THE ROUGH GUIDE TO SPAIN (9TH EDITION) [Paperback]

One of the most striking things about Spain is its great regional diversity--landscape, food, art and even language can differ massively from one area of the country to the next. This presents a real challenge to the guidebook writer who is effectively dealing with Espanas (Spains) rather than a single Espana. The enormous army of Rough Guide devotees will not be surprised to learn that the authors of the Rough Guide to Spain rise competently to the challenge--now in its ninth edition this Rough Guide is a clear, informative and reliable guidebook to a magnificently varied country. Broken down into regions (including the Balearics) with an unambiguous design and more than 90 maps, the Rough Guide to Spain is extremely user-friendly. The limited amount of full-colour photos are well used to highlight the wealth and variety of architecture and landscape in the country. Tinted boxes give dates and details of the fiestas to be found in each region as well as the price range for accommodation and tips on language--all very useful when you're in the planning stages of a trip. On arrival, the detailed descriptions of all the major museums and monuments together with the up-to-the-minute listings of the best places to eat and drink will ensure you make the most of your visit. Whether you want to stick to the beaches or negotiate your way through the Sierra Nevada, the Rough Guide will prove an indispensable addition to your backpack. --Linda Sinclair

INTRODUCTION There’s no generalizing with Spain. In fact, Spaniards tend not to speak of La Espana – Spain – but Las Espanas, and they even talk of the capital in the plural – Las Madriles, the Madrids. Regionalism is almost an obsession, and perhaps the most significant change to the country in the last quarter century has been the creation of a dozen autonomias – autonomous regions – with their own governments, budgets and cultural ministries. The old days of a unified nation, governed with a firm hand from Madrid, seem to have gone forever, as the separate kingdoms which made up the original Spanish state reassert themselves. If you are coming to Spain for the first time, this regional diversity – of language, culture and artistic traditions, of landscapes, as well as politics – is likely to be the biggest surprise. The monuments, too, span an extraordinary range, from a history which takes in Romans, Moors and the Golden Age of Renaissance imperialism, as well as the regions’ very different twentieth-century developments. Touring Castile and Leon, you confront the classic Spanish images of vast cathedrals and reconquista castles – literally hundreds of the latter; in the northern mountains of Asturias and the Pyrenees, tiny, almost organic Romanesque churches dot the hillsides and villages; Andalucía has the great Moorish palaces and mosques of Granada, Sevilla and Cordoba; in Barcelona there are the amazing modernista (Art Nouveau) creations of Antoni Gaudi. Not that Spain is just about monuments. For most visitors, the landscape holds just as much fascination – and variety. The evergreen rias or estuaries of Galicia could hardly be more different from the high, arid plains of Castile, or the gulch-like desert landscapes of Almeria. Spain is also one of the most mountainous countries in Europe, and there is superb walking and wildlife in a dozen or more sierras – and above all in the Picos de Europa and Pyrenees. Then, of course, there are the Spaniards and their infectious enthusiasm for life. In the cities there is always something happening – in bars and clubs, on the streets – while the music and arts scenes are more vibrant than they have been for many years, with a resurgent new flamenco, a film industry brought to international attention by the anarchic Pedro Almodovar, and a superb array of modern galleries, including Bilbao’s spectacular Guggenheim, and a trio devoted to the century’s greatest Spanish artists, Picasso, Miro and Dali. Even in out of the way places there’s a surprising range of nightlife and entertainment, not to mention the daily pleasures of a round of tapas, moving from bar to bar, having a beer, a glass of wine or a fino (dry sherry) and a bite of the house speciality. Another, almost limitless source of diversion are the traditional fiestas. They include established events like the great April feria in Sevilla, the pyrotechnic extravaganzas of Las Fallas in Valencia, and the running of the bulls in Pamplona, as well as thousands of local events, celebrating a town or village saint’s day. As often as not, you’ll happen on these quite unawares, to be carried away on a tide of exuberant street partying, concerts, and any number of bizarre activities, from parades of devils to full-blown tomato-throwing battles.