Review: Luxury Spain Vacation, Seville, Granada, Madrid, San Sebastian, Barcelona, Ronda, Alhambra Tour, Wine & Olive Oil Tasting

The best times were always in the smaller towns because of the personal connection the guides had with those places.  Specifically those were the days spent in Ronda with our guide talking about the history of bull fighting, the mixed feelings about it and how he introduces the history of the tradition to his triplets.  And it turned out he is a bird watcher which supported a great afternoon watching eagles, hawks, and vultures soaring on a mountain top road.  Another great  town is Montillo where we got to spend a day with the owner of our travel company.  She is definitely tied to the olive oil production and was able to explain every step of the process and machinery used, as well as go into the groves and identify each tree species by  their leaves.  This knowledge came from the fact she grew up working in her father's small family grove. The particular operation she took us to was run by an old high school friend of hers and he provided us with a nice lesson on how to evaluate different oils.  We plan to share that with our family at Thanksgiving.  After the olives we moved to a winery with our travel agent.  We are not wine experts, but I do brew beer, so it was really interesting in learning that they cast no yeast, but rather depend on wild strains that travel on the skin of the grapes.  The winery guide was very knowledgeable and patiently answered all of my questions.  We had a great wine tasting, and found it fun that they make a wine whose name is at least familiar to us as it appears in the Edgar Allen Poe story, "The Cask of Amontillado".  The wines were well pared with a  delicious tapas lunch prepared by the winery manager's mother.