Budget Travel Online, the online arm of the famed Budget Travel Magazine has come up with an article on the gourmet scene of Barcelona.
The structure of the article is similar to other travel guides or major newspapers that send out armies of travel writers attempting to dissect the local food scene.
Read the article here and enjoy your meal!
This was going to be a book review, but Jewish Roots in Spain by Koldo Chamorro is more of a pictorial than anything else. And the pictures in this book speak of the amazing Jewish heritage in Spain (or Sepharad, as they call Spain in Modern Hebrew).
Spain's history up to 1492 is a study in tolerance and peaceful coexistence of three different ethnic/religious groups: Muslims, Jews (Sephardim), and Christians. While various cities had either Muslim or Christian rulers, all three groups thrived under an almost paradisiacal harmony. The Jewish community in Spain was an important player in the country's politics and finances, regardless of its regional leaders. Sadly, Ferdinand and Isabella wanted a Catholic Spain and forced the Jewish community into a long exile.
They left behind a rich cultural heritage, visible today in the Jewish quarters (or Juderias) of cities like Toledo, Seville, Tarazona, Besalu, Cordoba, Segovia, Hervas, Tudela, Olite, Calatayud, Chelva, Montblanc, Albaracin, Xativa, Sagunto, Girona, Caceres, Daroca, Barcelona, Peniscola.
Do not miss Cordoba's Synagogue, Toledo's Sinagoga del Transito and Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca, as well as Toledo's Sephardic Museum. An interesting piece of trivia: Toledo's famed house of El Greco was actually built and owned by Samuel Levi, treasurer to King Pedro I.
A vacation package following the Jewish Heritage theme is the 8-nighter Spanish Sepharad train package which takes you through Madrid, Cordoba, Girona, and Barcelona or the car and train package Jewish Heritage that adds Toledo to the previously mentioned route.
For a better understanding of Spain's Jewish community contribution to the World Heritage, let us not forget the great intellectual figures of yester-Sepharad: Yehuda Ha-Levi, Shlomo ibn Gabirol - poet born in Malaga, Samuel ibn Negrella, Abraham ibn Ezra, Dunash ibn Labrat, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, Isaac Abravenel, Nahmanides, Samuel Halevi, Abraham Zacut, and Maimonides.
Again, from the same excellent series published in the NY Times, Affordable Europe: Barcelona by Andrew Ferren will attempt to show you the best deals in Barcelona.
As far the cheap eats, best deals on cultural events, best things to do for free, and best money saving tips are concerned, Andrew Ferren is providing quite valuable information. However, when it comes to hotels,I must say that booking a hotel room without having the savings built into a package is not the most efficient way to go about traveling. Not to mention there are plenty of not-so-expensive hotel options in Barcelona.
See article on Barcelona in the NY Times.
Packages including Barcelona:
- Madrid - Barcelona;
- Paris - Barcelona;
- Barcelona - Milan;
- Madrid - Valencia - Barcelona;
- Madrid - Granada - Barcelona;
- Artistic Treasures of Spain;
- London - Paris - Barcelona;
- Barcelona - Madrid - Lisbon;
- Barcelona - Paris - Venice - Rome;