Live News From Spain As It Happens

OVER a century of having to show and update your births, deaths and marriages 'passport', or Libro de Familia, has come to an end with a nationwide digital database taking its place.

The 'Family Book' was first issued on November 15, 1915 by the Ministry of Grace and Justice under King Alfonso XIII, as a portable written record proving blood ties or legal relations between parents and children, and spouses, and deaths of anyone in the immediate family unit were noted in it, as were births of children.

It served as proof of these family links where needed, and was issued to couples upon registering their marriages.

Later, it would be updated to allow for children adopted to be registered in it, and from the early 1980s onwards, for divorces and separations – marriage annulments were not legal in Spain until then.

Decades ago, sight of the Libro de Familia would be requested at hotels to ensure the couple staying there and sharing a room were, indeed, husband and wife – the only marriage combination legal in Spain, or anywhere, until 2005 – and in particular where the couple was very young and on their honeymoon.

Since then, it has been a way of proving you are indeed the parent of your child, should the need arise, and nowadays is purely just a way of updating census information and enabling authorities to trace people's relatives if necessary.

Until 2015, parents had to go to their nearest district court in person to register the birth of their children – a necessity as soon as the mum left the hospital, since until the baby was recorded, he or she did not technically exist and getting an ID card, State healthcare or a passport would otherwise be impossible.

In larger towns, this could involve long queues on the pavement, frequently for hours and often overnight, to be near enough to the front when the tickets were handed out allowing the parent to go back on another given day to request an appointment.

Effectively, in a best-case scenario, a parent would have to go to the district court in person three times, but as the queues were often longer than the number of tickets dispensed, repeat visits would normally be needed until parents could get their hands on one.

Exactly what a new mum getting over labour or Caesarean surgery, on top of feeding and nappy-changing round the clock, does not need.

Socialist (PSOE) president of Spain at the time, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, had been planning on replacing the Libro de Familia with a database back in 2010, and from 2015, the system changed so that as soon as a baby was born, the hospital itself would register the birth online automatically, meaning the parents did not need to take any action.

For the first century of its life – and, indeed, even after this – the 'Family Book' did not undergo any changes in format, and still looks almost identical to the original print-run of November 1915.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

These new measures announced come before the end of Spain's 'State of Alarm' on May 9, and Portugal's border opening two days before its own confinement ends on May 3.

Until now, only residents or citizens in Portugal were allowed to cross over from Spain, and only Spanish citizens or residents in the country were permitted to travel over the frontier from Portugal – a situation that has been in place since January.

The only exceptions were for goods deliveries and cross-border workers, but even then, many traders on either side of the divide said they had noticed severe financial losses as a result.

Districts such as Ciudad Rodrigo in the province of Salamanca, Castilla y León, are among these, and its direct neighbour, the Almeida district in eastern Portugal.

Workers and residents in the Spanish provinces of Ourense (Galicia), Zamora and Salamanca (Castilla y León), Badajoz and Cáceres (the two that make up Extremadura), and Huelva (Andalucía) who have been used to popping up the road into Portugal can now do so again.

Portuguese day-trippers also contribute to the economy in these provinces, for shopping, sightseeing, visiting and other reasons.

Two days after Portugal reopens to Spain, the eastern region of the Comunidad Valenciana – the three Mediterranean coastal provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellón – will see bars and restaurants closing at 22.00 rather than, as has been the case for most of 2021, at 18.00.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A 'QUALITY of life' survey among residents in Spain's biggest cities shows attitudes have changed since the start of the pandemic, according to national consumer organisation OCU, which conducted the research.

Taking a stratified sample of 3,000 people in 15 major metropolitan areas, the study asked participants to rank nine key areas which contributed to 'liveability'.

Public safety, health and education services, things to do – leisure, culture and sports – pollution and environment, mobility, the job market, cost of living, housing market and cleanliness of streets and outdoor areas in general were scrutinised.

The 15 cities assessed were mainly in descending order of size: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Bilbao, Alicante, Córdoba, Valladolid, Vigo and Gijón.

Based upon answers received in October and November 2020, scores given do not give an overall picture, since in some cases, most or all areas ranked highly and, in others, certain features were given exceptionally-high scores with the rest getting fair or poor ratings, leading to some cities where satisfaction was across the board falling below those where given aspects had clear room for improvement.

Given that the criteria included leisure opportunities, ease of getting about, and the job market, it would have been expected that the 'big two', Madrid and Barcelona, would score highest – but in fact, the latter came second from bottom and Spain's capital came right at the bottom.

The average rating out of 100 was 64, and Barcelona and Madrid scored 56 and 55 respectively – still a 'pass mark' overall, but below the mid-point for the 15.

Even though the weather is generally milder in winter and warmer in spring and autumn south of the capital, four of the top five cities were in the north of the mainland.

Vigo (Pontevedra province, Galicia) turned out to boast the best quality of life for urban dwellers in Spain, netting 70%.

According to the OCU, the north-western city – which is not a provincial capital and is quite small compared with many of the others on the list – ranked highly for safety, clean streets, environmental factors including lack of pollution, given that it has large car-free areas, and quality and ease of access of schools.

Residents said it was 'one of the best' cities to live in for families with children, especially for leisure and entertainment facilities; but Vigo fell down on its housing and job markets.

Aragón's largest city, Zaragoza, scored highly across the board – Spain's fifth-largest city, along with the Basque port capital of Bilbao, came joint second with 69%.

Zaragoza's only low rating was for the cleanliness of its streets – but, at least, this is an aspect that is easily solved.

Bilbao got the best ranking for its healthcare and, along with Zaragoza, earned the joint highest scores for mobility, whilst these two plus Vigo got good marks for their schools.

In Bilbao, the cost of living and housing market 'could be better', the OCU reveals.

Madrid and Barcelona fell down on pollution, housing market, cost of living, and cleanliness, but scored well for job opportunities and spare-time activities.

Valladolid in the centre-northern region of Castilla y León – a city where it has long been held that the natives speak the purest form of 'received Spanish' in the country – and the land-locked far-southern city of Córdoba in Andalucía, world-famous for its splendid Great Mosque and its bright, floral patios, came joint fourth with 68%, completing the top five.

Málaga scored 66%, in sixth place, with Valencia and the Asturias city of Gijón slap-bang in the middle of the rankings on 65%.

Alicante (64%) and Málaga both gained points compared with similar pre-pandemic surveys on mobility, although Málaga, along with Sevilla and Madrid, did not score well for their public healthcare facilities – despite all three being home to some of the most pioneering hospitals in the country.

Joint ninth, completing the first 10, were Sevilla and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (63%), followed by Murcia on 61%.

The OCU says life in the cities of Palma de Mallorca and Sevilla is perceived as being of less quality now than in earlier data gatherings from before Covid-19 hit Spain, although scores overall have decreased in all 15.

This would lend support to other polls conducted throughout 2020, which found city-dwellers in general had become dissatisfied with their lives and locations and were either strongly considering, or at least dreaming, of a house move to a more rural or coastal environment where they would get more for their money in property terms, and in particular, more outside space.

A MIXED online and in-person awards ceremony for the 'Top 100 Women Leaders in Spain' saw everyone from Paralympic sporting greats to national politicians, artists and writers through to chief executive officers, collect trophies or find out they were due to receive one in the post.

Some of the names on the list are already fairly well known to the public, such as virologist Margarita del Val, karate champion Sandra Sánchez, TV celebrity chef Samantha Vallejo Nágera, authors and columnists Elvira Lindo and Almudena Grandes, digital director of Mercadona supermarkets Juana Roig – daughter of the chain's founder Juan Roig – deputy president of the government and minister of work and social economy Yolanda Díaz Pérez, Madrid regional president (at least until the elections on May 4) Isabel Díaz Ayuso, deputy president of the government and economy minister Nadia Calviño Santamaría, European Parliamentary office director for Spain, María Andrés Marín, Guardia Civil Lieutenant Colonel Silvia Gil Cerdá, and Guardia Civil Captain María José Garrido Antón.

The ceremony was led by 'channel five', or Telecinco presenter Sonsoles Ónega, who was one of the 10 in the 'Media' category, along with director of newspaper 20minutos, Encarna Samitier Laín, general manager for ABC, Ana Delgado Galán, general manager of Zinet Media Global Marta Ariño Barrera, joint director of newspaper El Diario Esther Palomera, general manager of the website Maldita, Clara Jiménez Cruz, director of the site MujerEmprendedora ('Enterprising Woman'), Ana María Conte, founder of La Gata de Schrödinger, Rocío Vidal, and two other journalists who work for various media, Esther Paniagua and Olga Viza.

Along with the women in politics and the Guardia Civil, the 'Public, Institutional and Political Function' category included Clara Arpa Azofra, chairwoman of the Red Española Pacto Mundial ('World Pact Spanish Network'), Cristina Bescós, managing director of EIT Health, director of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) Paz Esteban, and head of commerce and port operations at A Coruña Port Authority, Irene Souto Blázquez.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PROVINCIAL border closures in the southern region of Andalucía will be lifted on Thursday this week (April 29) for the first time in three months now that the pandemic is beginning to abate in the area.

Until now, nobody was allowed to travel outside their province, except in extenuating circumstances such as healthcare, when their district hospital was in the next one, travelling to work, and care duties.

This would have proven a headache for anyone living right on the border of their province, since their regularly-used shops and their friends may be on the wrong side, meaning they would have been off limits since January.

Regional president Juanma Moreno says the decision to reopen province borders is linked to the fact that the latest, fourth wave of the Covid-19 spread has been 'much milder', the vaccine roll-out has been progressing well and the region is 'better prepared'.

Head of Spain's disease control centre Fernando Simón – a face rarely out of the news in the past year, but until then relatively unknown to the general public – says he can 'see light at the end of the tunnel' with the pandemic, and that he is 'optimistic' at the trend in figures.

Spain has now started to give priority to the Pfizer vaccine and is beginning to 'relieve' the AstraZeneca inoculation, meaning those due to be called for their jab at the moment are more likely to be given the RNA-messenger version developed in Germany by Turkish researchers rather than the viral vector type created by international scientists at Oxford University for the Swedish pharmaceutical giant.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LAST YEAR'S Oscars saw a tin of potato crisps from Galicia pick up four statuettes, although Spain's joint-biggest living Hollywood export Antonio Banderas – the other being Penélope Cruz – still went home empty-handed, having earned his first-ever nomination in a career that is now into its fifth decade. 

But this year's Oscars did include one Spanish winner – Sevilla-born Sergio López-Rivera, 54, who grew up in Santander, Cantabria.

Attending the ceremony with his husband, López-Rivera said his triumph had only been possible thanks to his grandmother back in the far-northern coastal region of Spain.

Along with his colleagues Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson, Sergio won the Oscar for Best Hair and Makeup for the US jazz scene film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, in which he rose eagerly to the challenge of 'disfiguring' the lead actress Viola Davis, who played the central character.

Viola Davis had personally requested her makeup artist for the rôle be Sergio López-Rivera, whom she had worked with before in How to Get Away With a Murder.

Of the original 'Ma Rainey', one of the first female artists to record her music accompanied by a band in 1920s' Chicago, only seven photos could be found and only one of these close-up enough to see her features in full detail, Sergio said.

“We discovered she was a woman who was very fat, who sweated excessively, who had lots of gold teeth and who was considered the ugliest person in the musical industry,” he reveals.

“She was said to have sweated so much under the spotlights on stage that she looked as though she was bathed in a gold sheen.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FURTHER key part of Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Família cathedral has been slotted into place, with the final touches and embellishments due to be added over the course of 2021.

Constructors are back on track and expect to meet their deadline of December for the Torre de la Mare de Déu ('Virgin's Tower', or literally translated, 'Tower of the Mother of God'), after long-term plans for Europe's most famous unfinished building were scuppered due to the pandemic. 

The internationally-loved landmark is quite possibly the world's longest-running building project: Since the foundation stones were first laid, work has never stopped for more than a few months at a time and always due to extreme circumstances, such as last year's lockdown; and yet, in that time, construction engineers, planners, and visiting tourists have been born, lived to a ripe old age and died from natural causes.

And the work is still in progress.

In fact, anyone in the building industry seeking job security or a position for life could do worse than apply to join the team tackling the Sagrada Família.

The long-term goal was to have the cathedral 100% complete according to the original design of the architect, Antoni Gaudí, in 2026, the 100th anniversary year of his cruelly-ironic death after he was run over by a bus whilst crossing the road to his own creation. 

But delays caused by pandemic-related restrictions have not been the only setback; since Covid-19 first hit Europe, tourist and visitor numbers have been so badly hit that ticket sales, which have been funding the works, as well as overheads and staff salaries, for decades, have been far too low to allow any progress to be made, meaning the initial completion deadline is now open to conjecture and could be literally any time in the future. 

Depending upon how things pick up, it could well be that the cathedral is fully finished by the 105th or 110th anniversary of Gaudí's demise.

Even then, cultural historians far into the future will not know whether to call it a 19th-, 20th- or 21st-century structure, but will definitely struggle to fit any of its architectural elements neatly into the typical styles of any era over these three.

Indeed, the Sagrada Família is about as atypical as you can get – evidence of Gaudí's wacky, highly-unconventional approach to building architecture is clearly on display at the psychedelic mosaïc Parc Güell complex a few streets away, and in his red-and-green-tiled spire-shaped restaurant in Comillas, Cantabria. 

Delightfully weird and tastefully crazy, even visitors who are not usually overawed by church or cathedral architecture find the Sagrada Família a source of intrigue; it is not common to see mass taking place beneath a cubist stained-glass Virgin Mary next to a cement-mixer, or towers that look like a cross between pock-marked cacti and red-hot pokers, but Barcelona residents have been very used to seeing all this on their horizon for the last five generations.

WE OFTEN talk about beaches on here. If much of northern Europe was asked to name a country they would head for on a short-haul flight on the very next warm day to be able to lie on a beach, Spain would probably be mentioned quite a lot. 

And actually, people living in Spain spend their winters looking forward to the beach, with even many living near one taking an annual holiday to a different part of the country that has another. 

Expats often get laughed at by their friends and families in their native lands when they say they live on the Mediterranean mainland and take a beach holiday in the Balearics, or they live on the Costa Brava and book their holidays in Murcia and do nothing but relax on a beach. Even though it would never strike anyone as silly if a person living in London, which is replete with art galleries, booked a city break somewhere in Europe and spent it visiting all the art galleries.

A national survey carried out by Loving Tourism found out that whatever happens with the pandemic and provided travel is not limited to your local supermarket, 45% of people living in Spain fully intend to take a summer holiday this year, and another 33% are considering it, meaning only 22% are not planning to do so (and it could be because they plan to take it in the winter, or they live in a town with a perfectly good beach anyway).

Of those who would, at least, like to go on holiday, even if they do not intend to this year, 56.4% said sunning themselves on the beach would be their top choice.

Beach-love is not limited to those in a cold climate. It seems it's an integral part of human nature – there's another research question for evolutionary anthropologists to get their teeth into; what is it that's integral to us as a species that gives us an innate need to make a beeline for the nearest coast?
 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

YOU would expect a beach to be pale gold, or white, with blue or turquoise waters – or perhaps black with navy-blue waters if it's a volcanic zone like some of the Canary Islands' shores – but a 'green' one? Not unless it's covered in seaweed, anyway. Still, a stretch of the Costa del Sol can officially call itself a 'green beach' now: It's just netted the rarely-granted, but much-coveted, 'Eco-Playa' flag.

Tourists and local sunseekers in the 21st century care about other things besides having a good bar within reach, clean sands, minimal currents so they can safely take a dip (unless they're kite-surfers, of course). All these are still hugely important, along with handy facilities such as enough regularly-cleaned, close-by toilets, wooden walkways and foot-showers so you can put your flip-flops back on as you leave without sandpapering your feet, and lifeguards in case they get into trouble; and all these are standard on Spain's shores, given that it has been the country with the most Blue Flag beaches in the world for 34 years, uninterrupted. If you find a beach lacking in any of these elements, it's because it's a rugged, unspoilt, virgin piece of coastline where, if you're visiting, you'll probably have gone looking for raw nature and beautiful scenery rather than to top up your tan.

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TAKE your pooch for a stroll and raise money for guide dogs – or if you don't have a woofster of your own, get hiking and just pretend there's an imaginary friend on a leash next to you.

Specsavers opticians' is aiming to amass at least €5,000 for the ONCE (Spanish National Organisation for the Blind) Guide Dogs' Foundation (FOPG), a charity it sponsors regularly, but due to the pandemic and social distancing requirements, has not been able to hold any of its usual fund-raisers for over a year.

In keeping with the times, the 2021 charity dog-walk will be a virtual version: Anyone wanting to take part donates the standard €5 entry fee – more, if they want to – and pops their pet on the lead.

Participants choose their own route, which can be as long or as short as they and their dogs wish – and, optionally, post a photo of their outing tagging Specsaver Ópticas on Facebook or @specsaversspain on Instagram, and the best snap will be picked out as the face of the campaign.

Anyone who does not have dogs, or access to one, can select a route and walk it themselves.

To join in, head for your nearest Specsavers store, make your donation and collect your Virtual Dog Walk certificate.

Branches can be found in the coastal towns of Jávea, Calpe, Benidorm, Torrevieja, Guardamar del Segura and La Zenia (Alicante province), Marbella and Fuengirola (Málaga province), and in Santa Ponça, Mallorca. 

The ONCE, which runs a daily national lottery in aid of the blind and partially-sighted, provides support to this community when they become members, and the guide dogs they breed and train and given free to those who need them and are eligible.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A COSTA Blanca town where a world-renowned haute couture designer passed away will host a unique one-off exhibition of his life and works to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. 

Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre was born in Guetaria in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, the capital of which is Vitoria, on January 21, 1895, and died two months and two days after his 77th birthday in 1972, in Jávea, northern Alicante province.

Although Jávea council is planning the exhibition for the year 2022, to mark the half-century of his demise in the last-ever town he holidayed in, this will not coincide with the exact date – it will take place in summer, to increase the number of potential visitors and give as many people as possible a chance to find out more about an iconic fashionista whose pieces still retail and grace the catwalks today.

Jávea's population typically trebles over the summer months as tourists from Spain and abroad, and holiday home owners, move in to enjoy the cosmopolitan bustle of this low-rise historical coastal town overlooked by the Montgó mountain nature reserve, over 750 metres up.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HUMANS in southern Europe used to hunt mammoths 30,000 years ago, Spanish archaeologists have confirmed.

The 20-strong team, from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) along with historians from three other countries, have just finished an excavation in a cave in Isturitz, southern France, where a mammoth's shoulder bone was found in 1988.

It has since become a source of intrigue for archaeologists and numerous digs have been carried out there to find out more about the world and early humans millennia ago.

This time, says the UPV group, 'dozens' of bone fragments have been found which are known to have come from mammoths, and signs of various knocks and other injuries are said to be man-made.

And they have concluded the mammoths in question did not just 'wander into' the cave, but had been transported there from the bottom of the valley.

It appears the humans who did so had opened up the bones to get to the marrow, which would have been highly nutritious, providing essential elements such as protein and iron for strength and fat for keeping warm in winter.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SALES of e-books in Spain rocketed by 43% last year, and fiction was the most popular type, according to one of the country's leading distributors.

Libranda deals in audio books and e-books, so it was not able to reveal to what extent 'traditional' paper books sold last year – although high-street book shops were closed during the three-month lockdown and their hours have been restricted in the past few months, many continued to sell these online, via their own websites or via Amazon, particularly national chains. 

Based upon data from 2019, sales of e-books in Spanish soared worldwide by 37%, said managing director of Libranda, Arantza Larrauri – an increase she called 'extraordinary' and 'the biggest in recent times'.

In general, electronic versions of books which had been out for some time captured about 7.3% of e-reader users, although this would rise to between 15% and 20% in the case of new releases and some brand-new, often eagerly-awaited titles broke the 40% barrier.

Not including academic textbooks, the Spanish-language e-book market last year reached €115.7 million worldwide, of which Spain accounted for 65%, or €75m; México for 11.2%, and the USA for 9%.

In terms of growth rather than numbers, Uruguay, Ecuador, Perú and Guatemala were ahead of Spain.

The bulk of the market was shared between mainstream international platforms such as Amazon, Google and Apple – a 77.8% market share, representing a growth of 35.5% in 2020 – although smaller independent platforms, including those run by book stores themselves, noticed a rise of 40.9%, with their overall market share totalling 11.4% or, in Spain, 14%.

Borrowing of e-books from libraries took 5.1% of the market, increasing in financial value by 63.7%, and e-reader platform subscriptions taken out rose by 36.2%.

Works of fiction continue to be the most popular, representing 60.7% of the overall cost in euros, with about a quarter being contemporary fiction, crime and detective novels 13.3%, and romance novels 9.9%.

Top Spanish authors bought in e-book format were Juan Gómez Jurado (Madrid), Elísabet Benavent (Valencia), and German-born Megan Maxwell – real name María del Carmen Rodríguez, whose mother is from Toledo, father is from the USA, and who grew up in Germany before moving to Madrid as a young adult.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A 'HOME-MADE' vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is expected to be in use in Spain by the end of this year, meaning it could be in time for inoculating young adults in low-risk occupations with no key physical health conditions.

The multi-national pharmaceutical company Hipra, based in Amer (Girona province), is working on two different varieties which will be among several developed in Spain – although the Hipra versions are likely to be the first to appear, meaning theirs is 'one of the projects that offers the most hope' in 'guaranteeing Spain's having its own vaccine in a very short space of time', according to the country's president Pedro Sánchez.

He visited the laboratories yesterday (Friday) to find out more.

One of the vaccines under construction at Hipra is an own-brand version, and the other is being developed in conjunction with the IDIBAPS team at Barcelona's Hospital Clínic.

The latter is already one of the World Health Organisation's (WHO's) candidates for pre-clinical trials.

Another three are being created by Spain's National Research Council (CSIC) but are not expected to be ready until well into 2022.

Hipra is, in fact, a veterinary pharmaceutical firm, although how animals react to vaccines is an integral part of the process of developing them for humans; viral vector shots, which include a 'dormant' or deactivated particle of a virus in a 'vector' or carrier, which stimulates the immune system to fight off the real thing, are the type typically given to dogs and cats as babies and then repeated periodically until approximately age 10 and 14 respectively, after which vets differ in their view as to whether or not booster jabs are helpful.

These vaccines offer almost total protection to pets, and cases of a vaccinated dog or cat catching a condition they are immunised against and becoming ill from it are extremely rare, practically anecdotal.

And Hipra is an expert in producing, researching and wholesale distribution of vaccines in pets, with considerable experience in the Coronavirus – a viral group that causes conditions such as the common cold and a strain of which causes Covid-19.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NETTING a Michelin star or several may be every chef's or restaurant owner's ultimate dream – the Olympic gold medal and the Oscar of one's catering career – but those based in Spain are just as focused on chasing the sun.

Finding your way into the Guía Repsol (Repsol Guide) means your eatery is automatically among the best in the country – and you may well be Michelin-starred at the same time, since the calibre and quality required for either is very similar.

Whilst Spain has long been known for its full-flavoured, multi-faceted cuisine – radically different from region to region, but never bland or boring – it also has a lifelong reputation for being among the cheapest first-world countries to eat out in; its quality-versus-price ratio, or value for money, is exceptional.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S two-million-strong community of Muslims started celebrating the festive month of Ramadan on Tuesday, and tomorrow (Friday) is the first holy day of the holidays – another which will see major restrictions.

Last year brought the first Ramadan in full lockdown in living memory, meaning mosques were shut, so the five daily prayers all had to be performed at home, and families and friends were unable to join each other for post-sunset meals or the major party on the last day, Eid ul-fitr, unless they lived in the same household.

The Eid morning mass prayer, or Masal-la – which, in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, are public outdoor events taking place in the harbour with free shuttle-buses thrown on by the councils – did not happen.

This year will not involve quite such a drastic impact on the festivities – in most regions, up to a maximum of two households can meet up in private homes, and mosques, which act as local community centres and charity headquarters as well as places of worship, are open, albeit with numbers limited.

Spain's Islamic Commission has issued a public announcement urging the community to continue to follow health authority recommendations for virus prevention and safety, and in particular, to avoid crowds or mass gatherings.

Whilst they can go to mosque this year, Muslims are asked to keep the time they spend inside them to a minimum and, for the traditional tarawih or group prayer sessions (pictured above), to check restrictions in place in their region, including the curfew, and numbers allowed in indoor spaces.

As the prayer happens after sunset, the curfew – currently 22.00 or 23.00, depending upon region – may 'get in the way', so the Islamic Commission says anyone who will be unable to complete their prayers and return home in time should practise the tarawih at home.

Although families tend to celebrate the iftar, or post-sunset evening meal to break the daily fast, at home together, public ones often take place in mosques, but this year, the Islamic Commission has strongly advised against doing so in order to prevent possible contagion.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ROYALS across Europe – and the world – have been paying homage to the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, following his passing just two months before his 100th birthday; but in the case of Spain's 'Queen Mother', it was not just a mark of respect.

HRH Sofía de Borbón y Grecia – who retains the title of 'Queen' even though her son is now on the throne following his father, Juan Carlos I's abdication in 2014 – is Prince Philip's second cousin.

With Queen Sofía being a Spanish Royal and the Duke of Edinburgh being British, it is often forgotten that they are both, in fact, Greek.

Prince Philip is the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, whose father was King George I (King Georgios I) of Greece, mother was Olga Constantinovna of Russia, and grandfather was King Christian IX of Denmark.

Queen Sofía is from Psykhikó, in the suburbs of Athens, the daughter of Paul I (Pavlos I) of Greece and the Hanover-born Queen Federica.

King George II of Greece was Sofía's uncle, King Pavlos' brother, and their father was King Constantine I (Konstantinos I) and grandfather was King George I.

So the Duke of Edinburgh, and Queen Sofía's dad, are cousins – and Prince Philip was born in Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu.

But the late Consort and lifelong companion to Queen Elizabeth II lived in the UK from a very young age.

And Queen Sofía's silent homage to her father's cousin was very much in line with a long-running British tradition – she wore a paper poppy in her lapel.

The poppy, part of the Royal British Legion's emblem and a symbol used to commemorate those who lost their lives in combat during World War I, is worn in the UK and by Brits abroad on November 11 – Armistice Day in France, and a public holiday, and called Remembrance Day in Britain, although it is a normal working day.

Small paper poppies with a plastic stalk designed to be worn as a buttonhole are typically sold for a nominal price in the run-up to November 11 each year, with funds going to charities supporting injured service personnel and the families of those who do not survive.

Outside the UK, the tradition is not followed, and people from Spain would not necessarily know what it meant.

The Royal family and the forces take part in a Remembrance Day parade every year, where members of the public can join in, wearing their own medals or uniforms if they are, or have been, service personnel, or wearing those of their deceased relatives.

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SPAIN'S government has outlined where it is considering spending European Union funds to help the economy recover, and which it believes will create up to 800,000 jobs.

President Pedro Sánchez calls the reform plan 'the greatest opportunity for Spain since its entry into the EU', and forecasts it will increase the country's GDP by two percentage points at least over the next two years or so, on top of any other rises this may experience through the end of the 'State of alarm' and businesses being able to reopen in full nationwide.

Sánchez's final plan, once agreed on by the Council of Ministers, will need to be submitted to Brussels by April 30 at the latest.

“Occasions like this only happen a couple of times a century at the very most, and we're not going to let it slide by,” said Sánchez, who says the draft spending breakdown is the result of 'months of technical and political work at multiple levels and in permanent dialogue with the European Commission'.

“We want to repair the economy after a decade of the worst economic recession and the worst pandemic in over a century,” said Sánchez, who spoke of 'remedying' the remaining vestiges of what he calls 'austericide' and 'a weakening of the welfare state' by 'modernising the economy, administration, bureaucracy', as well as 'increasing productivity and good-quality employment', closing the gender and social pay gaps and 'boosting the green economy' – the focus being on 'green' and 'digital', or 'econology', as Sánchez refers to it, along with 'social and territorial consistence and cohesion' and 'gender equality'.

Longer term, the plans for spending the EU grants will cover 110 major investments and 102 reforms over six years, although Sánchez has not expanded greatly on what the latter will involve – only referring to changes in the energy system, internationalising companies, fiscal and pension reforms.

But he was more specific on the areas of investment, detailing a 'route map' for the first €70 billion due from Brussels, of which 39% will go towards the 'ecological transition', 29% to the 'digital transformation', 10.5% to education and training, and 7% to science, research and productivity.

The largest slice of the pot will go into promoting electric car buying and sustainable mobility, with €13.2 billion to be set aside; just over half of this amount, or €6.82bn, will go towards renovating residential homes and urban regeneration.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FOREIGN residents in Spain increased by 2% - a six-figure sum – last year, despite the pandemic and Brexit, and broke the 5.8-million barrier for the first time ever.

Non-Spaniards living in the country account for just over 12% of the total headcount, of whom about six in 10 are from EU and EEA countries.

For the purposes of the research, even though the figures were taken as at the last day of 2020 when the UK had been a third country for 11 months, its nationals were considered as being among those of the EU and EEA régime given that the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement allows for British citizens already resident in the other 27 to be treated broadly the same within their adopted countries.

This means they lose their freedom of movement throughout other EU member States, where they would be treated as third-country nationals, but retain their EU 'green certificate' of registration if they do not wish to swap it for a foreigners' photo ID card, and are not subject to non-EU immigration rules if they are already officially resident in the member country.

This definition, which puts Brits among citizens of the remaining EU-27 and also Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, may change for the purposes of statistics-gathering in future years.

As it happened, Brits were the migrant community which saw the second-largest growth in Spain, at 6%, although a long way short of the Venezuelans, a segment of the population which swelled in size by 53% in 2020.

Romanian, Moroccan, British and Italian nationals most numerous 

With the Covid-19 crisis reducing movement, migration to Spain has seen considerably less growth in the past calendar year, according to the Permanent Immigration Observatory, part of the department run by the Secretary-General for Inclusion Policy and Objectives and Social Prevision, which falls within the remit of the ministry for inclusion.

Whilst growth in migration into Spain has been rising consistently since 2014, the pandemic broke the trend, but even then, 137,120 non-Spaniards made the country their home in 2020, even though this was the smallest increase seen since 2016.

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LATE deputy president of Spain Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba has been awarded the highest distinctions within the National Police and Guardia Civil – two forces he was leader of for five years.

Interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and defence minister Margarita Robles presented these awards to Rubalcaba's widow, Pilar Goya, in recognition of her husband's ground-breaking work between April 2006 and July 2011, when he was in Marlaska's rôle.

Minister under the then socialist (PSOE) president of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Rubalcaba (pictured above) – who died within hours of British comedian Freddie Starr - is credited with the dissolution of Basque-based terrorist organisation ETA, which had been active since the early 1970s and whose last major attack was the blast at Madrid airport Terminal 4 car park, killing two people, on December 30, 2006.

ETA had carried out a couple of smaller bombings since then, in summer 2009, one of which targeted a police car in Palmanova, Mallorca.

Constant, ongoing police swoops, investigations and arrests fuelled by Rubalcaba as interior minister led to ETA cells being busted one after the other at breakneck speed – so fast that the organisation did not have time to pull itself together or re-band in between them.

Major Commando leaders, such as Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu, or 'Txeroki', Aitzol Iriondo, Judan Martitegi, Ibon Gogeascoetxa, and Mikel Carrera, found themselves in custody in quick succession between 2008 and 2010.

Substantially weakened, the last remaining ETA members realised the organisation was no longer viable, announced a permanent ceasefire in the autumn of 2011, and within the next two years had handed in all its weapons and officially declared its closure.

October 20 is the anniversary of ETA's final statement, when it said it would no longer be involved in any armed activity, and the Basque regional government says it 'thinks of' Rubalcaba on this day every year.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MEDICAL research foundation based in Galicia has set itself the ambitious goal of creating a cure for Parkinson's Disease at 10% of the cost of similar therapies under development in the USA and about a third of the sum involved in another in the UK.

Alberto Amil, 49, is one of around 160,000 people in Spain diagnosed with Parkinson's, one of the seven million or so on the planet – about one in every 1,000 of the earth's inhabitants – and the only known case in the world of a person with Parkinson's and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as motor neurone disease.

He and two doctors set up the Curemos el Párkinson ('Let's Cure Parkinson's') Foundation in a bid to find a way of reversing the condition using gene repair therapy.

The married father of three says: “My TBK1 gene is affected – a gene that tends to cause ALS or dementia more than Parkinson's, but which, in my case, gave me both, although the ALS comes on more slowly.”

His first symptoms came on about a decade ago – his left hand started trembling slightly – but for a long while, he was able to live a 'more or less normal life'.

Alberto, a dynamic young businessman, had set up a string of national and international companies and was on 14 boards of directors – but five years ago, his symptoms started to become more life-limiting.

“I sold my companies, because at the time, I was scared I wouldn't be able to run them properly,” he explains.

He went from walking with a stick to needing a walking frame and then, by the beginning of 2020, to using a wheelchair – just months after his ALS diagnosis came on top of his existing one of Parkinson's.

Alberto had joined up with the neurologist who had diagnosed his first condition, Dr Diego Santos, in a research project involving over 600 patients, 140 of his colleagues and 40 Spanish hospitals.

“But it was only about how to improve our quality of life, not to cure us,” says Alberto.

Now chairman of the Foundation which proclaims, in its name, to be determined to do the latter – and with other genetic and neuro-degenerative conditions – Alberto said he 'came across' the idea of gene-repair therapy about nine month ago.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WHERE exactly in Spain you live makes a bigger difference to the weather than you might have thought if you come from a northern European country with a more consistent climate. 

Even without taking the Canary Islands into account – given that these are off the coast of southern Morocco and close to the tropics – the variety of temperatures, humidity and general forecasts across the mainland, Balearics and the north African coastal enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla is far greater than the land-mass size of the country would have you believe. Winters inland, at altitudes, in northern parts, and especially all three of these combined, can be considerably colder and harsher than even in the north of Scotland; in the south-east, bordering the Mediterranean, they may never get more bracing than springtime in southern England or northern France, although with rare, short-lived and extremely intense episodes of almost-monsoon-like rainfall. But both can go either way, the heat of summer is dry inland and humid and semi-tropical on the east and south coasts, the northern strip spends two-thirds of the year with intermittent Scotch mist keeping it bright-green, and summers here can be either mild and springlike with cool nights, or swelteringly hot.

April is possibly one of the least-predictable months anywhere in the country for climate and temperature. One day you could be topping up your tan on the beach, the next day you could be in thermal pyjamas, and rainfall can be anywhere from absolute zero to flash floods, via drizzle and pervading damp.

It's rarely freezing (although watch out for early-hours frosts if you live inland or high up), or consistently sweaty, though, and it happens to be one of the best months of the year to plant whatever you want to have yielding fruit in high summer.

Despite this, you'll have to monitor these newly-planted crops constantly, ready to shield them from the elements if needed, give them extra water, drain them or cover them if it rains too much, or filter out excessive sunlight – if they're in pots on a terrace, you may have to move them around a lot.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

VARIOUS restrictions in several regions in Spain have been lifted or eased since Saturday where contagion has slowed down and in light of increased optimism over the vaccine roll-out being accelerated.

Some have opted to keep all limitations in place until the end of the 'State of Alarm', due to be over on May 9, and few, at present, have reopened their regional borders.

Andalucía has maintained the restrictions it had in place since before Easter, including regional border closure and limits on travelling between provinces; groups of up to six people are allowed to meet, except inside bar and restaurant premises, where the maximum is four to a table; all shops, bars, eateries, and other services and activities are permitted to open until 22.30, but not beyond, with the exception of towns with more than 1,000 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants (1% of the population), a situation that currently includes the provincial capital cities of Córdoba, Málaga, Huelva, Jaén and Sevilla.

In towns in Andalucía on alert level 2 or 3, restaurants are permitted to make home deliveries up to 23.30, subject to last orders at 22.30.

The curfew remains from 23.00 to 06.00, although the regional government has urged residents to 'voluntarily' stay at home beyond 20.00.

The Balearic Islands will remain shut to anyone from outside them until today Monday (April 12), although travelling between islands is allowed. 

Social gatherings of up to four people in inside spaces, and six in outdoor areas, are permitted on the islands of Formentera and Menorca; in Ibiza and Mallorca, up to four people can meet, indoors or outdoors, from a maximum of two households, but nobody is allowed to meet anyone in a private home, where only members of the same household are permitted.

Bars and restaurants in Mallorca and Ibiza are still banned from opening their inside areas and can only operate using their outdoor terraces, provided these are shut by 17.00; in Menorca and Formentera, they can open until 18.00, inside and out, but with numbers limited in indoor parts.

The curfew in the region remains from 22.00 to 06.00.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A LAW dating back 22 years requiring owners of certain dog breeds to register them with the council, pay a tax and keep them muzzled and on a lead could be about to change now that Spain's government is considering a review of the 'dangerous' label.

Director-General of Animal Rights, Sergio García Torres, spoke at the political conference organised by the Spanish Royal Canine Society, and advocated the 'dangerous breeds' criteria be assessed on a 'dog-by-dog' basis.

Most people who have any contact with animals have met pitbulls, Rottweilers, Dobermanns or other, similarly-categorised dogs who are complete 'softies' and would not harm a fly, whilst some dogs who have shown aggressive behaviour may be of breeds not on the 'compulsory registration' list.

García Torres and the Royal Canine Society are concerned that the 'potentially dangerous' list creates prejudice against entire breeds which may not be at all justified in a high number of individual cases.

To this end, a law reform underway is seeking to 'validate the behaviour' of specific animals 'without taking into account the given breed they were born into'.

Replacing Law number 50/1999, the legislation will cover dogs whose character means they need 'special handling' or 'expert management', and require them to be trained in behaviour improvement techniques to prevent, or stop, them being 'dangerous'.

Unlike in other countries, Spanish legislation does not automatically require a dog who attacks a human to be put to sleep – in fact, this is avoided as far as possible and would only happen where the animal was a serial public danger and too 'far gone' for even canine behavioural experts to retrain them to be safe.

García Torres says he wants national law to work towards an end to pets being dumped and for zero animal euthanasia except on purely humane grounds, where the creature is actively and incurably suffering and no remedies are available in life – much along the same grounds as the newly-approved euthanasia law for humans.

The Royal Canine Society (RSCE) has called for legislation that makes dog identification universal, protects and promotes native breeds, accredits the work of 'ethical and responsible breeders', and actively educates children and young people in 'values that encourage respect and empathy for animals'.

García Torres says the law being prepared by Spain's government – the draft of which is at the 'public information' stage, meaning it can be consulted by society and is open to appeals – focuses on streamlining the 17 different regional government laws, none of which are exactly the same, and on setting up an 'Animal Protection Registration System' (SRPA).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ALL OVER the world – at least, on both sides of the Atlantic – monoliths almost identical to those left by aliens invading earth in the cult Stanley Kubrick film 2001: Space Odyssey have been appearing, and disappearing just as fast.

Authorities have taken them down almost as soon as they were found – in the Utah desert and on the California Pacific coast road, which the New México-based group 'The Most Famous Artist' owned up to leaving there, and also in Romania, The Netherlands, Poland and the UK.

But Spain has taken a different approach, and seems to be quite fond of its anonymous metal posts – the first to appear in the country, on a hill above Ayllón (Segovia province, Castilla y León) was put back up three times after it fell over and the mayoress paid it a visit the morning it popped up.

The latest monolith emerged apparently out of nowhere on a Costa Brava beach – and has already been removed. 

This is not for the reasons other places have taken theirs down, though: The town council in Castell-Platja d'Aro (Girona province) dug it up from the sands in the middle of Sa Conca beach in the S'Agaró area to protect it from vandals.

A group of youths had kicked it down 48 hours after it appeared, and have since been identified and arrested.

Now, the brightly-shining monolith has been given a new home in the town's Els Estanys Park.

Here, sculptures are arranged in a dedicated area, like an open-air art gallery or miniature Rodin garden, and the monolith has joined them, meaning anyone who rushed to Sa Conca beach to see it and was too late can still go and admire it and take a selfie with it. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PRESIDENT Pedro Sánchez has announced plans to end the 'State of Alarm' on May 9 this year and has given a deadline of the end of August for 70% of Spain's population to be vaccinated with both doses of the anti-Covid immunisation.

And this is the government's 'most conservative estimate' of how the situation will progress, hinting that improvements may even happen earlier.

National health authorities' goal is for 10 million people to have been immunised by the first week in June and 15 million, which would be around a third of the country's headcount, by the second week of that month.

By the week beginning July 19, as many as 25 million could be fully vaccinated, a figure expected to rise to 33 million, or seven in 10 residents, by the time summer ends.

Earlier, by the week beginning May 3, Sánchez (pictured) estimates Spain will have broken the five-million barrier.

The recent rubber-stamping of the Janssen vaccine, due to arrive in Spain after next week, is hoped to accelerate the roll-out, given that this new formula only requires one dose rather than two.

Spain has signed deals to receive a total of 87 million doses of the four different vaccine formulae – three of which need a double dose – between April and September.

From April to June, the country will receive 3.5 times as many doses as it did in the preceding three months, including 5.7 million single-dose Janssen vaccines before July.

Meanwhile, another formula developed in Germany, the CureVac, is due to be signed off for release in the next few weeks.

Current figures suggest that more people will have been fully vaccinated by the middle of April than the number of people infected with Covid-19, for the first time ever.

It remains unclear whether a person who has been inoculated can still catch the virus and pass it on – recent cases of 'outbreaks' in nursing homes in Spain have, reportedly, been asymptomatic in all those who have been immunised, even though, by definition, theirs is an age group where contracting Covid would normally be dangerous and potentially fatal.

This seems to show that a person who has been vaccinated can still catch the disease, but their immune system prevents the virus from causing them any harm.

Scientists are still trying to ascertain whether these cases can cause contagion to others in contact with them, although the creators of the Pfizer vaccine have recently said those who have received both doses 'do not infect anyone else'.

Read more at thiinkSPAIN.com

'WINDSWEPT' might be a way of describing one of Spain's oddest-looking beaches, or perhaps 'ploughed' – but the Sakoneta, as well as a photographer's and social media-user's dream, is also a geologist's paradise and a window on the world aeons before we as a species got here.

If beaches, for you, only hold any attraction where they're palm-fringed with velvety, golden sands, turquoise waters, parasols, kiosks, sunbeds, port-a-loos and foot-showers, this chunk of coast in Deva, Guipúzcoa province – of which the capital is San Sebastián – is unlikely to be on your travel bucket list; but if raw nature, Jurassic landscape and unique, one-off panoramas are your thing, this officially-protected Basque Country biosphere is very much worth the detour.

Known as 'Deba' in the regional language, euskera, the shores of the town sit between Haitzandi and Haitzabal and form part of the Deba-Zumaia bio-reserve, an eight-kilometre slice of cliffs that look as though they were turned out of a jelly-mould and then hit by a gale heading north before they were properly set. 

Rippled surface covered in heathland grass on the top, and barcode furrows on the ground, the rockface in the middle looks as though it had been sliced with a bread-knife.

It's hard to believe Sakoneta beach's design is pure accident.

Part of the northern Basque Country 'Flysch Route', the cove is perhaps one of the most striking examples along its length: Formed during the early Cretaceous era, after the end of the mass extinction that finished off the Jurassic period – so, about 100 million to 65 million years ago – the system runs from the Andutz fault, a 700-metre-thick plate of limestone and marl (calcite mudstone) strata interspersed with turbidite deposits.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THOSE of you who already speak Spanish know this, but those of you who are still learning may not have realised the language has no words of its own beginning with a 'K' or a 'W'.

If you don't believe us, check the dictionary – every entry starting with either letter is of foreign origin. In fact, these letters are barely used at all in any position in Spanish words; the 'K' can be found in some of more modern creation – okupa, or 'squatter', or okupar, 'to squat', uses a 'K' to differentiate it from ocupar, 'to occupy', or its third-person singular conjugation, ocupa; then there's bakalao, which is a type of 1980s' techno music, and the 'K' is so it does not get mixed up with bacalao, which means 'cod'.

By contrast, the letter 'X' is used a lot – taxi, which is self-explanatory, or éxito, meaning 'success' (not 'exit', which is salida), or any other word with an ex- prefix which are instantly recognisable to an English-speaker. Words beginning with 'X' in the Spanish language are similar to those beginning with 'X' in English, such as xenófobo, xenófilo, xilófono, xerografía, which you can probably work out for yourself, although they are much more abundant in the catalán family of languages such as valenciano, ibicuenco, mallorquín, menorquín, and catalán itself, making a 'ch' or 'sh' sound, and in galego, the Galician language, where the 'X' often replaces the 'J' (such as in Xunta, for 'Junta', its regional government) – a tongue which, otherwise, has strong influences of Portuguese.

So, why have you been learning to pronounce 'W' when reciting the alphabet in Spanish, if it isn't used? Well, apart from spelling out names or places in your own language if you need to, or reading out a full website address (www, etc), you'll also see that words 'borrowed' from other languages sometimes use it – indeed, no 'pure' Spanish word does – such as walki-talki, walkman, wadi, and so on.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MAYBE it wasn't built by the Incas, but it's almost as old and equally as fascinating, panoramic and vertiginous: Spain's answer to Machu Picchu is not a staple on the tourism trail, but probably should be.

You'll need a head for heights to visit this enclave, but once you're up in Masca in the Teno Rural Park nature reserve, you'll be so blown over (only metaphorically, unless strong winds are forecast) that your knees will forget to turn to jelly if you look down.

Masca forms part of the wider village of Buenavista del Norte and is one of a handful of tiny hamlets, basically farmsteads, in the Teno Rural Park along with El Palmar, Teno Alto, Las Lagunetas, Las Portelas, Los Carrizales, and Erjos, all of which are more or less self-sufficient, living off their arable and livestock industries – they eat what they produce, and only work enough hours a week to produce what they eat, meaning most of the agricultural hands are in the family and their labour is part-time, as it doesn't need to be anything more.

And it literally sits on the sharp edge of a mountain peak.

Tiny, traditional-looking country houses, winding lanes, dense forest, dramatic and sheer cliff-faces plunging into seemingly bottomless chasms, with the Atlantic Ocean as a moat, this splendid and unusual little haven on the Canarian island of Tenerife is, in fact, a local heritage site, and is said to be one of the best examples of timeless rural architecture in the region, if not in the whole of Spain.

Although, in fact, not all of its houses are particularly old; many were destroyed in a huge forest fire in 2007 – but they're all designed in keeping with a style that has been in use for centuries, some of them embedded into the rocks of the abyss, so in theory, nothing has changed in Masca since time immemorial.

Except for a road or two and the occasional car, of course.

Ancient pottery kilns, teak workshops and bread ovens, communal farm fields, and of course, birds of prey – eagles aplenty – can be found in the wider radius of this village that teeters on the blade of an abrupt crest miles (half a mile, anyway) above terra firma.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IF YOU'VE lived in Spain since at least the beginning of 2019, you'll probably have seen an Easter week parade before; hopefully, if you're a regular visitor to Spain, you'll have managed to plan at least one trip here in time to see the Good Friday marches. And if neither is the case, it's about time you did – although any attempt to do so last year or this would have been frustrated as all processions have been called off for the second Easter running as a precaution against Covid contagion.

So here's to Easter 2022 and normality returning.

Actually, it is getting that way in many parts of Spain. Some regions where even the smallest of villages had dozens, or in fact, hundreds, of cases each at the beginning of the year are now practically Covid-free, with only a handful of towns reporting numbers in single figures. One of these is the Mediterranean region of the Comunidad Valenciana, where the vast majority of its 500-plus towns and villages are now reporting no cases at all, and a smattering of bigger towns only reporting between one and 15 at the most. The idea of each region's borders being shut, bar opening times restricted, and a curfew of anywhere from 22.00 to midnight imposed, is to stop this excellent progress being ruined by everyone, understandably, wanting to let rip over the long holiday weekend. But we're now starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, and the day will soon come when 'confinement' is an old-fashioned word for childbirth, 'mask' is about fancy dress or a substance you spread on your hair and face to give you silky locks and smooth skin, and 'social distancing' means taking a break from Facebook.

Anyway – if you're already champing at the bit to watch a Good Friday parade in Spain – or watch another one if, like the rest of us, you feel you've forgotten what they look like – now might be a good time to learn a bit more about them so you're clued up and get the best out of it when you're finally seated by the roadside listening to the haunting, rhythmic drum-beats.

The main parade, and in most towns, the only one of two, at Easter is on Good Friday and, unlike most Spanish fiestas where the actual saint or religious occasion they are based on takes a back seat or never features at all except in the name on the events programme, Easter is pretty much 99% linked to the original crucifixion story.

But if you're an atheist, believe in 'something' but don't follow any religion, or your religion is not one of the forms of Christianity, this doesn't mean you should feel left out or that none of it applies to you: The biblical legend involves a series of morals and metaphors, and as a story it's replete with tragedy and joy, and the parades that re-enact it are highly emotional, whatever your faith, or even if you have none at all.

To find out more, about how Spain celebrates in a non-Covid year, and the background to the story if you've never read the Christian bible, take a look at our article here (it's got Antonio Banderas in it, too. Read it through and find out why).

Food is at least as important at Easter in Spain as it is at any other time of the year, especially monas de Pascua (cakes covered in hundreds-and-thousands, with an optional chocolate coating) on the Mediterranean and torrijas (sweet, milky, eggy 'French' toast covered in icing sugar) in Madrid and many inland locations. If you want to mark Easter somehow and feel the loss of the parades has just turned it into four days off work with little to show for it, why not get cooking? Last year, during lockdown, some of the top chefs based in Valencia shared their 'secret' Easter recipes with us. They're not so secret now, and thanks to us at thinkSPAIN, they're also out there in English. Supermarkets are mostly open tomorrow (Saturday) if you're short of any of the ingredients.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FAMOUS national and international bands and solo artists have confirmed their presence at this year's Starlite Festival in Marbella, one of the most eagerly-attended on the Costa del Sol over its decade of life.

So far, Welsh-born crooner Tom Jones, '80s indie-rockers Simple Minds, and soul legend Lionel Richie are definites, as are the multi-lingual modern opera band Il Divo and Colombian reggaetón star Maluma.

Earlier, top 40 chart-hoggers Aitana, David Bisbal, Antonio Orozco, Rosario, Miguel Ríos and Rozalén, and Spain's answer to Cliff Richard, Raphael, confirmed their slots.

Other pre-bookings include Alan Parsons, Passenger, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Antonio José, Magán, Taburete, Pablo López, Ozuna, Sebastián Yatra, José Luis Perales, Ara Malikian, Tomatito, Carlos Rivera, and the Murcia-born early-2000s rock duo Estopa, made up of the Muñoz brothers and whose soulful hits were on constant heavy rotation on mainstream radio at the beginning of the century.

This week, Basque-based modern veterans La Oreja de Van Gogh – a fivesome never off the radio in the first 10 years of the Millennium – have confirmed they will be performing at Starlite on June 25.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com