Category: Tourism

Andalucía / Tourism

You say Sevilla, I say Seville-a

Spaniards’ adoration for Sevilla is unparalleled. When we told our friends either where we were going or where we had been in mid-February, they all made goo-goo eyes and made their jealousy known. Set in the heart of Andalusia, it is certainly one of the most classically Spanish cities… muy castizo, as some might say. Nowhere in the city was this influence felt more strongly than in the Plaza de España, an homage to Spanish design. Initially built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, this giant monument of stone and tile, along with its surrounding pavilions, were later repurposed for locals and visitors

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Central Spain / Tourism

20 years later: Doer revisits Zaragoza (with Dreamer this time)

Twenty years ago, a young Doer visited Zaragoza with his friend Daniel, who had lived there as a child. Last February, he returned to the city, the capital of the autonomous community of Aragon and Spain’s fifth-largest city, with his Dreamer. Fuente de la Hispanidad. Doer’s favorite thing from that first visit – a stylized fountain depicting the Americas – was still around and pumping out water. Fountain at night. Before we jump in, however, please allow us a minor detour. Before we set out for the Madrid train station, that age-old conflict: Doer wanted to eat, and Dreamer was worried

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Tourism

Lleida: Crashing in another Catalan capital

Spain has a wonderful network of high-speed trains, so when we wanted to go to an onion-eating festival on short notice, we made way to Madrid’s central station. We decided to stay in Lleida, a regional Catalan capital on the Madrid-Barcelona route, as it’s relatively close to Valls, the site of the festival. It was also the fourth and final Catalan province that we visited – now we’ve seen them all (others being Girona, Tarragona, and of course, Barcelona). So that’s how we came to see what Lleida had to offer – when weren’t watching human towers or eating onions,

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Tourism

Dachau: A somber day trip

Travel, for us, is almost always a joyous occasion. New cultures, new flavors – a window into the beauty of our world. However, not everything in the world is beautiful, and we feel it would be irresponsible and even dangerous to pretend otherwise. This is why, in the middle of our exuberant visit to Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest, we found ourselves making a short journey that somehow felt interminably long. It is difficult to live and travel in Europe without some sense of a dark cloud hanging over all this at times. World War II was not that many years

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Basque Country / Tourism

Guernica: It’s not so horriffic any more (and bonus: Vitoria!)

We took the Euskotren to Guernica (or Gernika in Euskara) during our stay in Bilbao. The small town became known to the outside world during the Spanish Civil War when Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe dropped bombs on innocent civilians on market day. Picasso later cemented Guernica’s tragic place in history with his iconic masterpiece named after the town. The painting can be viewed at the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid; it’s a very powerful and sobering experience. One can’t help but think about the war in Guernica. General Franco, who would go on to become dictator of Spain for nearly 40 years, ordered the bombardment

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Basque Country / Tourism

The best bao in Bilbao

Bilbao: that most modern of metropolises (metropoli?), home to the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum, a contemporary city that embraces its ancient roots… We’d heard it all and decided to experience this place for ourselves during our Basque Country road trip. It’s not for nothing that the Guggenheim is one of the main attractions. One of the strangest moments of the trip came when two women approached us outside the museum and started speaking in Valenciano. We’d lived in the Valencian Community almost a year, so we recognized the language, even if we didn’t understand everything they were saying. It’s strange,

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