Misleading Title but Great Conclusion

Under the title Is the Sun Setting on Solar Power in Spain" The Scientific American Magazine has answered the question in the negative. Have a read of the article here which talks about the advances already made and the plans for the future.

This is one of the areas that Spain will be able to lead the World because of the simple reason that the sun shines here and the will is in place.

Forget Spain. Go to Pyongyang

I have just received the following from a friend in the UK. I will be immediately packing my bags for the 150m2 average dwelling space in Pyongyang!

Bizarre and not really anything to do with Spain although some of the tower blocks looked familiar for those having visited Benidorm.

Finding my Feet in Córdoba

A friend of mine, Amanda Hamilton, runs a boutique B+B in Cordoba, Iznajar to be exact, if you look online you will find it here. She has written an article for the Website www.womeninspain.com and I thought it might light your fires.

"I'm the owner and manager of Casa La Celada, my beautiful guest house, micro hotel and B&B on the outskirts of stunning Iznájar in Córdoba, Andalucia. I am also a published artist and I practice healing and reflexology in my "spare" time.

Having had a 15 year dream to live in Spain, alongside a violent and drug infested marriage, the thought that I would ever realise my Dream seemed like a stupid pie in the sky idea. But with a lot of support from family and friends and many court cases later, I departed the shores of England on 12th May 2006 - ironically my wedding anniversary, with my then six year old son, a motorhome packed to the hilt, and a lot of hope in my heart.

We spent our first year in a mountain village called Rubielos de Mora, in the Teruel area of the Aragón province - about an hour and a half from the beautiful city of Valencia. But it wasn't our "home". We were strangers, and worse still, I was a "loose woman" - no husband to reduce the threat perceived by the locals. It was time to move on.

So I packed up our lovely motorhome again, sold and gave away probably 70% of my possessions, and we headed south towards Andalucia, finally stopping in Cazorla after many kilometres and a lot more adventures. Then, when my son went to spend August 2007 with his father, I spent the first two weeks of my August paragliding, canyoning, and exploring the vast province of Andalucia in a tiny little hire-car . and I started to fall in love.

Within days I found Iznájar. Iznájar comes from the Moorish and means Happy Castle - and it truly is a happy castle - teetering atop a huge rocky outcropping that juts out into the vast lake called the Embalse de Iznájar - 999,000 hectolitres of water when full . and my heart was stolen for good.

Within a matter of days I had found a property that would be perfect for us - Casa La Celada - right in the heart of a gorgeous little white sleepy Andalucian village called La Celada with it's own tiny school, shop and divine eight sided church, just 2km from Iznájar itself. I didn't want to buy within the village of Iznájar because, magical though it is, it is all hills and very narrow streets which means that the views are limited mostly to your neighbours' windows unless you are lucky to be able to afford a lake view, to say nothing of the damage you'll do to a car while you get used to the tiny roads. Instead, I have the delight of seeing Iznájar every time I need the bank or post office - a drive that thrills me every time I make the journey.

And our house in La Celada is HUGE! We have five, arguably six bedrooms, three of which are on the ground floor with luxurious bathrooms - it was immediately obvious to me that I could set myself up as a B&B Guest House owner, work from home where I could also paint, and therefore be "there" when my son came home from the local school and be a Mum. WHAT a luxury after the six jobs I held down in the UK!

My son is totally accepted, loved and integrated into our community, as am I. Thankfully we can both speak Spanish which in my view makes the difference between surviving and "going Native". He can play outside in the street on his bike, roller blades, or playing football with the other children without me ever having to have concerns, and I can work on marketing and PR, painting a new commission, practicing healing and reflexology knowing that he is safe, loved and happy in our sleepy little village.

And when we need "action", we are an hour's drive from three of the most important cities of Andalucia! To the South we have the beautiful city of Málaga and the Costa del Sol beaches, to the East we have Granada and the Science Museum, ski resort and the world famous Alhambra Palace, and to our North we have possibly my favourite city - Córdoba - once the capital city of Europe (a LONG time ago) - absolutely steeped in history, flamenco and beautiful winding streets festooned with flowers during May when the huge fiestas begin.

And speaking of fiestas - well Spain is famous for them! A long siesta in the afternoon prepares you for a night of revelry, paella, local sangria and a lot of dancing and games. The Spanish really do know how to party and have welcomed us into their party fold with open arms - I couldn't have possibly asked for more.

But it does get better. House prices were great when I bought here enabling me to buy a second house which has the most exquisite views over the huge Lake and our mountain range, the Sierra Subbética. So my longer term dream is to bring this lovely but abandoned house to the reaches of people who want even more than Casa La Celada offers - I will renovate it so we have little cottages around a huge pool with the view that you could happily die gazing across ...

And when I consider that just six years ago a doctor put me on tranquilisers to survive my marriage, and I used to hide under tables when it was all unbearable, and I look at the successful, motivated, happy and dynamic woman I have become, I say one thing : Follow your Dreams, and NEVER be afraid to make changes - If I can do it, ANYONE can .."

How is Obama Positive For Spain?

Don't know yet and I don't really care but I feel a lot better today because of what happened last night in the States.

El Bulli,. The Best Restaurant in the World

El Bulli is generally considered to be one of the best restaurants, if not the best, in the World. It is in Catalunya near Roses on th Costa Brava. AA Gill in the Times today has a great article about it which you can read here, but just to get a taste of it have a look at the following..

"getting a table at elBulli, in Girona, Spain, is an infuriating performance. The restaurant is open six months of the year. There are 8,000 chairs available, and 2m requests for them. Every one of them gets a courteous reply; most of them never get to smell the coffee. The few who do are told what date and when to come. It’s actually easier to get a seat next to the Pope than in elBulli."

Have you ever been? If so post in the comments section. A friend of mine from University is a good friend of the main man at El Bulli and he concurs on the food being the best.

Another Excellent Times Article

I have reproduced this one in full but if you want to see it in its original form go here.

So what's the story. Well not many Brits are getting too drunk on their holidays in Spain. Maybe they are getting to respect the place. Interesting use of stats here.

Article Starts Here.
Spain's Costa lager louts sober up
by Tom Chesshyre

British tourists visiting Spain are shaking off the image of drunken lager louts on the Costa del Sol and are better behaved than ever, according to the British Ambassador to the country.

Embassy figures show that the number of detentions for alcohol-related offences and admissions to hospital were “minuscule” last year. Altogether 1,931 Britons were held by the Spanish police, which works out at 0.001 per cent of the 17 million annual visitors from the UK. There were 748 people admitted to hospital, 0.0004 per cent of all visitors.

Denise Holt, who has been the British ambassador in Spain for 18 months, said that there were parts of Spain, such as San Antonio in Ibiza and Magaluf in Majorca, that still had trouble from drunken British visitors. She told Times Travel: “This is usually the starter market of holidaymakers: 17-year-olds on a rite of passage. It's their first trip away from Mum or Dad and sometimes they take it too far.”

But she believes that extensive reporting of incidents at these resorts has affected the image of the country: “People love to hear the stories of over-indulgence - they love to thrill their imaginations. The same stories happen every year.” Holt, who is the former British Ambassador in Mexico, added that there were probably more people detained in Southampton on a Saturday night than Britons in the whole of Spain.

“When you look at the figures, it's amazing how many British people come to Spain and how little trouble there is,” she said. “With 17 million visitors to Spain each year, that's like the entire population going every four years. About one in every four aircraft from Heathrow flies to Spain.”

Many of these are filled with expat travellers rather than tourists. There are one million British expats living in Spain, making Britain the fourth-biggest group of migrants to the country after Ecuadorians, Romanians and Moroccans.

Tourists from the UK going to Ibiza for nightclubbing holidays probably do more damage to the reputation of Spain than any other group. “People come on cheap holidays,” Holt said. “They don't have proper accommodation. They try to propel themselves through the weekend listening to music and popping pills.”

She recently went on a trip in a police car with the Ibiza officers: “They know who the dealers are, and they are making sure it does not get out of hand. They will pick them up if they start dealing on the street corner.

There is a slightly different attitude towards drugs in Ibiza: if you get stopped at the airport and it is personal consumption, the police will simply take the drugs.”

One continuing problem is lost or stolen passports: consulates and embassies issued more than 6,000 emergency documents last year. Many visitors are also neglecting to buy travel insurance. But Stephen Jones, the British Consul for the Canary Islands, said: “I think our image abroad has changed. The numbers getting in trouble are tiny.”

ONCE Ticket Seller Shows Total Honesty

A story has just appeared in Spain which warms the cockles of my aging heart.
The story comes from a friend of mine who is currently down in Andalucia.

"I walked down the street and saw a Spansh tapas bar and walked in. I ordered agua con gas - which predictably they had and picked up the local rag as I waited for my tapas. This is what I saw!!

What an amazing story and one which made me so proud to even be in their country even if I can't add Spanish to my passport.

A one-legged Once salesman kept a winning ticket of 35,000 euros safely for a regular customer who had been away a few days so had not paid for it. Obviously the salesman could have kept it, cashed it and nobody would have known. What an amazing story. As the waiter came over, I asked whether he had read it and he said, yes, and he knew the guy. He'd been selling in town for many years. Wow, I said, "What a gent!". The waiter nodded and smiled. I guessed he felt that a fellow Fuengirola citizen had brought honour to the town,.....and in some ways it rubbed off on him. As I was leaving, he said, "By the way, take the paper if you like, we're closing in 10 minutes."
He asks the following after being here for many years.
When did you realise that you were more Spanish than whatever it says on your passport?

The link is here in Spanish.

Great Story About Black Money in Spain

Has a country ever been so benevolent with lawbreakers as Spain is right now? The government has come up with a plan to allow people to deposit their Bin Ladens (500 Euro notes usually gained during the property boom years and hidden under the bed or in safes at home so called because everybody knew they existed but nobody had actually ever seen one) to be taken into banks and deposited no questions asked and without any responsibility on behalf of the person who puts them in. The reason is simple, to restore liquidity in the banking sector and rescue the economy. It is being presented as the huge advantage that Spain has over the rest of Europe in this respect.

So there it is, you give an amnesty to money laundering and illegality in real estate transactions to save your contry's backside in hard economic times. A totally novel and exciting way of making sure that the wheels keep turning and Spain can regain its preeminence in shady financial practices from Nigerian scammers.

Another Spanish Success Story. Health

You of course knew that Spain has one of the highest life expectancies in the World and it is regarded by the WHO as one of the best places to live on the planet. What you may not have known is that it has a health care system to envy, with very short waiting lists for operations and excellent pre and post op treatment. Here is an article in Expat Focus that tells you more about what to expect. It is reproduced below for those who do not wish to click away from this page.


Spain's Healthcare Service


by Ciara Carruthers

A relaxed, carefree person may move to Spain and begin to enjoy the laid-back way of life immediately; the tapas, the music, the amazing people and the fantastic weather. Life in Spain is wonderful and there is no need to worry about anything, everything is going great. Until they run into a health problem. Yes, life in Spain truly is wonderful, but it doesn´t hurt to find out a little bit about the health care system before you move over, to ensure that if anything does happen with regards to your health you´ll be able to go straight to your doctor and get it sorted out. So, here is a run down of what you need to know about the Spanish health care service.

The health care system in Spain has improved considerably in the last few years and is currently something which the Spaniards have every right to be proud of. Health care centres are widely and frequently distributed throughout the country and finding the centre closest to you is as simple as going to the government health website (http://www.msc.es/ciudadanos/prestaciones/centrosServiciosSNS/home.htm), though it is in Spanish so you may need help from a friend. The health centres offer all the services which people need on a day to day basis; GP, midwives, paediatrics and physiotherapists. The centres are positioned and distributed in such a way as to be, theoretically, within fifteen minutes’ reach of all residents. It´s simply a case of finding out which one is most convenient to you.

People coming from EU countries have the right to free medical care. However, you will need a card known as the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which replaces the old E111 that used to be the necessary documentation. It is advisable to get this before coming to Spain. In England, you can get an application form for the card from your local post office. This card is actually really for tourists, but for people moving to Spain, it will cover any emergencies for the first three months whilst you secure your official Spanish medical card, known as the Tarjeta SS. This you can get from your local Social Security Office and it too entitles you to free medical care. Getting the tarjeta SS is generally no bother and shouldn´t take long. You´ll simply need to show some official documentation such as your passport, residence card and EHIC card, and fill out some forms (which will be in Spanish).

When visiting a doctor, you are entitled to bring with you a person whom you trust. This person doesn´t need to be a family member, just anybody who you would like to be there. Given that most doctors and nurses won´t speak a sufficiently high level of English, a Spanish speaking friend is really going to help you out in this circumstance if you are not fluent, or at least competent, yourself. You are also entitled to choose your own doctor, or change doctors if you are not happy with the one which you have been assigned. In my experience, doctors prove to be friendly and caring, with plenty of time to listen to your problems. However, as with all things in Spain, it helps to be a little bit patient, you may be assigned an appointment time only to find five people ahead of you, also waiting, when you arrive. It you have a real emergency and need to be dealt with right away you can go directly to the nearest public hospital.



Ciara Carruthers works as a freelance content writer for oppSpain (www.oppspain.com), a company that is specialised in selling new developments and off plan properties all over Spain.

Banco Santander. A Major Spanish Success

Banco de Santander has developed from a small regional bank to become one of the major players in European banking and the biggest bank in Spain over the last few years. It has now decided that it wants to dominate the European scene, starting with the UK, as it does the Spanish banking scene. In Spain where Santander goes the other banks soon follow and it seems that they have started to open the tap to new mortgages, a tap that has been closed now for almost a year. Expect other Spanish banks to follow.


Banco De Santander HQ in Sao Paulo

So what made the Santander strong in the current market? Spanish banks never bought into toxic debt to the same extent as other European banks as they were too busy being parochial in Spain by funding developers here, hence the huge construction boom of recent times, and also they looked to Argentina and other Spanish speaking South American countries as well as Portuguese speaking Brazil to develop their brands in new markets. So busy were they that when all of the newly repackaged toxic debt from the States was offered they didn't even bother looking at it. So now they are cash rich and picking up good deals like Abbey, Alliance and Leicester and Bradford and Bingley in a sort of Buffett way, buying in at the best time.

So why is the Spanish housing market dropping so much, just like the UK market? The major reason that transactions in Spain are down 26% this year is the lack of availability of credit. The 33% drop in mortgages given out is one of the proofs of that. People still want to buy but cannot because of the restrictions on lending and therefore the market in dropping in price bringing in even more people who want to buy. Obviously there is an oversupply of two bed two bathroom flats in coastal areas but the latent demand for the larger conurbations (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao) is still there as the population grows year on year and rural depopulation increases as people look for opportunities in the cities. If the Santander open the taps again expect the Spanish market in the major towns and cities to perk up, especially if, and that is a big if currently, it coincides with a drop in interest rates from the European Central Bank.

So what will be the next target for Santander in the UK and when will the Competition Commission start looking into their adquisitions?