Prior to her arrival, mom had researched the various modes of transportation for us to tour through Spain. the most economical and convenient method was to rent a car. Under normal circumstances, this would have been just fine, buit having mom as a passenger can be a bit unnerving to say the least. Perhaps her most absurd request was to memorize 100 of Europe's road signs as we made our way onto the highway from Madrid to Toledo. Never mind the constant badgering about converting kilometers to miles and the rental car's gas mileage. Arriving safely into Toledo, we quickly made our way through the city's various sites pausing briefly for lunch. Needing energy for our busy afternoon through the old Jewish Quarter, we committed a mortal sin - eatting at McDonald's. We were desperate and sadly enough my Big Mac was the best piece of meat I had in Spain to that point. Our culinary good fortune ended at the Golden Arches as our dinner could not have possibly been any worse. We did, however, meet a couple touring through Spain who managed to persuade us into making a side trip to picturesque Ronda on our way to Granada. This meeting provided mom the opportunity to witness our best resource firsthand - fellow travelers!!!!
Next we hit Cordoba where we were all in awe of the Mezquita (a mosque converted into a church) and the festival of patios where people decorate their open-air patios with flowers and fountains. We were lucky enough to hear a guitar quartet playing at one of the patios we visited.
Our run of 4-star hotels came to an end in Seville, although your guess is as good as ours as to how the Hotel Giralda achieved such a high rating. Aside from the traditional sights of Seville, we did many loads of laundry and introduced mom to tapas at Bar Giralda. Dana and I attended a bullfight leaving mom alone at the hotel for some much deserved R&R. Certainly the highlight of our stay in Seville was our evening horse and buggy tour of the city during which we saw Plaza Espanya, Park Maria Luisa, and La Giralda. It was also in Seville that I operated on mom's feet popping a blister here and there.
