Bilbao
The Kingdom of Spain, which looks so compact on the map, is composed of distinct provinces, each of which in earlier times formed an independent kingdom; and although they are now united under one crown by marriage, inheritance and conquest, the original distinctions, geographical as well as social, remain almost unaltered. The mountains which intersect the whole peninsula, and the rivers which separate portions of it, have, for many years, operated as so many walls and moats, by cutting off inter-communication, and by fostering that tendency to isolation which must exist in all hilly countries, where good roads and bridges do not abound. As similar circumstances led the people of ancient Greece to split into small principalities, tribes and classes, so in Spain, man has little in common with the inhabitants of the adjoining districts. (Richard Ford, Gatherings from Spain [1846]) (Possibly)
Bilbao
León
Pamplona