Valencia, Spain’s third city, is a beautifully walkable city steeped in history, with excellent food and vine and glorious Mediterranean beaches. Read on…
The owner of the ceramics shop on the incline to Sagunto Castle must wonder why passers-by giggle when they see his sign. Obviously he doesn’t speak English. Read on…
In Chinchón sol y sombra means something totally different to the usual meaning of sun and shade. Read on...
In 1730 Lanzarote in the Canary Islands experienced one of the world’s greatest volcanic eruptions, lasting six years, which created a unique landscape and an equally unique wine. Read on…
At number 11 Carrer de la Princesa, one of the main roads leading from the Port of Barcelona, a painted beturbaned head glares out from the curve of a large blue question mark. Welcome to El Rey de la Magia, the oldest magic shop in the city. Read on…
The Spanish government would have you believe that the two mainstays of Spanish life are church and state, but the man in the street has a different opinion. He will tell you that the two most important elements of Spanish life are the siesta and the fiesta. Read on…
Not everyone may have been able to rest their buttocks on a receptacle padded with velvet and studded with gold nails to ‘do their business’ as Henry VIII did but everyone, popes and bishops, saints and sinners, would have used a potty, jerry, or, as it is known in Spain, an orinal. Read on…
Albarracin, a mountain-top village where the streets are so narrow that neighbours can not only shake hands from their windows but probably share the same curtains. Read on…
In Spain the couple of hours before the big Sunday lunch is a couple of hours to spend with the nippers, have a meander with mum and dad, read the paper or stretch out in the sun. Read on…
Tucked away in a narrow street in Valencia, Spain, is a 17th-century palacio, home to the largest collection of minatures in the world, over one million of them, telling the stories of great historic moments and fanciful imaginings. Read on…
A cornucopia of caves, pools, grottos, gardens, statues and moulded relieves, the Jardín del Pasatiempo must have been absolutely jaw-dropping when the first visitors passed through the gates at the turn of the 19th century. Read on…
In Spain, Sunday is still the day when families get together, take a stroll, have lunch. Fortunately Malvarrosa beach is the ideal place. Read on…
Plasencia, the historic capital of Spain’s Extremadura, makes much of the fact that the city has two Cathedrals, one from the XIII century, and one from the XV, named, not surprisingly, la Catedral Vieja and la Catedral Nueva, (the Old and New cathedrals) so they seem the best places to begin my wander around the city. The problem is, I can only find one. Read on…
Valencia’s Albufera is well known for its wildlife, languid rides in flat-bottomed boats and as the birthplace of that most emblematic of Spanish dishes – the paella. Read on…
At various times during my years in Spain I had a number of websites and blogs. The link below will take you one of them, a selection of articles, stories and everyday ramblings. Some are of their time, others have a longer life and are just as pertinent today.
