JoAnn - we had a slightly different itinerary (Monte Carlo, Malaga, Lisbon, Bilbao, Bordeaux, St. Malo, Dover). We hired a private driver in Malaga to see the Alhambra and enjoyed it immensely. I recall Doug, Marc and/or dougburns made the Cadiz stop instead and raved about how good one of the two all-day tours to Seville was. The author indicated they thought it was even better than the Greneda & Alhambra tour option. In St. Malo, definitely go to Mont St. Michel if you haven't been there already. If you have, it's easy enough to walk from where the ship tender leaves to take a local ferry over to Dinard. It's a lovely seaside village that will probably be just emptying out by the time you arrive. If Maitie (? sp), one of the headwaitresses is aboard, her family still lives in Dinard and she can give you good advice.

Lisbon was just wonderful! Marcie had a great driver who took about six or seven of them to Estoril, Sintra and one of the other coastal towns. They loved that tour. We had one and a half days in Lisbon, so did the evening tour when we arrived (city drive) and then took the free shuttle bus the next morning into the main part of town. The main railway station (which we had spotted on the prior day's city tour) was about a 10 block walk from the shuttle bus stop. We took the local commuter trains out to Sintra and then caught the hop-on, hop-off bus up to the Pena Palace. This is like Crazy Ludwig's castle as it could only be interpreted in Portugal. Very interesting. It was about 6 euros to get into the park and another 1.5 euros to catch the bus to the top where the palace can be found.

In Bilbao, we had hired a private driver to take us over to Santilla del Mar and two of the caves that have great examples of prehistoric cave art. We wish we would have spent more time in Santilla del Mar and only gone to one of the caves. It's a quaint, lovely town. We took a quick drive by the Guggenheim museum on our way back and enjoyed that very much. The Guggenheim got mixed reviews - outside it's stunning; the artwork didn't thrill too many of the folks on the inside. Of course, the floral dog statue is a treat to see in person. Keep in mind you're stopping there on a Sunday (just as we did) and a lot of stuff is closed. One benefit of taking the Bilbao and Guggenheim tour would be the opportunity to see the beautiful scenery between Bilbao and Santander (about 1 hour drive time). The locals gather around the plaza in Bilbao and eat little tapas called pichtox (? sp).

I hope that helps you. I was seriously considering taking the Aug. 31 sailing myself as I'd see some new ports (Cadiz, Vigo, La Coruna) but we talked ourselves into the Nov. 6 Monte Carlo to Funchal instead. If you have any more questions, please be sure to let me know. Cheers, Anne