Excursions:

There is stiff competition in the contest for grandest cathedral in Seville, but few would deny that the winner is La Giralda. A transformed and reconstructed Moorish mosque, La Giralda's wonderful ornamentation entertains few real rivals.

Seville's wealth of architectural marvels stems from her monopoly on the incredibly lucrative Spanish-American trade from 1501 to 1720. In Seville you will discover Alcázar, a reclaimed Moorish castle from which the exploration-of and trade-with America was organized; the Biblioteca Columbina, where the original documents recording the discovery of America are stored; and the heartbreakingly lovely María Luisa Park.

Barcelona, situated between the blue waters of the Mediterranean and the Tibidabo hills, is on the doorstep of the great playgrounds and vacation retreats of Europe. The Balearic Islands are to the east; the Costa Brava (Wild Coast) and Pyrenees to the north; the Penedes wine region to the west; and the Roman city of Tarragona, the monastery at Montserrat and the beautiful resort town of Sitges are to the south.

Within Barcelona itself lies the bohemian Gothic quarter, a tangled mix of plazas both grand and undiscovered. Art nouveau storefronts, baby flea markets, musty and classy antique shops and balconies with jungles of greenery surging behind wrought iron bars layer around the centrepiece of the Gothic Quarter: the colossal cathedral. Construction of the cathedral, a fine example of Catalan Gothic style, was started in 1300 and completed 600 years later. The Picasso Museum, far and away the best collection of Picasso's work in Spain, is nearby.