OK, I love you Italy and it’s been a fine romance but I’m breaking up with you. I haven’t done this lightly - it’s just that I have met Spain and spent some time there . . . and I’m in love.
Apart from short periods of time in my misspent youth, S
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It’s an undeniable trait of the Spanish national character that most everyone loves a festival. You can safely say that approximately every other week (if not every week) there is a festival, feria, or fiesta somewhere in Spain – including copi
Who hasn't heard about the nightlife in Ibiza? People partying until the morning, the sun beautifully shining above the crystal-clear water – all the elements of this mesmerizing place make people add it to their travel journal in an instant. Even t
In its central area, Spain''s capital has many characteristics that make it stand out among other important cities, which by 2012 made it the thirty-first city most visited worldwide by international tourists, nothing more and nothing less than 4.1 m
A vast valley protected between two mountain ranges, northern Spain's La Rioja features terrain, wind conditions, and soil that differs from one village to the next. The River Ebro flows through it all from west to east flanked by the Cantabria Moun
Known for its ornate, golden-sandstone architecture of the Renaissance era as well as one of the world's oldest universities, the Castilian city of Salamanca is a delightful fount of a million details and delights for the visitor, as I discovered on
Cliffs plummet dramatically to beaches and crashing surf. Lush green hills rise and fall, then keep rising until they swell into the craggy, majestic Picos de Europa range. In the compact principality of Asturias, roughly midway along Spain's north
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A modest placard beside a storefront door announces the existence of the Beth Minzi Synagogue in Torrremolinos on Spain’s Costa del Sol. It is a Friday night in late February, and some twenty men, a few fathers with young sons, and three women assemb
During my first visit to Madrid way back in 1978, strolling out near my family’s hotel near Plaza de España, I was gobsmacked to suddenly spy, of all things, an ancient Egyptian temple – right on downtown Calle Ferraz, on a platform in a reflecting
A cruise to Spain on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam showed us there are many contemporary reasons to consider the ancient city of Valencia as a top-notch vacation destination.
Since the 8th century, Valencia has seen Christian and Muslim conque
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Today, July 25, is the Catholic feast day of St. James, the biggest date along the Camino de Santiago(Way of St. James), Europe’s most famous religious pilgrimage route, whose endpoint is the majestic cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, believed by
Canyoning is a fast-paced adventure sport that's swiftly sweeping the world. The activity entails the utilization of various skills and techniques to conquer the world’s most challenging environments, as it prompts you to master jumping, running, cl
Throughout the Catholic world, this week is Holy Week (aka Easter Week), and nearly every city and town in Spain marks its Semana Santa with elaborate processions and pageantry dating back centuries. None, however, is older than the celebrations in
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Back in the 1960s and 70s, a famous and persistent Spanish tourism tag line proclaimed: “Spain is different.” And one of the things that does indeed make this country different in a key way from the rest of Europe is the fact that only the Iberia Pen
Skiing in Italy‘s fabulous Sella Ronda in the Dolomites recently, I was stunned by the low prices I found for food and drink. In cute little mountain restaurants I paid 1.10€ for coffee, 2€ for soft drinks, and 4€ for a pint (half a litre) of beer…
Read more…If you’ve been taking in any celebrity news of late, you’ve no doubt seen that Hollywood types have been thick on the ground over here this summer – boldface names being being bandied about lately are Justin Bieber, Orlan
Several weeks ago, I wrote about top vacation beaches in Croatia, France, and Greece . Here's the second half, covering Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey - all hugely popular with Europeans as well as vacationers from across the world. In the market
Fewer foodstuffs in the world today seem to have more fans than xocolātl, the cacao-based infusion the Spanish conquistadors found quaffed by the elites of Aztec, Mayan, and other Mesoamerica societies they conquered. Back then, it was not necessaril
What lovelier and more vivid way to learn the nuances of a foreign culture than rubbing shoulders with the locals, tasting the flavors of their land? Well yes, there is literature and art and music, but we certainly can't appreciate those on an empty
Spain's mix of the modern and the traditional is second to none, in my opinion, but around the holidays, tradition naturally comes to the fore – and nowhere more in the case of Christmas than in the nativity scenes that pop up all over the country, i
