Spain Destinations
You’ll want to visit the places you’ll be reading about in Spain Destinations. They’re every bit as charming and irresistible as the writers say! Besides, you won’t have any problems getting there; they’ll tell you how.
A GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “THE GAUDINESS OF GAUDI,” 14 January 1972 »
"Having accepted the Gothic style as a basis for the architecture of La Familia Sagrada, Gaudi resolved to eliminate difficulties inherent in purely Gothic architecture. The result has been acclaimed by some as the most important step in architecture since the XII century, the immutable shape of his dream. It will cover double the area of Venice's St. Mark's, and will rise more than 65 feet higher than St. Peter's of Rome."
HOW TO TRULY DISCOVER THE SPANISH “SEMANA SANTA”, AND A TOWN’S SPECTAULAR SITES ALL YEAR ROUND »
To really get to know the true significance of Semana Santa, and the town itself as well, with the spectacular cultural, historical and scenic views on offer, spend it in a pueblo. Almagro is just the right place.
THE NEW CHINESE IN THE YEAR OF THE AWESOME DRAGON »
The Dragon symbolizes nobility, honor, and success so 2024, being the Year of the Dragon, augurs extraordinarily well. It will bring on opportunities, changes, and challenges. But the Chinese, while trusting in their zodiac, didn't have to wait for the Year for a change-over into a smiling, cordial part of the Spanish scene, At least that's how it looked at the Year of the Dragon celebrations. It's been in the making, gradually, for some time.
HEMINGWAY’S HAUNTS IN A MADRID GRIPPED BY THE CIVIL WAR »
Revisit Ernest Hemingway's haunts in Madrid and join him, a reporter covering the Abraham Lincoln Brigade's fight against fascism across Spain.
A GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “Spain Through an American’s Eyes,” 14 July1972 »
"Robert Barnete is probably the best-known foreign painter of Spain today. More than a painter, he is an interpreter of the color and vitality of Spanish lore. His principal themes flamenco and bulls come alive on canvas. Recently, in the offices of the Ministry of Information and Tourism, in a ceremony presided by the Minister himself, the American painter was honored. His public acclaim results from his graceful, action-filled expressions of Spanish life.
HALLOWEEN THE SPANISH WAY: MACABRE SNACK TO CONNECT WITH THE DEAD »
Huesos de santo or saint’s bones should top the list of the macabre delicacies.for All Saints Day in Spain. Feasting on the bones of the saint smacks of cannibalism, doesn’t it? But at their most classic they’re really just good old sweets, white marzipan tubes simulating bones stuffed with yema for the bone marrow inside. Some enterprising bakeshops display the “bones” appropriately in “reliquaries”. HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!
THE PALACE THAT MORPHED (PAINFULLY, NOT WITHOUT BULLET WOUNDS) FROM “CATHEDRAL” TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF MONET »
Madrid is a historic and historical capital city prodigiously dotted with peerless landmarks. One of these is the Palacio de Comunicaciones.which went from a bustling hub of Spain's sprawling postal network to a white elephant that nobody knew what to do with. Eventually, it became the seat of the government of the nation's capital and a cultural center too that currently exhibits Monet's impressionist masterpieces. Almost any event, great or small, that has something to do with life in contemporary Madrid happens at CentroCentro: concerts, movies, conferences, guided tourist tours, company presentations, art exhibitions public and private ceremonies. . .
ARE WE IN SUMMER OR WHAT? »
It's October and the temperatures seem to have gotten stuck in the 30sºC in most parts of Spain. Folks who have begun to take out their Fall gear as soon as the calendar marked September, the onset of increasingly cold weather, have had to shove them back deep into the caverns of their closets in favor of light clothing. The Spaniards didn't need the Wetaherr Bureau telling them the weather is "extraordinarily and intensely warm" for this time of the year, But the Weather Bureau is telling them, anyway. It's climate change, what else is new?
SPAIN ACROSS THE YEARS. PART 1: Sanguinary Civil War, Ferocious Fascism, and the Dawning of a Better Life »
Here is an enthralling personal account of fascism and the Franco dictatorship by the author who was in Spain in the mid-1970s on the University of California Berkeley’s Education Abroad Program: "The last time I set foot in Spain in 1974 and 1975 fascism and the Franco dictatorship were in their last last legs. Returning 47 years later I braced myself for experiencing big changes."
SPAIN ACROSS THE YEARS. PART 2: FAULTLINES IN A VIBRANT DEMOCRACY »
Guernica, a powerful anti-war statement · Going through the battlegrounds of the Spanish Civil War where a historical walkabout could get booed · Casa Pepe, a sojourn into fascism and the Franco dictatorship · A new encounter with the Cordoba of the Three Cultures: "Relearning its exceptional period of harmony gave me hope, making my trip to Spain nothing less than epic."
