MADRID – ANDALUSIA – 8 DAYS – SUMMER & SEPTEMBER 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 did his exploits, we will end up in the hinterland of Andalusia and specifically in Granada, built at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, the snow-capped mountain range. In the afternoon we will visit* the impressive hill of the Alhambra (the red castle in Arabic). The heyday of the Sultanate of Granada in all its glory, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture of the 14th century with unimaginable detail in the decoration, with incredible fountains, with invocations to Allah, to paradise and eternal love. Next to the Alhambra we will find the Generalife with trees, flowers and waters that will take us to a world of contemplation, relaxation and imagination from the era of the Sultans, the Harems, sensuality and eunuchs .... in the power of the Arabs. Check-in and dinner at the hotel. In the evening you will have the opportunity to watch the Zambra Mora, the original gypsy version of the dance that later gave the basis for the birth of Flamenco. (Optional)

After breakfast, a guided tour of Granada in the Cathedral area and Bib Rambla (the commercial square). 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 an opportunity to try some of the Andalusian cuisine and shopping on the Marqués de Larios shopping street or a visit to one of the important museums such as the Picasso Museum or the Pompidou Center Malaga or better known as the Cube (el Cubo) by taking a walk on Pier 1 (Muelle 1) of the port of Malaga. Arrival in the afternoon in the capital of Andalusia, Seville. Check-in and dinner at the hotel.

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 departure for Madrid. Passing the Sierra Morena we will end up in the well-known Cordoba of the Romans, the 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 the wonderful patios that will lead us to the largest Mosque of the West, the famous Methkita. 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 Madrid.

Breakfast at the hotel and some free time at your disposal. Transfer to the airport and flight to Athens.