Spain, here I come!

With a new year comes lots of new things. For me, it means it's time to dust off the cobwebs from this blog and start getting excited about my next trip. While I have probably a dozen potential trips swirling in my mind (Northern Italy? Paris and Loire Valley? More of Denmark? Scotland? Hungary and more of Austria? Gosh, you name it. Need more vacation time.), but a few months back I settled that my next trip would be to Spain.  Besides its current spot among the center of the culinary world, I figured it would be a great opportunity to see something a bit different yet not stray too far from my beloved Mediterranean culture. So, Madrid and Andalucia for 16 days at the end of April-first 2 weeks of May it is:


 

• 2 nights Toledo - Hostal Casa de Cisneros (they have a private museum of ruins in the basement, say what!)
• 2 nights Cordoba - Hotel Don Paula (their confirmation email included a first-person perspective youtube video of how to drive to the hotel by car. Have I ever mentioned how much I love small independent accommodations in Europe?)
• 4 nights Sevilla - Hopefully at Pension Cordoba, but they've asked to write again in February. Alright then.
• 2 nights Ronda - Hotel Ronda
• 2 nights Granada - Hostal Rodri (32 euros a night, are you joking?)
• 4 nights Madrid - Artistic B&B (the wife decorated the B&B and the husband makes homemade cakes and breads for breakfast. They asked if I have any food allergies so they could accommodate me. Again I ask, have I ever mentioned how much I love small hotels in Europe?)

Plus possible day trip to Cadiz (from Sevilla) and Segovia (from Madrid) as well as a day tour of the Andalusian White Villages as a connector from Sevilla to Ronda.  Since the accommodations I've booked are so cheap, I figured I could afford a private tour for a day to see some remote towns and solve a transportation conundrum. 

This is also the first trip I'm going to take without a laptop. Armed with my trusty iPad Mini, I'm going to attempt to do all my blogging and photos from there. Guidebooks in Kindle version included.  That'll be an interesting challenge, but I think it'll work out well and it never hurts to travel as light as absolutely possible. 

Now the fun part begins of researching restaurants and sights and itineraries and transportation (which seems a bit more complicated than in Italy where I am so comfortable at this point). In some ways, all this stuff is almost as fun as the trip itself because you learn so much and are making the most of it.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone out there has something equally as amazing to look forward to in 2013.