The World of Juan Nunez Guirado

Juan Nunez Guirado is an illustrator based in Spain who sent me a link to his work. Here is his world view.

He's done some nice pictorial maps and illustrations of various places in Spain. Here are some from Barcelona.

For a more detailed view, some soothing music and many more maps visit his website.

Special World Cup Weekend Coverage!

On Sunday Spain and the Netherlands will re-enact the Eighty Years' War on the field at Soccer City in Johannesburg. The game is not expected to last for 80 years though it may seem that way to non-fans. Casualties are not expected but there probably will be a couple of injuries and maybe even a fight or two.

Here is a map showing the early Dutch Republic in 1609 at the beginning of the Twelve Years' Truce when Spain recognized the breakaway republic "'as if' it were a sovereign state."*

Can Spain get revenge? Will the Dutch people see their first victory in South Africa since the First Boer War? We'll find out Sunday.

* Quoted from the Wikipedia article

Map of the Week-Tasty Wine Maps

I don't know much about wine. My keen sense of taste tells me that some wines are "better" than others. I do know that my local liquor store is decorated with some nice, colorful maps including this one.

This map is huge and takes a long time to download so I only show a section of it above. It is available online here (click the "Quality Wines map" link) if you want to wait for it. The store also has nice regional maps of France, but I could not find those online. However, I did find lots of other maps. Here is a nice general map of France for people like me who only know the most basic distinctions.


Those with a keener palette may want to dig into a detailed region such as the Loire.

If you're planning some wine tourism you might want a detailed map like the one below of Madera, California. I mainly included this map because it is, in my cartographic opinion, cute. You might get lost if you actually try to use this map as its accuracy seems to get lost in all the cuteness.

L'Chaim!

MOTW #75

The text below is from the original posting back in May (this is actually being written in August). It now appears that the map has been taken off the web page of La Voz de Galicia. I tried searching with my non-knowledge of Spanish using the words vertederos and mapa and all links to the map seem to be gone. Too bad because it was a good one. The original text:

Way back in 1990 I participated in a project mapping and cataloging illegal dumps in Slovenia. Here's a technologically more advanced version for Galicia in northwestern Spain. You can click on any dump and get a photo. Here's the mapper's description:
"The Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia invites readers to send in photos and descriptions of illegal garbage dumps. Photos and descriptions are plotted on an interactive map of the country. The intent seems to be embarrassing officials into cleaning it up."
This page allows those of you who know Spanish to practice while giving those of us that don't the opportunity to be tolerant.

MOTW #60

This past summer the Spanish Postal Agency, Correos issued a really nice stamp showing a map of the city and region around Toledo. It's part of their "Sciences and the Earth" series. I don't know if there are other maps planned. Stay tuned.