From serious, grand, museum rich Madrid to flamboyant Barcelona to Seville with its Moorish domes and impassioned flamenco, Spain has a pastiche of riches and displays them in both historic and cutting edge ways. Take a step into the past with Granada’s elaborate Moorish palace the Alhambra or glimpse the forward-leaning present with Frank Gehry’s silver ribbon-like masterpiece for the Guggenheim in Bilbao and his other design fantasy, the Hotel Marques de Riscal in Rioja. Or else just relax on a beautiful beach in Mallorca or the jet set party island Ibiza. In every part of the country, the gastronomy dazzles, from boquerones (white anchovies) and jamon iberico (delicate cured ham) in tapas bars to the temple of pushing-the-envelope dishes, the world famous El Bulli.
