Things to see in Spain
It almost goes without saying that Spain is the land of the horse. It was here that the Moorish invaders crossed the Bab steeds of their homeland with the native Iberian stock that had provided mounts for conquerors from Julius Caesar to Richard the Lion Heart. They came up with a noble breed renowned for its sturdy legs, strong back, and agility the Andalusian.
Andalusian horses
Raising Andalusian thoroughbreds is still a tradition carried on at over 100 ranches in southwestern Spain.To witness the grace with which Andalusian horses perform classical European and Spanish dressage, a visit to Jerez de la Frontera's Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre is a must. This school was founded in 1972 by Alvaro Domecq, of the local sherry dynasty, who has since retired after year as Spain's topranked rejoneador, a bullfighter on horseback.
The 35 Spanish mounts are trotted out in their fancy dress gear every Thursday for a two-hour show entitled How the Andalusian Horses Dance. During the second week of May, the people of Jerez de la Frontera emerge blinking from their sherry vaults to welcome riding enthusiasts from all over the world for their annual weeklong Feria del Caballo (Horse Fair).
The festivities feature much dancing, handclapping, and fino drinking, as well as demonstrations of Spanish equestrian specialties, including the acoso y derribo, in which riders use long blunt poles to isolate one bull from a stampeding herd and overturn it.
The colorfully dressed riders then try their hand at doma vaquera, or Spanish rustic dressage, performing a series of showy maneuvers that climax when the horses approach at full gallop, then come to a dead halt before the judges' stand.
Best beaches in Spain
Welded to Europe by a thin strip of land reinforced by the Pyrenees Mountains, the Iberian Peninsula seems to have been made to maximize its shoreline. The fantastically varied blends of sea, sand, and civilization range from the bath tub like waters of the Mediterranean to the shivering shocks of the Atlantic surf, from the lonely and lush, mistsoaked greener)' of northwest Spain to the teeming glitz of the Costa del Sol and the stardust of Ibiza.
One way to choose a beach is by its lack of name recognition. Since many of Spain's most popular beach resorts are now being reduced to functional blots encased in concrete, visiting them is as much of a return to nature as going to lunch at a salad bar. Many visitors, therefore, carefully take the time to seek out remote and undiscovered ocean paradises, far removed from the sands of mass tourism.
Many others, however, head straight for the crowds. For those unable to avoid the large resorts, but wishing to escape the masses, try a visit in late August or September. The following, listed alphabetically, are our favorite sandy spots in Spain.
Mojacar Beach Almeria
This is indeed where many a parched cowboy squinted into the pretend Texas sun before whipping out his Colt 45. San Jose is the cape's only (barely) burgeoning resort, but the city of Almeria is only a short drive away, and the town of Mojacar just up the coast, though a long way around by road) clambers quaintly up a hillside a mile or two back from the shore and has a parador. Accommodations here are scarce and by no means luxurious, but the food is good and there are some bargain prices to be enjoyed.
Canary Islands beaches
An hour's water skiing from the coast of the Western Sahara the volcanic archipelago of the Canaries belongs technically to Spain, geographically to Africa, and physically to the moon. This is one of the main winter destinations for Europeans escaping the cold of the continent. Sometimes called the Fortunate Isles, the Canaries are bathed by the Gulf Stream and, with approximately the same latitude as Florida, enjoy a springlike climate throughout much of the year, with temperatures around 70F.
Although the islands have a sizable share of high-rise hotel resorts that crowd the beaches, there are also many stretches of unspoiled, sandy coastline, particularly on the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Grand Canary. Lanzarote's three tourist created resorts, Costa Teguise (a jet set spot north of Arrecife), Puerto del Carmen (south of Arrecife and the airport, a popular vacation spot with the tour crowd), and the less-developed, but more picturesque Playa Blanca (on the southern tip where some of the best beaches can be found), are fairly uniform, controlled by strict building codes that dictate, among other things, the height of the buildings.
There are white sand beaches on the tiny island of La Graciosa, off the northwestern coast of Lanzarote, and on the island of Fuerteventura to the south; the southeast coastline around Jandia and the quaint northern resort of Corralejo are particularly lovely, as are the deserted strands of Isla de Lobos across the water. The Playa del InglesMaspalomas area of the southern Grand Canary island has several miles of impressive dunes and whitewashed bungalow villages.
Tossa del Mar Beaches Costa Brava
The Costa Brava looks like a landscape painted by Cezanne - straight brush strokes of ocher cliffs rising from the flat blue base to a daub of pine tree green, the clean horizontals of Tossa's old port, and the vertical slice of a fishing boat's mast. The tow of Tossa del Mar lies in one of this weather beaten coast's many snug, sandy inlets; these once gave shelter to Phoenician sailors, but now provide exposure to Nordic bathers. Choose from Tossa's three beaches: Platja Grande, Mar Menuda, and Es Codolar, each as spectacular as the next.
If Tossa seems too tame after dark, or its medieval Villa Vella (Old Town) too antiquated, head for LIoret de Mar, a casino-powered resort where young people sizzle till dawn. If even Tossa seems rowdy, the clifftop Parador de Aiguablava in Begur offers contemplative views of the see through water 400 feet below and the seafloor rocks 40 feet below that.
Costa Cantabrica beaches
Santander, Cantabria This elegant city, almost as used to powdery snow as it is to powdery sand, is proud of the qualIty of its double life - its measured offseason pace and its summer pulsation of students, orchestras, and tourists, all drawn by Santander's spectacular beaches, its festivals of music and dance, and its summer university. Dense crowds and a rather rough Atlantic are the trademarks of the Playa del Sardinero, while the beaches on the bay are graced by those who prefer gentler surf. Comillas, some 40 miles (64 km) from Santander, is a quiet, still aristocratic resort, where visitors are more likely to run across a marquis than a marquee. The Playa Comillas, a wide strand where the titled sunbathe until they achieve the color of expensive leather, ends in a small pleasure port. The nearby Playa de Oyambre is twice as long, with half the tourists.
The Costa del Sol Marbella and Malaga
The Costa del Sol is a glittering avenue of lowslung bathing suits and high-rise prices, and Marbella is the center of Europe's wealthy worshippers of sun and self. The tennis courts and golf Courses are world class, but the primary sport here is people watching. The world's wet set finds shelter in the nearby yacht harbor at Puerto Banus, and the smoothness of Estepona's silky water is guarded from the rough and tumble of the Atlantic by the Rock of Gibraltar, visible from the town's wide beachfront. In the other direction, past Malaga , is the town of Nerja, with a parador, a clifftop boardwalk, and a set of spectacular caves scooped out by water flowing through them.
San Sebastian beaches
This pearl of a city on an oyster shell-shaped bay situated between the coast and the mountains is one of the most popular resorts in northern Spain (the Basque Country), where jai alai takes precedence over tennIs, and resIdents test their machismo in log chopping competitIons and run wIth the bulls in neighboring Pamplona every July. Believed to be descendants of the original Stone Age residents of the Iberian Peninsula, the Basques speak a language unrelated to Latin or Gaelic, or for that matter, any known language in the world.
Fortunately, almost all of them also speak CastilIan (SpanIsh),especially when dealing with tourists.Although the weather can be unpredictable in this part of Spain, during most summer months the beaches are thickly spread with oiled bodies. At sunset the crowds flow mto the streets of San Sebastian's Parte Vieja (Old Quarter), drifting between tapas bas and standup Counters, and dining on minicourses of fresh shrlmp, dried cod in tomato sauce, and squid in its own ink.
Andalusian horses
Raising Andalusian thoroughbreds is still a tradition carried on at over 100 ranches in southwestern Spain.To witness the grace with which Andalusian horses perform classical European and Spanish dressage, a visit to Jerez de la Frontera's Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre is a must. This school was founded in 1972 by Alvaro Domecq, of the local sherry dynasty, who has since retired after year as Spain's topranked rejoneador, a bullfighter on horseback.
The 35 Spanish mounts are trotted out in their fancy dress gear every Thursday for a two-hour show entitled How the Andalusian Horses Dance. During the second week of May, the people of Jerez de la Frontera emerge blinking from their sherry vaults to welcome riding enthusiasts from all over the world for their annual weeklong Feria del Caballo (Horse Fair).
The festivities feature much dancing, handclapping, and fino drinking, as well as demonstrations of Spanish equestrian specialties, including the acoso y derribo, in which riders use long blunt poles to isolate one bull from a stampeding herd and overturn it.
The colorfully dressed riders then try their hand at doma vaquera, or Spanish rustic dressage, performing a series of showy maneuvers that climax when the horses approach at full gallop, then come to a dead halt before the judges' stand.
Best beaches in Spain
Welded to Europe by a thin strip of land reinforced by the Pyrenees Mountains, the Iberian Peninsula seems to have been made to maximize its shoreline. The fantastically varied blends of sea, sand, and civilization range from the bath tub like waters of the Mediterranean to the shivering shocks of the Atlantic surf, from the lonely and lush, mistsoaked greener)' of northwest Spain to the teeming glitz of the Costa del Sol and the stardust of Ibiza.
One way to choose a beach is by its lack of name recognition. Since many of Spain's most popular beach resorts are now being reduced to functional blots encased in concrete, visiting them is as much of a return to nature as going to lunch at a salad bar. Many visitors, therefore, carefully take the time to seek out remote and undiscovered ocean paradises, far removed from the sands of mass tourism.
Many others, however, head straight for the crowds. For those unable to avoid the large resorts, but wishing to escape the masses, try a visit in late August or September. The following, listed alphabetically, are our favorite sandy spots in Spain.
Mojacar Beach Almeria
This is indeed where many a parched cowboy squinted into the pretend Texas sun before whipping out his Colt 45. San Jose is the cape's only (barely) burgeoning resort, but the city of Almeria is only a short drive away, and the town of Mojacar just up the coast, though a long way around by road) clambers quaintly up a hillside a mile or two back from the shore and has a parador. Accommodations here are scarce and by no means luxurious, but the food is good and there are some bargain prices to be enjoyed.
Canary Islands beaches
An hour's water skiing from the coast of the Western Sahara the volcanic archipelago of the Canaries belongs technically to Spain, geographically to Africa, and physically to the moon. This is one of the main winter destinations for Europeans escaping the cold of the continent. Sometimes called the Fortunate Isles, the Canaries are bathed by the Gulf Stream and, with approximately the same latitude as Florida, enjoy a springlike climate throughout much of the year, with temperatures around 70F.
Although the islands have a sizable share of high-rise hotel resorts that crowd the beaches, there are also many stretches of unspoiled, sandy coastline, particularly on the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Grand Canary. Lanzarote's three tourist created resorts, Costa Teguise (a jet set spot north of Arrecife), Puerto del Carmen (south of Arrecife and the airport, a popular vacation spot with the tour crowd), and the less-developed, but more picturesque Playa Blanca (on the southern tip where some of the best beaches can be found), are fairly uniform, controlled by strict building codes that dictate, among other things, the height of the buildings.
There are white sand beaches on the tiny island of La Graciosa, off the northwestern coast of Lanzarote, and on the island of Fuerteventura to the south; the southeast coastline around Jandia and the quaint northern resort of Corralejo are particularly lovely, as are the deserted strands of Isla de Lobos across the water. The Playa del InglesMaspalomas area of the southern Grand Canary island has several miles of impressive dunes and whitewashed bungalow villages.
Tossa del Mar Beaches Costa Brava
The Costa Brava looks like a landscape painted by Cezanne - straight brush strokes of ocher cliffs rising from the flat blue base to a daub of pine tree green, the clean horizontals of Tossa's old port, and the vertical slice of a fishing boat's mast. The tow of Tossa del Mar lies in one of this weather beaten coast's many snug, sandy inlets; these once gave shelter to Phoenician sailors, but now provide exposure to Nordic bathers. Choose from Tossa's three beaches: Platja Grande, Mar Menuda, and Es Codolar, each as spectacular as the next.
If Tossa seems too tame after dark, or its medieval Villa Vella (Old Town) too antiquated, head for LIoret de Mar, a casino-powered resort where young people sizzle till dawn. If even Tossa seems rowdy, the clifftop Parador de Aiguablava in Begur offers contemplative views of the see through water 400 feet below and the seafloor rocks 40 feet below that.
Costa Cantabrica beaches
Santander, Cantabria This elegant city, almost as used to powdery snow as it is to powdery sand, is proud of the qualIty of its double life - its measured offseason pace and its summer pulsation of students, orchestras, and tourists, all drawn by Santander's spectacular beaches, its festivals of music and dance, and its summer university. Dense crowds and a rather rough Atlantic are the trademarks of the Playa del Sardinero, while the beaches on the bay are graced by those who prefer gentler surf. Comillas, some 40 miles (64 km) from Santander, is a quiet, still aristocratic resort, where visitors are more likely to run across a marquis than a marquee. The Playa Comillas, a wide strand where the titled sunbathe until they achieve the color of expensive leather, ends in a small pleasure port. The nearby Playa de Oyambre is twice as long, with half the tourists.
The Costa del Sol Marbella and Malaga
The Costa del Sol is a glittering avenue of lowslung bathing suits and high-rise prices, and Marbella is the center of Europe's wealthy worshippers of sun and self. The tennis courts and golf Courses are world class, but the primary sport here is people watching. The world's wet set finds shelter in the nearby yacht harbor at Puerto Banus, and the smoothness of Estepona's silky water is guarded from the rough and tumble of the Atlantic by the Rock of Gibraltar, visible from the town's wide beachfront. In the other direction, past Malaga , is the town of Nerja, with a parador, a clifftop boardwalk, and a set of spectacular caves scooped out by water flowing through them.
San Sebastian beaches
This pearl of a city on an oyster shell-shaped bay situated between the coast and the mountains is one of the most popular resorts in northern Spain (the Basque Country), where jai alai takes precedence over tennIs, and resIdents test their machismo in log chopping competitIons and run wIth the bulls in neighboring Pamplona every July. Believed to be descendants of the original Stone Age residents of the Iberian Peninsula, the Basques speak a language unrelated to Latin or Gaelic, or for that matter, any known language in the world.
Fortunately, almost all of them also speak CastilIan (SpanIsh),especially when dealing with tourists.Although the weather can be unpredictable in this part of Spain, during most summer months the beaches are thickly spread with oiled bodies. At sunset the crowds flow mto the streets of San Sebastian's Parte Vieja (Old Quarter), drifting between tapas bas and standup Counters, and dining on minicourses of fresh shrlmp, dried cod in tomato sauce, and squid in its own ink.
Labels: Best beaches in Spain
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