Date Published: 30/05/2014

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014

An events diary ranging from motorbike tours to bobbin lacemaking, while politics and the weather dominate the news

What’s On in Murcia, 30th May to 6^th June

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 Although as usual there are a variety of events and exhibitions going on throughout the Region of Murcia, this weekend there are even more reasons than usual to plan an excursion to the centre of Cartagena, as various diverse attractions coincide with the end of May and the beginning of June.

After a very public battle to decide where the treasure on board the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de la Mercedes should be housed it has finally found a home in the Arqua national underwater archaeology museum on the seafront by the port in Cartagena. Many of the coins and other items which were on board the ship when it was sunk by the Royal Navy in 1804 are on display as of today, and for the first ten days of the ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 exhibition entry is free of charge.

After visiting the Arqua display, a short walk inland takes you back in time 2,000 years to the days of the Roman Empire, as a mini-Roman city has been set up until 1^st July on the portside. If you’ve ever wondered what Roman fast food consisted of or what the street toilets smelled like this is your chance to find out!

Following on from Ancient Rome it’s only a quick stroll back to the promenade and the Plaza de los Héroes de Cavite, where this year’s gastronomic festival is taking place. This is like a tapas route but without the walking: restaurants bring their gastronomic delights to stalls set up in the Plaza san Francisco, and also has free concerts as part of the offering.

Those who prefer their tapas routes to include a tour of the town can choose this weekend between two events, one in La Unión and the other in Los Alcázares, both of them offering the chance to combine a few ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 snacks with getting to know the Region a little better. This weekend also marks the end of the gastronomy season in Águilas, which runs until 2^nd June.

On a gastronomic note, there’s also a week-long gastronomic festival in Orihuela just across the border in the Alicante province next week. This is not a run-of-the-mill menu of the day for 9 euros event, but a chance to sample the very finest of regional cuisine as leading restaurants provide a 6 to 9 course gastronomic menu. Each menu costs 30 euros, but for this price guests will be enjoying a meal which would normally cost twice as much. Again, this can be combined with visiting this historical city.

Other interesting visits on offer include the Matilde mine in El Beal opening to the public on Saturday, and again on Saturday a special winetasting event, conducted in English, at the Wine Museum in Bullas. Wine lovers are in for a real treat over the next couple of months in Jumilla, where a series of wine and music ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 evenings are being held at wineries as part of the Música entre Vinos festival. The first of these is on Sunday evening at the Casa de la Ermita.

Two other hugely contrasting events on Sunday are the sedate bobbin lace festival at the El Batel auditorium and the rather noisier motorcycle tour which will follow a roundabout route from Murcia to Mula via Cehegín. With over 6,000 riders expected to take part this is bound to clog up the roads in the area, but if you’re stuck behind them remember that it’s all in a good cause (anti-drugs organizations) and if youve got a bike of any cc, go and join them, its a great day out. Visitors to Mula over the next six months can also now view an open-air exhibition of sculptures by Cristóbal Gabarrón in the streets of the town centre.

In terms of musical events, those which stand out include Spanish pop singer Merche in concert at El Batel on ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 Friday, and the Region of Murcia Symphony Orchestra performing works by Beethoven and Schumann in Cartagena on Sunday before popping up again in Murcia next Thursday with a program featuring Shostakovich and Brahms. Classical music fans will also want to make a note of the performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in Murcia’s Teatro Romea next Friday.

Residents of San Pedro del Pinatar might want to pop along to Lo Pagán on Saturday to learn more about local clubs, charities and associations, and finally those who enjoy a good local fiesta should make an effort to see colour and medieval spectacle of the Trinitarios y Berberiscos celebrations in Torre Pacheco. This has a mediaeval market, beer festival and grand parade, all well worth going along to.

For a more complete listing of forthcoming events, visit theregularly updated Murcia Today “What’s on” section,

Region of Murcia news round-up, 30^th May 2014

There have been two main talking points in the news in Murcia this week: politics and the weather.

As in the rest of the country, the European election results in the Region of Murcia last Sunday showed the ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 extent to which voters are unhappy with the performance over the last few years of the two major parties in national politics, the PP and the PSOE. In what may turn out to be either a protest vote or a dramatic overhaul of the entire political landscape, around half of the country’s voters ticked the boxes next to candidates from minority parties, and in the Region of Murcia the number of people supporting the ruling party, the PP was 45% down on the figure from five years ago, a similar result also recorded by the other main party, the PSOE. With local elections not far away, the Spanish media have obsessed all week over what this could mean in the future.

As for the weather, this was an unusual week in that in many parts of the Region of Murcia rain actually fell out of the sky on Wednesday. There wasn’t much of it, though, ( although parts of the altiplano may have a storm or two in the coming hours) and the drought of the last twelve months is now posing a serious threat to the Region’s agriculture, especially livestock farming (pasture land is practically non-existent in some areas) and crop cultivation in areas without irrigation. The national government has stepped in and announced aid packages, but unless it rains soon (and that’s not very likely over the summer) the situation will only get worse.

The lack of rain also means a greater risk of wildfires, and the Region of Murcia’s fire prevention plan has got under way earlier than usual this summer.

Of course, for those visiting Murcia on holiday a lack of rain is very much what they expect and hope for, and ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 the latest figures show that more foreign visitors are spending more money in the Region than in 2013. Murcia accounts for only just over 1% of national foreign tourist expenditure, but the rate of increase this year is higher than in other areas and tourists from the UK have still spent 75 million euros in Murcia in the first four months of this year.

Elsewhere in Murcia this week it has to be said that news has been fairly thin on the ground, but three East European robbers were tracked down and arrested in Mazarrón, San Javier Town Hall is at last set to take over the Ciudad del Aire after a ten-year period of negotiations, a Los Alcázares butcher has been charged with treating his illegally employed workers like slaves and biologists from the ANSE ecological association in Cartagena have been taking part in a Mediterranean dolphin census.

Perhaps the most eye-catching miscreants during the week, though, have been Rumanians. Some are begging for money by pretending to be deaf – don’t be fooled, no associations are currently collecting for the deaf in the Region of Murcia – and earlier in the week a 14-year-old Rumanian stole a 4-by-4 in Bullas and then drove it all the way to Alhama de Murcia at high speed before the police finally managed to catch him and place him under arrest.

Spanish news summary, www.spanishnewstoday.com

The Spanish national news this week was dominated in the most part by the fallout from the European ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 election results on Sunday, which served to show to what extent the country’s voters are disillusioned with the main PP and PSOE parties. Although the PP took some crumbs of comfort from the fact that they received more votes than their rivals, for the first time since the democracy the two main parties totaled under half of the votes, with secondary left-wing groups, some moderate and some more extreme, benefitting from the general disenchantment with the mainstream parties. Whether these results will be repeated at the next national elections is doubtful, but in the meantime they cost PSOE leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba his job: he announced his resignation on Tuesday.

Part of the reason cited in the Spanish media this week for this unprecedented level of dissatisfaction is the ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 corruption which seemed to be rife in Spain during the construction boom years, and this was exemplified on Wednesday by the case of a former leading politician in the region of Valencia, Rafael Blasco. A 30-year political career which has always been dogged by corruption allegations now finally seems to be over following his being sentenced to eight years in prison for repeated misuse of public funds during his time in office.

And this week the government responded to criticism that it was failing to listen to the message of voters by confirming that it is modifying the citizen security law which has caused so much upset recently after legal experts warned that elements of the new legislation could be deemed unconstitutional.

The good news, though, is that the country’s economic recovery seems to be gaining momentum. This was confirmed during the week by the IMF, and if the tourist sector is anything to go by more good news is on the way during the rest of the year: foreign visitors to the country are spending more than ever in Spain this year so far. Another good sign is that spending on public works appears to be increasing, and in addition, the property sector seems to be reaching a point of stability at last after seven years of turmoil: for more details see the Spanish News Today weekly round-up.

Another interesting story this week concerned the developments at Castellón’s “ghost airport”, which now hopes to open before the end of the year and end Aena’s virtual monopoly on Spain’s airports through the investment of a Canadian management company. The airport was officially declared open over three years ago, but since then has been totally devoid of aircraft.

Elsewhere, the authorities are warning that the proliferation of fake brand clothes and accessories on sale in street markets is harming the country’s textiles sector, 500 more illegal immigrants made the crossing from Morocco into Melilla, illegally imported sexual performance enhancement medications were seized in raids all ARCHIVED - Murcia Today news and What’s On round-up, 30th May 2014 over Spain, and in an unusual move the head of Spanish tobacco distribution company Altadis took it upon himself to demand that taxes on cigarettes be increased in Gibraltar to try and stem the tide of illegal fakes which continue to flood into the country from all borders .

Others in the news this week include Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quijote, whose remains are being searched for in a Madrid church, and unscrupulous fraudsters who look set to rekindle the horsemeat being sold as other meats scandal, following a series of raids and arrests.

But following jellyfish and angel sharks two weeks ago and a toilet snake last week, this week’s round-up ends with sea lions and beluga whales. Scientists at a Madrid university have published a study showing after a number of experiments, all of which involved feeding the animals fish, that marine mammals have the ability to count, putting them on a par with primates in their numerical ability.

It’s the time of year when millions all over Spain are filing their income tax declarations for 2013 – if you need a helping hand, call in a dolphin!

www.valenciatoday.es Valencia Today

The Valencia Today product covers the Comunitat Valenciana, which covers the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellón, and produces its own dedicated weekly bulletin

Currency round-up

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