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 If you are coming to Spain for the first
time, be warned: this is a country that
fast becomes an addiction. You might
intend to come just for a beach holiday,
or a tour of the major cities, but
before you know it you'll find yourself
hooked by something quite different - by
the celebration of some local fiesta,
perhaps, or the amazing nightlife in
Madrid, by the Moorish monuments of
Andalucia, by Basque cooking, or the
wild landscapes and birds of prey of
Estremadura. And by then, of course, you
will have noticed that there is not just
one Spain but many. Indeed, Spaniards
often speak of Las Españas (the
Spains) and they even talk of the
capital in the plural - Los Madriles
, the Madrids.
This regionalism is an obsession and
perhaps the most significant change to
the country over recent decades has been
the creation of seventeen autonomías
- autonomous regions - with their own
governments, budgets and cultural
ministries. The old days of a unified
nation, governed with a firm hand from
Madrid, seem to have gone forever, as
the separate kingdoms which made up the
original Spanish state reassert
themselves. And the differences are
evident wherever you look: in language,
culture and artistic traditions, in
landscapes and cityscapes, and attitudes
and politics.
The cities - above all - are
compellingly individual. Barcelona, for
many, has the edge: for Gaudí's splendid
modernista architecture, the
lively promenade of Las Ramblas,
designer clubs par excellence ,
and, not least, for Barça - the city's
football team. But Madrid, although not
as pretty, claims as many devotees. The
city and its people, immortalized in the
movies of Pedro Almodóvar, have a
vibrancy and style that is revealed in a
thousand bars and summer terrazas. Not
to mention three of the world's finest
art museums. Then there's Sevilla, home
of flamenco and all the clichés of
southern Spain; Valencia, the vibrant
Levantine city with an arts scene and
nightlife to equal any European rival;
and Bilbao, a new entry on Spain's
cultural circuit, due to Frank Gehry's
astonishing Guggenheim museum.
Monuments range just as widely from
one region to another, dependent on
their history of control and occupation
by Romans and Moors, their role in the "golden
age" of Imperial Renaissance Spain, or
their twentieth-century fortunes.
Touring Castile and León, you confront
the classic Spanish images of vast
cathedrals and reconsquista
castles - literally hundreds of the
latter; in the northern mountains of
Asturias and the Pyrenees, tiny, almost
organic Romanesque churches dot the
hillsides and villages; Andalucía has
the great mosques and Moorish palaces of
Granada, Sevilla and Córdoba; Castile
has the superbly preserved medieval
capital, Toledo, and the gorgeous
Renaissance university city of
Salamanca; while the harsh landscape of
Estremadura cradles the ornate
conquistador towns built with riches
from the "New World".
Not that Spain is predominantly about
buildings. For most visitors, the
landscape holds just as much fascination
- and variety. The evergreen estuaries
of Galicia could hardly be more
different from the high, arid plains of
Castile, or the gulch-like desert
landscapes of Almería. Agriculture makes
its mark in the patterened hillsides of
the wine- and olive-growing regions and
the rice fields of the Levante. Spain is
also one of the most mountainous
countries in Europe, and there is superb
walking and wildlife in a dozen or more
sierras - above all in the Picos de
Europa and Pyrenees. Spain's unique
fauna boast protected species like brown
bears, the Spanish lynx and
Mediterranean monk seals as well as more
common wild boar, white storks and birds
of prey.
One of Spain's greatest draws is
undeniably its beaches although with
infinitely more variety than you would
be led to believe from the sun-and-sand
holiday brochures. Long tracts of
coastline - along the Costa del Sol, in
particular - have been developed into
concrete hotel and villa complexes but
delightful pockets remain even on the
big tourist costas. On the Costa Brava,
the string of coves between Palamos and
Begur are often overlooked, while in the
south there are superb windsurfing
waters around Tarifa and some decidedly
low-key resorts along the Costa de la
Luz. In the north, the cooler Atlantic
coastline boasts the surfing sands of
Cantabria and the unspoilt coves of
Galicia's estuaries. Offshore, the
Balearic islands have some superb sands
and, if you're up for it, Ibiza also
offers one of the most hedonistic
backdrops to beachlife in the
Mediterranean.
Wherever you are in Spain, you can't
help but notice the Spaniards'
infectious enthusiasm for life. In the
cities there is always something
happening - in bars and clubs, on the
streets, and especially at fiesta times.
Even in out of the way places there's a
surprising range of nightlife and
entertainment, not to mention the daily
pleasures of a round of tapas, moving
from bar to bar, having a beer, a glass
of wine or a fino (dry sherry)
and a bite of the house speciality.
The identity and appeal of each of
the regions is explored in the
introductions, where you'll find a
rundown on their highlights |
