We ALL love to hear weird and wonderful information about most things in life, because as humans we are naturally curious. That may mean expanding our knowledge with the weird and wonderful that is actually useless in our every day life, but fun to know nonetheless.
I bet you didn’t know these 5 weird and wonderful facts about Spain. Number 3 WOW!
1: Spaniards are second in the world for life expectancy – According to the World Health Organization, Spain has an overall life expectancy of 83 years — only the Japanese live longer.
2: THE Worlds oldest restaurant, is in Madrid – Sobrino de Botín opened in 1725 as Casa Botín, and while it’s certainly not the first restaurant ever, it is the oldest still operating, as certified by the Guinness Book of Records. Ernest Hemingway was a regular when he was living in Madrid — he mentions the restaurant in The Sun Also Rises.
3: You can ZIPLINE from Spain to Portugal – You can do it in Sanlúcar de Guadiana, Andalucía. Take the Límite Zero zipline over the Guadiana River and in 60 seconds you’ll be in Alcoutim, Portugal. The line is 2,362 feet long and reaches speeds up to 45 miles per hour. Oh, and it’s the first cross-border zipline in the world! See for yourself (here) and remember to pack light.
4: There are MORE festivals in Spain than days of the year – La Tomatina, (below) which looks like a scene from the Hollywood movie Carrie, attracts fun-seeking travelers from all over the world. However, Las Fallas, and San Fermín (running of the bulls) are probably the most famous. Every village has a patron saint who’s celebrated for at least a couple days – and when I say a couple of days, almost every weekend you will find someone is celebrating some thing. So if you want to live in Spain, you really need to understand – this is how life is here. LOUD!
5: Cafe culture is BIG in Spain… huge in fact – Spain has a high bars-per-capita ratio (a 2013 study found) one bar per every 132 people. But before you get too excited, Bar in Spain also means coffee shop. The Spanish are not a nation of alcoholics – the opposite in fact.
Here’s an added bonus – Remember Doctor Zhivago? All that snow providing the atmospheric backdrop for Omar Sharif and Julie Christie could only be in Russia, right? Wrong. The film was shot in Soria, Spain, and “Moscow” was built from scratch on the outskirts of Madrid. Even Spaghetti Westerns such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly were – you guessed it… shot in Spain.
“So if Spain is what you want – Then Spain is what you GET“
