The Visigoth

the visigoth

Gibraltar: Banter or Belligerence?

Gibraltar: Banter or Belligerence?

When last week the Spanish government hinted it might veto a Brexit Gibraltar, the pro-Brexit UK press was quick to respond. ‘Up yours Señors’ bugled Britain’s best selling newspaper, The Sun, from its front page, next to a picture of ‘The Rock’ wrapped in a Union Jack and below an advert for cheap flights to- you’ve guessed it- Spain. They couldn’t be serious, could they? Yes, they could. -No Se Toca Nuestra Roca, the paper followed up, red-faced, providing one of those gail

A Real Market for Barcelona's Manteros

A Real Market for Barcelona's Manteros

After years of friction with the local authorities, Barcelona’s street salesmen – manteros - might finally be able to sell goods in peace. That’s the idea of a new enterprise which would see the creation of a special bazar with 60 stalls run by the members of an association of manteros. Instead of imitation Nike shirts or Dolce Gabbana shades, however, the stall-owners would offer ’mercancía legal’; ie. arts and crafts, jewellery, African textiles, recycled goods, outlet fash

Who is: Susana Diaz

Who is: Susana Diaz

In one sentence, make it snappy: Buxom blonde, born in ’74, mother of one, Real Betis fan and a former cosmetics saleswoman, Susana Diaz is the current President of the Junta de Andalucia. Yes, but isn’t she also… Yes, just this last week Mrs. Diaz has announced she will be campaigning to become the first ever female leader of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). Who are otherwise known as: the ailing giant of Spanish Politics. Because: Like their Labour Party counte

Douchebag's Guide to Carbon Footprint Reduction

Every day I wake up and blithely contribute to climate change. Out of mental lethargy and a misguided sense of being too busy, I subsidize greenhouse gasses, dump waste incorrectly, and use energy like it'll last forever. In the supermarket I never look at labels; I buy toxic crap from irresponsible companies and support overfishing or inhuman farming practises without a thought. And all because I don't feel like I've got time to do otherwise. I'm too caught up. Too caught up

Metropolitan Green Card: Promoting Public Transport in Barcelona

Trade in your old car and get three years free public transport; the latest idea to reduce traffic and contamination in Barcelona. The so-called tarjeta verde metropolitana would provide unlimited access to the bus, tram and metro network in Zone 1, while there's even the possibility of a BICING card included for good measure. Before you go running for your old banger, there are strict rules for those who qualify for a tarjeta verde. In principle, three kinds of vehicle are i

Spain's Frontier Towns

When a Paella isn't a Paella

When a Paella isn't a Paella

El patrimonio de la paella. The concept of paella goes back to the medieval Moorish tradition of cooking rice and cod casseroles during Lent (when meat was off the menu). But the modern version of paella - derived from the Catalan for 'cooking pan' - was born in the Valencian region of Albufera in the mid-19th century. Today, with the indiscriminate cross-pollination of food cultures taking place across the world's kitchens, traditionalists are digging trenches around their m

Death to Saloufest

Death to Saloufest

Critic Peter S. Beagle, writing about Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, commented on the 'erotic derangement that turns us all into voyeurs, a place filled with the intoxicating air of perfect liberty.' For decades Spain has been sold as such a place, a place of 'perfect liberty', by budget tour companies. In particular, for the last sixteen years British students have converged in the handsome Costa Dorada locality of Salou, intent on turning it into a scene fro

Columbus: Ramblas statue to be retired?

Columbus: Ramblas statue to be retired?

Since the Universal Exposition of 1888, a bronze statue of Chistopher Columbus has towered over the bottom end of Las Ramblas, pointing towards the eastern seaboard, to the continent he wished to reach and never did reach. The base of the 60 metre-tall column is decorated with tributes to his patrons, los Reyes Catolicos, Queen Isabella and King Fernando of Spain, for whom he opened a trail to a new territory and the riches of a 'New World'. It was to Barcelona and a glitzy r

El Toro de La Vega: A Festival of Life and Death

El Toro de La Vega: A Festival of Life and Death

His name is Pelado - ''baldie.'He's a strapping, handsome bull weighing 675 kilos, and he was born and raised on a farm near Jerez de la Frontera. He has had the honour - and misfortune - to be chosen as el Toro de La Vega, the 'Bull of the Meadow'. Every year on September 13, the town of Tordesillas - 28 km southwest of Valladolid, population 9000 - holds its annual event, one of the most controversial, and divisive in Spain. This event is described by its local Ayuntamiento

La Diada and the English Betrayal of Catalonia

La Diada and the English Betrayal of Catalonia

Port Vell, Barcelona, 1712. Seven years after entering the Spanish War of Succession on the side of the Austrian archduke Charles, allied British, Dutch and German soldiers were ordered to board their ships, leaving Barcelona behind to fight on her own against the overwhelming forces of Philip of Anjou, the unwanted French Bourbon pretender to the Spanish throne. The retreating foreign troops, viewed as traitors by their one-time Catalan allies, were treated to a torrent of a

El Cajón de Sants: Barcelona's Newest Rambla

El Cajón de Sants: Barcelona's Newest Rambla

'It's party time in Sants,' announced El Periodico on Sunday. 'And not just because of the inauguration of the festa mayor, but because finally, after many years of planning, el Cajón de Sants is completed.' Cajón. A crate or drawer. It can also mean a casket or a coffin. An odd nickname for Barcelona's newest rambla; an aerial boulevard which follows the course of the AVE high-speed train tunnel from Plaça de Sants to the city boundary with L'Hospitalet. For years Sants resi

What is: A Nini

What is: A Nini

Everyone knows what a hipster is. Don't they? The word brings to mind a carefully-coiffured beard. The bare, stripped floorboards of a trendy cafe with a chalkboard. A bowl of organic muesli, perhaps, poised over a lumberjack's shirt. The imagery, the cliches are now so embedded. No-one, of course, claims to be a hipster. Though a lot of us probably seem to be one. Now, what about a 'Nini'? Hmm. A Neither-Nor? Something to do with gender, perhaps? Careful! Ok, other associati

Hermitage Barcelona: A Mediterranean Winter Palace

Hermitage Barcelona: A Mediterranean Winter Palace

Saint Petersburg's imposing Winter Palace, a stately baroque mansion on the banks of the Neva. For centuries it was the home of Czars and Emperors. Since the Russian Revolution it has been the site of one of the world's grandest museums - the State Hermitage Museum - with over three million pieces, including Egyptian and Classical antiquities, and the world's largest collection of fine art. Now, it seems, the State Hermitage Museum - or at least, a new off-shoot of it - is du

Who Is: Iñigo Errejón

Who Is: Iñigo Errejón

Pablo Iglesias is the iconic face of Podemos, his ponytail and goatee, instantly recognizable to any Spaniard. But Iñigo Errejon is its busy little idea engine. The son of a Spanish Worker's Party member, the campaign strategist is unmistakably of the Podemos 'casta'; prodigiously young (only 32 at time of writing), and a refreshingly plain-talking academic with a background in social activism. As a student working on his doctorate in political sciences at the Universidad Com

Tres Xemeneies: The Future of a Barcelona Icon

Tres Xemeneies: The Future of a Barcelona Icon

The thermal power station has been stripped; the machinery has gone, the offices have been destroyed, the pontoons reaching out into the sea have been dismantled. All that remains are the turbine hall and the skeleton of the three iconic towers, which produce no energy. But the Central Térmica de Sant Adría, also known as 'Les Tres Xemeneies', or more euphorically, 'la Sagrada Familia de los obreros', remains an icon of the Barcelona skyline. The 200 metre tall chimney towers

The Desertification of Spain's Drylands

The Desertification of Spain's Drylands

The Guadalentín Valley in Murcia. If you've ever driven to Andalucía along Spain's east coast, chances are you've passed through it. Home to the towns of Lorca and Alhama de Murcia, it's an arid corridor making its way from the sea at Guadamar de Segura to the town of Puerto Lumbreras, backed by the stark massifs of the Sierra Espuña and Carrascoy. The Guadalentín River has been described as the wildest in Europe; bone-dry at one moment, it can fill up with a violent torrente

Sobrepesca: Spain's annual fish supply already gone

Sobrepesca: Spain's annual fish supply already gone

The Spanish love their seafood. A cliché backed up by statistics. With 42kg of fish per capita, Spain consumes double the EU average. Only Portugal and Lithuania consume more - 56 kg and 43 kg respectively. But a worrying trend has been confirmed recently with the announcement of a report by the UK-based economical and environmental thinktank New Economics Foundation, who have been monitoring trends in the fisheries industry. The reports states that midway through May, Spain

Benito Muros: The Spaniard leading the fight against Planned Obsolescence

Benito Muros: The Spaniard leading the fight against Planned Obsolescence

It all started with a light bulb. At the beginning of the 20th Century the American firm General Electric decided it was no longer in their best economic interests to make long-lasting light bulbs. So experiments began, and a way was found to make lightbulbs that would fizz out after 1000 hours. GE convinced other light bulb-producing companies to do the same and the so-called Phoebus Cartel was born. Essentially it was a platform to ensure that light bulb technology never ad

What is: A Supermanzana

What is: A Supermanzana

The Supermanzana. No, it's not a genetically modified fruit. It's a new urban planning project being inaugurated in the Sant Martí, Eixample and Grácia districts of Barcelona. The aim is to maximize the pedestrian potential and reduce traffic in all the areas affected. In 2017 the Ajuntament will begin a process to which it has committed 10 million euros, and which could see zonas peatonales in the designated areas increase from 46.1% to 65.8% of the total groundspace. At the

1

2 3 4

Featured Posts

Tag Cloud

No hay tags aún.

Recent Posts