Do you fancy dancing flamenco, eating paella, going skiing in the mountains, sunbathing on the beach, or listening to traditional bagpipes?
They’re all common things to do in Spain.
Join us as we take a trip around each region, and their provinces, and tell you some interesting things about each one.

Voice message from Sonia from Barcelona, living in Berlin
XAppears to my mind many ideasX – Many ideas came into my mind/I came up with many ideas
XI enjoy a lot listen to you guys.X I enjoy listening to you guys a lot.

Sonia also asked about the ranking of countries by listeners. We spoke about the most popular episodes. She said she’s ‘super curious’.
On Apple devices only!
Spain – 54%
USA – 14%
Mexico – 10%
Colombia – 5%
Chile – 2%

Voice message from Alejandro from Colombia living in Sydney
I have BEEN living in Sydney
(people don’t know – well corrected!)

Email from Ana from Galicia
I am Ana (It’s Ana/This is Ana), from Galicia. I was listening to the Venezuela podcast today and as you said that you would like to focus more on English or Spanish speaking countries or places, I bring you (have) an idea in case you like it. Galicia!
The northwestern part of Spain where we speak Spanish and Galician. Galicia is much more than just drugs … we have plenty of typical and original things from here, many of them known nationally.
Botafumeiros, Los Pazos, la Catedral de Santiago, el Camino de Santiago (and the cake), el licor café, the gastronomy, la morriña (a well-known word), la queimada …..
Maybe you like the idea of the culture of this place for another future podcast.
Greetings, and stay safe. Ana.

A trip around Spain

Spain is made up of (divided into) 17 autonomous regions. Each one has its own regional government and often has a very unique character.
15 of the regions are on the Spanish mainland. The Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands bring the total to 17. Many of the regions are subdivided into provinces.
In addition, there are the 2 autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, situated on the north African coast.
We’re going to take a trip around Spain, region by region, and talk about some interesting things from each area.

Andalucia/Andalusia – Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga, and Sevilla (capital). In the south of Spain. It’s the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in Spain. The province of Jaén is the olive-producing capital of Spain. The ferry from Andalusia to Morocco takes just over an hour. The Sierra Nevada is popular for skiing in winter. Its many architectural wonders include La Alhambra.

Aragón – Huesca, Teruel, Zaragoza (capital) South of the Pyrenees. Stunning scenery, including The Pyrenees, and beautiful villages. Around half of the population of Aragon live in Zaragoza. Francisco de Goya was born in Fuendetodos in 1746. One of the earliest and integral parts of Spain when various royal families unified centuries ago. Popular for skiing in winter.

Asturias – capital is Oviedo. Technically, like Wales, a principality. Asturias is well known for its beautiful green countryside and the Cantabric coast with lovely beaches and fishing villages. Like Galicia, Asturias has great seafood. Also the home of fabada and Spanish cider (sidra). Bagpipes are a traditional Asturian instrument.

Balearic Islands – Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca are the largest. Other islands include Cabrera, Dragonera, and S’Espalmador. Off the east coast of Spain. Famous for tourism. Mallorca is one of Europe’s top destinations for cyclists. Menorca has 121 miles of beaches, which is more than Mallorca and Ibiza combined.

Basque Country – Alava, Vizcaya (Biscay), Gipuzkoa On the western side of the Pyrenees, bordering France. Basque (Euskera) is one of the oldest living languages. It’s not related to any other Latin language, such as Spanish or French, and is completely unique. The famous wine region, La Rioja, is partly in The Basque Country. A popular drink is txakoli, a slightly sparkling, dry white wine, which goes well with pintxos (Basque-style tapas). Some Basques want independence from Spain.

Canary Islands – El Hierro, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, La Palma, Lanzarote, Tenerife) A group of islands approximately 1200km southwest of Spain. Popular with tourists due to its wonderful climate throughout the year. The Canary Islands – AIRC282

Cantabria – Capital, Santander. North of Spain on the coast. There are caves with prehistoric drawings dated around 36,000 years ago. The Cave of Altamira, near the town of Santillana del Mar, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nice green countryside.

Castilla La Mancha – Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Toledo) central Spain, south east of Madrid. Known for saffron production, cured Manchego cheese and Don Quixote de la Mancha (Cervantes’ 17th century novel).

Castilla y León – Ávila, Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid, Zamora. North of Madrid. It has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other region in the world. Its many marvels include the old university town of Salamanca, as well as Ávila and the Roman Aqueduct of Segovia.

Catalonia – Barcelona (capital), Gerona, Lerida, Tarragona. The northeast corner of Spain. The Pyrenees are Catalonia’s natural border with France. For listeners outside Spain who may not know, Catalonia has a strong identity and many people in this area want independence from Spain. Catalan is widely spoken in Catalonia along with Spanish and Occitan (Aranés). Catalan is not only spoken in Catalonia. A very similar dialect is also used in Valencia, the Balearic Islands and pockets of Aragon. Additionally, it is the only official language of Andorra and is spoken in the Roussillon region of France and the city of Alghero in Italy.
(source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Catalan-language )
The famous architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) was from Catalonia. He’s responsible for the Sagrada Família in Barcelona and many other buildings.

Extremadura – Cáceres, Badajoz. (Capital – Mérida) A landlocked region to the east of Portugal. The old town of Cáceres was one of the first world heritage sites in Spain. Many connoisseurs of ham consider top quality extremeño ham the best in the world. The black hairy variety of pig feeds on the typical acorns in wide-open spaces found there.

Galicia – La Coruña, Pontevedra, Orense, Lugo. Capital – Santiago de Compostela, the destination for those following the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) pilgrimage route) Northwest corner of Spain. Galicia also has its own language which shares some characteristics with Portuguese. Galicia has great seafood and is famed for its wide variety of quality food, including Galician stew (cocido Gallego) and Padron peppers (pimientos de padrón). Like Asturias, bagpipes are played here.

La Rioja – (capital, Logroño) The least populated region of Spain. Famous for wine (more than 600 wineries). The first vineyards were planted by the Romans, and some date back centuries.

Madrid – located in the centre of the country. Also the capital city. It’s the second-largest city in the EU (after Berlin) by population within city limits (3,348,536).
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest restaurant in the world is in Madrid. Sobrino de Botín, founded in 1725. Madrid is known for its variation of cocido and callos (tripe)

Murcia – Murcia is also the name of the capital. Southeast of Spain. Murcia is known as the ‘orchard and vegetable garden of Europe’. It has 5 harvests a year and produces 15% of Europe’s vegetables and 30% of Spain’s fruit: lettuce, artichokes, peppers, tomatoes, lemons, peaches, grapes, melons and plums.

Navarra – Capital, Pamplona. From the River Ebro up to the Pyrenees.
The city is famous worldwide for the running of the bulls during the San Fermín festival (July 6 to July 14). Ernest Hemingway wrote about the festival in The Sun Also Rises (1926).

Comunidad Valenciana – Alicante, Castellón, Valencia (capital). On the eastern coast of Spain and including Spain’s third-largest city. Paella, Spain’s most well-known dish was first cooked near Valencia. The original recipe includes chicken, rabbit, and sometimes snails. The Fallas festival attracts visitors from all parts to see the effigies and fireworks in the streets.

…and now it’s your turn to practise your English.
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We also want to say thank you to our Gold sponsor this month, GABITEL INGENIEROS. What do they do? Well, they’re involved in many areas of engineering, but perhaps of interest to you is that they are currently working on an important project in the UK for laying down, that means installing, fibre optic cable.
If you’d like to join their team and work in the UK they are accepting job applications right now. To apply, you must have PRE-SETTLED or SETTLED STATUS in the UK. – Brexit – AIRC342.
If you have that status and you want to work for a growing, expanding company, send your CV / resume to seleccion@gabitelingenieros.com. If you’re driving, riding a bike, don’t have a pen, don’t worry. The email address is in the shownotes at inglespodcast.com/359.
Gabitel is also expanding in Germany, so if you have a good level of German, and you’re interested, send your CV to the same address, seleccion@gabitelingenieros.com
Reza and I would like to thank Rodrigo, Genoveva and all the good people over at www.gabitelingenieros.com for being a gold sponsor of the show.

On next week’s episode: Entrepreneurs that have changed the world

The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’

Photo by Mukuko Studio on Unsplash