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In Pan's footsteps
Some years ago, the people of San Rafael in Segovia saw how the modest clothing and military uniforms of the post war returned to their small town for several weeks. At that time, the young Ofelia escaped through the woods to let her imagination race while hiding from Carmen, her sick mother, and Vidal, her stepfather, a ruthless Francoist captain. There she plunged into the pines to meet Pan, a fantastic creature that led her in a parallel world in which she had to prove her bravery as a princess. These events occurred at the site located in the Sierra de Guadarrama, because this was the place was chosen by the Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro, as the stage for the movI need Spain
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The small Compostela
To reach Villafranca del Bierzo you have to follow a fence about two kilometres and continue to gradually venture into the past. This is a village of just 4,000 inhabitants that seems straight out of the Middle Ages, full of green walks and vertical relief. On your arrival, the first thing you see is the castle, known as the Palace of the Marquises of Villafranca, which to date is still inhabited. Among the vineyards, this dilapidated building from the sixteenth century, a residence occupied by these nobles until the seventeenth century, and later used as a prison. It is perhaps one of the most representative monuments of the character of a place that seems to resist change over tiI need Spain
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The Picos de Europa mountains to the sea
They occupy a total area of 64,660 hectares with heights exceeding 2,500 meters and their northernmost point hardly 15 kilometres from the sea. The Picos de Europa, the most widely visited national park in Spain after the Teide National Park, are true giants just a step away from the coast. When one considers visiting these high rocky mountains covered with snow that lasts almost into the summer, people usually think of their popular cable car, climbing or mountaineering, but not of enjoying the sand, sun and the crystal clear water of the sea. However, this area of the Bay of Biscay governed by the great peaks offers travellers the chance to explore the coast on foot or byI need Spain
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The place where a virgin emerges from the waters
In Asturias they like to repeat that their land is a natural paradise. One example that works better than any slogan is that of the views that can be enjoyed at the lakes that are part of the park of Covadonga, where peace reigns before an omnipresent virgin, submerged under the water. Let time stop, let’s allow the roundness of the landscape makes us feel somewhat smaller before the majesty of the Picos de Europa. From the Basilica de la Virgen as the park is named, a climb of about fourteen kilometres begins along a winding road leading to the Enol and La Ercina lakes. A third lagoon, El Bricial, forms when the snows melt. This unit, which forms part of the Picos de EuropaI need Spain
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Via Ferrata
Darcyly
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Michael Mus
Australia
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miloidea
Spain
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The best views from one’s car
Can a road be nice? Maybe a road in itself cannot, but surroundings most certainly can be. And we are not talking about a lost highway, but rather a dual carriageway. It is convenient, fast, quiet and also has a superb landscape. If you travel by road between Pamplona and San Sebastian you probably know what I mean. This is the A-15, the Leitzaran, that runs from Navarre into the Basque Country. Just before the border between the two regions, shortly after leaving Pamplona, we come to Irurzun. Here the mountains start above the Larraun valley, just south of the stone Dos Hermanas that the river has carved over the centuries. The road runs along a corridor flanked by the Gaztelu anI need Spain
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MUSHROOM ROUTE IN THE ARACENOS HILLS
Autumn’s arrival brings the forest into flower. This is a silent explosion, much less brilliant than the arrival of spring time, but much tastier too. The first wild mushrooms of the season begin to appear in the shade of the trees. There are many ideal places to look for this earthy food, but few have the surroundings of the like of the Aracena range of hills. This forest, declared a nature park in 1989, is full of Roman roads, Muslim fortifications and ancient abandoned watermills. Horse chestnuts, poplars and walnut trees offer their ochre shadow where the wild mushrooms grow. From mid-October, the mushroom routes begin to blossom, offering a stroll and a meal with the harvesI need Spain
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Andalucía Nature
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THE OTHER CHURCHES OF THE ROUTE OF SAINT JAMES
Pilgrims always have three things to hand: a bottle of water, a spare pair of socks and a cardboard passport stamped by the different refuges and churches they find along their way. Each place has its own stamp and they usually reflect the building they represent. Thick-walled Romanesque churches with scarce windows; modest chapels hidden in the forests of Galicia; and the last church, Santiago Cathedral with its baroque facade and Romanesque layout. Before they smell the incense of thurable and cast their view on the infinite details of the Obradoiro facade, pilgrims will have had their passport stamped in all of these anonymous temples of hidden beauty, but equally spectacular. OneI need Spain
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By bicycle to La Albufera
Just a few kilometres from the city of Valencia, a unique natural paradise known as La Albufera is the frame for one of the most beautiful sunsets on the Mediterranean. One of the best ways to cross its eight kilometres is by bike. The trip may seem long but, if done on a 0% incline and good rural roads, with the comfort of the mild climate of Valencia and the promise of a swim at a semi-virgin beach at the end and one of the best paellas in the world, it becomes short. The Albufera is a natural park that the Arabs called 'small sea', and were not misguided: it is a saltwater lake hardly one meter deep, connected to the sea at several points. The Arabs also introduced the mostI need Spain
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THE MALL OF THE PICOS DE EUROPA
A straight line is not always the shortest distance between two points, at least in the Picos de Europa. The Ruta del Cares, between Asturias and León, connects Caín with Poncebos, two villages 12 km apart, but where a car ride from one to the other takes about a hundred. If you have time and you want to change the hard shoulders for chalky gorges and the petrol stations for galleries cuts in the mountain, visitors can choose to go in a straight line and do the 12 kilometres that maybe are not the shortest, but are much prettier. La Ruta del Cares is the busiest route in the most frequently visited nature park in the peninsula. A true ‘Mall’ in the Picos deI need Spain
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Sleeping under slate roofs
There are places in our country that do not know stifling hot nights in the summer. Corners sleeping at the foot of the mountains, which serve as a gateway to the areas where people go skiing, mountaineering or hiking. They are a usual passing route, but also a treasure in themselves. A treasure built under slate roofs to withstand the snow and cold when the winter comes. The Pyrenees in Huesca hide little secrets across the map, just before the roads are no longer displayed in the guides. The best known is Panticosa, a place of pilgrimage for skiers thanks to the Panticosa-Los Lagos resort. But besides skiing, there is a well-known spa resort and rivers flowing strongly when the tI need Spain
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Looking for the Lost Mountain
Life ends at 2,700 metres, or so it seems. Gone are the beech, pine and fir and almost all green vegetation. It is when you overcome this barrier when you can admire the Ordesa National Park and Monte Perdido (Lost Mountain) in all their grandeur in the Pyrenees of Huesca. But the way here starts much earlier, and much lower. The route begins at the meadow. From here there is three-hour walk through the valley, climbing approximately 500 meters. An easy path for anyone with comfortable shoes and a light backpack. Thick forests line the river, the remains of the quaternary glacier gave this so characteristic 'U' form left by the action of ice on the rocks. At the end of theI need Spain
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OmanM
Slovenia
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Routes of mystery: Zugarramurdi Caves, witchcraft and legend
Do witches exist? What about their magic powers and their spells? The truth is only known to history, but there is a place in Spain that sheds some light on the mystery. Virtually on the border with France, the village of Zugarramurdi in Navarre (in the north of the peninsula) has been witness to one of the most enigmatic chapters of the past. The story says that the enormous caves around the village were the scene of witchcraft meetings during the 17th century. People talk of rituals in which men and women lit bonfires, danced and drank drinks with hallucinogenic effects. These meetings took the name of Akelarres (‘aker’ =I need Spain
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pplaza
Spain
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lucia75
Andorra
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lucia75
Andorra
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raquelvarela
Spain
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Oasis Frómista Spa en el centro del Camino de Santiago
maugita
Spain
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TerezaB
Czech Republic