Basque Country

The Basque country offers great seafood, excellent beaches and beautiful countryside. Pine-covered mountains drop sheer into the turbulent steely-grey Atlantic and jagged cliffs lurch to isolated bays. The sea torn coast is relieved by beaches of fine yellow sand, scoured dean by the pummelling of the waves, rinsed new with the ebb of each tide.

Heavy rainfall gives this north coast its vivid colours; the area is often referred to as "Green Spain". Water in the air tinges the forested mountain slopes with mist and turns the atmosphere in industrial Bilbao to a salty mugginess, but banana trees and yuccas grow among rain soaked pines in the squares and boulevards of San Sebastian, creating a uniquely refreshing mix of the cool, fresh and exotic. Bad weather may spoil your trip but when the sun shines, it pulls the colours out from the landscape: the greens of the mountains and pastures, the iron red rooftops of farms in the valleys, and the deep blues of the churning sea. High rainfall also means that beaches can be enjoyed free of mass, crass commercialism. If you can relax with the possibility of rain, then the Basque country is a great region to head for.

In any case a downpour can be the perfect excuse to shift your enjoyment of panoramic views of the coast and countryside to equally varied vistas indoors: the tapas bars. Basque cuisine is for many the very best in Spain, and the busy fishing ports all along this coast daily trawl a salty catch that goes straight to the restaurants and bars. Bilbao and San Sebastian both offer ample opportunity to savour the very best of the region's food, and for many it is reason enough to come here.

Not surprisingly, San Sebastian gets the lion's share of visitors. It is a fine belle ipoque resort, popular with wealthy Madrilenos seeking cool, green relief from the oppressive southern summer heat. Bilbao, heavily developed around 50 years later, has among its weighty 19th century architecture a handful of grand Art Nouveau buildings, reminders of its economic pre eminence around the turn of the century when it could afford to be part of the great pan European avant garde movement of the day. It is the region's industrial capital, busy, noisy and congested, with a tremendous life and energy in its bars and cafes.

Inland the country reaches the wild mountain scenery of the Pyrenees, an awesome chain of snow capped peaks. They form Spain's natural northeast boundary and offer some of the best walking and climbing in Europe. Pamplona, Navarre's sleepy, provincial capital, bursts into life once a year in the fiesta San Fermin a fortn'ght long bullfighting bonanza that pulls crowds from all over the world. Foothills spread from here to the fertile vineyards of Navarre and the varied, empty landscapes of Aragon. Broad, ruddy rivers muscle their way between hulking, rocky outcrops; tall, swaying grasses shield fields of maize; and lowlands give way to the neat rows of mixed orchards. Pyrenees aside, Aragon. is not an obvious tourist destination. Zaragoza, its capital, is a busy industrial city, but it does have a striking centre founded round the Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar. Moreover, Francisco Goya, arguably the greatest Spanish artist of all time, was born at Fuendetodos, 45 kin from the city; enthusiasts should earmark Zaragoza's Museo Camon Aznar to view the very best of his etchings.