Three years ago I went as in independent tourist to St Petersburg. St Petersburg 2016
Last year I went to Italy - Rome, Florence, Mantua and Venice. Italy 2017
This year it is Barcelona and Madrid.
I envy ones friends and relatives who live in the UK as it is so easy just to go to European capitals for a weekend by one of the discount airlines like Ryan Air and EasyJet. For those of us living on the West Coast of Canada it involves a minimum of a nine hour flight and an eight hour time change. Therefore the European visits tend to be longer.
I enjoyed the book "Spain:A History" by Melveena McKendrick that gives a history of Spain from as long ago as 1900 BC. Early struggles were from the domination by Islam and then the Christian Ascendancy.
In 1478 was the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition was not completely abolished until 1834.
The Civil War in Spain began in the early part of the 20th Century. However the Civil War of 1937- 1938 is most known and has a local interest here in Victoria. The Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps were a volunteer battalion of mostly Canadians who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. In Victoria near the Parliament Buildings is a memorial to the 1546 volunteers of whom 721 were killed in Spain. Ernest Hemmingway, George Orwell and Dr Norman Bethune were some of those involved in supporting the Republican side. By the time the volunteers tried to return to Canada they were denied entry because Canada has passed a law that forbade Canadians from enrolling in foreign wars.
The more recent history and its tumultuous times is difficult for me to remember from "Spain: A history". In 1946 Spain was ostracized by the United Nations. Then however in 1953 the US provided economic aid and in 1955 Spain was reinstated as a member of the United Nations. Barcelona is in Catalonia which has tried to separate from the Federal Government in Madrid in the last few years. Whether one, as a tourist, will be aware of much of the history will be of interest.
