Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Nov 3

FEATURED ARTICLES: "Spain asks EU to scrap the 90-day rule for UK travellers" and "See which Spanish airports will eliminate hand luggage liquid limit in 2024"

Remember, remember the 2nd of November, 2023, a day when Spain was battered by the deadly Storm Ciarán, which left widespread destruction in its wake as its scarily strong winds swept down from the north of Europe.

While many planes had to be downed or diverted to less windy runways this week, travellers are looking forward to exciting changes on the horizon for when they can fly again – the possible end of the 90-days-in-180 rule that stops Brits from spending more than 3 months at a time in Spain; and the scrapping of those annoying hand luggage liquid rules.

Storm Ciarán in Spain

In France they are the strongest winds the country has seen in decades, of nearly 200kmh; in the UK, flooding and damage brought traffic to a standstill and forced the closure of around 300 schools; in Spain, Storm Ciarán has even caused one death.

While the storm had been named by the UK Met Office and had already been causing havoc there, in Spain Thursday November 2 was the worst day.

It was especially bad in the northwest of the country, in Galicia, which was on red alert for waves on the Atlantic coast as high as 10 metres tall, but in Andalucía on the Mediterranean coast incredible gusts of wind of up to 140 kilometres per hour were recorded.

Trees all over the country were ripped up from their roots and thrown to the ground, especially the palm trees. In Madrid, three people were injured and one poor 23-year-old woman died due to a falling tree.

Airport management company Aena reported no fewer than 46 flight diversions and cancellations across the course of the day due to extremely windy conditions making it impossible for planes to take off and land.

In parts of the country, mostly in Galicia, trains had to be cancelled and Renfe put on an alternative transport service by road, although in Andalucía drivers were advised not to take their vehicles out at all unless absolutely necessary due to hazardous road conditions.

The Region of Murcia was also fairly ravaged, with the Emergency Coordination Centre receiving nearly 250 calls before 9pm alerting them to hundreds of issues stemming from the hurricane-like winds and treacherous seas.

The majority of these related to obstacles in the road, mainly felled branches and landslides in Murcia city, Lorca and Cehegín.

The violent southwesterly winds battering the coast of Cartagena meant that two cruise ships, carrying 2,700 tourists, were unable to dock, while 20 huge ships transporting goods were also forced to seek shelter in the port.

Four people were injured in a crash on the road between Yecla and Pinoso due to the poor visibility, and one of them, a 23-year-old woman, had to be cut free by firefighters after she was trapped inside one of the cars. In Caravaca de la Cruz, the gales tore the weather vane off the church tower, sending it crashing into the middle of the street.

In addition, the strong wind gales mean that several other areas are still at very high or extreme risk of forest fires.

This is hardly the first big storm in Spain of late, though, and the country has been fairly battered these last few weeks by a succession of interestingly-named storms, including Aline, Bernard and Ciarán, which have also resulted in massive flooding. Hard then to imagine an upside, but there is actually one important benefit: Spain’s parched reservoirs are finally being topped up.

For the second consecutive week now, the vital water storage units have been replenished, raising water levels by 2.33% in the last seven days alone. This brings the reserves out of the real danger zone and up to 37.92% of capacity. Still far from ideal, but a vast improvement on the summer months when the country’s reservoirs approached dangerously low levels due to lack of rainfall, threatening hosepipe bans.

According to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, this is also the largest weekly increase in water levels seen in Spain in ten months.

We’re still almost 10% below the average though, with no hope now of catching up before the end of the year. To make matters worse, the rainfall has been in no way even, and the reservoirs in several regions have actually been depleted. Take the Segura basin in the south, for example: this week reserves fell 0.5% to a meagre 21.8% of capacity. The same is true of the Andalusian Mediterranean, which has dropped to just 21.9%, despite some truly torrential rainfall in the region.

Ideally, there would be steady, gentle rains in winter to top up the water reserves and some scattered showers with not-too-hot temperatures in summer so that they don’t get too low. Of course, as we know, due to the increasingly extreme weather we are having – both hotter, drier summers and colder, wetter winters – due to the climate crisis, the ideal conditions are no longer possible and Spain will have to adapt its water usage and its weather protection schemes to the changing climate.

In Murcia, for instance, desalination plants are being used ever more as a way to turn saltwater – of which the coastal region has plenty – into safe drinking and irrigation water. Such technological adaptation techniques for coming to terms with a post-climate change world will be indispensable not only in the near future, but right now.

90/180 rule

Rumour has it that Spain plans to petition Brussels once again to scrap the 90-day stay limit for British holidaymakers.

Since Brexit, British citizens can benefit from visa exemption for up to 90 days in every 180-day period but if they wish to stay longer in any Schengen country, including Spain, they have to go through a tricky residency process or apply for a special permit, such as the controversial Golden Visa.

This rule has made life difficult for tourists from the UK, who consistently hold the top spot for the largest number of visitors to this country.

Ultimately though, despite what the Spanish government believes is best, the decision lies in the hands of the EU.

Let’s see if the 90/180 rule is finally scrapped! Everybody start holding your breath now…

Hand luggage liquids

We’ve all been there – having to endure the annoying and time-consuming task of removing all your carefully packed liquids and electronics from your luggage at airport security. But this frustrating part of travel to and from Spain will begin to be phased out from as early as next year.

This will be made possible with the introduction of 3D scanners that can see, in minute detail, exactly what travellers have in their suitcases, so there’ll be no need to remove laptops or shampoo, nor to limit yourself to just 100ml of carry-on liquids.

It’s going to take a little time though, and the system will first be trialled in Barajas Airport in Madrid and El Prat Airport in Barcelona.

After that, the system will be rolled out at Palma de Mallorca Airport and at Málaga-Costa del Sol in 2025 but the likes of Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Alicante-Elche, Valencia, Ibiza, Menorca and Bilbao will have to wait until 2026 for their turn.

Murcia

Murcia’s expat community, and especially the Camposol urbanisation, is keenly feeling the loss of beloved and hardworking councillor Silvana Buxton. As a mark of honour and respect, Mazarrón Town Council has taken the decision to rename its Parque Central after her.

Central Park is on Camposol’s Sector A, and is where Silvana pushed for one of her first major successes as a Town Councillor, to get a children’s play park installed in 2021. It will now be named ‘Councillor Silvana Elisabetta Buxton Park’.

To the east, six months after the Costas coastal department corresponding to the Cartagena coastline approved a project to build a new ‘ecological pedestrian walkway’ between Playa Honda and the Villas Caravaning campsite in La Manga del Mar Menor, Cartagena City Council has gotten on board and announced that it will “soon publish the tender for the works” to award the contract to the company to build this footpath and cycle path.

At a cool quarter of a million euros, the idea is to beautify the current dirt track linking the two popular areas of La Manga and provide the motorhome and camping site with better connections by foot and on bicycle. In the words of Cartagena Council, the place is “in a very deteriorated state” due to “uncontrolled waste dumping, rubble in the surrounding area, irregularities in the natural terrain and flooded areas”.

It's been a long while coming but as soon as the contract is awarded to the winning construction company and the work begins to repave the path “using environmentally friendly building materials and construction methods, including a type of paving that allows water to pass through it to create a natural runoff”, it will take 3 months for it to be open to the public.

Meanwhile, more long overdue improvements could be on the horizon at the Region of Murcia International Airport, where the regional Minister of Infrastructure Development, José Manuel Pancorbo, stated this week that Murcia’s government is “committed to making the airport accessible” and “will study the possibility of expanding the bus lines to passengers who arrive in the Region of Murcia”.

Okay, so it was the most wishy-washy, non-committal commitment in the history of Corvera Airport commitments, but it does at least signal acknowledgement on the part of the authorities that the public transport links going to and from the airport are woeful, and some willingness to rectify the situation.

The Ministers comments actually came during a visit to the airport where he was promoting new Border Inspection Posts at the Cargo Terminal Building that would allow the air hub to handle more imports and exports of international cargo from outside of the European Union.

It’s not all good news, though, and there was a terribly sad story earlier this week when a 96-year-old Murcia woman died in hospital from injuries sustained when her neighbour’s dogs broke out and attacked her.

Josefa, who lived in the central Murcia municipality of Alguazas, was bitten by the 8-month-old American Bully-American Staffordshire Terrier cross puppies while their owner was out. It was only after the owner’s relatives turned up to detach the dogs and calm them down that paramedics were able to gain access to the woman and transfer her to hospital immediately.

This mixture of breeds are considered potentially dangerous in Spain, and the owner hadn’t even registered them or had them vaccinated and microchipped, as is the law. Not only that, but two other dogs belonging to the same owner – the mother and brother of the pups – also escaped from the property just 72 hours after the fatal attack.

The animals are currently in isolation for anti-rabies observation for the next three weeks, from which point a court will decide whether they can be returned to their owner or put down.

The case comes just days after another person, aged 27, lost their life when attacked by a pack of dogs in the northwestern Spanish town of Zamora.

To end on a high note, why not check out the Murapark in the green oasis of the Ricote Valley for an alternative fun adventure activity in nature for all the family? Kids and not-so-kids of all ages will love the 30 or more activities on offer here, including ziplines, rock climbing, a military assault course, an aerial park and walkway, mini-golf, archery, off-road pedal karting, boat rides, a giant toboggan slide, paintball… the list goes on and on! And to eat there’s a restaurant, picnic area and barbecue area, so everyone’s covered.

For more ideas of where to go and what to do in Murcia,Check out our EVENTS DIARY:

Spain

While it’s been pouring down, the temperatures have remained unseasonably high up until now and there’s no better way to cool down with a nice refreshing beer or two. A group of German tourists took this theory to extremes this week and flew to Mallorca to break a record, guzzling an incredible 1,234 glasses of beer in just three hours.

The 55-strong team, which included 13 women, hadn’t actually met before jetting off to Spain to make pub history.

The previous Spanish record for the largest order of beer was set in July in the Mallorcan bar of Bierkönig but there’s one glaring obstacle to the challenge: all of the booze has to be poured at the same time, so after sitting on the counter for several hours, it’s fair to say the last few beers would have been less than appetising.

“It took us about an hour and a half longer than expected,” the organiser explained. “The last few beers in particular were too hot and stale. But what wouldn’t you do for a new record?”

Most of the participants have gone off to recover but a few brave souls have already set their sights on a new record of 2,222 beers.

With the cold evenings starting to close in slowly, though, many of us choose a cosy night at home in front of the telly rather than venturing outside. Now, though, countless Netflix fans were caught unawares this week when the streaming giant ditched its basic, cheapest plan for new subscribers.

Those who are already signed up don’t have to worry but for everyone else, there have been some big changes to the pricing structure and how we view our favourite TV shows and movies.

Essentially, Netflix now has three distinct plans:

Standard with ads: 5.49 euros per month.
Standard: 12.99 euros per month.
Premium: 17.99 euros per month.

The first one, standard with ads, is basically a new version of the old basic plan, but with one great difference. You guessed it: advertising, and plenty of it. Those opting for the bargain-basement package will have to put up with annoying ads before and during shows and films, similar to YouTube.

The other downside is that, due to licensing restrictions, certain shows might not be available. These will be shown with a lock icon when users search or scroll through the Netflix home screen.

Of course, there’s always the choice to switch to standard or premium, which don’t feature ads, but these come with much heftier price tags.

Alicante

As Spain once again promises to lobby for an end to the restrictive 90 days in 180 rule for British tourists, the reasons for this are abundantly clear in Alicante, with visitors from the UK flooding through its airport and another record-breaking winter season on the cards.

Holidaymakers from Britain make up around a third of all tourists passing through Spain’s airport and between now and March 30, Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport will put 6.4 million seats on sale – a 23.2% increase on the same period last year.

Between now and the end of March, it’s estimated that a staggering 2,130,000 UK passengers will be welcomed at Spanish airports, and the number of seats available between Britain and Alicante will increase this season for the first time since the pandemic.

While Britain undoubtedly tops the list, Europe as a whole accounts for the majority of traffic to and from Alicante. The Costa Blanca base covers 156 routes with 102 destinations across 24 countries. Of the 90 cities on offer, the largest connections are with London (605,000 seats), Manchester (328,000 seats), Brussels (287,000 seats), Barcelona (261,000 seats) and Palma de Mallorca (235,000 seats).

With so many Britons visiting and living in Spain, it’s easy to see why they creep into the news quite often, and this week an English pensioner made the headlines in a miraculous escape from an explosion which sent his Orihuela Costa home up in flames.

Hasta 3 dotaciones de #cpba #BomberosTorrevieja se emplearon a fondo a primera hora de esta mañana para extinguir este incendio de vivienda en Orihuela Costa. Pronta recuperación a un hombre herido por quemaduras en el incendio#siempreatulado pic.twitter.com/rkEHWUXIxB
— Consorcio Provincial Bomberos Alicante (@BomberosDipuALC) October 31, 2023

Panicked residents of the La Florida neighbourhood, a popular enclave for expats, called the emergency services when the saw thick black smoke and flames billowing from the second-storey window of a duplex on Calle Osa Mayor. They informed police that an elderly man and two women were inside at the time.

Indeed, the 82-year-old was asleep in the bedroom where the fire started but he wasted no time in fleeing to his second-floor balcony. From here, neighbours somehow managed to help the man clamber to safety onto the terrace next door, but not before sustaining multiple burns to his legs.

He was transferred to the University Hospital of Torrevieja hospital for treatment, along with two Orihuela Local Police officers who had suffered smoke inhalation. The other two occupants escaped without injury and the fire was brought under control within an hour.

However, extensive damage was caused to the property and early investigations suggest the fire could have been caused by a small appliance exploding in the bedroom.

A twisted love triangle that ended in murder became all the more complicated this week with the unexplained death of one of the prime suspects. Irish website rip.ie posted an obituary for 30-year-old Simon Fahy, a fugitive from Spanish justice and one of six people under investigation for the 2018 murder of Dubliner Carl Carr.

The 38-year-old Carr was reportedly beaten to death by Fahy and his cronies in a house in Torrevieja before being dumped in a shallow grave in Rojales, where he was discovered in January 2019.

The prime suspect in Carr’s murder is now Wayne Walsh, who is facing 15 years behind bars for homicide and another three years for the illegal possession of weapons. Four others, including Walsh’s girlfriend, are also accused of helping him bury the victim’s body.

According to investigators, Walsh flew into a jealous rage when he discovered the victim had slept with his ex-girlfriend and he and Fahy plotted the murder. Once they had killed Carr, the others were called in to help clean up the blood and help dispose of the corpse.

A date for the trial has not yet been set but indictments have been issued against the suspects. Fahy’s cause of death has not been made public by the Irish authorities.

Lastly, if you want something to do in Alicante this weekend, why not get down to the Algorfa Monthly Market, which is being held this Saturday November 4 between midday and 4pm on Calle Pablo Picasso, 1. Buy or just browse the stalls selling clothes, accessories, spiritual items, arts and crafts, perfumes and loads more.

Follow the Costa Blanca What’s On and Where to Go Facebook group to see more things to do around Alicante province!

Andalucía

Two Frenchmen were arrested in France this week… nothing odd there, except they were charged on suspicion of being behind a shooting in a Marbella café terrace six months ago.

Spanish and French police have been working together to locate the suspects of the shootout, which occurred in the Costa del Sol town of San Pedro Alcántara back in May. According to French police, the pair, aged 20 and 30, are also wanted for an attempted homicide in Marseille.

On May 17, at around two o’clock in the afternoon, the two hooded suspects ran towards the café and fired their weapons at two other men. The one who police believe to be the main target rushed inside the building as bullets shattered the glass behind him.

Incredibly, no injuries were reported, and the suspects made their getaway in a luxury vehicle that had been reported stolen earlier that day in Benalmádena and was later found burned out in Benahavís.

When a joint Spanish-French police operation tracked down the hitmen six months later, a search of their hideout revealed a Kalashnikov, three grenades, a shotgun, a pistol, hashish, marijuana and forged documentation.

Still, don’t let that put you off visiting Andalucía. It’s a lovely place. Just ask famous actor Peter Dinklage, best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.

Dinklage stars in the mind-bending new promotional video for the official Andalucía tourist board as part of a huge international campaign – spanning Westminster Bridge and Times Square as well as Mexico, Canada, Japan and China – to get more people to visit this well-known region in the south of Spain.

They’ve chosen a very strange way to try and achieve that goal, however, with an audiovisual creation that aims to highlight the impact of the region’s culture, heritage and historical legacy in a modern, edgy way. It’s certainly a massive departure from the traditional touristy images of picturesque ports, balmy beaches and rolling hills.

The video opens with the sound of Dinklage’s unmistakable voice telling us he knows a place that “will break you into a thousand pieces. That will enter through those cracks. And will stay and live in you.”

So far, so threatening. The viewer is then assaulted with some iconic sights and famous faces from Andalucía before Dinklage concludes by warning us to be “careful of the Andalucia crush”. In all, the entire campaign (not just the video) cost them a whopping 38 million euros.

You can watch the video below, but be warned: weirdness ensues…

Feel the #AndalusianCrush pic.twitter.com/NLdOp19ueR
— Vive Andalucía (@viveandalucia) October 30, 2023

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Have a happy Guy Fawkes if you’re celebrating it (with or without fireworks) and we’ll see you for next week’s edition of your bulletin.

Bye!

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