Feb 7th, 2012 at 6:00PM:
Honestly, have you ever seen olives look so appetizing? This epicurean Photo of the Day was snapped at the Mercado San Miguel in Madrid, a traditional Beaux-Arts food market recently restored and reopened in 2009. Flickr user LadyExpat used a Nikon D90 to capture the details in the delicacies: the vibrant colors, the fillings contained in the olives, the reflection of light in the juice. ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
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Photo of the Day: Olives, olives, and more olives
Feb 7th, 2012 at 6:00PM:
Honestly, have you ever seen olives look so appetizing? This epicurean Photo of the Day was snapped at the Mercado San Miguel in Madrid, a traditional Beaux-Arts food market recently restored and reopened in 2009. Flickr user LadyExpat used a Nikon D90 to capture the details in the delicacies: the vibrant colors, the fillings contained in the olives, the reflection of light in the juice. ...10 free things to do in Barcelona, Spain
Feb 4th, 2012 at 11:00AM: Barcelona, Spain, is full of fun things to do and interesting sites to explore. Luckily, the city features many experiences for the budget traveler with free museums, walking tours, beaches, parks, museums, dance shows, and more. Use this list to help you save money while still experiencing the best the city has to offer.
Walk down Las Ramblas
Las Ramblas is the most famous street in ...A Flickr user's glimpse into Spain
Dec 15th, 2011 at 4:00PM: Photo sets of Spain aren't difficult to come by, but some of them certainly seem worth sharing more than others. I recently came across this photo set by Flickr user EfwEE. These 25 photos capture this user's experience in Spain in 2007-2008. The photo set features shots of Pena Montanesa, an incredibly noticeable rocky outcrop of the Pre-Pyrenees. The photo set also documents the Pineta River, ...RAD AND HUNGRY supplies lo-fi office goodies from around the world
Dec 15th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
When travel meets design meets a geeky-cool love for office supplies, you get RAD AND HUNGRY, a Seattle-based start-up that curates limited-edition collections of pencils, notebooks, and other goodies sourced from travels around the globe. I've never gotten quite as excited about a gum eraser as I did when recently browsing their collections.
The concept for RAD AND HUNGRY was born ...Two day hikes in the mountains of Cantabria, Spain
Nov 30th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
As I've mentioned on this blog before, I've moved from Madrid to Santander, in Cantabria in northern Spain. This region is part of what's often called Green Spain, made up of the four northern regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country. I'm loving life by the sea and I've been busy exploring Cantabria's countryside, which offers some of the best hikes in Spain. Green and ...Bad marketing: don't use a horse to advertise a butcher shop
Nov 24th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
I spotted this butcher shop sign near my new home in Santander in northern Spain. What's wrong with this picture? Yeah, the "Equine butcher shop" is using a horse to advertise its product!
Now I'm going to give this hardworking small business owner the benefit of the doubt and assume horse was never sold at his shop. I can't say for sure, though, since the place went out of business before I ...American yacht pulls out of Volvo Ocean Race
Nov 22nd, 2011 at 11:30AM: The Volvo Ocean Race is well underway with American Yacht Puma the latest casualty in a dramatic opening leg that has injured half the fleet.
While all 11 crew members are safe, the yacht was dismasted about 2000 nautical miles from the finish in 20-plus knot winds and the devastating waters of the Atlantic Ocean in the opening leg.
"We've just withdrawn from the leg," skipper Ken Read told ...Inca Kola: Peru's tasty soda
Nov 11th, 2011 at 3:30PM: One fun aspect of travel is discovering cool local brands. When I visited Peru back in 1998 I first learned of Inca Kola, a neon-yellow soda produced there. I was curious so I ordered some at a cafe. The waiter was surprised and delighted that I chose his nation's drink over Coca-Cola and told me proudly that it was the only local soda that had a bigger market share in its home country than Coke. ...Medieval pilgrims journeyed deep into Africa, archaeologists discover
Nov 6th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
The Kingdom of Makuria is the quintessential forgotten civilization. Very few people have even heard of it, yet it ruled southern Sudan for hundreds of years and was one of the few kingdoms to defeat the Arabs during their initial expansion in the 7th century AD. Makuria was a Christian kingdom, born out of the collapse of the earlier Christian kingdom of Axum. Makuria survived as a bulwark of ...Photo of the Day - Barcelona jamon
Oct 27th, 2011 at 6:00PM:
The humble ham and cheese sandwich is a basic staple of the travel diet. In nearly every country I've traveled to, I can count on finding a cheap and tasty toasted ham and cheese at a snack bar or cafe while exploring a new city. With a nice glass of local wine or a cold beer, this simple sandwich can be sublime. The Spanish, however, have made ham an art form, noted by this display in Barcelona ...Frommer's reveals top destinations for 2012
Oct 25th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
What destination are you dreaming of for 2012? The staff at Frommer's have just unveiled their list of top travel destinations for the coming year. Included in the list is a little something for everyone: large metropolises, secluded beach towns, colorful riverside villas, and more.
But Frommer's didn't just rely on their expert editors and author's for this years list--they also polled ...Caixa Forum Madrid opens major exhibitition on Eugene Delacroix
Oct 19th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
Caixa Forum Madrid has teamed up with the Louvre and several other museums and galleries to host a major exhibition on French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix.
Delacroix (1798-1863) is most famous for his painting Liberté, shown above in this Wikimedia Commons image. This masterpiece commemorates the revolution of 1830 in which French king Charles X abdicated and fled to Great ...Cider: Spain's other great alcoholic beverage
Oct 18th, 2011 at 2:00PM: While Spain is justly famous for its fine wines, the country also produces an amazing amount and variety of alcoholic cider. It's made almost exclusively in the northern four regions that make up Green Spain.
From west to east these regions are Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country, which isn't actually a country but that's another story. This region gets a lot of rain and is ...African music in northern Spain? Gotta love the global village!
Oct 16th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
I've recently moved to Santander, a port in northern Spain. While leaving a major European capital for a small provincial city was quite a leap, Santander has an international feel to it that I like. Being a port, it gets immigrants from all over the world, mostly China, South America, and West Africa.
The West Africans are especially numerous. They man most of the Cantabrian fishing fleet ...
Video: Canyoning in the Pyrenees, Spain
Oct 12th, 2011 at 4:00PM: Thrill seekers will love the unique and adventurous sport of canyoning. This activity, which involves traversing throughout a canyon, combines different techniques within the experience, including hiking, swimming, abseiling, scrambling, climbing, and more. The ideal canyons used for canyoning often include narrow gorges, flowing water, and various drops that must be navigated.
Want to see for ...
The Way: Martin Sheen treks the Camino de Santiago
Oct 7th, 2011 at 1:30PM: I'm often skeptical when Hollywood forays into the realm of 'travel films'.
Don't get me wrong; there have been some wonderful movies in recent years that capture the true essence of the world of travel & the beauty of venturing on a grand journey: Lost in Translation, Into the Wild, L'Auberge Espagnole, Before Sunrise, Up in the Air, and The Beach (did you really think I wouldn't mention ...Hikes near Madrid: a new guidebook shows you the way (in English!)
Sep 30th, 2011 at 1:00PM: Every year, thousands of English speakers visit Madrid on holiday or to teach English. Most never explore the many hikes near Madrid, and that's a shame. The Sierra de Guadarrama offers some challenging and varied routes, and the lowland areas of the Comunidad de Madrid offer pleasant rambles. One of the best spots is La Pedriza, which can be a tough slog and easy to get lost in.
One of the ...A classic sailing ship in northern Spain
Sep 25th, 2011 at 11:30AM: If you've been following my travels here at Gadling, you know I've moved to Santander in northern Spain and am busy settling in. I've had my first of many hikes in Cantabria and have even ventured into the chilly northern surf. I need to buy a wetsuit.
One advantage of living in a port is you get to see sights like this, a reconstructed sailing ship from the Golden Age of Sail. Called the Nao ...Hiking in Cantabria, Spain: my first day out
Sep 20th, 2011 at 11:00AM: As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm no longer living in Madrid and have moved to Santander, a port in Cantabria on Spain's northern coast. Cantabria is part of Green Spain, the area that includes the regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and El País Vasco.
This strip of land situated between high mountains and the sea gets plenty of rain and doesn't look at all like the common ...Photo of the day: Pyrenees camping
Sep 14th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Camping in the Pyrenees Mountains. Backpacking in the Pyrenees Mountains. This image transports you there. It shows you what it's like to tuck yourself and your tent into a valley and to wake up there in the mist in the morning. It's beautiful.
The Pyrenees Mountain Range is in southwest Europe. The mountains form a natural border between France and Spain. The small country of Andorra is ...
