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 ti

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 Europa

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 the

  For those not accustomed to contact with nature and getting by with just what they need, camping may be the synonym of uncomfortable holidays. However, forget this image of camping because it is changing and now even the most delicate of tourists can feel at home in some of the most unspoilt corners of Spain.   In Spain, the camping boom occurred in the 1970s largely because of the European tourists, who were much more accustomed to going around with their homes and camping where the fair winds blew. Much time has passed, and although the sector is still in good shape, many people who decide to spend their free time in a tent are more and more demanding. And this &

  Horta de Sant Joan, a small town of 1,300 inhabitants in the south of the province of Tarragona, wouldn’t have the same historical value if two simple elements had not met there: a tree and a painter. The tree is called Lo Parot, no less than a two thousand year old tree with the record for longevity in the peninsula. The painter, a certain Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). The same painter who one day said, “Everything I know I learnt in Horta”.   The olive tree was there when a young, 16-year old Picasso sick with scarlet fever came to this town in the Tierra Alta district, on the banks of the Ebro River. His great friend Manuel Pallarés, a natu

  “Atapuerca? Oh yes, that village where so many old people live”. The joke, a classic in Burgos, the provincial capital closest to the most important archaeological and paleontological site in the world in the north of Castile, is justified with a single figure: the 1.2 million years of the remains of its first inhabitants, the oldest Europeans we yet know of. Their names and surnames? Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis and Homo sapiens.    As in any good village, the villagers’ nicknames are everywhere: Miguelón‘s skull (in honour of the five times champion of the Tour de France Miguel Induráin) and Elvis the pelvis (fr

  Just a few kilometres from Madrid in the province of Guadalajara is the region of La Alcarria. What you have closest is often most unknown to you and the Spanish capital’s inhabitants hardly knew of the existence of this place so nearby until in 1948, the Nobel Prize-winning writer, Camilo José Cela, wrote his ‘Journey to the Alcarria’ undoubtedly the best known guide of Spanish literature.    Cela discovered the region on foot. The book, which at the time cost 65 pesetas (less than half a euro today) and was illustrated with photographs by Karl Wlasak, was a true best seller and soon became one of the must-reads on the school curricul

  Frías (Burgos) has reasons to be proud. With hardly 275 inhabitants, it is the smallest city in Spain. Standing at the top of a promontory with a bird’s eye view of the crossroads between Burgos, Cantabria and the Basque Country, it guarantees visitors a unique experience, for Frías is a time machine. Strolling in its streets we find ourselves travelling to a past replete with titles, honours and battles that might be longed after by cities of greater fame, size and presence in the travel books; and talking to its citizens gives us the chance to learn from them how to face the future with the same solidity as characterises its walls.   From its

  Wines, fruit in syrup or wine, honey… Between León and Galicia, the region of el Bierzo hides a singular gastronomic treasure.    This district of the León region in the Sil river valley conceals a singular gastronomic treasure, and its inhabitants do not hesitate to promote their products whenever they can. And not just this; if the area stands out for something, it is its wine production. In just ten years, between 1990 and 2000, wine production passed from over half a million bottles to almost six and a half million, according to data from the El Bierzo Denomination of Origin Regulating Council.    One of the most famo