Spain’s 10 best buildings in our Property Magazine inside
The critics think so. The Olive Press went to find out why Asador Etxebarri is the world’s fourth best restaurant
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AN Irishman accused of killing his girlfriend while on holiday in Spain has insisted his total innocence. The former British soldier - who once guarded the Queen - told the how he had found Kirsty Ward’s body lying prone with a ligature around her
Speaking from prison in Catalunya, Keith Byrne, 30, revealed his girlfriend had ‘serious mental health problems’ and had tried to kill herself on ‘various’ occasions.
The former Irish Guardwho protected the royals at Windsor Castle and Bucking-
EXCLUSIVE: Former Queen’s guardsman insists he found ‘suicidal’ girlfriend dead at Catalan hotel
mind.
EXCLUSIVE
By Jon Clarkeham Palace for four years - insisted:
“I try to protect lives, not take lives.”
The salesman, from County Meath, had actually administered CPR in the doorway and not, as alleged, in the corridor of their hotel room in Salou.
He, along with another hotel guest, a British tourist, tried to bring the mother-of-one back to life.
The ex-soldier insists he had been at a beach bar all day, as verified by CCTV, and came back to find she had strangled herself with an electrical cord.
He had returned to the room at the Hotel Magnolia to get his passport and suitcase, after they had argued and decided to split up.
But when he got there the door ‘wouldn’t open’, as she was rigid and lying prone blocking the door from inside.
“It was awful. Her eyes were grey and her lips were cold and blue,” he revealed by phone from the low security unit, near Barcelona.
“I will never get this image out of my
“She had been dead for some time and was so cold. I never felt cold like that before. I just can’t get it out of my head,” he added.
“I took the cord off and screamed for help and some British tourists next door rushed over and one took over and started giving her CPR as well.”
Clearly upset, he continued: “Now I am being accused of killing her, but I have never been arrested in all my life.
“I am stuck here away from my three children and it could take months to prove my innocence. Nobody knows for how long and there are no criminal charges yet,” he continued. His family meanwhile told the Olive Press that Kirsty, 36, had been suffering serious mental health issues for some years and was ‘on medication’.
His sister Tara, 33, said Kirsty had a ‘borderline personality disorder’ and had ‘tried to kill herself a number of times’.
“She had been an inpatient at a mental health facility in Dublin and was visiting as an outpatient every three weeks,” she revealed.
“Things got so bad in Spain that Keith actually called me on the second day of the holiday saying
he wanted to come home.
“He said he couldn’t ‘do this anymore’ and was going to get an early flight. He said her drug addiction was too tough and she was drinking too much. He said she was ‘too high’ and he just couldn’t ‘calm her down’.”
FROM LOVE: to tragedy - Kirsty with Keith on flight to Spain
The pair met in November, via a dating site, and moved in together ‘within weeks’.
They fell ‘madly in love’ and at first didn’t stop ‘laughing and joking’ and even went on a skiing holiday with friends.
But, after a couple of months, Kirsty started to get ‘needy’ and ‘possessive’.
The holiday in Salou started badly when they rowed on the second night about staying out or going home and she allegedly went off with another mystery man.
“Keith woke up on Sunday morning and she’d been out all night,” claimed Tara. “She admitted she had been with someone and they agreed it was over.”
While Keith wanted them to split up on ‘good terms’ and go home together, Kirsty had ‘other ideas’ and stormed off.
Keith spent the afternoon with a German expat called ‘Lars’ and eventually went back to the hotel at 9.17pm to get his passport and bag.
“Fortunately video cameras can prove all the timings, but he entered the hotel at 9.17pm and went up to the ninth floor, where the alarm was raised at 9.22pm,” insisted Tara.
“The police and paramedics were on the scene very quickly, but she was already dead.”
She continued: “There was literally no time for Keith to have killed her. Evidence revealed to us in court on July 5 shows the window of opportunity was only two minutes tops.”
A Spanish judge decided how-
FORMER head of Venezuela’s intelligence service Hugo ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal has been extradited from Spain to the United States, where he is wanted on drug and arms trafficking charges.
FORMER King Juan
Carlos I is returning to Spain to participate once again in a sailing regatta in Sanxenxo (Galicia) with his boat ‘El Bribon’ (The Naughty one).
FOUR people have been arrested after a massive stash of over 3,000 plants of marijuana was seized near Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz).
Fugitive held
A FUGITIVE with an extensive record in France and Germany for violent robbery and gang activity has been arrested in Sevilla.
A POLICE dragnet hit several known Marbella nightspots and rounded up a number of drug dealers just two days after a broad daylight shootout in Puerto Banus.
Over 100 officers swooped on popular nightclubs and the nearby area following the shooting that allegedly involved an African Looky Looky man wearing a football shirt. Many armed cops were involved in the operation, which saw 75 individuals searched and 12 arrests for drug possession.
It came after a man, in a baseball cap and apparently wear-
LIQUIDATORS attempting to pin down €40 million missing in a giant crypto fraud are zeroing in on the expat wife of one of the chief suspects. Gibraltar courts are trying to locate Russian Alla Babenko, 35, who is married to Globix executive Pavel Sidorov.
She is now the subject of a disclosure order and will face public examination over her role in moving the unaccounted millions.
Babenko, who claims she was kidnapped by a gang attempting to seize her crypto accounts in June 2022, is living in Alicante, the Olive Press can reveal.
Judge Liam Yeats granted the order during a Gibraltar hearing in which owner Damian Carreras and technical officer Sidorov finally made an appearance by video link.
A previous court hearing already estab-
By Walter Finching a West Ham shirt, fired an Uzi submachine gun around Puerto Banus at 6pm. According to Olive Press sources the man was from Gambia and ‘has a day job as a Looky Looky man’, revealed a local businesswoman. The restaurant manager, who works in the port, added: “Various local guys told me he is from the Gambia and involved with the local mafia, but his day job is selling stuff to tourists.”
lished that Carreras, 39, had funnelled tens of millions in investor cash not to crypto wallets controlled by Sidorov, but in fact to those in the name of his wife, Babenko.
According to prosecutor Daniel Feetham KC, the shady moves have made Babenko a key player in efforts to trace the missing millions. She has now been given seven days to respond to the court order or be held in contempt of court.
And to underline that the suspects have no place to hide, Feetham told the court that they are in close contact
She added: “This shooting was part of a settling of scores.”
Fortunately nobody was hurt in the shooting beside the Cristamar centre, although one woman is said to have fainted.
The man, who has since been linked to a drug cartel, managed to escape with an accomplice.
They set their getaway car, a BMW, on fire five kilometres
with lawyers in Madrid in order to open proceedings in Spain should they try to evade the law in Gibraltar.
Gibraltarian Carreras is hiding out in Barcelona ‘afraid for his life’ after receiving death threats.
Russian nationals Sidorov and Babenko are still believed to be based in Alicante city, putting them all within reach of Spanish justice.
It was a kidnap attempt on them last June by angry investors frozen out of their funds that first alerted authorities that something was amiss with Globix. In the shocking kidnap, the couple were snatched outside their El Campello villa, before they somehow managed to contact police to be rescued. It was during the attack that Sidirov was able to send an estimated €40m to Ukraine in a crypto-wallet.
away, causing a fire next to the AP-7 motorway. While police did not confirm the raids were connected they were part of the Strategic Police Response Plan ‘to combat drug use and street-level drug trafficking’.
Police have long identified certain leisure areas of Marbella as being a hotbed of drug use and mafia activity. Local police denounced one Banus nightclub after finding 500 people in a space designed for just 200.
ever, to refuse Byrne bail as he doesn’t have a Spanish residence.
At a secret court hearing in Tarragona he was remanded in custody, while police undertake more enquiries. A funeral was held for Kirsty at a packed St John the Evangelist Church in County Dublin last week.
The mother of son, Euan, was described as an ‘adored daughter’ and ‘much-loved friend’.
HE might be 78, but Rod Stewart shows no signs of slowing down.
The rocker has just completed three dates in Spain - in Madrid, Marbella and Chiclana de la Frontera. These dates were a prelude toa gru-
elling world tour taking in Canada, the USA and South America. But while in Spain Rod decided to have some quality family time and posted a picture of some of his extended family relaxing in the country.
The rare photo shows son Alastair, 17, and his girlfriend, next to Liam Stewart, 28,
holding Rod’s latest grandson Louis with fiancé Nicole Artukovich on his arm, followed by Renee, 31, who posed next to her dad. On the other side of Rod stands youngest son Aiden Patrick, 12, who is just in front of his mum Penny Lancaster, 52. Next to Aiden is Rod’s daughter Ruby holding her son Otis. Also pictured are his son and daughter Sean, 42, and Kimberly, 43.
A LONDON High Court judge has been asked to throw out a €126 million damages claim against Emeritus King Juan Carlos by his former lover Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn.
Her long-standing legal battle - which began in 2020 - has seen her sue Juan Carlos for personal injury that caused her mental anguish by spying on her and harassing her after their relationship ended in 2009. The former monarch has denied any wrongdoing and has challenged the claims made against him. She claims that Juan Carlos tried to resume their relationship and, when she rejected him, the for-
By Alex Trelinskimer sovereign undertook a ‘pattern of behaviour equivalent to harassment’.
For Juan Carlos, Adam Wolanski KC said zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn - also known as Corinna Larsen - wanted ‘damages in excess of £126 million’.
He told the judge that her case had ‘no realistic’ prospect of success and that evidence was ‘not viable’ to proceed with the hearing.
“Many of the matters the claimant relies on are subject to state immunity,” Mr Wolanski told the judge.
“The pleaded case of ha-
rassment is a diffuse collection of complaints, some trivial, mostly historic.” he added.
Different legal teams hired by Juan Carlos have been trying for two years to prevent the merits of the matter from being judged.
They argued that as head of state and member of the
A FOOTBALL legend who became Britain’s first £1 million player has passed away at his home on the Costa del Sol.
Former England star Trevor Francis suffered a heart attack at his Marbella villa, where he spent half the year. He was just 69 and had been ‘enjoying life’ when he was struck with his second attack.
During an illustrious playing career, he played for Birmingham City, Manchester
City and Nottingham Forest, where he won back-to-back European Cup winning medals.
The football legend maintained his fitness with daily power walks and an annual health check.
According to his spokesman, Francis had been ‘enjoying life very much having eventually got over the death of his wife.’ Helen had passed away six years ago after a battle with cancer.
Royal House he could not be tried in England. Judges at the Court of Appeal agreed , but decided his immunity did not cover the time since he abdicated in June 2014.
Zu Sayn-WittgensteinSayn's legal team led by Jonathan Kaplan KC said the application to throw out her claim should be refused.
“The defendant continues to make every effort to prevent the court from determining this claim,” said Caplan.
“The suggestion made on behalf of the defendant that the claim is somehow abusive in that it is by itself designed to harass a vulnerable elderly statesman is both unfounded and bold,” he stated.
AS temperatures hit sizzling highs around Spain, A Place in The Sun star Laura Hamilton has found a way to cool off. Following the shooting of the latest series in Spain, Laura decided to have some ‘me time’.
The 41-year-old slipped into a swimsuit, grabbed a cocktail and headed for the pool, before posting this snap on Instagram, hashtagging it ‘I love my job’. And she advised fellow visitors to use plenty of high factor suncream as temperatures reached 39C.
COLOMBIAN warbler Shakira, who has reportedly been on a date with F1 legend Lewis Hamilton, could face a date of a different kind.
The 46-year-old mother of two has had a second investigation into her tax affairs opened, which could lead to another court appearance. A court in Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona, has started the case following a complaint from the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
She is accused of defrauding the Tax Agency in personal income tax and wealth tax for 2018. But no details of the sums involved have been given.
She was at the time living permanently in Barcelona with her ex, footballer Gerard Pique, 36, who is father to her children. Shakira is already set for a trial for allegedly failing to pay €14.5 million in taxes on income earned between 2012 and 2014.
She has denied those charges stating that she did not live in Spain during those years.
Prosecutors say she spent more than half of that period in the country and should have paid taxes to Spanish authorities, even though her official residence was in the Bahamas. The singer and the youngsters permanently left Barcelona earlier this year for a new life in Florida.
THERE has been a dangerous spread of mosquitoes that can transmit the West Nile virus in three parts of Andalucia. The number of female mosquitoes that can pass the disease to humans has increased in Campillos, Montalban and Villamanrique de la Condesa.
However, the authorities insist the risk of contracting the disease in the three municipalities is still low.
The World Health Organisation (WHO)
says infection with WNV is asymptomatic in most cases (80%), while it can lead to West Nile fever or severe West Nile disease. Symptoms of this disease include fever, headache, tiredness, and body aches, nausea, vomiting, occasionally with a skin rash and swollen lymph glands.
It is estimated that approximately 1 in 150 people infected with WNV will develop a more severe form of disease, which may result in death.
Last year, five people contracted this virus in Spain while, in 2020, eight people died in Andalucia of the disease.
THE leader of Vox went on the attack after his far-right party took a hammering in the general election.
Santiago Abascal was furious after losing 19 seats in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies after Sunday’s poll. The horse-riding politician blamed the ‘disengagement’ of right wing voters turned off by Popular Party (PP) leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo. He also railed at the media, which he said had ‘demonised’ his party and ‘manipulated’ the vote that saw Vox drop from 52 senators to 33. Despite most exit polls predicting Vox and the PP would have enough seats (over 176) for an absolute
majority, in the end the two groups fell well short. The pair only gained 169 seats between them meaning they cannot automatically attempt to form a government.
While Vox suffered a near 20% crash in the polls, its biggest drop came in Castilla y Leon where the party lost five of its six deputies.
ANOTHER general election could be called for December.
While the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took considerable criticism for the late July poll, he may now hold one at Christmas. Either way, the clock is now ticking in terms of the parliamentary schedules.
Once a speaker of the house has been elected a first likely investiture debate will be held to choose a prime minister in the first week of September.
Any potential leader will have to either win an absolute majority of 176 votes in the 350-seat chamber, or a simple majority in a second round 48 hours later.
Should the situation be one of deadlock, parliament would be dissolved in November, with a 47day period until fresh elections – taking the date to Christmas.
PP candidate Alberto Nuñez is unlikely to be able to get a majority as most parties in Congress refuse to back a Vox/PP administration.
The PSOE meanwhile will need the support of left alliance Sumar as well as the pro-Catalan independence party, Junts pel Si (Together For Yes) to stay in power.
It came as the ruling PSOE party under Pedro Sanchez actually gained two seats taking its total to 122. The new left wing Sumar group - expected to side with the PSOE to form a government - got 31 seats.
Neither of the two main parties however, can form a government alone and both will need support of their natural partners, plus some of the regional parties. Indeed the various regional parties, who have gained the remaining seats, now have the balance of power. Most have already stated they will not consider working in a coalition with Vox.
DECOMMISSIONING of Spain's oldest nuclear reactor is set to begin 'very soon'.
Production halted at Garoña in 2012 after owners Nuclenor objected to a new tax. After failing to get a new licence in 2017, the government confirmed it would shut the plant, which opened in 1971.
A ministerial order has now authorised specialist firm Enresa to undertake the job, which will take a decade and be done over two phases. Around 350 people will be employed for the complex work, which has a budget of €475 million.
HUNDREDS of vicious Portuguese Man O’War have led to beach closures in northern Spain. The main affected beaches are in Cantabria and the Basque Country, where a number of bathers were stung.
The well-known beach of La Concha in San Sebastian was the most high-profile closure at the weekend.
A MYSTERY skull found by a dog walker near Granada two years ago belonged to a young man missing from Catalunya.
Police have revealed the head unearthed by an expat, near Orgiva, was that of a 21-year-old man from Barcelona.
They told the Olive Press they solved the mystery after running various DNA tests on the skull and later body that turned up two months later nearby.
It also helped that the man’s credit card was found next to the body.
The
The man had been reported missing in early 2021, hav
EXCLUSIVE
By Alberto Lejarragaing vanished in unusual circumstances. While they ruled out foul play the body and head were found some distance apart, yet both were right next to a popular car park where dozens of hippies live in vans.
“After running a DNA test, we confirmed the skull belongs to a young man who went missing in Barcelona
earlier that year,” Juan Carlos Lopez, a Guardia Civil spokesman told the Olive Press.
“He was a Spanish national who was 21 at the time he disappeared.
“His body was found further down a nearby cliff in January 2022 and next to it, there was a credit card that allowed
us to know his identity.”
Despite the victim's head being separated from the body, Lopez says the autopsy did not reveal any signs of violence.
“We closed the investigation because the autopsy revealed he died of natural causes, with a hypothesis being an accident.”
The claims fly in the face of the Romanian expat whose dog Dragon found the head on November 18, 2021. She revealed she had been taking a walk around the alternative community of Beneficio, near Orgiva, when the animal dug up the skull by the main car park.
She first linked the discovery to the Spanish Civil War, but soon dismissed the idea as the smell was very strong.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and I knew straight away I needed to call the police,” she told the Olive Press
At the time the discovery led to considerable speculation that it might have belonged to a Dutch expat woman who had lived in the community years before.
The Guardia Civil is unable to reveal the identity of the deceased, as the family has not given them permission to do so.
952 147 834
Decapitated skull found in the Alpujarras belonged to missing young man who ‘died of natural causes’
‘DON’T believe everything you read in the papers’, was the old adage.
And today it’s the perfect advice for half the things that pop up on Twitter, Facebook and TikTok
Above all, don’t be satisfied with the obvious story and always look behind the headlines.
The experienced hands at the Olive Press have decades of national newspaper experience behind them and we know dogged determination is needed to get to the root of the matter.
It’s sometimes called good old fashioned journalism, at other times digging.
But above all, it’s always worth going the extra mile to get to the truth.
Two stories in this issue exemplify this.
On our front page we tell the heart-rending story of a former soldier behind bars accused of strangling his girlfriend on holiday.
While investigations into Kirsty Ward’s death continue, Keith Byrne languishesin jail thousands of kilometres from his three young children.
To make matters worse, sensationalist reporting in the international media has all but dubbed him a murderer, as well as claiming he’s (wrongly) a member of the Kinahan crime gang.
Only the Olive Press has actu-
AS Spain suffers under record sweltering temperatures the drought affecting most of the country continues to worsen.
ally sought out his side of the story and it throws the suspicious death into a whole new light.
We appreciate that such a serious alleged crime needs to be investigated fully. But with a solid alibi maybe the humane course would be to allow Byrne bail.
Now turn to page 5 for another example of proper reporting by following something up.
When we broke the story in 2021 of a dog called Dragon finding a human skull, the Spanish media followed us. It made headlines across the country but then the media went quiet. It was a short-lived sensation.
But what the papers forgot was that basic tenet of journalism - always follow it up. We did what no one else remembered to do, and never lost track of the story.
Now two years later we can finally reveal the skull belonged to a young man who went missing in Barcelona.
We felt it important to follow up for a simple reason.
We had in the past been contacted by worried relatives of missing people wondering if the victim- was their relative.
At least now they know he is not and will no longer have to continue fretting.
With the power of the press comes responsibilities, and we take them seriously.
Reservoir levels are dwindling, particularly in Catalunya, Andalucia and Alicante –and with the falling reserves, restrictions on water usage are starting to be rolled out.
On the Costa del Sol town halls are reducing the number of beach showers, using non-potable water for street cleaning and watering plants, among other measures.
But there is still some way to go before the restrictions are as Draconian as seen in the tinder dry drought experienced across Spain in 1995.
When I moved to Spain in 1994, I thought it was normal: No rain and scorching weather were just facts of life on the sun ny Costa del Sol.
What I didn’t know was it was actually not nor mal at all.
Since 1993 the country, and An dalucia in partic ular, had been in the grips of a drought that was killing crops and livestock.
But if you weren’t a farmer it was hard to notice. The taps flowed on the costas, with little apparent effort made to save water.
Each winter since 1992 water authori ties had watched reservoir levels drop as they prayed for rain that simply failed to fall.
Their hopes that God-sent inundations would refill reservoirs and top up groundwater proved unfounded.
Their historical inaction when it came to fixing leaking pipes, arranging water transfers from wetter regions of the country - or building desalination plants - was founded on complacency. Well, the chickens were about to come home to roost. In a big, big way.
PUBLISHER / EDITOR
Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es
Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es
Alberto Lejarraga alberto@theolivepress.es
Jo Chipchase jo@theolivepress.es
John Culatto
ADMIN Victoria Humenyuk
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A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month. AWARDS
It all reached its nadir in the summer of 1995, when drastic measures had to be taken as the taps – quite literally – began to run dry.
Large swathes of Malaga’s population were warned not to drink the tap water. The underground aquifers were so low that they became brackish.
In Mijas Costa, where I ran the Curry House restaurant at El Chaparral (I’d left a job at the Mirror in London to help my ailing father keep things ticking over), we didn’t even get the undrinkable water for most of the day.
Water supplies were cut, except for two hours a day in the morning and two in the
early evening. This presented a challenge just for simply living. I didn’t finish work until 3am.
So that meant getting up just a few hours later for a shower before collapsing back into bed. Then when I reached work, it was a question of waiting for the water to come back on before washing the floors, and filling drums of water for toilet flushes before the supply was cut off again.
And remember – this was not drinkable water. For that we had to wait for a water lorry sent round by the town hall once a day. People queued with bottles and plastic containers to get their fill.
Fortunately, I did not have to hang around waiting for hours for the tanker to show up.
We found a different solution: My father lived on the road to Mijas pueblo and so he had Mijas spring water. Fresh, refreshing and unlimited!
So each day I would load up my car with six 25-litre drums and fill them with water at his house, before carting them back to the restaurant, where I would use this drinkable water for cooking and washing the dishes.
Things were worse elsewhere: Sevil-
la was so badly affected that various (seemingly crackpot) schemes were floated as the city and surrounding region gasped for water.
Serious consideration was actually given to evacuating the entire city as water supplies slowed to a trickle.
Last ditch proposals to sail tankers of water up the Guadalquivir and even float an iceberg to the region were made. In the event turning off the water in Sevilla for 14 hours a day proved just about enough to tide the city through until the drought broke. And boy did it break! I clearly remember when it did as I was on my honeymoon in Extremadura.
After 12 days of touring, we were in Badajoz when the skies finally opened.
The heaviest rain I had seen literally fell – and fell – and fell.
After 24 hours sheltering in the hotel, my wife and I decided to cut the honeymoon a week short and head home – in the nick of time.
Just three hours later the entire city of Badajoz was cut off by the rising flood waters.
The reservoirs actually overflowed as it pelted down for the next three months. God had finally answered the water authorities’ prayers.
Since then, a new reservoir has been built for Sevilla (with EU money - with the condition the authorities had to reduce the amount of water lost to leaks by half).
The Costa del Sol also got a desalination plant - although politics of course reared its ugly head.
Corrupt Marbella mayor Jesus Gil, who eventually went to prison for fraud, kept getting reelected despite his criminal activities because ‘he got things done’.
In this instance he really did. In 1996 he used Marbella money (around €40 million) to build the plant with a pledge the water produced was for the entire costa.
It was actually completed in 1997. But the Junta refused to take on the running costs, preferring to sit back and watch as it remained unopened while, inevitably, reservoirs started to run dry again within a few years.
It took another drought before agreement was finally reached, and the plant was finally opened in 2005.
It says a lot that a convicted crook and embezzler was willing to do more for the residents of the Costa del Sol than the Junta was.
Complacency rules down here.
As water restrictions start to kick in, Dilip Kuner takes a look back at the last serious drought of 1995
He was a quiet expat kid whose mother moved him to Spain to avoid his abusive father and violent bullying at school… but when he became withdrawn and locked himself in his room, she had no idea he would become a globally infamous hacker. Walter Finch unravels the tragic, complicated story
SANDRA O’Connor, 58, had watched her son, Joseph grow more and more withdrawn and isolated in his bedroom with his computer.
But the English criminal lawyer at least thought he was ‘safe in his room’, away from the normal dangers that teenagers face on the Costa del Sol. So when an army of riot police kicked down their front door in Estepona, she could have had no idea that he was one of the world’s most wanted cyber hackers.
Sought by the US authorities for a string of serious cyber crimes committed when just 19 years old - including hacking into the private Twitter accounts of President Biden and Elon Musk - he was also a serious fraudster who stole $794,000 from a Manhattan cryptocurrency firm. And perhaps most disappointingly for his mother, he also stole naked photos of young women and then tried to extort them.
Now, Joseph, 24, also known as PlugWalkJoe, has just been handed a five year stretch in one of New York’s toughest prisons.
But it could have been a lot worse… and if it wasn’t for a series of moving pleas from his mother and wider family he could have faced 70 years in jail, the Olive Press can reveal.
In a series of remarkably emotional letters addressed to Judge Rakoff at the famous Southern District of New York, they helped to explain how a kind-hearted expat who struggled to understand
normal social interactions became the world’s online public enemy number one.
Unearthed via requests to the US court service, they paint a tragic picture of violence, neglect and isolation that saw the bright youngster failing to receive the guidance and support he was obviously in need of.
Born to a violent and absent father, it emerges Joseph was raised by a single mother who was also traumatised by the same man.
His teenage years in Liverpool were fraught, as he suffered from bullying by other kids that he could not understand.
Sandra confessed that she had not been ‘emotionally available and nurturing’ to her youngest child (with his other two brothers born to different fathers). She described herself as ‘effectively broken’ by the violence she had suffered at the
hands of Joseph’s father, who had not wanted the child and at one time inflicted such a severe beating on her she required 17 stitches to her head.
“I just went to work on autopilot,” she recalled.
“But it's the children who suffer the most as those crucial early years of loving nurturing are absent and damage results.”
Unwelcome efforts by Joseph’s father to come back into his life in secondary school reopened unhealed wounds.
“Joseph was always saying how sad it was that his father had ruined my life, and that it would have been better if he had not been born,” Sandra told the judge in one heartbreaking missive.
“I reassured him that he was worth it, and I would not change the situation if it meant he was not born.
“He told me I was rubbish at choosing men,” she continued, “and that he hoped one day I met someone who was kind and would treat me well.”
Sandra’s father, who had been an excellent father figure for Joseph’s two older brothers, died unexpectedly while she was pregnant with him.
“Not a day goes by that I do not think about him and miss him and feel saddened that Joseph never got to receive the love and care his grandfather provided to his siblings.”
Sandra would constantly tell Joseph of his grandfather, and
in turn Joseph would speak about him as if he had known him himself.
“He would tell me lovely things about his deceased grandfather,” his grandmother Agnes reminisced in another letter.
“When you're bereaved, it is very comforting. It was as if he knew I almost needed this to help me cope.
“He would tell stories with so much love and add funny anecdotes about what his grandfather would say if he were here.
“He was such a sweet, funny boy and so kind to others,” she added.
As his mother explained: “When younger, he would try to encourage me to meet someone who could be his dad, which is so sad.
“He saw his young friends with their loving families and he effectively only had me.”
Having moved Joseph back to Estepona at the age of 17, Sandra watched him retreat from the perplexing world that had treated him so cruelly into an online one.
One where his anxieties and peculiarities vanished and he made friends and found respect.
But so obsessed did he become with his gaming and his computers that in turn he became oblivious to the real world around him.
Conversations and constant nagging had little effect as he withdrew almost entirely to his room, even refusing to eat meals with his mother and instead ‘eating himself fat’ and snacking on processed foods.
SNARED: Estepona police picked up Joseph while mum Sandy (inset) was at home downstairs
path that would finally find him languishing in a New York jail, struggling to understand how his life had gone so wrong.
In another sad knock-on effect, the enormous costs of the proceedings have depleted Sandra’s financial resources and imperilled her retirement.
“There will be no inheritance for Joseph and his brothers,” she wrote, adding her own inheritance from her father is gone, and Agnes only has enough to pay for her own funeral.
Joseph has so far been spared this tragic full understanding of the long-term impact his deeds will have on his family.
His cousin, Niamh, 23, told of an anecdote during one visit to Joseph in prison that summed up the difficulty he has dealing with life.
“He told Sandra his mum, she looked pretty,” she wrote. “She thanked him. Then he said, ‘well you are, even with your wrinkles and you being old, you should try and get Botox before you start looking as wrinkly as nan.’” They all burst out laughing.
“He was just being how we all know him to be, honest without realising that it can be too much to hear sometimes,” Niamh went on.
The people he was chatting with were not gamers but, in fact, hackers
When she flew to Liverpool for work trips, the lawyer would have to leave pre-prepared foods and snacks that just needed heating in the microwave. And upon her return, she would be faced with a chaotic pigsty of dirty dishes and cups piling up, which he noticed not one iota.
When Covid struck, Sandra found herself stuck in England and unable to get back to look after Joseph. Instead she hired a housekeeper. It was during this period Joseph finally managed to find friendship, albeit with a community online. Sandra would get back to hear him laughing loudly with his online friends - ‘something he rarely did.’
“For me, this was comforting and a good sign,” she wrote.
It was preferable he was laughing in his bedroom rather than exposed to ‘a world on the outside where he was ill-equipped to navigate.’
“I believed he was safe from this world, where he was not in touch with any dangers [such as] alcohol, drugs, bullying and the worst aspects of society,” Sandra told the judge. But she had no idea the people he was chatting with were not gamers but, in fact, hackers. And it would be they who led Joseph down the
“He had no idea why we were laughing and there is little point in explaining it to him.”
For his mother’s birthday in June, Joseph arranged through a friend to send her a personalised card with a huge beautiful bouquet of flowers, a gift-wrapped perfume, and a box of gold decorated cupcakes with messages on the cakes.
Attached was a personalised card.
Inside, it read: "Happy birthday to the one who has loved, cared, helped, worried and been there for me through it all.
“Thank you for always being there for me, you're a great mother and I love you a lot.
“You are the smartest woman I know and will ever know and very kind and beautiful.
“Everyone who meets you, or their families, always say you are their favourite person and extremely rare and for that I am very proud of you and not have a bad word to say about you.”
Having spent two and a half years in jail waiting to be sentenced, Joseph is already half way through his five year sentence.
Awaiting him when he gets out is a job offer: A UK-based energy firm is willing to take him on as a Web Developer Apprentice.
For his part, Joseph told the judge: “I want to lead a productive life. I now look back at what an empty life I led. A solitary life alone with gaming and online friends in an unreal, unhealthy world, the only life that mattered. “I neglected my family, my future, I was without plans or any aims in life.”
A resident of Chite, Lecrin, Gym, combines wit, irony, angst, and a ‘touch of anarchy’ for her life drawings and large paintings on canvas. She has recently completed a portrait of music producer, Youth – famous owner of the Space Mountain recording studio in Lecrin. She likes to observe the ‘human condition’ and ‘individual fragility’.
She says: “My Godmother's faultless ink and watercolour sketches for fashion catalogues during the 50s and 60s influenced my desire to make art. Norman Rockwell’s lyrical caricatures and then the Pre Raphaelites stole my attention as a teenager. Life drawing became addictive to me.”
Andalucia has attracted Gym since 1970. She says: “I moved into Chite in the early 90s. Over
a 10-year period, I fixed my eye on an abandoned flour mill, created my space to live, paint, and show my work downstairs at The Sandpit Gallery.”
“In 2021, I rented a warehouse near Lanjarón for three months as a challenge to myself, with absolutely no idea of what I would paint. Ten weeks later, 12 large canvases were hung for a 'one night only' exhibition called ‘TERMINAL’.”
● TERMINAL is on show at the Instituto de America in Santa Fe, Granada, from 21-22 September.
By Jo Chipchase
GRANADA has a long history of art and self-expression, with the most famous luminary being Frederico Garcia Lorca. Since then, many creatives have been drawn to this beautiful area -
including poets, painters and, later, digital nomads.
Living amongst the mountains surrounding the Sierra Nevada are many talented female artists, who document their personal experiences using media ranging from paintbrushes to pixels.
Jo Chipchase speaks to five local artists about the inspiration behind their work.
Meg Robinson moved to Alcázar in the Sierra de Contraviesa because she was drawn by “the wisdom of the country people, the richness of the ancient culture, the blue sky, and summer starry nights”. She creates art from personal experiences and describes her work as ‘autobiographical’, but she also has some themes. One prominent theme was based on tracing her Jewish roots from Sephardic Spain to Lithuania, with five years travelling to explore countries including Alaska. In 2018, having found her
Jewish roots and grandparents’ village of ori- gin, a strong theme in her art was the inherited trauma passed down from generations of Baltic Jewish individuals and communities. She says: “Discovering the identity of my Jewish father after 50 years searching was traumatic. It unleashed a tsunami of grief I couldn’t explain.
So, I drew it.”
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Meg is now creating art around a new theme, with a new palette of colours celebrating the three cultures she lost thought adoption - Irish, Dutch, and Lithuanian.
www.megrobinsonart. com
Lunita Loca is a digital illustrator living on an olive farm. She has a passion for creating healing art full of colour, symbolism, and magic. After 30 years away from art, she started drawing again during lockdown. She was trying to make sense of what was happening around the world through creativity. She could share her work instantly over social media and connect with others.
She explains: “The concept of
Mix Amylo is an English artist, musician, writer, and composer. She hails from London but is usually found in Órgiva, or a cave house in Granada. Having always drawn and created as a child, she returned to it later, studying in London, Accademia d'Arte in Florence, Cyprus School of Art, and Metàfora in Barcelona.
Described as ‘beautiful chaos’, her artwork weaves ‘the strength and fragility of the feminine using a highly detailed
‘art is for everyone’ really appeals to me. Before moving to Spain, I lived in Bristol, where street art transformed the city into a walking gallery. From the rich to poor areas, the art spoke for itself and was inspirational, lifting your spirits and making you think or laugh out loud.”
“When my family moved to Spain, the landscape changed drastically. Now it was a time for reflection and healing. The mountains held me as I became a mother for the second time and found my way in the community.”
“During the summer of 2022, I was stung by a scorpion. What followed was a dark night of the soul. After 24 hours of pain, I awoke to find myself charged with a new spark of energy and confidence.”
Instagram: @_lunitaloca_
black and white surrealism’. She creates personal dreamscapes, tries to capture the subconscious, and find quirky ways to reveal the ‘dark beauty hidden in the ordinary world’. Her artistic language uses recurring themes, such as circles, doorways, chessboards, female figures, eyes, mountains, and ladders.
The resulting works have been shown in different countries. Since living in rural Spain, Mix joined the art group, Artists Network Alpujarra (ANA), and has participated in many exhibitions. She organised an Open House exhibition in Órgiva, where other artists could exhibit their work alongside hers.
www.mixamylo.com
Armelle Boussidan, a resident of Lanjarón, is a French born painter and multidisciplinary artist working with acrylics, posca, ink, watercolour, pigments, and sand. She has roots in Morocco and, for the last 12 years, she has exhibited her work in various places throughout Europe.
Armelle explores ‘invisible energetic states channelled into an intimate, intuitive and sensitive language’, sometimes
used for art therapy. Her work can take different directions, according to personal experiences.
Armelle is inspired by: “Me, you, all of us, the seen and unseen, nature and natural patterns, everything we feel, dream and can't describe, the visible and invisible, portals of high energy, beauty in details and mud, pain, pleasure, grief and joy, the healing path, the vibration of a colour under a ray of light, a crystal glistening in the riverbed, all of it…”
She first arrived in Andalucia in 2016. A year later, she strolled around the spa town of Lanjarón with her ex-partner and ended up staying there. Since then, she has been in and
out of La Alpujarra, which keeps “calling me back like a magnet”. After spending time in Egypt and France, she returned to seek a home and studio for the winter.
www.armelleboussidan. com/art/
Across
7 Disorder (7)
8 Small assemblage (5)
9 Domesticates (5)
10 See verbose characters out of position (7)
11 Country bumpkin (5)
13 Environmental study (7)
15 Series of early space probes (7)
17 Doze (5)
19 Somerset castle (7)
21 Not listed above (5)
22 Relating to the third power (5)
23 Dancer’s garment (7)
Down
1 Hearty and lusty (6)
2 Knockout punch (8)
3 Frozen treats (4)
4 Past (6)
5 Entrance (4)
6 Fast (6)
8 Not solid or liquid (7)
12 Kind of fringe (7)
14 Get too vehement (8)
15 Do mice upset GP? (6)
16 Seldom (6)
18 Procession (6)
20 Pen points (4)
21 Cantab’s rival (4)
All solutions are on page 39
ANOTHER heatwave in Sevilla leaving temperatures above 40 degrees has led a weather expert to predict the city is becoming a desert due to climate change.
It’s dubbed by some as the ‘Iberian oven’ as hot air comes in from the Sahara and because it is in the foothills of mountains, it is a regular candidate for some of the highest urban temperatures in Spain.
So much so that one weather expert believes the city’s future is gloomy if changes are not made.
Jim Dale from British Weather Services said:
“We’re getting into the category of between 40 and 50 degrees and you’ll find temperatures increasing as the summers go on, as essentially, the city is turning into a desert.”
“Locals might be accustomed to the hot weather, but tourists need to be careful over risks of sun -
EXPERTS are predicting new record highs for sea water temperatures in Spain.
Last summer saw sea temperatures of up to 32.4C recorded. With the scorching temperatures already recorded in July, it is predicted that those levels will be beaten, negatively affecting marine ecosystems.
By Alex Trelinskistroke and dehydration.”
The heatwave of 2022 in Spain alone killed at least 2,064 people as a result of the high temperatures. Droughts have directly affected crops and the disruption in production also led to a disruption in supplies for all of Europe.
Wildfires also dramatically increased with many serious incidents last summer across the country.
CLIMATE temperature records are tumbling, leaving planet Earth in uncharted territory.
Scientists are understandably worried at the speed at which global warming is advancing. Ocean temperatures are higher than ever. Antarctic sea ice is melting just as fast. Heatwaves are becoming increasingly dan gerous.
The cause of global warming is the burn ing of fossil fuels. Add into the equa tion the heat generated by the first El Niño since 2018 ( a warming natural weather system) and, to coin a fa mous quotation, HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
● Last month was the hottest on record
● The average global temperature topped 17C for the first time on July 4
● The Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the last three months have recorded higher temperatures since Met Office records began in 1850. Extra heat trapped by the buildup of greenhouse
gases has gone into warming the ocean’s surface
● Recorded heatwaves are more frequent, hotter, and longer lasting I have said it before, and without doubt will have to say many times more, that unless we make dramatic reductions to greenhouse gas emissions, temperatures will continue to rise. We do not have the resolve or the available technologies available
to cut our emissions. Runaway warming and climate collapse alarm bells are ringing.
ADMIT YOUR FAILURES
So says the president of this year’s COP 28 conference, Sultan Al Jaber. Ironically he is the head of the UAE’s state oil company. That’s enough in itself to spark another debate.
A NEW EU regulation requires that all batteries sold must be recyclable within the next four years.
The law was initiated by Spain’s minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, in an effort to increase sustainability and promote a circular economy. Producers must adapt the design of their products to ensure that batteries within appliances are removable and replaceable for consumers.
The regulation applies to types of batteries used in all items, from phones to cars.
How can the head of one of the world’s largest oil producers host a conference aimed at getting the world’s leaders to commit to saving the planet?
Despite the blatant hypocrisy in this, the message is bang on.
Governments do need a proper ‘kick up the backside’.
I remain unconvinced that the boot is on the right foot to make this happen. His argument is that only when the world has enough renewable energy can the production of oil, gas and coal be reduced. Does anyone else see a conflict of interest here ?!?!
See page 24
AMERICANS are coming to Spain for longer both as digital nomads and to retire.
The number living in Spain grew by 13% from 2019 to 2021, while home sales to US buyers jumped by 88% from 2019 to 2022.
Americans also splash the cash more than any other buyers, apart from the Danes, cough-
By Alex Trelinskiing up an average of €2,837 per square metre.
And their purchasing power grew the most in the same period, according to the General Council of Notaries report.
American buyers tend to focus on urban areas like Madrid, while
SurgeinbuyersfromUSwithsalesup88%
Valencia and Andalucia are key locations.
“As with any big city, people are attracted to its job opportunities and amenities,” said Alex Ingrim from financial services firm Chase Buchanan.
“There is a strong word of mouth about Valencia, with a large ex-
pat community and among them many Americans,” he added.
Spain launched its digital nomad visa earlier this year, making it easier for foreigners to move and work in the country.
The visa is tailored for ‘international teleworkers’ and applicants must comply with a set of require-
ments, such as accreditation or professional experience of at least three years.
“Prior to having this visa, it was difficult to work in Spain because the tax rates were so high and there wasn’t a clear-cut immigration regime, other than the ′golden visa’ that allowed you to move to Spain and work,” added Ingrim.
MORE than 11,000 people have signed a petition opposing the conversion of Murcia’s last historic cinema.
They are furious that Cinema Rex is to be turned into a multipurpose space, including a gym.
The cinema opened its doors as the Teatro Ortiz in 1914 but switched to screening movies in 1926. It was renovated in 1946 but screened its last film in August 2019, having outlasted all of the city’s other major theatres.
The building owners submitted their conversion plans in April and now Murcia City Council is going through a public consultation phase, which prompted the petition.
A group collected signatures outside the Rex last week and called for it to reopen ‘since it is an irreplaceable piece of people’s memories’.
“This is the last historic cinema located at the intersection of four districts which contributes to a way of city living that refuses to die,” insisted a spokesman.
The Rex was even mentioned by Murcia filmmaker Elias Leon Siminiani during his acceptance speech in February’s Goya Awards in Sevilla after winning the best short film category.
The Madrid-based AISGE Foundation that manages copyright and intellectual rights for 17,000 Spanish actors has also backed the Rex in a letter to Murcia’s mayor.
NORMALLY the collection plate is passed around when church repairs are needed. But with just 27 residents, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in the tiny hamlet of Masa had to move with the times to hit its necessary €55,000 target. An online crowdfunding ap-
peal has been set up for the Burgos province church, which needs urgent renovations.
EUROPE’s largest vertical mural has been completed. Covering over 6,000 square metres, Les Rivages de Almunecar, by artist Jose Rios, is painted on three 12-storey buildings. The mural, on Granada’s Costa Tropical, depicts a figure of a dog walking on the beach, the silhouette of a woman and waves and sand.
Its conception was to convey a sense of transparency and disguise the ugly tower blocks on which it is painted.
As of mid-July, €26,000 had been banked with contributions from all round the world to fund a new clock and altar.
Standing since the 13th century it is the cornerstone of the village, which has only eight permanent residents, the rest coming at weekends or holidays.
“We are the
HELP NEEDED: The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption
classic example of depopulated Spain,” said Josechu de Miguel, who is leading the fundraising drive.
The key innovation has been joining forces with heritage charity Hispania Nostra to launch the crowdfunding drive with donations starting
THE Spanish property market continues to cool down after a post-pandemic boom in 2022 but there is no sign yet of a crash in sales, as shown by the latest housing market figures from the Spanish notaries’ association. There were 58,880 home sales witnessed by Spanish notaries - actually more than recorded by the National In-
www.spanishpropertyinsight.com
stitute of Statistics - in May, down 8% on last year, and the seventh consecutive month of sales dropping.
However, if you compare sales (see graph) to previous years looking just at the month of May there is no sign of a crash, just a return to normal business after a boom that followed in the wake of the Covid-19 disaster. Sales
this May were lower than 2021 and 2022,
years of 2018 and 2019. Looking at the 12-month rolling sales total, which smooths out the ups and downs of each month and gives a better picture of the underlying trend, you can clearly see the end of the boom and downward trend that looks like it will be with us for a while. All regions of interest to for-
at just €10. Contributions have so far arrived from as far away as Canada.
Each donor, depending on the amount, will receive a gift that can range from a thank you card to key chains, coasters or even a guided tour of
the village. Other options include sponsoring pews, the choir, or the weather vane from €150. Work will begin once €40,000 is reached, as it is now backed up by a promised €10,000 grant from the Burgos Provincial Council.
HOME sales registered in May showed a fall of 6.4% compared to the same month last year according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Some 56,137 deals were completed but May’s percentage fall was lower than April’s 8.1%. It was the seventh successive month of negative figures, according to the INE report published this month. The sale of older homes fell by 8.6% in the fifth month of the year accounting for 45,479 of the overall total.
In a month-on-month comparison, home purchases went up by 29.6% compared to April - the biggest May increase since 2017. In the first five months of the year, home sales have fallen by 4.1%, with new properties down by 2.4% and used homes down by 4.5%.
Andalucia had the most transactions in May with 11,736 sales, followed by the Valencian Community (9,453) and Catalunya (9,000). In terms of sales per 100,000 people, the largest total was in the Valencian Community (232), Cantabria (183) and Andalucia (173).
*Slowingdown,seebelow
THE exclusive enclave of Benahavis (pictured) is once again dominating the national rankings for the most expensive municipality in Spain. Based on listings published by real estate portal Idealista, the average price of properties in Benahavis, home to exclusive urbanisation La Zagaleta, is an eye-watering €1.9 million. But there are a few other exclusive resorts where the average price is over a million.
The select million euro home club includes Calvia, in Mallorca, with an average price of €1.58 million, while Marbella, has an average asking price of €1.37 million.
Closer and closer to joining the club is Sotogrande, in Cadiz, where the year started with an average price of €995,000.
Close behind is Sant Cugat, in Catalunya, in fifth place with an average of €810,240. Madrid has the priciest homes for a city, with the average price sitting at €428,100.
eign investors have been following a similar downward curve with modest variations, Sales fell the most in the Balearcis (-19%) followed by Madrid (-17%), Catalunya, Andalucia and the Canaries (-12%), and the Valencian region (-10%). Sales in Murcia bucked the trend with a 1% increase.
The national average house price increased by 1% in May, according to the notaries, suggesting the boom in prices has also come to an end . By region, prices increase the most in the Balearics (+17%), followed by Murcia (+9%), Andalucia (+7%), Valencia (+5%), Catalunya (+4%), and Madrid (+2%).
MALAGA has been ranked as the second safest city in Spain, one of the safest cities in Europe and 58th worldwide, according to Numbeo’s 2023 crime index rank.
San Sebastian tops the list for Spain and Europe and comes seventh in the world ranking.
There is no sign of a crash, just a return to normal business
but higher than the normal
IT is known as the Nobel prize of the architecture world. And this year the Pritzker prize, as the Olive Press reported in the last issue, was awarded to British architect David Chipperfield, who has a firm affinity to Spain. Aside from having a holiday home in Galicia, he has designed many masterpieces in the country - as have a host of other Pritzker prize winners. The gong is awarded each year to architects who have used their craft to
By Regina Roberts
‘contribute to humanity and the built environment’ and the work of the winners can be found around many of the country’s favourite cities.
Many of them have become major cultural attractions with their unique designs that pay homage to Spanish culture. Here, the Olive Press picks 10 key buildings designed by winners of the illustrious prize which showcase how important Spain has become as a centre for the latest ideas in architecture.
American architect Philip Johnson was the first recipient of the Pritzker Prize in 1979.
Ten years after receiving it, he collaborated with John Burgee to design
this remarkable twin office building on Plaza de Castilla, in Madrid. The world’s first inclined skyscrapers, slanted at a 15 degree angle, they are the second tallest towers in Spain
standing at 115 metres in height. The tower’s iconic design has made them a well-known part of the Madrid skyline and they have been featured in various movies.
French architect Jean Nouvel, winner of the 2008 prize, also partnered with Fermin Vazquez to design the Torre Glories, the third tallest building in Barcelona. The bullet-shaped building has become a tourist attraction and one of its enticing features is its night lighting.
Its futuristic construction, configured by aluminium, concrete, and glass, makes it stand out alongside Barcelona’s historic architecture.
Spaniard Moneo, who won the Prize in 1996, was commissioned to design this modern institutional building for Murcia’s town hall.
Set in historic Cardenal Belluga Plaza, between the 16th century cathedral and the Episocal Palace, it needed to be sensitive, but also impactful. The building’s design shows a contrasting modernity that has made it a subject of controversy… but it certainly stands out.
Visionary Hadid was commissioned for this winery by Lopez de Heredia for its 125th anniversary. Chosen for her innovation and daring designs, the pavilion combines the architect’s modern style with the winery’s traditional feel.
Hadid described the design as a ‘bridge between the past, present, and future evolution’ of the bodega.
In 2004, she became the first woman to be awarded the prize.
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Winner of the 2023 prize, Chipperfield designed the America’s Cup Building ‘Veles e Vents,’ which was inaugurated in 2006.
The building was constructed to be the social centre for the America
Cup, the world’s premier offshore racing competition.
It was designed specifically with the sport in mind, with its overlapping panels that provide shaded views of the sea and outdoor space
that takes up more than half of the building.
The four-story building offers two bars, restaurants, a wellness centre, and VIP lounge, making it the hub of activity during competition season.
Showcasing
The
verging line in the middle to add a touch of colour. In contrast, the Hotel Porta Fira is entirely red and in the shape of a distorted cylinder. In 2010, it won the Emporis award for the best skyscraper globally.
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From page 16
No less than five Pritzker prize winners took part in designing this hotel, making it a major collaborative work in Madrid.
Jean Nouvel was in charge of the attic, 12th floor, and façade, which was decorated with lines from the poem, Liberté, by Paul Eluard.
Zaha Hadid oversaw the first floor, designing it with curves and white lighting.
Norman Foster worked on the second floor highlighting elements of luxury and elegance. Recent winner, David Chipperfield developed the third floor using geometric elements and unique materials, such as terracotta.
Finally, Arata Isozaki, the 2019 prize winner, designed the tenth floor, using Japanese influences and wood panelling to create a relaxed atmosphere.
Other famous architects and designers including Ron Arad and Marc Newson worked on different aspects of the building, making it a showcase of internationally renowned work.
SPANIARD Aranda (and partner Carme Pigem) created this wonderful building for Michelin star chef Fina Puigdevall in the countryside, near Olot. A private home, it challenges traditional assumptions about homes and farms.
It came about when Fina was chatting with former classmate Carme about revamping her restaurant Les Cols plus building a new home. Neither of them could have imagined that ten years on the former would become a
celebrated Michelin-starred chef, and the latter a Pritzker-prize winner in 2017.
The building sits 1.5m below the top level of the field, creating a differentiation between the two lifestyles.
The house seems disjointed on the surfa-
ce but the hidden long corridor that acts as the ‘backbone’ for the building, connects the main areas with large glass windows framed by steel. Even though this is a private home, its architectural design makes it a one-of-a-kind villa.
Global British legend Foster completed this building a year before winning the prize in 1999.
And the Congress Centre, in Valencia, certainly helped it along, being both bold and eye-catching.
Designed for the hot Mediterranean climate the large pavilion provides shade and surrounding windows that allow for natural light.
The conference venue was designed to host large crowds and has multiple auditoriums.
“It is truly a Valencian building –rooted in tradition, but forward looking,” explained Foster.
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AUKRAINIAN newspaper has tracked down a string of properties in Spain supposedly belonging to sanctioned Russians, who support their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Journalists from Ukrainska Pravda spent a week tracking down the luxury homes in Spain and then, armed with a drone, took photos they then published to the world.
The roll call of leading Russians all continue to enjoy their wealth and privileges in the West while endorsing and supporting the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
Among them is a prominent Russian film director known for his role in denigrating the West,
By Walter Finch
including Spain, and spreading Kremlin propaganda.
Nikita Mikhalkov has been identified as the owner of a villa in San Roque, between Gibraltar and Marbella, according to records from the Spanish property registry.
We are not publishing its exact location, but it sits nestled among a number of similarly lavish villas facing out over a picturesque golf course.
It is co-owned by Mikhalkov’s wife, Tetiana, and their children, but holds significance as Mikhalkov fell under Western sanctions in December.
Mikhalkov has also alleged-
ly invested in property by the prestigious five-star SHA hotel and wellness clinic on the Costa Blanca. His daughter has three apartments in Alicante. President Putin’s ex-wife Lyudmila is also reportedly the owner of a cliff-top mansion on the Costa Blanca.
The property is truly luxurious, looking out over the Mediterranean, boasting curvaceous architecture and a dolphin-shaped pool. It also has the tell-tale name ‘Casa de Papa’
- Daddy’s House.
Further north, the parents of Russian Foreign Minister Sergiy Lavrov’s son-in-law own two apartments in the outskirts of Girona, on the Costa Brava. Lavrov’s daughter, Ekaterina, has been spotted there. His son-in-law Alexander Vinokurov meanwhile, faces sanctions for attending a meeting of oligarchs with Putin on the first day of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Yet his parents and wife still
retain access to their Spanish apartments without any restrictions.
Let’s also not forget the incredible €40m mansion that Presi-
dent Putin is understood to own in the hills above Marbella.
The Olive Press has long reported on the luxury villa located in the super-exclusive enclave of La Zagaleta, in Benahavis. Indeed, we broke the story a decade ago.
The property that sits in its own street - King Lion Road - boasts three underground basements and has its own vineyard, bowling alley, and, perhaps predictably, a ‘shooting range’. Bought through a string of shell companies, officially it is now owned by Artem Sheikin, a senator for Amur Oblast in Russia’s Far East, although typically, it is registered in a company owned by his ex-wife, Anna Kviria.
The Olive Press understands it is actually owned by five Russian oligarchs with Putin being the majority owner.
Another Russian senator, meanwhile, Alexander Bryskin owns a more modest seafront apartment in Torrevieja. Despite officially criticising Spain on television, it seems he still enjoys the luxury of owning a property here “Some muppets say that visiting Spain is a privilege! What the hell?” he shouted during an interview. “Visiting Russia is a privilege!”
The revelation of these Spanish properties linked to influential Russian figures has caused ripples of concern amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The discovery sheds light on the potential financial ties and interests of these individuals, raising questions about whether authorities in Madrid and Brussels should be doing more to prosecute corrupt Russians complicit in Putin’s war on Ukraine.
AN unsuspecting Twitter user waded into a storm of controversy after tweeting pictures of what she described as ‘Spanish style homes’ in the US. Savannah Vicario’s tweet racked up more than 11 million views and thousands of replies in just three days. They ranged from the serious to the comic, such as this reply from a user named Salma:
“Spanish style is not a thing. This is Mudejar architecture, inspired by Al-Andalus, combining Islamic aesthetics with
Iberian structures.”
And as for the comic, users all around
Spain sent her their own versions of ‘Spanish style homes’. These included ugly housing blocks surrounded by riot police, pictures of the ugly ‘gotele’ dimpled wall paint used to hide often uneven walls in apartments, and a sitting room typical of a grandparent’s home. The jibes appeared to have been taken well by the original poster, who took advantage of the huge traffic from her tweet and invited people to follow her on Instagram
GOLDEN MILE Ref: OP13815 Beds: 3 | Baths: 3
Built: 207 m² | Terraces: 107 m² | Price: € 2,200,000
GOLDEN MILE Ref: OP14151 Beds: 4 | Baths: 3
Built: 150 m² including terraces | Plot: 2,008 m² | Price: € 1,995,000
LAS BRISAS, NUEVA ANDALUCÍA Ref: OP13555 Beds: 4 | Baths: 4
Built: 360 m² | Terraces: 32 m² | Plot: 977 m² | Price: € 1,750,000
BENABOLA, PUERTO BANÚS Ref: OP14194 Beds: 2 | Baths: 2
Built: 128 m² including terraces | Price: € 1,600,000
Tel. (+34) 952 863 750 panorama.es
LOMAS PUEBLO, GOLDEN MILE Ref: OP08982 Beds: 4 | Baths: 3
Built: 217 m² | Terraces: 33 m² | Price: € 765,000
Offices at Puente Romano and opposite the Marbella Club hotel
Magnificent, recently renovated duplex penthouse in Lomas de Sierra Blanca, a 10 minute walk to Puente Romano.IF you’ve been keeping an eye on the real estate market in Malaga, you may have noticed an exciting trend that is making one town on the Costa del Sol an appealing destination for American and Ca-
nadian investors.
The strong value of the dollar against the euro is creating a unique opportunity for savvy buyers to invest in their dream homes. And leading the charge in this market is RE/ MAX Dream Homes - the number one office of global real estate company RE/MAX in all of Andalucia.
The heart of this thriving real estate market is found in Estepona, according to Laurens van Noten, the manager of RE/MAX Dream Homes.
It’s definitely a seller’s market, he says - buyers get less for their money now than they did a year ago as property values soar. This growth is attracting buyers from all over the world, but what’s particularly striking is the surge in American and Canadian clients, comprising an impressive 46% of the office’s clientele.
One major driving force behind this surge is the direct flights that have been established between Malaga, Montreal and Miami. With the dollar enjoying a favourable exchange rate against the euro, American and Canadian buyers find themselves with increased purchasing power in the Spanish market. As a result, many are coming over across the pond with budgets between €500,000 and €1 million.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CALL 0034 711 053 974 OR VISIT THE WEBSITE WWW.REMAXDREAMHOME.ES
But Estepona’s allure goes beyond just favourable exchange rates.
Its well-maintained city, vibrant floral displays, and its strategic location between two luxury hotspots - Sotogrande and Marbellamake it an attractive destination for investors seeking both serenity and accessibility. Additionally, Estepona offers a welcoming and open atmosphere, unlike the overcrowded locales of Malaga and Torremolinos.
The American and Canadian clients flocking to the Costa del Sol aren’t just seeking a vacation spot; they are looking for holiday homes that provide an excellent return on investment.
As the property prices in closer-to-home locations such as Miami continue to soar, many investors find the comparative affordability of Estepona highly appealing.
This trend has led to a shift in preference, with some clients even choosing to sell their properties in Marbella to purchase in Estepona, predicting higher potential for appreciation in the years to come.
For Americans and Canadians looking to invest in Malaga’s thriving real estate market, RE/MAX Dream Homes in Estepona offers unparalleled expertise, personalised service, and an exceptional portfolio of properties.
By Walter FinchMAYBE it’s because of the laidback lifestyle, the cafe culture, the beaches and good weather or perhaps it’s just the good food. But Spain has smashed expectations in the latest Expat Insider survey of the best place in the world to live for expats.
Coming in as the second most sought-after destination in the poll of nearly 12,000 expats around the globe, it marks a remarkable ascent from its previous fifth position in 2022. Earning its expat-friendly reputation, Spain has consistently ranked within the top 10 for quality of life since the inception of the survey.
Spain claimed the title of global winner in the leisure options category for 2023, with a sta-
ggering 91% of expats expressing their contentment with the wide range of recreational sports available in the country.
The country's vibrant culture and nightlife have also garnered significant appreciation, with 88% of expats expressing satisfaction with the diverse offerings. ,
Enhancing the allure of expat life in Spain, the nation ranks third worldwide for its agreeable climate.
First place was snatched by Mexico, but third place was taken, surprisingly, by Panama.
The strong value of the dollar is making Malaga - and one key resort - a more attractive investment for Americans and Canadians
No one in the world sells more properties than REMAX
MiColchon, the renowned Malaga-based company, is proudly expanding its footprint across Andalucía, with a new store opening in Estepona.
The 300-square-metre centre is a sanctuary of tranquillity, housing an stores up and down the coast, and Estepona marks the 11th jewel in the Situated at Calle Fahrenheit, 2 in Estepona’s Industrial Park, the inauguration ceremony was attended by Mayor Jose María García Urbano.
The mayor - who won re-election just last May - loudly expressed his gratitude for the trust MiColchon has bestowed upon the town, This latest investment will create jobs and foster economic growth in the town, he said.
Bespoke Com- fort: Unveiling the Grandeur
MiColchon welcomes its first 50 customers to the Estepona store with a sensational gift -
a complimentary mattress.
In the spirit of celebration, the store offers special inaugural prices, and patrons can revel in the company’s exceptional services and guarantees: free transporta tion, assembly, and disposal of used mattresses, an impressive 15-year warranty, and a luxurious 202-night trial period for their premium Nessen mattress collection, all while offering unbeatable prices on Europe’s leading sleep brands.
The Estepona store boasts the most advanced sleep systems and beds in Europe, showcasing international powerhouses such as Tempur, Sealy, Flex, Nessen, Relax, Hukla Germany, and Emma.
In addition, customers can immerse themselves in the world of unparalleled relaxation with Stressless, the prestigious Norwegian brand renowned for its high-quality recliners, and MiColchon’s exclusive line of Nessen sofas, fully customizable with premium stain-resistant fabrics, top-tier Italian leather, and motorised relaxation features, including the innovative ‘zero gravity’ mode that enhances blood circulation and adjustable lumbar support.
For those seeking personalised and restorative sleep solutions, MiColchon introduces Colchonología(R), an exclusive business philosophy that focuses on the most personalised and healthful sleep experience. Whatever your back ailment, MiColchon’s experts will craft the ideal sleep ensemble, ensuring utmost satisfaction.
From its humble beginnings as Colchonería El Palo to evolving into a distinguished chain of specialised sleep stores, MiColchon has revolutionised the industry over four decades. Today, they reign supreme in the province, with 11 stores and a flourishing online presence that caters to customers nationwide. With a record-breaking year, selling
customers, underscored by a remarkable achievement - zero customer complaints.
With eleven stores dotting the province of Málaga, including Estepona, MiColchon is firmly committed to providing the ultimate sleep experience for all.
From Vélez Málaga to Marbella, their stores are synonymous with exquisite slumber.
For those seeking premium-quality sofas, Nessen Interiors awaits at Avenida Los Vegas, 64, where Italian leather, stain-resistant fabrics, and cat-scratch-resistant options will redefine comfort.
Moreover, don’t miss their outlet at Avenida Los Vegas, 60, offering incredible discounts on mattresses, sleep systems, sofas, and accessories from revered brands.
R4158682 - €9,400,000
BEDROOMS: 5 | BATHROOMS: 6 | BUILT SIZE: 1080M2
TERRACE SIZE: 370M2 | GARDEN/PLOT: 4826M2
GARAGE: YES | GARDEN: YES | SWIMMING POOL: YES
Fully renovated contemporary top quality villa in La Zagaleta. Totally private and south facing with panoramic sea views over the pool and On the main level an impressive living area welcomes you with direct access to the covered and open terraces, that will lead you to the infinity pool and gardens of the property. We also find a well connected dining area to both living room and kitchen, fully equipped with Miele appliances. This level also offers a pleasant office, two guest bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a guest toilet and several accesses to the Moving up to the first floor the owners will enjoy a fantastic master bedroom with a large en-suite double bathroom and two guest On the lower levels you will find the GYM, a sauna, an indoor pool, an
R3778912 - €2,395,000
BEDROOMS: 9 | BATHROOMS: 4
BUILT SIZE: 552M2 | TERRACE SIZE: 200M2
GARDEN/PLOT: 17051M2 | GARAGE: YES
GARDEN: YES | SWIMMING POOL: YES
Beautiful Land of 17,051 m2, with unique development potential on the edge of the village next to the town centre of Benahavis town, with many possibilities due to its ideal situation, with only one main entrance and same exit giving privacy and tranquillity. Within the 17.051 m2 plot there are two villas.
Within walking distance from the village centre, this is an ideal quiet family holiday home with views over the Village and to the Ronda mountains. This typical Andalusian house was designed and built from local wood, Ronda tiles, old doors and local materials. It has a superb shaded barbecue dining terrace, large outdoor azure pool all set within more than 4 acres of mature gardens, lawns and woodland.
The sculptor owner has decorated the interior with an eclectic mix of ethnic and modern pieces, original sculptures and paintings, tiled kitchen and a large airy living room with plasma TV.
It has to be seen to be appreciated, totally secluded but within a short walk of the many bars, cafes and restaurants that Benahavís affords.
Both Properties are five minutes walk to the centre of the town with all the day to day needs at your doorstep, all in a lovely quiet and relaxed environment surrounded by Nature.
SPAIN'S competition watchdog, the CNMC, has fined Amazon and Apple a total of €194 million for collusion in the sale of products.
The two firms had limited the sale of Apple products on Amazon’s Spanish websites ‘which restricted competition’, a CNMC spokesman said. It launched a probe in July 2021 for ‘possible anti-competition practices in the sectors of internet sales of electronic products and the provision of marketing services to third-party retailers through online platforms’.
The CNMC said at the time that it had access to ‘certain information’ from which it had found ‘rational indications’ that Amazon and Apple were in breach of laws related to the defence of competition and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Both firms agreed in 2018 to sign two contracts in which they updated Amazon’s role as an authorised distributor of Apple products.
The CNMC discovered that
VARIOUS regions are jockeying for pole position in a nationwide business beauty contest to win a $1 billion (€889.92 million) investment in Spain by a US semiconductor maker.
The CEO of Broadcom, a prominent US-based designer and manufacturer of
only a series of distributors approved by Apple could sell its wares via Amazon’s Spanish portals.
“This meant that 90% of resellers on Amazon in Spain who had been selling Apple products were excluded from the country’s main online market,” the watchdog commented. There was also a price rise in Apple products on Amazon, according to the CNMC.
Amazon says it ‘disagrees’ with the ruling and plans to appeal it.
semiconductor products, announced his plans to open a state-of-the-art semiconductor facility within the country. Charlie Kawwas, wrote on Twitter: “I am thrilled to unveil our decision to invest in Spain’s semiconductor ecosystem, in line with the semiconductor support program #PERTE_ Chip and EU Chips Act principles.” This move comes as part of Spain’s extensive efforts to bolster its semiconductor and microchip sector, with a planned investment of over €11.5 billion by 2027.
THE premier cruise trade event and conference for the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas, Seatrade Cruise Med, has chosen Malaga for the second time to hold what it considered one of the most important fairs of the cruise sector. It will bring together representatives from the main cruise lines on September 11 and 12 next year at the Palacio de Ferias. Last year it attracted 2,000 visitors from 78 countries, including more than 170 cruise line executives.
BREAK DOWN COVER
If your car breaks down it can be an upsetting experience, especially if you don’t have roadside assistance cover. But they are also the most common type of problem on the road.
STAY SAFE
If you break down, stay calm and safe until rescue support arrives. Remember that while you wait for help, your priority is to safeguard yourself and any fellow passengers. Línea Directa policyholders simply call 919 171 171 and inform the emergency hotline where you are. Línea Directa provides emergency roadside assistance anywhere in Spain 24/7 and 365 days a year, with a national network of operators and recovery vehicles.
GEOLOCATION SERVICE
SEAT has announced that it will build a vehicle battery cell assembly plant in Martorell, Catalunya.
The car maker - owned by Volkswagen - says the €300 million project will create more than 400 direct jobs.
The new factory will cover an area of 64,000 square meters and will also be used to assemble PowerCo cells that will be made at a new gigafactory in Sagunto, Valencia province, where construction started in March.
This service is exclusive to Línea Directa and allows breakdown recovery and roadside assistance services to pinpoint your location and send help directly to you. This service is available throughout mainland Spain, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. The technology is simple to use and really useful when you need it most.
BREAKDOWN KIT
To help you stay safe here is a checklist of some important safety items in the event of a breakdown. This emergency breakdown kit should be kept in your vehicle at all times. The kit includes: a torch and spare batteries, warm clothes and blankets, high-visibility jacket, first aid kit, jump start cables, empty fuel can, food and drink, two reflective warning signs, a road atlas, and a mobile phone charger.
As Spain’s most experienced provider of insurance for British expatriates, Línea Directa has been keeping motorists on the move for over 20 years.
We hope the information provided in this article is of interest. If you would like to contact Línea Directa please call 952 147 834. More information about Línea Directa online at www.lineadirecta.com
We hope the information provided in this article is of interest. If you would like to contact Linea Directa please call 952 147 834. More information about Linea Directa online at www.lineadirecta.com
RESERVATIONS:
+34 951 74 47 77 / +34 627 12 14 43
clive@cotorestaurante.com
www.cotorestaurante.com
Monday to Saturday: 11am-12am Sunday: 11am-6pm
Ctra. de Ronda, A-397, Km. 44, 29679 Benahavís, Málaga
SPAIN has ‘great potential’ to become a major destination for travellers seeking sustainable tourism.
That’s according to a report put together by global management consultancy firm McKinsey, and which also focuses on the importance of the need for responsible practices in the sector.
Data from the online travel platform Booking.com cited
ASTURIAS in Spain can boast of being home to the world’s smallest beach.
THE number of workers from the tourism sector signed up to the Social Security system hit a record high in June.
By Simon Hunterby McKinsey shows that more than 70% of global tourists are intending to travel in a more sustainable manner in the coming year, while 35% say that sustainability when it comes to transport and accommodation are an important factor when they are choosing a trip.
Playa de Gulpiyuri’ is a little gem which is actually 100m from the Cantabrian Sea. The beach was formed as a result of the erosion of the sea, which created a series of caves and underground channels. These channels allow the seawater to filter through them and form a kind of natural pool on the coast that consists of white sand and seawater.
This cozy beach is only about 40 metres long with an average depth of one metre at high tide and is a must-visit for those looking for a secluded, natural paradise.
Gulpiyuri Playa, which has no amenities of any kind, has been declared a Natural Monument.
Our A La Carte menu is also available on Sunday
SUNDAY ROAST
Served every Sunday from 1:00pm to 4:30pm and from 6:00pm
Chicken, roast pork or beef, all served with fresh seasonal vegetables, roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding
Set in its own grounds, El Muro Mijas has a relaxed atmosphere and offers ample private parking.
We have a chill out area as well as a terrace looking up to Mijas Pueblo as well as two other terraces and an inside dining area.
Our menu has many different dishes including meats, fish, pasta, pizza, Asian cuisine and others to suit all, including various vegetarian options.
Come and check out this exciting new restaurant found on the road up to Mijas Pueblo!
Wednesday - Friday: 17.00 - 23.00
Saturday & Sunday: 12.00 - 23.00
T: +34 951 104 424
www.aicorestaurants.com
“Spain has all of the conditions to become a reference point for sustainable tourism on a global level,” said Javier Caballero, a partner from McKinsey who heads up the firm’s tourism sector. “We have a wide and diverse range of cultural and natural heritage, ranging from our beaches to our historic sites and unique landscapes,” he added.
“Sustainable tourism does not just have a positive impact on the conservation of the environment, but also represents a major opportunity for Spain,” Caballero continued.
“Investment in sustainable infrastructure, the promotion of local culture, and the commitment to responsible practices can generate jobs and stimulate the economic development of the most touristic areas,” he added. In its report, McKinsey sets out the need for concrete measures to move toward sustainable tourism, such as close collaboration between the public and private sectors. It also points to specific issues such as decarbonisation.
The sector currently employs 13.4% of all of the workers signed up to the Social Security system.
Hector Gomez, Spain’s industry, trade and tourism minister, called the figures ‘extraordinary, in line with the magnificent performance of tourist employment over the year’.
The month of June saw employment in tourism and hospitality increase in all of Spain’s regions, with the highest growth in Andalucia, Catalunya, Madrid, the Canary Islands and the Balearics.
THE Finca Cortesin Hotel, Golf & Spa, in Malaga has been recognised among the Top 20 Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards. The luxury hotel and spa, with its own championship golf course, is the only hotel in Malaga that has entered among the 100 best in the world, according to Travel + Leisure and based on an annual reader survey. Finca Cortesin received a score of 98.26 out of 100.
A CHANGE in temporary residency rules means that those who spend more than six months outside of Spain will no longer have their permits revoked. Now, individuals with temporary residence permits in Spain, which can last up to five years, may now travel abroad for more than six months within one year.
The Spanish Supreme Court made the decision to cancel the clause in Spain’s immigration rulebook.
Although some note that the decision might not be the final word on the matter and could be superseded by future changes to the Immigration Law.
THE Sepla pilots union has reached a deal with Spanish airline Air Europa that will avoid any fresh strikes in the short term.
A series of three stoppages were staged this year between May 1 and July 2, causing the cancellation of more than 300 flights.
An internal document from Sepla states that the union considers the airline to have satisfied the majority of its demands for the signing of a new collective agreement. These include a substantial
FOOD company Grupo Palacios has decided to withdraw its Spanish omelettes from the market after they were connected with several cases of botulism.
Spain’s AESAN food safety agency has not, so far, been able to link the tortillas with the reported cases, but Grupo Palacios has decided to be cautious and take the products off the shelves.
The group has called on consumers to not eat them if they have bought them, and to return them to the point of sale in order to receive a refund.
Five cases had been reported including a 49-year-old man who was hospitalised in
improvement in conditions that is aimed at recovering income lost during the pandemic, as well as better-quality accommodation and food when pilots are flying long-haul routes. Sources close to the negotiations revealed salaries would be raised by 4% this year, and then 3% during
the Galician city of Ourense and had to be taken to intensive care.
Other cases include a 23-year-old woman and her 61-year-old father, who returned to Italy from the Spanish city of Valladolid on July 1 having consumed one of the affected tortillas the day before.
Botulism is a rare but potentially fatal illness that is caused by a toxin produced by a bacteria. The disease causes weakness, blurry vision, fatigue and problems speaking. It is treated by using an antitoxin.
the next two consecutive years. Air Europa, whose finances were already in a precarious situation before the industrial action, has also committed to withdrawing a lawsuit it filed at Spain’s national High Court in which it accused the unions of staging illegal and abusive strikes. The legal action was demanding nearly €30 million of damages.
Rescue
Air Europa is Spain's third-largest airline after Iberia and Vueling. It is awaiting authorisation from Brussels for its sale to Iberia. It must also pay back a €475 million rescue package it received during the Covid-19 pandemic and a €140 million loan that it received from the state ICO credit institute.
T’S a food pilgrimage that thousands of Americans, Japanese and Europeans make every year…but, as far as the French go, it’s nothing to get excited about.
Gallic food bible Michelin almost begrudgingly admits Asador Etxebarri is ‘worth a stop’, but only gives it one solitary star and then adds, with no sense of irony, you’ll need to book ‘a minimum two months ahead’. Sacre Bleu! Is it any wonder the Span-
ish leapfrogged the French in the global cookery standings over a decade ago. This rural retreat in the heart of the Basque Region has been in the world’s Top Ten best restaurants for a decade for its incredibly original and simple way of cooking.
Now firmly cemented in Spanish foodie folklore, chef Victor Arguinzoniz hasn’t fallen out of the prestigious World’s 50 Best list since entering in 2011 and, well, quite frankly he probably couldn’t care less.
This chef’s chef launched his style of ‘fire cooking’ three decades ago in the small village of Axpe, where he grew up without electricity and gas and where his mother and grandmother would cook on an open hearth.
He also cooks entirely on an open grill - everything,
including pudding - and the world’s top chefs rave about him and plan their annual holidays around a meal here.
It’s a romantic tale and this village, sitting on the GR-229 walking trail by the beautiful Urkiola natural park, is almost impossible to beat.
So I certainly wasn’t expecting to land a table when I found myself driving through the area on a weekday earlier this month.
But logging onto its website a couple of days before out of interest, I miraculously discovered a 1.30pm slot for two people on the very Tuesday we were passing.
After my heart missed a beat and I slammed the button to ‘book’, I heard nothing, except an email saying we would get another email asking for our credit card details.
It wasn’t looking optimistic, but as the restaurant was shut on the Monday, I figured we’d just rock up and hope for the best. I also sent a personal email to Victor, congratulating him on, once again, making the Top Five, last month. With these things, you simply never
know.
Of course, we arrived to find the booking was not confirmed… but, despite a disdainful look, Maitre D Mohamed, from Algeria, did understand the mix up and sat us down on an outside table and brought us a couple of cold beers.
He did insist there was ‘no space’, but he promised to see what he could do.
After a 30-minute wait, enjoying the peaceful surroundings, with views across the church spire towards faraway peaks and braying Monchina and Betizu cows, a delicious cold broth suddenly arrived.
‘Just to try,’ exclaimed a waitress, making sure we didn’t get our hopes up… and then suddenly a tablecloth came out and our table was dressed.
“We can’t do the full 15 courses, but we can offer you a lobster, a steak and a few starters,” ventured ‘Moha’, as he is known to his fellow staff.
Are you kidding? We bit his hand off and sat down to, arguably, the most authentic meal of our lives.
First things first, it might seem amiss
to be reviewing a restaurant when you’re not sampling the full tasting menu. But the Asador does have an a la carte option and, in any case, it turned out Moha was under-selling. The first thing that arrived was a plate of thinly-sliced chorizo, which I knew was a signature dish and made on the premises. And boy was it good, so unbelievably moist and melt in the mouth, despite being hung for just two months.
Next up were anchovies on toast with olive oil and tomato. They come from nearby Ondarroa, where Victor is a long-time buyer and he salts them for six months in a special drying room. Again, the tenderness and flavour was the ticket.
I was really starting to relax, enjoying the leafy terrace with its oxidised iron feeders full of rhododendrons, bees and blue tits.
Sure, there was a sense of missing out by not eating in the buzzing main dining room, with its beams and double height ceiling, but we weren’t the only diners on the terrace and, by now, Moha was really starting to warm to us, explaining each dish and particularly wines (he’s the sommelier too, it turns out).
We really loved his choice of flinty dry albarino, called ‘O Equilibrio’ by the bodega Fulcro, which was the perfect choice for what I can only describe as the best seafood dish I’ve ever eaten. Quite simply, you will never try any-
thing like it. And yes, I’ve dined on the amazing turbot up the road in Getaria, the bluefin tuna in Zahara and giant red shrimps in Sanlucar de Barrameda, but the lobster served at Etxebarri is simply remarkable. Garnished with exactly nothing - it is simply cooked to a tender tee on Victor’s wood grill, its juices taking the plaudits. It may seem hard to believe, but once you’ve mopped up the juice from its brains and ink with the local bread, the extraordinary richness will stay on your palate for weeks. Indeed it’s still helping me sleep. But that wasn’t all. Next came out a veal chop, so beautifully cooked that, even though we were full, you wouldn’t dream of leaving a sliver.
And then came the climax: a bowl of smoky ice cream that was also smoked over the grill and then served with a beetroot coulis, so sweet I thought it was cherry. Even better, all the ingredients come from the village, as does as much as
Victor can get, including plenty of the vegetables that he grows in this garden. All in all, an exceptional meal, one that - thanks to its unfussy staff and plain simplicity - actually deserves four stars. Now hop off, Pierre. www.asadoretxebarri.com
NIt’s good to be back in the civilized polo fields of Andalucia, after taking a battering from the bulls of Pamplona, writes Xander Fiske-Harrison Navarra was once a great kingdom, spanning the Pyrenees
XANDER
THE OLIVE PRESS AND PICU BANUS INVITE YOU TO A BOTTLE OF WINE*
With every table reservation - scan the QR code.
be delighted that I took a hammering.
On day two, I tripped on a fallen runner while matching my feet to the hooves of the bulls of Cebado Gago, from Cadiz, a breed which strikes fear into the hearts of all experienced bull-runners.
While a half dozen other runners landed on my back, putting a hairline fracture in a rib and destroying my knee, the bull did something far more interesting when it landed on my arm.
It doesn't look quite so bad today, but it doesn't look normal either I would have been far better off joining the Olive Press editor in the nearby cool leafy hills, sampling the food at Asador Etxeberri (see review on page 34) often said to be Spain's best restaurant.
Sadly, I was not invited, and I would have been interested, as I recently listed a restaurant more local to the Olive Press as the best in this country in the Daily Telegraph: Azulete in Gaucin, which is under new management.
I hoped to be there this week to lick my wounds, but instead I’m watching my better half, Klarina (left), enter her own preferred zone of animal-based risk.
As I write I am watching her run rings around other players, both male and female, on the polo pitch of Puente de Hierro, ‘Iron Bridge’, in Sotogrande. Polo is one of the few sports where men and women can play together at a high level, and Klarina is among the top dozen female players in the world.
Her team Las Sacras Romanas – ‘The Holy Romans’, a nod to both her Austrian heritage and Spanish residency – made it to the semi-finals of the British Ladies Open at Cowdray Park, the Wimbledon of polo, last year. This year, though, we are in
Sotogrande, looking after her breeding herd – her stallion, El Star, is first cousin of Frankel, the highest rated racehorse of all time – and she trains and sells them from Iridike Polo Club in Jimena de la Frontera. For now, between typing and sipping cava on the impec-
cable lawns of Sotogrande, I keep my fingers crossed she doesn't end up under half a dozen horses in a sport at least as dangerous as the taurine craziness they call sport up in Navarra. Somehow, my injury is a tiny bit more deserving, I hear you say.
THIS is so important – are you prepared to protect your family?
We can assist you with our bespoke life and mortgage protection policies to protect those that are most important to you, should the worst happen.
The first question would be – have you taken out Life Insurance?
You may have a Mortgage Protection policy, which means on your death the mortgage will be paid. But of course, this does not provide your family with some financial security when they really need it.
Mortgage Protection is a good policy to have as it will pay off any mortgage you have on your house, keeping your family secure in their home. This is death only cover, however there are some additional options you can add on if you require them.
For example for Mortgage Payment protection, for €100,000 of cover for a 50 year old can be as little as €305 per year.
Whereas life insurance provides a payment to your family. You can tailor the life policy to your own requirements and create a bespoke life insurance – whether to cover the initial costs incurred on your death or give your family a lump sum to provide for their future.
For example, life cover of €50,000 for a 50 year old, can be as little as €155 a year.
Our bespoke life policies can give you the cover most suited to you needs with standard death only cover and additional covers to include:-
● Repatriation
● Permanent Absolute Disability
● Death by Accident
● Death by Traffic Accident
● Permanent Absolute Disability due to an Accident
● Permanent Absolute Disability due to a Traffic Accident
● Serious Illness cover/Serious Female illness cover
You do need to be resident in Spain for these policies and there will be a simple health/medical questionnaire that you will need to complete online. These policies are available with monthly direct debit payments, and our policies will be in English.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR A QUOTATION, PLEASE CALL ONE OF MY OFFICES, EMAIL INFO@ JENNIFERCUNNINGHAM.NET OR VISIT THE WEBSITE WWW.JENNIFERCUNNINGHAM.NET
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If you are interested, please send an email to: j.a.frerichs@oncodianova.com
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AN alarming one in four patients in Spanish hospitals are at risk of malnutrition andshockingly - this percentage jumps to 37% for patients over the age of 70.
The most vulnerable groups at risk include those with cancer-related diseases (35%), cardiovascular issues (29%), and respiratory conditions (28%).
The cause for this has been put down to the fact that Spain remains the only country in the European Union that does not include dietitians and nutritionists as part of its public healthcare system.
This omission is particularly concerning given the crucial role these professionals play in preventing and identifying malnutrition and hindering its harmful knock-on effects.
The lack of prevention means that patients are treated with drugs and pharmacology, which often expose patients to complications and adverse effects.
As an example, cancer is now the second leading cause of
death in Spain, with half of cancer patients experiencing malnutrition during hospitalisation.
Malnutrition alters drug properties and their effects, often requiring higher doses, leading to increased toxicity and extended treatment cycles or even treatment abandonment due to inefficacy.
Conducting nutritional screening upon hospital admission would reduce costs, shorten hospital stays, decrease the
Quick Crossword
Across: 7 Anarchy, 8 Group, 9 Tames, 10 Observe, 11 Yokel, 13 Ecology, 15 Mariner, 17 Sleep, 19 Dunster, 21 Other, 22 Cubic, 23 Leotard.
Down: 1 Earthy, 2 Haymaker, 3 Ices, 4 Bygone, 5 Door, 6 Speedy, 8 Gaseous, 12 Lunatic, 14 Overheat, 15 Medico, 16 Rarely, 18 Parade, 20 Nibs, 21 Oxon.
likelihood of readmissions, and, most importantly, improve treatment efficacy for patients. Nutritional screening upon admission would enable doctors and medics to catch malnutrition early and undertake a more effective treatment approach.
In fact, its inclusion in healthcare could result in a remarkable cost reduction, with potential savings of up to €99 for every euro invested in dietary treatment.
It would also align Spain with the standards proposed by the World Health Organization and the European Union.
ing tables, voted and left without a fuss.
Umbrella war
Horse power
High temper
Turned off
VICTIMS of noisy neighbours will be giving a (quiet) three cheers after a man was jailed for blasting out electronic music at full blast for five years. And to top it off he has been banned from any profession linked to electronic music. The Catalan has been given a 15-month prison term and ordered to pay €18,000 compensation to his neigh -By Alex Trelinski
bours for playing the music with a thumping beat at full volume day and night between 2012 and 2017.
Flip flop voter
His neighbours certainly did not feel like dancing as the selfish music lover ignored a series of com plaints.
Escaping the Rat Race
Instead of scurrying away to hide, the rodents are nonchalantly strolling the streets of Alicante, with local authorities claiming they have been ‘stunned’ by poison rather than killed.
And what’s more, a representative of the local pest control company is claiming they are ‘country’ rats causing the problem, rather than their local city-dwelling kin.
VOTERS and election operators were treated to a comedic sight on a most serious day in Spanish electoral politics: a man coming in to vote wearing flippers, snorkel and clutching a cool box. Sunday’s snap general election, held in high summer on the day of rest, provoked the ire of one lottery salesman irked that he had been dragged away from the beach to vote.
Jorge, known for his quirky sense of humour, made his splashy entrance at the Manuel Fernandez school polling station in Malaga.
In desperation, long-suffering residents called police reached 56 decibels at night26 above what was permitted. A Mataro court also fined the man - named as Jordi F - €2,160 as well as imposing the professional ban. One of his neighbours in El Masnou - north of Barcelona - suffered from insomnia resulting from the noise, which required specialised medication. Another person had their Alzheimer’s disease condition worsened due to anxiety caused by the high volume of electronic music pumping out from his home.
Shady business
