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Metro
2 days ago
- Metro
'Charming' Spanish city has 'hardly any tourists' — and £40 flights
We're all familiar with the beaches of Barcelona, the vibrant culture of Madrid — and the crowds of tourists that flock to these Spanish hotspots every single year. But there's another city in Spain, nestled just an hour from Valencia, where you can explore a vibrant city and relaxing beaches, without the crowds. Castellon de la Plana is located on the Costa del Azahar, and it's easy to get to: there's return flights from just £36 if you fly into Valencia, or from £40 if you fly into the closer airport of Castellon de la Plana. The city has been enjoyed by those who've visited, with one TikToker (@destinationlocator) saying: '[It] completely surprised me. 'Walking through the charming squares with barely any tourists felt like a secret discovery. The hidden gem offered a refreshing contrast to the usual crowds.' Temperatures even reach the low 30s in the summer months, making it the perfect place to top up your tan. Fuel your wanderlust with our curated newsletter of travel deals, guides and inspiration. Sign up here. But don't just take our word for it, here's everything on offer… There's a whole lot to see and do, starting with the iconic central market at the epicentre of the city, which has been welcoming people since 1949 on an almost daily basis. The market is housed in its dedicated building Mercado Central, which creates a bustling atmosphere where shoppers and few tourists alike browse the more than 80 stalls on offer. Expect to try lots of the city's finest produce and soak in the flavours of the Valencia region. @destinationlocator From almost missed to must-see! You don't want to skip this Spanish town 🇪🇸 Sometimes, the best travel moments are the ones you don't expect 💁♀️When I planned my last trip to Spain, I didn't even pay too much attention to Castellon de la Plana. After all, it was just supposed to be my base to leave my suitcase and head off to Parc Natural de la Serra d'Espadà 😃 But then, I explored the streets. And let me tell you, Castellón de la Plana completely surprised me! 😍Walking through the charming squares with barely any tourists felt like a secret discovery. This hidden gem offered a refreshing contrast to the usual crowds 😊 What has been your favourite unexpected travel find? Let me know in the comments ❤️ . . . . . . . #spaintravel #castellondelaplana #solotravel #visitspain #authentictravel ♬ FIESTA! UND – Serpens After, why not head to the nearby Town Hall – a stunning Baroque building from the 17th century – before admiring the Santa Maria la Mayor Church, which dates all the way back to the 13th century, although it had to be rebuilt after it was demolished in the Spanish Civil War. You can take in the El Fadri gothic bell tower which is a major landmark in the city, although reviews suggest climbing to the top is slightly anticlimatic. Then, make a pit stop in Ribalta park which tourists on Tripadvisor said is 'great for a picnic', to recharge before heading slightly further from the centre to visit the castle ruins atop a hill – the Hermitage of Santa María Magdalena. In March every year its visited by locals carrying green ribbons for the Las Cañas Pilgrimage, to express their devotion to the Virgin Mary and commemorate the city's founding. If a museum is more up your street, there are plenty to choose from. The Museu de la Ciutat de Castelló will teach you all about the traditional trades and professions in the city, or the Fine Art museum has some gorgeous paintings. The city really has the best of both worlds. The largest of the three beaches on offer is the sandy El Pinar Beach, which stretches 1,750 along the coast. It's next to a lush green park (El Pinar Park) and focuses on preserving native birds and plants in its dunes. It's a great place to spend the day with showers, games for children, and areas for volleyball and football. There's also lots of parking and dining options nearby – including Restaurante La Goleta which has 'lovely calamari and paella' according to Google Reviews. Gurugú beach boasts similar facilities with several beach bars nearby for those who like a tipple. Close by there's the Grao de Castellon, with restaurants and bars to stop you going hungry. For some divine (but pricey) seafood – a must try on the coast – you can venture to the Michelin recommended Tasca del Puerto, which has an a la carte menu focused on traditional rice dishes and fresh fish from the market. For 'genuine and unpretentious' tapas, you can head to Restaurante Saboritja in the city centre, or if you fancy some paella try Entrefogones by JR. Slightly out of the way in Villarreal sits the highly rated El Faro, which serves a traditional Spanish menu for an average price of just €30. If an all-day affair is your vibe, then try Nudo Beach Club, where you can indulge in food and drink all day while you lounge by the pool, next to the ocean. Visiting Nudo for lunch from Monday to Thursday will get you free access to the pool. As mentioned there's return flights from just £36 if you fly into Valencia, or from £40 if you fly into the closer airport of Castellon de la Plana. If you're flying into the latter, you'll need to go from London Stanstead, while Valencia flights operate out of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead – as well as Manchester and Birmingham. More Trending A taxi is then typically between £34 to £44 from Castellon de la Plana airport to the city centre, with the drive taking about 45 minutes. Are you keen to visit less-travelled European destinations? Yes, I'm keen to find hidden gems No, I like the tourist hotspots The cheaper option is to get the airport bus service to the city centre which costs £10 each way, while children under four go free. When it comes to accommodation, the average price of a rented apartment here is £62 per night, although they can be as cheap as £20. If you're one for hotels, a four-star stay will cost you about £100 per night, but prices fluctuate with the most expensive month to visit being July, and the cheapest April. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ MORE: British dad breaks neck after being pushed into shallow pool at Benidorm party MORE: Major UK airline launches sale with £29 flights to 475 destinations — but it ends in two days MORE: 'Delightful' but lesser-known fishing village is the perfect spot for a UK seaside holiday
Cosmopolitan
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
Who were the Mitford sisters? The unbelievable true story behind Outrageous
You've probably seen lots of people talking about the new drama series outrageous airing this week. Coming to UKTV's in the UK and BritBox in North America, the TV series tells the story of six different sisters in the 1930s, who refused to play by the rules, often resulting in betrayal, scandal, heartache, and even imprisonment. It stars Bridgerton's Bessie Carter as Nancy Mitford, the eldest of the Mitford siblings, Anna Chancellor as matriarch Sydney Bowles Mitford, James Purefoy as David Freeman-Mitford, and Joanna Vanderham as Diana Mitford, and is based on the very real, and often controversial Mitford family. During the 1930s, the six sisters attracted widespread attention for their fashionable and provocative lifestyles, as well as for their public political divisions between communism and fascism. So, who exactly were the Mitford family? Read on for everything you need to know as Outrageous airs. The Mitford family is an aristocratic British family, who became particularly well known during the 1930s due to the six Mitford sisters - daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney Bowles whom he married in 1904. Sydney was the daughter of publisher and politician Thomas Gibson Bowles, and David was the second son of Bertram, Lord Redesdale. The couple had seven children - six girls and one boy - and their family homes were Asthall Manor and Swinbrook in Oxfordshire. Played by: Bessie Carter Born 28th November 1904, Nancy was the oldest of the Mitford children. She was a writer and a keen eye observer of the upper class. She married Peter Rodd, whom she subsequently divorced, and had a longstanding relationship with French politician and statesman Gaston Palewski. Her work includes semi-biographical novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. Played by: Isobel Jesper Jones Dubbed 'woman' by her siblings, Pamela Mitford (born in 1907), married and later divorced millionaire physicist Derek Jackson. Unlike her sisters, she preferred the countryside, and spent most of the 1960s in the stables of Italy, living with the horsewoman Giuditta Tommasi. Played by: Joanna Vanderham Possibly the most scandalous of the Mitford pack, Diana (born in 1910), married aristocrat and writer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, in 1929. In 1933, she left him for British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, whom she married in 1936. Together, they had two sons, Alexander and Max Mosley. The couple was interned at Holloway Prison from May 1940 until November 1943. Played by: Shannon Watson Known as 'Bobo' or 'Boud' by her siblings, Unity's friendship with Adolf Hitler was well-publicised. She shot herself in the head after Britain declared war on Germany. She survived, but suffered permanent brain damage. She died of pneumococcal meningitis in 1948. Played by: Zoe Brough The rebel of the family, 'Decca' ran off to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War, before planting her roots in America. After losing her first husband in World War II, she reinvented herself as a passionate writer and committed communist. Her groundbreaking book, The American Way of Death, exposed the funeral industry. Played by: Orla Hill The youngest of the family, Deborah was nicknamed 'Nine' by Nancy, which was half an insult, half affection. She married the future Duke of Devonshire and lived a pretty quiet life at Chatsworth House, which she transformed into an empire. Unlike her sisters, she wasn't one for the limelight and kept out of the headlines. Played by: Toby Regbo The only son of the Mitford family, Tom was born in 1909 and studied at Eton. Here, he had an affair with James Lees-Milne. He later had a relationship with troubled dancer Tilly Losch, who was married at the time to British poet, Edward James. According to Jessica's letters, Thomas supported British fascism and was posted to the Burma campaign after he had refused to fight in Europe. He died in action. Outrageous airs on UKTV's free streaming service U and U&DRAMA on Thursday 19th June, and on BritBox in North America on 18th June.
Japan Today
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
The world's oldest restaurant faces a challenge from another Madrid tavern that says its even older
A view shows the exterior of the Casa Pedro restaurant in Madrid, Spain, on May 16. By SUMAN NAISHADHAM In the heart of Spain's capital, Sobrino de Botín holds a coveted Guinness World Record as the world's oldest restaurant. Exactly three hundred years after it opened its doors, Botín welcomes droves of daily visitors hungry for Castilian fare with a side of history. But on the outskirts of Madrid, far from the souvenir shops and tourist sites, a rustic tavern named Casa Pedro makes a bold claim. Its owners assert the establishment endured not just the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and the Napoleonic invasion in the early 1800s, but even the War of Spanish Succession at the start of the 18th century — a lineage that would make Casa Pedro older than Botín and a strong contender for the title. 'It's really frustrating when you say, 'Yes, we've been around since 1702,' but ... you can't prove it,' said manager and eighth-generation proprietor Irene Guiñales. 'If you look at the restaurant's logo, it says 'Casa Pedro, since 1702,' so we said, 'Damn it, let's try to prove it.'' Guiñales, 51, remembers her grandfather swearing by Casa Pedro's age, but she was aware that decades-old hearsay from a proud old-timer wouldn't be enough to prove it. Her family hired a historian and has so far turned up documents dating the restaurant's operations to at least 1750. That puts them within striking distance of Botín's record. Both taverns are family-owned. Both offer Castilian classics like stewed tripe and roast suckling pig. They are decorated with charming Spanish tiles, feature ceilings with exposed wooden beams and underground wine cellars. And both enjoy a rich, star-studded history. Botín's celebrated past includes a roster of literary patrons like Truman Capote, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Graham Greene. In his book 'The Sun Also Rises,' Ernest Hemingway described it as 'one of the best restaurants in the world." While Casa Pedro may not have boasted the same artistic pedigree, it boasts its own VIPs. Its walls are adorned with decades-old photographs of former Spanish King Juan Carlos I dining in one of its many rooms. The current Spanish monarch, King Felipe VI dines there, too, albeit more inconspicuously than his father. But the similarities between the two hotspots end there. Casa Pedro was once a stop on the only road heading north from the Spanish capital toward France. Its clientele is largely local regulars, like David González and Mayte Villena, who for years have spent every Friday lunching at the tavern. 'It wouldn't change a thing for us,' Villena said about the restaurant someday securing the Guinness title. Botín, on the other hand, is a stone's throw from Madrid's famed Plaza Mayor, where any day of the week tour guides are herding groups around town — and often straight through the restaurant's front door. Antonio González, a third-generation proprietor of Botín, concedes that the Guinness accolade awarded in 1987 has helped business, but said the restaurant had enough history to draw visitors even before. 'It has a certain magic,' he said. The question then becomes: How can either restaurant definitively claim the title? Guinness provides its specific guidelines for the superlative only to applicants, according to spokesperson Kylie Galloway, noting that it entails 'substantial evidence and documentation of the restaurant's operation over the years." González said that Guinness required Botín show that it has continuously operated in the same location with the same name. The only time the restaurant closed was during the COVID-19 pandemic, as did Casa Pedro. That criteria would mean that restaurants that are even older — Paris' Le Procope, which says it was founded in 1686, or Beijing's Bianyifang, founded in 1416, or the 1673-established White Horse Tavern in Newport, Rhode Island — aren't eligible for the designation. La Campana, in Rome's historic center, claims over 500 years of operation, citing documents on its menu and in a self-published history. Its owners say they have compiled the requisite paperwork and plan to submit it to Guinness. Guiñales and her husband couldn't consult archives from the former town of Fuencarral, now a Madrid neighborhood. Those papers went up in flames during the Spanish Civil War. Instead, they delved into Spanish national archives, where they found land registries of the area from the First Marquess of Ensenada (1743-1754) that showed the existence of a tavern, wine cellar and inn in the small town as of 1750. In their spare time, the couple continues to hunt for records proving that Casa Pedro indeed dates back to 1702, as is proclaimed on its walls, takeout bags and sugar packets. But even if they dig up the final documents and wrest the Guinness honor from Botín, Guiñales concedes that her restaurant's quiet location makes it unlikely to draw Botín's clientele in central Madrid. 'To think that we could reach that public would be incredible,' Guiñales said. 'It's a dream, but it's a dream.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Difficult love': Spanish publisher reprints groundbreaking book of Lorca's homoerotic sonnets
In the autumn of 1983, dozens of carefully chosen readers received an envelope containing a slim, red booklet of sonnets that had been locked away since they were written almost 50 years earlier by the most famous Spanish poet of the 20th century. While those behind the initiative gave no clue as to their identities, their purpose was made abundantly clear in the dedication on the booklet's final page: 'This first edition of the Sonnets of Dark Love is being published to remember the passion of the man who wrote them.' Here at last, lovingly pirated and printed in blood-red ink, were the deeply homoerotic and anguished verses that Federico García Lorca had completed not long before he was murdered in the early days of the Spanish civil war. To commemorate the anonymous effort, to revisit a peculiar episode in Spain's literary history, and to bring the poems to a new audience, a Galician publisher has now brought out a perfect facsimile edition of that groundbreaking 42-year-old booklet. Although long known to Lorca scholars – not least because they had been published in French two years earlier – Los Sonetos del Amor Oscuro had been hidden away by the poet's family, who believed their tortured and sensual lines would taint his legacy and stir up old hatreds. Across the 11 poems, the poet invites his love to 'drink spilt blood from the honey thigh' and complains that 'your scorn was a god while my complaints were a chain of doves and minutes'. In another, he begs for a letter to put him out of his misery: 'I suffered you, I clawed my veins/Tiger and dove over your waist/In a duel of bites and lilies/So fill my madness with words/Or let me live in my calm/Forever dark night of the soul.' In an apparent attempt to force the family's hand and bring about the sonnets' publication in their original language, a group of intellectuals – whose names remain unknown – got hold of the poems. They had them printed and sent to 250 Lorca experts, cultural figures and journalists – and their plan worked. A year after that clandestine publication, the poet's family consented to the publication of all the sonnets – although their decision to share them with the rightwing ABC newspaper raised some eyebrows, as did the paper's refusal to use the word 'homosexual' in any of its accompanying coverage. 'What we're talking about here is the last poems written by Lorca that appeared in a book that came out 50 years later,' said the writer Henrique Alvarellos, who oversaw the reproduced edition for his family's eponymous publishing business. 'We don't want to enter into the minds of other people, but what we think happened is that there was a fear among Lorca's closest circle and his family that publishing these poems would resuscitate some of the ghosts that weighed so heavily on the life and work of Federico García Lorca.' While the post-Franco Spain of the early 1980s was undergoing huge changes, he added: 'There were still old, atavistic taboos and old habits that sprang from the worst of the Spanish spirit, so you can imagine that the publication of this edition – initially clandestinely – had an enormous impact on the country back then.' The idea for the new edition came after Alvarellos received a copy, via a third party, of one of the 250 booklets in the original print run. They now change hands for about €5,000 each. After blanking out the number lest the book be traced back to its owner, the publisher produced what he calls 'a really rigorous and faithful reproduction of that original book, copying its paper and its texture. It's a 100% faithful facsimile edition of the original'. Like the 1983 edition, the facsimile contains quotes from two of the fellow poets with whom Lorca had shared the sonnets. 'The last time I saw him, he took me off to a corner and, almost in secret, he recited six or seven sonnets from memory that I can still remember because of their incredible beauty,' wrote the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. His fellow Nobel literature prize winner, the Spanish poet Vicente Aleixandre, was equally moved when he heard them from Lorca's lips: 'All I could do was stare at him and say: 'What a heart. So much love and so much suffering!' He looked at me and smiled like a little boy.'' The Lorca biographer Ian Gibson, who was one of the original 250 recipients, swears he still does not know who was behind the little red book. Shortly after the sonnets were published by ABC, he visited Aleixandre to get his thoughts on the matter. 'Aleixandre was also homosexual,' said Gibson. 'And he said to me: 'I can't believe that I've read every single word in that supplement and the word homosexual doesn't appear!' It was incredible.' And yet, added Gibson, 'the grammar – the adjectives and so on – make it explicit that he's talking about homosexual love'. For the Irish hispanist, there are obvious comparisons between Lorca's sonnets and the life and work of one of Gibson's compatriots, Oscar Wilde. 'It was the love that dared not speak its name,' he said. 'That was the situation and these sonnets are very, very intimate. They are quite explicitly about homosexual love and the anguish involved. It's there in the title of Amor Oscuro; this is difficult love; it's an effort to illuminate the other side that could not be shown. And they're very beautiful.'
LeMonde
11-06-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Aragon and Catalonia battle over the 'Sistine Chapel of Romanesque art'
Letter from Madrid After 11 years of complaints, appeals and back-and-forth between various courts, on May 28, Spain's Supreme Court finally ruled in the case of the mural paintings from the Romanesque Monastery of Santa María de Sijena. The dispute has pitted the regions of Aragon and Catalonia against each other since 2015. Unsurprisingly, but not without controversy, the court upheld, as a final ruling, the sentence imposed on the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) in Barcelona: It must return the monastery's frescoes, located in the town of Villanueva de Sijena in the province of Huesca, within 20 days. Dating from 1196 to 1208, the works were removed in 1936 to protect them from the Spanish Civil War, before being purchased by the MNAC from nuns who were not the rightful owners. For the Catalan museum officials who have displayed the works since 1961, and who in recent years have called on numerous experts to bolster their case against the transfer, the decision puts extremely fragile works at risk. For the Aragonese government, which invested nearly €1.2 million in restoration work at the monastery, including the installation of a sophisticated climate control system to accommodate the paintings, it is time for the "Sistine Chapel of Romanesque art" to return to its original home. "The monastery is now able to store these works in perfect safety and, very soon, to exhibit them," said Jorge Azcon, president of the government of Aragon and of the right-wing People's Party of Aragon.
