Page 282 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide: Great Places to Stay in Europe

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2 8 2 S P A I N

SPAIN
T ISSAID that Spain is broad and eclectic
not one country, but choice of characterful
I several. It has by far accommodation; from
the greatest range of former monastic
landscapes in Europe, cells to dream-like
four distinct languages, Gaudíesque hotels, and
many cultures, and, in from converted castles to
Madrid and Barcelona, two farmsteads. Even Tenerife, that
of Europe’s most dynamic temple of ‘pile-it-high and sell-it-
cities. The country which cheap’ tourism, also offers the traveller
was once known for its high-rise a stunningly-sited parador and
package ghettoes today offers a numerous rural hideaways.
runs through the Basque
country, Navarra, La Rioja,
Aragon, the Pyrenees and
northern Catalonia to reach
the Mediterranean.
By contrast to Bilbao’s
exuberantly new-wave
Guggenheim Museum, San
Sebastian is long-established
as the most elegant and
fashionable of all the Spanish
seaside resorts. It offers an
interesting, wide range of
accommodation and some
very fine luxury hotels.
Walkers in the the Pyrenees
are less pampered, with
refugios, basic mountain
huts, and more comfortable
residencias-casa de payés,
as casas rurales are called
in these parts.
Eastern Spain
Spain’s eastern coastline is the
land of the Costas, from Brava
in the north to Blanca in the
south. Long stretches (though
by no means the whole
coastline) are marred by fast-
buck holiday developments,
but step just a little way back
from the beach bars and
Hotel San Gil, page 325, one of Seville’s most striking buildings discos and normal service is
quickly resumed.
SPAIN REGION Picos de Europa, to Spain’s
BY REGION little-known fjord country, Barcelona
the Rias Baixas. Here, casas Rivalling or surpassing Madrid
PAINDIVIDES roughly rurales, or country holiday in many aspects, Barcelona
Sinto six regions and two homes (page 284), are very may officially be number two
major cities. popular. The city of Santiago in Spain, but it is numero uno
de Compostela, its great as far as most visitors are
Northwest Spain cathedral for centuries the concerned. Its Old Town
The long beaches and green, goal of pilgrims, has both oozes an ancient and salty
rural landscapes of Galicia, luxurious and spartan atmosphere but the city is
Asturias and Cantabria are a accommodation for its probably best know for its
world away from package- many thousands of visitors. Modernist architecture, some
holiday Spain. The region of the most original of which
varies enormously in its Northeast Spain comes from the stable of the
landscapes, from the moun- From the Atlantic and Bilbao hugely talented Antoni Gaudí.
tains and valleys of the in the west, Northeast Spain Barcelona has some superb