Nicely photoillustrated (the photos open larger, though you have to do this "by hand" -- no link), interesting personal account of a trip around the country and to Gibraltar, with map. Not all the usual places by any means:

Eileen Cole's Spanish Holiday

Bill,
This was an enjoyable trip report; thanks for posting it. Eileen, Julien, Phil and Wendy have more stamina than I - changing hotels every night and driving half the day would wear me out in no time!
Although their Gibraltar holiday sounds restful ... I've been wanting to go there since I read Paul Theroux's "The Pillars of Hercules."

Before we went on our Spanish trip we had quite a few 'Spanish' weekends touring through guide books, each of us expressing a desire to see certain places on the way and thus planning our itinerary. These weekends were fun and proved to be a constructive and happy way to organise our holiday.
Philip's work was invaluable, he planned the hotels in advance over the internet, used 'Autoroute' to plan and time the trip and we happily kept to the timetable. There was time to stop and enjoy some of the special places and no worries about where we were to stop for the night. Not once did we feel tired of motoring, there was so much to see and we were enjoying each other's company too. We always arrived at the hotel or parador in time to relax, have a good meal and see something of the area.
I do advise anyone contemplating the same type of holiday to go at the beginning of May, everywhere is so fresh and beautiful.
Gibraltar is really interesting, fiercely British, yet there are people from so many different races going about their daily lives. Do spend some time in the Cemetary and read the epitaphs, very sad and thought-provoking. One of the lovely things about Gibraltar is that if you have the time, most places can be visited by walking, I just love it. I never thought that anyone would be interested in reaing about our holiday as I was taking notes but I am glad that others are enjoying the account.

Thanks, Bill, for scouting that out. And thanks, Eileen, for writing up your trip so evocatively.

We're so Italy-oriented at SlowTrav. There's lots to see and experience out there in the world.

Despite the lovely holiday I had in Spain, Italy is my first love, I haven't seen much of it but the parts I saw and experienced was done in the company of very dear Italian friends who were very knowledgable teachers and great company; thus you will understand how much I can appreciate Bill Thayer's travel writings.
At the end of the summer I am going to Spain with four family members. Friends of theirs have just bought a villa at Coin near Malaga, we will be helping them 'move' and get installed. Sounds like fun, we hope to explore and find a few special places as well as having a happy time together. If we do something really interesting I will post it on the mesage board. Thank you Colleen and David for your kind comments.