As I started to collect my notes for this post, I realized that I might have gotten in over my head. How can I produce almost 600 years of...

Let’s start with the fact that the Romans suffered. Unlike the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians, the Romans were not satisfied with the coastal areas. They wanted to...

Although the spirit of resistance is an important legacy of the Roman period, it is hardly the end of the story. Iberia would go on to be a crown...

When we think about Spain today we think about the political entity that loosely binds the population of about 85% of the landmass of the Iberian Peninsula. This political...

While these two groups did not typically interfere with each other, it was the Iberians that had first contact with the emerging sophisticated cultures of the Mediterranean, and thus...

Today, many people refer to these pre-Roman residents of the Peninsula simply as Celtiberians, reflecting a gradual fusion. It's interesting to note that there is general agreement that the...

Today’s Spain faces a wide range of challenges. From separatist movements to rapidly changing demographics, there are both static and dynamic pressure points that seem to threaten the stability...

Spain, like our own country, is a nation-state. It’s easy to take this for granted but it is one of the most fundamental truths that shape our perception of...

So there we were! Luxor, Egypt, 1993. Looking back, the whole thing was probably not a great idea. (From Wikipedia: “1993 was a particularly severe year for terrorist attacks...

I think that for better or worse, most people conflate safety with avoidance of crime. I am headed to “x destination”. Will there be pickpocketing? Will I be assaulted...

Before writing this post, I interviewed a close friend. Rob Fagan is a retired US Army Colonel and former Defense Attaché. He continues to work and travel all over...

The most important thing that stuck out during my conversation with Rob, was his simplest advice. “Be situationally aware”. This is so profound. Few of us really pay attention...

This post is the third in my Basic Photography Series. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to read my previous posts on cameras and basic...

Further down, I will discuss how to choose the right photo editor. In the mean, time, let's look at a few settings that will be common to all editors...

Let’s talk about editing software/applications. One of the most important decisions you have to make as a photographer is where you want to edit your images. Professionals and serious...

Here is my typical Snapseed workflow for travel photography:I get home from my trip and remove my SD card from my camera. I load the SD card into a...

It is hard to imagine Spain without the legacy of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Cervantes created much of...

Cervantes was born (1547) into a Spain that was experiencing a serious case of imperial indigestion. The riches from the new American conquests were making Spain nominally wealthy, but...

Cervantes was the son of a struggling barber-surgeon in Alcala de Henares near Madrid whose own father had been an attorney and person of relative importance in the Andalusian...

By now, you are probably feeling a connection between Cervantes' disillusion and the “illusions” that plague the protagonist of his great novel. Let’s take some time to consider the...

This new approach to literature landed in a Spain that was discontent with its place in the world and its stagnant feudalistic society. The printing press spread Don Quijote...

I drove through my town in Ohio last weekend with out-of-town guests and was proud to show off a building constructed (at least the original foundation) almost 180 years...

Most of us can conceptualize our existence in an “historical context”. History is often defined as the human story since the development of writing systems. Most historians agree that...

Connecting with those that came before is more conceptually challenging for us not just because of the scale of time, but also because they did not leave as many...

The cave complex at Altamira is world-renowned for its remarkable etchings and paintings, especially of now-extinct bison. There are several things that make it special, even when compared to...

A second reason that these caves are so special is that we know (through modern dating techniques) that these paintings were created over a period of 20,000 years. Think...

Today I would like to share the second part of a three-part series on travel photography. As you may recall, the first part of this series dealt with the...

Now, place your subject on the lines, or even better..... on the intersections of the lines. See J. M. W. Turner’s painting The Fighting Temeraire below. The subject is...

(I can’t move on without mentioning how much I love the above painting. Did you know that in 2005, it was selected as Britains’s favorite painting? On the...

What a beautiful photograph. If I asked you, “What is this photo of?" you would say “Roosevelt”, and you would be right. But of course, we both know that...

Best Practice 3: Don’t fight the light. The word photography came from Greek roots and can be translated as “painting with light”. Technically, all you are doing when you...

Yes, it was behind me. Because it was behind me, the photo has clear colors, contrast, and clarity. Here’s another experiment. I’ll just walk into my backyard and take...

Obviously, these photos were taken from two different angles. In the first photo, the sun was in front of me. In the second, the sun was behind me. Can...

For several months now, I’ve been meaning to write a blog post on Goya. Of course, just as I prepared to get down to business, we have been saddled...

It was not simply this slowly diminishing sphere of the sacred that Goya’s work reflected. More ominously, it was this world in which God might not be as present...

“Bad winds and bad marriages!” So jest the Portuguese about Spain, their conjoined Iberian sibling. Although the winds may continue, there have not been any “bad marriages” lately and...

Eventually, three major Christian Kingdoms vied for power: Portugal, Aragon, and Castile. In 1384, the Army of Castile invaded Portugal to impose control. Remarkably, after two years (and with...

Do you know any shepherds? Any friends in the profession? Perhaps an aspiring niece or nephew? When I first started visiting Spain in the 1980's I was amazed by...

For over a thousand years, pilgrims have made the long, beautiful trek to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. They come from all over the Continent, following many paths...

Over the past decade, Barcelona has become the busiest cruise port in the Mediterranean, emerging as the point of embarkation for a variety of European cruises. For hundreds of...

As a travel photographer, one of the most common questions I get is about cameras. “Should I buy a camera for my trip, or is my cell phone good...

For better or worse, Spain has generally been known more for its art than its science. Historically speaking, the last 500 years have not been kind to Spain. The...

I consistently look forward to writing my bi-weekly post here on the Iberian Compass. It gives me a chance to share some often eclectic ideas and experiences collected as...

Although travel has been a necessary function of human survival for thousands of years, it is only in the 19th Century that people began to travel frequently simply for...

“In an attempt to build and maintain a national identity, language is considered to be the primary determinant of success.” Linguistic scholar Andrew Simpson’s observation is particularly relevant in...

Over the past 30 years, I have rented 11 cars in Spain. I returned 9 of them damaged. Needless to say, I am now an advocate of rail travel...

As an Iberian travel specialist, I’m supposed to know a lot about wine. And in some ways I do. I know the main varietals and the most popular appellations...

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One of the most common questions I get when talking about my business pertains to the meaning of Iberia. That’s partly my fault. Even in my website copy, I...

Map Source: Source: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community | CC BY 4.0 ign.es, Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA...

I had all kinds of ideas for the topic of my first post. Everything from the origins of King’s Day as it is celebrated on the Iberian Peninsula to...