^hello Chili! Super tagal kong di nakapag-gtalk sa sobrang busy sa work haaay. Will go on a 2 week bakasyon kasi to Pinas a week from now kaya ngarag much. Anyway, here, I´ll try to answer your queries:
Of the places you´re planning to visit I´ve been to the following:
Lisbon - mura ang food, nice city actually, small lang sya. we spent three days here, after two days wala na kaming mapuntahan haha! We also made a day trip to Sintra (
http://www.sintra-portugal.com/index.php) Maganda sa Sintra, especially the bus trip to the town since it´s up on a mountain. five hours in Sintra is enough na. Pero to be honest, if you´ll be going to Toledo eh okay na na sa di na kayo mag Sintra. Compared to Lisbon, very touristy ang Sintra thus the prices are pretty high, pero definitely cheaper than the Northern Eu countries (France, UK, NL). Note lang, haha, sa Spain kasi when they place bread or salads and small dishes of appetizers sa table before you order, these are free. Sa Portugal, naku may bayad hahaha! So ayun lang, it was a learning experience for us hahaha!
Granada- I love this town! I spent my first holy week in Spain in Granada. Very kind ang mga tao dito and super nice talaga ng town! You can visit the Alhambra at night or during daytime. We did both, mas maganda yung night time visit. :-) Seafood meals are yummy and not expensive in Granada. Also taxi rides are very affordable (well, in general, taxi rides in Spain naman are super reasonable)
Cordoba - made a daytrip to Cordoba from Granada, maganda rin. We took a hop on hop off bus to Cordoba kasi medyo malalayo ang areas and since day trip kami, we were pressed for time. Nice din. Moorish architecture din sya like Granada.
Toledo - eto ang usual first tourist stop when I had guest in Spain. I wrote a lot about Toledo na haha. I think I went there 5 times in a span of two years haha. Best restaurant in Toledo, and affordable too is La Aldaba:http://www.hostal-aldaba.com/antigua/flip-book/carta/carta.html
Madrid-- In general, all restaurants in Madrid offering Spanish cuisine from the lowly cafeterias to hotel restaurants offer good meals naman. :-) If you want to try molecular gastronomy meals at not expensive prices ( it´s also a Michelin-starred restau) you can try Sergi Arola:
http://www.sergiarola.es/ . Get the lunch menu, parang 60 Euros lang sya for lunch. ( I also blogged about this). Sergi worked under Ferran Adria in El Bulli. Very nice, also the neighborhood ng resto very serene but walking distance (about 10 minutes) to the centro.
I don´t eat at ultra highend restaus in Madrid, like most locals, since the common restaurants are uber good na, so don´t be afraid to try restaurants in Madrid. From experience, even the humble looking ones offer great meals :-) Do not however miss on doing a tapa crawl in Cava Baja and the hot chocolate in Chocolateria San Gines! If you want to try Galician cuisine, there´s this restaurant we ate at na sobrang yummy and so cheap, like 15 Euros for 2 people nakapagtakeout pa kami. Not the cleanest and most picturesque but really hearty, authentic Galician fare: El Chacon (also blogged about this!)
For high-end brands, go to the El Corte Ingles in Nuevos Ministerios. This is their biggest branch and all the chichi brands are here.: LV, Gucci, Loewe, laha! Not on sale though unless sale season.
For the outlets of highend brands, the only one I know is Las Rozas. It is like Bicester in the UK. It´s actually operated by the same group. Here along with international luxury brands. the Spanish premier brands are also offered ---AD, Bimbi and Lola, and I think may Loewe din. May Le creuset outlet din sa Las Rozas. Easy to go to rin by commuting. Just go to Moncloa and take the bus to Las Rozas. Pwede rin sya i-drive, not so far naman.
Ayun, that´s all I can think of at the moment! Cheers!
