As regular readers might note, I asked recently about travel suggestions. Well, I am off to Spain on Monday. I have about three weeks. Any suggestions?
-Dave
“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
-Albert Einstein
I know naaaathink. I’m from Barcelona.
OK, that was lame. Seriously, isn’t… whutshisname… from Spain? Well he lives there, I believe his wife is Catalan. I’m sure he’ll find this thread, and I do appologize for forgetting his name just now 
Coldfire
Voted Poster Most Likely To Post Drunk
"You know how complex women are"
Make sure to take an umbrella if you are flying there. As we all know - “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plane.”
::ducking thrown vegatables::
Whoa. WHOA!
>>splat<<
Coldy, I dont think that they will get the Faulty Towers reference
“I’m a rebel, soul rebel. I’m a capturer, soul adventurer”
~Bob Marley
Fawlty!! It’s Fawlty Towers 
Or Farty Towels, or whatever they make of the name in the opening scene 
Coldfire
Voted Poster Most Likely To Post Drunk
"You know how complex women are"
Pamplona. Definitely Pamplona. It’s a college town, with all the cool bars and music stores and weird cloting shops. But it’s also the seat of a cathedral with a fantastic museum, and a major stop on a thousand-year old pilgrimage route. And of course one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite cities. There’s a statue of him outside the bullring. I also highly recommend Galicia, especially Santiago de Compostela. In fact, if you have the time and inclination, take about a week to walk the Galician part of the aforementioned pilgrimage route to Santiago, even if you’re not religious. Unbelievable scenery, fantastic history, glorious architecture, loads of excercise, and you meet people from all over the world, and in the Galician stretch, the pilgrim’s refuges are free of charge.
Ass-Toaster Extraordinaire, SDMBSRC
It all depends Big DaddyD on where in Spain you’re headed. For Western Europe, its a big country with quite a few distinctive regions.
I’m flying in to Barcelona. And I have a few friends doing a semester in Denia, which is near Valencia, I think.
And his name is Manuel, Coldfire.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Coldfire.
Seriously, you picked a great time to travel…everything is cheap thanks to the weak Euro.
In Barcelona, I’d spend a day or two hanging out checking out the atmosphere, walking around the Ramblas and things like that. The city is probably most famous for its Art Nouveau buildings, especially those designed by Antoni Gaudí, which are all pretty spectacular. The most famous, and as far as I know the only ones you can tour, are the Sagrada Familia unfinished church and the Pedrera apartment building on Passeig de Gràcia. Park Guell, designed by Gaudí also, is well worth spending an afternoon at.
Barcelona’s also got a medieval quarter, centered around three spectacular Gothic churches, the Cathedral, Santa María del Mar, and Santa María del Pi. It’s the other thing really worth looking at in the city. If you like modern art, the Miró Foundation on Montjuic is cool. I think the Picasso Museum on Carrer Montcada is overrated, but it’s housed in a 15th century palace which is almost worth the price of admission itself.
If you’re getting out of town, daytrips to Girona, Figueras (with the Dalí Museum…only advisable it you really like Dalí), Tarragona (lots of Roman ruins, with an aqueduct a couple miles north of town), and Montserrat (a fairly nondescript monastery on a beautiful and strange mountain formation) can all be done by train. Also, Sitges is a very pretty beach town, though of course it’s still too chilly for the beach.
I assume you’re going to visit your friends in Denia. I don’t know much about that area.
I also assume you’re going to hit Madrid. Don’t miss the Prado and the Thyssen Collection if you care anything about painting. Madrid has a cool atmosphere and it’s fun to hang out in for a few days, buy except for the museums and the Palacio Real, there’s not that much to see there. Madrid is a great base for daytrips, though. El Escorial is a can’t miss. Toledo and Segovia are bouth beautiful and maybe 1 1/2 hours away. Salamanca and Avila are a little farther, maybe too far for a day-trip.
From Madrid you might go down to Andalucía. Cordoba is on the main train line to Sevilla, though Sevilla is always packed during April. Granada is wonderful though kind of out of the way.
My e-mail is chappell@teleline1.es, and feel free to e-mail me. I’ll give you my phone number if you’d like to meet up one day. My work schedule limits my availability, but if I can make some time for you I will. I’d be pleased to hang out in Barcelona with a fellow Doper.
–Lawrence, your Barcelona correspondent
Lawrence-
Thanks. I tried emailing you at both the address in you post and in your profile, with no success.
Ooh, Valencia! I used to live there. Unfortunately, the biggest party of the year, Las Fallas, was last week. Definitely go to the Fallas museum, though – at least you’ll get some idea of what the fuss is all about. (Though, really, if you haven’t stumbled through Barrio del Carmen at 4 a. m. with three liters of gin and lemon in your bloodstream and firecrackers going off all around you, you haven’t experienced Valencia. Sorry.)
The Museo de Bellas Artes and the modern art museum (IVAM) are OK, but they can’t compare to the museums in Madrid and Barcelona. The cathedral is smallish but worth a look (you also get to see the severed arm of St. Vicente the martyr and the Holy Grail). 'Round back of the cathedral is the oldest part of the city, the Barrio del Carmen. Proceed with caution (it’s easy to get lost or mugged), but it’s also a really neat place, both by day and by night. Plaza Xuquer (near the university) is also a good area for clubbing and general debauchery.
Oh yeah, and have paella at least once – nobody does it better than the Valencians. Another local specialty is churros, which are sticks of fried dough that you dip in melted chocolate. Ummm. There’s also a weird drink called horchata de chufa, which is practically impossible to describe (imagine a Slurpee with a sort of nutty, carrotty flavor). You either love it or hate it. The best place to get it is Alboraya, which is on the city bus line and is a cute little town in its own right.
Damn, I wish I were going with you. Have fun!
“I can’t think why fancy religions should have such a ghastly effect on one’s grammar.”
– Dorothy L. Sayers
I’m TRUELY sorry for not being able to remember yuor name. In my defence, it WAS a friday afternoon over here…
Coldfire
Voted Poster Most Likely To Post Drunk
"You know how complex women are"
I have a vague recollection of a festival in some town where everybody throws tomatoes at each other. I thought it was a spring event, but now I’m leaning towards it falling in the summer, as there’d probably be more tomatoes then. Can anyone help me fill in the blanks?
Lawrence-
I´m in Barcelona. I tried emailing you last week without success. If you´d like to meet up, drop a line to my email.
-dave