Live News From Spain As It Happens

THE average resident in Spain spends just over €800 a year on eating out in restaurants – equivalent to €67 a month or slightly less than €15.50 a week, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Northerners and those in land-locked central regions shell out the most on dining out – Extremadura, to the west of Spain, leads the field at an average of €982 a year per head, €18.88 a week or €81.83 a month.

Centre-north region Castilla y León comes second with residents spending €949 a year on eating out, followed by north-eastern Navarra at €943, north-western Galicia at €937 and Cantabria on the north coast at €935.

It is Spain's colder regions which see the most spent on restaurants – other than in the Canary Islands, where residents stump up €933 a year on eating out – with Cantabria's and Galicia's neighbour, Asturias, spending €916 per head per year and the Pyrénéen wine region of La Rioja, €901, being €17.33 a week or €75.08 a month.

Some of Spain's more touristy regions come farther down the list – Murcia is near the bottom with a typical inhabitant spending €628 a year on dining out, being €12.08 a week or €52.33 a month, only beating the Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla where, jointly, residents shell out €608 a year on restaurants.

And although the average Balearic Island resident spends a healthy €844 per annum on eating out, this is still below Castilla-La Mancha's €846.

Catalunya's inhabitants plough more money into restaurant visits than those in the Valencia region's three provinces of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia on the east coast - €837 compared to €795.

This puts Valencia below the average of €805 a year, but the Mediterranean region is still ahead of Spain's capital – people from Madrid only spend €693 a year on restaurants, despite many commuters having to dine out at lunchtime as it would take them too long to get home at midday – as well as beating the Basque Country, one of Spain's wealthiest regions, and Aragón which bucks the trend set by the rest of the north, where residents in both spend €765 a year on eating out.

In total, as opposed to per head, Andalucía leads the way with €6.74 billion spent in the region's restaurants every year, although this is partly because it is one of the biggest of Spain's 17 autonomously-governed communities.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S 'most dangerous' footpath has reopened after having been blocked off to the public for 15 years, following new safety measures being put in place.

Not for the faint-hearted, the Caminito del Rey (literally, 'The Little Footpath of the King') lies between Antequera and Ardales in the province of Málaga, is three kilometres long and barely a metre wide - but with a 100-metre drop between it and the river below.

It runs alongside the Gaitanes mountains, it fell into a state of near-ruin some 16 years ago with most of the handrail - the only element between walkers on the narrow route and the massive chasm below - having rotted away.

The deaths of five walkers in separate incidents in 1999 and 2000 led to the footpath being closed off.

Some have still tried to access it via the railway line, but if they are caught they face a fine of up to €6,000.

Work on restoring the Caminito del Rey started last year and, following an investment to the tune of €6 million, is now said to be 'completely safe' - although still not recommended for anyone who is scared of heights.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

OVER 10,000 towns and cities around the world - including 223 in Spain - joined in the WWF 'Planet Hour' last night (Saturday) and put their lights out between 20.30hrs and 21.30hrs mainland Spain time (19.30hrs and 20.30hrs in the UK and Canary Islands).

A total of 172 countries joined the ninth annual campaign to raise awareness of global warming - more than ever this time around, since 2015 is the year of the Climate Change Summit in Paris when governments from all over the world will reach new agreements on how they intend to act to slow down the process.

In Spain, famous monuments were plunged into darkness including the iconic Mosque in Córdoba (pictured), the ultra-modern Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona, the Torre de Oro ('Golden Tower') in Sevilla and the city wall in Ávila, Castilla y León.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

DOG-LOVERS in Spain are more likely to have Yorkshire Terriers, German Shepherds or Labradors, followed by French Bulldogs, Cocker Spaniels and Chihuahuas, according to a survey on pet-owners in the country.

Research conducted by Veterinary Management Studies for QVET says the majority of dogs kept as pets in Spain are pure-breeds, although if 'mongrel' was a breed it would be the most common at 52.1% of the total.

Dogs in Spanish homes are getting smaller, with the number of littler breeds going up from 47% to 49% in the last three years.

Maltese and Chihuahuas have grown in popularity since the end of 2011, followed by Golden Retrievers.

And the mean average age of a pet dog is five years and three months, even though the majority are puppies.

The most popular mongrels are crosses with Yorkshire Terriers, German Shepherds or Labradors, with Yorkshire Terriers most likely to be crossed with Chihuahuas, mongrels or Staffordshire Bull Terriers.

A total of 1.5% are aged over 16 years.

As for pet cats, the majority are short-haired (85.7%), and this figure is going up, with 12.1% long-haired breeds such as Persians and 2.1% somewhere in the middle.

The mean average age for pet cats in Spain is just over five years, although again, the majority are only just a year old - but cats live longer than dogs, meaning the number of felines in Spanish homes aged over 16 sits at 4.1%.

Cats most commonly kept as pets are the European variety, at 32%, followed by moggies (26.8%), Common European (22.7%), Persian (8.8%), and Siamese (5.8%).

Smaller numbers of British Shorthair, Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest, Exotic, and Russian Blue are found, with the first two having risen in popularity in the last three years.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ALL newly-registered cars must be fitted with a system that automatically calls the emergency service number – which is 112 in Spain – from March 31, 2018.

The device, known as e-Call, means ambulances, the fire brigade and police can get to the scene of a serious accident more quickly as the car will contact them without any human intervention – a potential life-saver where the driver and any passengers are unconscious, trapped or otherwise indisposed, or unable to reach their phones.

This was agreed by MEPs on December 4 and ratified by the Internal Markets and Consumer Protection Commission in the European Parliament.

In order to comply with data protection laws across the 28 member States, the location of any car or light commercial vehicle cannot be traced using e-Call unless and until there is in fact an accident.

Should this happen, 112 staff in Spain and emergency services elsewhere in the EU will be notified during the automatic call of exactly where the car is at the time, to help rescue workers get there more quickly.

The e-Call system will pass on details of the make and model of the vehicle, the time of the accident, type of fuel used and the exact location, but will not be able to tell emergency services how serious the crash was, how many occupants are in the car or how seriously injured they are.

With Spain being the ninth-largest motor manufacturer in the world and the second-largest in Europe after Germany, it will be one of the main producers of cars and light commercial vehicles with the e-Call system fitted, meaning the new EU law will affect Spanish car factories the most.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CAMPAIGNERS for Spain to return to GMT have called for the government not to put the clocks forward on Saturday night this week.

They want to keep the time as it is now, which would put mainland Spain on BST (British Summer Time) until October when the clocks would go back and the country would be on Greenwich Mean Time.

Although the Canary Islands are already in the same time zone as the UK, Portugal and Morocco, the Balearic Islands and the mainland are an hour ahead - despite the Greenwich Meridian line running straight through the northern part of the Alicante province close to the furthest point east.

Dictator General Franco decided to put Spain an hour forward on May 2, 1942 so it would be in line with Berlin and in the same time zone as Nazi Germany, of whom Franco was an ally.

But it was never put back to GMT, meaning residents in Spain are living out of synch with the sun.

The National Commission for Rationalising Spanish Timetables (ARHOE) says daylight saving is only effective in terms of energy efficiency if a society adopts a time schedule that coincides with it.

ARHOE's chairman, José Luis Casero, says putting clocks back or forward 'does not make a difference' to electricity consumption because of Spain's 'marathon working days' where 'presence is valued over efficiency'.

"This has a negative impact, not only on the loss of family and personal life and difficulties in combining these with work, but also on productivity and efficiency on the job," says Casero.

Working hours in offices and shops in Spain start between 08.00hrs and 10.00hrs, 'breakfast breaks' lasting around 40 minutes are taken at around 11.30hrs, lunch breaks run from around 13.00hrs or 14.00hrs to approximately 17.30hrs, and the afternoon shift does not end until somewhere between 20.00hrs and 21.30hrs.

This means those who are not able to go home for lunch and cook a meal have to find somewhere to go for up to four-and-a-half hours when most shops and even some restaurants are shut, then they get home 12 or 14 hours after leaving in the morning.

Research has shown that there is no direct relationship between length of time spent at work and quality and quantity of work carried out - in fact, a very long day is more likely to lead to a decline in productivity due to tiredness and feeling jaded, Casero insists.

But long days are not the only issue for ARHOE.

"Spain does not run on solar time like everywhere else, which causes problems with sleep and health - as many medical professionals have proven," Casero states.

Lunch and evening meals are taken later than in many other countries, prime-time TV shows including football matches are broadcast between 22.00hrs and 01.00hrs, and yet many office workers have to start between 08.00hrs and 09.00hrs - effectively, the equivalent of starting at 07.00hrs or 08.00hrs, because of their body clocks not coinciding with their watches.

And the midday sun in summer is actually the 13.00hrs sun, meaning the usual advice about staying out of it between 11.00hrs and 16.00hrs to avoid heatstroke and burning is an hour out - beach-goers are better advised to keep out of direct sunlight between noon and 17.00hrs.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE judge handling the Bárcenas slush-fund case has closed his investigations and says he has 'adequate proof' of an 'underground' accounting system within the PP party at national level, despite president Mariano Rajoy and his second-in-command María Dolores del Cospedal having repeatedly denied this.

Two years of inquiries, during which former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas was jailed for 19 months before being released pending trial, has led judge Pablo Ruz to the conclusion that undeclared cash operations were being carried out within the party between the years 1990 and 2008.

Ruz says the party had 'flouted limits, requirements and conditions established by law' against the tax office 'constantly and systematically' for 18 years.

He has dropped charges against 22 business-owners accused of making donations to the PP in cash, recorded outside of the 'official' accounts and paid as under-the-mattress wage top-ups to high-ranking members of the party.

Spain's tax authority, Hacienda, has likened donations to the party to those made to Cáritas, the Red Cross or any other 'charity', and insists they are not illegal per se.

But in some cases, Ruz considers it is clear the donations count as bribes.

A donation of €200,000 in cash by the construction firm Sacyr was made to Toledo city hall in Castilla-La Mancha, whose regional president María Dolores del Cospedal is also secretary-general of the national government.

This appears to coincide with an affiliate of Sacyr being granted a lucrative public works contract - rubbish collection and disposal - leap-frogging the usual impartial public bidding process.

Ruz has handed this case to Toledo court to deal with.

Two aspects of the trial which Ruz considers to be financial crimes include Bárcenas' predecessor Álvaro Lapuerta having taken money from the clandestine cash pot for his own personal use and with Bárcenas' knowledge, meaning both could be found guilty of undue appropriation of funds, and also the tax fraud involved in renovations carried out on the PP headquarters on the C/ Génova in Madrid.

The PP is said to have paid the renovation firm, Unifica, a total of €1,552,000 in undeclared cash.

Additionally, the PP did not declare donations it received for the purposes of company tax payments between 1990 and 2008 inclusive, but these offences are now considered to have expired under Spain's statute of limitations, except for those committed in 2008 itself.

Despite Hacienda insisting that these donations were tax-exempt in the same way as funds given to a charity would be, Ruz requested continually that the total amount be calculated to see whether it would qualify as a criminal or a civil offence.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWO famous opera singers who had just performed at Barcelona's Liceu Theatre were on board Germanwings flight 4U 9525 yesterday morning when it crashed in the French Alps with no survivors.

Contralto Maria Radner,34, was travelling with her husband and baby, and Baritone Oleg Bryjak, 54, originally from Kazakhstan, both part of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein had been performing Siegfried in Spain's second city and were returning home to Düsseldorf.

A British resident, Marina Bandres, 37, originally from Aragón and her seven-month-old son Julián, are among the deceased.

Germanwings cancelled seven flights last night and is expected to cancel up to 30 more today after crew members refused to fly, saying they were too badly affected by the news of the crash and the deaths of six of their colleagues.

Teenagers in the Barcelona town of Llinars del Vallès are distraught to learn 16 German exchange pupils from the Joseph König Gymnasium high school in Haltern, who had been staying with them for the past week, have been reported dead .

Another 35 exchange students of the same age from Hamburg, also staying in the town, were due to fly home this morning and were said to be terrified.

One of the girls fainted when she heard about the crash, at the thought that she would be on the very same route the following day.

The victims confirmed so far include two Australians – Carol Friday, 68 and her son Greig, 29, from Melbourne – two Colombians identified as María del Pilar Tejada and Luis Eduardo Medrano Aragón, two Japanese nationals, two Argentinians and three who may be Mexican.

read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CHAIRMAN of Barça FC Josep María Bartomeu is facing two years and three months in jail and his predecessor, Sandro Rosell could go down for seven years and three months.

They are accused of tax fraud and money-laundering when taking on Brazilian whizz-kid Neymar last year to play for the premier league Spanish team.

Barça FC itself could be ordered to pay over €33 million in fines and outstanding duties, which includes €13m in unpaid tax for the years 2011, 2013 and 2014.

The club, in light of the charges pressed against its current and previous boss, made a voluntary payment of €13.5m to the tax authorities last year, which will be offset against any eventual fine.

Judge Pablo Ruz – who is also investigating the PP government's slush-fund allegations and the massive Gürtel corruption scandal – calculated Neymar's transfer to be in region of €83.3m, although Rosell (pictured left) said the Brazilian was bought by Barça for €57.1m.

Rosell resigned under pressure a day after Barça member Jordi Cases filed action against him in January last year for allegedly hiding the true cost of Neymar's transfer from Santos FC, an operation that involved at least 10 different contracts signed between the two clubs.

Concealing figures also affected the balance sheet value of Barça FC since its true fixed assets total was not declared, according to prosecutor José Perals, who has called for the two prison sentences and the multi-million fines.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FIVE-YEAR-OLD brain tumour sufferer Ashya King, whose parents were arrested after taking him from a Southampton hospital, is completely cured and recovering at the family's holiday home on the Costa del Sol.

He has finished a course of Proton Beam treatment in Prague and is now learning to speak again, laughing and playing in the park with his siblings, and can walk, eat and drink without help, say his mum and dad.

Although the family did not expect 'a miracle cure' with the procedure in Prague, they hoped to give their little boy a few more months or years to live and a better quality of life.

But his last examination showed 'no sign at all' of the Stage-four tumour, the family reveals.

They say this unexpected news is their wildest dream come true, and has made everything they went through in their battle to have their son treated as they wished 'well worth it'.

The youngster was made a ward of court by Portsmouth City Council in September 2014 and an international manhunt launched for his parents, Brett, 51 and Naghemeh, 45, with medics at Southampton General Hospital claiming 'time was running out' for the child as he needed to be fed by a machine.

After two days, a furious Brett posted a video on YouTube saying: “Call off this ridiculous chase,” and showing his son sitting on his lap with his feeding machine properly connected, having kept it charged through the car battery when mains electricity was not available.

The couple had wanted to give him a pioneering therapy known as Proton Beam treatment for an 'incurable' Stage-four intra-cranial meduloblastoma, or brain tumour.

This procedure is not available in the UK, although possible to get from a clinic in Prague, Czech Republic – but Ashya's doctors told them this 'would not work'.

According to the family, the paediatric oncology department wanted to 'try giving him a bit of chemotherapy' to 'see whether it worked', and whole-brain radiotherapy at four times the strength a child his age would normally undergo – a procedure that would leave him 'like a vegetable', with limited mental capacity, no use of his faculties, blind, deaf and dumb.

Brett says the doctors told him and his wife that 'if they kept asking questions', the hospital would acquire wardship of their son so that they would not have a say in his treatment and could be prevented from setting foot on the premises, meaning the little boy would be in hospital alone.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SIMPLE blood test may be enough to diagnose lung cancer and police its progress during treatment, thanks to research by the Catalunya Oncology Institute (ICO).

Dr Rafael Rosell says this is a major step forward in tackling a disease which is rarely caught at an early and sufficiently treatable stage, and will eliminate the need for numerous biopsies to confirm diagnosis and assess medication needs.

Three laboratories have taken part in the research - the Biomedical Investigation Institute of Bellvitge (IDIBELL) at the ICO's centre in L'Hospitalet, the Germans Trias Institute (IGTP) in Badalona - both of these in the province of Barcelona - and the Biomedical Investigation Institute in Girona (IDIBGi).

According to Dr Rosell, major advances have been made in treating lung cancer, among other types, with methods of analysing the type of tumour meaning drug therapy can be tailored to the individual.

For example, lung cancer patients who show mutations of the gene EFGR respond well to inhibitors of the same, such as Erlotinib, which has become the drug of choice in these cases.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TORRENTIAL rain on Spain's east coast has left flash floods that washed cars away and forced emergency services to rescue people by helicopter.

One man has died after his 4x4 vehicle was swept into a river with him in it.

The province of Castellón was hit by 200 litres of rain per square metre (20 centimetres, or eight inches) in just 72 hours between Friday and Monday morning) with homes and shops flooded in Ulldecona, Xert, Fredes, Adzeneta, Vilafranca, Castellfort, Vinaròs and Castellón de la Plana, the provincial capital city.

Its southern neighbour, the province of Valencia took a drenching with 134 litres per square metre (13.4 centimetres of rain, or five-and-a-half inches) in the same period of time in the villages of Barx de la Valldigna and Buñol, and between 35 litres (3.5 centimetres, or an inch and a half) and 74 litres (7.4 centimetres, or three inches) in Turís, Enguera, Xàtiva and Valencia city.

Another downpour hit all three provinces, including Alicante – which escaped the worst of the deluge over the weekend – yesterday (Monday) morning, with up to three inches of rain appearing in less than an hour.

And the river Palancia burst its banks in Sagunto, north of Valencia, led to over 20 cars parked near the banks being washed away.

About another 70 were salvaged in time, but the water was above the level of the bonnet and many have suffered damage.

Firefighters had to rescue three people by helicopter after they became trapped in country homes near Sagunto port and a fourth person from a property close to the river Palancia delta.

A primary school in Nàquera, inland of Valencia was flooded with classrooms several inches deep in water and the electricity going off after leaks got into the system.

Three main roads in the region – in Alcúdia de Veo and in Montán (Castellón province) and the CV-333 in Bétera (Valencia province) were blocked off by rockfalls, and tailbacks on main roads were caused in and around Valencia city.

Several residents in the province of Castellón had to leave their homes as they were a foot deep in rain and the water levels in the street were rising, whilst two people had to be rescued from a house in L'Alcora, 24 properties bailed out – 12 of which were in Benicàssim – and seven people trapped in their cars were air-lifted to safety in Borriana, Cabanes, Alquerías, L'Alcora and Onda.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PALMA de Mallorca is the best place in the world to live, according to a feature by this week's Sunday Times.

In Best places to live in the world: Earthly pleasures, writer Helen Davies says: “Our overall winner for 2015 is Palma de Mallorca, one of the most picturesque Spanish cities – we think it has it all.

“The choice of where to live - be it permanently, at the weekend or for months at a time – is increasing as fast as Brits ditch their inhibitions in the sunshine,” writes Ms Davies, who says the world has opened up to even non-retirees moving to wherever they want because of our now living in 'a globalised world with a burgeoning digital economy'.

Every year, The Times publishes its list of the top 50 best places in the world to live, based upon weather, attractiveness of the area, and quality of life.

And this year's describes Palma's historic quarter as 'picturesque' and walking distance from the beaches (including the Arenal beach, pictured), with 'exceptional' weather, putting it ahead of Berlin – voted the best large city for those on a restricted budget, Toronto – best destination for 'city people', Auckland – best port city, and Hoi An in Vietnam for its cuisine.

The article highlights the connections between Palma and the British culture, as well as its delicious local cuisine and the facilities and infrastructure that make it easy to live in.

It does not mention mass tourism on the island of Mallorca, given that, contrary to popular belief, this is limited to a small number of resort towns on the east coast.

Magaluf and Palmanova – part of the town of Calvià – are quiet and pleasant out of season, but with plenty to do for holidaymakers of all ages from children to the elderly, although those seeking to avoid mass tourism would be better off staying elsewhere in June, July and August. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SOCIALISTS have won the regional elections in Andalucía with 47 seats - the same as they earned in 2012 - but have failed to gain a majority, which means they will need to set up a coalition with another party.

Candidate Susana Díaz (pictured) won 35.43% of the votes, a total of just over 1.4 million, whilst the PP is out of contention with 33 seats after gaining just under 27% of the ballots.

Izquierda Unida (United Left) did the worst of all with five seats - seven fewer than in 2012 - and not even 7% of the votes, whilst Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) got just 1.93% of the ballots, leaving them without a single seat.

The same fate has befallen the independent outfit Partido Andalucista (PA), with 1.53%.

But two relatively new parties seeking to end 40 years of bipartisan rule - not only in Andalucía but in Spain as a whole - have seen an upsurge in popularity in the first regional election they have run for.

Podemos, led by 35-year-old political science lecturer Pablo Iglesias, netted nearly 15% of votes from left-leaning residents who are disillusioned with the socialists, and Ciudadanos - running for the first time outside of Catalunya, where it launched in 2006 - got 9.3% and was favoured by the more right-leaning public.

A total of 36% of those eligible to vote - Spanish nationals only - abstained, compared to 39.2% in 2012, meaning nearly 2.3 million people did not bother to cast their ballot yesterday (Sunday).

The remaining 64% - over four million - included 1.4% or 55,000 'blank' ballots in protest and 1%, or 41,000, which were considered null and void due to technical reasons.

Susana Díaz called the result 'an unquestionable historic victory' three years after the socialists fell from power in the region.

Candidate for the PP Juan María Moreno says the result was 'not what he expected' and warned that the regional Parliament will be 'much more fragmented' which would necessitate 'more dialogue, more listening and more seeking out compromises'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MAN who was stabbed six times in a pub fight in Madrid carried on drinking and partying with his mates for another four hours or so, despite being seriously injured, emergency services report.

The 36-year-old was knifed in the abdomen and chest, and two of his wounds were very deep and bleeding profusely – but he did not allow a minor detail like this to get in the way of his night out.

Eventually, his friends told him he ought to call for an ambulance, and he rang the 112 hotline at around 05.30hrs.

Paramedics rushed out to the bar on the C/ Sepúlveda in the Madrid neighbourhood of Aluche, and say the victim was still conscious when they got there.

However, they realised he was in fact in a critical condition, despite having carried on drinking and enjoying himself for over four hours after he had been stabbed. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TEACHERS and doctors are the most sought-after professions in Spain, according to a survey commissioned by finance company Cofidis.

And running one's own business also falls into the top-five ideal jobs.

One in 10 Spaniards interviewed by market researchers GFK would like to be a teacher, and 9% would like to be a doctor or nurse.

Of the stratified sample of 2,200 people, women were more likely to opt for careers in medicine or education, followed by beauty therapy or hairdressing, whilst men showed a more diverse choice of ideal job including police officer, soldier, or professional sportsman.

Women put running their own business in fourth place on the 'best job' scale, whilst men ranked it fifth.

Other top 10 jobs picked by Spanish men included those of motor mechanic, pilot, farmer, lorry driver and IT worker.

The top 10 favourite jobs chosen by women, in addition to teacher, doctor or nurse and business owner, were those of shop assistant, vet, lawyer, psychologist and seamstress.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH high-street entity Banco Sabadell has agreed a takeover price for the British bank TSB at £1.7 billion (just under €2.35bn).

The Catalunya-based financial firm, which bought out the CAM bank three years ago, has confirmed in a letter to the UK stock market that TSB shareholders will receive £3.40 per share.

To finance the purchase, Banco Sabadell will raise additional capital of €1.6bn - although the takeover is not dependent upon an increase in assets - and that the offer has the support of TSB's board of directors, which has recommended its shareholders agree to the deal.

Banco Sabadell has negotiated with Lloyds, recently split from TSB, the acquisition of 49,999,999 of TSB's shares, or about 9.99% of its share capital.

Lloyds has agreed to bindingly accept the offer for its own shares in TSB, around 40.01%.

The entity has also offered Banco Sabadell the option to buy up to a maximum of 100 million of its TSB shares which make up 20% of the latter's capital.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE of the world's most prestigious polo clubs has been given the go-ahead to expand and build a luxury holiday and residential complex in its vicinity.

Santa María Polo Club in Sotogrande (Cádiz province) will get a select club house, villas, a sponsors' pavilion, specialist retail outlets, and the already-named Hotel del Polo Gran Lujo, a five-star establishment.

The Mora Figueroa family wants to invest just over €1 billion in the new facilities, and this week the company Glenton - which owns the land - got the green light from the regional government of Andalucía to go ahead.

Glenton has been facing a mountain of red tape, including trying to make the project fit with the general town layout plans of neighbouring municipalities.

Paradoxically, the regional government would not initially give planning permission unless the project included a certain number of low-cost State-subsidised homes for first-time buyers on a meagre income, known as Viviendas de Protección Oficial (Properties of Official Protection, or VPOs) - despite the polo club and its planned complex being aimed at the crème de la crème of the sport and ultra-high net worth visitors and homebuyers.

Months of negotiations ensued, and Glenton finally agreed with San Roque town council that the developer would hand over a given portion of land to the latter to exempt them from the requirement to build social housing.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A WET and windy end to the Valencia region's fabulous Fallas festival failed to dampen participants' and spectators' spirits and, despite forecasts of torrential downpours on the crucial last night, the papier mâché statues were successfully burnt to the ground.

Known as the cremá, the monument-burning happens on the last night of the four-day fiesta, March 19, starting with the falla statue which came last in the line-up and ending with the winner.

Falla monuments this year satirised independent party Podemos and its leader, Pablo Iglesias, with his trademark ponytail, beard and lumberjack shirt, as well as the credit card expenses fraud scandal affecting top-flight bosses at the now-defunct Caja Madrid bank, the Royal family, former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, and politicians and business-owners linked to the massive Gürtel corruption case, among many other current affairs themes.

Two fallas in Valencia – the main and children's falla Félix Pizcueta monuments – burnt down by accident before time, since a spark from the smaller of the two ignited the main one.

Parts of some of the fallas blew down in the gale-force winds and, although Valencia city's famous Nit de Foc ('night of fire') went ahead without a hitch despite torrential rain, wet weather meant the flower-offering to the Virgin finished early and the torchlight procession was called off.

A FEAST for all the senses is guaranteed in Mallorca this Easter with the annual wine festival and seasonal food markets.

Pollença is home to a huge fair held in the stunning grounds of the Claustre del Convent where local tipples are poured for visitors and literally hundreds, from the young, cheaper varieties to vintages, are on sale.

Someliers, oenologists and amateur wine connoisseurs from all over Europe will be attending.

This all happens at a time when shops across Spain fill with delicious Easter treats, and many of these - home-made, of course - will be on sale in food markets in Mallorca whilst the wine festival is going on, as well as in other towns and villages along mainland Spain's coasts.

Cakes, chocolate and other confectionery soaked in wine and honey mean Easter in Spain is a sweet and succulent banquet, whilst the sombre fiesta parades on Good Friday and the triumphant Reencuentro when the resurrected Jesus Christ reunites with the Virgin Mary on Easter Sunday, means the entire country is a hive of activity over the holidays.

Fiestas and food are some of the main reasons, along with hot summers and mild, sunny winters, for northern Europeans to buy holiday homes in Spain - and in the unlikely event they become jaded with the Easter celebrations, this can be a lucrative time to rent out a property in the country so that visitors can experience a real Spanish festival.

Easter week is celebrated in Sevilla with more pomp and circumstance than anywhere else in the country, and holidaymakers will be surrounded by all those flashy and fabulous stereotypes of red polka-dot dresses, flamenco dancers and castanets.

And food is not limited to Easter, of course - if your holiday home is anywhere near the coast, you're guaranteed wall-to-wall fresh fish restaurants and fish counters in supermarkets and indoor markets easily four times the size of those in a typical UK store and with infinitely more variety, including many you may not even know the English names for as they will be completely new to you.

One of the best side-effects of the financial crisis has been restaurants dropping their prices in a bid to draw in customers and attract tourists to Spain, meaning sumptuous meals made with fresh, local produce are comfortably affordable for holidaymakers.

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AN ALLEGED Jihad threat against the Royal family has been 'dealt with' by interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz, who has declined to give further details.

Police broke up an Islamic State cell based in Catalunya a week ago, during which they found a handwritten note saying: "Felipe of Spain will know what suffering is when his two daughters are underneath the rubble."

This chilling warning was later leaked to the media, but Fernández Díaz says he 'does not wish to talk about it'.

"I have taken steps to deal with the matter, but for basic safety reasons I prefer not to talk about it and should like it not to be talked about," the minister said firmly when quizzed by reporters on Tarajal beach in Ceuta, the Spanish-owned city-province on the northern Moroccan coast.

He brushed off the notion that the Royals were in any more danger than the rest of the world, saying: "We are all under threat from people who wish to destroy the principles and values of our peaceful, harmonious community and, to this end, arrests have been made in Ceuta, Ávila, Barcelona, Ciudad Real and other provinces thanks to the efficiency and competence of our Intelligence services and security forces," Fernández Díaz stressed.

"But there is no such thing as a 'zero-risk' situation."

The minister praised Spain's Intelligence workers for their work in combating the organisation known as DAESH, an acronym which translates from Arabic into Islamic State, and the various outposts of Al-Qaeda.

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BRITISH Eurovision candidate and 1980s' pop-rocker Bonnie Tyler will perform live in Alzira (Valencia province) at the QFestival this month.

The artist, whose voice has been compared to those of Kim Carnes (Bette Davis' Eyes) and Rod Stewart, will be on stage on Saturday, March 21 from 20.00hrs, regaling her fans with her best-loved hits including Total Eclipse of the Heart, The Best, Holding Out for a Hero and It's a Heartache.

Dubbed 'the international first lady of rock', Bonnie Tyler has an Echo Award, three Goldene Europa prizes, three Brit Award nominations and three Grammy nominations to her name, and has duetted with other huge artists including Cher, Andrea Bocelli and Mike Oldfield as well as releasing over 30 singles since her career kicked off in 1983.

Other bands and artists who have confirmed their presence at the QFestival include the British electro outfit Echobelly, Catalunya-based up-and-coming indie band Mishima, plus Buffet Libre DJ, Estereotypo, Metropol, Hidrogenesse and We Used To Pray.

Two-day festival passes for Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21, including Bonnie Tyler's concert in the Gran Teatro cost €40, with full-viewing seats, or €29 with Bonnie Tyler concert restricted viewing seats.

For Bonnie's concert only, tickets cost €25 for full-view seats and €15 for restricted-view seats.

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PAINTINGS by surrealist 20th-century artist Pablo Picasso never seen before in Spain have been loaned by a Swiss museum to galleries in Madrid and Barcelona.

The Reina Sofía and El Prado art museums in the capital, and the Picasso Museum in Barcelona will display paintings from this weekend onwards in special temporary exhibitions, many of which were created during Picasso's late-life exile period in France and which have never entered Spanish soil.

These include Woman in hat sitting on an armchair; The fan; Woman with guitar; The two brothers; Harlequin sitting (pictured); Man, woman and child; Venus and love, and The couple, all on display from this Wednesday at the El Prado as part of its exhibition, 10 Picassos from the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Others painted in France which have never been seen in Spain until now, also from the Kunstmuseum in Basel, will form part of the Coleccionismo y Modernidad display at the Reina Sofía, and in the Picasso/Dalí, Dalí/Picasso exhibition at the Málaga-born artist's bespoke museum in Barcelona.

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SPAIN'S Eurovision entry is heading for a nul point from La Grande-Bretagne – or at least from viewers in Manchester – after she said the north-western city was 'not very pretty' on live TV.

Edurne (pictured), originally from Madrid, is engaged to Manchester United FC goalkeeper David de Gea, and was asked what she thought of the metropolis on the chat show El Hormiguero.

Presenter and comedian Pablo Motos asked: “I've heard Manchester is uglier than the back of a fridge. Is this true?”

To which Edurne replied: “You wouldn't say it was really beautiful. No, it's not, in truth. You have to know where to go, to look for specific places.

“But in summary, Spain is much prettier.”

“David de Gea is in Manchester, though,” countered Pablo Motos.

Edurne responded: “That changes everything – with him there, everything looks beautiful.”

It did not take long for the British media to respond to the Spanish Eurovision candidate's opinions of Manchester.

'De Gea's girlfriend says Manchester's ugly', said tabloids across the UK, which also linked her views of the city with rumours that Real Madrid FC was hoping to poach the Man U player, who has been on the national team and was in goal for Atlético Madrid until 2011 when he joined the Premiership side.

A columnist who calls himself Wayne Ankers wrote in the Manchester Evening News: “Compared to Barcelona, and to Manchester, Madrid is miserable.

“The streets are filthy, the people are rude and miserable, and far from being friendly,” Ankers retaliates.

“I got the impression that people from Madrid think they're something special, so they couldn't care less what tourists think of them. But they're wrong: because I'll never go back there.”

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SWITCHING suppliers of everything from insurance to electricity, current account, mortgage and internet can save households in Spain an average of 16.54% on their outgoings – a total of €2,201 per year.

Recent research by a price-comparing website shows a typical saving of between 14.83% and 28.57%, depending upon location in the country and total income.

A typical family in Spain – based upon a couple with between one and three children – spends €27,010 a year on the cost of living, of which on average 54.78% goes on household bills such as gas, electricity, water, rent or mortgage, insurance, mobile phones, landlines and internet, without taking into account transport such as car running costs, food, prescription medication, essential clothing and shoes, or children's school expenses like notebooks, pens and textbooks, nor pet care, or contingencies.

This amount of €27,010 has decreased since the start of the financial crisis at the end of 2007 by 14.55%.

Percentages of household income spent on basics required for day-to-day living are at their highest in the Canary Islands – 67.26% - followed by Extremadura at 65.58%, Andalucía at 61.1% and Castilla-La Mancha at 60.8%.

Studying the costs of the most expensive, cheapest and mid-range suppliers of utilities and other essentials, researchers found most people in the Canary Islands could save 10%, in Extremadura 9.7% and in Andalucía, 9%.

In the northern region of Asturias, this rises to 16% and in south-eastern Murcia, 16.54%, which is the national average.

The research, which looked into 13 different types of service – car, home, life, health and motorbike or moped insurance, plus internet, mobile phone, current accounts, personal loans, credit or debit cards, gas and electricity – said a total of 1.7 million households, or 9.3% of Spain's total admitted that they had been forced to pay bills late in the last year, either because these had bounced and needed to be settled via transfer or cash or that they had physically taken them to the bank late to pay.

This has increased by 55% since 2008, reaching its highest-ever figure in history in 2013.

Murcia residents are the most likely to have had their bills bounce or paid them late due to lack of funds, with an increase of 371.4% in seven years, or just under 105,000 households, followed by Asturias with a rise of 21,200 households or 254% being unable to pay bills on time, and Extremadura, where this has affected 33,200 homes extra per year since 2008, a hike of 250%.

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FANS of Spain's most international flamenco guitar legend Paco de Lucía can take a tour of his regular haunts in the southern region of Andalucía.

The late musician was considered a genius in his field by world-famous artists – in fact, Mark Knopfler once said that after he had heard Paco de Lucía play, “I realised I couldn't play the guitar.”

But visitors to the port town of Algeciras (Cádiz province) can now go on a guided tour of Paco's life – starting at the house where he was born on the C/ San Francisco, where he lived until he was five years old.

The route continues along the C/ Munición, which was once full of bars where Paco de Lucía's father, Antonio Sánchez Pecino, played regularly and which the artist himself immortalised in his album Luzia, named after his Portuguese mother Lucia Gomes Gonçalves.

Back in Paco de Lucía's youth, the upper-class residents of the C/ Munición would organise high-society parties that went on for days – and although his father Antonio did not enjoy them in the slightest, it enabled him to earn a crust and get free wine and tapas as a perk of the job, supplementing his income from his fruit stall in the market and his work as a travelling seller of fabrics.

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DOCTORS specialising in sleep disorders have called for Spain to go back an hour in time.

Although the Canary Islands is on the same time lag as the UK, Portugal and Morocco, mainland Spain and the Balearics are an hour ahead of their correct geographical location and should, in fact, be on GMT in the winter, and BST in the summer.

The Spanish Sleep Society (SES), at its conference in Lleida – attended by over 200 experts in the field – says residents are 'deprived of sleep' because of being in the same time zone as countries where the sun comes up an hour and a half earlier, 'such as Berlin'.

“Time schedules which do no coincide with the daylight cycle are imposed on us, and this leads to a lack of sleep,” says psychologist Francisco Mercado.

The main hurdle to switching Spain back to GMT – as it was before the Civil War, when dictator Franco wanted the country to be on the same time lag as his allies in Berlin – is 'political inertia', says the Association for Rationalising Spanish Hours (ARHOE).

For example, television channels broadcasting peak ratings shows late at night, after 23.00hrs, including international football matches, meaning most TV fans do not switch off until around 01.00hrs, only to have to get up between 07.00hrs and 08.00hrs for work the next day.

Mediapro director Tatxo Benet says TV is 'an entertainment business which adapts to consumers' habits' and 'channels its resources into the time slots with the highest audience ratings'.

Chairman of the SES, Dr Joaquín Terán-Santos, stresses that poor-quality or lack of sleep heightens the risk of high blood pressure five-fold, which can lead to cardio-vascular problems such as heart attacks and strokes.

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TOLKIEN'S Lord of the Rings trilogy will be recreated inside Alicante's Santa Bárbara castle for the next year – visitors can enter Gollum's cave, sit at the desk in Bilbo's office, view life-sized characters, costumes and other Middle Earth memorabilia, and have their photo taken with their favourite fantasy heroes.

The exhibition, The Fortress of the Ring, kicks off on Friday, March 27 and will continue until the same date in 2016.

It features 700 pieces related to the two epic novels, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the latter of which was eventually published in three tomes and has led to three box-office successes on the silver screen – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the Ring.

Five rooms in the castle will be taken over entirely by the exhibition, and another – the Taberna Hall – will be dedicated to the life and times of John Ronald Reuen Tolkien, who was born in 1892 and published The Hobbit in 1936 and The Lord of the Rings in 1955, together with his links to cinema, rock music and comics.

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WOMEN from Madrid are happier in their city than most others in Europe, and more so than men from the Spanish capital, according to a survey.

And ladies living in Madrid feel safer walking alone or at night than those in many other major conurbations on the continent.

Research conducted by IPSOS for the Lafarge Group, 'Women and Cities', found that 60% of females in Madrid have no qualms about walking around any neighbourhood at all in the capital - the same percentage as for men.

The survey also found that women from Madrid wish they had an extra three hours and 14 minutes a day to get everything done they wanted to do, including free time and hobbies.

Interviews were carried out in five of Europe's largest metropolitan areas - Marseille, Paris, Krakow, Madrid and Warsaw - and found that 91% of women from Madrid had a positive view of their city, compared to 83% of men who lived there.

And 83% of Madrid women feel more free in their city than they would living elsewhere, with 88% saying life was easier and there was more to do in a major urban area than in the countryside, a view shared on average by 84% of women living in the other cities.

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A HIGH Court in Spain has banned the heritage foundation set up by the late Duchess of Alba from selling a letter from Christopher Columbus to his son Diego at Christie's auction house in London.

The Madrid judge has rejected an appeal by the Casa de Alba Foundation against Spain's ministry of culture which had prevented the Duchess' family from putting the missive up for bidding.

Colombus' letter, valued at €21 million, is dated April 29, 1498 and forms part of a collection of eight written by the admiral who discovered the Americas between then and 1501 held by the Alba house, although the other seven are addressed to Friar Gaspar de Gorricio.

The Alba house argued that the letter to Diego Columbus was written from Sevilla rather than from the 'new world', the content was mainly about 'domestic matters' and – as a Christie's report states - it is chronologically separated from all the other known letters between father and son.

These factors mean it is 'of little historical value', says the Casa de Alba Foundation, a factor backed up by the auction house.

But the ministry of culture says the letter forms part of Columbus' archive ceded to the State in 1929 by the Duke and Duchess of Veragua.

The family became a member of the Alba dynasty through the marriage of the eighth Duchess of Veragua, who was also the Countess of Gesves, to Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, second Duke of Berwick, in the 18^th century.

For several centuries, the archive has been in two different parts, since the Duchess of Veragua and the Duke of Berwick eventually parted company, which is how the eight letters – including the one to Columbus' son Diego – ended up in the hands of the Casa de Alba Foundation.

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BRITISH indie band Blur will perform at this summer's Benicàssim music festival – their only date in Spain – and will be promoting their new album, the first to be released since 2003.

The Britpop outfit led by singer Damon Albarn (pictured) – together with Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree – have just released The magic whip and will combine tracks from this and from their popular previous albums during the festival on the Castellón province coast between July 16 and 19.

Blur, whose heyday was in the early to mid 1990s – provoking a friendly 'north-south' divide and 'musical war' between their own fans and those of fellow indie-rockers Oasis – became the joint kings of grunge and alternative pop alongside the group led by the Gallagher brothers with hits such as Girls and boys, Parklife, Song 2, Modern life is rubbish, and Leisure.

Five Brit Awards later, Blur downed tools in 2003, the year of its last appearance at Benicàssim International Festival (FIB), having performed there twice previously in 1997 and 1999.

During Blur's self-imposed 12-year exile from the music scene, Damon Albarn launched his 'virtual' band Gorillaz, with whom he was on stage at Benicàssim, but he did not perform there last year after releasing his solo album Everyday robots.

Thanks to the FIB being under new management at the hands of Brit Melvin Benn, a hugely-famous festival promoter behind such massive UK dates as T in the Park, Lovebox, Creamfields, the Isle of Wight Festival and Glastonbury, the line-up for this year's four-day musical mudbath camp at Benicàssim includes a string of artists and groups from the land of Harry Potter and PG Tips.

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A BASQUE Country hotel's suite doors can be opened by guests using their mobile phones, thanks to a new App called JustIN.

The Hotel Astoria 7, in the centre of the beach city of San Sebastián (Donostia) - famous for its annual film festival - is a pioneer in 'keyless' technology after working with the App-creating company Salto, also in the province of Guipúzcoa.

Already in use in resorts and luxury hotels in Thailand, the UK, Mexico, the USA and Poland, the Basque security firm has crossed borders and is becoming a feature of holiday stays on three continents.

But despite being a Spanish company, Salto's App installed at the Hotel Astoria 7 is the first to be launched in Spain.

The mobile room-opening system is designed to increase security for guests, and also prevent the tiresome issue of lost card keys which create headaches for holidaymakers and receptionists alike.

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BOYS are more likely to do worse at school than girls – because of video games, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Although worldwide research over the past few years by the OECD shows a higher level of literacy and numeracy among female pupils, the most recent of these studies says a significant factor is that boys spend more hours a day on video games whilst girls are doing their homework or, when they have finished, are more likely to enjoy reading for pleasure.

The most recent PISA report – a global education survey carried out by the OECD in developed countries – shows that in Spain, of the 15-year-olds who performed the worst in literacy, numeracy and science, 60% were boys.

This report is based on the year 2012, and more up-to-date figures are not yet available.

Girls in Spain were shown to do better in reading and language and boys in maths, and the gender divide grew steadily in the decade preceding the latest PISA report.

The paper said there was nothing 'inherently male or female' about girls performing worse at maths and boys being poorer in literacy, but that girls tend to read more and they also suffer from a greater level of 'anxiety' about number-based subjects.

In countries where girls are generally bolder as a race, their performance at maths was better, in line with their overall self-confidence, compared to in countries where girls are collectively more timid, says the OECD.

The report stresses the urgency of helping girls overcome their number fears and lack of confidence at school, since otherwise, they would grow into women who shied away from two of the careers with the most secure and lucrative prospects, greatest opportunities and the best future – engineering and IT.

In fact, a parallel study by Alicante University shows maths in general 'instils terror' into pupils.

“[Maths] is not a load of formulae invented in some office that have no practical use outside it – maths is the basis of everything and, without it, for example, any modern communication system such as a computer, a sat-nav, a mobile phone or even a Google search engine would be impossible,” says the book Maths in our life by tutors Lorena Segura, Julio Mulero and Juan Matías Sepulcre.

“Leonardo da Vinci, Miguel de Cervantes and Salvador Dalí all used maths. Credit cards and national identity cards, and even the architecture in the Alhambra Palace in Granada use maths – the latter is one of the most explosive uses of maths in art, and the decorative elements of the walls and skirting tiles are based on algebra,” the study reveals.

“We need to show pupils how maths is a practical subject, and eradicate the widespread fear and lack of interest in it which pervades most classrooms.”

As for reading ability being better in girls versus boys, the PISA report found that in all OECD countries including Spain, 74% of boys say they are great fans of video, internet and PlayStation games, whilst 56% of girls say they never played them at all.

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A TYPICAL Spaniard gets up between 07.00hrs and 09.00hrs and rarely goes to bed before midnight on a working day, according to a recent health survey by the Sociological Research Centre (CIS).

Only one in five gets up at around 06.00hrs or 06.30hrs to go to work, and fewer than 4% say they get up later than 10.00hrs.

Two thirds go to bed on a working day and on a night before a day off between 23.00hrs and 01.00hrs, with only 4.5% retiring for the night before 22.00hrs.

At weekends, six in 10 get up between 08.00hrs and 10.00hrs, with just 16% saying they get up after 10.00hrs on Saturdays and Sundays.

A third of Spaniards say they get less sleep these days than they did five years ago.

Generally a healthy nation, over half of all Spaniards – 56.3%, to be precise – exercises several times a week or every day if they can, for periods of 20 minutes to half an hour, in an attempt to keep themselves fit and well, and also because they enjoy one or more types of sport.

About a third say they exercise less now than they did five years ago, although 14% say they have made an effort to do so more.

Seven in 10 say they do not smoke, and 44.4% say they have never tried it, whilst just over a quarter of the total interviewed are ex-smokers who have given up within the last five years.

Only 2.1% admit to smoking more than a packet, and up to two packets in some cases, per day.

Nearly two-thirds say they never take over-the-counter or off-the-shelf pharmaceutical drugs, such as aspirin or paracetamol for headaches or medicines for coughs and colds, only ever using medication which is prescribed to them.

This is classed as 'self-medication' and is very much frowned upon in Spain.

Just over half of all Spaniards eat three meals a day, including breakfast, with slightly more than a quarter saying they eat four, but the recommended five small meals a day are only eaten by 16.5%.

Nearly eight in 10 include dairy products in their daily diet, seven in 10 eat rice at least once a day, almost two thirds eat fresh fruit every day, but fewer than half eat vegetables daily.

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BUYING a property on Spain's coasts or islands could help alleviate winter depression – it's official.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as a result of lack of daylight is surprisingly common, leading to lethargy, feeling gloomy and craving junk food, since natural light raises cortisol levels in the brain and leads to better concentration, mental sharpness and feelings of wellbeing.

In fact, the Online Psychology Degree website says exposure to additional daylight alleviates symptoms for between 50% and 80% of SAD sufferers.

Add to this that the Mediterranean and southern areas of Spain, and even the Canary Islands which are an hour behind, have record amounts of annual sunshine, including when the weather is cold, a break on the Costas could be the key to beating winter blues.

According to www.holiday-weather.com, the east coast from Castellón to Almería has the most sunlight at 325 days a year, and other sources reveal that the Balearic Islands and the southern coast of Andalucía have an average of 300 days of sunshine per year.

Even though this does not mean beach and pool weather year-round, these areas still have milder winters than northern Europe and sunlight instead of grey skies makes life easier to bear in the chillier months of the year.

The vast majority of property buyers who choose Spain say the better weather is one of the many factors they opt for either a holiday home or permanent residence there.

And cloudy skies and dark nights elsewhere in the northern hemisphere could well have something to do with the fact that sales of homes in Spain have risen in the last month, pushing property values up.

Foreign buyers shelled out just over €6 billion on property in Spain between January and September inclusive last year, according to the country's ministry of public works and infrastructure, a rise of 30% on the same period in 2013.

They accounted for 13% of homes bought in Spain in 2014, the ministry reveals, and British purchasers continue to lead the way with 17% of non-Spaniards buying a home in the country being from the UK.

The weather aspect means that, not surprisingly, the regions of Andalucía and Valencia were the most popular with buyers - areas that include the Costa del Sol, Costa Tropical and Costa de la Luz in the case of the former, and Costa Blanca, Costa del Azahar and the Gulf of Valencia in the case of the latter.

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SPAIN'S twice-world champion Fernando Alonso's concussion caused him a severe retrograde amnesia that wiped out 20 years of his memory, according to doctors who treated him in Barcelona after he crashed into a wall during pre-season testing on the Montmeló circuit.

The McLaren driver, who was due to début with his new team next weekend in Melbourne, Australia, but has scratched following medical advice, believed it was 1995 and he was a 13-year-old pupil at an Oviedo (Asturias).

As is standard practice when attempting to rule out possible brain damage, medics asked him basic questions when he came to after the crash left him briefly unconscious, such as his name and what he did for a job.

He said: "I'm Fernando, I do go-kart racing and I want to be a Formula 1 driver."

Alonso had no memory of his first-ever Formula 1 race with Team Minardi, nor his later career moves with Rénault, McLaren, Ferrari or his more recent re-signing with McLaren.

He did not remember having been world champion twice, nor having watched his favourite football team, Real Madrid FC, playing in the Champions' League four times.

Doctors were very alarmed at the memory retrieval loss which, if permanent or long-term, could have been a sign of brain damage.

Tests carried out on him showed there was no damage and he got his memory back within a few hours, and has since joked about it.

EUROPE'S largest Ferris wheel is open in Valencia until May 3 this year, giving visitors a panoramic view of the city and beyond.

From the top of the wheel, the view spans a 30-kilometre radius.

Bigger than the London Eye, with 42 sealed cabins fitted with heating and air-conditioning and space for eight people in each - all adapted for wheelchair-users - the Ferris wheel allows those who ride it to look down on the Valencia Boat Show between April 16 and 19, the Regional Cruise Championships, and the Holi Run marathon, which normally brings in about 10,000 competitors.

Unfortunately, the 'Valencia Eye' will have been taken down before the 52 Superseries, one of the world's biggest yachting regattas which is being held in Valencia's America's Cup port this year.

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NOW that the Fallas fiesta is getting under way in the Valencia region, those who are some distance from the action can send their friends fireworks and firecrackers via WhatsApp.

A new mobile phone App, iPetardo, lets users send mascletaes - strings of firecrackers let off in one go - as well as rockets and bangers via the free-to-use text-messaging network.

Creator Luis López of Leynet Consultants, a Valencia-based solicitors' firm, says the App was designed to allow those who are not within ear-drum-splitting distance of the traditional mascletaes to join in.

Several friends via messaging groups on WhatsApp can experience the sounds of the Fallas in one go if they let them off all at once while they are all online together, López reveals.

The App also has several practical purposes, says the solicitor.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN has become the ninth-largest manufacturer of motor vehicles on the planet, rising from 12th in 2013 and now ahead of Russia, Thailand and Canada.

Production last year went up by 11% in Spain, more than anywhere else in the European Union, although most vehicles made in factories in the country were exported.

This said, with the 'cash-for-scrap' scheme known as the Plan PIVE - where cars of seven years old or more can be traded in as scrap for a brand-new vehicle and a substantial discount given - has led to a huge boost in national trade in the last three years.

New models of cars handed over to Spain's factories to produce mean the country is fast heading towards its 'Plan 3 Million' target - that of bringing production levels back up to three million vehicles a year by 2017, the level it stood at before the start of the financial crisis.

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GAS bottle prices have gone down for the first time in many years, by 9.7%.

A typical 12.5-kilo butane bottle, used for cookers, heaters or barbecues in homes that are not on mains gas has just gone down to €15.80 and will remain at this price until the end of April.

Costs of gas bottles have been frozen for two years after a series of hikes that saw them double in price, but the ministry of industry has applied a new formula in calculating prices of gas.

In fact, it is likely the price will go down again in May and June in line with current previsions.

Every two months, gas costs are reviewed in keeping with international purchase prices for the raw material and maximum and minimum limits are applied to the end price to the consumer.

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CHILDREN aged two and under should not be allowed to use SmartPhones or Tablets because they can cause irreparable eye damage, say leaders of Spain's General Education Plan for Digital Visual Health 2015-2020.

Dr Celia Sánchez-Ramos, the brains behind the programme, compares letting toddlers near gadgets with LED screens to taking them to the beach without applying sun-screen.

Tablet and SmartPhone screens give off five times more short-wave light than a small child should be exposed to, are extremely harmful for young eyes - and excessive use of LED screens can damage the retina, since its film is still developing and does not filter the light out properly, according to Dr Sánchez-Ramos.

She backs up these warnings by referring to the government of Taiwan - one of the world's greatest technology producers - which announced 10 days ago that any parents who let their under-twos use any type of electronic device would be fined the equivalent of €1,500.

For children over the age of two and up to 12 inclusive, the Digital Visual Health plan in Spain recommends a maximum of two hours a day on SmartPhones or Tablets combined, and that those youngsters who do use them should wear glasses or contact lenses.

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FLOODS caused by the river Ebro bursting its banks have spread into the regions of Catalunya, La Rioja and the Basque Country just days after extending from Navarra into Aragón.

Zaragoza city is under water, including the Expo park, roads, shops and ground floor apartments, and farmers have lost up to €50 million in ruined crops whilst towns in Navarra resemble the canals of Venice.

Although water levels are said to be subsiding, the floods have crossed into the province of Álava in the Basque Country - of which the capital is Vitoria-Gasteiz - and into the province of Lleida in Catalunya.

The towns of Boquiñeni and Pradilla, in the province of Zaragoza, have been evacuated and it is said that most, if not all of the 1,600 inhabitants between them have been moved into makeshift camps in sports halls.

Hundreds of others have had to leave their homes in Fustiñana, Buñuel, Cabanillas and Tudela, in Navarra.

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NEARLY 530 foreign nationals from outside the EU have obtained a so-called 'golden visa' from Spain for buying property or investing in the country since it was launched 15 months ago.

And the requisites have now been made more flexible, extending to include unmarried partners, older dependants and children aged over 18.

Automatic residence and working rights in Spain are granted - even if the person does not live in the country - to any non-EU national who buys property at a minimum price of €500,000 net of taxes per unit, invests €2 million or more in buying public debt, or €1m or more in shares in companies, or who intends to spend similar sums in setting up businesses.

Between September 2013 and December last year - the most recent date for when figures were available - 490 non-Europeans have acquired a visa for Spain as a result of the scheme for having bought luxury property, and another 40 through investment, 29 of whom via share purchases and the rest from setting up companies.

Whilst the property purchasers have mainly tended to be Russian, Chinese or Arab, the investors have mostly been from the USA.

As a result, the country has acquired €700m in foreign investment since September 2013, creating around 12,000 jobs, although not all of them permanent.

The aim was to wipe out the paper trail and red tape involved in getting a visa to be able to invest or buy property in Spain by granting them automatically once a real intention has been established.

Certain changes have been made to the process to render it more flexible - for example, one applicant wanted to set up a company in a Spanish provincial capital city after finishing a master's degree at a business school in the country, but was told that to do so would have to involve leaving the country after finishing the course, and restarting the application process from abroad; as a result of these restrictions, the company plan fell through and the investor set one up in the UK instead.

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BANKS who overcharged mortgage-holders through so-called 'minimum interest clauses' have been ordered to refund the difference dating back to May 9, 2013.

Although many homeowners who have been overpaying for much longer are disappointed with the Supreme Court verdict to this effect, it does in fact mean a partial victory for those who have been fighting through legal channels for some time now.

Spain's president Mariano Rajoy (PP) has announced 'minimum interest' or 'ground' clauses will not be permitted in any future mortgage contracts, and already, many judges have annulled them on the grounds they are 'abusive' or overly advantageous to the lender at the borrower's cost.

With the Euribor, or Eurozone interest rate having been in free-fall for some years, after historic hikes throughout the year 2007, a number of homeowners discovered their mortgage contracts had 'ceiling clauses' and 'ground clauses', meaning that whatever the Euribor did, their monthly repayments would never go above a certain interest level – but also, that it would never go below a stated minimum.

Whilst these clauses were a source of comfort to mortgage-holders in 2007 when the Euribor was pushing 6%, after it fell to 0.5% and then 0.25%, they found that they were still paying considerably over the odds.

'Minimum interest' clauses were declared null and void on May 9 two years ago, unless the borrower's attention had been expressly drawn to them before signing and he or she had given express consent to this.

Any overpayment of interest since the clauses were voided can now be automatically reclaimed.

And the mere 'reading of the terms of the contract in front of a notary' when the mortgage agreement was signed is not considered sufficient for the customer to have been deemed to have 'fully understood' the implications of the 'ground clause', the Supreme Court judge has said.

The Supreme Court has rejected appeals by the BBVA and Cajasur against the annulment of these clauses.

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NEW hand-luggage inspection criteria imposed by Brussels is set to cost Spanish airports around €17 million a year in additional security staff.

From today (Sunday, March 1), numerous different types of electronic devices will have to be removed from hand-luggage bags at the X-ray gates for separate inspection.

According to Spain's partially-State owned airport governing body AENA, this will include photographic and video cameras, laptop computers, netbooks, Tablets, mobile phones, electronic games which use batteries, hair-dryers, hair straighteners, irons, and even portable sewing machines.

Any of these which contain sharp external parts would already be banned from hand luggage, but where they are permitted on board, they will need to be taken out of the bag and examined individually.

This means additional security staff at the entrance to departures, says AENA director Fernando Echegaray.

The new European directive states: “Recent information has shown that new methods of hiding improvised explosive devices are being developed by terrorists in order to bypass existing airline safety measures in place relating to hand-luggage inspection.”

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