When you walk around Ciudad Rodrigo, it is hard not think about the cold winter’s evening of January 19th in 1812, when Wellington, one of Britain’s greatest generals, ordered his army to seize Ciudad Rodrigo. After a ten day siege, two breaches in the walls of Ciudad Rodrigo had been made by sustained cannon fire and the time had come [...]
After living in Spain permanently for the past seven years, I would still say that one of the oddest experiences for me tends to be life in Spain during August! This may seem a strange statement – but you have to appreciate how very different August is in Spain, as opposed to (say) the UK. Obviously, August in Spain is [...]
The old saying states that ‘the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’. That, of course, may be correct – but it certainly has nothing to do with an exceptional phenomenon called a Gota Fría! Certainly, experiencing a Gota Fría (‘Cold Drop’) is something that changes any North European’s concept of rain or, indeed, storms. In fact, once you [...]
I could not resist doing a quick Post on Spanish horses and riding in Spain. Partially, this is to please my daughter, who is obsesssed by horses and rides at every possible opportunity. I also rather wanted to share my photograph of a stunning Fresian being shoed! Thankfully in our area (around Gandia in Valencia Province) there are untold places [...]
I was prompted to write this as some close friends of ours had their car written off yesterday. Thankfully, they were not in the car at the time, which was parked outside their villa. Amazingly, the Spanish lady driver of the moving car was distracted by a wasp – to such an extent that she drove onto the wrong side [...]
If you do any research into moving to Spain then it will not take you long to find out that the process is nothing less than a minefield – most particularly if you intend buying a Spanish property. Indeed, the more you read, the more that you will come across horror stories which are likely to fill you with misgivings. [...]
Well, here we are again – at the start of August and already into the ‘fiesta season’! This, for anyone living here, is the time when the endurance of anyone living in Spain will be tested to the limit as ‘Spanish culture’ explodes onto the streets of almost every village and town. However, before joining in, you need to ask [...]
So, Catalonia have banned bullfighting! This, by anyone’s standards, is something of a shock. All of a sudden,one of the most emblematic parts of Spanish culture has dissappeared from one the greatest regions of Spain. In a way, Catalonia’s bull fighting ban appears more profound than the ban on fox hunting was in the UK. After all, fox hunting was [...]