Although the magnetic attraction to Barcelona has become an inescapable point of departure to any Spanish venture due to its Gaudi marvels and Gothic city alleys, the real essence of Spain unravels in the road ahead of its Catalan core. To the independent traveler, the departure of Barcelona is not a finish, but a serious start. It is a passport to passing through a land of great dichotomies, the imperial splendor of the capital, the sun-scorched romance in the south and the febrile, food-loving coast in the north. It is a solitary tour; the way along which one may naturally go any directions, here and there, through silent passages in ancient courts, or in the thrilling liberty of having though scheduled time but the tyranny of interest itself. It is a path that exchanges familiarity with transformation with the promise being that when you go to Spain on your own, it will become a much more personal and desirable country than that which is experienced in the overcooked tourist tour. The ultimate solo adventure starts with your first high-speed ride when you leave the shores of the Mediterranean unrestingly behind venturing into the heart of the Iberian Peninsula.
You will start your journey with the breathtaking capital of the country, Madrid. You have reached the busy Atocha station, where the most amazing interior tropical garden glows in green at you. You can just feel it, energy changes. Madrid is a town of pomp and circumstance and an uncontagious unrelenting joie de vivre. It is a location that you happen to explore on foot and where each broad avenue somewhat appears to lead the visitor right into some hidden square that is, by all means, full of people. You may spend hours lost in the so called Golden Triangle of Art as a solo traveler. Gasp at the tragical masterstroke by Picasso- in his magnum opus entitled, Guernica at the Reina Sofia, an experience that is best held in isolation. Stroll through the sacred edifice of The Prado and discover a secluded spot to perch yourself, have the works of Goya and Velazquez and imbibe the beauty of the details in peace. Fill the triangle at the Thyssen-Bornemisza, providing you with the stunning trip through the story of the Western art. However, not only its museums are the magic of this city, but also its everyday life routines. Have a lazzy afternoon by reading in the perfectly trimmed gardens of El Retiro Park, as the locals will be either rowing through the lake or just frolicking in the sun. To go with the more traditional activity of a ‘paseo’ as the sun goes down and then get into the renowned gastronomical life of Madrid. The classic Mercado de San Miguel is one of the best places to start as a solitary eater with mind-blowing selection of tapas under one roof, so you can taste Galician octopus, jamon Iberico and everything you can imagine is served in a colorful atmosphere, with communal tables.
You will be magicked by the high-speed AVE train down south across Madrid and into the deepest depths of Andalusia, a land where the stereotypes of Spanish culture are flamenco, bullfighting and white villages under the hot sunshine. You are heading to Seville the capital of Andalusia, which is a city of orange flowers, carriages and intoxicating romance. Seville is a destination that appears to be tailor-made to the traveler of one. The old quarter, the Jewish ghetto of Santa Cruz, is a delight to lose one self in its labyrinthine streets-which leads suddenly on a radiant square with fountains at every corner. In this place, you will discover your own rhythm, having a coffee break, Browse the distinctive ceramic stores or just chatting with the flower-balconied apartments. The sheer size of the Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral on the planet is really intimidating and even the climb up the Giralda tower gives you the panoramic view of the amazing city which helps you find your bearings with the sprawling beauty. Sitting across the plaza is the Alcazar of Seville, an awe inspiring royal palace of Muder design. Travelling alone, you will have time to wander in its maze of tiles, admire lovely gardens and beautiful courtyards and will experience some serenity in the land that is not overcrowded. The Triana district, on the other side of the Guadalquivir River calls in the evenings. This is the historic core of the flamenco and it is a body-soul experience when you want to find a small personalised performance in a little tablao, where you can feel with your own skin the passion of flamenco and go home with a memory that will last long after the ultimado, the last heartbeating and foot-thudding.
The second part of the Andalusian trip will see you in the east in the city of Granada. Granada is a place cradled by the Sierra Nevada mountains and the most gorgeous jewel of Spain: the Alhambra. The most important thing to plan involving this part of your trip is by purchasing your ticket to this palace/fortress complex way in advance. Alhambra is not only a palace, but a city by its own, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture and whatever you can imagine it is impossible to describe this miracle. As a solo-traveller, it is a privilege to stroll through the Nasrid Palaces. You may loiter at the Court of the Lions, following with your eye the elaborate work of stucco, and you may remain still in the gardens of the Generalife watching the murmur of the fountains, a murmur calculated to remind of the paradise of the Quran. It is a very individualistic and meditative experience. There is more to Granada than Alhambra. The historic Arabic area of the city, the Albaicin, with its whitewashed buildings and cobbled streets, is a very picturesque labyrinth with fantastic sweeping back views of the Alhambra which is located on the other hill. Before the sun goes down, queue up at Mirador de San Nicolas, as pan sized crowds cluster to see the palace walls turn pink and orange. It is shared and at the same time intensely personal. Then, be immersed in livelier tapas culture of Granada where with each beverage you order, you presently receive a free (and usually large) tapa. It is a very social and cost-effective mode of dining that is ideal when you are travelling alone as it lets you go around different busy bodegas in the city trying different local delicacies and in the company of people who know how to live life to the fullest in this vibrant city.
Now that you have been baptized in the flames and culture of the south it is time to change the landscape and flavors dramatically. A flight or another longer train will take you up to the north, to the Basque Country and the culinaire capital, San Sebastian or Donostia, as it is called in the Basques tongue. A beautiful seaside city that has a form a f twisted arc of the heavenly crescent of the La Concha beach, it is heaven to the foodie alone. The big scene in this case is the Basque equivalent of a tapas crawl, the txikiteo, taken to an art form. Partte Vieja (Old Town) of the city overflows with pintxos bars where every bar has its specialty which they proudly exhibits on the counter. Things are not as in tapas where you just order what you want, and pay when you leave. Such a system is ideal when you are the solo diner, and you only have absolute freedom in the process of creating your gastronomic experience. You can taste a chopped anchovy, olive and pepper stick called a Gilda in one bar, a funky henscaled scorched foie gras tower in another and a buttery tinny piece of spider crab tartlet in a third all washed down with the local pale white wine Txakoli. San Sebastián does not only offer its food though. It beckons you to get absorbed in its natural beauty as well. You can trek to the top of Monte Urgull to get sweeping vistas of the bay, notch the length of the three beaches that stretch on the outskirts of the city or ride the funicular to the top of Monte Igueldo where there is a retro amusement park and get that perfect photo shot. Its high-culture aura and outdoor enthusiast nature of the city speakers, make it a secure, rejuvenating place to anyone visiting single, and is a suitable arrangement on measures of epicure and coastal vacation.
To conclude your independent Spanish adventure, think of one more tour of the country to the West and to the verdant, mysterious province of Galicia with its spiritual epicentre, Santiago de Compostela. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims follow the Camino de Santiago every year, to reach this city. You do not have to be on foot weeks in order to get in touch with the depth of the atmosphere that encompasses this ancient city. However, the feeling of awe brought by the magnificent view of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral as seen in the Praza do Obradoiro is very impressive. You are going to find pilgrims touching down with a beating heart and one can feel the pinch of accomplishment and religious release in the air. As a solo traveller, you will be able to immerse in this energy, joining the Pilgrim Mass every day, which you even may get a chance to see the famous giant thurible, the so-called Botafumeiro, moving dra- matically all around the transept of the cathedral. It is a lovely city of granite, frontages and arcaded streets with a mist of Galician drear which lends a touch of mystery. The food here is a feast of the rich seascape of the region and specialising in fresh sea food. A lonesome dinner at a marisqueri to taste pulpo a la gallega (Galician octopus) or a dish of scallops is obligatory. Roaming around Santiago you become a witness and a stakeholder in a thousand-year-old tale. It is a lifetime and it is a place to think; A city that encourages you to think upon yourself, upon the one you just made going through the vast diversity of Spain and upon the other much, much greater one still ahead. It is an appropriately serious and calm end to a journey that sent you so far beyond Barcelona, and so deep inside the soul of a country that will open up to you its truest face only to people willing to set off alone.
The pilgrimage does not have to stop after such deep silence in Santiago de Compostela, but can make a turn, showing another side of the Spanish diversity. The route has followed a sequence of royal capitals, flamenco hot blooded land and gastronomic Meccas. And the route may now bend eastwards, back to the sunlit shore of the Mediterranean, but to another city, another place with quite a different pulse to that of Barcelona. The city of Valencia which ranks as the third largest city of Spain is an exemplar of elegant living and is a place where modern futuristic designing is combined together with a very traditional spirit. It offers an intellectually stimulating and a wonderful relaxing environment to the solo traveler. The most impressive thing in the city is the fantastic monument, City of Arts and Sciences a futuristic city, designed by Santiago Calatrava and Felix Cabeda, which appears to have actually fallen out of space. Spending a day alone exploring on its own through its aeriform white buildings, strolling around at the interactive science museum or the massive oceanographic park is an architectural delight. It is somewhere that invites a person to think and it seems like it was designed specifically so a person could gaze at the greatness and desire of it without being distracted. This smooth modernism is perfectly offset by the old quarter of the city, the Ciutat Vella, a delightful maze of little streets, secret squares and old houses. Here you are able to ascend the Miguelete Bell Tower to get panoramas, get lost in the colourful pandemonium of the Mercado Central, a beautiful Art Nouveau cathedral of food and find a spot at a small bar where you can taste horchata, the sweet, milky local tipple made with tiger nuts.
The real gift Valencia bequeaths to the world however, is paella and there are no better places to get acquainted with a cuisine than the solo traveler can plunge into the local culinary tradition. This is its original home and in this country, it becomes a sacred lunchtime tradition, a meal that is intended to be shared. However, numerous restaurants especially located on the beachfront avenue close to Playa de la Malvarrosa have single-ration paellas, so you can enjoy the tradition at a cost. Going an extra mile, you can take a paella-making course, which is an excellent activity when you are not accompanied. It is social and practical experience, you can meet other travelers and local chefs, learn the secrets to make the most delicious creation and relish the results of your work in a friendly atmosphere. And outside the city, there is the Albufera Natural Park, a huge freshwater lagoon and estuary. You can go to a bus and spend afternoon on local traditional rowing-boat that floats at tranquil waters where the rice that you had in your paella is cultivated. It is a serene outing that creates a beautiful contrast to the hustles and bustles of the city and gives one a chance of silent reflection. It is this balance, the fact that Valencia is simultaneously a progressive, modern metropolis and a city close to the earth and its traditions that makes the city such a rich and versatile experience to an individual at the end of a long journey by themselves.
Leaving the relaxed Valencia, one strikes inland, and north-ward, into the proud and old-world province of Arag@n, through its capital, Zaragoza. Zaragoza is an epically lesser known Spanish destination that is considered a city of great historical and cultural value as portrayed by a very pure Spanish experience even by international visitors who tend to skip the city in order to tour between Madrid and Barcelona. The city is located on the banks of river Ebro and its skyline is dominated by massive structures of the magnificent BasIlica de Nuestra Searrda del Pilar. It is an experience to come into this baroque masterpiece alone as a pedestrian crossing the old Puente de Piedra with the Puente de Piedra reflecting the domes and bell towers of the basilica. The interior alone is awesome in its magnificence and you may go unnoticed and quietly and see the great devoutness of the pilgrims that congregate in this sacred place to pray before the small image of the Virgin Mary on the top of a carnelian column. Zaragoza is a layered City. Visit the impressively well-preserved Roman forum and theater, whose existence went back to the time the city was under the name Caesaraugusta. The Aljaferia Palace is one of the most important monuments of the Mudejar style and an exquisite fortified Islamic palace, built in the 11 th century and just a short stroll away. The visits to its beauteous courtyards and its vine arched passage-ways is suggestive of a choice Alhambra removed a distance of crowds in the south. The neighborhood, referred to as El Tubo is a savior to the single diner. It is an overdense meshwork of small twisting lanes smothered with diminutive, standing-room-only tapas and bars, each specializing in something, most often an asset such as wild mushrooms, fried calamari or local cured meat. It is the pulsating friendly environment so that one can start a conversation with ease and feel himself being an element of the dynamic local atmosphere.
The next step of this alternative route is ambitious South-westward jump, to one of the most unexplored yet most worthwhile parts of Spain: Extremadura. It is a region of sun scorched beauty, where the many conquistadors are known to have been born and where some of the nations finest Roman ruins are located. Mrezida is your destination, which was the capital of the Lusitanian region during the Roman Empire (the ancient capital of the Lusitanian region) and has a set of ancient monuments so numerous and preserved that it has obtained the status of the UNESCO World Heritage site. M erida is heaven to the individual who likes history. A visit there will take you one whole day and one entrance ticket is sufficient. Roman Theatre, which is still appreciated by performers nowadays, is awesome in its size and conservation. It is possible to hear the ghosts of old dramas sitting alone on its timeless stone steps. Along the side, there is the Amphitheater where the gladiatorial games used to be conducted. You are able to walk on 60-arch Puente Romano, which is one of the longer remaining Roman bridges and visit the Acueducto de los Milagros which is a tall aqueduct that serves as a monument to Roman laws. The city is currently serene and manageable hence a peaceful place to walk around. The Plaza de Espana lives at night too, and you can have some single-minded, chunky Extremaduran cooking–rich, thick stews, roasted meats, and of course the famous local cheese, the Torta del Casar–and ponder the extraordinary burden of history to which every stone of this wonderful city is subject. Arguably, it is a destination that treats the inquisitive tourist with a fantastic sense of an explorer and the physical touch of the ancient world.
After having plunged into the deep history of the south- west it is time to make a very exciting change, and move on to the wild, green heart of Northern Spain. A train-bus connection will drive you all the way to the Picos de Europa National Park which is a stunning land of limestone mountains and runs through Asturias, Cantabria, and Castilla y León. It is a place to visit in case a person is a solo traveler who craves some fresh air, fantastic landscapes, and the comfort of nature. Potes is the attractive mountain community in the Cantabrian segment of the park, and is a good base. Going through here, you can reach one of the most famous elements of the park which is the Fuente de cable car. This is a thrilling ride that in four minutes carries you 753 meters straight up a vertical rock face that provides a spectacular view point with breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding mountains. The scale is simply beyond belief and currents. There are so many hiking paths on the top that you can spend a day walking in the sublime solitude by the cowbells and the falconing griffon vultures only. The area is also well-known in the Sidra (cider), and to go and see a ‘Sideria’ in the Asturian section of the park is a culture experience in itself. Enjoy this sharp refreshing drink with a portion of the renowned strong Cabrales blue cheese as you watch the bartender carry out the ‘escaniciado’, when the cider is poured at tremendous height in order to add air to it. A rustic rural house would be a nice warm home-like accommodation, and there will usually be home-made food, which has a flavour of the food at the heart of the mountains. This part of the walk is a very strong contrast to the urban world and an opportunity to re-experience the countryside and do the kind of walk that you can not do in the other big part of the country which is rugged, majestic and very peaceful.
As a final guide through this journey through history, the last destination gets you further away from the continent entirely, to Mallorca in the Mediterranean. Stereotyped as a package holiday destination, and unfairly at that, Mallorca is a totally different animal to the lone traveller with an eye toward exploring what happens to be one of the best kept secrets of the Med. Spare yourself the mobs of Magaluf and visit instead the gorgeous mountain range of Serra de Tramuntana on the island, which is yet another UNESCO world heritage situation. Here you can use as a base a beautiful stone village such as DeiA or Valldemossa, villages that have inspired artists and writers since immemorial times such as Frdric Chopin or Robert Graves. A terrific formation of olive terraces, pine trees and steep cliffs into a sapphire blue sea, the scenery is beautifully marvelous. This is a hiker paradise due to the fact that this area is crossed with ancient dry-stone paths. One of the most typical things of Mallorca is to have a solo stroll along the coastline of Dei as down to the rocky cove of Cala Deia, to have a lunch of fresh seafood. The capital city of the island, Palma, is another site worth visiting per se. It has a magnificent Gothic Cathedral called, La Seu, over-looking the harbor and its old town is a pleasant maze of silent lanes, secret court-yards, and the miniature shops. On day 3 you can go on an excursion across the bustling art life of Palma, going to Es Baluard museum of modern and contemporary art, or to the Fundacio MirO Mallorca. The place is an ideal blend of culture, nature and relaxation. In the morning you can go hiking in the mountains, in the afternoon sightsee historic cities and in the evening you have an elegant dinner in Palma. It is a place through which you can create your own coda, one last, sun-warmed episode in a single adventure which itself has encompassed all the amazing breadth and variety of a Spain that begins where Barcelona never ends.
