Half of the joy of traveling is in anticipation. There is a magic of waiting for the coming day, the expectation that somewhere new, somewhat exotic, odd-smelling air will breathe, and the foreign spirits will feel the skin. To get the most out of your daydream, I always think you can learn a little bit about where you are going before you start the door.
There are cities that are fascinated, where the flags of the Piazza and the squares can capture our imagination, the basilica and the palaces, where they can afford the generations of feet that stand on the spot where you are now.
Spain is one of the most striking destinations that has been one of the most interesting, great and stormy histories ever written. If you followed España this year or next year, here is a random geographic, historical and other whimsical smell that you can use to adjust your reversibility while packing.
Eighty-five percent of the Iberian Peninsula is occupied by the south-western tip of Europe, Spain's third largest country. Its outermost regions include the Balearic Islands – Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza – and the Canary Islands are more than six hundred miles south of the North African coast.
Spain is today the striking contrast, the place where traditional and ultra-modern live side by side. The Spanish identity was created by long, eventful history and large footprints that were first penetrating and colonizing the earth. Imperial conquerors have developed their advanced language and architecture, agricultural techniques, and unusual new plants such as wine grapes and wheat. Famous Roman engineering evidence, such as the Merida Amphitheater and the large water pipeline in Segovia, remains today in many parts of Spain.
The Visigoths came after the Romans, one of the Germanic tribes who transformed into Christianity. Three hundred years ago they ruled in Iberia, Barcelona. In the center of Spanish drama, North African Moors, who had been occupying Iberia for seven centuries, were painted with the distinctive eastern characteristics of Spanish, Spanish architecture and Spanish cuisine. Their impact and legacy are particularly visible in the south, in places such as Granada, where the Almambra is still the great Moorish fortress.
While the Moors were not launched in 1492 from the Iberian Peninsula, Spain is still a separate group of separate kingdoms. Andalusia, Galicia, Leon, Castilla, Aragon and Catalonia were autonomous and independent while King Isabel and King Ferdinand began to unite them into a nation, España.
Spain began at the turn of the next century. Intrepid explorers like Columbus, Pizarro and Cortes sailed all over the world, and in the next two hundred years Spain has reached the navy and economic superiority, making it one of the leading colonial powers of the day.
To date, Catholic, formerly Spain, has traditionally been a cosmopolitan mixed society with a reputation for humanist tolerance. Medieval Moorish culture is highly educated between 750 and 1050, especially in mathematics and medicine. For centuries, a significant Jewish population, which has won learning and philosophy, has provided Spain with wisdom and business sense. The Spanish Jews, the Moors and the Christians have lived together what we would consider to be a very progressive liberal society today. The great university of Salamanca was founded at the beginning of the 13th century and became Europe's brightest academy, formed only by the famous bastions founded in the previous century in Paris, Bologna and Oxford. Hundreds
The Salamanca degree in science was the most famous authentication that a scientist could follow.
Throughout the ages, many empires mitigated the mountains of Iberia, inhabited by its shores, and passed through the dry countryside. Finally, they all resigned from the Spanish siren song and assimilated into their culture, influenced and altered as much as they were affected and changed.
Today's Spain is a parliamentary monarchy consisting of autonomous regions. They all have a characteristic landscape, their own unique history and cultural traditions, regional cuisine, and sometimes a separate language that distinguishes natives. Spain's shocking energy can seduce, shock and shock you. Few visitors flee from the temptation of charm. You can ski on the Pyrenees peaks and snow-capped slopes, sunbathe on endless white sand beaches, rub the Marbella jet or go dusty to pueblos blanch and find the soul in Andalucia's exciting flamenco's raw emotion. Just open your open heart … you won't find a warmer welcome anywhere on the continent.
Copyright © 2006 Sue Rauch
Source by Sue Rauch