Keys Corner » Spain

Good timing Amazon

John — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:52:36 +0000

According to El País, amazon.es will be starting up on 15.09.2011.

That’s good news for us, as we buy quite a lot from Amazon, not just books, but also electronic and kitchen equipment, and were going to miss them once we got established in Xàtiva!

Spaniards have waited for 16 years, but it is finally here. Amazon.es will be up and running on September 15, a day after its presentation by Greg Greeley, vice-president of the online seller’s European division, sources in the know said…

The Oktoberfest has already begun…

John — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:33:15 +0000

… in Valencia, in the Plaza de Toros (the bullring)!

Oktoberfest 2011 - Valencia

The Spanish Oktoberfest finishes on the day that the “real” Oktoberfest in Munich starts (17th September 2011). As you can guess, I have been to see how the house construction has got on during the holiday month of August. I was very pleased to see that nearly all the interior walls are finished now and most of the power and ethernet cabling is also done. In fact, it looks as if the house could be finished by the end of this month or the beginning of October.

You can see the latest photos of the house here (click the right arrow next to the photo to see the next ones).

Bouncing good fun!

John — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:07:48 +0000

A pity these hadn't been invented when we were kids!

We have just got back from Valencia (visiting the building plot) again. While we were walking from our hotel to the metro on the second evening we came across this little guy having great fun bouncing on the trampoline, supported by his stretchy ropes!

The latest pictures of progress on the house are, as always, here.

Politicians give Bankers blowjobs

John — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:57:00 +0000

Seen this week in Valencia

Just a quick post – the above slogan caught my eye in Valencia this week when I visited our building site with Antonio. The students are still camping out in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. The poster pretty much ties in with my perception of reality these days. It does seem that capitalism has got more than a little out of control, and that many politicians in the western world do very nicely on handouts and favours from lobbyists.

I need to add the pictures of progress on the house to Picasa, and hope to do that tomorrow, or this weekend. (2011-07-01: I have updated Picasa now.)

The Spanish Revolution – Valencia

John — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:12:17 +0000

The Spanish Revolution in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento 31.05.2011

I was in Valencia again Monday to Wednesday this week to see what is going on at the building site. The “Spanish Revolution” was still taking place in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento – all very peaceful and orderly. It is just round the corner from both Antonio’s office and the hotel where I was staying, so I went down to see what was going on. There were far more people gathered there in the evening (when I took this picture) than during the day. The speech was being simultaneously translated into sign language for people hard of hearing, if you click on the picture, you can see the translator in the red shirt.

The following day I went to the building site with Antonio and his brother Enrique, and saw the progress of the last month. Ruth is pleased to see that the pool is now tiled and even has some water in it (it rained the previous day). And the stone exterior walls are coming on well too. Photos, as always, are here if you are interested.

Yesterday Enrique, Pepe (the builder) and I went to visit a cabinet maker who Pepe has recommended to do our kitchen. We originally planned to use IKEA kitchen units, but in fact that would need a few fudges to get the layout we wanted and we also can’t guarantee that everything will be delivered in one delivery at a specific time. So we have been looking for a carpenter to do the kitchen for us. Pepe’s recommendation looks very interesting – it is a small family firm which only buys in the doors and drawer-fronts. The cupboards are made to measure on their premises and that means we can get exactly what we want, for a price which is only a little more expensive than IKEA. In fact, I think we’ll be asking Pedro, the cabinet maker, to do quite a few other jobs as well. We also feel happier supporting a Valencian family business rather than IKEA, who will manage to survive quite nicely without our order.

Escif?

John — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:04:25 +0000

Pictures taken in Valencia, Spain. Click on any picture to see them full size.
We have just got back from Valencia, from our latest site visit and meeting with Antonio. While we were looking for somewhere to eat on Tuesday evening we noticed some street art and modified street signs near the central market.

At first I thought the graffiti on the walls might have been by Banksy, but I am now fairly certain they are both by Escif, who is based in Valencia. The wall art is on Calle de Vitoria near to The Ginger Loft (which serves delicious food). Here’s a short interview with him. I have no idea who the modified street signs are by, but I liked them too.

Lost city of Atlantis found?

John — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:17:52 +0000

While searching the internet for information on the current crisis in Japan, I stumbled across an interesting press release from Reuters – it seems that a US-led research team thinks it has found the lost city of Atlantis in southern Spain in the Doñana National Park, which is just north of Cádiz.

Their theory is that it was overwhelmed by a tsunami. The theory was the subject of a new National Geographic Channel program called “Finding Atlantis” that was first aired today. Atlantis was written about 2600 years ago by the philosopher Plato, who placed it near the “Pillars of Hercules” as the Straits of Gibraltar were known to the ancient Greeks.

“Hostilities” break out in Valencia

John — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:49:05 +0000

La Mascletà - - Valencia 2011

We visited Antonio in Valencia yesterday and spent the morning at the building site. When we got back at just before two in the afternoon, the streets of Valencia were packed with people and Antonio needed to show his Spanish ID card to be allowed through a police checkpoint to get back to park at the office.

The reason – every day in the fortnight before, and during, the Fallas (or “Falles” in the local language, Valenciano) start, there is a “Mascletá” (or “Mascletà”) at 2 p.m. in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. This is an incredibly popular (locally televised) event, that involves setting off huge amounts of rockets, and more importantly, explosions! The sky disappears in a cloud of gunpowder smoke for about 10 minutes and the noise is incredible. Antonio’s office overlooks the main post office, the roof of which is in the photos above. The post office is directly on the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, so we got a bird’s eye view of the spectacular, and an ear-full of the explosions. The final Mascletá on the last day of the Fallas (the 19th March) is – according to the people who work in Antonio’s office – the noisiest and most popular of the events.

The Fallas themselves take place between the 15th and the 19th March and are well worth a visit, although Antonio asked us to avoid coming for a meeting with him in that week as it is almost impossible to travel around Valencia, due to the crowds of visitors. Here’s a short introduction to the Fallas and the Mascletas from Wikipedia.

Update: I found a 7 minute clip of the Mescletá which we saw from Antonio’s office on YouTube, filmed from the square, which gives a good idea of what it was like.

Another trip to Valencia

John — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:59:35 +0000

Hotel Catalonia Excelsior, Barcelonina, 5 (to the right in the picture)

We flew down to Valencia on Sunday afternoon for a couple of days to meet Antonio, our architect. The design of the house is nearly finished to the stage where we can apply for planning permission, so we went to discuss some final details and to meet some of the potential suppliers. Quite a lot, in fact. We were in meetings from 9:30 until 15:00 hrs. A good job that the Spanish eat lunch late, so we were able to get a good meal after we finished.

We also met María Pedro for the first time, the landscape architect who Antonio put us in contact with some time ago. Up until now, our contact with her has only been via e-mail. She is a friend of his daughter and has just set up in business after studying in Spain and doing “industrial periods” in Scotland and Canada. We are very happy with the progress to date, and are hoping that Antonio will be able to submit the plans for approval before Spain shuts down for the summer holidays over the month of August.

We stayed at the hotel in the photo above, which turned out very well – it was completely quiet (no, we weren’t the only guests!), and there was no traffic noise either. At only 58 Euro for a double room (without breakfast, which we bought round the corner at a café for 5 Euro for the two of us, instead of 26 Euro in the hotel) it is very reasonably priced. We’ll probably try to stay there again next time we need to meet Antonio.

As we packed all our meetings into the Monday, we had the Tuesday free and did a little sightseeing, going to the Central Market, the Plaza Redonda and and the National Ceramic Museum. The nice thing about Valencia is that it is very compact, so we walked between the places we visited.

Central Market - Valencia

The Spanish Land Registry online

John — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:11:10 +0000

We have received the results of the land registry checks that our abogado (lawyer) in Spain has made on the plot we want to buy. I am impressed. The time to get the information was less than a week, and the land registry for the whole of Spain is on-line, with basic information available free of charge and without any formalities being completed first. The above screen-shot is part of the free information about the plot we intend to buy.

We still need confirmation that the plot is building land with no major restrictions on what we put on it, this has to come from the local authorities in Xàtiva, so we haven’t completed the initial enquiries yet.

There is a free mash-up which the Catastro Español (Spanish National Land Registry) provides, which allows you to see exactly where the plot is, superimposed on a satellite image of the area.

For 30 Euro (for 3 month’s access) you can also get much more information about the plot, but that is what the lawyer has already sent us, so we have decided not to pay for the privilege of duplicating his work.

Normally, the Spanish are not big internet users – we noticed that some quite large businesses don’t yet have a home page; a local builder we spoke to when we there a couple of weeks ago didn’t even have an e-mail address. But as far as I am aware, the Catastro Español is quite a way ahead of their German equivalent. Here you can get information on-line in Bayern (Bavaria) and Nordrhein-Westfalen (maybe in other regions, but I haven’t found them if that is the case), but it costs 8 Euro a time, you have to fill in a multi-page form to apply for access first (application fee: 50 Euro), and it does not include the possibility to make mash-ups combining the land registry plans with satellite images.

Inditex overtakes Gap to become leading fashion retailer

John — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:14:29 +0000

Inditex, based in A Coruña (N. Spain), has overtaken Gap to become the world’s number one fashion retailer. You probably know at least one of their brand names, although I admit I hadn’t realised that all the following stores are part of the Inditex Group:

Not that that is all the brands- there’s also Zara Home, and a couple of brands I have never heard of before: Oysho and Uterqüe. Inditex’ success factor is the incredibly fast manufacturing and logistics chain, which allows them to get new fashions into their stores faster than the competition, and which has been the subject of intense analysis of management consultants and even the Harvard Business Review.