Las Ramblas—the legendary, tree-lined street through central Barcelona—is actually a series of five shorter streets (Rambla de Canaletes, Rambla dels Estudis, Rambla de Sant Josep,
Rambla dels Caputxins and Rambla de Santa Monica) plus a wooden walkway known as Rambla de Mar.
May 30 in Seville is the day of San Fernando, or Saint Ferdinand. In life, he was Fernando III—the "III" because he was also king of the Spanish kingdoms of Castile and León—and he famously led the Catholic reconquering of Seville from the Moors in 1248. He died on May 30, 1252.
This may not sound terribly interesting yet, but I'm getting to the good part: Every May 30 in the Seville Cathedral, a gold and silver altar is opened to reveal none other than the preserved remains of Fernando.
The annual event is open to the public (that's how I got in). Though no photos are allowed, the video below (perhaps unauthorized) captures the official "opening" ceremony and provides a close-enough view of Fernando to make out the royal garb and kingly crown.
Note the soldiers standing dutifully by; San Fernando is not just a religious figure but a military one as well.
Five hundred years ago, Spain was the seat of a great empire. But considering the decline that started with the loss of the Armada in 1588 and bottomed out with the loss of Cuba in 1898—only to be capped off by a brutal civil war and a long dictatorship—one might say the Spaniards have had a rough spell.
And yet, over the past few years, Spain has seemed to get its groove back. Its exports are no longer just oranges, olive oil and cured ham (though those are still all very worthy of note). Consider, if you will, the New Spain:
As the name already suggests, Miguel de Cervantes' legendary book, Don Quixote de La Mancha (published in 1605) was set on the windswept and sparsely populated plateau region called Castilla-La Mancha.
There on La Mancha, Don Quixote—a delusional old man who's lost his mind from reading too many books on chivalry—goes to battle to defend the honor of a princess called Dulcinea. But Dulcinea isn't really a princess—she's a farm girl. The enemies Don Quixote battles aren't really giants—they're windmills. And what Don Quixote thinks are castles aren't really castles—they're roadside inns.
But La Mancha is really La Mancha, even four centuries later. The landscape of La Mancha that served as Cervantes' backdrop hasn't changed all that much in 400 years. Castilla-La Mancha remains Spain's least populated region, and EF groups passing through can see authentic windmills of Cervantes' time along the horizon.
Isla de Santa Clara is a tiny isle in the center of La Concha Bay in San Sebastián, Spain. According to Bay.TV, ferry service from the harbor transforms the island into the city's fourth beach.
I find this photo of Isla de Santa Clara simply mesmerizing. The depth of focus makes that little lighthouse perched on that small piece of land look almost surreal. This photo was taken by greyxsilveredxskullz, who submitted it to the EF Tours group on Flickr.
If you have any interesting photos from your own travels, please submit them to the EF pool on Flickr. We choose a new Photo of the Week every Thursday.
La Giralda is the centerpiece of the city of Seville, Spain (map). It remains to this day the tallest structure in Seville, by law. The Giralda was built in 1198 and spent its early years as the huge single minaret of a Moorish mosque; it was so big, in fact, that it was the world's tallest structure at the time.
Conquering (and cathedral-building) Christians couldn't bear to tear down such a world-class tower, and instead incorporated it as a bell tower in their grand cathedral. Perhaps sensing the monumental Moorish tower would forever call their cathedral chump, the Christians built the medieval equivalent of the Mall of America: the Cathedral of Seville is the second-largest medieval cathedral in the world, behind only St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Seville's famous military watchtower has been known for centuries as Torre del Oro, which means "gold tower" in Spanish. However, the exact origins of the tower's name are a bit unclear.
The popular explanation for Torre del Oro's name is that it may have once been covered in golden tiles, like the ones that still cover its dome. Another naming theory suggests that the tower was used to securely store precious metals during the Middle Ages.
However, at least one source, says that the tower was named Torre del Oro in 1248, "when Fernando III gave it to an Italian named Nicoloso de la Torre del Oro."
Whichever theory you believe, there's no doubt the tower lives up to its name when it's illuminated at night.
The traditional language of Carcassonne—the French medieval walled city that we wrote about earlier—is called Occitan.
Occitan is a language spoken at least partially by about 3 million people in Occitania, a cultural territory that includes parts of south France (including Carcassonne), Monaco, Italy and Spain.
A Romance language, Occitan is most similar to Catalan, one of three official languages of Catalonia in northeast Spain. The other two official languages are Spanish (of course) and Aranese, which is a dialect of Occitan.
"The joy I have found in watching students learn and grow has made traveling with students one of the best decisions I’ve made in my teaching career," says EF Group Leader Susan Pennington, an English and public speaking teacher at Nerinx Hall High School in St. Louis, Missouri.
Read on to learn why Susan keeps traveling abroad and for some tips on planning an EF tour of your own.
What inspired you to begin traveling abroad with students? When I teach poetry, fiction and creative writing, I use the images and experiences that permeate my brain to help me to understand literature and life. For me, many of these powerful images and experiences are from trips I have taken to Europe. About six years ago, I realized that if my students had similar experiences, they might make better connections between the things they study and the ways of the world, past and present. When all this collided in my head, I decided I needed to take students to Europe to give them their own special images and experiences.
Now, it's not only mapping ancient civilizations (such as its Ancient Rome in 3D layer), but Google Earth also has started mapping masterpieces.
The famed Prado art museum in Madrid and Google yesterday unveiled 14 paintings that have been mapped in ultra-high resolution for an even-more-than-up-close view in Google Earth.
This is the 320th post of 2008 at Following the Equator, and we decided to commemorate our blog's first full calendar year with a top-10 list of favorite posts.
We had a lot of stories, videos, photos, interviews, tips and perspectives about educational travel. We launched some regular weekly features, including our Tip of the Week and Photo of the Week. We debuted Life on Tour, introduced EF on YouTube and EF on Facebook and promoted the EF Tours group on Flickr (above). And, along the way, we encountered a lot of inspiring travelers.
Following the Equator also was nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award and finished fifth out of 1,177 blogs for Best Travel Blog. Thank you to everyone who supported our blog in 2008 by voting, reading, sharing, commenting and subscribing. We're looking forward to an even more successful 2009.
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