Spain

Spain! The season of festivals and fiestas is revving up to full throttle, from streets carpeted in flowers to films-by-the-sea, from the running of the bulls to concerts and ballet in the gardens of the caliphs. Paella and sangria are world-famous, but you need to know about an evolving cuisine whose contemporary practitioners are as daring and celebrated as any on the planet. You've heard about the eyepopping Guggenheim Museum that has transformed Bilbao, but you should also know about Gaudi and the modernista architects who made Barcelona as visually arresting a city as any in Europe. The capital, Madrid, has over fifty museums and a palace with 2,600 rooms. There are tropical islands, hidden hilltowns, Roman cities in Spain. The mountains have snow past Spring and the nightclubs thump on past dawn.