city dominated by its amazing Word Heritage cathedral. But we still had one night and some hours driving to reach Burgos, so we decided to open the guide and look for hotspots in the way back to Barcelona. We had heard about Miranda do Douro, a Portuguese town, belonging to the Braganza district, located in the border with Spain and next to which environmental cruises depart to sail through the international natural park of the Douro river. Moreover, the town has a municipal camping site, so we couldn’t ask for more!

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Europe, Spain

Cáceres and Trujillo: a journey to the medieval Spain

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If you love old towns and historical sites as much as we do, you will be happy to know that there is a hidden region in Spain where you can find, among others, a city built from the old Roman town of Emerita Augusta (now named Mérida), a monastery with a wonderful Mudejar cloister devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe (in the village with the same name) and the two medieval gems appearing in this post. That region, Extremadura, was the land of famous Spaniard conquerors of the New World. But today Extremadura still remains unconquerable to the great number of tourists that visit Spain year after year.

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Typical landscape of Extremadura seen from the Trujillo castle

Our journey to Portugal led us to cross the entire Iberian Peninsula by car and to enter the Portuguese region of Alentejo from Extremadura. On that trip I realised that amazing places can be found quite close and Cáceres and Trujillo are two living examples of that which have even served as the location of Game of Thrones due to their amazing architecture.

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