Best Things to Do in Spain

• Viewing Antonio Gaudi’s fanciful and enormously ambitious church of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, still a work in progress almost 90 years after the architect’s death.
• Swimming in the warm waters of the Mediterranean sea off one of Spain’s alluring islands of Mallorca, Ibiza or Formentera.
• Staring, amazed, at the detailed tile work in Granada’s 14th-century Moorish palace, the Alhambra.
• Staying in a parador, one of the government inns converted from former castles, monasteries, and other atmospheric buildings.
• Making the rounds of the tapas bars in Madrid, downing a complimentary olive there, a slice of roasted potato there, and perhaps splurging on a grilled prawn or two.
• Throwing tomatoes at strangers in Valencia’s famous La Tomatina, a 40,000-person tomato fight held each August.
• Admiring the Old Masters in Madrid’s Prado Museum and Picasso’s masterwork Guernica in the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
• Taking in a flamenco show at a club in Seville where you know the dancing is authentic.
• Joining the pre-dinner crowds along Las Ramblas in Barcelona as they enjoy their evening paseo, while passing chic sidewalk cafes and lively street entertainers.
• Marveling at the formal gardens and fountains in Seville’s Royal Alcazar Palace.
• Spending an art-filled day in Toledo, home of the painter El Greco and a medieval masterpiece of a city.
• Walking at least part of the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, an ages-old, now newly popular pilgrimage route.