The beautiful Spanish island of Menorca is to launch it’s ‘Menorca – Warm at Heart’ roadshow at the end of February.

Menorca-Warm at Heart

Using a specially designed bus the show will visit cities in the UK including London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds and Glasgow from February 28th to March 14th. The roadshow will not only highlight what Menorca has to offer but will also visit tour operators to provide destination training.

Menorca is a well known and popular holiday destination for family holidays, youngsters seeking adventure and also offers a romantic setting for couples. Apart from it’s glorious beaches, the island has a great range of activities on offer including walking and hiking, cycling, horse riding and kayaking.

Menorca beach

Visitors to the roadshow will enjoy performances, tastings, activities in which the crowds will take part and prize give-aways including a daily holiday for two to Menorca.

If you have never visited this beautiful island and experienced the diverse experiences on offer then why not book one of the late deals to Menorca that are always available throughout the internet.

La Manga Club

The prestigious La Manga Club resort in south-east Spain has entered into a new and exclusive partnership with Sport Experiences, to provide school and club sports teams with a range of premium quality sports training camps in 2010 and 2011.

Sport Experiences is the specialist sports travel division of the UK’s largest independently owned group tour operator, The Newmarket Group, and has more than 25 years of experience in organising and managing group travel arrangements.

Working in tandem with La Manga Club’s knowledgeable staff, Sport Experiences will ensure that visiting sports groups receive the very best travel and accommodation arrangements, as well as access to an exceptional range and standard of sporting facilities.
 
La Manga Club has hosted numerous leading sports teams and organisations. The sports facilities here are regarded as among the best in the world, using the most up-to-date pitch preparation techniques, automatic irrigation systems and dedicated maintenance programmes to guarantee good quality pitches.

Football Academy

There are eight international FIFA size grass football pitches, two of which can be converted into rugby pitches and there is a scrummaging area available with machines for junior and senior teams.

The sports pitches can also be prepared and used for lacrosse teams. For cricket there are two ECB-approved Club Turf pitches and four full-length practice nets. A comprehensive range of Ram rugby and cricket training products are also available, as are world-class facilities for tennis and golf.
 
As part of the arrangement, all teams will also have complimentary access to the resort’s fully equipped gym and indoor swimming pool, and Sport Experiences is also able to fix friendly matches against local Spanish opposition for football, cricket and rugby.

KEY FACTS

Location – In south-east Spain, in the region of Murcia. 20 minutes from Murcia (San Javier) Airport; one hour from Alicante (El Altet) Airport.

Ownership - La Manga Club is owned by MedGroup.

Hotel La Manga Club

Facilities & Services
Accommodation -
The five-star Hotel La Manga Club Príncipe Felipe hotel.
Luxury, self-catering apartments in Las Lomas Village.
The Peninsular Club, a sophisticated members’ vacation club.
Approximately 1800 privately owned apartments and villas.

Tennis Academy

Sports & Leisure -
Three championship golf courses, Golf Academy and extensive practice areas.
28-court, multi-surface championship Tennis Centre and Tennis Academy.
2000-square-foot Spa La Manga Club, Fitness Centre and indoor swimming pool.
Junior Club for kids under 12.
Centre for Professional Football with eight pitches.
Two cricket grounds.
A wide selection of sports and other leisure pursuits available.

La Manga beach

Other facilities – Over 20 bars and restaurants. Shops, banks, petrol station, pharmacy, Medical Centre. Beach.

The OCDE gives an española’s average life expectancy at birth as 84.3.

Dolors Soler aged 101

Spanish women are amongst those who live the longest in the world’s developed nations, and can expect to reach an average age of 84.3. The figure is 81.1 when both the male and the female and population are taken into account – which is two points above the average life expectancy at birth across the 30 developed countries which were analysed by the OECD.

Details of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report, ‘Health at a glance 2009’, were released this Wednesday. It puts Spain in sixth place for the population as a whole, and in fourth place as far as women are concerned. Spanish men can expect to live up to the age of 77.8.

Spain now has another Michelin three star restaurant. The Celler Restaurant in Can Roca, Girona, is run by chef Joan Roca.

There are now seven three star restaurants in Spain, and the new list as featured in the Michelin Guide to Spain and Portugal 2010, was presented on Wednesday in the San Miguel Market in Madrid.

The other three star establishments are from Juan Mari Arzak, restaurant Arzak (San Sebastián), Santi Santamaría, restaurant Can Fabes (San Celoni), Ferrán Adriá, restaurant El Bulli (Rosas), Martín Berasategui, restaurant Martín Berasategui (Lasarte), Carme Ruscalleda(Sant Pau) y Pedro Subijana (San Sebastián).

The two star restaurants in Spain are Casa Marcial de Arriondas (Asturias), Lasarte de Barcelona, La terraza del Casino (Madrid), y Les Cols (Olot).

The Tristán restaurant in Portals Nous, (Mallorca) has however lost its second star this year.

Many establishments get their first Michelin star this year – El Etxebarri Axpe (Vizcaya), la Enoteca in the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, A Estación in Cambre (A Coruña), M.B. de Guía in Isora (Tenerife), Bo,Tic, in Corça (Gerona), Julio Fontanar dels Alforíns (Valencia), La Fonda Xesc Gombrèn (Gerona), Cocinandos de León, La Broche, (Madrid), Diverxo (Madrid), Kabuki Wellington (Madrid), Ramón Freixa (Madrid), As Garzas, in Malpica (A Coruña), La Cabaña de la Finca Buenavista (Murcia), Alejandro in Roquetas del Mar (Almería), Torreó in L’India de Xerta (Tarragona).

The following have lost their single stars this year – Kursaal in San Sebastián, The Gallery Arts & Food in Gijón, Lillas Pastia in Huesca, el Chaflán in Madrid, el Solar in Puebla de Santa Cruz De Bezana (Cantabria), Read’s, in Santa María del Camí, (Mallorca), la Taberna de Rotilio in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) and Alejandro del Toro (Valencia).

Valencia will host next years International Golf Travel Market from 15-18 November 2010.

More than 1400 attended this years IGTM in Malaga.

Next years event is expected to attract 450 golf tourism specialists, 300 high quality pre qualified tour operators and 140 international specialist media.

Soria

The Mayor of a village in Castilla y León recently appeared on a TV programme earlier this month with an offer of work and a new home to families who want to make a new life in the small village of Soria province.

Retortillo de Soria has scarcely 200 inhabitants and the Mayor’s intention is to attract a younger population, and at the same help a small part of the many people elsewhere in Spain who are desperately looking for work.

The Town Hall is seeking to cover the 10 jobs which will be needed once work on building an extension to Retortillo’s retirement home is completed by the end of this year, with preference to be given for the vacancies to young families with children. The Town Hall has been inundated with enquiries from across the country since Mayor Yolanda Gil made the offer on La Primera’s ‘España en Directo’ just over a week ago; they’ve answered more than 12,000 phone calls and have only had time to open some 400 of the more than 10,000 enquiries which have been made by email – and which are still coming in.

Yolanda Gil has confirmed that, to date, 3 families have been selected for the interviews which will be held once work on the extension to the retirement home is completed.

140 families have already visited Soria to see the village for themselves, and the Mayor has commented to Heraldo de Soria on the ‘desperation’ she saw in their faces. ‘Seeing such desperation’, she said, ‘makes you want to put all the cards in a sack and send them to the Junta de Castilla y León’.

She describes the offer of employment in the village as ‘our small battle in a world which is facing a critical situation’.

The Queen has been turned into one of Spain’s Christmas “caganers”, a  ceramic figurine which shows affectionate disrespect for famous personalities.

Caganer

She appears as one of the Catalonian-produced figurines, part of a centuries-old Christmas tradition in northern Spain.

The tiny statuettes show the well-known figures with their trousers down, their bare bottom exposed, in the act of defecating.

They have been sold in the northeastern region in the run-up to Christmas since the 18th century, when they were placed in nativity scenes in the hope of bringing good luck and a rich harvest.

“The caganer is a well loved and respected figure in the typical Catalan Nativity scene,” the makers state on their website, caganer.com.

“It is not making fun but quite the opposite, it is a tribute to the person and the office or activity they represent.”

The family-run Caganer business produces a vast collection of around 20,000 hand-painted figurines each year at their factory near Barcelona.

“This year we decided to include Queen Elizabeth II because she is such an important figure,” explained manager Marc Alos. “Gordon Brown was a very popular caganer last year with many British buyers ordering online and we got emails asking us why we hadn’t done the British queen.”

Some 300 statuettes of the Queen wearing a two-piece magenta outfit complete with golden crown and slippers have been produced.

“We hope it will be taken as it is meant, as an affectionate homage we afford our own Royal family,” said Mr Alos.

A spokesman from Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

The collection includes King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain as well as the Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Princess Letizia.

Last year the best-selling figure was that of US President Barack Obama.

The original caganer, which literally translated from Catalan means “the fertilizer”, was a man wearing a red and black hat and peasant costume shown performing his biological functions.

It was believed that his fertile deposits in the soil of the nativity scene would bring a rich harvest.

But over time, the peasant has been replaced with well-known society figures and personalities from the region, Spain and around the world.

Scientists have warned of a new caterpillar and moth which is devastating palm trees in parts of Spain, and doing as much damage as the Red Palm Weevil.

The new caterpillar comes originally from South America and has been detected in Gerona, Alicante, Valencia and Mallorca.

Palm Moth

Known as the ‘Palm moth’ (Paysandisia Archon) it is capable of killing a wide range of palms, including the common palm, and the Canary palm.

It’s a large moth with a 9 – 11 cm wingspan and is dark green with brown streaking. The females are larger still and are often mistaken for a butterfly.

Meanwhile the fight against the Red Palm Weevil continues although one specialist, Miguel Ángel Alonso Zaragoza, who collaborates with the CSIC, has called for greater prevention measures using thermal cameras and microwaves.

Red Palm Weevils

La Opinión de Málaga reports he told a discussion in Málaga that the weevil ‘laughs at insecticides’.

He said specially designed traps can be used and placed round the palm trees, with molasses used as a bait, mixed with water and detergent. ‘A few drops of Fairy liquid are enough’, he said, to cause the weevil to drown.

He voiced doubt that the grinding methods being used by the Junta de Andalucía are working, saying that unless the plaque is burnt the eggs can survive grinding as they are only three millimetres long. He said dead palms should be placed in sealed bags for their transfer to the incinerator.

One year old Carles from Pedreguer became the first child in Alicante province to be baptised in a non-religious ceremony at a ceremony held on Sunday to welcome him as a citizen of a democratic society in the spirit of freedom, equality and solidarity.

The event took place in Ondara on the day Carles turned one year old and was officiated by Pedreguer’s Socialist councillor, Silvia Fornés.

Spain’s first civil baptism was in Igualada, Barcelona province in 2004. It’s a practice which dates back to the French Revolution, and the first recorded ceremony took place in Strasbourg in 1790. El Borge, in Málaga province, claims to hold the honour of Spain’s first civil baptism with an official registry, where two month-old David Rando Ouviña was officially named by the village’s Mayor, José Antonio Ponce, this May.

It’s understood from Diario Información that Pedreguer has no such registry as yet.

Hugh Morgan, overseas purchasing and operations director for Cosmos, has been awarded the Cross of Officer of the Spanish Order of Civil Merit.
 
The ‘Cruz de Oficial de la Orden del Mérito Civil’ was presented to Morgan this week by Carles Casajuana, the Spanish Ambassador to the UK, on behalf of King Juan Carlos.

The award is in recognition of the role Morgan has played throughout his career in the UK travel industry to further tourism to Spain.

Morgan said: ‘I am deeply honoured and extremely proud to receive this decoration. It is a very rewarding and emotional experience to receive recognition in this way and I am deeply flattered.’

Ignacio Vasallo, director, Spanish National Tourist Office, added:  ‘I am absolutely delighted that Hugh, who has played such an important role in the British travel industry related to Spain, has been honoured by the Spanish Government. Without a doubt this recognition is something he deserves, and I am very happy not only from a professional point of view, but also as a friend.’