User:Thomasg1302/sandbox

=Blanes, Catalonia, Spain= Blanes is a small town on the east coast of Spain in the regio of Catalonia in the province of Gerona. It's coast is part of the Costa Brava, which stretches from Blanes all the way to the French border. Blanes is famous for a couple of things, the nightlife, the Concurs de Focs d'Artifici during the Santa Anna festival and the beautiful botanical gardens.

History
The history of Blanes dates back to the Roman Empire, some centurys B.C.. The Romans started 'Romanizing' Blanes and surroundings around 300 B.C.. There are remainings being found from around this time. After the reign of the Romans it was reigned by Arabs and Catholics. In the 13th century, after the Christians regained the power, important achitectural developments took place in Blanes. Some exampels are the palace, Palacio de los Vizcondes, the church Íglesia Parroquial and the citywalls.

In the 17th century, during de war of Los Segadores, Blanes got practically burned to ashes. As an example, the Palacio de los Vizcondes got completly destroyed. The last bad event Blanes had to deal with was the war Guerra de la Sucesion, after that the reconstruction of the town and the expansion of the agriculture started.

Botanical Gardens
One of those botanical gardens is De Mar i Murtra, it's very colourful and it is almost 15 hectares big. It consist of over 4000 different plant species and is visited by 300.000 people every year. The other one is the Pinya de Rosa consisting of over 7000 different plant species of which a great amount is seen as the best one of the best in the world.

Fireworks
The Concurs de Focs d'Artifici is an internatial competition of different countries around the world. It always takes place in the 3rd or 4th week of juli. Over 500.000 kilo's of firework are used and 100.000 people visit the festival. Most people watch the fireworks on the beach.

Nightlife
The nightlife in Blanes is especially popular in northern Europian countries, mainly Holland. This is shown by the numerous cafe's with Dutch names and the amount of Dutch teenagers wandering the streets during the summer holiday. Very often you will see people go to the one of the many small restaurants and then rest a little while at the beach before they go out. This is what most travel guides/info sites recommend as being a fun activity.

2008 Storm
In December 2008 an unusually strong storm struck Blanes' beach. The port of Blanes was hit hardest. The old seawall was already very old and wasn't capable of holding of a storm like this. Many pleasure boats, fishing vessels and tourist ferries were damaged and/or smashed onto the beach. Politicians had already said the harbor needed an upgrade, but the Ministry of Environments refused to let it be build because it would've damaged and negativly affect the coast. Then the storm came, in 2008. Locals later said it was the worst storm Blanes had seen since the 1950s.

External links:
Concurs de Focs d'Artifici (Dutch)

Harbor upgrade

History of Blanes (Dutch)