Knowing that we were going to be spending all of August and a bit of September in Sevilla, we figured we’d at least take a day trip from Sevilla to Córdoba while we were there. It was a city I’d heard so much about, and I’d never had the chance to visit! But with the temperature typically above 100°F (~37C) in both Sevilla and Córdoba, it was looking like we’d have to save Córdoba for another trip to Andalucía. We went to Cádiz to escape the heat one weekend instead.

Luckily, on our last full day in Sevilla — a Monday, which was Labor Day in the U.S. — the high temps in Córdoba dropped to the low 80s and we decided we’d make the trip from Sevilla to Córdoba after all. Unlike when we’d gone to Cádiz, we didn’t have any problem finding seats on the train, so we took the RENFE Media Distancia train, which cost €11 per person each way, and got us from Sevilla to Córdoba in one hour and 19 minutes.

If you want to plan your own day trip from Sevilla to Córdoba, here’s what you need to know. [Read more…]

Benefits of taking a day trip from Sevilla to Cádiz — getting to see the sea!

Spending the entire month of August in southern Spain was a CHOICE. As much as we love Sevilla the 112°F (~45°C) days were tough to stomach. Initially, I wanted to take a day trip to Córdoba, but the forecast looked basically the same there, and I knew we wouldn’t be able to enjoy sightseeing in those conditions. So I started to research places within an hour or two from Sevilla that could give us a true respite from the heat, just for a day. And that’s how I found Cádiz.

It seemed like everyone else had the same idea, considering that it was nearly impossible to find a train from Sevilla to Cádiz that still had seats available for any weekend day we were in Sevilla. Eventually, we were able to find a spot on the first train of the day on a Friday morning, but everything coming back later that day was sold out… so we turned to popular European carpooling app, BlaBlaCar, for the trip back home. (More on that later.)

Anyway, if you want to plan your own trip from Sevilla to Cádiz, here’s what you need to know! [Read more…]

Park Güell

To those who are here because they’re coming to our 2024 wedding outside of Barcelona — this is for you! 🤍 And to those who stumbled across it because they also want to know everything they need to know about Barcelona — this is for you, too.

Whatever your reason, I’m glad you’re here. I’m going to try my best to introduce Barcelona and Spain for anyone who’s visiting for the first time. [Read more…]

As we neared the end of our European road trip, the last real stop (aside from spending one afternoon/night in Zaragoza) was the city of Logroño in Spain. When I told Spanish people we were visiting Logroño, they all said, “Why??”

Back when I was preparing to apply for the language auxiliares de conversacion/NALCAP program, I knew I wanted to end up in Madrid. But you have to select a few options. So after selecting Madrid as my first choice, I put Logroño as number two… despite never having visited before. That’s because I had read a blog by a former auxiliar who said she had an amazing time during her year in Logroño. Later, when I lived in Madrid, a friend of mine ended up visiting Logroño for a weekend, and she said it was Spanish wine country. Who wouldn’t love that?

All these years later, my curiosity got the better of me when I saw how close we’d be to Logroño during our road trip. I wondered what my life would have been like if I’d spent my years in Spain there, instead of Madrid. So I knew we had to check it out.

Here’s what it was like to visit. [Read more…]