Live News From Spain As It Happens

A MAP of Barcelona's underground rail system with station names translated directly and literally into English has been 'revived' on Twitter – and instantly gone viral.

Originally created by a Reddit user in 2016, hilarious examples which show the dangers of using computer-generated translation functions in place of learning a language include the stop for the world-famous Sagrada Família cathedral, named on the 'alternative' map as 'Sacred Family', and the chic main shopping street, the Passeig de Gràcia, coming out as 'Gracious Broadway'.

Twitter user El Boig de Can Fanga (@BoigBCN) asks followers which their favourite is – and answers range from 'Sea Jungle' for 'Selva de Mar' to 'Hardrock' for 'Rocafort'.

Some of the entries on the map are fairly predictable, such as 'Saint Andrew' for 'Sant Andreu', 'Triumphal Arch' for 'Arc de Triomf', 'Clinic Hospital' for 'Hospital Clínic', or 'The Three Towers' for 'Les Tres Torres', or even 'Mary Christine' for 'María Cristina'.

But others are hugely creative – especially those with the word Can, or 'home', in the name, or Vila or Poble, which are 'town' and 'village' in the catalán language.

'Can Tries' station becomes 'Choose Home', 'Can Vidalet' appears as 'Lifelet Home', 'Can Serra' is 'Saw House' and 'Can Peixauet' is 'Fishauet Home'.

'Poblenou' is, as might be expected, 'Newtown', and 'Poble Sec' comes out as 'Dry Town'.

Names with 'Nova' or 'Nou', being 'New' in the feminine and masculine respectively, appear fairly frequently – La Bonanova turns into 'The Goodnew', and 'Mercat Nou' is 'New Market'.

Some of the silliest (they're deliberate, by the way)

'Barró de Viver' converts into 'Baron of Garden Centre', the suburb of Santa Coloma becomes 'Saint Pigeon', 'Bac de Roda' turns into 'WheelBac', and 'Encants' becomes 'Charms'.

A handful use alternative translations where two are possible, such as El Coll station – coll means 'small hill', but also means 'neck', so, predictably, the spoof translation appears as 'The Neck', and Collblanc is 'Whiteneck'.

Actual suburb or town names, along with Santa Coloma becoming 'Saint Pigeon', are morphed completely – Bellvitge turns into 'Beautifulvitge', 'Cornellà' becomes 'Cornshe' (ella is 'she' or 'her' in catalán and in Spanish), Olympic swimmer Mireia Belmonte's home municipality of Badalona becomes 'Badalwave' (ona being 'wave' in catalán), and given that peu means 'foot', the city's prestigious Pompeu Fabra University becomes 'Pomfoot Fabra'.

Some of the most outrageous include Vallcarca, translated as 'Oldfashionvalley', 'Ciutat Meridiana', which turns into 'MaryDiana City', Fontana comes out as 'Anafountain', Reina Elisenda as 'Queen Elipath' (senda is 'footpath'), Singuerlín as 'Withoutguerlín' (sin is 'without' in Spanish), as fons is catalán for the far depths of something and fondo means this in Spanish, Ildefons Cerdà appears as 'Islebottom Sow', Sant Ildefons as 'Saint Islebottom', and the Line 1 terminus of Fondo is now simply 'Bottom'.

Going back to ona for 'wave', Urquinaona station is now 'Urwhatawave' (quina means 'which', as a question, or 'what a...!' as an exclamation, in the feminine).

Possibly the best of all is Entença station – given that the question, Entens? Is asking someone if they comprehend or follow you, this has been translated as 'Doyouunderstanda'.

Special mention also goes to Florida station, which is now called 'Flowered'.

The Reddit user behind this genius spoof

The original 'pidgin English' Barcelona metro map was created and uploaded onto Reddit by u/teologico on February 26, 2016, with the legend, in English: “Something I've done just for fun. I like to think how names sound when they are literally translated into other languages. Some are wordplays, some are phonetic or semantic games. I had fun doing it, hope you enjoy it as well.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ANCIENT civilisations and their impact on modern life are always a source of fascination. Romans and their legacy are everywhere in Europe, Spain especially, and Greek philosophers have influenced centuries of government and political science all over the continent.

The Greeks were, in fact, the Moors' go-to thinkers when it came to medicine, an area in which Spain's Mediaeval Arab inhabitants were pioneers – they scorned the Latin texts hitherto used in healthcare techniques and turned, instead, to those from Ancient Greece and India.

Turns out they were onto something – it was the Moors who discovered the circulatory system, and they were the first to use anaesthetics for operations. None of that biting a bit of wood when they sawed your leg off, like in northern Europe; the Muslims who spent 700 years in Spain gave their patients narcotics to numb the pain and make them sleepy.

Thank goodness for the Moors, then.

Both Roman and Greek architecture is everywhere in modern Europe, and beyond – basically, anything that involves, loosely, a column-and-arch structure was these people's idea.

And if you ever thought Ancient Greece sounded a bit dull and the writings to come out of it boring and heavy, that's because you haven't read the likes of Aristophanes. This prolific, and downright hilarious, playwright will prove to you how naughty words and raunchy ideas were not invented by your own generation.

In fact, the Spanish film version of his cheeky, feminist Lysistrata is so funny that even viewers who can't understand the language find themselves howling with mirth. 

Of course, to get a real feel for Ancient Greece, the place to be is Athens, the all-round perfect city in Plato's view and whose political and societal virtues were extolled in his Republic, and home to the majestic, splendid Acropolis with its stunning Parthenon structure overlooking the entire metropolis.

Or you could save yourself the air fare and go see the Parthenon in Cantabria instead.

Whilst there, you could take a stroll around the grounds of Nicole Kidman's haunted house – the one where she and her children were spooked by bumps in the night during World War II when her husband was away fighting.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EVERYONE knows, or should do by now, that Spain's capital is Madrid, even if they didn't realise it was the second-largest in population in the EU – after Berlin, in terms of the city proper, and after Paris in terms of the complete metropolitan area – or that it was the continent's second-highest altitude capital at 657 metres, after Andorra la Vella (1,023).

Anything else you didn't know about Madrid you can find in our intriguing (though we say it ourselves) article on quirky facts about Spain's capital.

But even though Madrid was an inhabited settlement from around the year 852 CE (AD) and was founded as a town by King Alfonso VIII in 1202 – a status that has never changed, so it's still a town rather than a city – it has only been Spain's capital since the mid-16th century, and even that was by mistake.

King Felipe II sought the help of wise men to locate the dead centre of mainland Spain for him to build his Imperial Court on, and they worked this out to be in what is now the heart of Madrid – but their calculations were too far to the north. The exact centre of the country remains under dispute, but the three towns which claim to be right on top of it are all south of the capital.

Which means that before around 1561, Spain must have had another capital – right?

Notwithstanding the fact that the nation has been split, across history, into different Kingdoms, with their own capitals, or Emirates during the Moorish reign, with capitals or strongholds of each of these sovereign territories, the country as a whole has had different capitals throughout time.

And as is usually the case, they're not where you think they might be.

Mel Gibson is fascinated by this guy

“I've always been intrigued about the figure of Don Pelayo,” admitted Braveheart actor Mel Gibson, now 66, when interviewed by a daily newspaper covering the northern coastal region of Asturias, La Nueva España, in January 2019.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S homemade satellite launched by SpaceX is now looking down on earth and taking thermal images of our planet – successful take-off from Cape Cañaveral, Florida, has been confirmed.

The Guardian1, designed by Spanish engineering firm Aistech Space, was transported by a Falcon 9 rocket in a launch that took exactly eight minutes and 45 seconds.

It took off at 20.34 mainland Spain time (19.34 in the Canary Islands), and will remain in orbit at 550 kilometres above the earth.

Powered by solar panels, the Guardian1 is equipped with a latest-generation thermal imaging camera to take photographs similar to those used in airports during the pandemic – detecting and illustrating the heat of their subjects in an array of colours.

As well as helping to fight and adapt to climate change by close observation of the effects on the planet, the Guardian1 will home in on forest fires, providing detailed real-time information that allows emergency services on the ground to tackle and control them, and catching them at an early stage when the damage they are likely to cause is minimal.

Aistech Space and SpaceX are working together to launch another four satellites with thermal imaging cameras between January and April 2023.

So far, Aistech Space already has two in orbit, which were sent up to be able to detect aircraft in flight in areas where there is little or no signal.

Each satellite includes an in-built bi-directional Internet of Things (IoT) system to enable it to collect data from the earth via sensors on the ground.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S world-famous 'Recordman' has surpassed even his own expectations – not content with having more entries in the Guinness Book of Records than anyone else in the country, Dr Christian López has just won a race to the top of the nation's fourth-tallest building.

Since we introduced Christian to our readers in November 2020 to help him celebrate his 40th world record, he has upped his total by nearly 75% in those 18 months, now hitting 67.

The sports instructor and motivational speaker from Cabañas de Sagra (Toledo province), now 34, only needs to smash one more record, and he'll have two for every year of his life.

This time, though, he was not even trying to pocket another entry – Christian's sprint up 1,320 stairs in under eight minutes was merely a training exercise for further record-breaking.

Madrid's Torre Emperador, at 230 metres (754 feet) tall and with 56 floors – completed in 2007 and joined by three more tower blocks the following year in the complex now known as Las Cuatro Torres – was briefly Spain's highest building until the PwC Tower (236 metres), the CEPSA Tower (248 metres) and the Torre de Cristal or 'Glass Tower' (249 metres) knocked it off its throne one by one.

At the moment, the Torre de Cristal is Spain's highest building, although the country's highest structure is a 60-year-old radio-transmitter mast in Guardamar del Segura, southern Alicante province.

Christian himself described the Emperador Tower race as 'daunting', or at least, 'worthy of respect' – more so than one of Spain's best-known skyscraper marathons, up the 186-metre, 54-floor Gran Hotel Bali in Benidorm, which is a 'mere' 924 stairs.

In fact, the Gran Hotel Bali race was the first major fitness test Christian put himself to as a very young man, coming 18th out of over 100 competitors.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE of the Comunidad Valenciana's biggest employers and a key national transport system has been prevented from closure after the pandemic left it with unprecedented losses.

Air Nostrum, a regional airline based at Valencia airport but with links to almost every terminal in Spain, is universally acknowledged to have been a huge contributor to 'staycation' tourism, as well as long-distance commuter routes.

These small aircraft and their internal flights also means holidaymakers heading for long-haul destinations do not have to make the trek to Spain's biggest airports in Madrid and Barcelona, but can book directly from their nearest terminal to home – either as a connecting flight or as separate transport.

Air Nostrum's management says the latter rôle, as 'feeder and distributor' for Spain's main national airline Iberia at its hub in Madrid, is one of the pressing reasons for the company to be saved.

And given that it employs around 1,400 people – not counting the 2,100-plus jobs in other companies that rely on Air Nostrum's presence – the carrier's financial and social influence in the Comunidad Valenciana makes it highly valuable as an enterprise.

Additionally, its loss would mean the end of a public service, reducing major transport links – this gap would be very difficult to fill since, even though other airlines run national flights, these are a subsidiary part of their main operations rather than, as is the case with Air Nostrum, its entire raison d'être.

Until Covid-19 struck, Air Nostrum was performing consistently well – other than a few shaky years during the recession sparked by the housing market crash, the carrier has been comfortably in profit since the economy and property industry began to recover around a decade ago.

Founded in 1994, Air Nostrum fast became a leader in national passenger travel, and is one of the Comunidad Valenciana's five biggest companies in terms of economic and social impact, turnover, significance and size.

Turnover as at the end of 2019 came to €539 million, but with lockdowns and movement restrictions nationally from very early in 2020, Air Nostrum's sales took a huge hit, plummeting by 40%.

For the first time in recent memory, the company ended the year with a capital loss running into nine figures – enough that its continuing operations have become extremely precarious.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LATE-NIGHT shopping and live entertainment promise a fun and lively visit to Estepona on June 4, with free activities, special offers and discounts, and plenty of guaranteed atmosphere.

The Noche en Blanco festival runs from 20.00 to 02.00 in the morning, when town-centre shops will be open and nationally-famous rock band Celtas Cortos will be performing al fresco on the Avenida San Lorenzo from 23.00.

If you have a shop in Estepona and want to join in, you should apply to the town hall before May 31 to register.

The local archaeological museum, the Casa de las Tejerinas, the Corominas Dolmen Centre, the local history museums, and the Orchid park and botanical garden will be open free of charge to visitors until midnight, starting from 20.00.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN ADDITIONAL doctors' surgery for Marbella is 'very necessary and very much in demand', says mayoress Ángeles Muñoz – which is why works are due to start on this vital facility any day now.

What used to be the Ricardo Soriano town planning headquarters, a 'highly-symbolic building', according to Sra Muñoz, had been passed into regional government hands and was due to go up for auction, which Marbella council considered a travesty.

Enter its new 'job' as a medical centre, which will provide crucial backup for existing clinics, as well as extra facilities that the two-year pandemic has shown to be more needed than ever.

Once fully restored, refurbished and kitted out, the GP practice will have three storeys of surgeries, waiting rooms and nurses' stations – 10 of which will be on the top floor along with two extra paediatric consultation rooms, five multi-disciplinary units, four nurses' rooms, a pre-natal zone for pregnant women, and seven waiting areas.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LUXURY, relaxation, wellness and a healthy lifestyle can be found on the Costa del Sol any day of the year, not just in summer – and Estepona will show you how during its huge fair in September.

'Costa del Sol 365', sponsored by national celebrities – including TV presenter Beatriz Jarrín – is a new concept that provides a shop window on luxury holidays, spa breaks, pampering sessions, and similar, with participating businesses showcasing what they do.

Cuisine, culture, fashion, health and beauty, and chill-out breaks with all creature comforts are the focus of the exhibition, which promises to be a fascinating affair with exclusive activities for visitors.

The key aim of the trade fair is to promote the 'Wellness 360 and Healthy Lifestyle' sector, helping to give would-be visitors to the Costa del Sol some inspiration, and all the information they need to work out where to stay and what to do.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TENERIFE'S island capital is aiming to get into the Guinness Book of Records next month – for the most people in one place dressed up as the legendary Swedish band Abba.

To do so, a minimum of 10,000 are needed at the 'Eurovision Carnival' between June 18 and 19 – an eagerly awaited event starring key performers from the contest over the years.

Now the longest-running televised musical competition on earth, reaching audiences of up to half a billion on occasion, Santa Cruz de Tenerife plans to celebrate it with its first-ever 'Eurorainbow', a festival that pays tribute to the huge diversity of song styles, cultures, languages and customs that the contest always showcases.

Sweden's Loreen, Austria's Conchita Wurst and Ukraine's Jamala will be among the household names performing.

The first 'Eurorainbow' festival will feature what the organisers are calling a EuroReto, or 'EuroChallenge': Beating the world record for the most people dressed as Abba members Agnetha, Frida, Björn and Benny – whose career really took off when they, themselves, represented Sweden at the 1974 Eurovision with Waterloo.

An official judge from the Guinness Book of Records will be on site to verify the achievement, if enough people join in.

An Abba tribute band will be playing, along with former, successful Eurovision contestants.

Conchita Wurst, the famous 'bearded lady' from Austria who won the contest in 2014 with Rise Like a Phoenix, is reportedly living as a man at present but largely gender non-conforming and is still referred to as 'she/her' in the media.

Jamala's win for Ukraine in 2016 was highly topical then and has become so again now – the song 1944 was a call for the best of European values and tolerance in the face of the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula, referencing World War II, and became a hit all over the continent.

Only a few months back, Jamala had to flee her home country with her children, and are currently living as refugees in Turkey.

Loreen, who is Swedish but of Berber northern African origin, sparked a sensation a decade ago with Euphoria which, as well as netting her the 2012 Eurovision trophy, went straight to number one in the charts in several countries, including Spain.

During the weeks she was in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku rehearsing for the show, she was the only contestant who visited local refugee camps.

This year's fourth-placed contestant, Cornelia Jakobs, representing Sweden with Hold Me Closer, will also be at the Eurorainbow festival, and one of the hopefuls for representing Spain this year, Chilean-born Javiera Mena – now a household name in electro-pop after more than 10 years on the music circuit – has confirmed she will be holding a gig.

Javiera was one of the candidates at the recent Benidorm Fest, the purpose of which was to choose the 2022 entry for the Eurovision.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEW MUMS aged 45 and over have soared in number in the past few months – nearly half as many again as last year, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

And numbers of babies born to women aged 50 and over are now at unprecedented highs.

In the country with one of the oldest average ages for first-time mothers in Europe, where approximately one in five women have their first child in their 40s and three-quarters of females aged 35 do not have kids – even if they want to – babies conceived and live births in mums near the end of their fertile years, or even after these are over, are becoming the 'new normal' in Spain.

Stigma surrounding older new parents is almost non-existent, and with job stability and home ownership gradually coming later and later in the lives of men and women alike, the birth rate is one of the lowest in Europe and parenthood tends to be a decision made at the last minute before running out of time.

Babies born to women 50 or over total 64 in three months

Over the first three months of 2021, a total of 682 babies were born to mothers aged 45 to 49 inclusive – still a leap on the same months of 2016, when the total was 577 – and, during exactly the same quarter of 2022, mums of this age group had 910 babies.

Back in 2016, infants born to women aged 50 and over totalled just 27, and the highest on record since then has been 52, but from January to March 2022 inclusive, a total of 64 women aged 50 or over had a baby.

In total, therefore, women aged over 44, with no upper age limit, brought 974 new humans into Spanish society in the first quarter of this year.

The figures, for both age groups separately and together, are the highest ever seen, according to INE data, and the increase is substantial: A jump of 42.8% on the same three months of 2021.

Births were up across all ages in the first quarter of 2022, in fact, says the INE.

From January 1 to March 31, a total of 79,885 babies were born, being an increase of 2,676 on the same period last year. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ANYONE whose Spanish home is long motorway hours from the sea may well get fed up with reading all about how great the country's beaches are. After all, in terms of land area, Spain's coast is only an incredibly tiny part of its national territory; ignoring the middle bit and the people in it seems rather like limiting your travel review of the USA to the attractions of New York, or assuming that if you've been to London, you've seen the UK.

Well, reminding you of how great Spain's beaches are is a bit like pointing out New York has a Statue of Liberty in it, or that London is quite big with rather a lot of residents. So we won't.

But we will stress, though, that some of Spain's great beaches aren't even on the coast. They're frequently hundreds of kilometres away from it – people who have grown up right next door to them may never have seen the sea in their lives, except on TV.

And, just like on the much more famous Costas, 16 of these beaches that are anything up to half a day's drive from the sea hold blue flags, the last word in quality, cleanliness, and exceptional sunshine holiday facilities.

It's quite likely that, whether you live within 300 metres or 300 kilometres of the sea, you're not far from an inland beach which doesn't hold a blue flag because the town council opted not to apply – it's a tough selection process that takes incredible amounts of money and time to get through – and which is still nearly perfect. If you find out where it is, you might discover you enjoy it as much or even more than the seaside – no rip-tides, undercurrents or choppy waves that lead to the red flag being hoisted, no stinging eyes when salt gets in them, no jellyfish, and the depth doesn't vary from one day to the next.

Land-locked beaches are becoming the latest trend in Spain, but until they started applying for blue flags, they tended not to be very well advertised beyond their immediate surroundings. That will hopefully start to change, though, and to help the process along, here's a potted guide to the 16 that are now flying the flag for tourism excellence, and where to find them.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MAYBE you won't settle for less than impeccable when searching for a beach to flop out and catch the rays on.

But if that's the case, you'll find it in this list – or perhaps your own local beach is already on it.

Here's the full catalogue of Spain's 621 blue-flagged beaches for 2022, where to find them, which ones are new, and which haven't made the cut this year – but which are probably still fabulous, worth a visit, and won't disappoint.

Costa Brava

Best beaches and marinas of 2022 in the province of Girona include the Platja de Lloret, a newcomer for this year, whilst Castelló d'Empúries (Empúriabrava) has lost last year's blue flag.

The remainder are the same as in 2021, and are found in Blanes (Blanes, Sabanell, Sant Francesc-Cala Bona), Castell-Platja d'Aro (Cala Rovira, Platja d'Aro-Platja Gran, Sa Conca), Palafrugell (Canadell, Llafranc, Tamariu), Palamós (La Fosca), Port de la Selva, Llançá (Del Port, Grifeu), Calonge i Sant Antoni (Cala Cristus-Ses Torretes, d'Es Monestrí, Sant Antoni, Torre Valentina), Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Sant Feliu, Sant Pol), Torroelloa de Montgrí (Cala Montgó), Tossa de Mar (Gran de Tossa, La Mar Menuda), and Lloret de Mar (Cala Canyelles, Sa Boadella, Santa Cristina).

Barcelona province

Top beaches in towns that share a province with Spain's largest city include a new one in Badalona – Pescadors – with Cristall having kept its flag from 2021, and for Barcelona, with Mar Bella; all the others in the capital (Bogatell, Nova Mar Bella, and Sant Sebastià i Sant Miquel) have retained their kitemarks. El Masnou has lost its blue flag for Ocata, but kept it for Platja Masnou.

The others remain the same as last year: Caldes d'Estrac (Dels Tres Micos), Calella (Garbí), Canet de Mar, Cubelles (Llarga), Gavá, Castelldefels (Del Baixador, Lluminetes), , Malgrat de Mar (Malgrat-Centre, De l'Astillero), Pineda del Mar (Dels Pescadors, La Riera), Sant Pol de Mar (Les Barques-Sant Pol), Vilanova i la Geltrú (D'Adarró, Ibersol, Ribes-Roges, Sant Gervasi), Sitges (Aiguadolç, Balmins, Garraf, La Barra, La Ribera, Les Botigues, Sant Sebastiá, and Terramar.

Costa Daurada 

The 2022 blue-flagged beaches for the province of Tarragona do not include last year's four in Mont Roig del Camp (Cala Vienesos-dels Espenyals, Casa dels Lladres, Cristall, Pixerota), nor Pixavaques beach in L'Ametlla de Mar, although the latter retains its 2021 flags for Calafató, Cala Forn, L'Alguer, and Sant Jordi.

A new blue flag has been awarded for L'Almadrava beach in Vandellós and L'Hospitalet de l'Infant, which also keeps last year's for L'Arenal, La Punta del Riu, and Tom.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IF SUMMER holidays or free-time relaxation, for you, has to involve a beach – no matter what else might be missing – Spain is, officially, where you'll find the highest number of the best-quality ones on earth.

This can make destination decisions seem impossible – but rather than overwhelming yourself by researching the pros and cons of all 621 beaches that have been awarded blue flags this year, why not just sellotape a map of Spain to the wall, cover your eyes, hurl a dart at it or stick a drawing pin in it, and book your holiday for wherever it lands?

Clearly, the probabilities of the pin sticking into somewhere a huge distance from any coast are high, but that doesn't mean a beachless break.

Of the 18 beaches which gained their first blue flags for 2022, seven of them were inland – some in provinces which already have a coast, but in towns and villages which are a long-ish drive away from them.

Overall, 16 inland beaches either won back last year's flag or gained their first.

And they include beaches in four provinces which are literally hours by car, or hundreds of kilometres, from the nearest sea – Álava in the Basque Country, Badajoz in Extremadura, Córdoba in Andalucía, and Madrid.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MASKS will still be compulsory on aeroplanes and all other public transport in Spain, even though the European Union has recommended they cease to be obligatory in flight.

Travellers to and from Spain should be aware that, even if in their country of departure or destination, they are not required to wear masks on board, they will still need to do so in order to comply with Spanish laws.

Health minister Carolina Darías says the national government has ruled out dropping the mandatory mask on all public transport, including air travel, even though the European Air Security Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) considers they can now become optional.

It is not necessary to wear these in airport terminals, at bus stops or on train platforms, although Spain's government still strongly recommends doing so, especially where these are indoors.

The legal requirement for wearing a mask in indoor areas was dropped after Easter, although they are still mandatory in healthcare or medical centres – GP surgeries, hospitals, care homes and similar – as well as pharmacies, dental practices when not in the course of treatment, and opticians' premises.

Air travel is, from a virus point of view, the safest form of public transport, as the Spanish Airlines Association (ALA) confirmed back in 2020 – the HEPA air filters on board work vertically, so movement of air in the cabin is top-down or bottom-up rather than circulating or horizontal, meaning what one person breathes out is not immediately blown onto the person beside them.

HEPA filters on planes are the same type as used in operating theatres to prevent the spread of infection, and the air supply in the cabin comes from outside the craft – at an altitude where no living organism, even bacteria, can survive due to the low temperature.

Whilst travellers often claim they have caught a cold, 'flu or chest infection 'on the plane', this is very unlikely, and it is far more probable they either caught it in destination or at the airport terminal itself during crowded moments, such as security queues.

For these reasons, Spain continues to recommend masks worn in airports, but has not made this a legal requirement.

Despite the EU's having relaxed the rules, with Spain welcoming an average of over 80 million tourists from abroad annually in a 'normal', non-pandemic year – almost double the country's resident population – and with the May to early September stretch being the busiest holidaymaker months in Spain, the health ministry is wary of causing another spike in contagion; whilst other EU member States are also likely to see a huge recovery in their tourism industries this year, Spain tends to see more visitors over summer than almost anywhere else on the continent.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SOME of the earliest humans might actually have had a mid-Atlantic accent and a nation at war with Athens as described by Plato may really have existed – at least, recent findings by scientists at Granada University certainly give plenty of fodder for the imagination.

The Ancient Greek philosopher, in his works Timaeus and Critias, spoke of 'Atlas Island' or 'Atlantis' and how what is now the capital of his home Mediterranean nation repels its attacks 'unlike any other in the known world', showing how Athens is a superior State and the epitome of perfection – in keeping with the 'ideal' as described in his famous Republic.

Atlantis is merely allegorical, or invented to 'prove' how impeccable Athens is, but in addition to inspiring works of literature, including many of the Renaissance humanists – Francis Bacon's New Atlantis being one key example, and Sir Thomas More's Utopia mentions it – the notion of a country or countries between Europe and the Americas led to centuries of dubious scientific claims pointing to its existence in reality, and to many 'wise' scholars believing Plato's description to be a genuine event in history.

And Catalunya-born poet Jacint Verdaguer's 1877 epic, L'Atlàndida, describes it as a tyrannical coloniser of Europe which, nevertheless, brought civilisation to the old world, which ended up in crisis when the island sank.

Yet the latest research in south-eastern Spain points to the likelihood of land-masses in the Atlantic, now vanished – and is anything but dubious.

Before Plato's time...but maybe not before ours as a species

Whilst Plato claimed Atlantis sunk into the sea following its defeat at the hands of Athens around 9,000 years before his time – being about 11,300 years ago – scientists in Granada are looking at a time far further back.

The geo-chronology team led by Dr Fernando Bea and Dr Pilar González is working on the basis of 'micro-continents' in existence between 200 million and 3.2 billion years back, although their investigations to date reveal these might have been above the surface fewer than 600,000 years ago.

This would mean the Atlantic islands coincided in time with the human race, which is thought to have been around in its earliest form some three million years ago and completed its evolution into modern-day homo sapiens about 10,000 years ago.

The team leaders, who are faculty heads of mineralogy and petrology in Granada, and their colleagues examined oceanic rocks dragged up from the bed of the mid-Atlantic, all less than two or three million years old, but containing minerals known to be exclusively European – zircon – and which were much older, up to 3.2 billion years.

'Time capsule': Old-world minerals embedded in new-world rocks

Zircon is considered by mineralogists to be a 'real time capsule', since its elements contain codified information which becomes crystallised, trapping these in their purest states.

This information includes notable levels of radioactive elements such as Thorium and Uranium, which cause various lead particles to break off from them.

SET A TOURIST to catch a tourist is, in these days of social media and online reviews, a holiday destination's best marketing strategy – although a few million euros' worth of publicity helps, too.

Marbella has achieved both, coming second in the European Best Destination 2022 poll and topping the list of the continent's 10 'Most Exclusive' – a selection made entirely through public votes, among those who have visited the idyllic sites, on the website founded in Brussels in 2009 in conjunction with the European Commission's EDEN (European Destination of Excellence Network) – and, by netting top-three slots, has earned advertising campaigns in the likes of Forbes, the Condé Nast élite magazine range, Yahoo and Geo, worth in excess of €2 million.

And the other annual poll, winning heaps of prestigious media coverage for those at the summit, is European Best Beaches 2022, showing the crème of coastal towns on the continent.

Of course, the very nature of it automatically excludes certain nations – Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and other land-locked countries are unlikely to be contenders – although these days, the trend towards inland and urban beaches means this is not a given. After all, a handful of Spain's blue-flagged beaches are a long way from the nearest coast or even in provinces or regions which do not have one; two of these are in Extremadura, and another is in Madrid.

But as the hitherto-unbeaten world leader for the most blue flags on its beaches – quite a feat, when you consider just how much coastline there is on much larger countries, many of which are established tourism hotspots – we would have been shocked if Spain had failed to enter this year's ranking on Europeanbestdestinations.com for its paradisical sandy shores.

So the fact Spain has a whole five on the leaderboard is nothing newsworthy.

'Best beaches' is, clearly, a highly-subjective assertion and, even though the list of 22 is hand-picked by people who have experienced them, visitors from outside the country might not know of too many of them. Your local coast might be completely off the tourism trail, or perhaps only known to staycation regulars, holiday-home owners or caravan enthusiasts, but it could be that, even allowing for your personal bias, it really is the closest to seaside heaven on the continent.

After all, the Spanish beach chosen among the world's top 25 on TripAdvisor – Mallorca's Playa de Muro – does not figure in the 'European Best Destinations', and quirky ones known more for their scenery, such as Sakoneta in the Basque Country and Gulpiyuri beach in Llanes, Asturias are two of the most unusual and oft-photographed in the country. 

Then there's the Almería-province beach which became scenes in the hugely-watched 1980s' film version of The Neverending Story.

Or Galicia's Os Catedrais, with its cathedral-shaped rocks, and a smaller version in Benitatxell, northern Alicante province.

But what we can promise you is that there's no chance of any beach making the 'European Best' list unless it's practically perfect, so heading for any of these five this summer is a very safe bet.

Playa de Bolonia, Tarifa, Cádiz province

Stretching along Spain's aptly-named Costa de la Luz ('Coast of Light') to the west of Gibraltar, Bolonia beach in Tarifa is described as a perfect choice for anyone seeking 'tranquillity' and to 'discover uncrowded wild beaches'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A REFRESHING and nourishing drink native to the Comunidad Valenciana could turn out to be a huge ally in maintaining healthy gut bacteria – a fine but crucial balance that can cause a multitude of wellbeing issues when it is out of synch.

Horchata, or orxata in the regional language, valenciano, is very different on Spain's east coast to the type found in México, which readers in the USA may be more familiar with: It's made from the milky juice of tigernuts with added water and sugar.

The result is like a milkshake, but not an overly creamy one, and the flavour could be described as a mixture of almond and coconut.

Most newcomers to the Valencia region, when they first try it, find it an 'acquired taste', one they would rather experience in shot-glasses than pint-glasses, but the majority find it 'grows on them' fairly quickly, and a supermarket-bought litre carton – typically around €1 in price – might only last them a day or two.

But the study carried out at Spain's National Research Council (CSIC) used exclusively non-pasteurised horchata, with its full starch content left in and without added sugar.

This much more 'natural' and less-processed version of horchata is more likely to be found in a delicatessen, typically at a higher price, or bought from street-vendors in Valencia city – normally relatively cheaply, and frequently with a fartón, or bread-like finger of cake coated in icing sugar, to dip in it.

The Food Technology and Agro-Chemistry Institute, IATA – not to be confused with the international air-travel association – took 35 volunteers and had them drink 300ml of horchata a day for three days.

After this, says the research results published in the scientific journal Nutrients, investigators examined participants' intestinal flora.

This had been checked before the experiment in each of the participants, who are all adults and in good general health.

A microbiotic DNA-sequencing showed up three broad profiles of gut bacteria before the three-day horchata-drinking, and in all cases, these had changed after the experiment.

They were all 'enriched with various beneficial bacteria', including germinating butyrate, which is 'a substance with multiple benefits for the intestine and the immune system', the research team says.

“In just three days, the bacteria population in all volunteers changed towards healthier microbial patterns, similar to those triggered by a vegetarian or Mediterranean diet,” says research team leader Gaspar Pérez.

Bacteria generated as a result of drinking horchata included Akkermansia, associated with weight loss; Christenellaceae and Clostridial; Faecalibacterium, associated with glucose control; Bifidobacterium and Lachnospira.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EUROPE'S largest telescope will go up on the Canarian island of La Palma and put Spain at the sharp end of global investigation into the sun.

Unveiled recently at the National Research Council (CSIC) by the Canarian Astrophysics Institute (IAC) and its counterpart in the southern mainland region of Andalucía (IAA), the European Solar Telescope (EST) has a 4.2-metre lens and will enable space scientists to monitor the physical processes that take place in the atmosphere surrounding our closest star.

If everything goes according to plan, work will start on building the EST in the year 2024 at the existing observatory in Roque de los Muchachos, and it should be fully operational and in use by 2029.

Project leader and researcher at the IAA, Dr Luis Bellot, says studying the sun is an opportunity for studying the stars in general, since 'it is the only one we have close enough to us to observe in detail'.

“It's also the physics laboratory we'll never be able to have here on earth,” Dr Bellot explains.

As well as being essential for life on earth and providing the energy the planet needs for its survival, the sun also undergoes explosive phenomena which eject 'huge amounts of energy' that can 'reach the earth's atmosphere' and 'affect our way of life', the investigator continues.

“All these features make it obligatory for us to try to understand better what happens on and around our star and how these happenings impact us on earth,” he says.

The EST will suppose a 'quantum leap' in 'sun studies', Dr Bellot reveals, given the scale of footage and detail captured.

Until now – and until the year 2029 – solar observation has been carried out via telescopes such as the GREGOR in Tenerife's Teide National Park, and which is currently the largest in operation in Europe.

And although the image quality from the Teide Observatory is 'very good' and allows researchers to 'monitor physical processes on the sun's surface', the EST's huge primary lens will take this to a whole new level.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IMAGINE you're at a pub quiz and the question came up, “Which is the largest building in Spain?”

Chances are, if you're reading this, you either live in Spain, spend a lot of time here on visits or holidays, or you have a strong interest in this fascinating chunk of land in Europe's far south-west – the peninsula, its island regions that spread out from halfway to Italy in one direction and to southern Morocco in another, and its cities along the north African coast. So, it's likely your pen is poised as your brain instinctively reassures you, “Oh, that's easy! It's...”

And now you're stuck.

We might be able to help you out, but you'd need to probe the quizmaster or quizmistress for more information first.

Does the question refer to the tallest? 

The largest single structure? 

The one with the most floors? 

The biggest commercial building?

The building with the greatest area size, or floor space, irrespective of how many storeys it has?

The building whose structure covers the most ground?

What we can tell you about the latter is that the one you're looking at in the first picture above (by Civitatis), and which isn't an airport terminal, could gobble up Westminster Palace – those iconic Houses of Parliament along the banks of the Thames in London – nearly two-and-a-half times over, Buckingham Palace almost four times, and Wembley Stadium seven times...and that it's not where you think it is.

Tallest buildings

Skyscrapers are a recent phenomenon in Spain. Only 18 of the tallest today were standing as at the end of last century, and the four highest, company head offices in Madrid, are barely 15 years old and clustered together in the district known as – guess what? - Las Cuatro Torres.

The first of these to go up, the Emperador Tower, was completed in 2007 and stands 230 metres (754 feet) and 56 floors high; the lift breaking down if your office is near the roof is almost certainly a valid excuse for not going into work that day.

Three more appeared in 2008, being the Torre PwC (PwC Tower), at 236 metres (774 feet) and 52 floors, then the headquarters of the national petroleum company CEPSA, at 248 metres and 33 centimetres, or 815 feet, but with a 'mere' 45 floors, and finally, the tallest building in the whole of Spain, the Torre de Cristal, or 'Glass Tower', at 249 metres (817 feet), with 52 floors.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BADMINTON megastar Carolina Marín has reaffirmed her place as the world's best female in the history of the sport after clinching her sixth European championship win on the trot – in an express final which saw her dispatch her rival in just 41 minutes.

Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour – whom Carolina also beat in the European championship finals in 2016 - took the reserve championship title, returning home with a silver medal, after a two-set match ending on 21-10 and 21-12 to Carolina, who has spent a good deal of the last three years away from the scene due to an ongoing knee injury.

She broke a ligament at the Indonesian Open in January 2019, crashing out of the final, and spent the rest of the year recovering from surgery – only for 2020 to see every single sporting circuit on earth shut down due to the Covid pandemic.

A flare-up means Carolina has been away from the court for the past 11 months, missing the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where she had been tipped for a gold – a repeat of her performance in Rio 2016.

But this morning's European championship final in Madrid proved she was back on form – and then some – as she carried off the crown she has held onto fast since 2014.

The Huelva-born prodigy left a trail of high-calibre rivals in her wake – The Netherlands' Gayle Mahulette, Estonia's Kristin Kuuba, Belgium's Lianne Tan, and Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt, who was seeded second – and only dropped one set throughout the entire tournament, during the quarter-finals against Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjærsfeldt, who was the sole fellow competitor who really forced Carolina to work for her win.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S refugee council has announced that the fourth one-stop assistance centre for incomers from Ukraine is now open – this time in Málaga, at its conference and trade fair complex.

According to the organisation, CEAR, over 70,000 people from Ukraine have already been granted asylum in Spain or are in the process of getting it, having started the ball rolling.

If they have commenced asylum procedures, they will be granted it, since Spain considers that it is unsafe for anyone originally from Ukraine to return there and has promised unconditional residence rights and work permits to all of the eastern European country's citizens, even if they were already living on Spanish soil before the Russian invasion.

Over Easter, Princess Leonor – back from sixth-form college in Wales on her holidays – visited the Reception, Welcome and Distribution Centre (CREADE) in the up-market Madrid commuter town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, along with her sister Sofía and parents, to find out more about their work, and how they had helped 6,355 Ukrainian arrivals up to and including the end of March, within 20 days of opening.

CREADE centres were then launched in Alicante, on March 16, and in Barcelona on March 17, and by the end of that month had attended to 5,579 refugees between them.

As well as resettling, medical care, Spanish language and culture lessons, schooling for children, and counselling, the CREADE hubs transact residence and work permit applications for the Ukrainians, delivering both these to all who request them within 24 hours.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com