We’ve been visiting Spain regularly since the late 1980s. From our base on the Costa del Sol we’ve travelled widely across Spain. In recent years we’ve written up our journeys for this section of the website. From our earlier travels we have a collection of photographs and we’ve reproduced some of them here, to provide a flavour of the places we visited. The trips between 1988 and 2007 were with my late partner Colin Hood. The 2009 and 2010 trips were as a Tour Manager with Great Rail Journeys. They date from before we had a mobile phone with a decent camera and were taken with cheap cameras then scanned in, so the quality of some of them isn’t great. However, we hope you enjoy them and we are happy to answer queries about these places, should you wish to know a little more. The photographs are organised by the autonomous regions of Spain, in alphabetical order. Enjoy.
Canarias / Canary Islands
Gran Canaria
In 1988 we visited Gran Canaria, staying in Puerto Rico and travelling around the island from there.
For our more recent visits to the Canary Islands see La Gomera & La Palma and A week in Lanzarote .
Cantabria
Santillana del Mar
Santillana del Mar is a beautiful village, west of Santander, which we visited in 1998, staying in the Parador
Castilla y León
Ávila
Ávila is the capital of the province of the same name, located between Madrid and Salamanca, which we visited in 2002.
Salamanca
A view of the facade of the 16th century Catedral Nueva (new cathedral). It is a tradition that each time the stonework is refurbished the masons leave a signature of their work and this is from the renovation in 1992
Segovia
We visited Segovia, famous for its Roman aqueduct, in 1990, as a day trip from Madrid.
Zamora
Another of Castilla y León’s provincial capitals, in 1995
We passed through Salamanca and Zamora once more in 2016, but paused only to change buses. For our trip through Castilla y León see Western Spain – from Galicia to Andalucia . Also in the region we visited Burgos in 2023 – see Spain to UK by train 2023 .
Castilla-La Mancha
Toledo
Toledo is the regional capital of Castilla-La Mancha and is a historic city within day-trip distance of Madrid.
More recently we’ve paid several visits to the small city of Cuenca. For details see Alicante and Cuenca .
Catalunya /Cataluña / Catalonia
Barcelona
The capital of Catalunya, Barcelona, is a fascinating and busy city, unfortunately suffering from overtourism, but very much worth a visit. We visited four times between 1990 and 2005, when it was still possible to wander around the main sites without being part of a huge crowd.
Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia Basilica has been under construction since 1882 and is now almost complete.
and, finally, from 2010
The Plaça Reial, just off the Ramblas, in 1990
Parc Guell and La Pedrera-Casa Mila, both designed by Gaudi.
The Transbordador Aeri – a cable car across Baarcelona’s harbour from Barceloneta to Montjuic.
Montserrat
The mountain of Montserrat, 40km northwest of Barcelona, with its monastery, photographed in 2009.
In more recent years we have visited other areas of Catalunya, including the provinces of Lleida (see Zaragoza and Tarragona ) and Girona (see The Catalan Coast ). In 2024 we visited Barcelona once more, using it as a base to travel to Vall de Nuria in the Pyrenees ( Back to the UK by train 2024 ).
Communidad de Madrid
Madrid
We paid several visits to Madrid between 1990 and 2010. More recently we have only passed through briefly, changing trains.
El Escorial
Not far from the capital is the huge sixteenth century monastery of El Escorial, which we visited in 2009.
Extremadura
Cáceres
En route from Madrid to Lisbon in 1992 we travelled through Extremadura by train and spent a couple of days in the provincial capital of Cáceres.
We passed through Cáceres once more in 2016, en route to Trujillo and the regional capital Mérida (see from Galicia to Andalucia ), and reached Badajoz in 2018 ( see Huelva and Badajoz ).
Galicia
In 2002 we travelled around the west coast of Galicia, staying in Santiago de Compostela and Pontevedra.
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of Galicia, famous as a pilgrimage centre – the cathedral marks the end of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes from neighbouring countries and across Spain.
Noia
Noia, which we visited from Santiago, is a small town at the head of one of the Galician rías (fjords).
Pontevedra
Pontevedra is an old Galega town and provincial capital, between Santiago and the Portuguese border,
Cangas
From Pontevedra we reached Vigo by bus to Cangas and a ferry across the ría.
Vigo
Vigo is the largest city in Galicia and is a commercial centre and fishing port.
More recently we’ve begun two trips by flying into Santiago Airport. In 2014, we then headed to A Coruña and along the north coast of Galicia to Asturias (see The Galicia trip ). In 2016 we began our journey through Western Spain with a visit to the Galician town of Lugo (see from Galicia to Andalucia ).
Illes Balears / Balearic Islands
Mallorca
Our only visit to the Balearics (so far) was to Mallorca in 2007, and these photos are from that trip.
The Tren de Soller
Soller
Pais Vasco / Euskadi / The Basque Country
Donostia / San Sebastián
We previously visited the region in 1998, when we arrived at Bilbao by ferry – sorry, no photos. We returned to Bilbao in 2022 (see Bilbao and Logroño )and passed through the area by train in 2023 (see Spain to UK by train 2023 ).
Principado de Asturias
On our 1998 trip along the north coast of Spain we stayed in Llanes and the regional capital of Oviedo, seeing the sites by narrow-gauge train and sampling the local cider, before heading south to Andalucía.
Llanes
Oviedo
We arrived in Asturias by train once more in 2016, this time calling at Cudillero and Áviles (see The Galicia trip ).
The remaining regions of Spain:
Almost all of the remaining regions of Spain – Andalucía, Aragón, Comunidad Valenciana, La Rioja and Región de Murcia – are covered by our more recent journeys, the accounts of which are in this section of the site. The only region of mainland Spain in which we have never stayed a night is Comunidad Foral de Navarra / Navarra, only passing through briefly by train. We have never visited the autonomous city of Melilla, on the African Coast. Also on the coast of Africa, we visited the autonomous city of Ceuta on a day trip from Algeciras in 1984, but without a camera.
Photographs: All photographs are by Steve Gillon, except those of Steve, which were taken by Colin Hood using Steve’s camera.
Copyright: Text and photos are copyright © Steve Gillon, 2024
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