Iberia 2024

April 2024  Iberia awaits! We are finally off on our first extended journey for 2024, through Andalusia, Portugal, and Northern Spain. Mi Español es malo (my Spanish is bad), but we won’t let that slow us down!

We first visited Spain in 2019 when I was teaching a Tech Innovation class for Accenture in Madrid. Jean joined me, and we enjoyed two weeks in a mad-dash through Madrid and south-east Spain (thus the photos). We reveled in all of it: the tapas in Madrid, the evening paseo in Sevilla, the Moorish architecture in Cordoba and Granada, and Barcelona’s incredible Sagrada Familia.

But there was so much more of the country to see. We knew we’d return someday… and that day has come!

Iberian History

The Iberian Peninsula was populated by wave after wave of immigration… Phoenicians (Canaanites), Celts, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, Jews and Moors. The Greeks, on arriving in 700 BC, called the locals “Iberians” after the Ibēros river. The Romans, who finished their 200-year conquest of peninsula in 19 BC, called the area “Hispania,” which roughly translates into “land of the rock rabbits.” Now you know.

Eastern European Goths sacked the city of Rome in 410 AD, and moved on to settle in Spain, and adopted Christianity. They ruled the the local Iberians until 711 AD, when Islamic Moors from Africa raided across the Gibraltar straight. Due to in-fighting among the Goths, the Moors found little resistance, so they conquered and stayed… for over 700 years! The Portuguese drove out the Moors and established their independence in1249. It was another 243 years until Spain could do the same. In 1492, King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabela finally completed the Reconquista and drove the last of the Moors out and established modern Spain. Then they expelled the Jews, and funded Columbus’s voyages. Quite a year!

In the Age of Discovery (15th-17th centuries), Portuguese and Spanish explorers sailed the world. The slave and spice trades brough incredible wealth from their colonies. But as the world industrialized in the 1700s-1800s, they fell behind. Both countries regressed to civil and colonial wars, and then dictatorships by the early 1900s. Democracy emerged only in the 1970s… Portugal is celebrating its 50th Anniversary of the peaceful Carnation Revolution April 25. Spain’s first peaceful transfer of government was in 1982.

Our Iberian Plan

We start in the Moorish world – Morocco! Flights to Spain were much cheaper if we connected through Casablanca (“White House”). We will of course eat at Rick’s Café. Then we are off to revisit Spanish favorites Madrid and Sevilla. Our camino then winds north through Portugal and up the Douro River to Northern Spain, ending in Bilbao.

• Casablanca (Morocco) 2N – Old City Market, Hassan II Mosque, and the Corniche.  And Rick’s Café.
• Madrid (Spain) 2N – Prado, Sophia Reina, and Retiro Park. And tapas!
• Toledo (Spain) 3N – Alcazar, Museo del Greco, Cathedral, Jewish Quarter.
• Sevilla (Spain) 7N – Live as an Andalusian with tapas, siestas, and el paseo.
• Salema (Portugal) 2N – Sagres, Salema and Lagos.  Hike Seven Hanging Gardens Trail.
• Evora (Portugal) 1N – Bone Chapel, aqueduct, city walk, cathedral, university.
• Lisbon (Portugal) 4N – Bairro Alto, Alfama, Baixa, Belem.  Food!  Fado music.
• Sintra (Portugal) 1N – Pena early, hike down to Sassetti, via Mouros or Edla, Regaleira.
• Coimbra (Portugal) 2N – University; enroute Obidos, Miradouro do Suberco, Bathalda, Fatima.
• Porto (Portugal) 4N – Port wine, Fado music, day trip to to Minho or hike Passadiços do Paiva.
• Pinhão (Portugal) 1N – Explore the Douro quintas (wineries) and relax over the river.
• Salamanca (Spain) 3N – Architecture, old square, relax.  Enroute Pre-historic Penacosa
• Segovia (Spain) 2N – Plaza vieja and university.  Enroute the walls of Avila and the Valley of the Fallen
• Las Medulas (Spain) 1N – Enroute Burgos and Leon Cathedrals.  Hike the Roman gold mines.
• Santiago de Compostella (Spain) 2N – Day-hike the camino, cathedral; day trip to Muxia or Fistera
• Covadonga (Spain) 1N – Sanctuary where the Reconquista began. Coruna enroute. 
• Fuente de (Spain) 3N – Hike lakes, Cares & Fuente de.  Enroute Covaciella cave & Bulnes
• San Sebastian (Spain) 6N – Enroute Guernica, Lekeitio & Zarautz.  Beach, pintxos.
• Bilbao (Spain) 2N – Gugenheim Museum, riverfront.  Rioja enroute.

Journey Map

Here is our approximate route around the Iberian Peninsula. You can view and add as a layer in your own Google Maps. The map outlines cities where we will stay, our route, some historical sites, and hikes along the way.

Detailed Itinerary

If you are interested in a similar trip, the attached PDF itinerary is a good place to start! It includes the practicalities (weather, visas, essential phrases), history and current events, and of course our planned activities and stays.

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