#like spanish as in from spain. more specifically the pamplona running of the bulls. but also mexican wrestling is involved

[mastcomm]

U.S. Warns of Sexual Assault Risk in Spain

MADRID — The United States Embassy in Madrid has warned Americans visiting Spain to take extra precautions because of “a steady increase in the number of sexual assaults” over the last five years in the country.

Embassy officials said they were unaware of any similar alerts for a European nation.

The security alert, issued on Monday, came as the Spanish authorities are investigating a rape accusation filed by three American sisters against three Afghan men over events on New Year’s Eve in southeastern Spain. It also warned of the challenges that those who experience sexual assault face when seeking justice in the Spanish legal system.

The embassy said it was responding to an increase in sex attacks “against young U.S. citizen visitors and students throughout Spain.” It cited data from Spain’s interior ministry but provided no details.

In response to the alert, a spokesman for the Spanish interior ministry acknowledged on Wednesday that Spain had seen an increase in the number of reports of sexual assault, but said that still Spain had one of the lowest sex crime rates in Europe. He also suggested that the rise in reported crimes in part reflected a greater readiness by victims to come forward and was in line with the trend in other Western countries.

The United States has issued travel warnings for Spain and other European countries over the risk of terrorism, notably after a van attack on Barcelona’s most famous promenade killed 16 people in 2017. That warning was updated last October after a secessionist conflict in the Catalonia region spiraled into several nights of violence in Barcelona and other northeastern cities.

The embassy also issued a specific warning in September against a Seville-based tour operator who was accused of assaulting American students.

Spain is a highly popular destination for tourists around the globe, with a record 83.7 million visitors last year, according to data released on Monday by its national statistics office. That included over three million Americans, a 13 percent increase from the previous year.

Yet Spain has faced stinging criticism over its handling of several high-profile sexual assault cases in recent years, with women’s rights activists charging that the country’s judiciary is dominated by men who judge cases based on faulty ideas about issues like what constitutes consent. Several verdicts have prompted street protests, including some of the world’s largest marches on International Women’s Day.

One of the most contentious cases came to the spotlight in 2018, when a court sentenced five men to prison for the “continuous sexual abuse” of an 18-year-old woman during the Pamplona bull-running festival, but cleared them of the more serious charge of rape, which under Spanish law must involve violence or intimidation.

That verdict against the five men — who had filmed the assault using a cellphone and who dubbed themselves the “wolf pack” — was overruled in June by Spain’s Supreme Court, which found them guilty of rape and increased their prison sentences.

Yet in October, a case involving the sexual assault of an unconscious 14-year-old girl also resulted in the conviction of five men on a charge of sexual abuse rather than rape, when that Spanish court ruled that they had not used violence.

That type of distinction is part of what led the American Embassy to issue its caution this week, warning that “U.S. citizen victims of sexual assault in Spain can find it very difficult to navigate the local criminal justice system, which differs significantly from the U.S. system.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/u-s-warns-of-sexual-assault-risk-in-spain/

#Event

[hellofastestnewsfan]

MADRID—On a recent Sunday, a compact huddle of about 100 principally middle-aged men and women slowly advanced onto Puerta del Sol square here in the Spanish capital. A canopy of pale pink and blue balloons swayed above them like a roving baby shower, the theme song from Pirates of the Caribbean blaring from speakers nearby. A man carrying a megaphone led a chant, “Feminism doesn’t represent me.”

The “March for Femininity,” as the demonstration was called, was a counterprotest to an enormous International Women’s Day rally held two days prior, a historic affair that saw hundreds of thousands of women throughout Spain stream down their cities’ major avenues to demand the application and expansion of anti-gender-violence laws. That day, headlines hailed feminism in Spain as a force to be reckoned with. Nearly 65 percent of college-age women here embrace the label and, it follows, form a potent voting bloc for national elections being held this weekend. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have fallen at their feet, trying to lay claim to “real” feminism, whether that has meant touting gender-neutral speech or championing women-friendly economic policies.

The smaller march that followed, however, was decidedly not courting the feminist vote. In a gravelly voice, a small woman introduced as a dissident of gender ideology—the expression is used by the global far right to designate advances in women’s and LGBTQ rights—declared that it was in fact men who were being discriminated against under the law. The crowd responded with thunderous applause. The sexes were being pitted against each other, and the only way to restore the balance, the speaker said, was by voting against feminist legislation.

Only one party in Spain is currently making that argument, and the speaker at the rally, Alicia Rubio, helps run its get-out-the-vote efforts. That party is Vox.

[Read: How Spain misunderstood the Catalan independence movement]

Vox—the word is Latin for “voice”—was founded in 2013 by a handful of conservative politicians who’d grown disenchanted with the People’s Party, the traditional right-wing bloc in Spain, for not adopting more hard-line stances against secessionists and progressive legislation passed under the former Socialist government. But it burst into Spain’s national consciousness only late last year, when it campaigned and won 12 seats in the regional legislature in Andalusia, in southern Spain, the first time any of its candidates had been elected to office. The party’s shocking ascent to power was, at first, ascribed to its stance against separatism in the northern Spanish region of Catalonia—Vox called the country’s dominant parties soft on separatists and campaigned on a “Spain first” ticket.

In many ways, its rise mirrors advances made by populist and far-right parties across Europe. A decade of slow economic growth, dislocations caused by the global financial crisis, and the vast wave of migration that has hit Europe in recent years have fueled disenchantment with traditional political groupings across the region. Spain had, for a time, been a rare exception to that shift. And in a way, that remains the case: Whereas most of the continent’s populist parties want to either gut the EU or leave it altogether, Vox’s focus is different. While blatant anti-feminist rhetoric is often employed by political parties in eastern Europe, such efforts are markedly less frequent in the west of the continent. That was, of course, until Vox announced its first legislative push in Andalusia—to demand that the region’s gender-violence law be scrapped.

According to official figures, 992 women in Spain have been murdered by a partner or former partner since 2003. Though the term femicide—instances of women killed by men on account of their gender—wasn’t included in Spanish dictionaries until 2014, violence against women came into brutal focus with the murder of Ana Orantes in 1997, a woman from Granada who shocked the public, first when she spoke on an evening TV program about the abuse she suffered at her ex-husband’s hands for 40 years, and 13 days later, when her ex set her ablaze. Newspapers began tracking gender-based murders around 2000. In 2003, the government created its own registry, logging the number of women killed by partners or former partners. An independent study that includes femicides committed by men with no prior relationship with their victims estimates that the number is actually closer to 2,000. These figures, and numerous petitions by feminist organizations, prompted the national government to pass a historic anti-gender-violence law in 2004, allocating funds to support victims of abuse and calling for the creation of specific gender-violence courts. In late 2017, Spain’s parliament unanimously passed a series of measures designed to bulk up the original law. Even the People’s Party, which in 2013 threatened to roll back abortion rights, was on board.

Vox is the first party to challenge the consensus, claiming the law allows and emboldens women to falsely accuse men. In a 100-point program unveiled in October, as it was campaigning ahead of Andalusia’s elections, the party called for the repeal of anti-gender-violence laws, to be replaced with legislation providing “equal protection” for men, women, children, and the elderly in cases of domestic violence and the removal of abortion from government-funded health services.

[Read: The new authoritarians are waging war on women]

The party also espouses what Sílvia Claveria, a politics professor at Carlos III University in Madrid, described to me as “modern sexism”: It advocates longer maternity leave and encourages women to be proud mothers, but once women want to separate from or divorce their partners, it shifts positions to take the man’s side. According to Manuela Carmena, the mayor of Madrid and a politician known for her efforts to promote women’s rights, Vox has sought to benefit from “the frustration and confusion of many men who feel displaced by the growing role of women in society.”

That strategy is apparent in remarks from Vox’s leadership. In a televised interview in January, the party’s president, Santiago Abascal, claimed that 87 percent of gender-violence accusations had been dropped because there was no evidence that the accused had committed a crime. (In fact, only 0.01 percent of gender-violence accusations are deemed false, according to data compiled by the office of Spain’s attorney general. The Barcelona-based lawyer Júlia Humet told me that some are indeed withdrawn or dropped, but frequently this is due to the cycle of violence itself: Women often give their abusers another chance out of a sense of love or loyalty, Humet said, or because they’re pressured to do so.) Vox’s leader in Andalusia, Francisco Serrano, a former judge who was suspended from his post in 2011 for changing a child’s custody agreement to benefit the father, has claimed that “a real genocide is under way,” of men attempting or committing suicide over false accusations.

The debate surrounding false accusations in particular has become a focal point in Spain’s culture wars in the wake of a high-profile case in which a woman accused five men of gang-raping her at Pamplona’s world-famous Running of the Bulls festival. When the men were acquitted of rape and found guilty of a lesser crime last spring, women throughout Spain took to the streets in what was considered the country’s #MeToo moment. Last summer, as the movement gained momentum, a self-proclaimed feminist government took office and promised to revise rape laws and make gender equality one of its top priorities.

That soon sparked a backlash, with several thousand men denouncing on social media and the Spanish version of 4Chan, ForoCoches, what they saw as doing away with the presumption of innocence. In February, a purple bus inscribed with the slogan “#StopFeminazis” beneath an image of Hitler wearing pink lipstick could be seen driven around Barcelona. The organization that chartered the bus, Hazte Oír (“Make Yourself Heard”), is calling on Spain’s biggest right-wing parties, including Vox, to repeal the gender-violence law. Vox has tapped into this macho reaction and doubled down on its anti-feminism.

Such platforms are more often seen in eastern Europe than in western Europe, Ruth Wodak, a linguistics professor at Lancaster University and the University of Vienna who focuses on right-wing populist rhetoric, told me. France’s Marine Le Pen, shy of calling herself a feminist, has come out to defend “women’s rights” (though she did so largely to prop up her anti-immigration policies). The Dutch and Scandinavian far right has “more progressive gender politics,” Wodak says. These are mainly manifested in an apparent embrace of LGBTQ rights, though this too is often at the expense of immigrants: In 2015, Sweden’s far-right party staged an unofficial gay-rights parade in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. In Italy, Matteo Salvini, the country’s interior minister and leader of the League party, has said that abortion and “equal rights between men and women” were not up for debate.

[Read: The politics of a long-dead dictator still haunt Spain]

In that sense, Vox looks more like an eastern European party. Its policies look strikingly similar to those of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who recently announced measures to help mothers by rewarding those who have multiple children with tax cuts and financial subsidies. Wodak attributes the parallels to Spain’s more recent departure from fascism than its Western European neighbors.

Polls peg support for Vox at about 10 percent nationwide. At that level, it could play a kingmaker role and, some worry, be invited into government. According to available polling data, the average Vox voter is a man age 35 to 44, though Vox youth groups are picking up younger supporters too.

In approximately 20 interviews with young Vox affiliates and sympathizers, almost every person I spoke to started out talking about Spanish unity when I asked what had brought them to the party. But the second I asked about Vox’s gender policies, I was told, without fail (by both men and women), that they agreed 100 percent with the party line. At a recent party rally in Barcelona, I spoke to Enrique Lopez, an 18-year-old originally from Málaga, on the southern coast. Lopez, who wore a Spanish flag draped around his shoulders, superhero-cape style, said the party’s gender policies were as important to him as its unionist stance. “Women don’t need their own special law,” he told me. “Violence doesn’t have a gender.”

from The Atlantic http://bit.ly/2VnEnyk

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[passportrequired]

48 Blurry Hours in Amsterdam

Today I found myself on my couch sipping some coffee before work. I woke up a little early, turned on the television, made my coffee and began to read and re-read this card I got about a year ago at a networking dinner hosted by Keith Ferrazzi. The card says the following on its front side, “If money was not an issue, how would you spend your time?” That’s an easy question. I would travel. I would explore the world while simultaneously exploring the inner workings of my being. Life is short, there are no guarantees. The idea that I should not dawdle in life is exactly what took me to Europe to celebrate my 35th trip around the Sun two years ago.

I chose to head to Europe and specifically Spain because I wanted to run with the bulls. This was a tough decision for me because my birthday happens to land on July 14th which is Bastille Day and apparently France knows how to party on that day. The one thing I kept thinking about in terms of where to ring in my special day was that I could party in France any Bastille Day but given that I have had worsening knee pain the window for running with massive bulls while hungover in Spain was likely closing sooner than I would like. I decided to buy a one-way ticket to Amsterdam for $400 USD and said “Fuck it, whatever happens it will be fun.”

I mentioned my decision to fly to Europe to a few folks at my cousin Tank’s 4thof July party a couple of days before I was scheduled to head out and Tank’s dad, whom we call “Pops,” mentioned he might be interested in a good run through Spain. I told him my plan: Fly to Amsterdam on July 6thand party for two days, take a quick flight to Madrid and hang for the night, hop on a train to Pamplona in the morning so that we could run and rage there for a few days. Pop’s said he would look into it. On the morning of July 6th,I woke up to an email from Pops stating that he was on his way to Amsterdam and to find him there so we could wreck shit. FUCK YES! I lit up a joint, stuffed my pockets with THC infused gummy bears, summonsed my Uber and made my way to LAX.

I arrived at LAX and immediately started drinking with a group of French soccer fans. I found myself passed out in a cramped seat near the airplane bathroom a few hours later. I made my flight. I hurried off the plane as soon as I could. I took a few photos of the rain soaked tarmac at the Schiphol airport and messaged Pops. I made my way to the ClinkNoord Hostel and he met me there. Turns out Pops had no place to stay yet and our first order of business after lighting some legally purchased sacred kratom and marijuana was to find a place for him to crash. My hostel was fully booked. We dropped off our luggage at my hostel and Googled a bunch of places. We found a small hotel on the other side of the river, Pops checked in, and we were off.

The next 48 hours were a blur. The skies were cloudy. It sprinkled here and there but overall the weather was pleasantly cool for July. We smoked ample amounts of the Devil’s Cabbage all in the name of cultural immersion, we drank many local beers, stuffed our fat faces with doner kebabs, and rode bicycles everywhere. My inner fat-kid loves Amsterdam. According to my journal, we paid the Popeye’s Coffee Shop a visit. For the July bullet journal design, I created a simple calendar in my journal using my favorite bullet journal highlighters. Tank recommended this place and it did not disappoint.  We smoked a joint in the basement while sipping on Americanos. We then made our way to Barney’s for some burgers and ice cream milkshakes right after Popeye’s. Marijuana, burgers, milkshakes. It was all so damn good. We rolled up some joints in Barney’s and planned out our day.

Amsterdam is a visually stimulating place. The sun doesn’t set until sometime after 10PM, the streets have canons just chilling on random corners, party goers drink heavily on private boats cruising through the canals. The buildings look like gingerbread houses and castles. The Red-light district has all sorts of fuckery going on at any given time. This place is wild, legal marijuana, legal prostitutes, and legal magic truffles. All sorts of people walking the streets just having a good ol’ time. At one point, I got cursed out by a prostitute during the midday rush. Pops and I turned a corner and walked through a small street filled with doorways leading to some version of BDSM ecstasy. In my defense, I did not realize that taking photos of these women is frowned upon.

Pops and I decided to avoid anything looking like an organized tour like the plague, I feel bad for people on tour buses hopping on and off with their selfie sticks and hermetically sealed, germ free vacation packages. Pops and I decided to do the opposite of those lifeless souls…we rode bicycles dangerously close to cars in opposing traffic. We dodged pedestrians. I felt like I was in a James Bond movie driving my bike next to the waterways. I couldn’t help but think about what the fuck I was doing in Europe. I spent many of my formative years sleeping on floors and garages because we were piss poor and now I’m riding free through one of the prettiest cities on Earth. Life is good.

We visited the Rijksmuseum while under the influence of a nice sativa. I love museums. Amsterdam did not disappoint. Vermeer’s and Rembrandt’s work hung all around me. The Gallery of Honour was impressive. I remembered learning all about Rembrandt’s use of light sources in my high school and college art classes. Many of these paintings were larger than I could ever imagine from looking at a text book or online. There was a massive library in the museum filled with old books, essentially a bibliophile’s dream. Parts of the museum were dedicated to showing Nazi propaganda. This was hard to look at in some cases but it was important. Art should shake the viewer on some level.

Pops and I continued to wander off the beaten tourist path and found ourselves in the Jordaan area. We determined that based on the angle of the sun and our proximity to the equator that now would be the best time to get massages. Lucky for us the Jordaan had a massage place next to a nice bar. We had some drinks with the local crowd after our massages. We met the owner of this bar, a massive beast of a man with a kind heart. I don’t recall this gentleman’s name but man his fucking hand felt like a bear claw when he placed it on my shoulder and asked who we were and how we found his place. Turns out he was a former professional fighter who opened the bar with his father in law, who happened to be a former professional race car driver, after retiring from the fight game. This cat liked the tattoos that Pops and I have collected over the years and decided to show us his. He lifted his shirt up to show us some massive Brazilian flag tattoo spanning the width of his barrel sized chest. We all drank a lot. The bar owner encouraged it. Pops and I didn’t want to be rude to our host so we obliged and drank heavily for maybe two hours chatting with our new friend about life in Amsterdam and the Jordaan. I would absolutely go back to that area. They loved us there. Two Mexicans from LA and we were brave enough to walk a few blocks away from the tourist zone. Life rewarded our curiosities with good people, food, and drink.

For the record, Pops and I do not speak Dutch. Pops can barely speak Spanish. With that said we decided it would be fun to smoke a joint on our way to the train station in Amsterdam before hopping on a train to the Eindhoven airport in Utrecht. We booked a ridiculously cheap flight to Madrid on Ryan Air and could only fly out of Eindhoven. Fuck it more adventuring for us. The train ride was scary because for the first hour I wasn’t even sure we were on the right train. Pops slept. I wrote in my journal and looked out the window at random farms and windmills. This shit was weird for me. Los Angeles is lacking in the farmland and windmill department. I grew up around homeless people and gangbangers in Pacoima. It was culture shock on some level.

I had time to think on this leg of the trip. Headphones on, journal out, I couldn’t help but get into my feelings a little. I was dehydrated, smelly, sweaty, sporting some weird ass raccoon print tank top. I am certain the folks on the train looked at me like a damn alien. I thought about what we just did, we smoked over an eighth of weed each day in Amsterdam, rode bikes like maniacs through the city, hung out with complete strangers, bar hopped in the local zone. At one point Pops and I were in some part of town kinda far from the Red-Light District partying with a bunch of non-Americans. Pops is a bad ass for a 63 year old. He started egging on some large “Bros,” you know the frat guys who sport Tap Out gear but likely never fought, into fighting one another. Pops got tired of their tough guy posturing and called them all pussies for not fighting each other already. These guys were terrified of Pop’s little crazy ass. Meanwhile 20 feet away a crew of girls kept drunkenly stumbling onto each other. I have video of this somewhere. Amsterdam is wild yo.

Europe is the “Old World” people have lived in the same communities for generations. This is a huge contrast to my transient upbringing. Moving each year chasing that first month of free rent where ever we could. Making new friends each year. My experience in LA is worlds apart from what people experience in Europe, at least that’s how it felt. I liked it though.  Even if I didn’t know a soul in Amsterdam it still felt good to be in a place where people have real roots. These roads have been around for ages. Kings and their armies have marched through these old European streets for hundreds of years. There isn’t anything like that in the US. American heritage is a mashup of many things. The history of humans is a short one. The history of America even more so. It felt weird to know that over the course of human history millions of souls died on the land we were on. I reflected on what this meant to me at various parts of my trip. The sense of belonging, the sense of community, history both personal and on a larger scale.

My impressions of Amsterdam are probably not too different than yours. I felt like everyone was happily glowing, looking put together like living breathing H&M advertisements. I liked Amsterdam. Not entirely for the weed though that is a good selling point but mostly because of the people and culture. I thought it was amazing that so many paintings in the museums depict water wars and navies in battle due to the Dutch being a seafaring people. It was a contrast to what I’ve seen in other museums where the artwork depicts land battles and marching armies. Equally impressive was the variety of street art. Banksy’s were everywhere along with countless other artists’ work in cleverly placed spaces throughout the city. I also enjoyed that fact that this was a cyclist and pedestrian friendly city. The bike stations situated on the barges were amazing to look at because of the sheer number of bikes crammed on them. I wondered how often people lost track of where they parked their bikes. I especially loved taking the ferry across the river from the main part of Amsterdam to the Noord. I think my favorite memory of the trip was my last night out, I hopped on the ferry back to the Clinknoord and watched sunrise while sitting on my rented hostel bike. I could see the big Amsterdam letters on the roof of the train depot. I was in Europe.

I was happy that Pops came along. Pops is wild man. He told me some crazy stories about his memories of the seventies. Some guy once pulled a shotgun on him while he was sitting in his car and Pops’ homeboy snuck around from behind the guy and snatched the gun away. Pops then proceeded to beat the shit out of him as soon as he got out of the car. I’ve heard variations of this story from Pop’s wife Connie. This story wasn’t surprising. Pops was a lunatic in his day. LA breeds that shit. I love LA but damn if the street and prison cultures don’t make some crazy ass people. I relish the moments when Pops decided to wild out because it usually means I am gonna laugh at the wild shit he says or does next.

All of these thoughts floated around my mind as I watched miles and miles of farmland scroll past me on the train. We eventually made it to Eindhoven. I was relieved that I chose the right train platform and hopped on the correct train. Pops and I smoked our last joint outside the Eindhoven airport entrance. I exhaled smoke as I walked into the airport. We left our little half smoked joint on a bench just outside of the airport doors for the next person to enjoy. We drank beers on the deck while watching planes take off. We had a few hours before our flight to Madrid. This was the calm before the next part of our trip. I messaged my mom that we made it safely to Eindhoven. She expressed her worry over my plans to run wild through Pamplona. My reply, I’m good mom, probably I won’t die but if I do this is a far better death than dying on the toilet or decaying slowly over time in a shitty cubicle or on the 405 freeway. I am the voice of reason here.

48 Blurry Hours in Amsterdam was originally published on Passport Required

#Amsterdam #ClinkNoord Hostel #darnell Lamont walker #David Andrade #European Travel #Mexican Travelers #PassportRequired #Places To Go In Amsterdam #The Netherlands #Things To Do In #Travel #Travel Blog #Travel Writer #wanderlust #Tumblr Travel Photography #TumblrTravel

[touristguidebuzz]

12 Must Visit Cities in Spain

Out of Town Blog 12 Must Visit Cities in Spain

Travel Tips: 12 Must Visit Cities in Spain

The Kingdom of Spain has been one of the world’s most visited destinations. In 2015, more than 68 million tourists from all over the world came to visit the country, the largest recorded tourist influx, third to France and the United States in that year.

Gran Via Madrid – Must Visit Cities in Spain

That estimate continues to grow through time, and if you’re planning to add to that, you might be at a loss about which specific place in the 506,000 km2 you should go to. While each place in Spain is different and beautiful in their own way, here are the 12 must-visit cities that you should definitely see for starters:

Bear And Arbutus in Madrid

1. Madrid

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is the third largest city in the European Union. For many years, it has been one of the most visited cities in the country, with attractions that exude history, culture, and arts. The bustling Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace of Madrid, and the Museo Nacional Del Prado that exhibits some of the best art collections in the region are just three things that guests can see here.

Also Read: Of the Old and of the New: A Walking Tour of Madrid, Spain

Catalonia Gran Via

Featured hotel: Catalonia Gran Via (hotel info) is a hotel that is the epitome of Madrid hospitality—with a rooftop heated pool that offers absolutely stunning sights of Madrid at night, elegant rooms that are extra comfy, and a convenient location.

Nearest airport: International flights land and depart from the Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, also called Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD), daily. The Madrid Municipal Transport Company bus line and the Madrid Metro Line are very accessible from there.

Sunset in Barcelona

2. Barcelona

Capital of autonomous Catalonia and the second most populous in the city, Barcelona is home to the genius architect Antoni Gaudi’s most well-known works of art, such as the still-incomplete Sagrada Familia, the colorful Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, and Park Guell.

Also Read: Brilliant Streets and Genius Architecture: Two Days in Barcelona, Spain

Hotel del Mar Barcelona – Must Visit Cities in Spain

Featured hotel: I stayed in Hotel del Mar (hotel info) during my most recent trip to Barcelona. The rooms are clean and had a homey feel. My room had a veranda that overlooked the city, and made my stay unforgettable.

Nearest airport: The Barcelona–El Prat Airport (BCN) is just 14 kilometers from central Barcelona, which major airlines like Air Canada, All Nippon Airways and American Airlines utilize.

Salamanca Spain

3. Salamanca

Quaint Salamanca gives off a very historical feel, and some infrastructures are so old and well-preserved that they can be compared to places like Hogwarts. The oldest building in the city dates back to the 1200s. In fact, the oldest university in the entire country, the University of Salamanca, is located here. In 1998, the Old City Salamanca was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Hotel Rector in Salamanca

Featured hotel: Hotel Rector (hotel info) is an attractively old fashioned hotel that goes well with the city vibes. It is conveniently located in the heart of the city. The hotel has a consistent spot in the travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler’s annual Gold List of City Hotels.

Nearest airport: 15 kilometers east of the city is Salamanca Airport, and is located near a train station that directly passes by the city.

Alhambra Granada Spain

4. Granada

Aside from being -blended with nature, Granada is known for its architecture. Buildings such as the Granada Cathedral, the gardens of Generalife, and the Palace of Charles V, are just some of the sights here in the city. The UNESCO World Heritage Site Alhambra, an ancient fortress that started off as a small one in AD 889, is also located in this city.

NH Granada Centro

Featured hotel: NH Granada Centro (hotel info) is 4-star hotel that offers rooms at affordable rates, and is located near landmarks like Calle Navas and the Corral del Carbon.

Nearest airport: The closest airport to the city is Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport, alternatively called Granada Airport. It has accommodated more than 753,000 passengers in 2016.

Burgos Cathedral

5. Burgos

Dubbed the Spanish Gastronomy Capital in 2013, Burgos is a city that should not be missed by anyone. Here, dishes are still cooked in traditional ways, such as morcilla de burgos, tender lechazo cuts, and the city’s signature Queso de Burgos. Notable landmarks include the towering Burgos Cathedral and the modern Museum of Human Evolution.

Also Read: Saving the Best for Last: Exploring the History and Gastronomy of Burgos City, Spain

Hotel Forum Evolution

Featured hotel: Hotel Forum Evolution (hotel info) is a 3-star hotel that is located right beside the Museum of Human Evolution. Despite its accessibility, however, the hotel premises maintain a quiet atmosphere with cozy rooms.

Nearest airport: Four kilometers east of central Burgos is Burgos Airport. Unfortunately, this airport only opens seasonally.

San Sebastian Spain

6. San Sebastian

The Basque city of San Sebastian is probably the most unique Spanish destination in this city. Bordered by three coastal mountains (one of which had an amusement park), a pure-white beach, and six bridges that run throughout the city, San Sebastian is ideal for short, walking tours, oh, and yes, pintxos.

Also Read: Urbanized in Nature: A Walking Tour of San Sebastian, Spain

Hotel Zenit San Sebastian

Featured hotel: Hotel Zenit (hotel info) was our official accommodation when I recently toured San Sebastian. The hotel had a very luxurious feel that stuck out in town. It had a pool in the rooftop that overlooked the small San Sebastian wonderfully.

Nearest airport: The city’s closest airport is the San Sebastian Airport that serves domestic flights to and from capital city Madrid and Barcelona.

Bilbao Spain

7. Bilbao

Home to the 165-meter tall Iberdrola Tower, the metropolitan area of Bilbao is the economic hub of Basque Country. Known for its urbanized streets, Bilbao is the region’s leading producer of iron and other minerals. The Guggenheim Museum and the Basilica of Begoña are some of the iconic landmarks here.

Miro Hotel Bilbao

Featured hotel: If you plan to explore Bilbao right away, then Miro Hotel (hotel info) is a good choice. It is located right in the heart of town, and is just a few minutes away from the Iberdrola Tower.

Nearest airport: Bilbao Airport serves mostly European airlines that come from France, Switzerland, and Germany. Domestic flights from Barcelona and Madrid also land in this airport.

Pamplona Spain

8. Pamplona

Pamplona is most known for its annual San Fermin Festival, which involves the iconic running of the bulls. The city has a very relaxing atmosphere suitable for walking tours, with its narrow, sloped streets in the residential areas and the eye-catching City Hall.

Also Read: Of Narrow Streets and Walls: Walking Tour in Pamplona, Spain

Albret Hotel Pamplona

Featured hotel: With luxury and coziness combined, Hotel Albret (hotel info) is one of the most highly rated hotels in the city. It is located at a convenient distance from must-see spots like Calle de la Rioja.

Nearest airport: Roughly 6 km from the town center is Pamplona Airport. The airport only serves flights from and bound to Madrid, with occasional Barcelonan flights as well.

Valencia Spain

9. Valencia

Valencia is a highly-urbanized city, yet is also has its quaint sides. The Tower of Serrans is an example of a 14th century structure that stands proudly alongside the modern architecture of the entertainment complex City of Arts and Sciences and the Town Hall.

Caro Hotel in Valencia

Featured hotel: Located near the major tourist destinations in the city, Caro Hotel (hotel info) redefines luxury. Each of the 26 rooms in the hotel are designed differently, with the street-side rooms having verandas with a beautiful view of the city, and hotel property’s environment.

Nearest airport: Valencia Airport is 8 km away from the city center, and is highly accessible by the metro rail and by bus lines. Airlines that use the airport are mostly European.

Seville Spain

10. Seville

There are three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Seville: The Alcazar, 15th-century Cathedral of Seville, and the General Archive of the Indies. The city is the fourth largest in Spain and is known for its grandiose celebration of Semana Santa (Holy Week).

Hotel Palacio de Villapanes

Featured hotel: Each of the rooms and suites in Hotel Palacio de Villapanes (hotel info) are exquisitely designed to look like an 18th-century palace. It has just the right distance away from town and gives a sense of exclusivity and royalty.

Nearest airport: Seville Airport services international airlines in the southern regions of Spain, and is just 10 km from downtown Seville.

Toledo Spain

11. Toledo

Come to Toledo for the historic sights, and stay for the quiet and home-like vibes. Stop by the 13th century Gothic Toledo Cathedral, and maybe spend time in the Alcazar of Toledo, a 16th-century palace that was converted into a military museum.

Eurostars Palacio Buenavista

Featured Hotel: A city with idyllic sights can only be made perfect if you stay in a hotel that offers the same. Eurostars Palacio Buenavista (hotel info), although located rather far from sights like Plaza Paris and the Alcazar, is the perfect place. Nearby is the Tagus River, which you can go to for an early morning walk.

Nearest airport: Madrid-Barajas Airport is the nearest airport in the city, which is a 75-minute train or bus ride from central Toledo.

Cordoba Spain

12. Cordoba

Cordoba sometimes spelled Cordova, is a southern Spanish city with a long history. It was colonized by Muslim forces and much of the local culture and buildings continue to be influenced by it. The city is also known for its natural tourist spots, like the Jardines de la Victoria and the Parque de Miraflores.

Hotel Viento 10

Featured hotel: After exploring the streets of Cordoba, take time to relax in Hotel Viento 10’s (hotel info) sauna and Jacuzzi, and get a comfy sleep in the hotel’s old fashioned but elegant rooms.

Nearest airport: Cordoba Airport is 6 km from the city. Domestic flights and Schengen countries are served by this airport.

How about you? Do you have your own list of must visit Cities in Spain?

12 Must Visit Cities in Spain Melo Villareal