The south is a heck of a lot hotter than the north, and is famed for its Mediterranean beaches, dry weather, tapas, and flamenco. When you get up into the north, and some of the more mountainous areas of Spain, you’ll come across a wilder beauty, colder weather, and a lot more rain. Here you have the Death Coast (Costa da Morte) on the Atlantic Ocean, which can be battered by some pretty fierce storms, hence the scary name. The south has its storms too, but a lot more sun and heat.

The south has much more tourism than the north. People from all over Europe come here to buy houses and apartments, holiday homes, or to retire. They want to take full advantage of the sun in places like Costa del Sol. The north has pristine beaches as well, and in some ways they are more untouched that in the south, but they don’t get nearly as much light, and for this reason, most of Spain’s foreign guests flock to the south.

Since the south gobbles up most of the tourist trade, the north relies on other industries, like mining, ship building and manufacturing.  As far as cuisine goes, the north tends to have heartier food than the south, where seafood reigns supreme. Some people believe southerners are a bit friendlier than the northerners. Perhaps it’s because southerners get a lot more sun. Regardless, every part of Spain has something unique to offer, from great food and wonderful wines, to local traditions, dances and architectural monuments. At least now you know a little more about some or the general differences between the north and the south of Spain. Hopefully, you’ll get to see it all.

Problems arise for teachers from non-EU countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA), due to the fact that getting a working visa for Spain can be pretty tough. While the demand is there, the bureaucracy in place often proves to be a huge headache for teachers who come from outside of Europe.

But don’t lose hope. Americans and Australians can find work in Spain. It will simply be a lot more difficult. Getting a school to sponsor you, when the school can just hire someone from England or Ireland (who doesn’t need sponsorship) can be tricky at times. If you have an ‘in’ at some teaching institution, don’t be shy about using it. It is possible to work without papers, or ‘under the table,’ but that experience can be hit and miss. While you won’t be paying taxes, you won’t get any benefits (social security) or have any legal rights, should an employer withhold pay or cheat you in any way.

Some language schools prefer American English, so if you want to work legally in Spain, you need to develop some kind of relationship with those schools, and hopefully they will sponsor your working papers.

There are a lot of pros and cons to the teaching English in Spain, which vary, depending on where you come from, and how long you plan to stay. Once you overcome the potential hurdles in your way, it can also be a very rewarding profession, and a great way to make a living (although a modest one) in Spain.

The legend says that James was sent to Iberia to preach, and convert people to Christianity. After a while, around 44 AD, he made his way back to Jerusalem. Unfortunately for Saint James, Herod Agrippa decided to cut his head off, and thus made him a Christian martyr. People believe that his disciples took his body, placed it on a boat made of stone (somewhere near present day Israel) and set it adrift. Angels led the boat out of the Mediterranean, and up the Atlantic coast to northern Spain. A queen buried the body, and it was forgotten for hundreds of years. Another version of the story says that the body of Saint James was sent on a boat to Spain, but lost at sea, yet somehow the Saint’s body washed ashore, covered in scallops. Eventually, the body was buried in Santiago.

Regardless of what story you choose to believe, if any, ‘The Way of Saint James’ has historically been one of the most important pilgrimages in the Christian religion, along with the pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome. The actual route can be walked, biked and even taken on horseback. The most devote of pilgrims usually walk it, which can take anywhere from 6 to 9 weeks, depending on the speed of the walker, weather conditions, and so on. The are refuges (refugios) and rural house for weary pilgrims along the way, which can be quite mountainous, as well as inns and plenty of little towns where people can stop for a meal or stock up on provisions. Many who do walk the trail carry scallop shells, in honor of Saint James, as well as the ‘Credencial,’ which is a kind of ‘pilgrim’s passport’ that allows people to stay in refuges for free or reduced prices. It’s also something to remember the journey by, as the passport will be stamped at every refuge along the way.

The final destination is the Cathedral in Santiago, of course, and the Pilgrim’s Mass held every day at noon. No matter if your religious or not, the Camino Santiago is a splendid way to see a lot of Spain, and slowly soak in copious amounts of culture and history.

You’ll find the luxurious Palácio Real, which boasts almost 300 rooms, within a vast garden and park. Green is everywhere outside, and inside, the stonework of the palace is simply breathtaking, and well worth a visit. Officially, Palácio Real is the main dwelling of the Spanish royalty, but the royals don’t actually live there anymore. The building is for government ceremonies now, and hosting dignitaries, and of course it’s a famous tourist attraction. Thousands upon thousands of visitors flock to Madrid each and every year to walk through it.

As a tourist, you can visit 50 rooms or so. The Plaza Oriente is the main entry point, where you will find plenty of marble statues of Spanish royalty. The palace itself is a treasure trove of wealth, accumulated by the Spanish Empire during the Age of Discovery, and beyond. The Throne Room (Salón del Trono) is rich with elaborate frescos adorning the walls. The Porcelain Room (Sala de Porcelana), in accordance with its name, has an immense collection of beautiful Chinese porcelain. Inside the Gasparini Dressing Room, where Charles III spent a fair amount of time, apparently, you’ll come across some amazingly complicated, and stunningly wrought embroidered silk walls. Take your time as you wander down the halls and the room of the Palácio Real, and see as much as you can see. There’s an awful lot of history contained within these royal corridors.

After you’ve had you fill of the art and pageantry of the palace proper, it’s time to go outside and stroll through the lovely gardens of the Palácio Real. Campo del Moro Park (part of the complex) is rife with water fountains, lawns, cool ponds, and an army of sculpted figures strewn about the grounds. If you happen to stop by for a visit on Wednesday, around 11am, you’ll be treated to the ceremonial changing of the guard. Even if you can’t make this regal event, you should definitely visit the Palácio Real, and learn about Spain’s long and rich history.

In early to mid July, Pamplona comes alive with fiestas celebrating the patron saint of Navarra, San Fermin. Bull fighting and late night parties are just part of the mix. But of course many Spaniards, and tourists alike, come for the ‘Encierro de Toros,’ or the Running of the Bulls.

Some people believe this tradition got started hundreds of years ago, when men moving cattle and livestock across the land would get their cattle moving faster by exciting them. Some of the younger lads took to running in front of the agitated beast, and began competing with one another to see who could get out of harm’s way the fastest. And voila, ‘bull running’ was born.

Come July, when the parties get going in Navarra and Pamplona, the bull racers appear. At eight o’clock in the morning, six bulls that are destined for the ring (and death), along with six tame steer, are released from the Santo Domingo corrals. Two rockets signal the start of the event. The bulls run a little more than 800 meters from the corral to bullring. The race usually takes three minutes or so, but when an animal gets isolated from the others, the Bull Run can take a lot longer.

Volunteers, former matadors, police and security guards are peppered about the entire route, to help distract bulls should they corner an unlucky runner, or to offer first aid to those who are injured. But don’t fool yourself; this is a very risky business. In the last 100 years or thereabouts, 15 people have been killed during the Encierro de Toros, and thousands upon thousands have been injured, many gravely so.

Although there are huge crowds watching the event, this run isn’t for the faint of heart. You must be over 18 to participate, you can’t be drunk (that seems like common sense), and if you get scared, you aren’t allowed to jump over the police barricade. That’s only permitted if a specific bull has targeted you personally, and is trying to kill you. If this still sounds like loads of fun to you, why not head to Pamplona this summer and give it a try?

In the late 16^th and early 17^th centuries, Spain and England were engaged in numerous conflicts, and various political intrigues. Things came to a head when Mary I, the Queen of England and the wife of the King of Spain, died. Her Spanish husband, Philip II was thwarted in his attempt to put a Catholic on the throne, when Elizabeth (a Protestant) took the crown for herself. That set the stage for Spain’s ‘Invisible Fleet’ to set sail for the English coast, in an attempt to launch a full-scale invasion.

The Pope at the time backed the King’s plan. The Vatican looked upon the invasion as a type of crusade that would get rid of the heretic queen, Elizabeth. In 1588, the massive Armada set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, to pick up more troops in the Spanish Netherlands, and begin the English invasion.

The Spanish were beset with problems from the very start. English ‘seas dogs,’ like Sir Francis Drake, who made a living by attacking and plundering Spanish vessels, ruined the plans of the Spaniards. Drake sailed to the Spanish harbor of Cadiz, just before the Armada took off, and destroyed many of the ships that were going to join the main fleet. Another problem stemmed from the fact that the coordination as to where the fleet was to land and pick up more troops from the Spanish Netherlands was shaky at best. Deep-water harbors were hard to find. And yet another bad omen came from the fact that the new leader of the Spanish Armada, Medina Sidonia, had no ocean experience, and was prone to seasickness.

Francis Drake attacked the Armada as it sailed across the English Channel. He had been given plenty of warning that the Spanish were coming. Drake attacked often, but only got his real chance to wreak havoc upon the Spanish when the armada broke formation, while waiting for ground reinforcements along the continental coast. The English took full advantage of this opening and sent in their ‘Hell Burners.’ These ships were, in effect, bombs. The burning vessels were loaded with gunpowder, and sent to drift into the midst of the Spanish Fleet. The fire ships broke the lines of the Armada apart.

Many more battles ensued, and many Spanish ships were lost or wrecked off the coast of Ireland. The once mighty Spanish Armanda limped back to Spain, with only about half of its ships, and many of those severely damaged. This botched invasion went down in the history books, to the frustration of the Spanish, and the delight of the English.

The idea of windmills on the Iberian Peninsula was first romanticized and satirized by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. He penned the cherished book ‘The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha,’ general referred to as ‘Don Quixote’ for simplicity. When Cervantes created Don Quixote, at the beginning of the 17^th century, he put the region of La Mancha, and its many windmills, on the global literary map.

In order to better understand the story, and its relationship to windmills, we should first look at the main protagonist of this novel. The book introduces us to Alonso Quijano, an aging Spaniard living in La Mancha. This man has great notions of chivalry, and a ‘lost’ age floating through his mind. He decides to rename himself Don Quixote, recruits a ‘squire’ by the name of Sancho Panza, who is in fact a rotund but very practical farmer, and ventures out into the world to have some adventures, or at the very least some misadventures.

Don Quixote believes himself a gentlemanly knight, in a place and time when that wasn’t really practical for him. The book, which details his many forays out into the land, is now considered a classic of Western and Spanish literature. Don Quixote is a flawed character, often ridiculed by the author, but the reader comes to love him just the same. His defects and confusions are very endearing to the audience.

As for the windmills, which you can still find scattered across the region, even to this day (although of the modern variety), they are pivotal in Don Quixote’s view of himself, and of the world. During his rides with Sancho Panza, Don Quixote tilted at, or jousted with windmills because he thought they were giants. When he saw thirty or forty windmills in his path, he believed them to be ‘hulking giants.’ And so the chivalrous ‘knight’ lowered his lance and charged. He mistook the blades of the windmills for the ‘arms’ of the giants. As you can probably imagine, his titling didn’t go down as smoothly as he would have liked.

If you’ve ever heard the phrase, ‘tilting it windmills,’ which means going after something that is imaginary, and trying to defeat it, you now know the origins of that phrase. The next time you’re driving or biking through southern Spain, you’ll have a new appreciation for all of the windmills you’ll inevitably see, dotting the horizon.

The terrain is as varied here as the distinct regional cultures, dialects and languages are. In the north, in Galicia, you’ll be treated to a lot of wet weather, but some gorgeous green scenery during your rides as well. Andalusia, in the south, offers up wide valleys that are vast and fairly dry, as well as some steep inclines as you head up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the center of the country, and near the French border, your legs will get a strong workout, as the terrain is extremely rugged. The Pyrenees Mountains are a mountain biker’s paradise, with many off-road trails and challenging tracks.

Road biking in Spain is a pretty serious thing. After all, once Lance Armstrong stopped competing, the Spanish dominated the Tour de France for four years in a row, from 2006 until 2009. They also dominated the race during the first half of the 1990’s. If you’re biking across immense lengths of the Spanish plains, or even driving a car, you’re bound to see individual cyclists, and people out in groups, riding all over the place.

In the region of Valencia, if you choose to break out your bike, you’ll be able to cycle with lots of sunlight on your face and your back, and the fragrant smells of orange blossoms in the air, provided you pick the right season. Come summertime, you should probably keep more to the north, as Andalusia, and even Valencia tend to boil over with heat, which isn’t very comfortable for cycling at all. Up in the north, in areas like the Basque Country and San Sebastian, you’ll be treated to cooler weather, but the roads can be a bit rougher than they are in the south.

If you want to go at it alone, or with a group of friends, you’ll find plenty of rental shops in all of the major cities. One of the best options, though, is to ride with an organized tour. Tour operators can tell you the best season to come, and the best seasons to stay away, due to too much sun, strong winds, the cold and the rain. Packages can range from gentle tours along the coasts, to much tougher routes for those of your who are aspiring Olympians. No matter what kind of biking experience you choose in Spain, you’ll find plenty of company along the roads, and in the mountains.

This cheese, which is made from sheep’s milk, and aged no less than 60 days, has got a lot of history behind it. Archeological digs have turned up evidence suggesting that this very unique cheese was being made well before the time of Christ. One of the main purposes of making cheese in the past was to persevere the milk and the health benefits derived from dairy, since refrigeration wasn’t available at the time.

These days, only very special ewes (female sheep) are use in the Manchego cheese making process. The queso is actually protected by the Spanish Government with a ‘Denominación de Origen,’ which means only certain cheeses can be labeled as Manchego cheese. For this tasty and buttery cheese to be called ‘Manchego,’ it has to come from La Mancha. Only the fatty milk from authentic Manchega ewes, which are descended from sheep that have been roaming these lands for centuries, can be used to create the cheese. And the cheese itself must be aged in local caves.

The technical cheese making process consists of milking the ewes by hand, and then putting the milk in curdling vats, where natural curdling enzymes are added to the mix. Then the cheese curd is sliced up into tiny bits and aged. If you ask any of the locals what is the most important aspect in making Manchego cheese, you’re sure to get different answers, but aging the cheese, and the special nature of Manchega ewes will be sure to top the list.

If all of the above requirements are met, you still have a choice between classic Manchego cheese that comes from unpasteurized milk, and the kind that comes from pasteurized milk. In addition to these basic distinctions, you can also select quesos of different ages. Manchego cheese is well known for its creamy texture, but the flavor varies between the semi-cured Manchego Curado and the richer Manchego Viejo. There is even a fresh cheese, Manchego Fresco, you can buy and sample before it has completed the aging process. The best thing for you to do is to head to La Mancha and try all of these wonderful cheeses for yourself.

The best time of the year to visit this national treasure, which is located in Aragon region, is in the summer. If you arrive too early in spring or too late in the autumn, the snow will block your way. This park makes up a part of the Pyrenees Mountains, after all, which has a reputation for variable weather. Of course summer also mean tourist crowds, but at least you won’t have to deal with the bitter cold.

Ordesa National Park is actually comprised of several valleys, and hosts the mighty Monte Perdido (Lost Mountain) as well, the third highest peak in the Pyrenees. El Valle De Ordesa (Ordesa Valley) is the most spectacular valley in the park. It is a glacier-carved trough full of waterfalls, wildlife, rich meadows and tons of trees. Some of the animals that inhabit the park are the famed ibex, which is a kind of wild goat, plenty of bird species, boar, fox, deer and predatory eagles and hawks.

The hiking trails and views you get when touring through the valley and across the sides of the mountains in Ordesa National Park are truly spectacular. Limestone cliffs, deep canyons, wide forests, rough and tumble mountain goats and plenty of high peaks to summit await you should you choose to visit this wonderful part of Spain. Walking along the sides of the cliffs can be difficult, but very rewarding. There are different paths at differed elevations, depending on your stamina and fear of heights. If you are truly hardcore, you might opt for the Faja de las Flores, which is a path along the northern cliffs, which will afford you an elevation gain of almost 1200 meters. Make sure you bring along your best pair of hiking boots, so you can make it back down to the valley below.

Because of Ordesa Valley’s east/west orientation, it gets lots of moisture from the Atlantic Ocean, making it one of the greenest areas in the typically dry Pyrenees Mountains. If you love Nature, and Spain, then a visit to Ordesa National Park and Ordesa Valley should make you very happy.