The Sun Coast

View world-famous paintings by El Greco, Goya, and Velázquez, and much. much more, at the magnificent Museo del Prado.

Toledo is surrounded on three sides by the Río Tajo, which has cut a deep gorge out of the encircling mountains. Christianity, Judaism and Islam coexist on the tiny streets of this ancient city, which was once the capital of Spain. Indeed, the entire panorama of Spanish history is embodied in its churches, synagogues, Moorish mosques and fortifications.

Visit one of the most impressive Spanish cathedrals, completed in 1492, after nearly 300 years. Its treasury contains an impressive display of gold and silver vessels and alabaster sculpture.

Visit the Church of St. Thomas to view El Greco's Burial of the Count of Orgaz, a fresco commissioned in honor of a Spanish nobleman who was known for his generosity and charitable deeds.

Enjoy a visit to one of the city's two remaining medieval synagogues.

At the palatial religious retreat of King Philip II, El Escorial, you will see the Royal Pantheon where the kings are buried, the Crypt of the Royal Children, the Apartments of King Philip, the Basilica with Titian's fresco depicting the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, and the lavish library, which contains 40,000 rare manuscripts, including the diary of St. Teresa of Avila.

Stop at the Valley of Cuelgamuros, a wooded belvedere nestled in the Guadarrama Mountains that features the world's largest monumental cross. It's also the site of an underground basilica that General Franco ordered carved inside a hill of solid granite by prisoners of war from the Republican side. It once housed his tomb but was removed to avoid public veneration of his dictatorship. Make your way across the vast esplanade for a panoramic view of valleys and mountains.

You will stop in the beautiful city of Segovia, where Isabella, Christopher Columbus' sponsor, was proclaimed Queen of Castile.

Visit the most-photographed of all the Spanish castles, El Alcázar de Segovia. With its perfectly-proportioned features, it has become a symbol of Spain's medieval heritage.

Walk to the elegant aqueduct bridge built by the Romans c. AD 90 as part of a waterway that brought water to the city from mountains miles away.

Today, travel south through La Mancha, home of Don Quixote, to Córdoba, which was once as famous as Baghdad in the Islamic world. At that time, Córdoba's cultural life was centered around its 70 libraries, with the Caliph's library alone holding 400,000 volumes! Throughout the ages, exceptional scholars have blossomed here, including Seneca, the Roman author/statesman, and the medieval philosophers Maimonides and Averroes.

Cross the Patio de los Naranjos, where orange blossoms bloom in the spring. Enter the Great Mosque, in the heart of which a large Roman Catholic Cathedral was built after the Reconquest by the Christian Kings.

Enjoy a visit to this UNESCO World Heritage Site over a thousand years old that's a stunning blend of Mudéjar and Christian architecture. Regarded as the most beautiful palace in Spain, El Real Alcázar de Sevilla was a residence of Spanish kings for nearly seven centuries after the Reconquista.

A visit is included to the great Gothic cathedral, where you will see the flamboyant monument to Columbus, and the tomb of Ferdinand III: its trilingual inscription in Arabic, Hebrew and Castilian symbolizes this 13th-century king's vision of his kingdom as the home of all three faiths.

You may want to take a look at the Archivo General de Indias and its display of original documents autographed by Columbus, Magellan or Cortés.

Board your coach for a drive to the last stronghold of the Moors: Granada.

Plan your free time or consider an optional excursion.