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"Secrets of Andalucia
tour was all that was promised; Fun,
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and our FAQ CARPE DIEM!...THE ONLY DISSAPOINTMENT IS TO MISS OUT Not included: Flights, personal expenses, yoga,
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Our Escorted Andalucia Guided Walking Tour
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Fly into Madrid or Barcelona or London "We all had our own
favorite moments as this tour
Discover Andalucia: Spain’s Showcase of Timeless Mediterranean Culture Nowhere is Spain’s rugged Mediterranean beauty and cultural diversity more vividly evident than in southern Spain's, Andalucia region. Flamenco music, sherry wine, white villages, gazpacho soups and sangria are somehow out of place in other parts of Spain. The warm Mediterranean climate and many hours of sunlight are said to make Andalusians an especially outgoing, imaginative and pleasure-loving people. Anyone who has been in Andalusia will remember the colors, the smell of orange blossom and jasmine on the evening air and the lively activity of the streets. We will admire the splendor of the myriad cultures that have left their imprint on Andalusia in the magnificent Moorish palaces of the Alhambra and the monumental towns of Carmona, Antequera and Ronda. In Cordoba, a Roman temple, a mosque, a synagogue and a Gothic cathedral still peacefully coexist with one another. Time stands still in the Jewish quarters of Sevilla and Cordoba, where the spirit of the old Sepharad pervades the maze of whitewashed streets, hidden plazas and flower-decked patios. The exotic influence of the Orient is evident in the Flamenco music, delightful cuisine and splendid architecture, all accompanied by the warm hospitality and gaiety of the Andalusians. Experience the History Alhambra’s history speaks through its many sites and buildings, spanning the age of Spanish Muslim period and the Spanish Catholic Renaissance. The Moors built the Alcazaba fortress on the Alhambra hill in the ninth century, expanding upon their seventh century Spanish conquests. Competing Arab kingdoms ruled Granada over the centuries. Finally, under the Nasrid Dynasty of the 13th through 15th century, Moorish Granada rose to its pinnacle, including construction of the Alhambra palaces. Granada was the only remaining major Moorish city, Cordova and Seville having fallen to the re-conquering Spanish by 1248. Granada enjoyed a prosperous independence partially due to its allegiance with Spanish King Ferdinand III. Late in the 15th century, Spain’s Catholic Monarchs finalized their plans to expel the Moors. In 1492 King Ferdinand of Aragon recaptured Granada. The ensuing Spanish Renaissance period saw the building of the Carlos V palace and the Cathedral. Today, Granada is a university town and the bustling capital of an agricultural province. Its flourishing Albaicin quarter remains Europe’s largest Moorish settlement. Explore the Incredible Alhambra It’s only a five-minute taxi ride or 20-minute steep uphill walk from Granada’s central Plaza Nueva to one of the two Alhambra entrances. You’ll walk nearly three miles in your Alhambra visit, so take a guide book and plan your visit. Depending upon the entrance and the time frame, a generally effective sequence of sites is the Alcazaba fortress, followed by the Palace of Carlos V, the Palacios Nazaries, and the Generalife summer gardens and palace. The Nasrid Palace (Palacios Nazaries) displays Muslim architecture at its pinnacle. The walls, ceilings, and columns are worked in low-relief planes of finely molded, colored plaster which catches the light. Many of the ceilings display a honeycomb of decorative, hanging plaster stalactites. The palace rooms border patios with pools and water cascades. The emphasis on water reflects its preciousness in the Arab world. The Court of Myrtles shows off its long reflecting pool, and the Court of Lions highlights a cross of narrow pools that extend into the interior. Moors stood in the Court of Lions 600 years ago, reading the Koranic poetry adorning the walls, and contemplating Muslim paradise and the twelve lions (zodiac, months, etc.). The Hall of Ambassadors was the audience room for the emirs, highlighted by its spectacular views of the Albaicin hill through the pierced-sculpture windows. Revel in the Spanish Renaissance Next to the Nasrid Palace is the Palace of Carlos V. It is one of the best works of Spanish Renaissance architecture, yet it seems overshadowed and sadly out of place in the Alhambra setting. Remember that when the Spanish finally defeated the Moors here, they had been fighting for almost 800 years. In that context, it is not hard to imagine why the conquering Spanish throne decided to construct its own palace here. The square, two-storied palace was designed and started by a student of Michelangelo’s in 1528 and completed in the 1600s. Charles V held bull fights in the circular court with its column gallery. Down in the main town of Granada you’ll find other treasures of the Spanish Renaissance, including Granada’s Cathedral. It is the only completely Renaissance church in Spain, noteworthy for its spacious symmetry and stained-glass rotunda. Right next door to the Cathedral is the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel). Here you’ll find the tombs of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, paintings by Boticelli, the royal jewels, and Ferdinand’s sword. It is striking to see the grandeur and realize that this wealth came through the exploits of the Spanish Conquistadors in the New World. Enjoy Granada’s Spirit Central and spacious Plaza Nueva is a great place to enjoy the bustle of Granada. Sit at a cafe table, sip an espresso, and enjoy the fountain, views, and passersby. This is also a good area to find a hotel room, on the plaza itself, or on Cuesta de Gomerez, the street that runs up to the Alhambra from the plaza. From the plaza you can quickly reach the Moorish market, then explore the bustling Albaicin Moorish quarter. Climb the streets, map in hand, and find San Nicolas church with its view across the valley to the Alhambra. You have a choice of multiple restaurants here for a Moorish meal. Or head back to the narrow streets around Plaza Nueva to find a Spanish restaurant or tapas bar. In Spain many people dine on tapas or the larger portioned raciones for an early, inexpensive, and tasty meal. Restaurant or bar, Granada’s tasty cuisine is one of its highlights. For more info contact www.MagicalSpain.com Unknown Andalucia - Mountains of ancient Ronda Ronda, Hemingway's favorite village in the south of Spain was the old Roman city of Acinipo. Ronda looks out solitarily from its desolate windswept plateau; near this city the armies of Julius Caesar and Pompey clashed in an important battle.The wilderness of the Ronda area has a long history of human occupation, visible in the cave and rock paintings of its prehistoric dwellers and the ruins of Phoenician trading outposts. Ronda, with its mixture of Moorish and Christian architecture, straddles the bluffs of a sheer canyon, joined by a dramatic stone bridge and surrounded by a spectacular chain of mountains. In the nearby Genal Valley, white villages nestle in the deep green of the Mediterranean forests of oak, chestnut and cork. In former times the isolated, impenetrable terrain of the Serranía made it a hideout for smugglers and bandits. Today, the snowy peaks of the Sierra de las Nieves are a Reserve of the Biosphere. Europe's southernmost mountain range, only 8 miles from Africa and connecting point between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean is home to some of the most abundant variety of wildlife and vegetation on the continent. The proximity of the Sierra to these seas keeps its climate temperate year round and makes it the meeting place for many species of birds migrating from Africa and Northern Europe. The mountains and valleys of the Serranía are an exceptional habitat for a rich plant and animal life. Spanish Wine and Food Pairings 101 Pairing foods with wines is very much like discovering wonderful new Spanish Mediterranean recipes. Just as the right combination of ingredients complements and highlights each other to create a gourmet dish, pairing the right wine with a meal in Spain creates a combination that celebrates and enhances the experience of both Spanish food and wine. And, just as a recipe doesn’t have to be complex to be mouth-wateringly good, you don’t have to be a wine connoisseur or gourmet cook to enjoy the benefits of the right wine pairing. A basic understanding of the food, the wine and how the components and flavors in each interact can make it easy to find a successful pairing on a daily basis, and can greatly increase the chances of finding an exciting synergy between wine and food. Start with the Wine Pick a wine you know a love already. This way, you’ll have a sense of its flavors already, which you can use as a starting point to experiment with food pairings. Plus, if the recipe doesn’t work, at the very least you’ll be able to enjoy a nice bottle of wine! Be ‘Prepared’ With The Food The three key points The fundamental rule is to begin by pairing delicate wines with delicate flavors, medium-bodied wines with medium-weight or intensity flavors, and strongly flavored foods with wines that will stand up to their pungency. To help keep things simple as you get started, we’ve put together the following guide. Like anything, these are not absolute rules, but good guidelines to follow to help create the most successful and interesting pairings. Mourvedre ( Monastrell in Spain)
To make the wine even more compatible you can use the sauce to try to imitate flavors in the wine. For instance, mushrooms work well with Pinot Noir, tomatoes with Sangiovese, herbs and mint with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, and dark berries with Shiraz. As we noted, it’s not critical that you memorize this guide and follow it to the letter. The important point is to use this to help learn how the different types of flavors pair with different wines. This understanding of food components and wine flavors is actually much more helpful that simply matching a food to a wine and the basic chicken breast is a great example of why. Imagine a chicken breast poached (i.e. cooked in water) with a light lemon herb sauce. This might be a dish that could be friendly with light to medium bodied white wines like Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc. Now add a cream sauce and you can move up in body to a fuller bodied wine, maybe a Chardonnay. Or try it roasted and suddenly the flavors are such that it can marry with light to medium bodied reds, like Pinot Noir or Sangiovese. Grill it and it becomes great with fuller bodied reds, even Zinfandel or Shiraz (Syrah). On The Contrary The result is different, but the approach remains the same – consider the flavor of both the wind and food to create a specific taste experience. Dining Out Of course, don’t ever be shy about asking how a food is prepared or requesting help from the sommelier. Be sure they explain how the preparation of the food pairs nicely with the wine. You’ll be more assured of enjoying your meal and will learn some good lessons for your next adventure in your own kitchen. Cheese, Wine and Fruit An Iberian Couple: Spanish Wine and Cheese Like sparkling wine kept under pressure and then released, Spanish food and wine is suddenly exploding past the country's borders. In addition to several big-name chefs, the wines and cheeses of the country are becoming popular, and not just in Spanish restaurants. Among cheeses, Manchego has spearheaded the attack into American restaurants, and there are several others trailing in its wake - with many more waiting to be discovered, for that matter. Similarly Spanish wine isn't limited to Rioja anymore; Priorat and Rias Baixas and Penedés and many other quality wines with distinctive personalities are being brought over by enthusiastic and informed importers. As with France's vinous and dairy products, Spanish wine and cheese make great companions, so I set out to play matchmaker. I was fortunate to visit Spain recently and try a number of wines - inevitably accompanied by cheese - and decided to supplement my education with some research here in New York City. Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village generously provided me with several great cheeses from their immense selection, and I took them over to see my friends at Union Square Wines to pull some bottles from their shelves that seemed like promising partners. I began with a creamy mild cheese called Tetilla, which brought back fond memories. The cheese comes from Galicia, in the northwest of Spain above Portugal, and was the first piece of food I put in my mouth when I visited the region last December (The second was some wonderful grilled octopus, a traditional Galician preparation; wonderful, but it made an odd breakfast for me, still on East Coast time). Tetilla is a soft, creamy, mild cow's milk cheese; in Spain, these are less common than those made from sheep or goat's milk, but Galicia's green hills make it the Spanish leader in cow's milk production - cows being pickier eaters than sheep or goats. The cheese's name, which means "nipple," comes from the fact that the cheese is molded into a shape that is said resemble a breast. If so, they must have had Madonna's get-up from the early nineties in mind; the shape is on the cone-like, Hershey Kiss side. Its risque shape aside, this cheese followed a classic rule of wine and cheese pairing: pair a cheese with a wine from the same region. Galicia is home to the Rias Baixas appellation which makes white wines from indigenous grapes: Albariño primarily, but also Treixadura and Loureira; these are the wines that brought me to visit Galicia. On this occasion I tried the tetilla with the Nora 2002 Albariño, which shows an aromatic nose of peach, apple, and melon with a minerally finish. Paired, it passed its fruity qualities over to the cheese, lightening it, and took on a more Chablis-like character itself. San Simón is Tetilla's alter-ego, a smoked version that's a bit meatier. It also works with Albariño, but preferably something with a brioche edge that will blend well with the smokiness like the Condes de Albarei 2002. If you like cheese croissants it's the match for you. Cabrales has already made waves in the U.S. among lovers of blue cheeses, but for a blue that's a little tamer (i.e. one that non-blue fans might forgive you for serving) but still creamy, piquant, and flavorful, try Valdeon. It's also the only other cheese we tried that is made with cow's milk, albeit usually mixed with goat's milk depending on seasonal availability. Traditionally it is wrapped in leaves and aged in caves for two or three months, where it develops its blue veins. Like many blues, Valdeon calls for a sweet wine. Alvear's 2000 Pedro Ximenez Añada worked well, adding a fullness and roundness to the cheese. In this case the wine may be the real winner; the Pedro Ximenez can be a bit too syrupy, and the cheese toned this down and allowed me to concentrate on the figs, dates, and caramel of the wine without being overwhelmed by its texture and mouthfeel. A 2001 Altos de Luzon Jumilla from Finca Luzon also profited from being paired with the Valdeon. The wine's tannins cut through the fat in the cheese, while the slate and other earthy notes emerged from the wine, toning down the fruit. However, the Jumilla's best match was an Idiazabal, made from sheep's milk in the Pyrenees. Traditionally this cheese was smoked; my sample represented a growing trend away from that treatment, allowing it's buttery and nutty flavors to stand on their own. Together with the cheese, the wine retained all its aromas of blackberry, plum, and slate, and its tannins once more addressed the fat of the cheese to clear the palate. The cheese seemed creamier and smoother in the company of this wine, and they both share an up-and-coming status. The Jumilla DO in Murcia, near Alicante, allows the use of Garnacha, Tempranillo, and Mourvedre (called Monastrell in Spain); it has long been an area of great potential, and the winemakers here have begun applying modern craft to creating more dynamic wines than they have in the past. The seriously intense Monte Enebro is a cheese that benefits from aging and mold without developing blue veins. A coat of ash and mold forms on the outside of this creamy, spreadable goat's milk cheese, and its tanginess is buttressed by a walnutty base. A Cava like the Marques de Gelida NV Brut brings forth a wonderful smokiness from the cheese, whose nuttiness, in turn, brings out yeasty, bready notes to accompany the sparkling wine's citrus and green apple aromas. Both wine and cheese gain smoothness from the pairing as well. If you've been overindulging in sparkling wines and would like something still, try a sherry like the Delgado Zuleta Manzanilla; there's enough acidity in this wine to keep the cheese's tang in control, and they both possess a complementary nutty element. A goat's milk cheese with a decidedly different style is Garrotxa, from Catalonia. It's firm, with notes of chalk, wild herbs, and brine as well as a touch of nuts to it. The 2002 Naia is also from Catalonia, in this case from the Rueda DO. The primary grape here is the indigenous Verdejo, and the Naia displays lots of floral aromas which are typical to the grape, along with touches of peach and melon. The herbal scents of the cheese together with the wine's floral qualities bring to mind wind-blown Spanish hills, and the texture and acidity of both partners balance quite well. Torta de la Serena is a cheese I make a beeline for every time I see it served. Seriously rich and creamy, this soft cheese from Extremadura owes its distinctive, somewhat stinky character to the Merino sheep of the region and the thistle rennet used in making the cheese. Its bold style needs a big red wine to stand up to it. I've enjoyed this cheese on occasion with the 2001 Condado de Haza from the Ribera del Duero, a wine made from 100% Tempranillo grapes; it's dark berries, licorice, and chocolate wraps around the cheese like some yet-to-be-invented bon-bon. An earthier wine also does great things with this cheese; the 2000 Blecua from the Somontano DO is an international blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot together with Spanish natives Garnacha and Tempranillo. Earth, slate and forest floor aromas are layered with black fruits and a clear balsam note from oak-aging; it smooths the more aggressive aromas in the cheese and readies the palate for another bite. The last successful pairing I tried brought together what may be the two Spanish products most well-known in the U.S.: Rioja and Manchego. 1994 was a special vintage in Rioja and prompted many winemakers to lay down some of their wine according to the special aging requirements to create a Gran Reserva. The Ramirez de la Piscina 1994 Gran Reserva still shows all the character of the tempranillo grape set among the aromas of extended aging: red fruits like cherries and dried cranberries floating over earth, smoke, and barnyard aromas. Meanwhile Manchego is a rich sheep's milk cheese with a mild nutty character and sometimes a pepperiness that increases with aging. In this case my semi-aged Manchego brought new life to the wine, obscuring the barnyard character and filling out the fruitiness. There was just enough tannin left in the wine to balance with the fat of the cheese, and the smoke of the wine blended well with the cheese's nutty touch. Manchego comes from La Mancha, the land of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza; literature's classic pair meets its match on the Spanish table with wine and cheese pairings that ride together just as well. My thanks to Liz Thorpe at Murray's Cheese and Alexis Beltrami at Union Square Wines for their help in preparing this article. The Happy Couples: Spanish Wines and Cheeses Together
SPANISH WHITES: Can You Name One? When you consider Spanish wines, what usually comes to mind are the reds from the Rioja and Ribera del Duero areas, the sweet and dry sherries from Jerez (the word sherry itself is a vulgarization of the word Jerez), and the sparkling wine called cava from the Penedés area south of Barcelona. Ernest Hemingway, no stranger to a mellowing beverage, mentioned Spain’s excellent and inexpensive dry rosés on and off in his works, but by and large rosés are under the radar In the United States. Rarely does white wine come to mind – and that’s a shame. Spain, as the country with the world’s most total acreage devoted to vineyards, is home to an array of white wines ranging from the exotic, food-friendly albariño to the more neutral, clean, crisp viura and verdejo to the more familiar chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. Albariño These qualities — light body, searing acidity, and intense
minerality — make you think of bottling an ocean breeze.
They allow albariño to pair brilliantly with a plate of
seafood, shellfish, or, more specifically, paella. Spain’s
take on a rice dish, paella is typically studded with scallops,
mussels, shrimp, chorizo, and/or chicken. It is finished with
sherry and traditionally served in enormous pans designed to serve
a dozen or even more at a time. Personally, I wouldn’t dream
of eating paella without some albariño on hand. In my mind
it certainly ranks as one of the greatest and most natural of
food-and-wine pairings around. Albariño will also pair
well with any seafood rich in mineral or slate qualities (think
oysters), though a lobster drenched in butter would be better
served alongside your favorite chardonnay, be it Californian or
French white Burgundy. Albariño’s Portuguese genetic cousin, alvarinho, is used to make vinho verde. The latter cannot match the former’s exotic nature and in general pales, not only in color, but also in depth and intensity. Vinho verde on the whole is far more neutral in flavor despite its genetic similarity and geographic proximity to albariño. There is also less variation vintage-to-vintage in the overall quality of albariños than there is with, for instance, wines from Burgundy or Bordeaux in France, where the whims of Mother Nature can wreak havoc on the grapes and resultant wines. Another consequence of this is price fluctuations, as demand for a “good vintage’s” wines inflate its cost to the consumer. Albariño’s prices remain consistent year to year. And its relative obscurity in this country also helps keep down the price tag. A few albariño producers to look for include Martin Codax, Pazo de Señorans, Burgans, and Fillaboa. Some friends and I recently enjoyed a bottle of this last one with tapas at Café Iberico on the near north side of Chicago. Viura and Verdejo I’ve heard some suggest that the full potential of viura has yet to be realized. While I’m not wholly convinced of this, I’d be thrilled to someday learn that there is more to this pleasant little white. Spain is still breaking out of the isolation that gripped the country during the long rule of Francisco Franco, who only passed away 30 years ago. The modernization of the country’s winemaking, investment in new equipment, and total commitment to cleanliness are relatively recent phenomena. For literally centuries, much of Spain “crafted” and drank an oxidized white of little character. So it’s not far-fetched to think there might be uncharted waters even for a grape they’ve grown for hundreds of years. There has been some experimentation with oak barrel fermentation with mixed results. The Rioja bodega (winery) Conde de Valdemar offers a decent, well-made white, in addition to a stainless-steel tank fermented one. The unoaked white is a great warm-weather quaffer and pairs well with lighter (white) fish and perhaps a simple herb accent – nothing too heavy. An oaky one would seem more suited for scallops with garlic pan-fried in butter. Verdejo is another indigenous Spanish grape not really cultivated elsewhere. It is grown in Rueda, northwest of Madrid and near the world-class red wine region of Ribera del Duero. Verdejo reminds me most of sauvignon blanc. In fact, sauvignon blanc is also grown in Rueda, and you can find varietal bottlings of both grapes as well as blends of the two together. Light in body and crisply refreshing (noticing a pattern yet?), verdejo can be called upon to quench your summer thirst and complement a salad or herb-seasoned fish or chicken dish. Even more so than viura-based wines, you’ll rarely if ever encounter much oak influence with Verdejo. One benefit of this is the price – utilizing oak barrels for fermenting or aging wine inherently increases the price of the finished product. While viura and verdejo-based wines may not be the best white wines you’ll ever have, the flip side is that they won’t bleed your wallet dry either. Even $8-15 a pop will get you a good, genuine example of these wines, and that’s really not much to ask for something distinct, food-friendly, clean and easy. Really good albariños cost more along the lines of $13-20 a bottle, which is still relatively inexpensive. A high-quality chardonnay, be it from California or France, could easily cost twice that and more. Other Spanish Whites Marqués de Cáceres, a Rioja winery, makes a white rioja called satinela. It is made mostly from late-harvest viura, with some malvasia filling out the blend. It is fairly sweet, hinting at apricots, white peaches, and even white flowers. Unlike some dessert wines, though, this finishes with good palate-cleansing acidity. The winery’s data sheet calls this “a very original wine in Rioja” and recommends having it with “foie gras, curry dishes, [and] sweet and sour dishes,” but I tend to think peach cobbler or poached pears. To offer both the forward fruit flavors and a crisp finish is no small feat in winemaking, especially considering its $10 price tag. In comparison, the world’s most esteemed dessert wines can cost $40 to $100 for a half bottle and much, much more. Marqués de Alella, in the tiny area of Alella, makes a spritzy white called clasico that is another pleasant pairing with seafood. The area itself is near Barcelona and the Mediterranean so this is far from surprising. It is made from the local grape pansa blanca, which is their variety of the xarello grown nearby for the production of cava. The winery Gramona makes a blend called gessami from muscat and sauvignon blanc that drinks like an Alsatian gewurztraminer. It is even sold in a tall, thin bottle like the wines from Alsace, France. It is fragrant, fruity, and even a tiny bit sweet. The muscat grape gives it an apricot/ripe peach quality, and the sauvignon blanc lends a floral note to it. An important rule of thumb when buying Spanish white wines is that they are almost without exception meant to be drunk young. Stick with recent vintages, and if you can, hold up the bottle (if it’s clear glass) to any light: a young, acidic white wine should show a greenish tinge, and anything brownish should be shunned. If it doesn’t look fresh, it’s not likely to taste that way. This holds true for most less-expensive whites, not just Spanish white wines. I’ve heard some talk that albariño’s acidity is intense enough to merit some aging, but I’m unconvinced. I don’t understand why you would try. Exploit its intrinsic qualities: buy and drink them young, young, young. If five or 10 years from now we learn that they do age well, then all the better. For now I’ll stick with what I do know. On that note my thoughts are turning towards how to work some paella into my dinner plans sometime soon. "We never done a "group tour" but decided
to try the small group concept... Kudos to tour director Dan who
knows everybody! LOVED the mix of structure and free time....great
walks, dinners & wine in "secret places" only the locals know
about!... the olive oil mill picnic & flamenco class are great
memories...We felt so comfortable, sorta like old family friends
visiting, not tourist! Hasta Pronto!" |
The
more things change in the 21st century...
the more ancient Andalucia remains the same.
It still boasts those gnarly olive trees, friendly locals
and Mediterranean light that inspired Picasso.
Those castles and hill towns are still
medieval and the tapas
cuisine & flamenco dancers are still passionate.
We'll
depart Ronda as 2000-year-old Seville awaits
with legends of Carmen, Don Juan, Julius Caesar, Columbus
and El Cid. As the Spanish royal port during
the golden years of the Spanish empire, Seville grew very
rich and we'll see a one-of-a-kind mix of Moorish, Baroque
and Classical architecture styles fused together. Our friend
a acclaimed local chef and restaurant owner receives us for
a private cooking demo and meal. With our
guided tour you avoid getting lost in the maze-like old town
of palacios, history and culture,
Later
options to learn basics of flamenco dance,
have a massage in a Moorish bath and tea house, shop for ceramics,
olive oils, leather goods or just relax with a cool glass
of fino, Rioja or Priorato wine and fantastic cheeses
on orange-tree-lined plazas near our central hotel! Seville
is the capital of Tapas cuisine and so tonight
we'll enjoy a tapas feast in unknown local taverns
including one from the 14th century! Savor a wine
tasting with vinos tintos y blancos of northern Spain
tonight as we toast our new friends. 
Daniel
O'Beirne - MagicalSpain.com guru
If
you are planning a Spain tour or vacation, among the highlights
of Spain and Andalucia is Granada with here Iberian, Roman, Moorish
and Castilian roots. As you stand at the top of the Alhambra fortress
tower, circle your gaze and appreciate Granada’s wonders.
Gazing south, note the high, often snow-covered, Sierra Nevada range.
East, see modern Granada and a broad, dry plateau. To the northeast
and below, scan the heart of Granada, making out Plaza Nueva, the
Spanish Cathedral, and the Moorish marketplace (Alcaiceria). Gazing
north across the Darro River Valley, view the Moorish quarter (Albaicin)
with its narrow, winding streets ascending the hill. To the west,
behold the incredible Alhambra grounds: the fortress ruins (Alcazaba),
the Moorish palaces (Palacios Nazaries), and the Palace of King
Carlos V. Alhambra’s diversity and history beckon you to further
explorations.
