The state system in Spain, an hilarious insight!
Well, you cannot keep a great gag down and my Spanish lawyer has just sent me a fabulous (short and hilarious!!) video about the state system in Spain. In fact, I featured this video in an article on Culture Spain earlier in the year entitled Bureaucracy in Spain – but I think I am more than justified in highlighting the [...]
The most perfect Art Déco house in Spain
Just occasionally, perhaps only once every four or five years, I come across a house in Spain that is truly extraordinary – somewhere that really does have the ‘Wow!’ factor. Frankly, this is rare in Spain as many Spanish properties lack personality and this applies even to expensive villas on exclusive estates. The latter can appear wonderful but often boast [...]
Gandia, Valencia Province, Spain
Gandia is a town located on the mid eastern side board of Spain. It is within Valencia Province (one of the three Provinces of the Autonomous Region of Valencia Comunitat de Valencia) and is situated some 70 kms south of Valencia City. The immediate area around Gandia is known as La Safor which comprises a number of small towns and [...]
Summer holidays in Spain – 10 things not to forget!
Are you going to be spending your summer holidays in Spain? If so – then make sure that you are well prepared beforehand and pack everything that you need. After all, there is nothing worse than setting out for your holidays and arriving at the airport to find that you have left behind something critical! So, what should go on [...]
Spain, rabbits and the Iberian Lynx
Did you know that there is a really interesting connection between the name España and rabbits – and that the devastating decline of the Iberian Lynx is intimately bound up in both? Well, there are good reasons to believe that the name of Spain (España) derives from the Phoenician word ‘ispanihad’ which evidently means ‘land of rabbits’. This word was [...]
Valencia City of Arts and Sciences
I defy anyone who comes to Valencia city not to be entranced by the City of Arts and Sciences. It is, justifiably, one of the greatest tourist attractions in Spain and a tribute to modern Spanish vision and design. Indeed, the City of Arts and Sciences is such a triumph that, alone, it makes any visit to Spain worthwhile. However, [...]
Culture Spain, Running of the bulls Pamplona – the rules!
The first thing is never consider running with the bulls in Pamplona if you have not seen the encierro before. Even if this is only the Spanish TV1 broadcast (excellent coverage every day of the feria de San Fermín from 7.30 to 8.30 am) which first transmits the run live, then has commentaries, then a re-run with a commentary, and [...]
Las Fallas Valencia, the most incredible fiesta in Spain!
Las Fallas must rank as one of the most extraordinary fiestas in Spain. Indeed, over the past few years it has gained international recognition as one of those remarkable events that you should see – at least once in your lifetime. Certainly, the sheer scale of La Fallas is astonishing with the main festivities taking place over five days (15th [...]
The Alhambra and the Moors in Spain
Some years ago, I was commissioned to write an article which ended up entitled ‘What did the Moors do for us?’. This was, needless to say, a ‘take’ on the famous scene in ‘The Life of Brian’ where the same question was asked about the Romans. Before I started my research my answer to ‘What did the Moors do for [...]
Culture Spain: La Tomatina (the greatest tomato fight in the World!)
Few people would argue that Spain has some pretty incredible fiestas. However, one of the most bizarre has got to be La Tomatina – which is a massive tomato fight. Amazingly, some 30,000 people a year crowd into the village of Buñol to hurl rotten tomotoes at each other. The mess is simply beyond imagination but taking part has become [...]
Culture Spain : MARBELLA VILLA OR BARRIO?
Marbella villa or barrio? The doorbell rang. It was Perla carrying a bucket full of fish. They were small dorada and they were still wriggling. When I had met him in the street yesterday he had asked me if we wanted any fresh fish and I had said yes. This is what he normally does, as he has no phone, [...]
CULTURE SPAIN: THE SAGRADA FAMÍLIA, GAUDI AND BARCELONA
I have to say that whenever I find it difficult to get things done in Spain I think of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. This fabulous building was started in 1882 and is still not finished – with the projected completion estimated to be sometime in 2026. This means that if this date is actually met(!) the Sagrada Família will [...]
CULTURE SPAIN – BULLFIGHTING IN SPAIN
I am sure that most Spaniards would think (probably correctly) that few people outside Spain have the faintest clue about bullfighting. Most non-Spaniards instinctively dislike it – and are shocked by the bloodletting and apparent savagery. And yet, bullfighting in Spain remains popular and is considered by many Spaniards to be a fundamental part of the very culture of Spain. [...]
LIFE IN SPAIN – TEN REASONS FOR MOVING TO SPAIN
I think, like everyone else, I often tend to get too wrapped up in Spanish property and the state of the Spanish property market. It is important, undeniably, but, within it all, I think the whole reason for moving to Spain (or buying a property in Spain) – can be lost. Indeed (and this I have stated countless times), living [...]
SPANISH POLICE – THE POLICE IN SPAIN
Few matters are more confusing initially to someone coming to Spain than the array of police forces encountered around the country. It can be difficult to know who to go to when you are in trouble and why one police force will attend a crime in one place and another elsewhere. In fact, essentially, Spain has three police forces: the [...]
The INE (the Spanish Statistics Institute) has just released data showing that there are now some 5,639,500 people unemployed in Spain – a figure that is nothing short of disastrous. Indeed, some 4,000 people a day lost their jobs in Spain during the first quarter of 2012. A mind numbing figure. Indeed, with an unemployment rate in Spain of 24.4% [...]
So, Spain is formally back in recession, with the Spanish economy having lost ground in the last quarter of 2010 (by 0.3%) followed by a further loss (of 0.4%) during the first quarter of 2012. This is, of course, very bad news – but was entirely predictable. Needless to say, what is less predictable is when Spain will emerge from [...]
Have you been thinking of buying a property in Spain or moving here but been put it off because you cannot understand the Spanish property market? Are you confused by what is happening and unsure whether to buy now or wait – or do you think that perhaps you may have lost the opportunity of buying your dream home in [...]
I am mildly surprised as to why anyone still seriously questions whether Spain will need a bailout from the EU. Why? Because the Spanish economy is in very, very deep trouble. That may seem an obvious statement but I fear the sheer, almost unresolvable, structural problem of the economy in Spain is not fully understood by many people, despite it [...]
As expected, the draft budget in Spain announced on Friday has heralded further massive cuts to Spanish government spending. Indeed, these cuts will amount to some 27 billion Euros, a figure that is as difficult to comprehend as the sheer size of the debt problem in Spain. So, what will these cuts hit? Well, virtually every aspect of the Spanish [...]
The Prime Minister of Spain (Mariano Rajoy) is due to deliver his first budget for Spain (on the 30th March 2012), despite being in power for over three months. The delay has been for shameless political reasons, as Rajoy wanted to get the Regional elections in Andalusia out of the way before announcing his budget. Clearly, this is because the [...]
Last weekend saw huge demonstrations in Spain against the labour reforms in Spain that the ruling PP (‘Conservative’ ) party have fast tracked through Spain’s legislature. The protests were predictable, as furious private sector employees throughout the country saw their employment rights changed for the worse. In short, the changes are as follows: Before the new measures, if you were [...]
… at least for residents of Villamayor de Santiago, Cuenca. Probably better known for its famous Manchego cheese and links to Don Quijote, the small town is hitting the headlines due to an innovative economic scheme. Faced with slumping sales in the region, Luis Miguel Campayo, head of the local merchants’ association, came up with the novel idea in order [...]
It has just been announced that unemployment in Spain has reached 5.4 million people, amounting to an unemployment rate in Spain of 22.9% – some 400,000 people more than during the third quarter of 2011. Meanwhile, 48.6% of Spain’s 16-24 year olds have no work, creating a living tragedy and a ‘lost’ generation. Can anyone be surprised by this horrendous [...]
Earlier this year, I wrote a couple of articles about the problem assessing the true scale of debt in Spain. This was at the time that Prime Minister Zapatero was being applauded by the EU for bringing in austerity measures to bring the national debt and spending of Spain under control. My concern was that the EU and other economists [...]
So, as widely anticipated, the Spanish conservative party (the PP – Partido Popular) has won an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament after yesterday’s General Election in Spain. Meanwhile, the Spanish socialist party (the PSOE – Partido Socialista Obrero Español) has been badly defeated and has finally been punished by the electorate for its gross negligence in mishandling the Spanish [...]
Unemployment in Spain is now close to the five million mark, according to the Institute for National Statistics in Spain – with some 21.5% of the Spanish population out of work! This is terrible news and must come as the final death knell for the ruling socialist party in Spain (PSOE) who shortly face the electorate at the Spanish General [...]
The past week in Spain has seen the wedding of the elderly Duchess of Alba, unemployment in Spain reach a 15 year high and a strike by Spanish teachers. Meanwhile, although the majority of Spaniards are Catholic, 57% (a figure rising annually) do not go to church regularly. Elsewhere, a residential home is being constructed for gay Spaniards and El [...]
Spain is being rocked, at the moment, by the news that the directors of various Spanish banks have taken huge compensation packages – despite relentlessly driving their own banks to the point of destruction. To everyone’s amazement, some of these packages have been awarded by the directors, to themselves, just days before the Bank of Spain was forced to bail [...]
Finally, the first overt signs of what I have been writing about for some time are becoming apparent and they beg the question of: how bankrupt is Spain? Certainly, you cannot have missed yesterday’s BBC headline screaming ‘Pain in Spain – southern town left penniless by the boom and bust’. This featured the small inland town of Moratalla in the [...]