Gaudi’s Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family, Plaza de Catalunya, Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, Magic Fountain of Montjuïc... Even for novice tourists is not difficult to find these famous attractions in Spain. But many travelers want to see the hidden nooks of the country even not know how to find these. Here a private tour guide comes to the aid of having at least four or five offers of the most unusual places of this royal state.
Plaça d'Espanya is one of the most significant squares in the city of Barcelona, constructed on the event of the Barcelona International Exposition in 1928, harbored at the bottom of Montjuïc mountain. One of the city's largest squares, it is the intersection of several principal streets and boulevards: Avinguda del Paral·lel, Gran Via de Les Corts Catalanes, Carrer de Tarragona, Carrer de la Creu Coberta and guides to the Palau Nacional via Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, which shelters some Catalonia's best museums, such as the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC). The spray at the middle of the square was created in Barocco style. Many famous and popular buildings are concentrated in this place which is very recommended to explore in a company of a local private tour guide who you can easily find on our web services. Barcelonian local tour guides speak many European languages and tell you not only about the prominent Gaudi edifices but also many other notorious stories born in the city of temptations! So, famous buildings are:
- Venetian Towers - they are 48 m (155 ft) in height and show the way to the MNAC via Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, a highway generally utilized to host trade fairs, big gay summer festivals, rock concerts, etc.
- Fira de Barcelona
- Parc de Joan Miró - previously known as Parc de l'Escorxador (Abattoir Park), today it is named after the famous local Catalan artist Joan Miró, whose 22-meter-tall sculptures Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird) is visible in one of its corners of the park.
- Arenas de Barcelona, a former bullring (bullfighting is strictly and officially forbidden in Catalunia nowadays) - Arena was constructed in 1900 in the Moorish Revival style and has been transformed into a huge contemporary shopping Mall.
The square was made on a location that had been formerly operated for public hangings until the invention of the now-destroyed Ciutadella fortification in 1714, where the gallows were repositioned. It was developed in 1914 and assembled in 1928 so that it could be ready to welcome the Universal Exposition in 1929. Plaça d'Espanya is also a primary transport city and a regional hub that fits most regions of the Barcelonian Metropolitan Area.
Color river Rio Tinto
"Bloody" they call otherwise a waterway that originates in the mountains of Andalusia. Its deep red is due to the high saturation of acids and heavy metals. Of course, you shouldn’t swim there, but if you want to explore it, or walk along the coast and capture it as a memento on your camera, here you go!
Foreigners unanimously note the strangeness of this place. A huge local Corta Atalaya open-pit mine with Red lake at the bottom is of great interest too. There are no fish or other animals, there do no growing algae: the remaining mines continue to supply the water with toxic chemicals, and do not give any chance to develop a single organism but only hordes of various bacteria.
According to NASA, the area of the valleys of the "red" river is similar to Mars's surface
The small town of Segovia: the number of places is limited!
To have a stop in Segovia (an autonomous community of Castile and León) for the night is not so simple: the town, stretching along the ridge, 90 km northwest of Madrid, is small, but there are a lot of people willing to enjoy its beauty. A private tour guide can suggest two options: going on a tour back and forth renting a car or booking accommodation in advance and staying there overnight.
Why is it so attractive in this area which isn’t the most common?
- Architectural works of Alcazar, the prototype of Disney's Magic Castle.
- Roman aqueduct, built of granite blocks with no cement at all.
- Graceful Castilian churches.
- Picturesque places, Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range, green hills, Castilian villages.
The arches in Segovia reach a height of 28 m
Kingdom of vineyards in La Rioja
If the tourist prefers hiking and is a pristine nature lover, ask him to go to the north of Spain in the province of La Rioja. This thriving wine-producing region is famous for its vast vineyards, located on the seven valleys. This holiday will be appreciated by the quiet atmosphere lovers who do not mind tasting Spanish wine at lunchtime.
Among the local scenery, you can find a chamois, or witness wild birds hunting small animals
Walking in a usual forest will seem boring to some people. However, if between the splendid trees the traveler "will fall across" an office with glass walls, is improbable he will remain indifferent. This masterpiece is located near Madrid and belongs to an architectural bureau, which comes to the organization of its employees' workplaces in such an unusual way. This solution can be rightfully considered to be one of the most unique corners of the country.
The structure is placed in the only left free area on the property in the forest next to Madrid. In sequence with the studio’s reoccurring compositions, the construction is sunk into the soil. It also has a very precise ranking, because the architectors José Seglas and Lucía Cano desire the studio to remain little: The headquarters consists of one space, which is only approximately 70 m2, 3,8 meters in width extending along 20 meters with a height of about 2.4 meters – 1,1 of which are below the bottom – the office can only be entered via stairs on the north flank. The south-facing round wall is formed from a 110mm dense, insulated fiberglass and polyester wrap, showing shadow from natural daylight, while the north-facing border presents a view outside via its 20mm thick, curved glass made of translucent acrylic.
Architects combined urbanization and nature in such a non-standard solution
La Pedriza is a geological famous spot on the southern inclines of the mountain range of Guadarrama which undoubtedly has a scenic and relaxation attraction. Admission is from Manzanares el Real, a metropolis in the northwest of Madrid in Spain. Geological powers have formed a fantastic boulder area of strangely corrupted granitic hollows, and about a thousand rock ascent trails of all complications are open to cliff climbers, completing it an extremely famous spot for rock climbers, primarily due to its closeness to Madrid. Hiking is also widespread in La Pedriza, especially on Saturdays and Sundays.
It is one of the biggest granitic scopes of Europe and bears multiple elevations, cliffy rocks, creeks, and meadows. The 33 km sq of La Pedriza lies within the Regional Park of the lofty river basin of the Manzanares, the most extensive park of the Madrid Community. In this zone, greenery is sparse, but there are Mediterranean shrubs like the stone rose and mountain sorts like Fabaceae. The fauna is rich in birds of prey; the breeding colony of over 100 pairs of griffon vultures is the biggest in the local area.
This natural area has been the scene of some movie shootings such as The Fall of the Roman Empire, Conan the Barbarian, and El Cid.
Extremadura for wildlife lovers
If a tourist asks you to send him "to the least visited but very beautiful place", safely offer him Extremadura. This small province is located on the western edge of Spain, bordering Portugal. Lovers of wildlife will be delighted by rocky cliffs, green plains, vast forests, and hovering over their heads eagles, falcons, and vultures. When you reach the pastures, you will meet hundreds of Iberian pigs grazing wild and gaining weight for the future delicious jamón.
Trujillo Castle is located on a rocky part of the city called Cabezo de Zorro, and this place was not chosen by chance, as it offers an excellent view of the plain and this makes it possible to control a large area around the city of Trujillo. Trujillo Castle, since its construction in the 8th century, has been rebuilt several times over the following centuries, the most grandiose change occurred under King Alfonso in the 13th century, when he won back this territory for Christians. The Kingdom of Castile used the castle as part of a defensive ring. There is an arched entrance between the two main bastions of the fortress, it has which has the shape of a horseshoe, and the fortress wall with battlement ornaments has a strictly rectangular perimeter. Above the entrance to the squalor is a fresco of the Virgin de la Victoria, who is the patron saint of the city of Trujillo. Inside the fortress, you can visit Parade Square and the residents' area where the townspeople lived, this area has an Arabic name Alcabara. The square holds all traces of Islamic architecture, a square form with prism-shaped towers along the edges, and the central entrance to the fortress dates from the same Islamic period. There you can also see 2 storage tanks for storing drinking water in case of a siege of the fortress and the preserved chapel of the Virgen de la Victoria. One of the cisterns is open to the public, you can walk in here by a wooden bridge and find yourself under the vaulted high ceiling of the cistern. The urban area of Alcabara appeared approximately in the 14th century, it also has a strictly rectangular shape and consists of galleries from the 16th century. On the walls of the buildings inside the complex, you can recognize the inscriptions in Arabic and Latin. Such a cinematic setting could not fail to attract the attention of filmmakers, and the fortress has repeatedly become a living backdrop for historic films.
There is also the Monfragüe Nature Reserve, recognized as a national park. In between the "wild" nature walks you can offer to visit the quarter of Caceres watchtowers, walk through the medieval cobbled streets and stop in Badajoz, a historic area with architectural monuments in the Arab style.
Plaza Alta, newly renovated, was for ages the epicenter of Badajoz when it overextended the limitations of the Muslim fortification; it was previously learned just as "the square". Spanish flamenco guitar player and artist Paco de Lucía made a concert on the Plaza Alta in 2014. Badajoz is the capital of one of the provinces of Extremadura in Spain. It is settled close to the border with Portugal, on the Guadiana river's left bank. The number of inhabitants in 2012 was 160000.
Initially a territory by parties such as the Visigoths and Romans, its earlier appellation was Civitas Pacensis. Badajoz was defeated by the Moors in the 7th century, and evolved into a Moorish kingdom. After the Reconquista, the province was argued between Portugal and Spain for several ages with alternating control resulting in numerous wars such as the Spanish War of Succession in 1706, the War of Peninsular at the beginning of 19 century, and the Civil War in Spain in 1935. The history of the whole country is mostly reflected in the history of this little town.
The city has a capacity of excellence, crowned as it is by the remainings of the castle of Moor and overseeing the river of Guadiana flowing among the castle hills and the extremely armed citadel of San Cristobal. The architecture of Badajoz is expressive of its turbulent past; actually, the Badajoz Cathedral, constructed in 1242, corresponds to a fort, with enormous barricades.
These places often become a discovery even for the Spaniards themselves: many of the native people not only haven’t been there but haven’t even heard about them. For newcomers, such unusual attractions discover the country from the other unknown side.
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