Friends Touring Spain

01/10/2023

Ignore our last post. Was not meant for this page

01/10/2023

Missing Madrid on this crisp fall morning. Would have been the perfect day for a café con leche caliente on a terraza and a toast with crushed tomato and olive oil (tostada con tomate) somewhere, anywhere there.

01/05/2023

One of the most beautiful cities we will visit on our Northern Tour is Burgos.

01/05/2023

Experience a cathedral in a unique way! Visit Salamanca with us in June to tour the roof, bell tower, and catwalks of its cathedral!

01/05/2023

Try cochinillo (roasted piglet), Segovia's signature dish!

01/05/2023

See the Roman Aqueducts in Segovia during our Northern Tour this June!

01/05/2023

Visit La Cartuja de Miraflores in Burgos during our Northern Tour in June! One of the only places in the world where you will see God and the Holy Spirit represented in human form!

01/05/2023

Visit Burgos Cathedral during our Northern Tour this June!

01/05/2023

Spring Sign-Up Sale!
Sign up for one of our two planned trips by June 1, and receive 50% off our services.

Northern Tour: June 20-27
WAS starting at: $3,596/person
NOW starting at: $2,876/person

Southern Tour: November 7-14
WAS starting at: $3,788/person
NOW starting at: $2,690/person

20/03/2023

This is one of my favorite places.

13/03/2023

Thinking about my first time in Granada back in 2009. It was the beginning of my love affair with this amazing city. This is the Generalife -the summer getaway palace- inside the Alhambra. Do you want to visit this site? Send me a PM!

03/10/2022

So true!

20/08/2022

Yesterday in Spanish history: On August 19, 1936, Federico García Lorca was assassinated by Franco's forces near Granada. He was buried in a mass grave, the site of which has never been verified. Although a site has been postulated, Lorca's family have refused permission to disturb the graves of others in order to find him. In life, Lorca was obsessed with his own death, haunted by a premonition of his early demise. His severed head can be seen in some of Dalí's work from the era in which they were close friends. When he died, Lorca was working on a trilogy of plays and we were left with the gaping hole of the final play, although many wish to argue that one of his completed plays was the final one. The controversy continues. He was a poet, a playwright, a musician, and a philanthropist; he was the type of person who could get along with anyone. Everyone who met him only spoke lovingly of him. The world lost out greatly when he died.

18/07/2022

On this day in Spanish History: In 1936, part of the army, led by Francisco Franco, rose up against the Second Republic of Spain in an attempted coup that started the Spanish Civil War. This day marks the start of a three-year struggle that ended in a dictatorship which lasted until Franco's death in 1975.

26/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: In 1300, Mohammed II, sultan of Granada, captured Alcaudete (today known as Jaén) after a four-day battle.

24/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: Juana of Austria was born in 1535 in Madrid. Great Granddaughter of the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabel, she held many titles, was married off to the Portuguese King Joao Manuel, and was even regent of Spain during her brother Felipe's absence when he went to England to marry Queen Mary I of England.

23/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: In 1158 Sancho III of Castilla (Castile) and his brother Fernando II of León signed the Treaty of Sahagún which brought peace between both realms. It also promised mutual support and, in the event that either died without an heir, bestowed that realm to the surviving brother. They also agreed to split evenly all lands "reconquered" from the Moors.

21/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: In 1833, the daughter of King Fernando VII, Isabel, was named the Princess of Asturias and heir to the throne. She was only three years old and, when her father died a few months later, her uncle refused to accept her as Queen. This led to the First Carlist War.

19/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: In 2014, after his father's abdication of the throne, Prince Felipe is declared King Felipe VI.

11/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: In 1509, the Catholic Monarchs' (Isabel and Ferdinand) daughter Catherine of Aragón married King Henry VIII of England (after already having been married to his brother Arthur). She would never return to her native Spain.

10/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: In 1813 the Courts of Cádiz issued a decree which recognized an individual's Intellectual Property rights, and on this same day in 1847, by Royal Order, the General Register for Intellectual Property was created.

08/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: Spanish writer José Martínez Ruiz, also known as Azorín, was born in Monóvar in the province of Alicante in 1873. He was part of what was known as the Generation of '98, which was a group of writers who were greatly affected by what they saw as the downturn in the political, moral, and social landscape of Spain in the late 19th Century. He is most known for his works: La Voluntad, La Ruta de Don Quijote, Castillas, and Doña Inés, among others.

06/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: The Spanish Constitution of 1869 was passed after the revolution that overthrew Queen Isabel II, beginning the period known as the First Spanish Republic. It made Spain a sort of Constitutional Monarchy (under King Amadeo I). It allowed for the free exercise of religion (knocking Catholicism off its throne as the only option), granted the freedoms to vote and to assemble, and freedom of the press (among others). It was abolished in 1874 with the Borbon Restoration, which returned power to the old monarchy.

05/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: The playwright and poet Federico García Lorca was born in Fuente Vaqueros in the province of Granada in 1898. Lorca is best known for his plays Yerma, Blood Wedding, and The House of Bernarda Alba, and his poetic works Poet in New York and Gypsy Ballads. One of his poems has been put to music and you can listen to it on YouTube (English version Take This Waltz by Leonard Cohen, Spanish version Pequeño Vals Vienés by Silvia Pérez Cruz and Raúl Fernandez).

Fun fact: My cat's name is Lorca. She is a Spanish cat and she rolls her Rs.

04/06/2022

Today in Spanish history: In 1986, Oona Castilla Chaplin, a Spanish actress and granddaughter of the great Charlie Chaplin, was born in Madrid.

03/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history in 1982: Jaime Milans del Bosch and Antonio Tejero were sentenced to prison for their roles in the failed coup d'état of the newly established Spanish government in February 1981.

02/06/2022

On this day in Spanish history: In 2014 King Juan Carlos I abdicated his throne so that his son, Felipe VI, could take over.
Fun fact: Spain is a Constitutional Monarchy. The King is the Head of State while there is a President and a governing body who are all elected to their posts to make laws and run the state.

01/06/2022