Hondarribia's San Pedro StreetThe World > Europe > Northern Spain |
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San Pedro Street in Hondarribia, a small basque village in the north coast of Spain. Two main features are the old town and the fishermen's neighborhood.
This is one of the streets of the seamen neighborhood in Hondarribia, built on land taken away from t...
Santiago Kalea Street in the lower part of the town, a place where fishermen used to live in, some st...
A street in Hondarribia's old town. This old town keeps the charm of ancient times with houses many c...
Hondarribia es una de las poblaciones a las que los guipuzcoanos recurren cuando se ven en la obligac...
En la plaza de Armas de Hondarribia se encuentra el Palacio de Carlos V.En la actualidad presenta un ...
Hondarribia's Arma Plaza Square, on top of the old town, facing the former Castle of Carlos V, now a ...
A beatiful village by the sea. The old town is formed by narrow and charming streets and a main squar...
This Bastion is part of the wall that surrounds Hondarribia's old town.
This picture shows the cockpit of a Bombardier CRJ 900 at San Sebastián airport. The sunrise comes th...
Europe is generally agreed to be the birthplace of western culture, including such legendary innovations as the democratic nation-state, football and tomato sauce.
The word Europe comes from the Greek goddess Europa, who was kidnapped by Zeus and plunked down on the island of Crete. Europa gradually changed from referring to mainland Greece until it extended finally to include Norway and Russia.
Don't be confused that Europe is called a continent without looking like an island, the way the other continents do. It's okay. The Ural mountains have steadily been there to divide Europe from Asia for the last 250 million years. Russia technically inhabits "Eurasia".
Europe is presently uniting into one political and economic zone with a common currency called the Euro. The European Union originated in 1993 and is now composed of 27 member states. Its headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium.
Do not confuse the EU with the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states and dates to 1949. These two bodies share the same flag, national anthem, and mission of integrating Europe. The headquarters of the Council are located in Strasbourg, France, and it is most famous for its European Court of Human Rights.
In spite of these two bodies, there is still no single Constitution or set of laws applying to all the countries of Europe. Debate rages over the role of the EU in regards to national sovereignty. As of January 2009, the Lisbon Treaty is the closest thing to a European Constitution, yet it has not been approved by all the EU states.
Text by Steve Smith.