Spain Travel News 03/06/2011

The Agora in Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences has, once again this year, been chosen to host the most intense and exciting tennis tournament held in the Region of Valencia: the second Valencia Tennis Open. From 30th October to 7th November, the best rackets in the world will be hitting hard in a bid to claim victory.

I know you know how to order a drink in a bar.   But in the Spanish culture, there is a very big difference between bars and restaurants compared to other countries. Bars serve excellent coffee, wine, beer, soft drinks, pastries, sandwiches, and tapas. Tapas include sardines floating in olive oil, patatas bravas, meatballs, artichokes in olive oil, and all kinds of sausages.  Service is slow. The Spanish culture offers some unusual drinks. The big cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Seville, to towns, all have a bunch of bars.

A BODY found in the boot of a burnt out car in Malaga had been shot three times.
The grim discovery was made by firemen after they were called to put out the blaze in the Campanillas district on Wednesday night.
Police believe the victim – who was most likely male – was dead before the fire was started.

In this section we have suggested some itineraries that you can use as a base for tours in Andalucia. These itineraries also link together many other information pages.

As always the greatest problem is how to fit so much in a limited period of time and have a holiday as well rather than win an endurance award. You will need a good map. Michelin map 446 (Southern Spain) and 578 (Andalucia) are both excellent, or alternatively, to avoid all that folding, there's a handy spiral-bound (though less detailed) Michelin road map of Andalucia.

The Catalan seaside town of Vilanova i La Geltrú is one of the few to have defied carnival prohibition under the Franco regime. Over the centuries the locals have retained many bizarre traditions, including food fights involving piles of confectionery.
The celebrations start on Fatty Thursday, with La meringada, meringue-flinging wars and a street procession – causing everything to be swiftly coated with a sugary meringue crust.

Lately, I’ve been consciously attempting to not slip into the feeling of being blind to my own beautiful surroundings. That must be what happens when there’s no certainty as to where you’ll be calling home. But, it also happens no matter where you are. I remember being back home, and majestic Mt. Rainier towering over my hometown in Washington State would somehow slip into the backdrop as I became accustomed to seeing it everyday. Now, it seems the Mediterranean is just another body of water until I focus on seeing my daily surroundings with new eyes.

So, I set off to explore my own backyard, be a tourist in my own area, and let my eyes absorb the same beauty that first-time visitors see. Where did this journey take me? A 20-minute bus-ride to one of my favorite coastal cities; Tarifa.

A “Real” was a Spanish coin introduced by King Pedro I of Castille. Later on came the coin known as the “Peso”, Spanish for “weight” which was the equivalent of eight “reals” and legally weighed 27.468 grams of silver. Other names for the Peso were the “real de ocho”, “the eight real coin”, and the “Thaller” or “Spanish Dollar”. Worth eight reals, now you know where the phrase beloved of pirates, and parrots, “Pieces of Eight” comes from.

Antonio Guzman Capel is a Spanish painter born in Tetuan in 1960, though he has lived most of his life in the city of Palencia (Spain). Self-taught artist, from early childhood he showed natural talent for drawing and painting. His first exhibition was made when he was only 11 years, holding a new exhibition each year, and at 14 he exhibited his work in Switzerland and was considered by local critics as a genius of painting, since it was not known at that time any artist endowed with the power to make a work of such quality at such a young age.

He paints portraits, figures, bullfighting themes, landscapes, genre scenes … and it is appreciated at his work his great admiration and influence of the paintings of Vermeer and Velazquez.

“Carnival” seems to mean something different to everybody and to me, “Carnival” makes me think of the school carnivals we had in the summer time at my school. We would wear stupid little paper hats and POP party poppers all over the place (usually aimed at our teachers). It was fun, but by no means a “special” time of year.