Spain trip report:
We spent 8 days in Spain in January. We took food along and got kosher food in GIB and Barcelona. We used public transportation, but renting a car would have been much easier and is definitely doable in southern Spain. Although Spain is full of Jewish history, very little remains to actually visit and see today. I highly recommend Rick Steves guide books. He gives tons of great information and recommendations, and we used his self guided walking tours in every city we visited. Beware: Theft and pick pocketing is widespread in many areas in Spain, particularly in Barcelona.
We arrived in Madrid Sunday afternoon and stayed until Tuesday morning. We stayed in the Hotel Regina, which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND- great location and price.
Madrid - Royal Palace, walked around the old city, the Prado and Reina Sofia (art museums) both had free entry in the evening. Unfortunately, we were unable to go to Toledo, which is only a short train ride from Madrid.
We took the train from Madrid to Cordoba on Tuesday morning. We spent the day there and then continued on the train to Seville in the evening. The regional train is only a slightly longer ride than the express and was significantly cheaper.
Cordoba old shul, Jewish museum, the old palace/fort was not very impressive and could be skipped IMO, we did not go inside the Mezquita
Seville We stayed in the Hotel Derby: pretty could location, clean, cheap. It was outside of the old city center. We walked around the old Jewish quarter, visited the Alcazar (palace) it was magnificent! We also went to see a flamenco show in a bar the show was free, we just needed to pay for a drink which was not too difficult! Seville is a beautiful city to just walk around, explore, and visit the shops selling authentic goods.
Granada We took a long bus ride to Granada on Thursday morning. We visited the Alhambra palace. We booked our tickets online in advance, which is recommended; entry is timed so plan accordingly. We also went to a relatively new Jewish museum in the city that was quite interesting and watched sunset from a hill overlooking the palace and city. We took another long bus ride to Algeciras and from there a taxi to the border of Gibralatar (about 20 min).
Gibraltar It was quite hard to get to GIB by public transportation but was well worth it! We stayed in the Elliott. Although it's not really worth the money you'll pay, it's very close to the shuls and kosher places. We booked on their website and got a decent rate with wifi included. On Friday, we took the cable car to the top of the rock and hiked down. The views were spectacular and the monkeys were crazy! We did not get proper directions for hiking down and ended up on the restricted path we had to climb over a fence at one point and walked past an area that looked like it was prone to falling rocks, so just beware. We were hosted by locals for both Shabbos meals. We checked out 3 shuls over Shabbos, all very beautiful and old. All in all, GIB was an incredible experience.
Barcelona We hired someone to drive us from GIB to Malaga on Sunday morning, where we took a Vueling flight to Barcelona. We stayed in the Hotel Flor Parks the room was tiny and smelled from smoke, but the location was right on the Ramblas and it was quite cheap. Barcelona is a really cool, interesting city. There are some Kosher restaurants there, 2 on the same block of the Ramblas.
Sites: The Ramblas, Gothic Quarter (Old Jewish quarter), Picasso Museum, old shul, waterfront/harbor, Gaudi sites, Park Guell, Sagrada Familia (we just checked out the exterior)