Home > Barcelona > 6-Day Spain Tour from Barcelona: Zaragoza, Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Granada and Valencia
USD $773.00
6-Day Spain Tour from Barcelona: Zaragoza, Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Granada and Valencia
Barcelona, Spain
From Barcelona, spend six days in Spain's most famous cities! Enjoy fascinating guided tours of Cordoba, Seville, Granada and Valencia, and have plenty of free time to discover more on your own. See the Great Mosque of Cordoba; admire the Generalife Gardens in Granada; and visit several UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Seville's Alcazar and Alhambra Palace. Explore Cordoba's old quarter and learn about all of these fascinating cities from your guide. See the City of Arts and Sciences (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias) in Valencia; enjoy a Flamenco dance performance in Seville if you wish, and visit Zaragoza and Madrid at your leisure. Accommodation and transportation by comfortable coach are included.
From Barcelona, tour the most popular cities of Spain on this 6-day tour. Discover beautiful Zaragoza independently before heading to Madrid for a panoramic sightseeing tour. Tour Andalusia’s loveliest cities – Cordoba, Seville and Granada – on a journey through the legendary country of Don Quixote. Enjoy guided tours of Cordoba, with its impressive mosque and Jewish quarter; Seville, where you will visit the Santa Cruz quarter and the famous UNESCO World Heritage-listed Alcazar; and Granada, with its UNESCO World Heritage-listed Alhambra Palace and Generalife Gardens. In Valencia, take in views of the beautiful City of Arts and Sciences on a panoramic sightseeing tour.
Learn more about Spanish culture with an optional Flamenco dance performance in Seville and a walking tour around Cordoba’s and Valencia's old quarter (additional cost). Enjoy free time in Madrid, Seville, Granada, Zaragoza and Valencia to explore more at your own leisure.
Five nights of accommodation in a standard or superior hotel (your choice), transportation by comfortable coach, five breakfasts and three dinners are included.
Please see the Itinerary section below for details on each day of the tour.
We thought we booked an English speaking tour, but it turned out to be Spanish and English. It seemed to be 40 English and 60 Spanish in terms of guiding narrative. Because of this, the guide had to rush through the explanations/descriptions. Towards the end of the tour, we found some of the Spanish speaking could speak and understand English! We covered a lot of miles as some of the cities are pretty far from each other. The tourist class hotels are clean and comfortable. We enjoyed all the sights in the cities, but what impressed us most were The Alhambra and the Mosque Cathedral. One needs to visit them to be awed by them. Because of time constraint, we felt the visit to The Alhambra was rushed through. We also did not enjoy the gypsy and cruise optional tours. Overall the tour is highly recommended if you want a taste of Andalucia .
Review by: Limcy, January 2018
Get to see a few cities in Spain in a very short time. But a lot of time were spent on nice aircon bus. Tour was well organised. Go for the superior room upgrade, it was worth the money.
Review by: Limcy, December 2017
Get to see a few cities in Spain in a very short time. But a lot of time were spent on nice aircon bus. Tour was well organised. Go for the superior room upgrade, it was worth the money.
Review by: Willliam V, November 2017
Started as what seemed as a disaster, taking train vs bus, yet the train was quite pleasant. We made the hotel in Barcelona and that was all we saw. The rest of the week we spent in the bus. Good tours when we got to each city but the travel became extensive. Tour was too ambitious as to cities visited. Hotels were quite good. Tour guide excellent. But, fours hours plus a day in the bus got real old freal fast.
Review by: WEE L YE SOON S, November 2017
Overall I would say the tour was good and above average. For those with limited time to spend then this would definitely be a good choice. Yes there were many hours spent on the road but the ever-changing landscape and scenic beauty of Spain as we drove along completely made up for the tiring journey. Julia travel could improve more on the itinerary such as spending more time at the places of interest but understandably due to logistic constraint it may not be possible.Nevertheless I enjoyed the tour and should an opportunity arises I would definitely join again. Our guide Rodrigo was knowledgeable, caring and humorous. Hotels provided was above average with the exception of the hotel in Madrid which had paper thin wall such that you can hear conversations from the room next door.There is a restaurant located opposite the Marriott hotel in Seville called the Restaurant Wok Nou Port which serves value for money all you can eat buffet @10 Euro. The lavish array of food items is fantastic. Beef,mutton,lamb and pork meat plus seafood such as big prawns and mussels all prepared according to your liking. Spain is fun and the food is fantastic.
Review by: william.hastie3, October 2017
Very good value for money.
Review by: Edward and Anna, October 2017
This tour was amazing!
Review by: Owen K, September 2017
No toilets on the bus, That is a big problem. We will not go on those tours .
Review by: thiru.ramanathan68, September 2017
This tour is an amazing snapshot of some of the most historic and architecturally beautiful cities in Spain. The accommodations were great and the tour was well organized with experienced local tour guides at all the locations. We had great weather during our visit which made our tour all the more enjoyable. These are a few things that can be improved by the travel agent:_br/_ 1. We were a family of 4 and my kids are aged 11 and 17. Although my 11 yr old is considered a child, the rooms could only be booked as 2/room not age related and therefore I ended up paying adult rate for him as well._br/_ 2. This was a 6 day round bus trip from Barcelona, but this particular package did not give us a tour of Barcelona or Madrid_br/_ 3. The decision to take us by train from Barcelona to Madrid was communicated to us 5 days before the trip via email to which the train tickets were attached and we had to print them and board the train on our own. As we were traveling in Switzerland at the time, there was a good chance that we might have missed the email entirely. There was no one to help out at Barcelona station and we were met only by the taxi driver in Madrid station. We met the tour guide only the following day in the hotel before boarding the bus. Communication should have been much bettetyto save us some stressful moments while on vacation._br/_ 4. Although Zaragoza is included in the itinerary, we did not see this city as we travelled to Madrid by train. When we asked the agent, they mentioned that it was only a 1 hour stop for the driver and not really a sight seeing location. _br/_ 5. The tour guide spoke in 3 languages and it was hard to follow the sequence when she spoke continuously at times.
Review by: Laurent L, August 2017
Great tour! The guide Lale was super nice and competent. Great hotels too. _br/_ Be warned though, if you start this tour from Barcelona, the first day is just 95 driving towards Madrid with only one stop at Zaragoza._br/_ Also, I would have enjoyed one more night in Madrid especially as the Hotel there, the Marriott, had an awesome room. Because as it is, we didn't see much of Madrid with just a few hours there._br/_ Be that as it may, great tour and great memories for sure!
Review by: n.atout, August 2017
The trip was great and we really enjoyed it. Lots of travel though, but overall we are very happy we did this trip
Review by: Alex K, June 2017
Covered a lot of territory which means a lot of time on the bus versus exploring the cities. Disappointing that there was no guided tour or enough time to see Madrid. Hotels were mostly very nice, yet the included buffet dinner at the one in Seville was not very good. Breakfasts were very good. Overall, local guides for the various cities were good. Stopped approximately every two hours at truck/car rest stops since not permitted to use the bathroom on the bus! Time for lunch at these roadside stops was limited to no more than 45 minutes. Would have preferred stopping in a countryside town for a rest stop and nourishment. We found going to a grocery or market to purchase water, sandwich, and snacks was more reasonable than the roadside stops. The timing of the two tours in Valencia made it difficult to have lunch especially due to the Los Angeles Hotel being away from the city center and the only available place to eat was the hotel's bar which functioned slowly. Would not recommend this tour for someone with walking difficulties. This tour could be improved if time was permitted to have lunch at one of the many restaurants seen along the walking tour routes instead of the roadside rest stops, include more time to see Madrid, and visit a museum. In summary, this tour provides an overview of the early history and vastness of Spain and the desire to return to spend more time in preferred cities. The cleanliness of the cities we visited was impressive and welcomed!
Review by: Marlene W, June 2017
Completely disgusted with this tour!!! It was through Julia Travel in Barcelona, We picked up 72!!!! guests on a double decker bus with 1 guide and 1 driver who had to load ALL the luggage on and off alone. Toilet stops etc were so slow it was painful getting 72 persons on and off the bus. NO COMMENTARY for the whole 6 days except when we had local guides showing us around sites once a day. On the 5th day !!! our guide, Rodrigus ,decided to give us a Spanish lesson very helpful at the end of our tour! It was nothing but a bus drive from one location to another - it was a disgrace. I would NOT RECOMMEND this tour if it is through JULIA TRAVEL!! We all should be refunded our money!!!
Review by: madison87, May 2017
I wanted a quick introduction to the country Spain and this Viator tour seemed perfect. If you travel a lot by yourself, Viator is nice, because by the end of the tour, you will have made lots of friends. We had a great group on the tour, but the local tour agency wasn't very organized. We didn't get the detailed itinerary until we started travelling: lots of people complained that Julia Travel could have provided a detailed itinerary earlier. The tour guides were a mixed bag: we had one who's Spanish was not very good one that provided excellent information in English and one that provided excellent info in both English and Spanish. We did spend a lot of hours on the bus and OJO- there are no bathrooms on the buses. Also, there is a law in Spain that bus drivers can not drive for more than 4.5 hours without taking a break, so they make stops every couple of hours for people to go to the bathroom and grab something to eat. The first day we drove from Barcelona to La Mancha of Don Quixote fame, but we only spent about a half an hour there. Our guide was okay- I would have loved to hear a bit more on Cervantes and Don Quixote de La Mancha. From La Mancha we went to Zaragoza to see the Basilica: you are on your own there- Viator/Julia Travel don't provide a guided tour of the Basilica. You also find lunch on your own. Some parts of the tour are a bit rushed and,by the third day, the group had grown to almost SEVENTY PEOPLE. In Cordoba, we visited the Jewish quarter and the Gran Mosque La Mezquita of Cordoba which was fascinating. They had to divide us into 2 groups when we went to the Alhambra, we were so many people. The best day of the tour for me was Wednesday where we spent it in La Alhambara. Really, there are no words to describe how magnificient and beautiful the La Alhambra is. The visit involves a lot of walking and going up and down stairs and it was very warm outside, so dress accordingly. We walked for about 2.5 hours. Our guide was Antonio- he was bilingual and was a font of information. This day was the highlight of this tour. The fourth day we arrived in Valencia and the hotel, NH Artes was very nice. Again, if you want to say in nice hotels, go for the superior room option on Viator, although some of the rooms Viator provides as part of the package, wouldn't qualify as superior in the US. The first hotel, the Marriott in Madrid is old and really needs to be updated. It sometimes felt that hotel operators gave Viator groups the worse rooms, but that wasn't always the case. The best hotels during this trip were the Melia Lebreros in Sevilla and the NH Artes in Valencia. Don't be fooled: the Melia Granada was nothing compared to the Melia Lebreros the Melia Granada is at a lower standard than the Melia. At the Melia Granada, some of our rooms backed up to the courtyard where I could hear the garbage trucks outside my window late in the night! The food in all the hotels was good, but really good in Melia Lebreros. I was exhausted from the flamenco dancing, so went to bed quickly. Oh, some of the people thought the Flamenco in Sevilla was more authentic than the one in Granada the one in Granada did seem a bit for export. If you are into Flamenco, I recommend going to both shows. Those activities are not included in the tour, and cost about 40 Euros extra. I am writing this review from Valencia: tomorrow we'll do the city tour. So far, the hotel is great and I'm looking forward to tapas this evening. _br/_ Negative: We had to off load and on load our suitcases each time we reached a new hotel, which was exhausting. And the place where you put the suitcases on the bus, Migallon is elevated, making it harder to put your suitcases in the bus and getting them down. There was no order to the suitcase thing- some people stay in one hotel, others stay in another. You would think there would be a system to keep the bags of people going to hotel X on one side and people going to hotel Y on the other, but no. Also, our check ins were usually a production: lots of us at the front desk waiting to check in and all of us trying to use the elevators at the same time. It did sometimes feel like a big school trip. Bring your bose headphones because inevitably, you will have some talkative members of the tour that will disturb your nap time during the bus rides. However, even with this little things, I am very glad I did this tour and would recommend it to others to get a quick overview of Spain. I did not have the opportunity to go on a tour with the other tour guide that everyone said was excellent Angelique/Angelica on Viator reviews from 2016 not sure if she's still with Julia Travel.
Review by: Ryan M, March 2017
This tour missed one of the cities, Zaragoza. Disappointed that one city was left out of the itinerary. Our group was also split in half toward the end, like they mashed two different tours together for a little while. On the plus side, all the guides were really professional and enthusiastic.
Review by: yungsoon y, October 2016
It was great for 2ne-4th day with good careing guide, lady name Mariola, but firsy day, travel to Madrid from Barcelona, fifth and sicth days, all three days spending in the bus without doing too much, just riding cramped bus from Granada to Valencia to Barcelona. Male guide, name Miguel was not most caring or professional. Last 2 days, Julia created group too big with 64 people an put them in to inadequate bus. Overall very disappointed.
Review by: Eyechatter, October 2016
Terrible bus for long distance tour. Made us carry our own bags up two hills to first hotel in Madrid, said buses couldn't go there but we saw two other tour buses pull up. Idiotic. Not enough tour info on the bus about the country. Local tour guides excellent. 4 star hotels are like 2 in America. Included food is not a great bargain. Only decent at one hotel. Never enough time to do anything on your own. No one was happy with anything except the sights. NEVER, EVER AGAIN would I do a Julia Tour.
Review by: Bernardo B, September 2016
There are many hours on the bus but the places visited were great and worth the time. We took the superior room and all hotels were 4 stars and very well located.
Review by: VERNA S, September 2016
The cities visited were far apart so we spent all day on the bus from Barcelona to Madrid. Left at 9am arrived at Midrid hotel at 7:30. No sightseeing tour, so we saw only what we could walking down Princesa Street. Next day left for Seville at 8:30 arrived in Córdoba at 3:00 pm and stayed until 5:00. Excellent tour there then to Seville and 2 more hours on the bus. Next day full day of activities in Seville. Free tour in the early morning and optional afternoon tours at a cost.
Review by: info, September 2016
Visiting Spain had been on our wish list for many years. This six day tour plus time in Barcelona at each end gave us a great overview of half the country. Hotel choices were excellent and food abundant_br/_ In future we will make dedicated visits to different regions from our base in Frankfurt._br/_ What a great way to escape a Southern Australian winter
Review by: J, August 2016
Julia travel not the most professional toyr company. On the first day I was dropped off at the wrong hotel and took an hour to get through them on phone because it was a Sunday and I was told to catch a taxi to the right hotel. It was a terrible and frustrating start to the tour after being assured by the tour guide that she had made confirmation with the hotel prior to dropping me off at the hotel. _br/_ We had two guides through out the tour, one was good and easy to communicate with Margarita the other no so good Miguel had trouble communicating and understanding him. Sorry to say that this tour was poorly managed by the people at Julia travel._br/_ 3/10
Review by: Akiko M, July 2016
Great value for all that you will see. I upgraded the hotel and it was well worth it! I heard others staying at the standard level hotel complain. The upgraded hotels were very nice and modern. The tour guides were great, except for the last two days. A new guide and a new bus driver came board and they were unfriendly as one can be. Just know that there are long bus rides between cities. 5-7 hours rides.
Review by: Rekha B, June 2016
Would definitely recommend it to family and friends. Enjoyed every bit. The tour guides very friendly and knowledgeable. Though the drive from city to city was long, the comfortable air conditioned bus and breaks every two hours made the journey relaxing. Every city had so much to offer. The hotels were comfortable. For vegetarians, the food option could have been more.
Review by: Sharon P, May 2016
Was able to visit all the cities I wanted to see except arrived in Madrid on a rainy evening and left first thing the next morning so unable to see anything. Disappointed as felt misled by tour company. The first tour guide and local guides were excellent. The second was knowledgeable but obviously inexperienced,
Review by: Robert G, May 2016
The only downer was my hearing doesn't let me hear conversation with too many outside noise distractions...That being said the individual headsets are a must! Not enough of them on the tours. The little amplifier the tour guide used with large groups was worthless...
Review by: Rosemary S, April 2016
Fabulous tour and the sites were incredible. On 2 of 3 buses there were only 12 of us. The local guides were very passionate about their regions and were very personable. Our Valencia tour guide even helped us buy products like seeds and saffron in the huge crowded markets. Recommend signing up for the excursions, they're well worth it, especially the Flamenco show in Seville. All the meals were delicious, served at the hotel buffet style with plenty of selections that included Spanish dishes like paella, Sorano ham, chorizo, manchago cheese, potato torta and churros with chocolate. There was so much to see and do it was hard to absorb everything. I would do this tour again.
Review by: W T G D, November 2015
We have taken Viator's coach tours through Ireland, Scotland, several in Italy, specifically Rome to Pompeii. From the beginning we knew this tour was not like the others. Requested by the local tour operator to arrive early 7:30 am, we were left standing in the dark, on the street till after 8:00 am. Staff arrived late, doors were not opened and no welcome nor explanation was expressed._br/_ After herded onto a coach, we found our seats stained, gum smeared and smelling of urine. Ready to quit the tour at the first stop, we only stayed due to another passenger explaining we would change coaches in Madrid. As per our written itinerary, quote, a panoramic sightseeing tour of Madrid with free time. Didn't happen!!_br/_ Day 2: Change of coach was acceptable. Bathroom door locked was not! Driver did not make a rest stop till 3 hours after departing Madrid. For many seniors this was an embarrassing emergency stop._br/_ On a positive note we found our tour guide Hugo, helpful, knowledgeable and professional at all times._br/_ The coach driver, however, was not. Never did he help anyone on or off the coach, not was a safety brief included. _br/_ Hotels were acceptable and in excellent locations. _br/_ I was very angry with the itinerary expressing lunches at own expense at a local restaurant.Local restaurants turned out to be gas service stations that offered poor food choices and quality and very expensive. A chicken burger, no bun nor side dishes cost 13.50._br/_ So easily a local lunch time could have been allowed in the villages we toured. Service stops should be for gas and restrooms only._br/_ Would I recommend this tour..... no. We were disappointed with this tour.
Review by: escottstumps, October 2015
This was a great trip. Met some wonderful new friends. Suggest scheduling the optional tours in advance--well worth it!
Review by: Mahmoud, June 2015
This tour was amazing!
Review by: HL C, June 2015
Everything is good but the local tour guide at Córdoba was belong average. Mumbling all time.
Review by: Chen Loong S, June 2015
Good tour to cover main areas of Spain in a week.
Review by: matthewtotaro, June 2015
Really fantastic tour with helpful guides, great accommodation and wonderful food.
Review by: olena u, June 2015
I would score it as 5 _br/_
Services, hotels, guides, timing, itineraries- everything was great and according to expectations!
Review by: Gary G, May 2015
Jousef our tour guide was Great!
Review by: Thomas M, May 2015
This was OK. Our Tour Leader Josep Tio Pares made this trip very enjoyable. His commentary and presentation was EXCELLENT!
Review by: Dorothy F, December 2014
Wonderful tour, nice people on board bus and tour guide, Josef, was amazing as was our driver. Hotels (we opted for the upgrades) were very good with nice breakfasts each morning. No complaints and I would highly recommend this tour to folks who want to see a lot of Spain in a short amount of time.
Review by: Po-Yin C, October 2014
Wonderful tour and a great tour escort although we spent most of the time in the coach on the first and last day.
Review by: Sarah T, October 2014
Great short tour of lots of places in a short period of time. Good value. My feet and rear end are sore. Didn't realize how big Spain was and how far apart the cities were. Good guide and bus driver. Wish we could have used toilets on bus.
Review by: Bob, October 2014
The tour was good with the exception of Madrid. Having started the tour in Barcelona at 8.30am we did not get to our Madrid hotel until approx. 7pm and we left at 8am the next day - not really enough time to see much of Madrid._br/_
Also, as a suggestion, why not hand out maps of where the hotel we are staying in each night is (in relation to the city centre of the city being visited)? - wouldn't feel so 'lost'
Review by: Bronwyn W, October 2014
We enjoyed the tour and saw some great places. However, we started in Barcelona, had a long day's travel to Madrid arriving at about 7.30pm and left early the next morning so we saw nothing of the city. Other than that, it was a good way to see a lot of interesting old cities in a short time.
Review by: J M J, September 2014
Overall this trip was OK. The local guides in each city were good and was saw some amazing sights including the Cordoba Cathedral/Mosque, Alhambra Palace in Granada, Alcazar of Seville and the City of Arts and Science in Valencia.
Review by: Judith M, September 2014
It was great to see the many cities of Spain, and the guide Josep was excellent; however, much of the tour is spent in the bus driving from place to place. The bus was well used and not very clean. The two options for the hotel was a bit of annoyance as at times it appeared that those who did not elect to pay for the "supreme" hotel had the better hotel in a better location. Also the people at the non-supreme hotel were picked up first each morning and had the opportunity to pick the best seats on the bus. The bus was English and Spanish speaking so when you went on city tours, you had to listen to the same information in both languages - a lot of standing around. I would not recommend this tour as by the end of five days - I couldn't wait for it to be over. It should also be noted that the tour basically started in Madrid - the first day is spent driving to Madrid with a one hour spot in Zaragoza. We arrived in Madrid around 8 p.m. and left the next morning at 8 a.m. We were not told anything about Madrid, and only had time to go for a short walk once we arrived. The guide we had the first day didn't share what was occurring until we asked. It cost each of us approximately two hundred dollars Cdn a day - poor return on our investment. The additional tours, boat cruise and Flamingo dance were expensive and not worth the money. We did not attend the gypsy tour as we were disappointed in the first two purchased. I give one star for the cities visited and one for the second guide we had.
Review by: Anastasia D, August 2014
The tour was rather good. From organizational point of view everything was good. The hotels were very good, in most cases very close to the city center so that you could walk in the evening to the city centre. Wifi was in every hotel. The bus was very good as well, well air conditioned and with very good drivers. The itenaty is quite good as well, the cities are wonderful even though maybe I would switch almost two days in Seville to one additional day in Madrid or to two days in Granada as in Madrid we were only one evening and of course did not do any sightseeing, museums, etc. And one day in Seville is quite enough. The guides were ok. Frankly speaking, I expected more information from them. More stories , legends and historical facts. Overall, I did enjoy the tour a lot.
Review by: Katherine C, July 2014
Great cities visited. Good included activities and meals. Long travels days, short time in cities to explore. Not very personal as we had 3 different tour guides for the six days.
Review by: Jack B, May 2014
The guides and included tours were very enjoyable. The food was consistently good except for the meals in Granada. Christina's attention to detail and her planning ahead always made departure and arrival very easy. Jesus, the driver, fixed the air conditioning, and the delay was only an hour. Our travelling companions were very pleasant and friendly. The stops every two hours made the road trip quite easy.
Review by: Noel P, September 2013
An excellent tour but be warned it covers a lot of kilometres
Review by: Cynthia B, September 2013
We did see a lot of sights on the tour and all the guides were excellent. However it felt a little rushed at times. There was no time to see Madrid except in the evening to find a place to eat._br/_
For us there was too much time spent on the coach and having to buy lunches at motorway service stations is not my idea of good eating. The evening meals in the hotel Melia Seville were poor quality although the breakfast itself could not be faulted apart from the very noisy and rather surly service._br/_
The visits to major sites were well organised with very good guides. I would like to revisit some of the towns and cities to spend more time exploring and think high speed train would be a good idea.
Review by: Katrin K, September 2013
My sister and I took this tour at the beginning of August 2013 and we were both in general content with it. This package allowed us to visit a significant number of places in a very short timeframe and offered the convenience of having all travel and accommodation arranged for us for an affordable price. However, one can always nitpick on the details of the included services. One of the most important downsides was the rather mediocre English level of most of our tour and local guides in comparison to other guides we randomly bumped into later on. So, they remained somewhat laconic and distant. Moreover, the included city tours were superficial, some of them very short (Zaragoza 30 minutes on your own) and some comprised mainly glimpsing the buildings from the bus window (Seville). Optional city tours of Seville and Granada, and flamenco and zambra shows were offered for 30-40 euros each. We stayed in standard hotels and found them all acceptable and well located except that the service in Best Western Mayorazgo in Madrid was rather unwelcoming. When it comes to food, we couldn't emphasize it more, the included overpriced diner style dinners served in the hotel basement were a disgrace. Also, most of the lunch breaks on the road were in gas station diners while some of them could have been in the towns we visited. On a more positive note, our guide Josep accompanying us from Granada to Valencia and Barcelona was very helpful and gave us plenty of tips from Valencian delicacies to getting around town, visiting other sites in Spain and what not. All in all, I'd recommend it to those short of time or not adventurous enough to go around on your own.
Review by: Rula A, September 2013
The tour was excellent, lots to see and benefit from. The bus was comfortable , and the guid was good. However I wishe that the guide could have controlled the loud family on the bus. Lots of complain against them was there but the guid e said there was nothing he could have done.
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