Don't organise a street party !

Oh my.... I know that the UK has already strangled itself with the red tape and red tape but is this a step too far?

With the Royal wedding fast approaching, it's just been discovered that in order to organise a street party within your local community, you have to get a handful of permissions, complete pages of forms and pay huge fees to the council.

What has happened to good old community spirit?

This is just one more reason why we are so glad we left the UK before it sinks.

Can you imagine what would happen if every fiesta in Spain had to go through that kind of procedure? This could be seen as good reason to start a civil war.

Can the UK actually back-peddle and remove all these 'nanny state' restrictions?
What exactly can you do in the UK to have fun?

In the event of a Royal wedding in Spain, the country would come to a standstill and the authorities would join in the street parties. Life should contain at least a a little fun.

Long live the fiesta !!

Back to the grindstone

What a fabulous trip away but nice to get back to the office.

Our research trip took in over 1,500 miles and cities such as Tarragona, Alicante and valencia. We called in at lots of towns such as Vilanova, Denia, Calpe, Casteldelfels and Altafulla.

All our reports will be published in the next Idealspain magazine as well as on the website.

Higher still

We've driven well today and made it as far as the outskirts of Barcelona. We have explored Casteldelfels and weren't that impressed. Certainly not the nicest place to live. It looks like this is where those city slickers from Barcelona spend the weekends.

From here we went back south slightly and ended up in a little town called Vilanova, right on the coast. We will spend the night here tonight and explore in the morning. It looks like there's a nice marina and seafront. The hotels in this area are expensive compared to those on the southern coast which is a surprise. Sandra awarded a bar in Sitges an award day - the most expensive gin and tonic in Spain. The Macciato bar on the Paseo Maritimo in Sitges deserves the award for charging 7.50 euros. You should avoid this bar if money means anything to you.

Exploring north

It's a bit colder in Alicante tonight rather than Marbella. We are heading north towards Barcelona and exploring new towns along the way.
When we return in a few days time we will have lots of new reports on the website.

It took about five hours to get to Alicante but was a pleasant drive. Alicante is very quiet this time of year and we have no trouble finding a hotel at a good price. Tonight we are staying at the northern end of the city, close to the beach. Tomorrow we head for Valencia.

iPad jailbreak for 3.2.2

Oh how I love those friendly geeks who spend their lives hacking and cracking. Can't believe that the new OS for the iPad (3.2.2) has been cracked at last. GeoHot has liberated my iPad at last and poked Apple in the eye.

Without these clever hackers the world would be so different and freedom of choice would be non existent.

Long live the hacker and mu iPad. Down to Apple now to try to patch the latest jailbreak.

A wonderful day out

Malaga Car Museum

What a superb day out at this new museum - the Museo de Automoviles in Malaga. This museum is located in the enewly refurbished tobacco factory and has a huge collection of important motor vehicles representing more than 100 years of driving.

Entry to the museum is just 6€ or 3€ for pensioners, which represents excellent value for money.

See the Idealspain video here

Chestnut harvest time in Pujerra

A day out in Pujerra in Andalucia to see the chestnut harvest

Pujerra is known as the chestnut capital of Andalucia and today we went to find out how they process the chestnuts in this tiny village


The whole area is covered with chestnut trees and most of the village work in the industry at harvest time. On the 1st of November it's the annual fiesta for the chestnut (Castanos) and the village truly comes alive.

We were invited into the village cooperative to see how the chestnuts are processed before being sold all over Spain. Roasted chestnuts are a delicasy in Spain and they are also used in cakes and purees.

Whilst walking round the village a local lady comes out and presents us with a plate of cakes, much to Sandras' delight.

See the video of our day out here

Idealspain Magazine - Latest free issue

December magazine online now

The latest issue of the Idealspain Magazine is now online and it's FREE to read as usual

The Christmas special is packed with 30 pages of features and articles including reports from our recent tours including Malaga, Trujillo, Albacete and much more

There's a timely feature about skiing in Spain as the Sierra Nevada opens its doors and a great survival guide to living in Spain over the winter. As always there's lots of multi-media content including our latest videos of Spain

Make sure you read your copy here