MADRID – ANDALUSIA – 8 DAYS MAY 2025

Flight from Athens to Madrid. Arrival and departure directly for a first acquaintance with the city through a panoramic tour with our bus. With stops for photos at places such as Plaza Castilla with its twin curved towers (Puerta de Europa), the Madrid bullring (Plaza de Toros Las Ventas) the largest in the country. As well as a walk in the largest natural lung in the city center, the Retiro Park, where we will see the artificial lake and the Glass Palace (Palacio de Crystal). Arrival and check-in at the hotel, a little time to rest and we start for a walk in the historic center in the Madrid of the Habsburgs. In the famous Barrio de la letras, one of the most bohemian neighborhoods in all of Europe, where many of Spain's great painters and writers lived and created. Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel.

After breakfast at the hotel, we will depart on foot for the Prado Museum. We will pass through Plaza Colon, Paseo de Recoletos, and Plaza de Cibeles with the Bank of Spain and the City Hall and through Paseo del Prado to arrive at the museum. The Prado Museum is one of the most important art galleries in the world with a multitude of famous works that we would need whole days to be able to see them, in the 1 hour and 35 minutes that we are given to do our scheduled tour with an official guide we will enjoy mainly works from the Spanish School by El Greco, Velazquez and Goya as well as some paintings from the Venetian School such as Tintoretto or the Flemish School such as Rubens. We will also have an hour free here to be able to see other works or visit the museum shop. Then we have our optional excursion to medieval Segovia, where we will walk through its streets, see the 2,000-year-old Roman Aqueduct, the Plaza Mayor, the Alcazar de Segovia Castle-Palace and we will have the opportunity to try local restaurants, dishes such as cochinillo (baby pig) or try the local dessert Ponche Segoviano. Return to Madrid in the afternoon. For the excursion to take place, a minimum of 15 participants are needed and the cost per person is €50.

After breakfast, departure for the “City of Three Civilizations”, Toledo, a city with a great historical, artistic and cultural heritage. We will wander through the narrow streets of the medieval city and visit the Cathedral, a unique building of great artists and a mixture of many architectural styles, where we will see paintings by El Greco, of incredible value, such as the Expolio and the collection of Apostles. Then, in the church of Santo Tomé, we will admire El Greco's masterpiece “The Burial of Count Orgath”. Then, visit a factory with ''Damasquinad'', a well-known Toledo art that comes from the Arab era. Return to Madrid. For the afternoon, we recommend a last shopping trip to the city's most elegant district, Barrio de Salamanca, a café in the atmospheric Plaça de Oriente with a view of the palace, or simply wander through the narrow streets of the old town, ending up in the impressive Plaça Mayor for a hot chocolate.

After breakfast, crossing the plateau of the legendary La Mancha where Don Quixote lived and performed his exploits, we will end up in the hinterland of Andalusia, in the well-known Cordoba of the Romans, later Cordoba of the Arabs, today's Cordoba. In the once capital of the most important caliphate of the West, we will wander through the picturesque narrow streets of the Jewish quarter with its magnificent patios that will lead us to the largest Mosque in the West, the famous Methkitta. Over 800 columns (many of them from the Hellenistic period) hold on their arches a work of art of unparalleled beauty from the 9th and 10th centuries. Averroes, Mohammed Al-Ghafeki, Ben Maimonides, important Arab scholars who translated almost all ancient Greek writings into local languages, lived here. In the afternoon, arrival and check-in at the hotel in Seville.

After breakfast, our tour of the city of opera begins, where Carmen, Don Juan and Figaro, the barber of Seville, “lived”. Starting from the Maria Luisa Park and the Americas Square, we arrive at the impressive and fairytale Spain Square, where we will see buildings representative of the city’s architectural styles. Then we will wander through the former Jewish quarter with narrow alleys and typical “patios”. Today it is called Santa Cruz and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We will visit the Alcazar building complex (fortified palace in Arabic) dominated by the Arab Palace, of classic Mudejar architecture with impressive formal salons, the small harem and the private rooms of the Sultans. In the same area we will see the Giralda Cathedral with the minaret-bell tower which is the “official” photo of Seville. Here is the tomb of Columbus, the gold-plated central chapel and important paintings by the great Sevillian painter Murillo. But Seville is not (only) this. Narrow alleys, medieval buildings, beautiful squares, orange trees, century-old magnolias and the Guadalquivir where Lorca’s love bathed…… the city of love. Dinner at the Hotel and for later……flamenco, in the city where he was born. (Optional)

After breakfast we will depart for the famous White Villages (Pueblos Blancos), stopping first at the unique rock-cut village of Setenil de las Bodegas. Then we will go to Ronda, a small town in the province of Malaga, with its great fortified position on a steep hill in the mountain range that separates Upper and Lower Andalusia. The unique paths that crossed it and allowed communication by road, combined with its rugged surroundings, contributed to its importance in the Roman, Visigothic, and Arab periods. Tour and free time to admire monuments, such as the New Bridge (Puente Nuevo) of the 100m gorge. depth of the Guadalupe River that runs through the historic center, as well as the oldest Bullfighting Arena (Plaza de Toros) in Spain. Then departure for Granada and check-in at the hotel. Buffet dinner, overnight.

After breakfast departure for the hill of Alhambra, the "red castle" as it is called in Arabic. Built on a stone hill, protected by mountains and surrounded by forest, Alhambra was originally designed as a military area, but from the mid-13th century it became the residence of kings-Sultans. A masterpiece of Islamic architecture of the 14th century with unimaginable detail in the decoration, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On the adjacent hill are the magnificent Generalife gardens where the summer palace of the kings-Sultans dominates. Afterwards we will have free time in the historic center of the city after walking through it, passing, among other things, the Cathedral and the Royal Chapel, the small "Souk", the New Square (Plaza Nueva), and the small river Darro (Darro). For those who wish (OPTIONAL), after dinner at the hotel, there will be an evening walk on the hill of Albaicín, the old Moorish Granada, where we will have a panoramic view of the illuminated Alhambra as well as the entire city. Then we will meet on the other hill of the city, Sacromonte, the gypsy quarter, to watch gypsy flamenco in the cave houses, with a drink. Buffet dinner, overnight stay

After breakfast departure for Malaga, the most dynamic urban center of the Costa del Sol. Arriving in Malaga, we will initially tour its historic center where you will then have the opportunity in your free time to visit monuments such as Gibralfaro, which offers the best view of the coastal city and the Muslim castle-palace Alcazaba, the Roman theater of the 1st century BC, the Cathedral, and the house where Picasso was born. Also a walk through the narrow streets of the historic center and the opportunity to try some of the delicacies of Andalusian cuisine and shopping on the commercial pedestrian street Marqués de Larios. Late in the evening we depart for Malaga airport and flight to Athens.