SPAIN

Tourist Attractions

Once away from the holiday costas, you could only be in Spain. In the cities, narrow twisting old streets suddenly open out to views of daring modern architecture, while spit-and-sawdust bars serving wine from the barrel rub shoulders with blaring, glaring discos.

Travel is easy, accommodation plentiful, the climate benign, the people relaxed, the beaches long and sandy, the food and drink easy to come by and full of regional variety. More than 50 million foreigners a year visit Spain, yet you can also travel for days and hear nothing but Spanish.

Plaza Mayor

It is a central plaza in the city of Madrid and is located only few metres away from another famous plaza, the Puerta del Sol. Originally it was called the "Plaza del Arrabal". The building is rectangular in shape, and it is surrounded by three-story residential buildings having 237 balconies. It has a total of nine entranceways. The Plaza Mayor has markets, traditional shops and cafes. Bullfights, soccer games, public executions and many more things can be seen there.

Rambles (Les)

It is the name given to a series of streets, which are joined together one after the other. It starts from Plaça Catalunya and continues till the sea. The word rambla comes from the Arabic term, ramla, which means a riverbed. This name is given to these streets as it actually used to be a riverbed that channelled the water coming from Collserola hill. Convents and churches were built on both sides of the Ramblas in the 13th century and then these streets were named after these religious buildings.

Maria Luisa Park

The park is designed like the Plaza de España in a mix of 1920's Art Deco and mock Mudejar by the architect, Anibal Gonzalez. It belonged to the Palace of San Telmo . It was donated to the city by the Duchess of Montpensier, the Princess Maria Luisa Fernanda de Orleans at June 19th 1893 It was at that time, the beginning of the 20th century, when the Mayor made the French engineer Forestier restructure the park and then it became the main area of this exhibition. The buildings in the park belonged to this exhibition. The rest of the pavillions are around the park. They were buildt in neocolonial style.

One of the most beautiful sites of the park is the plaza dedicated to the poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Mercado Central

One of Europe's largest markets and a masterpiece of modernist architecture, Valencia´s Mercado Central is a joyously lively, colourful and welcoming place to do your shopping. Visit in the morning and you'll see an astounding array of fresh produce attractively displayed in all the stalls. It opened in 1928 opposite La Lonja. It's a huge 8000 square metre expanse of steel and glass decorated with typically colourful Valencian ceramic tiles. Proud local architects Soler March and Guardia Vich even included the colours of the regional flag (Senyera) in its windows.

Arc de Triomphe(Paris):-

It is a monument which is located in centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle. The Arch salutes all the soldiers who fought for France. It was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806.With a height of 51 meters and a width of 45 meters, it is the second largest triumphal arch among all those which exists today. The Arch is access via an underpass. It has one lift. Tourist can either access the top of Arch by climbing the stairs or taking the lift.