Originally Posted by
HalconBCN
OP - just keep in mind the weather in January. I know you said you are used to bad weather but still - people think of Spain and sunshine comes to mind...
Madrid can be cold in January, even snowy. Barcelona has better weather but it's unpredicable - you could be having lunch in the sunshine one day and buttoning up your coat the day after under overcast skies. The Sagrada Familia looks a lot more beautiful on a sunny day.
I'm under no illusions about the weather -- the last time I was in Madrid and Barcelona was in December. Personally I find it easier to walk more when it's cool, so I think we'll be OK. Just crossing our fingers that we won't get too much rain -- that's the only thing that would really put a damper on for us.
Originally Posted by
HalconBCN
Valencia and Alicante are safe choices from a weather perspective. Alicante is also a good base for exploring some lesser known towns.
In Andalucia, I would go for Seville, Malaga and Cadiz is a really underrated town, easy to get to by car, with a rich local culture and great food.
We've cut down our ambitions a bit -- for various reasons we're likely to find ourselves back near Barcelona in the next couple of years, so we are just making a brief stop there and then taking the train to Seville. Saving Valencia for that next trip as well.
We are trying now to balance what all we want to do in Andalucia -- I think we will have seven nights there in total before heading to Madrid. Still working on figuring out how to divide up that time, although we both think Cadiz sounds really lovely. The hardest decision has been trying to decide whether to spend a few days in Granada, stop there for a quick trip to the Alhambra, or save it for another trip entirely.
Originally Posted by
BeachRat
I'll just simply say that if you haven't been inside La Sagrada Familia recently, it has so dramatically changed with the recent (almost complete, hah!) installation of the stained glass windows. On a sunny day, it's stunning.
Crossing our fingers that we get one! I was last there about ten years ago, and my partner has never seen it.