Where in the world did Marina and I spot this Dali elephant today? (Clue – it wasn’t in Spain!) 10 points for the first correct answer in the comments below! Meanwhile, the NFS Flickr group continues to grow, there are nearly 80 photos in there now and it’s time to pick another monthly winner. So, have a flickr through the images and help us choose this month’s best. Gracias!
The week’s headlines from the travel blog network at Blogads, a group of the best independent travel blogs on the web:
– Far away, so close! – Beijing, China (Travel Blogs)
– Copenhagen: Have Booze, Will Binge (Shortcut)
– Video Episode 2 – Driving Tour of San Francisco (time-lapse) (Amateur Traveler Podcast)
– College Town Getaways: Berkeley’s Classy Shopping (Womantraveler)
– Revived Morgan Library blends old with new (NewYorkology)
iAudioguide.com has a free mp3 audioguide to Barcelona. I haven’t had time to check it out yet (… currently weighed down by a 150 page powerpoint translation from hell…) but if anyone uses it some time do come back and tell us what you think.
If you’re in Madrid this Thursday and feeling cultural, it’s book night from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Well-known Spanish writers including Soledad Puértolas and Javier Reverte will be reading and signing their latest offerings in bookshops around the city, and hosting ‘tertulias‘ (literary chats) in famous venues such as Café Gijon and Café Central. There are street concerts as well, including soprano Teresa Loring and pianist David Mason in Plaza Velazquez (next to the Prado museum, at 8.30 p.m.), Big Band jazz in the Plaza Mayor (6.30 p.m.), a string quartet in the Puerta del Sol (7.30 p.m.), and ‘gipsy swing’ in Plaza de Santa Ana (8 p.m.)
For more details (in Spanish) check out elmundo.es
— Marina
I know this isn’t exactly pleasant news about Spain, but I feel obliged to follow up on the story about the government’s shock tactic attempts to reduce road deaths ahead of the Easter holidays. Last year the total number of deaths over the Easter week was 105. This year? At midnight last night, Sunday, when nearly everyone should have been home in time for work today, the total was running at 101. What can you say? What can be done? Time for new tactics next year, that’s all.
Horror photos, a video, and debate (in Spanish) over at elmundo.es.
Update: Official total is 107, two more than last year…
This site is a member of the travel blog network at Blogads, a group of the best independent travel blogs on the web. Check out some of this week’s headlines from other travel blogs in the network:
Ashland Oregon’s Shakespeare Festival (Amateur Traveler Podcast)
So Close, Yet So Far: Let Me Pass Through CDG, S’il Vous Plait (Travel Blogs)
The Burma Road (TravelBlogger.net)
Amsterdam: Happy Birthday Rembrandt (Shortcut)
Cuisine from Spain – Garlic Prawns (Notes from Spain)
Nevada Petroglyph Tours (Triptock)
From a Remote Location of the Southern Hemisphere (Jet Set Lara)
The 1906 San Francisco Quake, Virtually (Womantraveler)
Yankee Stadium primer (NewYorkology)
Well, a trip to the local supermarket soon showed us just what you guys are up against when it comes to quick tapas fixes over here in the UK. ‘Microwave Chorizo Balls’? They didn’t look too appealing. Over three pounds sterling for a few stuffed olives? Well, at least they threw in a tiny earthenware dish for free.
Unperturbed we decided to buy a fish, sea bass, to recreate Marina’s recent podcast for my family. Trying to explain how to open it out, so that we could cook it on its back, drew a look of baffled bewilderment from the lady at the fish counter. ‘Just gut it’, we said. Then she lopped off the head, sacrilege in a Spanish supermarket, but understandable in squeamish Britain I suppose.
Still, for an ex-pat back home for a few days, there are wonderous things to be found in the local Waitrose. Thai green curry, Indian korma, good old British sausages. The Spanish selection may not have been up to much, but you can’t beat a British supermarket when it comes to oven-ready world cuisine.
Notes from Spain is a member of the travel blog network at Blogads, a group of the best independent travel blogs on the web. Check out some of this week’s headlines from other travel blogs in the network…
New Orleans to Host French Quarter Festival (TripTock)
Chocoholics by the Bay (Woman Traveler)
Episode 36 – Egypt (Amateur Traveler Podcast)
Bergamo, a City of Surprises (Travel Blogs)
Copenhagen: Madonna plays where? (Shortcut)
The view from historic Olana in Hudson River Valley (NewYorkology)
We have decided to merge Cuisine from Spain, Notes in Spanish and Books on Spain back into Notesfromspain.com. Both the Cuisine and the Spanish podcasts will carry on as before, with their own podcast feeds, but all posts, comments etc for these two shows will now be posted here along with the Notes from Spain podcasts.
I know that it was only recently that we seperated these off into their own sites, but we decided that having three or four different sites running was too confusing, and a lot of hard work. It makes much more sense to centralise everything here, into one big wonderful site about Spain, with three different podcasts and loads of exciting news, food and views from Spain.
This ties in with a new look for Notesfromspain.com, designed to liven the site up and make all the different sections more accessible. We hope you like it!
The Flickr pool is coming along really well, thanks to all who have posted. I promised that we’d try to pick a favourite at the end of the month, but it’s kind of hard, there are some really great pics on there! Any favourites you’d like to recommend?
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 