Newspaper Article

Coastal Spain: Parasols and high art ; There's much more to soak up than the sun on Spain's beach resorts, says Michael Pauls

Pauls, Michael

2005

Overview

Back in the Sixties Robert Graves got an insight into a new phenomenon when he overheard two secretaries discussing their holidays. One mentioned she had gone to Mallorca and her friend asked her where that was. 'Don't know,' was the reply, 'I flew.' Spain's Mediterranean resorts have had a reputation ever since; strange holiday infernos of licensed burro taxis, wide-screen TVs blaring out Manchester United matches and baked beans on toast pustulating under beach umbrellas. Is there anything more edifying under the Iberian sun? Is it possible to have a simpatico beach holiday with some art and culture too? Let's take a quick tour around Spain's coasts, starting with the Costa del Sol, and see if we can do it. Start right at the French border with San Sebastian, quite simply the most gracious seaside resort in all of Spain (see box, right). Heading west from there, the mountainous Basque coast hides sweet villages, such as Getaria and Lekeitio, where you can spend the off- beach hours getting to know your kind but inscrutable Basque hosts. After these comes the last place in the world you would think of as a resort \" gritty, industrial Bilbao. Everyone goes there for Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum and the other monuments of a surprisingly refined city. But not many know you can do 'El Goog' in the morning, then take a 20-minute metro ride to clean, attractive beaches at Getxo and Plentzia. There are plenty of other things to see in this surprising corner of Cantabria: just 15 minutes down the coast lies one of the loveliest villages in Spain, Santillana del Mar, a jewel of medieval architecture. But culture in these parts goes even further back \" by about 14,000 years. Just outside Santillana the famous cave at Altamira contains herds of thundering bison and graceful deer, a masterpiece of Upper Paleolithic art. The cave itself is too delicate to receive visitors, but there's a near-perfect replica of it and several other painted caves in the area.

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media