When I first learned that legendary Polish composer Frederic Chopin and his lover Parisian writer George Sand lived in a monastery when he spent time in the gorgeous Spanish island of Mallorca, I was puzzled as to why anyone would want to live there if they weren’t monks. But then we went to visit the […]

Whoever said that the best things in life were free wasn’t trying to travel on a budget! But when you travel to a fabulous city like Barcelona, there are tons of great things to do and see that are free. And any money saved can go right to your tapas bill… Here are my favorite free things in Barcelona, which also happens to be one of my all-time favorite cities.

There was something magical about the horse-drawn carriages of Seville, Spain. Sure, they’re just about the only thing more touristy than taking a gondola ride in Venice. And to be honest, I wasn’t even tempted by horse and buggies in Seville — probably because we had a very active 11-month-old with us when we were there […]

The Alcazar of Seville is the kind of place where you want to linger… In fact, even the Spanish royal family wants to linger there and stays there occasionally as its one of their official residences, and it’s the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe. We lingered so long that the weather had […]

The first photo of the Travelogged logo — the photo that the T sits on — is one of the decorative touches on the rooftop of Antoni Gaudi’s Casa Batllo. So it’s no secret that I’m a big Gaudi fan and a big Barcelona fan. Actually, make that a huge fan of Spain in general, […]

Lisbon and Seville. Seville and Lisbon. Perhaps they aren’t the two most natural city combos, like London and Paris or Vienna and Prague. But when I was planning my trip in October, they seemed like the perfect pair, and I was right. Lisbon and Seville were just a four-and-a-half-hour drive apart, which sounded great since […]

— Plaza de Espana (pictured above, and in the slideshow) turned out to be my favorite sight in Seville. It was the Alcazar that earned Seville the second spot on my Lisbon-Seville-Sintra itinerary (sorry Porto — next time). I had always heard about how amazing the Alcazar was, and don’t worry, it didn’t disappoint. But I […]

Could it really have been three years ago that I went to Barcelona? Wow, it feels much more recent than that. After only a few hours in Barcelona, it became my favorite city (next to my beloved hometown NYC, of course), and it has yet be dethroned. The first place we went (following incredible paella […]

(photos by Pete and Libby) There's Spanish culture, there's French culture, and then there's Basque culture. Pete and Libby (whom you may remember from their photos of the Winter Olympics and Lindsey Vonn) decided to explore the Basque region in early May. They flew into Toulouse, France, and then drove to San Sebastian, Spain, where […]

In Barcelona, everything seems to shut down on Sundays. I found this out the hard way when I was there in late August 2007, as my last full day fell on a Sunday and I was hoping to get in some more shopping and museum-going. But everything turned out just fine because it meant that […]