Archive for 'Curiosities in Spain'

The popular seaside resort town of Alicante is famous for her excellent beaches, her great weather, her charming old town with its brightly coloured buildings and pretty winding streets and alleys, her numerous parks and open spaces, her palm tree flanked shopping streets, and her vibrant nightlife. If you have found a vacation rental in Alicante and are exploring everything that she has to offer, then you will likely work up an appetite and find yourself in need of sustenance. The best part of renting an apartment or villa is that you have access to a kitchen and if you’re a travelling foodie, you’ll probably want the chance to play around with some local ingredients during your stay. To source the freshest food in the prettiest of surroundings, just head to the Mercado Central de Alicante (Central Market of Alicante) and shop the various stalls that are housed within.

Located on the central shopping street of Calle de Alfonso X the Wise, the Central Market of Alicante is an architectural gem that was built under J. Vidal Ramos between 1911 and 1912. With an elaborate and ornate façade featuring modernist-inspired elements, the building is on a rectangular plan and built in the style of a basilica, with a tacked-on addition to the south-west corner that is topped by a semispherical cupola and called La Rotonda.

The Basque Country of Spain is a place with an incredibly long and rich cultural heritage and, as a result, is home to some astounding buildings, monuments, tourist attractions, and museums. While the most visited museum in the region is the world-renowned and impossibly famous Guggenheim, the lesser-known Bilbao Museum of Fine Art is actually also well-worth checking out while you’re in the area. With one of the richest collections in the country, a diverse range of offerings from the 6th century BC to the present day, and some incredibly famous names represented among the works on display, the museum is a must-see for art lovers who have found a vacation rental in Basque Country.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao (Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao) was established in 1908 but remained without a permanent home until one could be built for it in 1945. The resulting building, a lovely neoclassical gem, remains home to its collection to this day, though it was expanded in 1970 and then again in 2001 (another extension is also currently in the planning stages in 2019) to afford additional space for the growing number of works of art housed within its walls. Said collection was first created upon the merging of the collections of the previous and original Museo de Bellas Artes (which had been inaugurated in 1914) and the Museo de Arte Moderno (which had been inaugurated in 1924) and brought the two under one roof together.

If you are looking for an outing that the whole family can enjoy or are simply interested in aquariums, in general, then one of the must-see attractions for those who have found a holiday rental in Mallorca has to be the Palma Aquarium. Located in Palma, Mallorca, the aquarium was opened back in 2007 and is a truly extraordinary attraction that boasts lots to see and lots to learn. Welcoming around 400,000 visitors per year and around 1,000 per day, you could, and should, be among those numbers on your next trip to Mallorca.

Palma Aquarium is owned by Coral World International and located just 500m from the Playa de Palma beach. It houses 55 different tanks containing over 5 million litres of salt water, 8,000 different specimens, and 700 different species, which come from the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There are over 300 species of living coral alone and it is one of the few aquariums in Europe where all the coral decorating the tanks is real and alive. In addition, it is also one of the few aquariums to have its own coral reproduction program, which has birthed new coral colonies on site.

A few years back, a friend moved to Madrid for a girl and while he might have fallen out of love with her, he quickly fell for the city. He told all of us that we had to visit, that he had so much to show us, so many places to eat, views to take in. When an artist I liked planned a stop in Madrid along their European tour and none for Ireland, I took it as an opportunity to see him play, explore the city, and visit my friend. He had, indeed put together a rather intense itinerary and rushed me around from place to place in order to see it all. I grew frustrated at being dragged around in the heat and not being allowed to rest for more than five minutes (during our flying visit to the city’s famous El Retiro Park) but, we did eventually get a chance to rest. The place he deemed worth sitting with a cold beer, some jamón, and other snacks? It was the beautiful Plaza Mayor.

Popular among tourists and locals alike – something that is no mean feat in any city – the Plaza Mayor is a town square at the centre of the city and is a perfectly symmetrical and satisfying architectural gem filled with history, some great eateries, and some wonderful little stores. If you have found a vacation rental in Madrid and are planning on spending time exploring the city, it is likely that you may end up there anyway, pulled by the seemingly innate tide of the crowds that are to be found wandering the winding streets of the historic centre of the city on any given day but, if not, be sure to make a point to plan a pit-stop here.

Villajoyosa, or La Vila Joiosa, is a picture-perfect seaside city, often simply known as “La Vila” to locals, in the Province of Alicante in Spain. With the most idyllic of beaches – picture fluffy white crescents of sand meeting crystal clear cerulean water – and a town populated by pretty little streets lined in a veritable rainbow of crayon-box-coloured buildings, there is no doubt that it has all of the visual appeal that one could hope for from a town on the Mediterranean Sea. However, there is also plenty to see and do. If you have found a vacation rental in Valencia and you’re looking for somewhere to spend the day, you could not even dream of more perfect place to do so.

Literally meaning “joyful town”, Villajoyosa is a pretty extraordinary spot along the famous Costa Blanca that boasts 3km of beaches, including La Platja Centre, right by the city centre. It is also famous for its chocolate industry and tourism and has an exceptionally pretty Old Town, all of which amounts to plenty of reasons to be joyful and joyful experiences for visitors who find themselves in the city.