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Book Info
A Traveller’s Guide
With a compelling sureness of touch, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Frederic V. Grunfeld offers the reader an intimate knowledge of Spain gained over twenty-five years. He takes the intending traveller south from the Pyrenees, across the central meseta of Castilla and Aragon and down to Andalucia. He finds wild mountain walks above the tourist resorts of Mallorca and dragon trees on the island of Tenerife. Grunfeld’s flair for portraiture shines through wherever he goes: ‘Here are fieldstone houses and Romanesque churches’, he writes, ‘that seem to grow out of their hilltop sites like so many stone mushrooms. Except for telephone and electric lines you could easily imagine yourself back in the Middle Ages.’ Following the personal style set by the series, he indulges his own fancies, wandering through La Mancha in the steps of Don Quixote and tilting against his own windmills in the form of the shoe-box hotels of the Spanish Mediterranean. This edition has been completely revised with the assistance of the Ministry of Environment in Madrid. The editors have revisited exploration zones and added hotels, itineraries and new train and bus information, with fax numbers, e-mail addresses and web-site details. The entire text has been reset, bringing this established guide-book fully up to date.  Download Advance Information SheetReview‘Compact, lavishly illustrated, intelligently written, it is a model of its kind.’ – Lookout
‘A wonderful hybrid of practical travel guide and literary paean.’ – Douglas Schatz, The Bookseller ContentsAbout the Series
WILD SPAIN: AN INTRODUCTION THE KEY TO SPAIN’S WILD PLACES Map of Spain Showing Chapter Areas The Key to Spain's Wild Places The Shape of the Wild Wild Habitats Protected Wild Places To the Reader CHAPTER 1: THE PYRENEES La Garrotxa Cadí-Moixeró Aigüestortes & Estany de Sant Maurici Vall d’Aran Valle de Benasque Ordesa San Juan de la Peña & Canfranc Roncesvalles CHAPTER 2: NORTHERN SPAIN Orduña & Sierra Salvada Las Marismas de Santoña Las Sierras Palentinas & Alto Campóo Picos de Europa Somiedo & Pajares El Bierzo Islas Cíes CHAPTER 3: NORTH MESETA Sierra de Gredos Sierra de Guadarrama La Cuenca Alta del Manzanares Sierra de Ayllón Sierra de la Demanda Sierra de Peña de Francia Camino de Santiago CHAPTER 4: SOUTH MESETA Serranía de Cuenca Montes Universales Sierra de Albarracín Alto Tajo Laguna de Gallocanta Las Lagunas de Ruidera Tablas de Daimiel Montfragüe CHAPTER 5: THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST Aiguamolls de l’Empordà Illes Medes Montseny Montserrat Delta del Ebro Puertos de Beseit L’Albufera de Valencia Sierra Espuña CHAPTER 6: ANDALUCÍA Sierras de Cazorla Segura & Las Villas Sierra Nevada & Las Alpujarras El Torcal de Antequera Fuente de Piedra Lagunas de Córdoba Grazalema Laguna de Medina Doñana Las Marismas del Odiel Sierra de Aracena Sierra Morena CHAPTER 7: THE BALEARIC ISLANDS Mallorca Archipiélago de Cabrera Menorca Ibiza Formentera CHAPTER 8: THE CANARY ISLANDS Lanzarote Fuerteventura Gran Canaria Tenerife Gomera Hierro La Palma Glossary Further Reading Useful Addresses Preview THE PYRENEESHere are fieldstone houses and Romanesque churches that seem to grow out of their hilltop sites like so many stone mushrooms. Except for telephone and electric lines you could easily imagine yourself back in the Middle Ages. Virtually the entire region makes good rambling country, and, indeed, some of the most enjoyable areas for walks and explorations are not among the loftiest peaks but further down, in gentler valleys like that of the Río Isábena, which is flanked by peaks in the 1,500-2,000-metre (4,900-6,500-foot) range. Here there is even a whole cathedral in miniature, one of the most astonishing Romanesque buildings in existence, which looks out across fields and meadows. CAMINO DE SANTIAGO The way from Roncesvalles, in the Pyrenees, to Santiago de Compostela in distant Galicia, is a matter of some 800 kilometres (500 miles). In the Middle Ages it was one of the great pilgrimage routes, which many people covered on foot and the most pious on their knees. For centuries there were miracles and apparitions to be seen at every turn of the road to Santiago: you could meet angels, beggars, kings and status-seekers – the Plantagenet king Edward I on horseback, St Francis of Assisi walking barefoot, and a certain Flemish wayfarer who is reputed to have carried a mermaid around with him, in a tub. |
| Wild Escapades |
 In our Wild Escape Competition, Liz Cleere described a trek in the eastern Himalayas to visit a slice of wild India that people rarely see and Helen Moat recounted the magical night she and her young son Jamie spent in the company of glow worms in Britain’s Peak District. Liz Cleere is the winner. |
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| Ruthless Rhyme Competition Result |
 The judges have announced the 12 poems short-listed in the Ruthless Rhyme competition. All are now published, along with audio readings, profiles of the writers and judges and a selection of rhymes that deserve mention for being creative or ridiculous. |
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Quote of the Week
Cottage with Rooms to Hire
‘They had to share a five-foot bed, both of them over six foot, with their feet sticking out of the window... In the morning hens were roosting on their toes.’ – Wild Ireland by Brendan Lehane
‘They had to share a five-foot bed, both of them over six foot, with their feet sticking out of the window... In the morning hens were roosting on their toes.’ – Wild Ireland by Brendan Lehane
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