inland. Coastal regions remain pleasant year-round but are prone to wet weather in winter.
TOURIST INFORMATION Spanish Tourist Office Tel: 020 7317 2010 Fax : 020 73172 048 Email: [email protected] www.tourspain.co.uk
Spain has at least a dozen personalities, from the desert-style plains of Almeria and silver-sand beaches of Formentera to the curvaceous hills of Catalonia and the deep ravines, stalagmites and caverns of the Balearics. Vast highland plateaus are segmented by spiny mountains while narrow, low-lying coastal plains run like ribbons throughout the south-west. Dramatic cliffs are home to hook-clawed raptors while bears, lynx, and wolves roam mountain woods and streams. Vines, olives, figs and orange groves flourish in the fertile soil of the foothills while beautiful domed Moorish palaces sit in resplendent gardens amidst mosaics, frescoes and archways.
004 SANTANDER
CONTACTS Santander International Music Festival Tel: +34 942 210 508 / 942 314 853 Fax: +34 942 314 767 www.festivalsantander.com
August in Santander is set to a romantic musical score as breathtaking, rapturous symphonies and stirring concertos fill the city with wisps of harmonic joy. Moving orchestral drama evokes the passion of heart-rending tragedy while soulful sonatas and concerto ritornelli whirl through Santander like a melodic virtuosic cyclone. From sweet piano refrains and dancing violins to cello solos and full orchestral might, the city plays host to umpteen renditions and repertoires from every classical genre. Delight in moody modernisti movements and the delicate Romantic era’s lyrical touch during Northern Spain’s month-long celebration of music that culminates in a rousing performance by the National Orchestra of Spain.
Named for the Latin Sancti Emeterii, Santander is characterised by fine historic buildings on handsome, Roman-built streets lined with trees and shrubs. At the heart of the city, the garden-filled Paseo de Pereda boulevard splits the old quarter from Santander’s sandy, coastal strip. One of the city’s earliest constructions, a 13th-century cathedral, sits atop catacombs, underground sculpture and sombre, vaulted chambers close to the grand bourgeois mansion houses overlooking the Bay of Biscay. Here, the Palacio de Festivales (Festival Palace), built by Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, is the venue of the prestigious Santander International Festival, one of Spain’s oldest musical celebrations. Though smaller performances can be enjoyed in the intimate setting of over 40 historic cloisters and gardens across the city, it is the Festival Palace that embodies the spirit of the occasion from a full-on symphonic extravaganza that sets the tone of the many dozens of operatic and choral concerts that follow. Inaugurated in 1991 with Handel’s oratorio, Joshua, a stirring piece from the height of his late creative period, the Festival Palace is in its element with big-stage productions mixing historic, ecclesiastic and aristocratic elements with a flavour of the mountains and the sea. The venue’s haunting acoustics blend with a stunning stage set – a large window that frames the Bay of Biscay provides the backdrop. To the sound of rapturous applause, the scenery takes on a romantic fervour at the climax of the festival when showered with thousands of single-stem roses from the stalls.
Cuban dancer Lorna Feijoo, of the Boston Ballet, performs during a rehearsal of Les Sylphydes for the Santander International Festival.
005 MADRID
CONTACT Madrid Tourist Office Tel: +34 915 881 636 Email: [email protected] www.esmadrid.com
Madrid’s sultry salsa scene revels in sensual seduction, in which simmering physical chemistry and overtly sexual rhythms collide in a full-on sensory assault. Meaning ‘sauce’ in Spanish, the salsa is anything but sweet in style. Yet a fiery chilli has soft flesh and the salsa is no stranger to tender sentiment, albeit wrapped in raw, heartfelt desire. With bodies pressed tightly together in rhythmic unison, Madrid’s spellbinding musical love potion adds an extra frisson to the dance-floor. ‘I’m drowning and I can’t live without you’ resonates the ultimate salsa love cry of Mi Todo (My All): an intimate cocktail of intoxicating lyrics and irrepressible, sweat-drenched beats.
In recent years salsa musicians from such places as Havana, Panama, Colombia and Argentina have made their home in the Spanish capital, joining forces with Spanish musicians to create various hybrid forms of salsa fused with African and Middle Eastern sounds. In Madrid, this melting pot of vibrant musical influences is easy to discover, from Cuban folk and Puerto Rican peasant dances to the tribal drumming of the Western Sahara. Visitors keen to experience Madrid’s sassiest dance form will need to wait until at least midnight when restaurants begin clearing the last dinner plates and city’s salsatecos begin to fill. Entering a salsa bar can be like joining a theatrical production where the dance floor is the stage and the salseros the actors. To the 1-2-3-touch, 5-6-7-touch of a pulsating, syncopated beat a moving sea of dancers revels in physical, musical and philosophical synch. Through shifting moods and tempos, couples sustain an intense level of inter-body communication as tendrils of salsa passion ignite.
Pick up a Guía del Ocio from any street corner kiosk for a comprehensive list of salsa lessons, venues and festivals, plus upcoming events. Madrid’s premier salsa joints include the trendy Barnon (17 Santa Engracia), tropical Azúcar (Pº Reina Cristina, 7, near Atocha Railway Station) and the fiesta-loving El Son (Victoria 6, Metro Sol, near Puerta del Sol). The city’s oldest salsateca, O’zona (Av. Mediterráneo, 12 Metro Conde de Casal o Menéndez Pelayo), may boast a pocket-sized dance-floor, but for a shock of sensual energy few can compare. A blaze of fast-paced spins and turns ensure a night of tight-fit dances among the salsa throng. Once the triple-twirls fade into a dreamy, slow-tempo salsa romántica, you’ll know daybreak has arrived.
Dance a fiery salsa for a burst of sensual energy.
006 SAN SEBASTIAN
CONTACT Cantabria Tourist Department Tel: +34 942 208 299 Fax: +34 942 208 286 www.turismodecantabria.com
Romance in Spain conjures up visions of delicious tapas and free-flowing sangria overlooking the sea. Sharing mouth-watering regional delicacies in a warm sea breeze epitomises the beguiling romantic mellowness of the Spanish coastline where exquisite seafood dining wows gastronomes from around the world, especially in San Sebastian in the north. Chefs throughout Spain speak of San Sebastian in gushing superlatives; this gastronomic stomping ground boasts extraordinary acclaim. Blessed by food-rich geography, San Sebastian (or Donostia in Basque) is the nation’s gourmand capital: an epicurean epicentre that boasts the highest concentrations of Michelin stars on the planet. Gourmet dining is a way of life in San Sebastian where menus deserving of rapturous applause are tantamount to the city’s daily bread. Stroll around San Sebastian’s scallop-shaped bay to discover rich and sumptuous culinary genius, be it a cosy, family-run cafe or a seductive candle-lit bistro. Everyone is a connoisseur in this gastronomic heaven where food is exalted with near-religious fervour and wine consumed with devout zeal. Dubbed ‘The Best Place to Eat on Earth’, San Sebastian draws on some outstanding regional ingredients, from succulent sardines, squid and tuna to tangy sheep’s-milk cheeses and juicy berries.
