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About Spain

Spain (Spanish: España) is a diverse country in Mediterranean Europe, sharing the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Once the center of a global empire with territories in North, Central and South America, Africa, and the Philippines, contemporary Spain has overcome civil war and fascism in the 20th century to stand proud and centered in itself. With great beaches, fun nightlife, many cultural regions and historic cities, Spain makes a great destination for any kind of trip.

Spain is a country of large geographical and cultural diversity, it is sometimes a surprise to people who know its reputation for great beach holidays. There is everything from lush meadows , snowy mountains, huge marsh and salines, and some desert zones in east Andalusia.

Regions

• Andalucía
• Aragón
• Asturias (Spanish: Principado de Asturias)
• Balearic Islands (Spanish: Las Islas Baleares ,Balear: Les Illes Balears)
• Basque Country (Spanish: El País Vasco, Basque: Euskadi)
• Canary Islands (Spanish: Las Islas Canarías)
• Cantabria
• Castile-La Mancha (Spanish: Castilla-La Mancha)
• Castile and Leon (Spanish: Castilla y León)
• Catalonia (Spanish: Cataluña, Catalan: Catalunya)
• Extremadura
• Galicia (Spanish: Galicia, Galician: Galiza)
• La Rioja (Spain)
• Madrid -- capital of Spain, Prado, Escorial
• Murcia
• Navarra (Spanish: Navarra, Basque: Nafarroa)
• Valencia (Spanish: Comunidad Valenciana, Valencian: Comunitat Valenciana)

The term "region" in Spain is one some dislike intensely. Spain is now divided into autonomías or autonomous regions. Some of the autonomías - notably the ones with languages other than Spanish as co-official (Basque Country or Euskadi, Galicia and Catalonia or Catalunya) and Andalucía - are historical regions. Travelers to these parts of the Iberian Peninsula will do well to respect their history and language.

Cities

Spain has hundreds of interesting cities. These are some of the major travel destinations among them.

• Barcelona - A lively cosmopolitan city that is capital of the Catalans. Famous for the Architecture of Antoni Gaudi.
• Benidorm - A Valencian city where you can enjoy a seaside tourism and lots of pubs and discos. Famous for its skyscrapers and beaches.
• Bilbao - Former industrial city, home to the Guggenheim Museum.
• Cadiz - the oldest city in Western Europe, where it is celebrated its famous carnival.
• Cartagena - Small city on the south east coast. Roman ruins.
• Córdoba - The Grand Mosque ('Mezquita') of Cordoba is one of the world's finest buildings.
• Cuenca - Located on a mountain surrounded by a deep canyon, you can visit the hanging houses (casas colgadas).
• Granada - Stunning city in the south, surrounded by snow capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada, home of La Alhambra.
• Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - The continent in miniature. Is really beautiful. Excellent beaches and resort offered.
• Leon - A lovely city in the northwest of Spain, it boosts one of the most important Gothic cathedrals in the world.
• Logroño - A small city in the north of Spain. Well-known of being the capital of the Rioja's wine.
• Madrid - Capital of Spain. Lively city with great museums and wild nights
• Málaga - Capital city of the Costa del Sol. A fine, typical Spanish city, hometown of Picasso and its Picasso Museum, with one of the most popular beaches.
• Marbella - Situated in the Costa del Sol, it is an luxury resort town with exclusive restaurants, hotels and clubs.
• Mérida - Well preserved Roman ruins.
• Murcia - A gateway to the South of the Costa Blanca, Murcia is a university city.
• Oviedo - Capital city of ··Asturias. Culturally interesting.
• Pamplona - Famous for the San Fermin 'Running of the Bulls' Festival.
• Pontevedra - Visit the well-conserved, lovely old town.
• Salamanca - A picturesque historical university city.
• Santiago de Compostela - Visit the impressing cathedral, end of "Camino de Santiago"
• San Sebastián - A wealthy city with a large sandy beach bay.
• Segovia - See the roman aqueduct in the middle of town
• Seville - Beautiful, beautiful see the Giralda.
• Toledo - City of gold plates.
• Valencia - Paella was invented here
• Valladolid - The best Spanish language is spoken here.
• Vigo - Lively city with great museums and wild nights. Biggest city of Galicia. Capital of the Sailing in Spain.
• Zaragoza - You can see Roman ruins and see the 'mozarabe' brick architecture.

Festivals

Spain has a lot of local festivals that are worth going to.

• Córdoba en Mayo. Cordoba in May, great month to visit the Southern city.
• Las Cruces: big flower-made crosses embellishing public squares in the city center, where you will also find at night music and drinking and lot of people having fun! 1st week in May.
• Festival de Patios One of the most interesting cultural exhibitions, 2 weeks when some people open doors of their houses to show their old Patios full of flowers. A must see!
• Cata del Vino Montilla-Moriles Great wine tasting in a big tent in the city center during one week in May.
• And finally the funniest fair in Spain: FERIA de Córdoba a huge fair of drinking, dancing (salsa and flamenco, specially sevillanas) and having fun, you wont forget it!! Last week of May.

Roads

• 120 km/h on motorways;
• 90-100 km/h on open roads;
• 50 km/h inside cities.

Drinking and driving: Do not do it, over 0.05 % and you could face anything from a severe fine, withdrawal of your licence, up to imprisonment.

Spanish dishes

Typical dishes are: 

• Mariscos: Shellfish. Best shellfish in the world you can eat in the province of Pontevedra.
• Calamares en su tinta: Squid in its ink.
• Chorizo: Spain's most popular sausage is made from pork, ham, salt, garlic and pepper and is produced in multitude of varieties, in different sizes, shapes, short and long, spicy, in all different shades of red, soft, air dried and hard or smoked. Be careful: this kind of sausage may keep repeating on you.
• Fabada asturiana: Bean stew from Asturias.
• Gambas pil pil: A little prawn with garlic and chile.
• Gazpacho Andaluz: Cold vegetable soup.
• Merluza a la Vizcaina: The Spanish are not very fond of sauces. One of the few exception is merluza a la Vasca. The dish contains hake (fish of the cod family) prepared with white asparagus and green peas.
• Morcilla: Sausages made from pig blood flavoured with anise, it comes as a fresh, smoked or air dried variety.
• Aceitunas, Olivas: Olives, often served for nibbling.
• Lentejas Españolas: A dish made from lentils with chorizo sausage and/or Serrano ham.
• Paella: Famous rice dish originally from the Catalan Lands. Paella in Catalonia is with seafood, while in Valencia is without seafood.
• Pimientos rellenos: Peppers stuffed with minced meat or seafood. The peppers in Spain taste different than all other peppers in Europe.
• Potaje de espinacas y garbanzos: Chick pea stew with spinach.
• Jamón Serrano: Air cured ham similar to Italian Parma Ham.
• Tortilla de patatas: Probably the most popular dish in Spain. You can easily assess how good a restaurant is by having a small piece of its potato tortillas.

Police

There are four kinds of police: 

• 'Policía Municipal' or 'Local' (metropolitan police). Uniforms change from town to town, but they use to wear black or blue clothes with pale blue shirt and a blue cap (or white helmet) with a checkered white-and-blue strip. This kind of police keeps order and rules the traffic inside cities, and they are the best people in case you are lost and need some directions. Although you can't officially report theft to them, they will escort you to 'Policia Nacional' headquarters if required, and they will escort the suspects to be arrested also, if needed.
• 'Policía Nacional' wear dark blue clothes and blue cap (sometimes replaced by a baseball-like cap), unlike Policía Municipal, they do not have a checkered flag around their cap/helmet. Inside cities, all offenses/crimes should be reported to them, although the other police corps would help anyone who needs to report an offense.
• 'Guardia Civil' keeps the order outside cities, in the country, and regulates traffic in the roads between cities. You would probably see them guarding official buildings, or patrolling the roads. They wear plain green military-like clothes; some of them wear a strange black helmet ('tricornio') resembling a toreador cap, but most of them use green caps or white motorcycle helmets.
• Given that Spain has a high grade of political autonomy released to its regional governments, some of them also have regional law forces, such as the Ertzaintza in the Basque Country or the Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia.
  All kinds of police also wear high-visibility clothing ("reflective" jackets) while directing traffic, or in the road.

Modified: 19.02.2007 19:08:33 CET
Source: http://wikitravel.org/en/Spain

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Vista aérea de Tarancon - Cuenca Autor: Ricardo Melgar	Carretera Leganiel - Urbanizaciones (3) Autor: diego_cue
Iglesia de Belinchón. (Agos/2009) Autor: Latejavan	Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción-Tarancón (Cuenca) Autor: J.A. Ruiz Peñalver