Trevor Huxham

The medieval walls You need a good five to seven days to fully explore the Spanish capital of Madrid : its world-class art museums, neighborhoods, sprawling public parks, and historic bars and restaurants . But you’d arguably need another week just to check out the World Heritage Sites that circle the capital, all no more than an hourlong train ride away. Monumental cities like Segovia and Toledo guard Madrid’s northern and southern borders, while El Escorial and Alcalá de Henares attest to the region’s royal and educational heritage. West of Madrid on the other side of the Guadarrama Mountains lies a city that is still completely surrounded by its original medieval walls: Ávila. North side of the walls Spain’s first Gothic cathedral Rugged granite construction When I daytripped here on my way back home from Salamanca , I was so short on time that I unfortunately wasn’t able to walk around on top of the murallas , the old city walls. I did get to check out the cath...

Tormes River with the two cathedrals Few cities were as high on my northern Spain hitlist as Salamanca. Yes, there was León , with its wall-to-wall stained-glass cathedral and free tapas action, or Oviedo , Santiago’s cousin out east in Asturias, or even Albarracín , the most beautiful village in Spain. But Salamanca always kept tugging me down there, even after I nearly booked a marathon train journey down there from Galicia and chickened out. View of La Clerecía and the old town from the New Cathedral’s bell tower The perfect opportunity to swing by this monumental university town presented itself to me this January, when I was dropping off my family at the Madrid airport after having shown them all around the capital , Segovia , and Santiago for a week. On my way back northwest to Santiago, I took advantage of being so far south to make the trek out to Salamanca before riding the trenhotel home. A break from the Castilian cold Casa de las Conchas: The Shells Ho...

The cimborrio  in the transept Sitting at the top of my travel hitlist for this school year was the north-central Spanish city of Burgos, one of the major stops along the Camino de Santiago’s popular French Route. Although it’s five hours away from Santiago by car and close to approximately zero major airports, I was still determined to swing by this provincial capital, if only to check out its World Heritage-listed Gothic cathedral. Back in early December an opportunity to visit Burgos finally presented itself to me: I would take the day train out here before transferring to a bus on my way to Logroño to visit my friend Mike. I’ll be talking more on the region of La Rioja in the days to come, but safe to say I was delighted to explore what is now one of my top ten favorite cathedrals in Spain. West façade Tourism boards love to brag that Burgos’s cathedral is the only one in all of Spain to be declared a World Heritage Site on its own, unlike many others (e.g., Sant...

On my way back up to Santiago de Compostela this fall after flying into Madrid , I made a pit stop in the gorgeous but anonymous northern city of Zamora for two nights. While in town, I took a daytrip to the nearby village of Toro, home to barely 9,000 souls. Yes, I visited “Bull, Spain”—it doesn’t get more Spanish than that. However, this town turned out to buck tourist stereotypes and had a cultural offering that was much more impressive than its lowly population might suggest. Calle Mayor The area around Toro has actually been one of Spain’s most prestigious wine-producing regions for centuries. It gained an elite reputation in the Middle Ages (bottles of Toro were even stored onboard the Pinta  ship when Columbus & co. sailed to the Americas), but for most non-Spaniards it often gets crowded out by Rioja or Ribera del Duero labels. Fellow Spain blogger Kaley of Y Mucho Más  has talked a lot about this quality but affordable variety on her blog a lot; I’ll...

There are a few parts of Spain that I know really well, places like Jaén province in Andalucía to the south, the populated western coast of Galicia, or even central Madrid to a degree. Others are just completely off the radar for me: Madrid’s bedroom community of Guadalajara, coastal Castelló de la Plana, or the Basque Country’s inland capital, Vitoria-Gasteiz. Had it not been for my friend and fellow Spain blogger Kaley (who writes at Y Mucho Más ), the northern Spanish city of Zamora would have been relegated to this proverbial no-man’s-land in my mind as it typically gets lost between pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago to the north (e.g., Burgos, León, etc.) or weekenders hitting up Salamanca and Ávila to the south. View of Zamora from across the Duero River You see, Kaley’s husband is a native of Zamora, and so, naturally, she has talked a lot about the city and province of the same name a lot on her blog. Having followed her posts for the past several years, I was e...

Jetlagged, running on little sleep, and exhausted from the go-go-go life of touring Madrid, my family and I daze out on four spacious seats that face each other while riding the high-speed Avant  train from Madrid. The train rumbles beneath a mountain going 250 km/h (155 mph) and sharp blue security lighting regularly whooshes by the windows. The ride is so smooth it feels like we’re flying through the Earth…and then we emerge from the darkness on the other side of the Sierra de Guadarrama  mountain range: welcome to Castilla. View this post on Instagram Arrival in Segovia A post shared by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on Dec 27, 2014 at 8:49am PST As the train begins to brake for its approach to the Segovia-Guiomar station, we look out the windows and gasp in excitement at the powdered-sugar dusting on the mountains we just cut through. Thankfully, the snow is limited to the mountaintops; the brown...

Usually when you think of Roman ruins —in Spain or elsewhere—usually things like crumbling arches, faded mosaics, and fallen-in house walls come to mind. Sometimes there’s a grand aqueduct , and maybe even an amphitheater , but all the sculptures, gravestones, and artifacts are on display in a nearby museum . In any case, you’ll most often see memorials to important dead guys or monumental ruins. Las Médulas That’s why I was so surprised when I visited  Las Médulas:  all that is left of the largest gold mine in the Roman Empire.  Although the modern Spanish word médula  can mean “bone marrow” or “spinal cord,” the name for these mining ruins probably comes from the Latin  metula , the diminutive form of the word meta , which meant “cone” or “pyramid”—which makes sense given the other-worldly rock formations that make up the ruins. Close-up shot Hidden away in the rugged Bierzo region in northwesterly León province, the open-pit mine has sliced th...

Entrance Tucked away in a mountainous corner of northwestern Spain lies the tiny sub-region of El Bierzo.  Pronounced “bee-AIR-thoe” [ˈbjer.θo], this cultural area takes up the western third of the province of León and is a “mini-Galicia” amidst the dominant northern Castilian region. Unique meats like cecina  (cured beef) and botillo  (chunky sausage) are popular here, the French Way of the Camino de Santiago passes through here, many folks speak the Galician language , and everything is generally greener (and rainier , too). The Sil River Ponferrada is the principal city in El Bierzo, a bustling, 70,000-strong town in a sea of sleepy mountain villages. On my way back from León in March, I came here to visit my friend Laura who I met while working down south two years ago; she was one of the many auxiliares  that the bigger city of Linares was home to, and we both got placed in the northwestern part of the country this past school year.

With my backpack’s sternum strap fastened snugly across my chest, I speed-walked down León’s main avenue at 6:45 in the morning. Although the city still slept, darkness had given way to dawn—albeit a gray dawn, as rain was forecast for the region. I hopped on a glossy-white Regional Express  train and had only biking enthusiasts for seatmates—and their bikes. Half an hour passed by and the rain and the train picked up speed. Soon the ruddy twin towers of Astorga’s cathedral came into view as we went through a curve: decorated blocks topped with pointy, slate pyramids. Astorga Cathedral I left the train station at the bottom of the hill and set off to find breakfast on this drizzly, quiet Saturday morning. Almost no one was out and about, not even party-till-the-sun-comes-up types—but to be fair, this town’s population barely reaches 11,000. Rain pitter-pattered on my polyester backpack cover, my meager umbrella, and my canvas shoes. I arrived at Astorga’s grand square only...

Few know that the Spanish city of León  coincidentally has the same name as the Spanish word for “lion,” kind of how Cork, Ireland, sounds like the word for the woody bottle stopper we put in wine bottles. This bustling provincial capital was founded as an encampment for Roman legions, but over the centuries, the Latin name for this legionary town ( Legio ) converged with the word for lion ( leo ) as Latin grew up and became Spanish. Apparently this distinction was also lost on the locals, as a purple lion is now the city’s heraldic symbol. Fun! León Cathedral I was excited to finally get the chance to explore this city on a cold, drizzly long weekend back in March. Following the Camino de Santiago, but in reverse, I left my apartment in Santiago and caught the train east out toward the broad Castilian meseta , or central plateau. As the last major stop along the French Way pilgrimage that ends in Santiago, León is rightly famous for its French-inspired Gothic cathedral. ...

Not even two days back in Spain in September, I had already hit the ground running after a summer home in Texas. The central city of Segovia  was the only pitstop I made on my journey between Madrid and Galicia , where I’m now working for Year Two as a language assistant . Merely half an hour north of Madrid via the high-speed train that cuts through the Guadarrama mountains, Segovia is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to in the country so far. The White City of Gondor Segovia skyline Most people run up on that high-speed train from Madrid and make a daytrip out of the city, but I ended up staying two nights here and really enjoyed taking it all in at a relaxed pace. Although Segovia is well-known for its massive Roman aqueduct, its impressive Gothic cathedral, and fairy-tale castle, I think the city deserves additional credit for its Romanesque churches and tasty food. It’s the only major city I’ve traveled to in vast, north-central  Castilla y León, ...