Summer holidays
As of next Monday, we're welcoming a guest blogger, who will be posting once a week - every Monday - for most of August.
Kim is, like me, a Seville-dwelling English woman - a translator, blogger and all-round good sport who hasn't been here that long, but has already thrown…
Going private
It's something which everyone has probably considered at some time during their time in Andalucia: taking out private health insurance. Nice comfortable hospital rooms with ensuite bathrooms - privacy and convenience; the latest high-tech medical equipment; and the finest staff.…
Busy beaches
July is high holiday season here in Andalucia, and half of Seville has decamped to the beach. Many of these have gone to either Chipiona or Chiclana, the two favourite seaside towns in Cadiz province.
The front cover of a recent edition of one national newspaper (provincial…
Doñana endangered
A key natural attraction of Andalucia, and one of the most important natural areas in Spain - indeed, it is said to be the most important wetland in the whole of Europe - is Doñana Park, a unique ecosystem of tidal marshlands. Doñana is made up of pinewoods, dunes, and…
Our friends electric, part 2
Last year I wrote a blog post about a BBC project to send an electric car around Europe, to find out a) how easy it would be to locate charging points, and b) how the public reception of an electric car on such a 7,000-odd km odyssey would be. They had a few…
Drovers' ways
I know I mention this quite often, but one of the reasons I love living here in Andalucia is that I'm always learning more about the region: the people, the history, the culture, the geography, the gastronomy, the wildlife... the list goes on and on. In a region…
Solar power - at night!
After the launch a few years ago of the world's
first commercial solar power plant,
in Sanlucar La Mayor outside Seville, which I visited soon after its launch, I was excited to read about
another plant being planned.
Now, there's yet another new…
Some good news, at last
I am writing this wearing an item of clothing with sleeves. For the first time in weeks. Yes, the temperatures here in Andalucia gave us a break this weekend, with the thermometer falling to a wonderful 32 degrees. In this weather, you can sleep comfortably…
Cruisin'
On Monday, the biggest cruise ship ever to visit Sevilla docked at the newly revamped Muelle de las Delicias. The Braemar (spelled wrong, obviously, in the local press: Breamar, Braemas), a Fred Olsen liner, has a capacity for nearly 1,000 passengers. She left Dover last week,…
Cordoba - European Capital of Culture 2016?
This year they are Tallinn (Estonia) and Turku (Finland). Each year, one or more European cities display the title "European Capital of Culture". And today Andalucia is abuzz with the possibility that in 2016, this title will be held by…