Entries by Carl

Ronda is well known for having Spain's oldest bullring, and of course, the fantastic Puente Neuvo bridge across El Tajo. Perhaps a little less well known is the role Ronda played in shaping the modern region of Andalucia.

Back in 1918, Blas Infante, a hero in Andalucia, convened the very first Andalucian regional assembly in Ronda, which ultimately led a few years ago to the recognition of Andalucia as an historic nation within Spain, and which put it firmly on equal standing with other historic nations such as the Basque country, Galicia, and Catalonia.

Sadly, Blas Infante was summarily executed (murdered?) by Franco's forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, and it wasn't until 2007 that Ronda finally erected a statue in his honour, although the park where the statue stands was dedicated to Andalucismo on Blas Infante Avenue (Paseo Blas Infante) many many years before.

The statue is easy to find, but most visitors to Ronda probably overlook it. In fact when standing in the carpark adjacent to the bullring most people take snapshots of the statue of the bull with the circular wall of the bullring behind it, yet turning to one's left is this very statue.

Blas Infante's statue stands to the right of the park entrance, and the park whilst small, also includes a large pergoda and one of the two lookouts over the valley below Ronda.

Now I'm not saying the statue is worthy of being included in the great tourist attractions of Ronda, but since so many people miss it altogether, and since Blas Infante was such an inspirational figure in Andalucian local politics, I thought I might as well post a photo of the statue and give you a little bit more info on who this character was.

Having sold our car, and being without transport whilst our electric bicycles are on order, we've been taking advantage of the Ronda bus service, sorry, I should clarify, Ronda doesn't have a bus service, the town is too small, but regular services from outlying villages are provided, so we've been using those to get into town for shopping.

The bus is a bit old and clunky, pretty much what you might expect in any rural area, but the drivers are quite responsible and don't cause any heart palpatations or major anxiety attacks, and the bus has the advantage of being a decent size so loco drivers of small cars don't give them any concern.

The service is reasonably punctual, it arrives when it's supposed to, departs on time, and gets us to and from home exactly as advertised, and I know a few of you might refuse to believe me because after all the Spanish bus service generally seems to be afflicted with the stereotype of all the worst Spanish traits but in fact our service works as expected.

There is however one very amusing thing that happens which bemused and amused us and which you should definitely experience if you ever make your way to Spain. Read More

Obesity in Spain

Just recently I seem to be noticing a bit of press talk about obesity in Spain, which is very evident in almost every town and village, but the scale of the problem hadn't really sunk in.

I think of obese people as being really overweight, the sort of people with rolls and rolls of fat. In my mind I've associated everyone else with being overweight, but not dangerously so.

The shock is that in fact people who just consider themselves overweight, are in fact obese, and this is the problem being faced by doctors and health care professionals in Spain right now. For example in April this year a report was written claiming 1 out of 3 babies and children in Andalucia are overweight, mostly through early termination of breastfeeding. Read More

We're back, a short drive of 2,800km to Germany and a week of eating junk food, not getting regular sleep, and to top it off the nastiest cold/flu thing that seemed to fill our lungs with stuff that doesn't belong there and giving us a cough worse than a Doberman's bark.

Time spent in Germany is always rushed, we have too little time and the people who love us always want to much of it meaning we always seem to be checking our watches. I love them all to bits but why do Germans have to insist on being so bloody pünktliche (punctual) all the time.

The differences between Spanish and German people are quite interesting and in the last six months we'd kinda forgotten how different they are.

Let's start with the whole time keeping thing. In Germany, most things run like clockwork, and we, being foreigners are tolerated for our tardiness except with family and friends who know that we know better and they are not so shy about letting their annoyance out for us to see. It's still a culture shock for us, for example in conversation we might agree to visit after 5pm, now to us that means anytime after 5pm, but not to family. For them after 5pm means 5pm exactly. In Spain, arrange a time and expect it to shift dramatically maybe even by as much as an hour.

Language aside, the food is very different. Most dishes in Germany seem to be either quite bland or have too much salt and pepper. Schnitzel for example is almost tasteless compared to a Spanish bocadito, same slice of pork, but prepared very differently. The Spanish pork is cooked in oil, salt, and garlic, then served on a bread roll, whilst the schnitzel is just coated in breadcrumbs and cooked, then served with potatoes and gravy which contains lots of salt and pepper.

On the fashion side of things, here in Spain the weather is hot, almost everyone in our age group wears t-shirts, shorts or skirts, and flip-flops. Very casual, and almost identical to Australia except that the colours here are very bright. Spaniards like bright colours. In Germany, I noticed most people wearing long pants and closed shoes, except for women who were wearing skirts, stockings, and heels of varying heights.

Finally, the weather. Here in Ronda, we're kinda used to 35-45 degree days. While we were in Germany, we had to tolerate 10-15 degree days. I'm looking forward to my next trip back up north for Christmas, but I'm also glad I live in Spain.