Spain is in the news.

Spain has now become the fourth Eurozone country, after Greece, Ireland and Portugal, to get bailout funds in the growing crisis gripping the Euro.

Unemployment is high and services are being cut to reduce debt and bring budgets into balance.  Some economists doubt this is possible within the context of a single currency shared with Germany and France. There have been violent but futile street demonstrations.

In September 2008 we travelled in Spain and Portugal. I had travelled in both countries twenty years earlier and wondered what might have changed. This is what we found.

Until 2008 the economy of Spain had been regarded as one of the most dynamic within the EU, attracting significant amounts of foreign investment and creating many new jobs.  It showed. 

Portugal had not been so prosperous and was already in economic trouble.  Since our visit in Spain too has also gone into reverse.