The Online newspaper for the Costa Brava, News fromL'Estartit, Pals, Begur, Palafrugell, Palamós, Platja d'Aro, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Tossa de Mar, Lloret de Mar

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News from the Alt Empordá

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				Calella L'Escala Tossa de Mar
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From 9 May to 8 July there will be an exhibition entitled "Familiart" in the hall of the old tourist office of Lloret de Mar, of the work of three generations of artists.

As part of the "46es Festes de Primavera" of Palafrugell, a petanque tournament is to take place on 9 May starting at 11.30 in the gardens of Can Bech.

Ryanair carried in the first six months 50,000 passengers between Girona and Madrid. The airline has shown much satisfaction with this result, and wants to increase the number of flights to Madrid if possible.

Julio Iglesias is this year´s star of the "Festival de Jardins de Cap Roig" (Calella de Palafrugell).  Anyone wanting to go to the concert on 14 August, should book early for tickets. The festival starts on 11 July with the jazz combo "Return to Forever". Altogether 18 concerts are on offer; they include famous performers such as Paul Anka and Kool & the Gang.

The 49 members of the choir "Els Virolets de Palafrugell" sang in St. Mark´s church in Venice on 25 April.

The three bars Gib's, 900 and De Gom a Gom in Platja d'Aro that are to be closed down by court order claim that they already have sufficient noise protection features in place. They also claim either to  have the necessary licences already or that they have been applied for. The bars intend to object against the court decision.

The "Fira d'Antic Calonge" antique fair held for first time recently has had positive results: 40 exhibitors and 8000 visitors.

The approach road to the  Iberian settlement of Ullastret from the GI-644 has been clearly improved, with a roundabout and new parking spaces.

The cycle race  “Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2008” will begin on 19 May in Lloret de Mar. The second stage ends in Banyoles.

The secretariats of the justices of the peace of Lloret de Mar and Tossa de Mar get together.

The cruise ship season has begun in Palamós with the arrival of the sailing boat Wind Surf, a five-mast ship with 300 passengers and 150 crewmembers. The 2008 season offers a rather disappointing number of ship landings. In the year 2007, 22184 passengers stopped at Palamós; while during 2008 only about 5000 are expected to disembark. Also, the number of ships will be reduced from 30 to 20. The spectacular decrease is because ships of the tour operator Thomson will no longer stop in Palamós. Its ships were responsible for 5600 visitors.

The city hall of Castell Platja d'Aro must immediately close, by a court resolution, three bars in the well-known entertainment mile “Carrer de l'Església.”  The three are the Gib's, 900 and De Gom a Gom. All three were cited for having inadequate licenses.  Also, the bars Sininic and Kivi are now forbidden to offer any form of music. These establishments possess a bar license but are not licenses as musical bars.

The ceramic museum Museu Terracotta in la Bisbal will soon be all new. The cost of the renovation of the old factory buildings is estimated at 886 thousand euro. The work will begin in the middle of May.

During the long weekend after 1 May the accommodation enterprises turisme rural (rural tourism) in the province of Girona expect utilization to reach 65%.

The “Centre Tramuntana” from Palafrugell will take over the care of the green areas of La Bisbal. Tramuntana was created in 1987 and provides employment for handicapped persons.

Palafrugell has established a commission that will meet once a month, to develop measures to reduce water use.  The goal of the commission is to help alleviate the situation with the smallest possible impact to the city and its citizens.

On 1 May the roads of La Bisbal will be filled with businessmen who will offer their goods at stands, under the rubric “botiga al Carrer.”

From 9 until 11 May the port of Palamós will be the site of a large meeting “Palamós, Terra de Mar.”  The Fiesta honours the maritime flavour of the city, with special accents on its history and culture.

The restaurant of the Cala Giverola in Tossa de Mar is now only a memory. The beach has been returned to its original state and the showers were removed.

In the port of L'Estartit the second meeting of the collectors of Cava labels will be held on 11 May from 10 to 14 o'clock.

On 1 May, at the beach of Llafranc, the classical Sardinada will take place beginning at 9 o'clock 30.

Calonge wants to make its new 2000 m2 fair palace the premier address for congresses on the Costa Brava.

The federal state government will allow abortions after the twenty-second week if the foetus appears to be deformed.

The city theatre of Palafrugell will organize, as part of their Sant Jordi celebration, a 12 hours continuing reading of works by Josep Pla.

Palafrugell cleans the protection passages against forest fires in Llafranc and Calella.

From the 1 until 4 May the hotel Samba in Lloret de Mar will accommodate the X Spanish Scrabble championship.

The Can Quintana in Torroella de Montgrí shows the exhibition until 16 June “Braus, Llum, Mar” by Elke Daemmrich.

The city hall of Calonge agreed with the owners of the adjacent properties that the first phase of the renovation of the old part of town should be delayed until after the season, and begin on 15 September.

Sant Feliu de Guíxols protects the environment of the “Punta de Garbí” by prohibiting boats from anchoring and prohibiting diving. The area has been designated a “reserva maritime” and runs for two kilometres up to the “Cala del Vigatà.”

On the former Plaça de Toros of Girona a new four-star hotel with 115 rooms and a restaurant will be built. With its proximity to the fair palace the hotel may be particularly interesting to business travellers.

Sant Feliu de Guíxols organizes from 1 to 4 May for the third time “Guíxolsmar,” a fair for new and used boats. Numerous companies and associations will also participate, representing different aspects of the water sport.

The property market of the province Girona is in a downtrend. For the first time since 1996 the demand is clearly smaller than the supply and the market is full of new buildings without buyers. This, of course, also impacts the number of new building starts. In the year 2007 14,692 new housing units were built, 34.36% fewer than in the previous year.

The renovation work on the road Vall de Venècia of Lloret de Mar is completed.

The association “La cuina de l'Empordanet" presented a book of the same name that offers cooking prescriptions by the 21 members of the association distributed free at the member restaurants.

The rainfall during the past few days has helped raise the reservoir levels, somewhat. Susqueda is now filled to 27% of its capacity. The fear of a drought is only slightly lessened.

Ryanair renegotiated the agreement with the airport of Girona until 2011. Girona remains the base of operations for Southern Europe. Ryanair will increase the number of its planes from the current 9 to 14 and the number of flights from 55 to 75. The new flight activity represents the majority inside Spain. The airport itself must be made ready for the demand, for in 2011 there may be 8 million passengers, vs. 4,8 million in 2007. Construction of the second runaway is not thought to be necessary, however plans exist to add the second runway when demand calls for it.

Also Palafrugell must scrupulously limit the use of drinking water because of the current drought. Consequently, watering is prohibited for gardens and parks and the cleaning of the streets. These regulations affect both private and public spaces. Swimming pools cannot be filled any more and car washing with a hose is prohibited. Basically the only allowed use of water is inside the house.

Lloret de Mar plans to activate the terraces of the bars and the restaurants in the centre of the city again. Thus, the town hall wants consequently to modify the decrees during this year.  

The Catalan ministry for Education and the Culture will invest 40 million euros in 111 libraries during the next five years.

28 restaurants or hotels of Lloret de Mar will take part, until May 11, in a gastronomic campaign with rice dishes. The prices for the menus will range from 25 and 58 euros.

The way along the coast close to Lloret de Mar from the “Castell d'en Plaja “until the Montgoda Urbanization got certain improvements: two new points of view as boards of safety were installed, Also the ground which had suffered during the last storm was returned to its original condition.

The hotel Aigua Blava in Begur accommodated a congress of single educating parents; representatives of associations from all over Spain took part.

More and more motorised visitors enter the natural reserve at Cape Roig-Castell (Palafrugell). Salvem el Crit-Arítjol has received complaints from many walkers and cyclists who feel inconvenienced and ask the administration to deal with the problem.

In Spain the old and new Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced his ministerial team and surprised everyone. For the first time in the history of Spain women comprise the majority.  Women run 9 of 17 ministries.

Lloret de Mar is building a new senior citizen’s home with 300 places. The facilities will be available during the next three years.

	The arts centre “Escoles Velles” in Begur shows photographs of the time of the foundation of the hotel Cape Sa Sal between Sa Tuna and Aiguafreda. The hotel was in operation from 1963 to 1979 before being converted in to studios. The hotel, in its heyday was a symbol of the Costa Brava and was a place of meeting for intellectuals and artists.
Photo Josep Carreras

The days of the restaurant in Cala Giverola in Tossa de Mar are numbered. The building will be demolished. The licence for a restaurant directly on the beach was terminated in 2004. The town hall wants to keep at least a platform as well as the existing showers and the toilets, but the coastal authority required a complete elimination of all the elements. The project is a double blow to the restaurant’s cliental, since they must finance work.

The historical substance of the old hospital of Sant Feliu is being renovated. Helping are exchange students from Italy from the Scuola Edile di Firenze (Florence).

Finally, Catalonia is not immune to inflation. The highest price increases were recorded for clothing and shoes.  In March, these items were almost 2,9% more expensive than in February. The general price index (IPC) increased in March nearly 0,8 percent, which corresponds to an annual rate of increase of 4,5%.

The campaign Peix de Roca (rock fish) will be in the restaurants of Begur until 4 May.

	Tossa de Mar will inaugurate a new Web site, before the summer season, to help find hotel reservations.
Tossa de Mar

The chamber orchestra of the music school of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, composed of Twenty-seven students, between 13 and 20 years of age, gave a concert in Regensburg as fruit of the co-operation with its school of music.

A basic condition for the acquisition of Spanish nationality is that the applicant must have lived in Spain for 10 years, with valid residence permit. At present there are efforts to shorten the residency period to only 5 years.

Torroella de Montgrí and L’Estartit want to use, not only during the present drought, but permanently, water from the purification plant for the road cleaning and for watering the public gardens.

In Calonge a new luxury hotel will be built, in the building complex Vilanova de Cabanyes, which dates back to the 16th century.

The cinema museum of Girona had the windows of its main front decorated with motives from the world of moving pictures, to celebrate its opening (in this form) ten years ago.

Lloret de Mar receives a credit of 1,4 million euro from the Ministry for industry, trade and tourism for the building of new sports sites. The credit is a 15-year low-interest loan.

	Besalú offers free Wi-Fi Internet access to all his citizens with one small restriction: the downloading of music or video is not possible.
Besalú

The diocese Girona organises in Lloret de Mar a congress with professionals of the tourism, which shall serve common interests.

	The shops of Lloret de Mar experienced on 28 and 29 March a wave of break-ins. Two of the alleged burglars have been arrested.
Lloret de Mar

The city hall of Santa Cristina d'Aro publishes a new information brochure: Ridaura, addressing primarily cultural topics.

Palafrugell inaugurated two new parking lots with 201 places at the old football field and behind the bus station.

The environmental protection organisation “Salvem el Crit i Arítjol” criticises the plans to build a green way (via Verde) parallel to the road C-31 between Palamós and Palafrugell.  In addition the agricultural trade union “Unió de Pagesos” seconds the complaint, saying there are already enough footpaths in the area.

Isolated rainfall during the past weekend could not change the precarious situation of water levels in the region’s artificial lakes.  For example, Sau is filled only to 13% of capacity and Susqueda is at 25%.

In Andorra the foundation Ramon Llull has been created. The foundation, named after the famous Poet, wants to encourage the cultural spreading of the Catalan language. The statutes permit participation in regions outside of Catalonia.

The shops of La Bisbal, which offer telecommunication services, are to be subjected to a uniform regulation.

The renovation work on the building complex Torre Bisbal in La Bisbal is already in the initial phase; 14 months of continuous construction work will follow.

In order to reduce the fire risk during the summer months, Palafrugell assigned a company to clean up five real estate properties in the zone Sant Sebastià, to remove bushes and pieces of wood. The work is also to improve the habitat of the existing vegetation.

On Easter Saturday lots of rain fell on the province of Girona. In Girona 44 litres per square metre was measured, in Platja d'Aro 34 litres.  Despite this excessive downpour the water drought continues.

In Palamós Tramuntana and cold weather could not hinder 200 fearless persons from taking the traditional first bath of the season in the Mediterranean. The water temperature was a mere 13 degrees, vs. 12 degrees for the air temperature. The swimmers remained in the water for only a short time, and were rewarded with a bowl of warm soup.

Numerous guests and dealers attended the market for jumble sale and antiques on Easter Sunday in La Bisbal.

The fishery museum of Palamós has officially joined the series of ethnologic museums of Catalonia.

According to newest counting 380,000 persons belong to the Islamic faith in Catalonia. Most of them are immigrants; only 33,750 are native-born Spaniards. Altogether Spain counts 1.130.000 Muslims, about 2.5 per cent of the population.

The mediaeval market of Calonge had to be called off on Saturday because of strong rain, but it was able to re-open on Sunday.

On the Easter Sunday and Monday over 40.000 passengers used the Girona Airport. The entire Holy Week counted 217,772 passengers on 585 flights. The parking lots were full but there were no major bottlenecks.

The spring-fiesta of Palamós begins on 7 May and runs to the following weekend.

From the 1st to 30 May Tossa de Mar will highlight the “Cuina del Mar” (kitchen of the sea). The restaurants of the place will offer special menus, which are oriented toward the traditional kitchen of Tossa de Mar as well as new creations.

Sant Feliu de Guíxols entered into an agreement with the Servei Català de Trànsit, to improve the safety of the traffic routes. At the beginning of the co-operation will be a diagnostic phase to evaluate the crossings and main streets of Sant Feliu de Guíxols.

The call by call telephone service has again lowered its tariffs for local calls and calls within Spain: Local calls will now cost within the fixed net (1074) 2.8 cent and (1053) 3.6 cent per minute. Also telephoning from the fixed net to the cell phone became cheaper at 28 cent (1074) and 25 cent (1053). Calls within the European Union and to the USA are even more competitive at less than 6.5 cent per minute. For calls to other countries please consult the appropriate tariffs.

CapCreus online http://cbrava.com  

Impressum: Ernst Witzel, Paul A. Hoffstein, Manuel Fernández Vila, Christel Arnold, Geraldine Steffler, . Article contributions, even when being seriously serious please to cconline@cbrava.com   CapCreus online, every day a little more.