Northern Spain travel guide

Barrenechea, T, The Basque Table (1998), Harvard Common Press. A cookbook with traditional Basque recipes.

Casas, Penelope, The Foods and Wines of Spain (1982), Knopf. Considered by many as the definitive book on Spanish cooking, the author is married to a Madrileño and covers regional cuisine as well as tapas and traditional desserts.

Radford, J, The New Spain: A Complete Guide to Contemporary Spanish Wine (2004), Mitchell Beazley. An updated guide to Spain’s wines and wineries. New edition should be due soon.

Beevor, A, The Battle for Spain (2007), Phoenix. This prolific war historian’s take on the conflict. Detailed but readable, it’s not perhaps as good as Hugh Thomas’s, but it’s shorter and benefits from recent research.

Brenan, G, The Spanish Labyrinth (1943), Billings & Sons. A good explanation of the background to the Spanish Civil War.

Carr, R (ed), Spain: A History (2000), Oxford University Press. An interesting compilation of recent writing on Spanish history, with entertaining and myth- dispelling contributions from leading academics.

Elliott, J, Imperial Spain (1963), Edward Arnold. History as it should be, precise, sympathetic and very readable.

Gibson, I, Ligero de Equipaje (2006). A moving biography of poet Antonio Machado by excellent Spanish-based Irishman Ian Gibson. Hopefully it will appear in English soon.

Kurlansky, M, The Basque History of the World (1999), Vintage Press. A likeable introduction to what makes the Basques tick, what they eat, what they’ve done and what they’re like.

Rankin, N, Telegram from Guernica (2003), Faber & Faber. This biography of the fascinating war correspondent George Steer has more on his Ethiopian experiences than the Guernica events, but is still a decent read that evokes the frenzy of the Civil War.

Ross, C, Contemporary Spain: A Handbook (1997), Arnold Press. Slightly dry but useful overview of Spain’s politics and economy.

Steer, G, The Tree of Guernica (1938), Hodder & Stoughton. Written by a pro-Republican reporter who was an eyewitness to the atrocity of the bombing, this is of most interest for an evocative description of the event itself.

Thomas, H, The Spanish Civil War (1961/77), Penguin. The first unbiased account of the war read by many Spaniards in the censored Franco years, this is large but always readable. A superbly researched work.

Zulaika, J, Basque Violence: Metaphor and Sacrament (2000), University of Nevada Press. An academic but intriguing exploration of the roots of Basque nationalist feeling, and the progression to violence.

Unamuno, M, Tragic Sense of Life (1913), Dover Publications (1990). The anguished and heroically honest attempt by the great Basque and Salamantine philosopher to come to terms with faith and death.

Alas, L (Clarín), La Regenta (1885). Good novel about small-town prejudices in Spain, set in mythical Vetusta, heavily based on Oviedo.

Atxaga, B, Obabakoak (1994), Vintage Books. A dreamlike series of anecdotes making up a novel by a well-respected contemporary Basque author. Drawn from Basque heritage rather than about Basque culture. Individual and profound.

Baroja, P, The Tree of Knowledge (1911). While mostly set in Madrid and Valencia, this is the best introduction to this powerful Basque novelist.

Burns, J, Spain: A Literary Companion (1995); John Murray. Good anthology of Spanish writers.

Cela, C, La Familia de Pascual Duarte (1942). Nobel-prize-winning writer’s first and best novel, a grimly realistic novel about post-war Spain. La Colmena is another good one that has been translated into English.

Cervantes Saavedra, M de, Don Quijote (1605/1615). Don Quixote is an obvious choice and a superbly entertaining read.

Cohen, J (ed), The Penguin Book of Spanish Verse (1988), Penguin. Excellent collection of Spanish poetry through the ages, with original versions and transcriptions.

Hemingway, €, Death in the Afternoon (1939), Jonathan Cape. Superb book on bullfighting by a man who fell heavily for it.

Hemingway, €, Fiesta/The Sun Also Rises (1927), Jonathan Cape. One of Hemingway’s greatest works, an evocative description of the Pamplona fiestas and trout-fishing in the Pyrenees.

Hooper, J, The New Spaniards (1995), Penguin. An excellent account of modern Spain and the issues affecting peoples’ lives.

Orwell, G, Homage to Catalonia (1938), Secker & Warburg. About Orwell’s experience of the Spanish Civil War, and characteristically incisive and poignant.

Pérez-Reverte, A, The Dumas Club (1993), Harvill Press (Eng version). Not from the north, but a very popular light-reading novelist; this is his best work.

Arias Páramo, L, Guía del Arte Prerrománico Asturiano (1994), Trea. The best book around on Asturian pre-Romanesque architecture. Spanish, but with an English summary.

Ball, P, ¡Morbo! (2001) Excellent overview of Spanish football and its rivalries.

Farino, T and Grunfeld, F, Wild Spain, Sheldrake Press. Knowledgeable book on Spain’s wildlife and the quiet corners where you find it.

Borrow, G, The Bible in Spain (1842), John Murray Press. Amusing account of another remarkable 19th-century traveller who travelled widely through Spain trying to distribute Bibles during the first Carlist War.

Brenan, G, The Face of Spain (1950), Turnstile Press. Although set in the south, this is worth a read for Brenan’s insights into the people he lived among for many years.

Ford, R, A Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain (1845), John Murray Press. Difficult to get hold of (there have been several editions) but worth it; comprehensive and entertaining guide written by a 19th-century British gentleman who spent 5 years in Spain.

Ford, R, Gatherings from Spain (1846), John Murray Press. Superb and sweeping overview of Spanish culture and customs; Richard Ford was something of a genius and has been surpassed by few if any travel writers since.

Jacobs, M, The Road to Santiago, Pallas Athene Publishers. One of the best guides to the architecture of the pilgrim route, full of knowledgeable insight but happily piety-free.

Lee, L, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969), Penguin. A poignant account of a romantic walk across pre-Civil War Spain.

Morris, J, Spain (1960), Penguin. Morris didn’t know Spain that well, and that is the book’s strength; it’s a good collection of insightful first impressions.

Morton, H, A Stranger in Spain (1955), Methuen. Not one of Morton’s best; he was fastidiously unwilling to adapt to Spanish culture, but still very readable.

Nooteboom, C, Roads to Santiago (1992), The Harvill Press. An offbeat travelogue that never fails to entertain. One of the best travel books around, soulful, literary and moving, by a Dutch writer with a deep love of Romanesque architecture. Highly recommended.

Pillement, G, Unknown Spain (1964), Johnson Press. Likeable and useful (if not hugely entertaining) book describing various routes discovering the architecture of Northern Spain.

Throughout Northern Spain, the pattern of rapid growth in the wake of the Reconquista was followed by a long decline. Although not an ideal situation for a region to be in, it has had a good effect. The building sprees of the Middle Ages were succeeded by periods where there was hardly any money to fund new construction; the result is a land which has an incredibly rich architectural heritage. Nowhere in Europe has such a wealth of Romanesque and Gothic churches, while the relationships with Islamic civilization spawned some fascinating styles unique to Spain. Today, Spain has shaken off the ponderous monumentalism of the Franco era and become a powerhouse of modern architecture, with the Basque lands jostling Valencia at the front of the pack.

Spain’s artistic traditions go back a long way; right to the Palaeolithic, when cave artists along the north coast produced art that ranged from simple outlines of hands to the beautiful and sophisticated bison herds of Altamira.

The Iberians and the Celts produced fine jewellery from gold and silver, and some good sculpture. The Romans’ artistic legacy was not as strong in Spain’s north as in the south, although there are some fine pieces, including mosaic floors. Good bronze, silver and gold pieces are also known from the period of the Visigoths.

Monks of the Middle Ages produced some illustrated manuscripts of stunning beauty, particularly copies of the works of Beatus of Liébana. Wallpaintings in Asturian pre-Romanesque and in Mozarabic churches are also early examples of medieval art.

Most of Spanish sculpture through the centuries has been in the religious sphere. The Romanesque master masons responsible for such gems as the cloisters of San Juan de la Peña and Santo Domingo de Silos are not known by name, but arguably the finest of them all is Master Mateo, whose tour de force was the Pórtico de la Gloria entrance to the Cathedral of Santiago.

Another Oscar-winning director is Fernando Trueba, whose Belle Epoque (1993) is a romantic comedy set in the pre-Civil War republic, also starring Cruz. Bigas Luna explores the strange worlds of sex, the unconscious and food in films such as Jamón Jamón and La Teta y la Luna. Basque director Alex de la Iglesia’s latest film, The Oxford Murders, starring Elijah Wood, was based on the award-winning novel by the Argentine writer Guillermo Martínez. Another prominent director is José Luis Garcí, whose 2008 release Sangre de Mayo tells of the Spanish resistance against the French occupation in the early 1800s.

After years under the cultural anaesthetic of the fascist dictatorship, Spanish cinema has belatedly made a strong impression on the world stage. With an enthusiastic home audience of cinema-goers, increased funding, and a huge global Spanish-speaking population, it was perhaps only a matter of time.

One of the early pioneers of cinema was the Aragonese film-maker Segundo de Chomón who was hired by the French film company Pathé in order for them to compete against the great Georges Méliès in the late 19th century. He was an innovator in trick photography and made one of the earliest colour films Le scarabée d’or (The Golden Beetle). However, it was telling that he had to work outside his homeland. A shortage of capital and an underdeveloped home market meant that it was very difficult to develop any indigenous production facilities. As public awareness slowly mounted, the demand was mostly met by imported American films.

One of the greatest figures in the history of cinema came from a small town in the underdeveloped province of Teruel. Luis Buñuel sprang to prominence in France, where he collaborated with Salvador Dalí in the late 1920s, pioneering surrealism on the screen. Buñuel was sure that the critics were going to hate their first film, Un chien andalou, so he took some stones along to the première to lob at any that voiced their disapproval. Luckily, it went down a treat, and they followed it up with the successful L’Age d’Or; both produced images that are still iconic. Along with a whole generation of talented artists, Buñuel left Spain with the onset of fascism but did return shortly before his death to work on a number of collaborations. His work has influenced generations of directors.

The beginnings of a native Spanish film industry came during the 1930s with the help of the Republican Government. Locally produced films such as La Verbena de la Paloma (Paloma Fair) (1935) and Morena Clara (Clara the Brunette) (1936) proved to be immensely popular and produced the first Spanish-language star, the unlikely named Imperio Argentina. Another important development in this period was the move to dub imported films into Spanish, a practice which continues to this day.

The Civil War and its lead-up saw numerous propaganda films made, then the establishment of the Franco dictatorship saw the end of progress and development in the Spanish film industry. For the next 40 years the film industry was to be made subservient to the goals of the state, all film production had to be approved and censorship was strict. The emphasis was on films with a unifying message. Glorified histories, inoffensive comedies and chaste romances were the order of the day. Regional differences were not encouraged and the use of Catalan, Euskara and Gallego was forbidden.

Despite this, some film-makers managed to put their message across. The most important was Antonio Bardem. His films, especially Death of a Cyclist (1956) suggested that it was possible to introduce some elements of criticism into film-making. He founded the magazine Objectivo in 1953 which, for the 15 issues that it was allowed to operate, became a rallying point for critics of the Franco regime. However, Bardem was arrested on numerous occasions and it became increasingly difficult for him to produce in Spain. Luis Berlanga was another who risked persecution to satirize the state.

Carlos Saura was the stand-out figure of Spanish cinema in the 1960s and 1970s. Films such as La Caza (The Hunt, 1965) and Ana y los lobos (Ana and the Wolves, 1973) managed to employ symbolism to attack the institutions of the dictatorship, which had become somewhat freer by these times. A similar approach was taken by Victor Erice and his El espíritu de la colmena (Spirit of the Beehive, 1973), a film of haunting beauty set in post-war Castilla.

Since the abolition of censorship after Franco’s death, things have changed. Spanish cinema has witnessed the transformation mirrored in many aspects of life in the peninsula. Without a doubt, the best-known post-Franco director has been Pedro Almodóvar. Films such as Atame (Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down), Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown) and the Oscar-winning Todo sobre mi madre (All About my Mother) explore the themes of desire and obsession in Madrid that have made Almodóvar one of the world’s most popular and prominent directors. His films have propelled actors Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz to international stardom. His film Volver won an Oscar nomination in 2007.

Carlos Saura is still directing; his Carmen (1983) was highly acclaimed and he has made several quirky films inspired by the world of art and music. Fernando León is another talented writer and director whose 2002 socially aware comedy Los Lunes al Sol (Mondays in the Sun) focused on a group of unemployed friends in a north-coast fishing town. It starred Javier Bardem, one of Spain’s most talented cinematic actors, nephew of the great Antonio. Bardem, who won an Oscar in 2008 for his role as Anton Chigger in No Country for Old Men. He had previously captured the world’s attention in 2004, starring in Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside), a moving story of a man crippled and bedridden by an accident.

At the end of September each year, the film world turns its attention to San Sebastián and over 200,000 visitors come to view the enormous number of both Spanish and international films on offer. As well as awarding internationally prestigious prizes the festival focuses attention on regional Spanish cinema and tries to ensure that it is seen outside the limited area of its production. Spain’s other main film event is the awarding of the Goya prizes, which are presented at the end of January.

Recently there has been a recognition that although there is a basic production infrastructure in the North of Spain, especially in the Basque country, there is a need to develop skills in marketing and promotion. The establishment of a national film school in Ponferrada, and the recent successes of Galician-set films such as Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside) and Los Lunes al Sol (Mondays in the Sun) indicate that progress is being made.

If a broad definition of dance is that it is ritualized movement, then a strong case can be made for saying that dance is at the very core of Spanish society. What else is the paseo but an enormous communal dance where each participant has their allotted role and which tradition guides from beginning to end?

Local fiestas and weddings showcase traditional regional dancing, but it is during la marcha that Spain’s living dance culture comes into its own. Come 0200 the whole of Spain seems to be engaged in an enormous Bacchic celebration of hip-swinging, hand-waving dancing that goes on till the last person leaves.

Although modern in approach, Spain’s dance culture has deep roots. In the north, each region has its own traditional dances. Mostly seen at fiestas these dances reflect the historical background of each region. Thus in Galicia and Asturias the dances are Celtic in origin and are similar to Scottish dances, following the basic reel pattern.

Many of the Basque dances are extremely physical as may be judged by their names, such as Bolant Dantza (Flying Dance). Perhaps the most famous of all Basque dances are the Espatas (Sword dances). Performed using interlocking swords these dances reflect their martial origins although in contempary Basque culture they are preformed more to impress than intimidate. Less exclusive are the Basque social dances where men and women dance together in a circle linked by either holding hands or handkerchiefs. The dances of the Basque country are more complicated although the difficult parts are usually left to the dantzari, or experts.

Northern Spain has a variety of both ballet and modern dance companies that perform all over Spain and abroad. Drawing on local traditions these groups are very much part of the European mainstream and a number of innovative dancers have come from them. They are, however, very much at the top of the dance pecking order. It is much more important to emphasize that dance in Spain is entirely democratic in spirit.

Spanish is, of course, the major language. Known as español or castellano, the constitution states that all citizens have a duty to know it. Nearly all do, although if you get right off the beaten track in Galicia, Aragón or Asturias you’ll find the occasional elderly person who doesn’t. Languages and dialects are always thorny political issues, and Northern Spain has its fair share.

The peninsula’s earliest known writers lived under the Roman occupation. Martial was born near modern Calatayud and wrote of his native land, while the poet Prudentius was from Calahorra in the Rioja region. After the Roman period, San Isidoro was a significant figure in Spain’s literary history .

In the 10th century a monk made notes in Castilian in the margins of a text at San Millán, in La Rioja; this is the earliest known appearance of the language in writing. Tucked away in his monastery in the Picos de Europa, the monk Beatus de Liébana wrote commentaries on the Apocalypse which became a popular monkish staple for centuries . In the 12th century, El Cantar de Mío Cid was an anonymous epic poem recounting the glorious deeds of the northern Spanish mercenary annd strongman, El Cid; it’s the earliest known work in Castilian. Another early author was the Riojan poet Gonzalo de Berceo, who wrote popular religious verses.

An important 13th-century figure was King Alfonso X. Dubbed El Sabio (The Wise), he changed the official language of the kingdom from Latin (much bastardized by this time) to Castilian. He was also a poet, and wrote verses in Galego (Galician). It wasn’t unusual for the nobility to take up the pen and the 15th century saw the Marqués de Santillana dashing off verse, including the first Spanish sonnets. The popular form of the period was the romantic ballad, dealing in damsels and knights, Christians and Moors.

One of the finest Spanish poets of any period was the theologian Fray Luis de León; the poems A Cristo Crucificado and En la Ascensión are noteworthy. Lazarillo de Tormes, an anonymous work, appeared in 1554. One of the first of the genre known as picaresque (after the Spanish pícaro, a rogue), it dealt with a journey across Northern Spain by a blind man’s guide. It’s frequently described as the first Spanish novel. The extraordinary life of Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) marks the start of a rich period of Spanish literature. Don Quijote came out in serial form in 1606 and is rightly considered one of the finest novels ever written; it’s certainly the widest-read Spanish work. Cervantes spent a portion of his eventful life in Valladolid. The royal archives are another frequently overlooked source of interest, particularly those of Felipe II. A fascinating glimpse of the period can be had from reading his tenderly written letters to family as well as his policy decisions that affected half the world.

The opening of public theatres in the 17th century saw the rise of the great dramatists Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca (who was expelled from Salamanca University for defaulting on his college fees). In the 18th century the Basque Felix María Samaniego penned popular childlike fables. Meanwhile the Galician priest Benito Feijóo, a major Enlightenment figure, wrote important essays from his Oviedo base, and the later Asturian Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos wrote significant historical-political and sociological works; both were pestered by the Inquisition for their liberal outlook.

Several of the 19th century’s major writers emerged from the north. Born in Valladolid, José Zorrilla spent much of his life in Mexico; he is famous for his poems and a play about Don Juan, Don Juan Tenorio. The playwright José de Echegaray was of Basque descent, while Leopoldo Alas, known as Clarín, set his novel La Regenta in the fictional city of Vetusta, clearly his native Oviedo. It’s a fantastic depiction of Spanish provincial life of the time, seen through the eyes of its heroine. At the same time, Galicia’s favourite poet, Rosalía de Castro, was writing her soulful verses in Spanish and Gallego .

A watershed in Basque writing came in the late 19th century with the fiery works of Sabino Arana. Littered with inaccuracies and untruths, much of his writing reads more like propaganda than literature or non-fiction, but it created modern Basque nationalism; since then it has been difficult for Basque writings to avoid the issue.

At the end of the 19th century, Spain lost the last of its colonial possessions after revolts and a war with the USA. This event, known as the ‘Disaster’, had a profound impact on the nation and its date, 1898, gave its name to a generation of writers and artists who sought to express what Spain was and had been, and achieve new perspectives for the 20th century. One of the foremost was the scholarly Basque Miguel de Unamuno. His novel A Tragic Sense of Life is an anguished an honest attempt to come to terms with his faith and inevitable death. The slightly later novels of Pío Baroja often deeply reflect Basque rural life. Blas de Otero, who had a complex love for his native Bilbao, spent most of his writing life overseas.

Another of the Generación de ’98 was the poet Antonio Machado . His work reflects his profound feelings for the landscape of his homelands of Andalucía and Castilla; he lived for many years in Soria. Along with Federíco García Lorca, he is considered the greatest of Spanish 20th-century poets; Machado and Lorca, Republicans both, were lost in the Civil War. Another notable member was the essayist, historian and critic José Ortega y Gasset, who spent time in Bilbao.

Two writers that stand out in post-Civil War Spanish literature are from Northern Spain. Miguel Delibes (1920-) is from Valladolid and his works range from biting satire to evocative descriptions of the Castilian landscape. Camilo José Cela (1916-2002), was a Galician realist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989 . Although the latter fought on the Nationalist side in the Civil War, both battled censors in post-war Spain as editors of anti-Francoist newspapers.

Bernardo Atxaga is a talented contemporary Basque writer whose best-known work is the anecdotal Obabakoak; Julián Ríos is an award-winning Galician writer whose most acclaimed work is the novel Amores que atan.

The history of Spain and the history of the Spanish Catholic church are barely separable but, in 1978, Article 16 of the new constitution declared that Spain was now a nation without an official religion, less than a decade after Franco’s right hand man, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, had declared that “Spain is Catholic or she is nothing”.

From the sixth-century writings of San Isidoro onwards, the destiny of Spain was a specifically Catholic one. The Reconquista was a territorial war inspired by holy zeal, Jews and Moors were expelled in the quest for pure Catholic blood, the Inquisition demonstrated the young nation’s religious insecurities and paranoias and Felipe II bled Spain dry pursuing futile wars in a vain attempt to protect his beloved Church from the spread of Protestantism. Much of the strife of the 1800s was caused by groups attempting to end or defend the power of the church, while in the 20th century the fall of the Second Republic and the Civil War was engendered to a large extent by the provocatively anticlerical actions of the leftists.

Although regular church-going is increasingly confined to an aged (mostly female) segment of society, and seminaries struggle to produce enough priests, it’s not the whole picture. Romerías (religious processions to rural chapels) and religious fiestas are well attended, and places of popular pilgrimage such as Santiago, Zaragoza, Loiola and Covadonga are flooded with Spanish visitors during the summer. Very few weddings are conducted away from the Church’s bosom, and at Easter a huge percentage of the male population of some towns participates in solemn processions of religious cofradías (brotherhoods). Although not involved to the same degree in education as it once was, the Church runs some 15% of Spanish schools and several universities. The Church and the right wing remain closely connected in Spain; the opposition Partido Popular is implicitly a largely Catholic party, and allegations of Opus Dei involvement are frequent .

One curious aspect of Spanish Catholicism is its Marian aspect. Worship and veneration of the Virgin seem to far outstrip that of Christ himself, who is often relegated to a side chapel; María is still by far the most common name in Spain (even being used for boys in combination with another name, eg José María), and the majority of girls are named after one incarnation of the Virgin or another (eg Carmen, Pilar, Mercedes, Esperanza, Concepción, Begoña).

The practice of Catholicism in Spain is far more devotional than liturgical. The devotions of the Via Crucis, or Stations of the Cross (which arose in the 17th century), the Sacred Heart (which became popular in the 16th), and the Rosary are the focus of a sentimental rather than robust approach to the religion; the Bible itself has historically not been widely available to, or read by, the people. Encouraging the performance of these ritualistic elements was a way for the church to keep a superstitious populace in regular attendance; indulgences were traditionally offered as a carrot. The number of fiestas in Spain, which are nearly all religious in origin, historically had a similar aim. Faced with a recent census form, a massive 94% of Spaniards claim to be Catholics, but less than a third cut regular figures in their parish church.

While the mountainous terrain of the north meant that distinct groups developed separately in remote valleys, the flatter lands of the centre encouraged contact. The Celts and Iberians seemed to mingle in the centre of Northern Spain and form a single culture, rather unimaginatively labelled Celtiberian. This was a time of much cultural interaction; the Phoenicians, master sailors and merchants from the ports of the Near East, set up many trading stations. These were mostly on the southern coasts of Spain, but they had plenty of contact with the north, and may have established a few ports on the Atlantic coast. There was also cultural contact with the Greeks.

The treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 partitioned the Atlantic between Spain and Portugal, and led to the era of Spanish colonization of the Americas. In many ways, this was an extension of the Reconquista as young men hardened on the Castilian meseta crossed the seas with zeal for conquest, riches and land.

Under the Habsburg monarchy, Carlos V and Felipe II relied on the income from the colonies to pursue wars (often unwillingly) on several European fronts. It couldn’t last; Spain’s Golden Age has been likened by Spanish historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto to a dog walking on hind legs. Although over the centuries many indianos returned from the colonies to their native Navarra, Galicia and Asturias with newfound wealth, the American expansion sounded a grim bell for northern Castilla. The sheer weight of administration required forced the previously itinerant monarchy to choose a capital, and Felipe II set himself up in Madrid. With Sevilla and Cádiz now the focus for the all-important trade with the colonies, Castilla had turned southwards, and its northern provinces rapidly declined, hastened by a drain of their citizens to the New World across the sea.

The principal inhabitants of the region are known as Iberians by default, but little is known of their origins apart from the fact that they spoke languages that are not from the Indo-European group that unites the vast majority of European and western Asian languages under its umbrella. The Basques, too, seem to have been around in those days. Their language isn’t Indo-European either, but no convincing evidence has been found that can link them and the Iberians (or anyone else for that matter). Certain genetic peculiarities in the Basque population have led to theories that they are directly descended from the Palaeolithic inhabitants of the region. This ties in nicely with their own opinion that they are a very old people; they like to say God created Adam from old bones he found in a Basque cemetery.

The third important group were the Celts, who descended from the north in waves in the early to mid first millennium BC. They spoke an Indo-European tongue and settled mostly in the north and west of the peninsula. Their influence is very apparent in place names, language and culture. There are still very close parallels between European areas settled by Celts; sitting over a cider while listening to bagpipes in Asturias you might want to ponder just how old these traditions are. The principal architectural remnant of the early Celts is the castro, a fortified hilltop fort and trading compound of which there are very many in Asturias and Galicia.

While Northern Spain was a stamping ground for dinosaurs (literally; footprints are found all over the region), it was a species of hominid, Homo antecessor, who first walked upright in the region. Recent finds at Atapuerca, a valley just east of Burgos, have yielded remains dated to over a million years of this prehistoric human, an ancestor of modern homo sapiens. These are the oldest known human remains in Europe. Nearby, several fossilized remains of Homo heidelbergensis, a johnny-come-lately at around half a million years of age, have been discovered. Heidelbergensis (and perhaps antecessor too) is thought to be a distant forebear of the Neanderthals, of whom extensive remains have been found. Many caves in the north of Spain bear evidence of their presence; tools and remains of occupation stretching back around 60,000 years until their extinction around 27,000 years ago.

Aznar then turned to ETA, using the prevailing international climate to take strong action. In 2002, the democratically elected party, Batasuna, widely seen as linked to the terrorist group, were banned by the courts after a purpose-built bill was resoundingly passed in parliament. The governing Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), wholly against terrorism, denounced the move against their political opponents as ‘undemocratic’ and ‘authoritarian’, which it undoubtedly was. Nevertheless, things quietened down and the move, backed by a massive police operation resulting in many arrests, seemed to have paid off.

However, Aznar’s heavy-handed and undemocratic methods appalled international observers and stirred the ghosts of Francoism in Spain. Then, the Prestige disaster seemed to reflect the government’s refusal to see the bigger picture, and Aznar took the country to war in Iraq against the wishes of a massive majority of the population. On 11 March 2004, three days before the general election, a series of 10 bombs exploded in four commuter trains approaching Madrid’s Atocha station; nearly 200 people were killed. The government was quick to blame ETA for the attack despite that group’s denial and substantial evidence for involvement by Islamic extremists. The electorate was angered at what was perceived as a vote-minded cover-up and punished Aznar’s hand-picked successor, Mariano Rajoy, at the election. Far adrift in the polling only a few days before, the PSOE were elected to government and the new prime minister, 43-year-old José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, from León, immediately pledged to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq and re-align the country with ‘old Europe’.

Zapatero’s government pursued a decidedly liberal course. Spain’s religious right were outraged by the legalization of same-sex marriage, and when Zapatero agreed to pass a statute granting the Catalan government more autonomy (approved in a local referendum in Catalunya) the PP, who maintain the ideal that Spain is indissoluble, were furious. Zapatero has also pursued peaceful solutions to the Gibraltar question and initially favoured dialogue with ETA, despite the right’s condemnation of “dealing with terrorists”. ETA declared a ceasefire in March 2006, but broke it, and stepped up their bombings and assassinations in 2008 in response to a major government crackdown that saw several of their leaders arrested. Zapatero was, however, re-elected in 2008, and faces the difficult task of negotiating ‘la crisis’, the economic downturn that, at time of publication, was already beginning to severely affect Spain, with the key industries of construction and tourism suffering significant reverses.

The region is still divided along political lines. The Basques have their PNV, and rural Asturias remains firmly leftist in orientation. On the other side, Navarra is still conservative, Galicia hasn’t shaken off its Francoist tendencies, and one suspects plenty in parts of Castilla y León would vote for the man himself if he were still alive (and in democratic mood). The Franco era is rarely discussed; neither is the Civil War, which remains a sensitive issue with perpetrators of dark deeds still alive and sipping wine in the corner of local bars. No judicial investigation of events of the war or the dictatorship has ever been undertaken; there’s a sort of consensus to let sleeping dogs lie: understandable, given the turbulent history of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Most of the cities of Northern Spain have shaken off the torpor of the Franco era and the preceding centuries of decline and are today prosperous, attractive places once more. EU funding has helped to rejuvenate their superb architectural heritage, and the lively social life remains a marvel of European society. In most urban areas, Francoist street names have been changed and statues and memorials pulled down. In some rural areas, though, particularly Castilla and Galicia, depopulation is a serious issue. Many villages are inhabited only by pensioners, if at all, as the young seek employment and fulfilment in urban centres.

On a more positive note, the years since the return to democracy have seen a remarkable and accelerated reflowering of regional culture. The banned languages Gallego and Euskara are ever-more in use, and local artists, writers and poets are being keenly promoted by the regional governments. Museums are mostly free, not so much to lure tourists away from the beaches of the south as to encourage their own population to visit and learn. Salamanca, that great university town of the Middle Ages, is a flourishing example; whether the angels speak Castilian or Euskara these days is of little importance.

The comunero revolt of the early 16th century expressed the frustrations of a region that was once the focus of optimistic Christian conquest and agricultural wealth, but had now become peripheral to the designs of a ‘foreign’ monarchy. Resentment was exacerbated by the fact that the king still found it difficult to extract taxes from the cortes of Aragón or Catalunya, so Castilla bankrolled a disproportionate amount of the crippling costs of the day-to-day running of a worldwide empire. A plague in the early 17th century didn’t help matters, wiping out about a tenth of the Castilian population. Burgos’ population in the middle of that century was a quarter of what it had been at the beginning of it; the same was true throughout the region.

Meanwhile, as an important focus of Spanish naval and maritime power, the north coast continued in a better vein. Much of the shipbuilding for exploration, trade and war took place here, and many of the ships were crewed by Basques and Galicians. Elkano, a Basque from Getaria, and his crew, became the first to circumnavigate the world after the death of the expedition’s leader, Magellan, half-way round. The ill-fated Spanish Armada sailed from Galicia in 130 ships built on this coast.

Aragón, meanwhile, had become a backwater since civil strife in the 15th century had deprived it of Catalunya and, thereby, of most of its Mediterranean trade. Above all regions, it suffered most from the loss of the Muslims and Jews; many of its cities had thrived on the cultural mixture. The union with Castilla had eventually deprived it of political significance too, and it retreated behind its fueros, stubbornly avoiding taxes and conscriptions, and maintaining a largely feudal system of land ownership, with all-powerful lords free to do as they pleased. This situation was changed partly after Felipe II put down a revolt in the late 16th century, but the province continued to be a minor player, especially compared to its thriving Catalan neighbour. After supporting the wrong side in the war of Spanish succession in the early 18th century Aragón was deprived of its fueros and laws and brought to heel, a minor region now in peninsular life. Navarra, meanwhile, had been conquered by Fernando earlier in the century and this, as well as the Basque lands, were under Castilian control.

The reign of the Catholic monarchs was full of incident, particularly in the year 1492, when Columbus sailed the Atlantic under their patronage, they completed the Reconquista by taking Granada, and thought they would celebrate the triumph by kicking the Jews out of Spain. Spain’s Jewish population had been hugely significant since the 12th century, heavily involved in commerce, shipping and literature throughout the peninsula, but hatred against them had begun to grow in the 14th century and there had been frequent pogroms. Many converted during these years to escape the murderous climate; they became known as conversos. The decision to expel those who hadn’t converted was far more that of the pious Isabel than the pragmatic Fernando and has to be seen in the light of the paranoid Christianizing climate. The Jews were given four months to leave the kingdom, and even the conversos soon found themselves under the Inquisition’s iron hammer . The kingdom’s Muslim population was tolerated for another decade, when they too were given the choice of baptism or expulsion. The ridiculous doctrine of limpieza de sangre (purity of blood) became all-important; the enduring popularity of ham and pig meat surely owes something to these days, when openly eating these foods proved that one wasn’t a pork-eschewing Muslim or Jew. But the lack of cultural diversity led to long-term stagnation and the area has arguably still not wholly recovered.

With the flush of war fading, the north settled down to a period of prosperity. Castilla became a significant producer of wool and wheat, and the towns of the north coast established important trading links with northern Europe to distribute it. In 1296 the Hermandad de las Marismas, an export alliance of four major ports (A Coruña, Santander, Laredo and San Sebastián) was formed to consolidate this. The Basques were doing very well at this time. Demand for Vizcayan iron was high, and Basque sailors explored the whole Atlantic, almost certainly reaching north America a century or more before Columbus sailed.

Places like Burgos and Medina del Campo became powerful centres controlling the distribution of goods to the coastal ports. Guilds and societies became more and more important in the flourishing urban centres. Meanwhile the Castilian kings still pursued military aims. Becoming an increasing anachronism in an increasingly urban society, these crusading kings came to rely heavily on the towns for political and financial support. In order to keep them onside, they began to grant fueros, or exemptions from certain taxation and conscription duties, and proto-democratic assemblies, the cortes, began to assemble to keep the kings honest.

Towns spent vast sums in constructing soaring cathedrals, symbols of faith in new architectural principles as well as in Christianity. But already in Castilla’s time of prosperity the seeds of decline were sprouting. Cities that had forged the Reconquista, Oviedo and León, became insignificant country towns as populations moved southwards in the war’s wake. The massive numbers of sheep being grazed in migratory patterns across the land caused large-scale degradation and erosion of the soil; in many ways, the ‘war on trees’ was to prove as significant as any that had been waged against Moors. The barren landscapes of today’s Castilla are a direct result of these post-reconquest years. The fueros that were so indiscriminately handed out meant that later kings were barely able to govern the towns, which understandably were reluctant to concede their privileges. The glory of the soldiering years rubbed off on Castilian attitudes too. Sons of minor nobles (hidalgos, from hijos d’algo, ‘sons of something’) yearned for the smell of battle, and scorned the dull attractions of work and education, an attitude that has cost Spain dear over the centuries and was memorably satirized in Cervantes’ Don Quijote. The church, too, was in a poor state. Bled of funds by successive crusading kings, it developed a hoarding mentality and was in no condition to act as a moral light for the young Christian kingdoms. Furthermore, it was far from being a peaceful pastoral and urban golden age. The nuggety walled towns of the Reconquista battle lines provided perfect bases for power-hungry nobles; civil strife was exacerbated by the fact that most kings openly kept mistresses outside their arranged dynastic marriages, and illegitimate children were a dime-a-dozen.

Spain was drawn into the Hundred Years War as the bastard Henry of Trastámara waged war with French help on his English-backed brother Pedro I (the Cruel). After Pedro was murdered, his son-in-law John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, claimed the Castilian throne. Landing in Galicia, he waged an inconclusive war with Henry before agreeing to marry his daughter to the king’s son. He returned to England happy enough with this outcome and with a substantial retirement package from Castilian funds.

Such conjugal ties were of vital political importance, and it was one, in 1469, which was to have a massive impact throughout the world. The heir to the Aragonese throne, Fernando, married Isabel, heiress of Castilla, in a top-secret ceremony in Valladolid. The implications were enormous. Aragón was still a power in the Mediterranean (Fernando was also king of Sicily), and Castilla’s domain covered much of the peninsula. The unification under the Reyes Católicos, as the monarchs became known, marked the beginnings of Spain as we know it today. Things didn’t go smoothly at first, however. There were plenty of opponents to the union and forces in support of Juana, Isabel’s elder (but assumed illegitimate) sister waged wars across Castilla.

The struggle of the Spanish monarchy to control the spread of Protestantism was a major factor in the decline of the empire. Felipe II fought expensive and ultimately unwinnable wars in Flanders that bankrupted the state; meanwhile, within the country, the absolute ban on the works of ‘heretical’ philosophers, scientists and theologists left Spain intellectually behind in Renaissance Europe. In the 18th century, for example, the so-called ‘Age of Enlightenment’ in western Europe, theologists at the noble old University of Salamanca debated what language the angels spoke; that Castilian was proposed as an answer is certain. The decline of the monarchy paralleled a physical decline in the monarchs, as the inbred Habsburgs became more and more deformed and weak; the last of them, Carlos II – a tragic victim of contorted genetics – died childless and plunged the nation into a war of succession. “Castilla has made Spain, and Castilla has destroyed it”, commented early 20th century essayist José Ortega y Gasset. Despite these misfortunes, the 17th century had been a time of much inspiration in the arts; Spanish Baroque was a cheerful façade on a gloomy building, and painters such as Velásquez, Zurbarán and Murillo hit the heights of expression.

The war of the Spanish succession didn’t have a massive impact on the north, apart from in Aragón , but the headlong decline continued throughout the 18th century. The Catholic Church was in a poor state intellectually, and came to rely more and more on cults and fiestas to keep up the interest of the populace; a tradition that is still very strong today. The Jesuits, an order that had its origins with the Basques, and a more enlightened lot than most, were expelled in 1767. They were allowed to take with them only their religious clothing and a supply of chocolate, a commodity that was extraordinarily popular at this time in Spain. After decentralization of trade with the New World, it was the Basques who established a monopoly over the import of the stuff, and for a brief time brought prosperity to their lands as a result.

Napoleon took advantage of the weak King Carlos IV’s domestic problems to install his own brother Joseph (known among Spaniards as Pepe Botellas or ‘Joe Bottles’ because of his heavy drinking) on the throne. Spain revolted against this arrogant gesture, and Napoleon sent in the troops in late 1808. The ensuing few years are known in Spain as the Guerra de Independencia (War of Independence). Combined Spanish, British and Portuguese forces clashed with the French all across the north, firstly disastrously as General Moore was forced to retreat across Galicia to a Dunkirk-like embarkation at A Coruña, then more successfully as the Duke of Wellington won important battles at Ciudad Rodrigo, Vitoria and San Sebastián. The behaviour of both sides was brutal both on the battlefield and off. Marshal Soult’s long retreat across the region saw him loot town after town; his men robbed tombs and burned priceless archives. The allied forces were no better; the men Wellington had referred to as being comprised of the ‘scum of the earth’ sacked the towns they conquered with similar destructiveness.

Significant numbers of Spaniards had been in favour of the French invasion, and were opposed to the liberal republican movements that sprang up in its wake. The 19th century was to see clash after clash of liberals against conservatives, progressive cities against reactionary countryside, restrictive centre against outward-looking periphery. Spain finally lost its empire, as the strife-torn homeland could do little against the independence movements of Latin America. In 1823 the French put down a democratic revolution and restored the king (Fernando VII) to the throne. When he died, another war of succession broke out between supporters of his brother Don Carlos and his infant daughter Isabella.

The so-called Carlist Wars of 1833 to 1839, 1847 to 1849 (although this is often not officially counted as a ‘Carlist War’) and 1872 to 1876 were politically complex. Don Carlos represented conservatism, and his support was drawn from a number of different sources. Wealthy landowners, the church and the reactionary peasantry, with significant French support, lined up against the loyalist army, the liberals and the urban middle and working classes. The Carlist stronghold was Navarra and the rural Basque region; liberal reforms were threatening the two pillars of Basque country life: the church and their age-old fueros. In between and during the wars, a series of pronunciamientos (coups d’état) plagued the monarchy. During the third Carlist War, the king abdicated and the short-lived First Spanish Republic was proclaimed, ended by a military-led restoration a year later. The Carlists were defeated but remained strong, and played a prominent part in the Spanish Civil War. There’s still a Carlist party in Navarra and various nominal pretenders to the Spanish throne.

Despite all the troubles, industrialization finally began to reach Spain, and several of the ports of the north coast thrived. Vigo, A Coruña and Santander all flourished; Bilbao, on the back of its iron ore exports, grew into a major industrial and banking centre, and Asturias mined large quantities of coal. Basque nationalism as it is known today was born in the late 19th century. Spain lost its last overseas possessions, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Phillippines, in the ‘Disaster’ of 1898. The introspective turmoil caused by this event gave the name to the ‘Generación de 98’ (1898 Generation), a forward thinking movement of artists, philosophers and poets, among whom were the Basques Miguel de Unamuno and Ignacio Zuloaga and the poet Antonio Machado. It was a time of discontent and strikes began to occur more and more regularly in the towns and cities of the north, particularly in Asturias, although Spanish industry profited from its neutrality in the First World War.

After the Second Republic had been established in 1931, a series of petty struggles between conservatives, liberals and socialists undermined the potential value of the democratic process. Unlike the rest of the left, the Asturian miners were fairly united, with anarchists, socialists and trade unionists prepared to cooperate; they went on strike in protest against the entry of the right-wing CEDA into the vacillating centrist government. Proclaiming a socialist republic, they seized the civil buildings of the province. The arms factories worked 24-hour shifts to arm the workers; the army and Civil Guard were still holding out in Oviedo. The government response was harsh. Sending in the feared Foreign Legion and Moroccan troops under Generals Goded and a certain Franco, they swiftly relieved the garrison, defeated the insurrection and embarked on a brutal spree of retribution for which they are rightly unforgiven in Asturias.

The nature of the Reconquista was very similar to that of the Crusades; a holy war against the enemies of the faith that also conveniently offered numerous opportunities for pillage, plunder and seizure of land. Younger sons, not in line for any inheritance under local customs, could fight for the glory of God and appropriate lands and wealth for themselves at the same time. Knightly orders similar to those of the Crusades were founded; the Knights of Calatrava, Alcántara and Santiago.

Santiago (Saint James), although already dead for a millennium or so, also played a major role in the Reconquista. The spurious discovery of his tomb at Compostela in the ninth century had sparked ongoing pilgrimage; it effectively replaced the inaccessible Holy Land as a destination for the devout and the penitent. The discovery came in time to resemble some sort of sign from God, and Saint James took on the role of Matamoros, Moor-slayer, and is depicted crunching hapless Andalusi under the hooves of his white charger in countless sculptures and paintings – quite a career-change for the first-century fisherman. With an apostle risen from the dead onside, it’s little wonder that Christians flocked to the Reconquista banners.

By the mid-12th century Northern Spain was effectively secured under Christian rule. For largely geographical reasons, it had been the fledgling kingdom of Castilla that ended up with the biggest slice of the pie, and Spain’s most powerful political entity. It had already been frequently united with the Leonese kingdom by dynastic marriages and this was confirmed in 1230, when Fernando (Ferdinand) III inherited both crowns (a fact still lamented by separatists in León!).

While Navarra was still going, up in the mountains, it was Aragón that was the other main beneficiary from the reconquest. Uniting with Catalunya in 1150, it began looking eastwards to that great trading forum, the Mediterranean. After the famous battle of the Navas de Tolosa in 1212, the Moors lost Córdoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248 and were reduced to an area around their third great city, Granada, where they held out for another 250 years.

Arriving across the Straits of Gibraltar in AD 711, the Moors had taken most of Spain before the prophet had been dead for a century. Under Arab leadership, most of the invaders were native North African Berbers, but there was a substantial mercenary element, many of them from eastern Europe. The state created was named Al-Andalus, and the Moors swept on into France, where they were eventually stopped by the Franks at Poitiers in AD 732.

Geography breaks Spain into distinct regions, which have tended to persist through time, and it was one of these, Asturias, the Moors had some trouble with. They were defeated in what was presumably a minor skirmish at Covadonga, in the far northern mountains, in AD 717. While they weren’t too bothered by this at the time, Spain views it today as an event of immense significance, a victory against all odds and a sort of mystical event where God proved himself to be on the Christian side. It was hardly a crippling blow to the Moors, who were on the autoroutes of southern France before too long, but it probably sowed the seeds of what became the Asturian monarchy.

A curious development in many ways, this line of kings emerged unconquered from the shadowy northern hills and forests. Whether they were a last bastion of Visigothic resistance, or whether they were just local folk ready to defend their lands, they established an organized monarchy of sorts with a capital that shifted about but settled on Oviedo in AD 808. Their most lasting legacy has been a number of churches and royal halls; beautifully proportioned stone buildings that show some Visigothic characteristics but are also very original in style – far more graceful than the name it has been saddled with, Asturian Pre-Romanesque.

Although turned back in France, they Moors remained strong enough to repulse Charlemagne in northeast Spain in AD 778. After failing to take Zaragoza, he returned huffily to France but had his rearguard ambushed by Basques in the Navarran pass of Roncesvalles. The Basques were infuriated that he’d taken down the walls of Pamplona on his way through; the defeat suffered in the pass became the basis for the fanciful epic poem Chanson de Roland, which attributes the attack to Muslims.

Although the southern portion of Al-Andalus was a flourishing cultural centre, the Moors couldn’t establish complete control in the northlands, and several cities changed hands numerous times in skirmishing and raids in the ninth century. Life in Muslim Spain was relatively good for Christians and Jews, though. Many converted to Islam; those Christians that didn’t became known as Mozárabes.

While the Covadonga defeat was insignificant, the Asturian kingdom began to grow in strength and the long process of the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the peninsula, began. The northmen took advantage of cultural interchange with the south, which remained significant throughout the period despite the militarized zone in between, and were soon strong enough to begin pushing back. The loose Moorish authority in these lands certainly helped; the northern zone was more or less administered by warlords who were only partially controlled by the amirs in Córdoba (who called themselves caliphs as of AD 929). Galicia and much of the north coast was reclaimed and in AD 914 the Asturian King Ordoño II reconquered León; the capital shortly moved to here, and the line of kings took on the name of that city.

Asturias/León wasn’t the only Christian power to develop during this period. The Basques had been quietly pushing outwards, and the small mountain kingdom of Navarra emerged and grew rapidly. Aragón emerged too, and gained power and size via a dynastic union with Catalunya. The entity that came to dominate Spain, Castilla, was also born at this time. In the middle of the 10th century a Burgos noble, Fernán González, declared independence from the Kingdom of León and began to rally disparate Christian groups in the region. He was so successful in this endeavour that it wasn’t too long before his successors labelled themselves kings.

The Moors weren’t finished by any means. The formidable Al-Manzur managed to sack almost every Christian city in Northern Spain within a couple of decades; surely one of the greater opportunistic military feats of the Middle Ages. Both sides were made painfully aware of their vulnerability and constructed a series of massive fortresses that faced each other across the central plains. The Muslim fortresses were particularly formidable; high eyries with commanding positions, accurately named the ‘front teeth’ of Al-Andalus. There are around 3000 fortresses and castles in various states of repair in Spain; a huge number of them are to be found in this area.

It was just after Al-Manzur’s death that things began to go wrong for the Moors, as kinstrife and Civil War over succession fatally weakened the Caliphate while the Christian kingdoms were gaining strength and unity. The king of Navarra Sancho III (the Great) managed to unite almost the whole of Northern Spain in the early 11th century; although this inevitably dissolved, the rival kingdoms at least had a common goal. The caliphate disintegrated in 1031, to be replaced by a series of city-states, or taifas. Pitted against each other as well as the northern kingdoms, they were in no state to resist, and were forced to pay protection money to the Christian armies, enriching the new kingdoms. The big beneficiary was Castilla; King Alfonso VI, with the help of his on-off mercenary El Cid.

Alfonso must have dreamed of reconquering the whole peninsula at that point, but he was stopped by the Almoravids, a by-the-book Islamic dynasty that quickly crossed from Morocco to re-establish the caliphate along stricter lines. They soon lapsed into softer ways though, and much of modern Andalucía was lost before a similar group, the Almohads, crossed the straits and took a degree of control back.

The heirs and descendants of the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, came to Spain in the third century BC and settled widely in the south. While there was contact with the north, and Hannibal campaigned in western Castilla, the biggest effect was a direct consequence of his disputes with Rome. Bent on ending Carthaginian power in the Mediterranean, the Romans accurately realized that Spain was a ‘second Carthage’, and set out to change that. Once they realized the potential wealth in the peninsula, they resolved to conquer it entirely.

<p>The Romans were given a tough time in the north, which it took them two centuries to subdue. The Celtiberian towns resisted the legions in a very spirited manner. Numancia, near Soria, held out against Roman sieges for many years, and was the centre of resistance that lost Rome tens of thousands of troops. Problems with the Cantabrians and Asturians lasted until Augustus and Agrippa finally defeated them in the late years of the first century BC. The Romans gave up trying to impose their culture on the northern fringes; the Basques and Galicians were very resistant to it, and a ‘live and let live’ stance was eventually adopted in those areas.</p><p>While the south of Spain became a real Roman heartland, the north was always viewed as borderland of a sort. Though vast quantities of gold and silver were mined in the northwest, and wine and oil poured from the Ebro and Duero valleys, few towns were founded in the north, and few wealthy Romans seemed to settle here; a handful of noble villas notwithstanding.</p><p>Christianity spread comparatively rapidly into Spain. The diocese of Zaragoza was founded as early as the first century AD, while León and Burgo de Osma were other important early Christian centres. Christianity was certainly spread out to fit over existing religious frameworks; the Basques had few problems with the Virgin Mary considering their own earthmother figure was named Mari, and here as elsewhere the Christian calendar was moulded around pagan festivals.

In July 1936 a military conspiracy saw garrisons throughout Spain rise against the government and try to seize control of their towns and provinces. Within a few days battlelines were clearly drawn between the Republican (government) and the Nationalists, a coalition of military, Carlists, fascists and the Christian right. Most of Northern Spain was rapidly under Nationalist control, although frightening numbers of civilians were shot ‘behind the lines’ after control had been established. The major resistance in the north was in Asturias – where the miners came out fighting once again – Cantabria and the Basque provinces. These latter were in a difficult position; the Basques were democratic in outlook but very Catholic, and the Catholic church was on the Nationalist side for its own protection from the anticlerical Republic and through innate conservatism: a 1927 catechism had claimed that it was a mortal sin for a Catholic to vote for a liberal candidate. Carlist-oriented Navarra sided with the Nationalists, as did Alava, but the majority of Euskadi came out fighting on the side of democracy.

There was long fighting on fronts in Aragón, but the prize, Zaragoza, stayed in rebel hands throughout the war. Meanwhile, the Republican government approved a statute of autonomy for the Basques, and a Basque government was sworn in under the oak tree in Gernika, long a symbol of Basque government and fueros. The young and able leader, José María Aguirre, assured the Republic that “until Fascism is defeated, Basque nationalism will remain at its post”. It did, with Basques fighting Nazi forces right through the Second World War, but the government was forced into exile when Bilbao fell in June 1937. This came in the wake of the appalling civilian bombings of Durango and Gernika, when German and Italian planes rained bombs on the defenceless country towns, killing almost 2000. Franco claimed that the devastation of Gernika and Durango was perpetrated by the Basques as a publicity gesture.

Franco’s junta, after being formed at Salamanca, had set up base appropriately in deeply conservative Burgos; Castilla was a heartland for Nationalist support and the venue for many brutal reprisals against civilians perceived as leftist, unionist, democratic or owning a fertile little piece of land on the edge of the village. Republican atrocities were equally appalling, but an important distinction is that they were rarely sanctioned or perpetrated by the government.

Separated from the rest of the Republic, Asturian and Cantabrian resistance was whittled away; Santander fell in August 1937, Asturias in October. Franco never forgave the Basques or Asturians, and the regions were treated harshly during his oppressive rule. Development was curtailed and use of the Euskara language was banned (as was Gallego, although Franco himself was Galician). Navarra and Castilla, on the other hand, were rewarded for their roles, if being blessed with a series of concrete crimes against architecture can be called a reward.

The Basques held out high hopes as the Second World War reached its end. Their government-in-exile was officially recognized by the Allies, and many hoped that Franco would soon be deposed and an independent Basque state be established. Their hopes were dashed when the USA decided that the new enemy was communism. If Franco was anything, he was anti-communist, and the Americans under Eisenhower granted Spain a massive aid package and resumed diplomatic relations. This betrayal of the Basques, followed by that of Britain and France, was a bitter pill to swallow.

Some of the same caves and others, particularly in Cantabria and Asturias, have produced the first signs of homo sapiens sapiens in the peninsula. Dating from the Upper Palaeolithic (18,000 BC onwards), these hunter-gatherers produced fairly sophisticated stone and bone tools including arrows and spears. They also experimented with art, and found it to their liking; primitive whittling of deer bones and outlines of hands on cave walls suddenly gave way to the sensitive, imaginative and colourful bison, deer and horses found in several locations but most famously at Altamira in Cantabria, where the work is of amazing artistic quality. This so-called Magdalenian culture seemed to extend across northern Spain and into southern France, where related paintings have been found at places such as Lascaux.

A more settled existence probably began to emerge around 4000 BC. The most striking archaeological remnants are a great number of dolmens, large stone burial chambers, common across much of northern Europe at the time. These are mostly found along the north coast, particularly in the Basque lands and Galicia. There are also other remnants, such as standing stones and more simple pit burials.

As the Roman order tottered, the barbarian hordes streamed across the Pyrenees and created havoc. Alans, Vandals and Sueves capitalized on the lack of control in the early fifth century AD to such an extent that the Romans enlisted the Visigoths to restore order on their behalf. This they succeeded in doing, but the Sueves hung around and established themselves in the northwest of the peninsula, with a capital at Astorga. It wasn’t to last; the Visigoths came back as they lost control of their French territories and finally put an end to the small Suevish kingdom. After a period of much destruction and chaos, a fairly tenuous Visigothic control ensued. A beacon amidst the maelstrom was San Isidoro, writing in Sevilla. Comparatively little is known about the couple of centuries that followed. A handful of Visigothic churches still exist in Northern Spain; these draw on Roman architectural models but add local features, and iconography from the Visigoths’ German roots. Visigothic rulers were beset by civil strife, and they never really gained control over the northern reaches of the peninsula.

The dollars were dirty, but the country made the most of them; Spain boomed in the 1960s as industry finally took off and the flood of tourism began in earnest. But dictatorship was no longer fashionable in western Europe and Spain was regarded as a slightly embarassing cousin. It was not invited to join the European Economic Community (EEC) and it seemed as if nothing was going to really change until Franco died.

ETA, had their most popular moment when they assassinated Franco’s right-hand man, Admiral Carrero Blanco, in 1973. The aging dictator died two years later and his appointed successor, King Juan Carlos II, supervised a return to democracy; La Transición. Northern Spain has largely flowered since the first elections in 1977. Autonomous status was granted to Euskadi and Galicia, and then to Asturias, Cantabria, Navarra, La Rioja, Aragón and Castilla y León, which operate with significant freedom from central government. However, the new constitution, specified that no further devolution could occur; Spain was ‘indissoluble’.

In 1982, the Socialist government of Felipe González was elected. They held power for 14 years and oversaw Spain’s entry into the EEC (now EU), from which it has benefited immeasurably, although some rural areas remain poor by western European standards. González was disgraced, however, when he was implicated in having commissioned ‘death squads’ with the aim of terrorizing the Basques into renouncing terrorism, which few of them supported in any case. In 1996 the rightist PP (Partido Popular) formed a government under young ex-tax inspector José María Aznar, who was re-elected in 2000. Economically conservative, Aznar strengthened Spain’s ties with Europe and set a platform for strong financial performance.

The green hills of the north coast are that way for a reason: it rains a hell of a lot. Parts of Galicia get 2 m of rain a year, more than 10 times the precipitation of some towns in Castilla. It’s a typically maritime climate, with mild summers and winters, and the rain fairly constant through the year; up to 150 rainy days per annum.

The high meseta has a continental climate with very low rainfall, scorching summers and freezing winters. Adding to the winter discomfort is the biting wind, which ‘can kill a man but can’t blow out a candle’ according to locals. The climate in places like Burgos and León is popularly characterized as nueve meses de invierno, tres meses de infierno (nine months of winter, three months of hell).

The mountains, too, receive high rainfall, particularly the coastal Cordillera Cantábrica. Snow is usually there to stay from January on, and many of the higher passes can still be snowbound as late as June.

Spain’s area of 500,000 sq km makes it the fourth largest country in Europe and second largest in the EU after France. It’s also high; the average altitude is second only to Switzerland. Geographically, Spain is divided into very distinct areas; to a large degree these have corresponded with cultural and political boundaries over time.

Although if you arrive over the Pyrenees it may not seem it, Spain’s central plateau, the meseta, is high, with an average elevation of some 600-700 m. It covers most of Castilla y León as well as extending further to the south. It’s bounded by mountains; the Pyrenees to the northeast, the Cordillera Cantábrica to the north and the Montes de León in the northwest. In itself, it’s not particularly flat either.

While Spain’s highest peak is in the south, in the Sierra Nevada, it’s the Pyrenees that are its biggest and most rugged, straddling the northern border. The highest summit of the Pyrenees is Aneto (3404 m), one of many that tops the 3000-m mark. The Cantábrica is basically a westwards extension of it, and includes the Picos de Europa in its westwards run along the coast. Further west still, at the corner of Spain, Galicia is fairly hilly with a wild coast indented with sheltered inlets (rías).

The two great rivers of Northern Spain are the Ebro, rising in Cantabria and flowing eastwards to its Mediterranean destiny, and the Duero, flowing west right across the meseta and into Portugal, where it becomes the Douro. Galicia’s Miño is another major river; it forms a long section of the border with Portugal. The scarcity of water on the meseta has dictated settlement patterns; most towns and villages are on or near rivers.

Spain has several parques nacionales (national parks); the first, established in 1918, were Covadonga (now part of the Parque Nacional Picos de Europa) and Ordesa, in the Aragonese Pyrenees. These, along with the offshore islands incorporated into the Parque Nacional Islas Atlánticas de Galicia, are the three in the region covered by this book. Far more numerous, and covering a larger area, are parques naturales (natural parks) administered by the autonomous communities. Although protection for the species within these areas in some cases isn’t absolute, it is significant, and crucial in many cases for survival. Asturias has the best-administered parks, with several in its forested hills and valleys: Muniellos and Somiedo are two of the finest; those in Galicia and the Pyrenees are also especially worth noting. Reservas de caza are protected areas that also have significant coverage but for less noble reasons; so that there’ll be plenty of animals to shoot when the hunting season comes around.

The war on trees conducted in Castilla through the centuries is over, with the sinister trunked creatures successfully eliminated. Most of the arid plains of the meseta were once covered with Mediterranean forest, but systematic deforestation, combined with over- grazing and war, have left it barren and bare; some of it barely able to support the sparse, scrubby matorral that covers the land deemed unfit for agriculture.

Reforestation schemes in Castilla have primarily been for logging purposes, and the region needs a more enlightened environmental programme such as that of Asturias, which preserves some superb stretches of ancient forest.

The forest cover of the northern Spanish coast and mountains is impressive in many parts, with chestnut, beech and holm oak at lower levels, and Scots pine and silver fir higher up, among other species. South of Burgos, one of Castilla’s few forested areas is Europe’s largest expanse of juniper trees.

In spring, the wildflowers of the Pyrenees and the Cordillera Cantábrica are superb, with myriad colourful species. The meseta, too, can be attractive at this time, with fields of poppies and cultivated sunflowers bright under the big sky.

The best havens for wildlife in the peninsula are the mountainous parts of Asturias and the Pyrenees, where conservation is most advanced and the habitats less accessible. While the meseta can be good for birdwatching, deforestation and the Spanish passion for hunting have made most four-legged creatures larger than a mouse fairly scarce.

In the mountains, a common sight are chamois or isard (rebeco or sarrío), a type of agile antelope that like the high altitudes. Also common are jabalí (wild boar), but being nocturnal, they’re harder to see. Extensively hunted, they tend to be extra-wary when people are about. Still present, but in smaller numbers, are brown bears, subject to an Asturian conservation programme, which will hopefully ensure their survival in the wild, and wolves, which still howl in the Galician and Castilian hills. A variety of deer are present both in the mountains and on the plains, where their heads make popular trophies.

Smaller mammals include the stoat/ermine, which changes colour in winter, the fox, pine marten, red squirrels and several species of bat. Wildcats are also present, although interbreeding with feral domestic cats has created a debased population.

Other creatures you might spot are salamanders, brightly coloured in yellow and black, and many species of lizard and snake in the dustier lands of Castilla. Few of the snakes are poisonous, although there are a couple of species of viper. Frogs can create deafening noise around some of Castilla’s rivers.

Northern Spain is a popular destination for watching flocks of migrating species, with plentiful birdlife. Largest of all are the plentiful storks of Castilla in the summer months. One of the most dramatic species is the lammergeyer, or bearded vulture. Known as ‘bone-breaker’ (quebrantahuesos) in Spanish for its habit of dropping bones on rocks to shatter them and get at the marrow, it’s a superb sight, drifting up valleys on its massive wings. Smaller but far more plentiful is the endemic common or griffon vulture (buitre). Golden eagles (águila real) can also be spotted in the Pyrenees. Numerous other birds of prey are common sights both in the mountains or circling the the endless horizons of the meseta. The rivers of Northern Spain have always been full of trout and salmon, yet overfishing and hydroelectric projects have reduced their numbers in many areas.

Rare sights in the mountains include capercaillie (urogallo) and wallcreepers; woodpeckers, choughs and owls are more common. On the plains, larks, doves and grouse are common sights, as are two species of bustard. Coastal areas are home to a wide variety of waterbirds, as are some inland lakes; Galicia, Navarra and La Rioja are good areas for these species. There are many species of interesting butterflies and moths; clouds of them grace the Pyrenees and the Picos in early summer.

Confederación Nacional de Sordos de España (CNSE), http://www.cnse.es. Links to local associations for the deaf.

Federación ECOM, T934 515 550, http://www.ecom.es. A helpful Barcelona-based organization that provides information on disabled-friendly tourist facilities in Spain.

Global Access, http://www.globalaccessnews.com. Reports from disabled travellers and links.

Jubilee Sailing Trust, Hazel Rd, Woolston, Southampton, SO19 7GB, T023 8044 9108, http://www.jst.org.uk. Tall ships running sailing journeys for disabled and able-bodied people, some around Northern Spain.

RADAR, T020 7250 3222, http://www.radar.org.uk. A British network for disabled people that can help members get information and contacts for disabled travel around Europe.

Cogailes, http://www.cogailes.org. A gay organization with a handy information service on e-ros@cogailes.org or a freephone hotline, T900 601 601 (daily T1800-2200).

COLEGA, http://www.colegaweb.net. A gay and lesbian association with offices in many cities.

Shanguide, http://www.shangay.com, is a useful magazine with reviews, events, information and city-by-city listings for the whole country.

http://www.gayinspain.com Wide-ranging listings of bars, clubs, zones, etc.

http://www.colegaweb.net National gay and lesbian association.

http://www.es.gay.com National portal of principal use for contacts and chat.

http://www.damron.com Subscription listings and travel info.

http://www.guiagay.com, http://www.gay.com, http://www.gaywired.com (English), are websites with listings and information about various Spanish cities.

British citizens should get hold of a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), available via http://www.dh.gov.uk or from post offices in the UK, before leaving home. This guarantees free medical care throughout the EU. Other citizens should seriously consider medical insurance, but check for reciprocal Spanish cover with your private or public health scheme first.

Insurance is a good idea anyway to cover you for theft, etc. In the event of theft, you’ll have to make a report at the local police station within 24 hours and obtain a report to show your insurers. (English levels at the police station are likely to be low, so try to take a Spanish speaker with you to help).

The Spanish press is generally of a high journalistic standard. The national dailies El País (still a qualitative leap ahead), El Mundo and the rightist ABC are read throughout the country, but regional papers often eclipse these in readership. In the Basque lands, there is El Correo, a quality Bilbao-based syndicated chain. El Diario Vasco is another Basque daily, while there’s also El Norte de Castilla, El Diario de León, El Heraldo de Aragón, El Comercio (Asturian) and El Correo Gallego (Galician). Overall circulation is low, partly because many people read the newspapers provided in cafés and bars.

The terribly Real Madrid-biased sports dailies Marca and As, dedicated mostly to football, have an extremely large readership that rivals (eclipses, in Marca’s case) any of the broadsheets. There’s no tabloid press as such; the closest equivalent is the prensa de corazón, the gossip magazines such as ¡Hola! (forerunner of Britain’s Hello!). English- language newspapers are widely available in kiosks in the larger towns.

Radio is big in Spain, with audience figures relatively higher than most of Europe. There’s a huge range of stations, mainly on FM wavelengths, many of them broadcasting to a fairly small regional area. You’ll be unlikely to get much exposure to it unless you’re in a car or take your own set, however.

TV is the dominant medium in Spain, with audience figures well above most of the EU, and second only to Britain’s. The main television channels are the state-run TVE1, with standard programming, and TVE2, with a more cultural/sporting bent alongside the private Antena 3, Tele 5, La Sexta (6), and Canal Plus. Regional stations such as ETB1 and ETB2 in the Basque country also draw audiences. Overall quality is low, with reality shows and lowest-common-denominator kitsch as popular here as anywhere. Cable TV is widespread, and satellite and digital are beginning to spread.

The best way to get money in Spain is by plastic. ATMs are plentiful in Spain, and just about all of them accept all the major international debit and credit cards. The Spanish bank won’t charge for the transaction, though they will charge a mark-up on the exchange rate, but beware of your own bank hitting you for a hefty fee: check with them before leaving home. Even if they do, it’s likely to be a better deal than exchanging cash.

Banks are usually open 0830-1400 Mon-Fri (and Sat in winter) and many change foreign money (sometimes only the central branch in a town will do it). Commission rates vary widely; it’s usually best to change large amounts, as there’s often a minimum commission of €6 or so. Nevertheless, banks nearly always give better rates than change offices (casas de cambio), which are fewer by the day. If you’re stuck outside banking hours, some large department stores such as the Corte Inglés change money at knavish rates. Traveller’s cheques are accepted in many shops, although they are becoming less common.

Prices have soared since the euro was introduced; some basics have risen by 50-80% in 3 years, and hotel and restaurant prices are rapidly approaching the Western European norm. Spain’s average monthly salary of €1300 is low by EU standards, and the minimum monthly salary of €600 is very low indeed.

Spain is a still reasonably cheap place to travel if you’re prepared to forgo a few luxuries. If you’re travelling as a pair, staying in cheap pensiones, eating a set meal at lunchtime, travelling short distances by bus or train daily, and snacking on tapas in the evenings, €50 per person per day is reasonable. If you camp and grab picnic lunches from shops, you could reduce this considerably. In a good pensión or hostal, €150 a day and you’ll not be counting pennies; €250 per day and you’ll be very comfy indeed unless you’re staying in 4- or 5-star accommodation.

Accommodation is more expensive in summer than in winter, particularly on the coast. The Basque lands are significantly more expensive year-round than the rest of Northern Spain, particularly for sleeping, eating and drinking. The news isn’t great for the solo traveller; single rooms tend not to be particularly good value, and they are in short supply. Prices range from 60% to 80% of the double/twin price; some establishments even charge the full rate. If you’re going to be staying in 3- to 5-star hotels, booking them ahead on internet discount sites can save a lot of money.

Public transport is generally cheap; intercity bus services are quick and low- priced, though the new fast trains cost more.

Petrol is fairly cheap: standard unleaded petrol is around €0.90 per litre and diesel around €0.80. In some places, particularly in tourist areas, you may be charged up to 20% more to sit outside a restaurant. It’s also worth checking if the 7% IVA (sales tax) is included in menu prices, especially in the more expensive restaurants; it should say on the menu whether this is the case.

In 2002, Spain switched to the euro, bidding farewell to the peseta. The euro (€) is divided into 100 céntimos. Euro notes are standard across the whole zone, and come in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and the rarely seen 200 and 500. Coins have one standard face and one national face; all coins are, however, acceptable in all countries. The coins are slightly difficult to tell apart when you’re not used to them. The coppers are 1, 2 and 5 cent pieces, the golds are 10, 20 and 50, and the silver/gold combinations are €1 and €2. The exchange rate was approximately €6 to 1000 pesetas or 166 pesetas to the euro. So if someone says they paid cien mil, they probably mean 100,000 pesetas; €600.

Nearly all goods and services in Spain are subject to a value-added tax (IVA). This is only 7% for most things, but is as high as 16% on luxury goods such as computer equipment. IVA is normally included in the stated prices. You’re technically entitled to claim it back if you’re a non-EU citizen, for purchases over €90. If you’re buying something pricey, make sure you get a stamped receipt clearly showing the IVA component, as well as your name and passport number; you can claim the amount back at major airports on departure. Some shops will have a form to smooth the process.

Explore Holidays, www.explore holidays.com.au. Organizes several northern Spanish trips.

Ibertours, www.iber tours.com.au. Spanish specialist and booking agent for Parador and Rusticae hotels.

Outdoor Travel, http://www.outdoortravel.com.au. Affiliated with several Spanish outdoor tourism operators.

Timeless Tours and Travel, www.time less.com.au. Specializes in tailored itineraries for Spain.

Abercrombie and Kent, www.aber crombiekent.com. High-class packages and tailor-made trips.

Heritage Tours, www.heritagetours online.com. Interesting, high-class itineraries around the north of Spain, including one tour of the Jewish history of Tarazona and its region.

Magical Spain, http://www.magicalspain.com. American-run tour agency based in Sevilla, which runs a variety of tours in the north, including a wine-tasting one. San Francisco office also.

Sarah Tours, www.sarah tours.com. City and study trips, activity breaks, culinary courses. Spain specialists.

Saranjan Tours, http://www.saranjan.com. Tours to the Sanfermines in Pamplona, as well as a yacht tour around the Rías Baixas and Santiago, the Camino de Santiago, the Batalla de Vino in Haro, the Transcantábrico train route, and gourmet wine and food tours.

Olé Spain Tours, http://www.olespaintours.com. All types of tours.

Abercrombie and Kent, www.abercrombie kent.co.uk. Upmarket operator offering packages and tailor-made itineraries in Spain.

Alternative Travel Group, www.alternative- travel.co.uk. A variety of interesting trips to Northern Spain, many involving walking.

Blue Green Spain, www.bluegreen spain.com. Organizes self-catering accommodation in Asturias. The boss is from Gijón and knows the area well.

Casas Cantábricas, http://www.casacantab.co.uk. Self-catering holidays in Northern Spain.

Mundi Color, http://www.mundicolor.co.uk. An offshoot of Iberia, specializing in Spanish fly-drive packages.

http://maps.google.es Street maps of most Spanish towns and cities.

http://www.alsa.es Northern Spain’s major bus operator. Book online.

http://www.bilbao.net The city’s excellent website.

http://www.cyberspain.com Good background on culture and fiestas.

http://www.dgt.es The transport department website has up-to-date information in Spanish on road conditions throughout the country.

http://www.elpais.es Online edition of Spain’s biggest-selling non-sports daily paper. English edition available.

http://www.feve.es Website of the coastal FEVE train service.

http://www.guiarepsol.com Excellent online route planner for Spanish roads, also available in English.

http://www.idealspain.com A good source of practical information about the country designed for people relocating there.

http://www.inm.es Site of the national metereological institute, with the day’s weather and next-day forecasts.

http://www.movelia.es Online timetables and ticketing for several bus companies.

http://www.paginasblancas.es The White Pages.

http://www.paginasamarillas.es Yellow Pages.

http://www.parador.es Parador information, including locations, prices and photos.

http://www.red2000.com A good introduction to Spanish geography and culture, with listings.

http://www.renfe.es Online timetables and tickets for RENFE train network.

http://www.soccer-spain.com A website in English dedicated to Spanish football.

http://www.spain.info The official website of the Spanish tourist board.

http://www.ticktackticket.com Spain’s biggest ticketing agency for concerts, etc, with online purchase.

http://www.todoturismorural.com and http://www.toprural.com are 2 excellent sites for casas rurales.

http://www.tourspain.es A useful website run by the Spanish tourist board.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com News and links on all things Spanish.

Buses are the staple of Spanish public transport. Services between major cities are fast, frequent, reliable and fairly cheap; the four-hour trip from Madrid to León, for example, costs €21. When buying a ticket, always check how long the journey will take, as the odd bus will be an ‘all stations to’ job, calling in at villages that seem surprised to even see it.

While some cities have several departure points for buses, most have a single terminal, the estación de autobuses, which is where all short- and long-haul services leave from. Buy your tickets at the relevant window; if there isn’t one, buy it from the driver. Many companies don’t allow baggage in the cabin of the bus, but security is pretty good. Most tickets will have a seat number (asiento) on them; ask when buying the ticket if you prefer a window (ventana) or aisle (pasillo) seat. There’s a huge number of intercity bus companies, some of which allow online booking; the most useful in Northern Spain is ALSA (T902 422 242 , www.alsa.e) s which is based in Asturias and runs many routes. The website http://www.movelia.es is also useful. The platform that the bus leaves from is called a dársena or andén. If you’re travelling at busy times (particularly a fiesta or national holiday) always book the bus ticket in advance. If the bus station is out of town, there are usually travel agents in the centre who can do this for you at no extra charge.

Rural bus services are slower, less frequent and more difficult to coordinate. They typically run early in the morning and late in the evening; they’re designed for villagers who visit the big city once a week or so to shop. If you’re trying to catch a bus from a small stop, you’ll often need to almost jump out under the wheels to get the driver to pull up. The same goes when trying to get off a bus; even if you’ve asked the driver to let you know when your stop comes up, keep an eye out as they tend to forget.

All bus services are reduced on Sundays and, to a lesser extent, on Saturdays; some services don’t run at all on weekends. Many local newspapers publish a comprehensive list of departures; expect few during siesta hours. While most large villages will have at least some bus service to their provincial capital, the same doesn’t apply for many touristed spots; it’s assumed that all tourists have cars.

Most Spanish cities have their sights closely packed into the centre, so you won’t find local buses particularly necessary. There’s a fairly comprehensive network in most towns, though; the Ins and outs and Transport sections indicate where they come in handy.

The roads in Northern Spain are good, excellent in many parts. While driving isn’t as sedate as in parts of northern Europe, it’s generally of a very high standard, and you’ll have few problems. To drive in Spain, you’ll need a full driving licence from your home country. This applies to virtually all foreign nationals, but in practice, if you’re from an ‘unusual’ country, consider an International Driving Licence or official translation of your licence into Spanish.

There are two types of motorway in Spain, autovías and autopistas; the quality both is generally excellent, with a speed limit of 120 kph. They are signposted in blue and may have tolls payable, in which case there’ll be a red warning circle on the blue sign when you’re entering the motorway. Tolls are generally reasonable, but extortionate in Euskadi.

Rutas Nacionales form the backbone of Spain’s road network. Centrally administered, they vary wildly in quality. Typically, they are choked with traffic backed up behind trucks, and there are few stretches of dual carriageway. Driving at siesta time is a good idea if you’re going to be on a busy stretch. Rutas Nacionales are marked with a red ‘N’ number. The speed limit is 100 kph outside built-up areas, as it is for secondary roads, which are numbered with a provincial prefix (eg BU-552 in Burgos province), although some are demarcated ‘B’ and ‘C’ instead.

In urban areas, the speed limit is 50 kph. Many towns and villages have sensors that will turn traffic lights red if you’re over the limit on approach. City driving can be confusing, with signposting generally poor and traffic heavy; it’s worth printing off the directions that your hotel may send you with a reservation. In some towns and cities, many of the hotels are officially signposted, making things easier. Police are increasingly enforcing speed limits in Spain, and foreign drivers are liable to a large on-the-spot fine. Drivers can also be punished for not carrying two red warning triangles to place on the road in case of breakdown, a bulb-replacement kit and a fluorescent green waistcoat to wear if you break down by the side of the road. Drink driving is being cracked down on more than was once the case; the limit is 0.5 g/l of blood, slightly less than the equivalent in the UK, for example.

Parking is a problem in nearly every town and city in Northern Spain. Red or yellow lines on the side of the street mean no parking. Blue lines indicate a metered zone, while white lines mean that some restriction is in place; a sign will give details. Parking meters can usually only be dosed up for a maximum of two hours, but they take a siesta at lunchtime too. Print the ticket off and display it in the car. Once the day’s period has expired, you can charge it up for the next morning to avoid an early start. If you get a ticket, you can pay a minimal fine at the machine within the first half hour or hour instead of the full whack. Underground car parks are common and well signposted, but fairly pricey; €12-20 a day is normal. However, this is the safest option if you are going to leave any valuables in your car.

Liability insurance is required for every car driven in Spain and you must carry proof of it. If bringing your own car, check carefully with your insurers that you’re covered, and get a certificate (green card). If your insurer doesn’t cover you for breakdowns, consider joining the RACE (T902 120 441, http://www.race.es) Spain’s automobile association, which provides good breakdown cover.

Hiring a car in Spain is easy but not especially cheap. The major multinationals have offices at all large towns and airports; a Spanish operator with an excellent network is ATESA (http://www.atesa.es) a cheaper company is Holiday Autos. Prices start at around €150 per week for a small car with unlimited mileage. You’ll need a credit card and most agencies will either not accept under 25s or demand a surcharge. Rates from the airports tend to be cheaper than from towns; with the big companies, it’s usually cheaper to book over the internet via a price-comparison website like http://www.kelkoo.com.

Cycling presents a curious contrast; Spaniards are mad for the competitive sport, but comparatively uninterested in cycling as a means of transport. Thus there are plenty of cycling shops but very few bike lanes, though these are beginning to pop up in some cities. By far the best places to cycle are the north coast and the Pyrenees; these are where interest in cycling is high also. Trying to enjoy a Castilian highway in 40°C heat with trucks zipping past your ears is another matter, although many cyclists follow the Camino de Santiago route. Contact the Real Federación de Ciclismo en España (http://www.rfec.com) for more links and assistance.

Motorcycling is a good way to enjoy Spain and there are few difficulties to trouble the biker; bike shops and mechanics are relatively common. Hiring a motorbike, however, is difficult; there are few outlets in Northern Spain. The Real Federación Motociclista Española (http://www.rfme.com) can help with links and advice.

Taxis are a good option; flagfall is €2-3 in most places (it increases slightly at night and on Sundays) and it gets you a good distance. A taxi is available if its green light is lit; hail one on the street or ask for the nearest rank (parada de taxis). All towns have their own taxi company; phone numbers are given in the text.

Madrid Barajas is the main international airport of Spain, and for non-European visitors, is the most convenient point of entry for the north. Situated 13 km northeast of the centre, it has two distinct parts: the new Terminal 4, used for most EU flights, as well as services run by Iberia and partner airlines, and the old Terminals 1-3 (used by the rest). A free shuttle bus runs between terminals. There are tourist information offices in Terminals 1, 2, and 4 and many multinational car hire companies and banks with ATMs. There’s also a hotel booking service.

The most convenient way of getting into Madrid is by taxi, which costs around €25 (including a €5 charge that the driver will add on: don’t let them add on any other extras), or to use the metro. There are entrances to the metro (http://www.metromadrid.es) from Terminals 2 and 3 and a separate station for Terminal 4. On the metro, you can be in central Madrid in as little as 20 minutes; a single ticket costs €2 from the airport. If you’re moving straight on to the north, change at Nuevos Ministerios (the end of the line). Jump on Line 10 (Dirección Fuencarral) for four stops to reach Chamartin, the main northbound train station. Nine stops on Line 6 (Dirección Legazpi), on the other hand, will get you to Méndez Alvaro, which has a passage connecting to the main northerly bus station. There are also buses into town from outside Terminal 1, but these can take significantly longer, especially in traffic.

There are no direct flights to Spain from Australia or New Zealand; the cheapest and quickest way is to connect via Frankfurt, Paris or London. The trip takes about 30 hours in total. It might turn out cheaper to book the Europe–Spain leg separately via a budget operator. You may want to consider a round-the-world option, which can work out not much more expensive, although these are not as good value as they once were.

There are many direct flights from Europe to Northern Spain, but most are overpriced apart from those on budget airlines; you’re often better flying in to Madrid. Budget routes to the north include Air Berlin services from numerous German, Austrian, and Swiss cities to Bilbao, Asturias, and Santiago de Compostela, usually via their Mallorca hub. Ryanair link Valladolid, Santander, and Zaragoza with European destinations such as Brussels Charleroi, Milan Bergamo, and Roma Ciampino, and Frankfurt Hahn. Other airlines like Clickair, Brussels Airlines and Vueling fly a few select European routes; check http://www.whichbudget.com for up-to-date routes in this rapidly changing market.

On full-fare airlines, Bilbao is directly connected with several other European cities, including Frankfurt, Zürich, Brussels, Paris, Milan and Lisbon. There are flights to Madrid from most European capitals with both budget and full-fare carriers.

To reach Northern Spain from across the Atlantic, the best way is to fly in via Madrid. From the east coast, flights can rise well over US$1400 in summer but, in winter or with advance purchase, you can get away with as little as US$600. Prices from the west coast are usually only US$100 or so more. Iberia flies direct to Madrid from many east coast cities and British Airways often offers reasonable add-on fares via London. A domestic extension from Madrid won’t necessarily add much to the fare but it might be cheaper and/or more convenient getting the train. Flying in via other European hubs such as Paris or London is often less expensive, but adds a good few hours on to the journey. Travellers from Canada will sometimes find that it’s cheaper to fly via London than Madrid.

There are no direct flights from South Africa, the cheapest and quickest way is to connect via Europe; Zurich, Amsterdam, Frankfurt or London normally work out best.

Competition between airlines serving Spain has benefited the traveller in recent years. Budget operators have taken a significant slice of the market and forced other airlines to compete. There are several options for flying to Northern Spain from the UK and Ireland.

The cheapest direct flights are with the budget operators, whose fares can be as low as €21 return but are more usually €85-160. It’s easier to get hold of a cheaper fare if you fly off-season or midweek, and if you book well in advance. The routes offered at time of writing were: Ryanair London Stansted to Santiago de Compostela, Santander, Valladolid, and Zaragoza. Easyjet London Stansted to Bilbao, Asturias (Oviedo/ Gijón/Avilés). Aer Lingus Dublin to Santiago de Compostela and Bilbao. Clickair from London Heathrow or Gatwick to Vigo, Bibao, A Coruña. Ryanair’s flies to Biarritz, France, which is 30 minutes on the train to the Spanish border, from where it’s another 30 minutes to San Sebastián. Check http://www.whichbudget.com to keep apace of the changes.

Bilbao is also served from London by Iberia and British Airways. These flights often end up cheaper than Easyjet if you are flying at a weekend with less than a month’s notice. APEX fares tend to be about €138-202 return and can be more economical and flexible than the budget airline if you are connecting from another British city.

Direct flights from London to Madrid are operated by Easyjet, Ryanair, Air Comet, Iberia, British Airways, BMI, Air Europa, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Lufthansa and others. Iberia/British Airways also connect to Madrid directly from Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Birmingham, while Easyjet fly to Madrid from Edinburgh, Bristol, and Liverpool, BMI Baby from Birmingham and Manchester, and Ryanair from Liverpool.

KLM, Lufthansa and Air France are also major carriers to Spain for those who don’t mind changing at these airlines’ hub airports. As well as Madrid and Barcelona these airlines all fly to Bilbao. Iberia and British Airways code share on direct flights between London and Santiago de Compostela and Oviedo/Gijón several times a week, but these flights tend to be a lot dearer; it’s nearly always cheaper to connect via Madrid.

From Madrid airport (Barajas), it’s very easy to hop in a taxi or the Metro to the bus station (Metro stop: Méndez Alvaro) or train station (Chamartín) and be in Northern Spain in a jiffy.

Iberia and Aer Lingus code share daily direct flights from Dublin to Madrid and Barcelona, while Aer Lingus runs budget flights from Dublin to Bilbao and Santiago. Ryanair operate budget flights between Dublin and London if you can find a cheap flight from the UK.

Eurolines (http://www.eurolines.com) run several buses from major European cities to a variety of destinations in Northern Spain. From London, there’s a bus that leaves London Victoria at 0800 on Monday and Saturday, and arrives in Bilbao at 0430 the next morning. The return leaves Bilbao at 0030 on Thursday and Saturday night, getting to London at 1945 the next evening. There’s an extra bus in summer. A return fare costs about £100; it’s marginally cheaper for pensioners and students, but overall isn’t great value unless you’re not a fan of flying. Book on T01582 404 511 or http://www.gobycoach.com.

The main route into Northern Spain is the €05/€70 motorway that runs down the southwest coast of France, crossing into Spain at Irún, near San Sebastián. More scenic but slower routes cross the Pyrenees at various points. The other motorway entrance is the €7 that runs down the east coast of Spain from France. At Barcelona you can turn inland for Lleida and Zaragoza. Both these motorways are tolled but worthwhile compared to the slow, traffic- plagued rutas nacionales. Most other motorways are free and in good condition.

Cars must be insured for third party and practically any driving licence is acceptable (but if you’re from a country that a Guardia Civil would struggle to locate on a map, take an International Driving Licence). Unleaded petrol costs €0.90-1.05 per litre in Spain.