Culture Spain – for all things Spanish

The euro has gained this week, suggesting the markets are feeling increasingly calm regarding Europe. Greece though has been getting it in the neck. “Oh – to be anything but a Greek politician!” This is the thing Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos must be telling himself this week, as EU officials continue to pile on the spending cuts Greece must [...]

On the 31st May this year, nine men from Paddle4Heroes are going to paddle from Gibraltar to Marbella in Spain by kayak to raise funds for Help for Heroes and a new charity called Families of The Fallen.  Both of these charities should touch the heart of anyone British, as they are at the forefront of helping servicemen and women [...]

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun team (including the lovely Jasmine Harman), who were filming in my area.  They have some house hunters who want to move to the Gandia area, which gave the A Place in the Sun team a reason to come here and their first experience, to the [...]

I saw an interesting comment in El Pais recently, which stated that the President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, was justifying significant spending cuts as a way of ‘preventing Madrid from meddling with Catalan finances’.  This would, a colleague said: “blow away our financial autonomy” and “violate the rules of the game set down in the Constitution.” Yes, indeed! However, one [...]

Spain is blessed with numerous cities and towns that are veritable treasure chests of cultural gems for the discerning heritage hunter, yet few people would automatically think of Malaga. Indeed, Malaga is best known for being the ‘gateway’ to the Costa Del Sol and its legendary beaches, resorts, late night bars and clubs. As a consequence, few people give Malaga [...]

Well, I think if I was in Spain in charge of marketing Spanish property to the British (if there is such a person!) then I would probably finally have my head in my hands.  Either that or I would be looking frantically for a wobbly, three legged stool and a short rope. Why? Because the UK press has recently been [...]

Did you know that if you have a holiday home in Spain that you are liable to pay an annual tax and that you must file a tax return, every year, with the Spanish authorities?  In fact, you are liable to pay two different annual taxes in Spain on your Spanish property – to be strictly accurate. Almost everyone knows [...]

Throughout Spain around lunch time, you cannot fail to notice the numerous blackboards outside of restaurants boasting various renditions of the ‘Menu Del Dia’ or Daily Menu.  For those not familiar with the concept, this is a set menu in Spain providing anywhere from two to eight or more choices of ‘primero plato’, (first plate), ‘segundo plato’ (second plate) and [...]

Recently, I was having a chat with Rod Younger of Books4Spain about the sales of books and the revolution in the way that books are sold.  This, of course, is of some importance to me as the author of five books with my new book, The Laptop Entrepreneur, out this week.  The question, of course, is how to buy books [...]

Did you know that as a resident of Spain that you could be eligible for cheap holidays in Spain?  These are available to all nationalities but you must come within certain parameters including being over 65 or a widow of 55 (or over) receiving a widow’s pension or over 60 but on an early retirement pension or government invalidity pension. [...]