Category: notes

Dear Easyjet,

I am generally very happy with the service you provide between Madrid and London Gatwick. You even seem to have the ridiculous queuing system under control these days, with far fewer examples of the undignified and totally uncontrolled rush to get on the plane that were so characteristic of many of your flights last year. I suppose that since you introduced the ‘Speedy Boarding’ concept (money for nothing, great business idea), with people paying extra to get on first, you have to be careful about ruffling feathers.

Last night I sat with my wife on the 4.55pm Gatwick-Madrid plane, amused that we had missed our take-off slot as the stewards couln’t work out why there were four too many people on the plane. Turns out your check in staff were to blame, they let four more people through at the last minute but didn’t tell the gate dispatcher… could happen to anyone! Still, we were relaxed enough, pleased to see the captain giving passengers a quick tour of the cockpit until it was time to turn the engines on and head off once air traffic control gave us the all clear.

So far so good, just one request. If possible, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use catering firms who put caterpillars in their sandwiches. It quite put me off my red wine and mini-cheddars. In fact, having got two mouthfuls into my ‘soft cheese wrap’ before I discovered the bright green little fellow in the middle of the packaging (he had had a couple of bites of my wrap too by the way), I nearly had to reach for that little-used waxy paper bag found in the pocket behind your occasionally readable in-flight magazine. Thanks for the £ 3.50 refund and the offer, declined, of the replacement sandwich, but if it would be possible to do without the caterpillar next time, I’d be grateful.

Best wishes,

Ben Curtis, frequent easyJet traveller

The festival scene is growing every year in Spain, and though there is nothing quite on a par with the UK’s Glastonbury extravaganza, some big bands (and a few 80’s throwbacks) are now coming over here every summer to entertain you in the sun.

Top of every serious muso’s list is the Festival Internacional de Benicí ssim (19th to 22nd July), this year bringing a strange mix-up of acts including Arctic Monkeys and The Human League (!?) to this pleasant Mediterranean resort. Madrid’s up and coming Summercase (July 13th and 14th) is more my cup of tea (despite Madrid’s lack of beach), wih The Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, Jarvis Cocker, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and OMD.

For a full run down or festivals and dates, check out gospain’s round up, or scroll down through the Spanish article at 20minutos.com.

Got a question about Spain? Traveling in Spain, working here, living in Spain, the culture, the language, the people? If there is something you would love to know and think we might be able to help out with, then please ask us in the comments below, and we will try to answer over the next week or two either in posts here on the blog or in a podcast. What do you want to know?

It’s time to pick the NFS Flickr pick of the month again, and although there are a couple of clear winners for me, I thought I should let you lot decide for once, so, please, if you have a minute to spare have a look at the first 4 pages of the Notes from Spain Flickr Group and leave a link to your favourite picture in the comments below.

My friend Chris, who I met on my own crazy charity motorbike adventure in India last year, is planning to drive 3,500 miles around the entire British Isles coastline on a stepthrough Honda Cub90 moped – top speed: pretty slow! The ride is in aid of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young. Check out his aptly named website ‘Mission Implausible‘ and do sponsor him if you can!

Great quotes from the site: “Each day will involve around 250 miles of riding, and I could be on the road for ten or eleven hours at a time, not allowing for any breakdowns I may suffer. Navigation will be difficult, as I have almost no sense of direction …. There is also considerable comedy value in a sixteen-stone, shaven-headed and bearded biker putting along on a stepthrough that simply can’t be ignored.” Help Chris out at www.mission-implausible.org.uk/

(Time to plan my route round Spain on the Vespa I think!)

While they were busy having gang wars (when did Spain get like this ?!) in the suburbs of Madrid this weekend, in Barcelona they decided to make one hell of a statement against fur coats!

For all those that are planning to or interested in meeting in Madrid for the NFS April Great Madrid Escape, please read the post in the forum about accommodation. Look forward to meeting all of you in April!

A very Happy Christmas to everyone, we are off to the UK for a few days so things will be a bit quiet around here until New Year. We will still be popping into the forum regularly over the Christmas holidays though, so hope to see you in there.

¡Felices Fiestas! Happy Christmas!

Ben and Marina

The idea behind NFS has always been to make one of the best websites on the net about Spain. And to involve you lot as much as possible – hence the forum and the Flickr group. With this in mind there was one clear winner in the recent forum discussion on a new motto for this site: Notes from Spain – “Spain Shared”. Thanks Greytop! I’ll add it to the header pic soon.

You may also notice that this post now says who wrote it. That’s because Marina and I recently decided that another great way to keep moving in the right direction was to get more talented people involved in putting great posts on this, the front page of the site. After all, much as we’d love to, the two of us can’t give you an idea of everything that’s happening in this wonderful country all on our own – we just don’t get out of Madrid enough!

So, we’d like to welcome our first contributor, Dave Hall, who will be sending us his own notes from Barcelona. Dave, who many of you know as Pepino in the forum, recently arrived in Barcelona and has a great eye for the fascinating side of life in Spain. Keep an eye out for Dave’s first post later today, and for more contributors in the coming months.

1. It should be a lovely sunny weekend so it’s a great excuse for a walk around the wonderful barrio of Malasaña…

2. … where you’ll find a great little market run by local shops from the barrio, at Calle la Palma 69, full of wonderful home made clothes – far classier than anything you’ll find at on the Calle Serrano.

3. It’s open from 12 pm until 11 pm, until Sunday 17th

4. Say hi to Chris, a friend of mine, at the Frutas de Estacion stall, and get some more of your Christmas shopping out of the way!