Spain Attractions
Madrid - This is Spain's headiest city, where the revelling lasts long into the night and life is seized with the teeth and both hands. Strangers quickly become friends, passion blooms in an instant, and visitors are swiftly addicted to the city's charms.
Barcelona - Barcelona has transformed itself from smug backwater into one of the most dynamic and stylish cities in the world. Summer is serious party time, with week-long fiesta fun. But year-round the city sizzles – it's always on the biting edge of architecture, food, fashion, style, music and good times.
Bilbao - Post-industrial Bilbao, the largest city in Basque Country (the País Vasco) is transforming itself with ambitious urban-renewal projects, most notably the marvellous Museo Guggenheim. This twist-up of glass and titanium, designed by US architect Frank Gehry and inspired by the anatomy of the fish and the hull of a boat, is the city's showpiece.
Granada - During the period of Muslim domination of Spain, Granada was the finest city on the peninsula. Today it is still home to the greatest Muslim legacy in Europe, and one of the most inspiring attractions on the Continent - the 11th century Alhambra.
San Sebastián - Famed as a ritzy resort for wealthy Spaniards who want to get away from the hordes in the south, stunning San Sebastián has been a stronghold of Basque nationalist feeling since well before Franco banned the use of Euskera, the Basque language, in the 1930s.
Seville - One of the first people to fall in love with Seville was the poet-king Al-Mutamid, and the city's ability to dazzle has not abated since. It takes a stony heart not to be captivated by its exuberant atmosphere – stylish, confident, ancient, proud, yet also convivial, intimate and fun-loving.
Toledo - Toledo is an intact medieval city of narrow winding streets perched on a small hill above the Río Tajo. The city is crammed with fascinating museums, galleries, churches and castles. The awesome cathedral harbours glorious murals, stained-glass windows and works by El Greco, Velázquez and Goya.
Valencia - Spain's third-largest city, and capital of the province of Valencia, comes as a pleasant surprise to many. Home to paella and the Holy Grail, it is also blessed with great weather and the spring festival of Las Fallas, one of the wildest parties in the country.
Las Hurdes - Nowhere in Spain has been untouched by tourism, but beautiful Las Hurdes in mountainous northern Extremadura comes close. Time has not quite stood still, but it has certainly slowed right down, and many people still live in the traditional stone houses that are unique to this corner of Spain.
Teruel - Located in the deep south of Aragón, Teruel has maintained an atmosphere all of its own. It is best known for its Mudéjar architecture, overwhelming Moorish flavour, magnificent cathedrals, and medieval belfries. Its kaleidoscope of inlaid stones and colourful tiles speaks of an Islamic tradition inflected with European Gothic.
Zaragoza - The appeal of Aragón's capital is that it has been relatively untouched by tourism – even its name has something a little Prisoner of Zenda-rish about it. Most travellers know it only as a train station between Barcelona and Madrid but it hides a wealth of authentic Spanish cuisine and Moorish history behind its coy facade.
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