Half the pleasure of traveling is in the anticipation. There’s magic in
waiting for the day to come, the expectation of being somewhere new,
somewhere exotic, inhaling strangely fragrant air, and feeling foreign
breezes stroke your skin. To get maximum enjoyment from your pre-trip
daydreaming, I always think it pays to learn a bit about where you’re
going before you set foot out the door.
There are cities that can enchant you, where the flagstones of the
piazzas and squares can capture your imagination, basilicas and palaces
where you can succumb to musing on the generations of feet that trod
the very spot where you now stand. But only if you have some inkling of
their history.
Spain is one of those evocative destinations… a sweeping backdrop
for some of the most intriguing, grand, and turbulent history that has
ever been written. In case you find yourself España bound this year or
next, here is a random smattering of geographic, historical and other
tidbits to set your reveries in motion as you pack.
Occupying eighty-five percent of the Iberian Peninsula at the
southwestern tip of Europe, Spain is the continent’s third largest
country. Her outlying territories include the Balearic Islands --
Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza -- and the Canary Islands over six hundred
miles south, off the North African coast.
Spain today is an exuberant blend of striking contrasts, a place
where the traditional and the ultra-modern live side by side. Spanish
identity has been shaped by a long, eventful history and by the large
footprints left by those who first invaded and colonized the land.
Ancient Greeks and Phoenicians swept through the peninsular ahead
of the Romans who came in 300 BC. The imperial conquerors brought their
highly developed language and architecture, their agricultural
techniques, and unusual new crops like wine grapes and wheat. Evidence
of renowned Roman engineering, like the amphitheater in Merida and the
great aqueduct in Segovia, remains in many parts of Spain today.
After the Romans, came the Visigoths, one of the many Germanic
tribes who had converted to Christianity. They ruled Iberia from their
court at Barcelona for three hundred years. Next to take center stage
in Spain's drama were the North African Moors who occupied Iberia for
seven centuries, imprinting what would become the Spanish language,
Spanish architecture and Spanish cuisine with their own unique eastern
characteristics. Their influence and legacy are particularly visible in
the south, in places like Granada where the great Moorish Fortress, the
Alhambra, still stands.
Until the Moors were driven out of the Iberian peninsular in 1492,
Spain remained a disconnected group of separate kingdoms. Andalusia,
Galicia, Leon, Castilla, Aragon and Catalunya were autonomous and
independent until Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand began the process of
uniting them into one nation, España.
The ensuing turn of the century began the Golden Age of Spain.
Intrepid explorers like Columbus, Pizarro and Cortes set sail around
the globe, and for the next two hundred years Spain achieved naval and
economic supremacy,making it one of the leading colonial powers of the
day.
Predominantly catholic today, the Spain of earlier times was
traditionally a cosmopolitan blended society with a reputation for
humanistic tolerance. Medieval Moorish culture from 750 to 1050 was
highly educated, particularly advanced in mathematics and medicine. For
centuries, a substantial Jewish population which prized learning and
philosophy endowed Spain with its wisdom and business acumen. Spanish
Jews, Moors and Christians lived together in what we would regard today
as a very progressive liberal society.
The great university at Salamanca was founded in the early 13th century
and became the brightest academic beacon in Europe, matched only by the
famous bastions of education founded in the previous century in Paris,
Bologna and Oxford. For several hundred years a degree in the Sciences
from Salamanca was the most coveted credential to which a scholar could
aspire.
Down through the ages many empires have scaled Iberia's mountain
ranges, inhabited her shores and marched across her arid plains.
Ultimately all succumbed to Spain's siren song and were assimilated
into her culture, impacting and changing it, as much as they were
impacted and changed by it.
Today's Spain is a parliamentary monarchy comprised of autonomous
regions. Each has a distinctive landscape, its own unique history and
cultural traditions, a regional cuisine, and sometimes a separate
language which distinguishes its natives. The intoxicating energy of
Spain can seduce, mystify and mesmerize. Few visitors escape the lure
of her charms.
You can ski the peaks and snow caps of the Pyrenees, sunbathe on
endless white sand beaches, rub elbows with the jet set in Marbella, or
take a dusty road up into the pueblos blancas and find your soul in the
raw emotion of Andalusia's gyspsy flamenco. Just bring your open
heart... you won't find a warmer welcome anywhere on the continent.
For more travel dreams visit
http://www.grabyourpassport.com.
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