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This is yours truly with another episode of some news from Spain!!!. I have come back to the series with new work on in my dear Spain. Lots of things going on so let me tell you my latest news chosen by yours truly, By the way CLVIII is old Roman numeral for 158, Hope you enjoy this post as I.

The viaje de la semilla or trip to the seed of Paco de Lucía, already 10 years without the Flamenco genius, the BMG label capture of his genius already showed something unusual, the guitarist and his brother, the singer Pepe de Lucía, registered his first songs in 1959, when they were 11 and 13 years old, who have been lost for more than sixty years in a box of Quince … until now You can get it at FNAC Madrid for sure.

If choosing where to go in my Spain during Semana Santa (Holy Week) the closest enclaves,opt for some islands such as Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Arrecife. These monopolize 29%, 36% and 25% more flight searches, respectively, to spend Holy Week compared to last year, according to studies of companies such as Kayak, leading travel search engine. Another fact: 30% of Spaniards want to explore new destinations this year. Therefore, some like Seville, one of the easter classics of a lifetime, begin to decline. And that domestic flights in general are the ones that grow the most (18% compared to last year).The Purespectrum company has been in charge of conducting an online survey between 1,000 respondents of Spain between November 15 and 23, 2023. It has been known that air rates have decreased 6% compared to the previous Easter. The study makes it clear that the Canary Islands are the favorites of the Spaniards. International the destinations cited Lima, Miami and Bogotá, where flight searches seem to have grown up to 41%. As for the European continent, 13% grow with key places such as Istanbul, Budapest, Prague, Copenhagen and the Milan, Naples and Florence tourist. All of them enter the preference of Spanish travelers with an average of 22% more flight searches.

Professional football but stop due to a knee injury, Eduardo Chillida went from being a goalkeeper in the Real Sociedad to one of the Spanish artists with the greatest international projection. His work, which fuses with great success sculpture and architecture with the landscape, can be admired in many destinations in the world San Sebastián, his hometown. Here you can find up to five works by the artist distributed over some of his most emblematic points. In January of this 2024, 100 years of their birth were completed, so nothing better to celebrate this ephemeris than to travel the streets of this Basque jewel in its search. You can start at the feet of Mount Igueldo. After ascending to its top in the funicular of 1912 to obtain a panoramic view of the city and visit the amusement park inaugurated in the early 20C by María Cristina it is time to approach the first of the sculptures, his most famous work, ‘el Peine del Viento’ or wind comb.. It is a set of three sculptures of more than 10 tons embedded in the rocks in which the strong waves of the Cantabrian play to comb. The first two, placed in front of the other, symbolize what one day was united and the past, while the farthest represents the horizon and the future. The second point of this ‘Hunting of the Treasures of Chillida’ leads with the Palacio de Miramar, in the field known as Pico del Loro – whose name comes from the hermitage dedicated to the Virgin of Loreto that remained in ruins in 1876, where ”Abrazo or Hug’ is located, a work of a scarce a meter high made of steel that dedicated to his friend the painter Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, who died in 1992. Then, walking through the Paseo Marítimo de la Concha, indisputable postcard of the Bella Easo or the beautiful easo with a end -to -end length of 1,350 meters, one can admire the famous white railing, built in 1910 by the architect Juan Rafael Alday and inaugurated by King Alfonso XIII in 1916, as well as ran into the ‘Monumento a Fleming’, a sculpture made in granite dedicated to the discoverer of penicillin, although it is a second version since the first one had the forged iron support. To Mount Urgull is in this last enclave, green lung and ancient military fortress witness the war avatars suffered by the Donostiarras, where one of the most unknown sculptures is located: ‘Torso’. This piece is made in bronze and represents a tribute to the military Pedro Arana Aizpurua, promoter of the drummers. Finally, in the old part of the city and, more specifically, in the Iglesia del Buen Pastor, or Church of the Good Shepherd, ogival style temple inspired by the medieval churches of Germany and France, the artist left the cross of La Paz (1977), a work of 800 kilos made in Alabaster that sculpted on the occasion of the centenary of the temple. As a complement to this route you can choose to visit Chillida Leku, a unique museum made in itself as a great work of art. Located in Hernani, this space fuses art and nature naturally. Here the sculptures are integrated into the landscape living with Robles, Hayas and Magnolios. This museum that keeps the bulk of the Basque artist’s work, And see this wonderful forthcoming work Chillida and Balenciaga. Plegar la forma or Pray the form ,March 22 2024 to January 9 2025, presents a formal encounter between 42 works of both creators who part of the sculpture tribute to Balenciaga that Chillida created in 1990. Chillida Museum webpage : https://www.museochillidaleku.com/en/

San Sebastian tourist office on Chillida : https://www.sansebastianturismoa.eus/en/to-do/what-not-to-miss/el-peine-del-viento

Read all about it , the new book ‘Madridmanía‘ proposes unpublished plans for Madrid in the form of secret corners, routes and experiences for both tourists and inhabitants. A book to fall in love with Madrid in 48 hours. A different one in which the squid snacks of the Plaza Mayor and Carabanchel will be discussed; of the tapas bars of the Latin Quarter , and the bunker of the Park of the Capricho; of the Arab origin of the city and the song that represents it most; of the most castiza jargon (read Mazo, Peluco, Keli, Chupa or Canteo) and the Lottery Administration of Doña Manolita, The roofs with the best sunsets and why Madrid are described as cats ,as a young man named Juan climbed the wall at the time of Emir Mohamed I until he stuck inside and open one of the doors so that the Christian troops could enter and thus release the city. As the garden of the house-museum of Lope of Vega, in Huertas, the crypt of the Almudena or the pantheon of Spain (Calle Julián Gayarre, 3) , that honors the illustrious characters of Spain in the image of the one in Paris. In addition, there is a chapter to make neighborhood life (in Chamberí, Lavapiés, Legazpi or the five towers) for its markets from San Fernando to Tirso de Molina, propose plans with children to hallucinate with the museum of the mouse of Pérez or that of the railroad or even marked a getaway to points of the region such as Chinchón or Alcalá de Henares. From the classic retirement to the gardens of the Campo del Moro or the Berlin Park, and Capricho bunker park, built in 1937 under the name of Jaca position to house the high republican controls in case of emergency during the Spanish civil war. You will read and learn on the Chamberí Ghost Station , one of the first eight metro/subway stops in 1919. It did not adapt to the new times and today can be visited as a museum. The Beti-Jai Frontón ,located in Calle Marqués de Riscal,7, and with capacity for 4,000 spectators, it is one of the more than 30 Basque pelota stores with which the city count. It was inaugurated in 1894. The Cervantine Society cultural space on Calle Atocha dedicated to disseminating the figure of Miguel de Cervantes and raised in which it was the old printing press from which the first edition of El Qujiote came out., The Palacio de Santoña which according to the author of the book, it is the most beautiful palace in the city. Located at the crossroads of Calle Huertas and Calle Príncipe, it is the current headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce. It will be worth to get this book me think Madridmanía (editorial Lunwerg), Written by Manuel García del Moral, Bachelor of Audiovisual Communication, author of six previous books on Madrid and creator of the Secretos de Madrid or Secrets of Madrid, Info webpage : https://www.planetadelibros.com/libro-madridmania/388126

In the La Latina neighborhood of Madrid, very close to the Viaduct of Segovia, there is one of those points that a priori can go unnoticed, but that hides the occasional secret. This is the Cuesta de los Ciego, a little busy hillside that already appeared in the plans of the city of 1656, prepared by Pedro Texeira, although without his current name, which would not be reflected until a century later, in the maps of Espinosa ,Currently, this staircase that communicates Calle Segovia with that of the Calle de la Morería, a point where the gardens of Las Vistillas begin, has 254 steps, but until it was built in the 19C within the renewal work of the environment there were only a pronounced ravine popularly known as ‘drags’. This nickname was granted because the neighbors descended the slope crouched to avoid falling, while the children dropped as an ass as if it were a slide. Under the stairs, an intricate system of brick passeges is between a tall brick through a wide one that reaches the Royal Palace and communicates it with other buildings of great importance of the city. In addition, it could be part of a secret route through which, it is said, those who wanted to leave the city without being seen. Today, by the passage only the clean water runs. At the foot of the staircase there is a fountain with a central body built in granite on a white stone base. This account on one of its sides with a shield in Madrid that belongs to the Republican era, so instead of carrying the royal crown it has a beehive and its sides appear the dragon, the bear and the Madroño. On what is the origin of the name of the Cuesta de los Ciegos there are up to three versions. I give you here my favorite ,and the most popular in Madrid, refers to the miracle that San Francisco de Asís worked there. According to the legend, after making the Camino de Santiago the Saint stayed to live for a time in Madrid, more specifically in a small hut in the area where today is the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande. One day when he returned home after giving some fish to the prior of San Martín, who had given him a pitcher with oil, he ran into two blind people who asked for alms. Instead of giving them money, he decided to share their oil with them, but previously smeared at the eyelids. This act was miraculous since both regained their eyes. In recognition of what happened, the hillside adopted this title. Webpage Hazte de La Latina local newspaper: https://haztedelalatina.com/la-cuesta-de-los-ciegos/

Everything you need to know to go from Madrid to Aranjuez on the tren de fresas or strawberry train, It will start on March 30, 2024, In 1851 Isabel II approved the construction of the first railway line of the Community of Madrid to unite Madrid with the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, after the great insistence of the Marqués de Salamanca, under a major project: link it with the Mediterranean. In 1984, 133 years later, the foundation of the Spanish Railways created to commemorate this route, winking to that delicious fruit, the strawberry train that ran through spring and autumn, the same itinerary. The first trip took place on May 27 1984, in this 2024, the year in which 40 years of its inauguration are completed, the departures will begin on March 30 on a train of four cars ‘Costa’, built in the decade of 1920’s and so called because they were used for the Cercanías service in the Catalan coast for the MZA company, a 5,000 Renfe series car (1940s) and two vans of the 1960s. In total there are 385 places available. The programmed out of the strawberry train are: March 30 and 31, every weekend of April, May, June and October and November 9 and 10, 2024, The train leaves 10h from the Museo del Ferrocarril de Madrid or Madrid Railroad Museum, whose headquarters are in the historic Delicias station, and returns to 19h30 at the same place. Webpage : https://trendelafresa.es/en/index.asp

Renfe,also, begins on February 25,2024, the sixth edition of the Canal de Castilla train, a tourist proposal with which to travel by train from Madrid and Segovia to Valladolid to enjoy a day of leisure, culture, tourism and gastronomy, which is completed with a river cruise. Renfe webpage : https://www.renfe.com/es/es/experiencias/trenes-tematicos/tren-canal-castilla

Valencia is a coastal city, not very big, or very small, which has both cultural and gastronomic aspects of which to enjoy 100 % if you know how to do it, First, discard all the businesses that are central, they are expensive and the paella is not the best. To enjoy an authentic paella, just made in a wood oven, I recommend the premises of the beach of El Palmar, in the south of the albufera. Valencia’s excellence drink, leaving alcoholic beverages like the water of Valencia or Cassalla, is the horchata. But it is not worth taking horchata anywhere. Always avoid the center of the city, and do not even think of asking for a horchata in a street churrería. To take a good horchata, take the metro/subway to Alboraya, cradle of the Chufa de Valencia with D.O. There are several stores where a good fresh horchata will help you. In Port Saplaya you also have to choose, and you can enjoy the real Valencian horchata with a slot. Just go a little to the north, for the beach of La Patacona or Port Saplaya, or a little south, to the beach of El Saler, the Perelló or even Cullera, to enjoy cleaner sands, wide and less attestated. As a curious fact, Valencia has some beaches that support dogs. Miradores (lookouts) in Valencia? The best thing you can do if you want to enjoy an aerial view of Valencia is to get on some of the towers that watch the city: the mountain towers or those of Quart. And the best are free. Make sure your accommodation has air conditioning to be able to sleep. Remember to book three to four days to enjoy the capital of Turia calmly, since it is not a city that is visited in two days. These spots have been and for the paella, and horchata is right on. For gen info Valencia tourism: https://www.visitvalencia.com/en/what-to-do-valencia/gastronomy

There are always reasons to return to Brihuega: the Royal Frihuega cloth factory continues to spin fine. Although it does it in its own way, now as the thermal and unique hotel of Guadalajara, the new use that since the past fall has this unique building, industrial jewel of the 18C. We see an example in the SPA menu, where 1750, year of the factory inauguration, is also the name that receives the star massage of this hotel in the Castilla chain. Hedonist travelers careful of a whim: it is a massage with linen fabrics that stretch, press, relax … Another way, without a doubt, to live the garden of the Alcarria in winter, the town in an hour from Madrid where more than one globetrotter has felt happily trapped. There is more than an essential viewpoint to feel the arrow in this corner of the Tajuña River Valley. One is in the romantic garden that wraps the Real fabrica de Pañps (royal cloth factory) turned into a hotel. Another must be sought at the top of the Castillo de la Piedra Bermeja or castle of the Bermeja stone. In that watchtower, Brihuega appears completely: the 800 meters of wall still standing (of the 2,500 that were), the door of the chain, the Romanesque churches, the arcades of the Plaza del Coso and the Royal Prison of Carlos III, today tourism office, where it is always useful to start the trip. Today, the walled enclosure of the castle has much more to do with a previous era, the seven centuries that Brihuega belonged to the manor of Toledo and this was the residence of the bishopric. Also within the enclosure, the visit to the Church of Santa María de la Peña, patron saint of the town, is essential, as well as that of the two museums that houses the convent of San José, the one in history-with the only loom that remains of the Royal Factory of cloths-, and that of miniatures, even more amazing, with some Guinness record included. Brihuega has the oldest enclosures in Spain (after those of Cuéllar), and that of this place is the largest in Guadalajara province( Castilla La Mancha region) , with about 8,000 seats. The culturetas, meanwhile, will want to stop in front of the Grammarian School, rehabilitated, among other monuments of the town, by Margarita de Pedroso. The noble, in fact, lived in this house, as Leguineche would do years later, here she would write some of her last books, such as the La felicidad de la tierra or happiness of the earth. The lavender festival was born without eagerness to become one of the quotes of the summer, but it is just what it has achieved: white guests, concerts between the plants when the sun falls, the aroma to lavender … and the whole town adorned in purple, Webpage : https://www.turismobrihuega.com/index.php/conoce-la-villa/que-ver

Most beautiful and chilling cursed places in Spain, me think ,out of many are :

Cortijo del Fraile (Níjar, Almería). On the night of July 22, 1928, Paquita ‘La Coja’, the little daughter of the Cortijo del Fraile, one of the greatest and rich of Níjar and Almía Almería, escaped with a man. He was not the man with whom she had to marry hours later, and happened what, changing names and places, happens in ‘Bodas de Sangre or Blood weddings’: horrible jealousy, persecution and death. Lorca’s work was a hard success. The Cortijo del Fraile, on the other hand, falls apart without anyone avoiding it, and that is well of cultural interest. From the Nijareña district of the Albicoques, a good ground floor of five km allows you to approach a site so inspiring and so forgotten. Faro de Cabo Vilán (Camariñas, A Coruña). The largest waves in Spain, up to 28 meters, beat the most terrible corporal of the Costa da Morte. In the same lighthouse there is a museum dedicated to the shipwrecks and, eight km, next to Playa de Trece, is the Cementerio de los Ingleses or Cemetery of the English , where the crew of the British Torpedo Cruise ‘Serpent’ lie, which the firy sea devoured and ‘vomited’ here on the night of November 10, 1890. There were 175 and only three were saved. Los Mármoles (Bohonal de Ibor, Cáceres). The màarmoles or marbles is as they call the Roman temple of Augustobriga, which was taken from the population of Talavera la Vieja in 1963, shortly before the waters of the Valdecañas reservoir, on whose shore today is trimmed lonely and ghostly. And beautiful, especially at dawn, when the rising sun shine its ashlars. Despite this name is not marble, but of granite. And when the level of the Tagus damages down, is something more of that Bimilenaria population? Not much, because it was dynamited. Laguna de la Gitana (Cañada del Hoyo, Cuenca). A tragic legend of broken hearts , those of Currita and Jeromo, two young gypsies stain of mystery is lagoon of the Baja Conscanse mountain range, a perfect round of 132 meters in diameter, with staggered shores such as an amphitheater and deep and hypnotizing waters. Waters that, they say, as soon as Currita moved, as they still move every year, at the end of July, acquiring a whitish greenery than usual, more bright. The gypsy is part of the Natural Lagunas monument of Cañada del Hoyo, seven torcas flooded with all imaginable colors: bottle green, emerald, blue, chocolate, black … even pink. But there are no playful spectra in them. Only microorganisms that react to temperature changes. Granadilla (Cáceres). Historical Villa, not more, with its castle and its wall, one of the best preserved in Spain , Granadilla was expropriated by the State in 1955, when the Gabriel and Galán reservoir was built. Its 486 inhabitants were evicted for nothing, because in the end the water respected the town and remains intact on a hill. Damn the grace that has to make the former neighbors return and see that everything follows in place, desert, ghostly, as if the watches had stopped 69 years ago: the castle, the church, the house of the shells, the one of the Minaret … the visit, although sad, is free.

The dessert of divine inspiration that embroider in this restaurant with 60 years of history
The iconic Hevia restaurant has been preparing a tocino de cielo or sky bacon in bad English (custard dessert) for two decades that its customers reserve on the phone. Its origin is in the nuns of the convent of the Holy Spirit, which used the yolks that the wine growers did not use in the clarification of the wines, which made it with the egg white ones as well as the nuns, only use three ingredients: water and sugar in the same proportion and eggs. Many eggs. The sweet quickly became a classic of Hevia, and Madrid, for its flavor and texture. In the walls of the restaurant, photos of filmmakers, politicians, athletes or large entrepreneurs now hang. And there have been many of them, Pure delight webpage : https://www.heviamadrid.com/

The fever of the palmeritas that has overflowed a whole town, The seven artisanal workers of Morata de Tajuña have queues of people to get this sweet that each one elaborates with their own recipe and whose stocks exhaust daily. This Madrid town located about 40 km of the City ; its internationally famous palmeritas of chocolate. They are then directed to the Paco-Pan cafeteria that has them every day, just made and up to 15 different varieties that can even be tasted right there. Among the seven establishments, located a few meters away from each other in the center of the town, produce approximately 95,000 kilos of palmeritas a year, each with their own style and with “some secret” unconfessable for the competition is not a compact, dry and crispy palm as usual, but soft, like a spongy bun, because it has been wet in syrup during its elaboration. Another feature is that you have to have coverage. The originals are chocolate and glazed, but flavors have evolved over the years and today there are about 35 types of palmeritas with coverage ranging from pistachio, lemon or dulce de leche … It is not very clear who was the first to start this tradition. The only two cakes in the city, the La Torre and Real, the invention is attributed. The Palmeritas Fair in mid -December and was born with the intention that La Palmerita became a Christmas sweet more than Madrid. The event is a showcase for the seven workers of the town, who look with their creations before the almost 20,000 people who attend the two days that are celebrated. In the last edition they produced 8,200 kilos, about 150,000 palmeritas, according to sources from the City Council, The 3 known to me are Pasteleria La Torre Calle Domingo Rodelgo, 12 ; Paco-Pan, Calle del Toril , and Pasteleria Real, Calle Real, 15, Webpage : https://morataturismo.es/en/veryhacer/palmeritas/

The world expert James Hoffmann dismantles some myths about coffee, The English businessman, writer and professor, who has just participated in the Madrid Coffeefest, the International Coffee Festival has almost a half existence immersed the world of coffee. It is his passion, his work and his way of life. He started selling machines 21 years ago, although he did not like the drink, but it was to reach his hands a book on the history of coffee and instantly fascinated by it , His coffee company, Square Mile Coffee Roasters, which he founded in 2008 in London. Some of his opinions at the festival were: Nespresso is for me as frozen pizza, because it is very expensive for what it really is. Anyone who really can make a very good coffee; It is so easy, and without the need for expensive machines. From any simple coffee maker that infuses coffee you can get one great, from the typical Italian that is put on the fire to anyone with a lifetime filter My favorite is the typical coffee maker of French press. It is very easy and fast. The idea that decaffeinated coffee is not good is also a myth. There are excellent. I love it, and now I drink more. better than Colombia; For example, Uganda, Congo, Kenia, Costa Rica, Burundi, can be kept for a long time, but the taste is lost. The grain is fresh food and its optimal moment is in the first 15 days after roasting, but once it moves, it is like cutting very fine fruit, it is quickly pointed. After 24 or 48 hours, the difference in flavor is huge once the coffee is ground is difficult as an ingredient. It doesn’t work very well with other things. It goes well with chocolate and pastes and buns, but out of that, I think it doesn’t work as a pairing, because it eclipses the other food or vice versa. A past event but keep the dates its annual : https://coffee-fest.com/

There you go folks, another dandy tour of my dear Spain.  It is time to enjoy my some news from Spain once again, Remember, Spain is everything under the Sun ! Again, hope you enjoy the post as I.

And remember ,happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!