” Lush green valleys and rugged mountains, sheer cliffs and wild, frothing, slate-grey seas. Bagpipes, baroque cathedrals and the smell of grilled seafood. The architectural grace of Santiago de Compostela and the industrial churn of Vigo. Galicia, the north-west corner of Spain, is a diverse region, but amid the variety […]
” All hail Portland! The Pacific Northwest trail-blazer is a vibrant hub that celebrates the four cool “Cs” of coffee, cycling, craft breweries and (food) carts. What’s more, new direct flights four times a week in summer with Delta from Heathrow start on 27 May, making what was a torturous […]
” Light reflecting off churches and palaces, views of craggy mountains and blue sea, smells of orange blossom, oregano and mint … Sicily is an inspiring place, particularly for northern Europeans. “To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all,” said German writer […]
It’s one thing to cook an octopus. It’s quite another to catch one, to actually haul an octopus out of the sea and try to convince yourself, as its tentacles wind around your arm, that you’ll be eating it for dinner, not the other way round. The Basque chef Nieves […]
It takes two hours to reach the Lost City. My guide, Toby Clarke from Walking Ibiza, leads me down a road that dwindles into barely perceptible paths rising and falling through the forest. Toby’s dog, Cosmo, runs off on long diversions, a flickering presence in the sea mist that drifts […]
The city of Madrid is no less essential to the films of Pedro Almodóvar than kinky sex, crimes of passion and gasp-inducing plot twists. Though born out in Castilla-La Mancha – Don Quixote country – Almodóvar made his punkish early movies here in the capital, where the death of General […]
A goat farmer told me no one swims in the lake at Zahara de la Sierra because it’s full of fish with crocodile heads. Is that why I’m the only person in 128 sq km of cool water on a very hot day? I later learn that this manmade lake […]
Have we hit peak Camino de Santiago? Almost, according to a copy of the El Correo Gallego newspaper I found lying in a bar in the harbour town of Muxía in north-west Spain: a record 301,036 walkers completed the pilgrim trail last year – 98.6% capacity, said a professor. I […]
Early last year, around 150,000 people in Barcelona marched to demand that the Spanish government allow more refugees into the country. Shortly afterwards, “Tourists go home, refugees welcome” started appearing on the city’s walls; soon the city was inundated with protestors marching behind the slogans “Barcelona is not for sale” […]
It was a muggy morning in Sant Llorenç des Cardassar – in the meteorological rather than the Love Island sense. Although the villa where the programme is filmed is only 6km away, the small town of caramel stone houses in the interior of Mallorca, an hour’s drive from Palma, has […]
Mosque-cathedral The Mezquita-Catedral is the attraction everybody talks about, because it’s incredible. Originally a mosque, built in the 10th century, it later became a cathedral. Being local I don’t pay to get in, but anyone can get in for free by showing up at 8.30am while they’re preparing for the […]
I’m snorkelling in the Mediterranean, three miles off the Catalan coast, and for a heart-stopping split second I’m eyeball-to-eyeball with my dinner – a 250kg bluefin tuna that shoots out of the deep blue abyss like a torpedo a metre below me. Our group of 30 or so snorkellers is […]
Price aside, eating at a one of the Basque country’s many Michelin-starred restaurants and sitting on a sea wall with a picnic have more in common than you’d imagine. The region’s greatest chefs – including Eneko Atxa, Elena Arzak, Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz, and Victor Arguinzoniz of Asador Etxebarri […]
As with all the best adventures, we never actually intended to go to the Islas Cíes. The beaches of northern Galicia were our destination. Well, they were until my wife clicked her weather app and saw blanket rain for a week. Suddenly we weren’t going north after all. Travelling up […]
The Alhambra may be Spain’s most visited attraction year on year, but wandering the hills and the backstreets of Granada’s barrios will give you the real feel of this fascinating city, which has elegance and edginess in equal measure. Granada’s fertile valley and sweeping hills have attracted many different civilisations […]