Mount Teide is the highest point in all of Spain, and it sits at the center of Teide National Park on Tenerife in Spain’s fascinating Canary Islands. The park itself is a giant caldera with geologically recent lava flows from the Teide volcano, and a desert-like environment stretching far into the distance, wherever you look. …
From the Old Town of Cáceres World Heritage inscription: The Old Town of Cáceres is an urban ensemble of 9 hectares surrounded by a wall of 1,174m, located in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Cáceres has been a trade route city and a political center of the local …
With half a decade of non-stop travel under my belt, I can talk about a lot of subjects related to travel. The one thing I cannot talk about, however, is what it feels like to travel for the first time. Recently my assistant Amy made her very first trip outside of US/Canada. I asked her …
Antoni Gaudí is almost synonymous with Barcelona. The architect was a visionary with an outsized impact on the architecture and building technology of the early 20th century. La Sagrada Familia is Gaudí’s signature building in Barcelona, and it’s been under construction for almost 130 years. Despite the size and scope of this basilica, it’s not …
From the Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida World Heritage inscription: The Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida, located in Extremadura, Spain, has its origins in the year 25 BC when Augustus completed the conquest of the North of Hispania and founded the Colony of Augusta Emerita. The city was created as an idealized model of Rome and was …
The Camino de Santiago is known as one of the world’s great hikes, and it earns a spot on many bucket lists with good reason. After hiking the Camino last year, I’ve compiled this list of essential tips for hiking the Camino de Santiago across Spain, including everything I wish I knew before setting out …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Vizcaya Bridge: Vizcaya Bridge straddles the mouth of the Ibaizabal estuary, west of Bilbao. It was designed by the Basque architect Alberto de Palacio and completed in 1893. The 45-m-high bridge with its span of 160 m, merges 19th-century ironworking traditions with the then-new lightweight technology of twisted …
From the World Heritage inscription for La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia: Built between 1482 and 1533, this group of buildings was originally used for trading in silk (hence its name, the Silk Exchange) and it has always been a center for commerce. It is a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture. The grandiose Sala …
From the World Heritage inscription for Poblet Monastery: Santa María of Poblet presents a unique blend of architectural forms generally reserved for distinct applications. It has served as one of the largest and most complete of the Cistercian abbeys, as a massive military complex, and as a royal palace, residence, and pantheon. It is a …