Rural Grenada Villa
News - Rural Granada Villas White villages with backdrop of Sierra Nevada

News

Low-cost airline Easyjet have started operating flights to Granada airport in Andalucia from London Gatwick (February) and Manchester (21 July) this year. 

 
The London Gatwick flights will run three times a week all year round (including low season months) on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; bringing an estimated 20,000 British visitors to Granada next year (according to the Granada Tourism Board), in addition to those arriving on the existing British Airways service from London City airport.
 
In addition, the airline expects to launch up to 15 new routes from Granada to other European cities this year including Milan (Italy), which is set to start in March.
 
The city´s tourism board is hoping to use these new flights as a way to attract greater numbers of tourists to the province as a whole. Their message at last week´s World Travel Market (WTM) in London being: 'there is more to Granada than the Alhambra Palace'. 

Spain’s most visited tourist attraction is considering cutting down on visitors in a bid to slow down the building’s deterioration.

The Moorish monument in Granada welcomed record numbers last year, with more than 3.1 million visitors – an increase of 3.8% on 2013.

But UNESCO has advised the management board to urgently reduce numbers to help preserve the historic palace and neighbouring Generalife gardens.

The board will decide later this month whether to cut the number of people permitted on guided tours from 30 to 20.

 While the move would ‘optimise’ visits, it could also damage agencies that organise guided tours of the palace.
 
Source: The Olive Press

A BRITISH American expat novel has been banned from the Alhambra Palace, in the first such incident for 30 years.

 Song of Granada, by Anne Sikking, has been banned from all three of the Alhambra’s bookshops as well as the state-run hotel, The Parador.

The launch – booked, paid for and scheduled to take place at the Alhambra on October 20 – has had to be relocated at the last minute.

“The managers of the Alhambra have a very important job to do in caring for this unique treasure,” said Sikking.

“But of course it has been disappointing to find that Song of Granada is being excluded by people who admit to not having read it, not least because it is a work of fiction.

“There is not a single swear word and not one act of violence between people, so it’s still not clear to me what is being objected to. And of course as a writer with a work of fiction being released in modern Spain, this type of censorship has been a total surprise.”

Both the Alhambra Palace and The Parador hotel feature in the book, which documents a terrorist attack in the palace grounds.

Liz Chadwick, press officer for the book’s small British publisher Squaw Pies, added: “The book has received praise from Spanish, Irish and British writers, so all this has come as a complete bolt from the blue.”

The reason for the ban, according to the publisher, is that it is thought the book shows both Granada and the Alhambra in a bad light.

THE controversy surrounding the tiny hamlet named ‘Jew Killer’ sparked the curiosity of a global audience.

But names of towns and villages throughout Spain are symbolic, providing a tangible map of Spain’s turbulent, colourful past.

‘Judios’ is a common feature in place names across the country, along with ‘Moro’ – for Moor –  as each nationality and culture left its mark on the Spanish landscape.

Then there are the town names beginning with ‘Ben’ that were once Muslim fiefdoms and ‘Frontera’ – signifying towns along the old border of the Kingdom of Granada.

Some would argue that the village’s name shouldn’t be changed, insisting it is merely a part of Spain’s history and should be celebrated as such.

Others argue that the name change is just one more logical step in the history (and evolution) of the village, and of Spain.

However what is indisputable is that times have changed and some words are no longer acceptable. So we should see this as a positive step and embrace Spain’s ever-evolving history.

Source: The Olive Press

At last, some good news for chocoholics has come from a study at Granada University. Higher chocolate consumption has been associated with lower levels of total fat (fat deposits all over the body) and abdominal fat, independent of physical activity levels and diet, according to a new study published in the journal Nutrition.

University of Granada researchers studied the eating habits and lifestyles of 1,458 European adolescents ages 12 to 17 years to determine whether greater chocolate consumption was associated with higher body mass index (BMI) and other indicators of total and central body fat. Results showed that a higher level of chocolate consumption was linked to lower levels of total and central fat when these were estimated through BMI, body fat percentage (measured by both skinfolds and bioelectrical impedance analysis) and waist circumference. The results were independent of the participant's sex, age, sexual maturation, total energy intake, intake of saturated fats, fruit and vegetables, consumption of tea and coffee and physical activity.

Site by Clickingmad