The fiesta of San Fermín
Pamplona, Navarra

AVE - fast, fast trains

Spain is a big country and getting from one part of it to another can mean a lengthy journey. However, the increasing number of AVE trains look set to make travelling around the country a great deal easier.

The latest train to be inaugurated runs from Alicante to Madrid and is set to bring the travel time down between the two cities to around 2 hours 20 minutes - a 50 minute reduction on the fastest train travel time to date:

typicallyspanish.com

And from OnThePulse:

onthepulse.es

Concerns about Spanish Health Care

The Local comes up with another good article that summarises concerns about the direction that Spanish Health Care is taking. It does point out, however, that the situation is not irreversible.

Three issues are flagged up:

1. the end of universal coverage in 2012
2. co-payment for medicines
3. the impact of privatization on hospitals

thelocal.es

Too good to be true?

Spanish Mayors and bureaucrats have received a great deal of negative press recently. How nice to actually come across a story that suggests they can be altruistic too. The Local again comes up with a rather pleasant story that states that the mayor of Jaen is halving his €1,000 salary to help the poor:

thelocal.es

Any more volunteers?

Immigration

Immigration is a topic that in the current economic crisis is bound to lead to some heated debate. This is an interesting article that perhaps puts it all in perspective. It focuses around the UK and Spain but could apply equally to the 'mood' in many other countries too:

expatica.com

The power of attack

The unrest in Europe continues to maintain its presence amongst the headlines. This is an interesting article translated into English from a German Newspaper. It points out that the current protests are more about preserving what's been (the welfare state) than attacking the establishment. It's an interesting perspective with a thought-provoking concluding statement:

'defence, which lacks the power of conquest, can never be as poweful as attack.' One for Facebook?

presseurop.eu

Amazon

However hard you try to buy everything from Spain there are usually one or two items that just aren't quite the same. For some people, ordering from Amazon fills a gap. It was with delight that it was announced that you could order and have items delivered here for free. Unfortunately it looks as though this is no longer the case. However, you should remember that there is also a Spanish Amazon.es site that might prove to be a better option, although you may not be able to access all the items you would like:

amazon.es

Ábaco News - Imserso

Good news at last about the Spanish government subsidised holiday programme for resident pensioners. The window for new Imserso applications has opened again. They have not left us much time to submit applications but at least something is happening out there.

We do have a number of application forms that we were unfortunately unable to process last year. We will be working our way through those and aiming to submit as many as possible.

If you are not yet registered but had contacted us in the meantime, we have kept your details and will send you an e-mail to let you know our arrangements for assisting you to register.

Valencia is upping the game

Alongside the stories of gloom and doom there are also the slivers of hope. Some recent property figures from the Spanish Land Registry (el registro de propriedades) show a buoyant market with foreigners purchasing an increasing propertion of the property sold.

The overall number of house sales to foreigners has risen from 4.24% of overall sales in 2009 to 8.12% in 2012. Altogether in 2012, 24,938 Spanish properties were sold to foreign buyers. Britain was still the biggest market followed by France, Russia, Germany and Belgium.

To make the most of this, Valencia has launched its own website for property buyers:

buypropertyinspain.org

The website content is available in English and covers some important topics in relation to buying and living in Valencia. If you are considering buying it is worth a look although there is perhaps a little way to go before it become an indispensable resource.

Corvera Airport on Facebook

Corvera airport is now on Facebook. Does this mean they are revving up for launch?

Here are other news stories surrounding the controversial airport:

murciatoday.com

Flight trouble again

Sometimes the more you try to impose restrictions, the more restrictions become necessary as a result. A perfect example of this is hand luggage on flights.

At one time your luggage just went in the hold. Then it got more expensive to put it there and the attraction of a speedier board and departure led to more and more people cramming everything into their hand luggage.

This in turn led to more and more congestion in the overhead lockers. Followed by more and more restrictions on size and shape. Well, it's not ended yet.

Just to add another twist to the tail, Easy jet are making their hand luggage even smaller from 2nd July. I wonder what will be next?

onthepulse.es

Elche CF football club
in the first division next season