Route One — The Caliphate Heartland
Córdoba → Almería → Granada → Málaga → Ronda → Seville → Córdoba. About 750 km. Ten days. The principal southern Andalusi monuments.
The standard tour through the principal surviving caliphal and post-caliphal monuments of southern Spain. Easy driving on the modern A-92 and other motorways; substantial public transport alternatives if preferred. Best done outside the August Andalusian heat.
Days 1–2 — Córdoba. The Mezquita; the Judería; the medieval bridge; the Calahorra Tower museum on the south bank.
Day 3 — Madinat al-Zahra. Half-day morning at the site (allow time at the museum); afternoon at the Córdoba Archaeological Museum.
Day 4 — Drive Córdoba → Almería. About 350 km via the A-92. The Alcazaba of Almería; the Cathedral (built in the late fifteenth century in a defensive style with corner towers, partly because of the residual threat of Barbary corsair raids).
Days 5–6 — Granada. The Alhambra (full day, with advance booking); the Albaicín; the cathedral; the royal chapel where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried.
Day 7 — Drive Granada → Ronda via Antequera. The Antequera dolmens (the prehistoric stone monuments) and the spectacular drive through the Sierra de las Nieves to Ronda. Overnight in Ronda — the cliffside Andalusi town that survived as a Christian frontier outpost from the late fifteenth century and preserves substantial medieval fabric.
Days 8–9 — Seville. The Cathedral and the Giralda; the Alcázar; the Triana district across the Guadalquivir.
Day 10 — Return to Córdoba. Two hours by motorway or train; fly home from Córdoba or from Madrid (a further three hours).
Route Two — The Translation Trail
Toledo → Madrid → El Escorial → Zaragoza → Tudela → Pamplona. About 600 km. Seven days. The translation-school and northern Mudejar sites.
A central-northern Spanish route focused on the Toledo translation school and the northern Mudejar (Andalusian-tradition Christian-built) monuments. Less visited than the southern route and substantially less crowded.
Days 1–3 — Toledo. The Cathedral; the Santa María la Blanca and El Tránsito synagogues; the Cristo de la Luz mosque; the Museo de Santa Cruz (with substantial Mudejar collections); the medieval city walls.
Day 4 — Madrid and El Escorial. The Royal Library at El Escorial; the Prado Museum in central Madrid (with substantial Spanish Golden Age painting, including the works of Velázquez and Goya that comment on Spain's relationship with its Muslim past).
Day 5 — Drive Madrid → Zaragoza. About 320 km along the A-2 motorway. The Aljafería palace; the cathedral.
Day 6 — Tudela. The medieval Mudejar quarter of Tudela (the medieval town's substantial Andalusi-tradition urban fabric is well preserved); the cathedral, with substantial Romanesque-Mudejar fabric.
Day 7 — Pamplona. The medieval cathedral and the city walls; the Roncesvalles route through the Pyrenees to France for departures from southern France, or south to Madrid for direct return.