All you need in Spain

June 18th ,2007
Barcelona

All you will ever need in Spain is a good pair of walking shoes, bread and water. The shoes are the most important part, since there is a lot of walking involved, and you do want to explore every single corner in every place visited.
During this past week, we have been in Madrid, Burgos, San Sebastian, Bilbao, and Pamplona, today we are in Barcelona. All of these cities have been influenced by the Hapsburgs and Bourbons. San Sebastian and Burgos were strongly influence by the Hapsburgs, especially with architecture. The Hapsburgs were obsessed with making everything grand and paid attention to the minute detail, in the Sagrada Familia cathedral there many references to the Holy Trinity, and the Holy family all represented in several different views and forms.

The Bourbons were sent to centralize Spain with authority. This created a power struggle with the Bureaucrats, new ideas were coming in by these immigrants and people resisted, which explains why people in Barcelona are still very reserved and conservative, although people are still friendly is you approach them with a smile, they are still not as warm as other parts of Spain that we have visited.