As the Pride of Bilbao begins its final summer’s service on the Portsmouth-Bilbao route (says John Hillman)whale watchers have their last chance to join P&O Ferries and the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme on-board for a marine wildlife workshop.

A selection of Europe’s leading cetacean and seabird researchers will be on hand during selected crossings to teach people how to spot and recognise a whole range of fascinating sea animals.

The course is open to the general public and is unique in its approach, combining a fantastic opportunity to experience a real marine biology field trip with the comfort and facilities of one of the fleets most impressive cruise ships.

The 2010 workshop dates have been confirmed as 3-6 June, 12-15 June, 18-21 June, 3-6 July, 13-16 September, 22-25 September and 25-28 September

On-board you can try your luck at spotting anyone of over 20 cetacean species, Fin Whale, Common Dolphin, regular Beaked Whale and many hundreds of different types of bird. The group in fact records record whale sightings all year round and has been instrumental in documenting just how important an area the Bay of Biscay is to marine wildlife.

Of course you can expect to enjoy your trip in the very comfortable surroundings that the Pride of Bilbao has to offer, including en suite cabin, cinema, bars, restaurants and even a casino. However the real attractions will be our on deck where the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme will be on hand to provide a Full programme of events including deck watches and presentations.

Image credit: dufspix

Tags: Lifestyle, P&O Ferries, Spain by John Hillman
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Tags: Lifestyle, P&O Ferries, Spain by Peter Moore
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If you are debating whether to take a city break or a beach holiday stop right there! Rosie Khdir has found the ideal Mediterranean location that doesn’t make you choose…

Barcelona has all you could want from a holiday destination; sun, sand and city sights! As the second largest city in Spain, both in size and population, and capital of the Catalonian region, Barcelona is sure to attract heaps of tourists, but it’s what they find there that keeps them coming back.

If you like to spend a good deal of your holiday sourcing the latest in Spanish trends then here are places to do it. El Born is for those with a bigger budget and a keener eye for labels; and has mixture of shops filled with all things designer and those sporting weird and wonderful artefacts.

Port Vell is home to a major shopping complex called Maremàgnum, which offers popular names such as Calvin Klein, Mango, H&M and a variation of tapas restaurants and coffee shops.

Just a short walk from Port Vell is Las Ramblas the famous 1.5km street running through the centre of the city. You can see many famous monuments along this street, such as the Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house, the Font de Canaletes and the city’s famous street market the Mercat de la Boqueria.

The city is filled with architectural wonders but none as beautiful as works of Antoni Gaudí. From the Güell Parc with its Doctor Seuss-esque buildings and colourful mosaic walls, to the intricate spires of his unfinished Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família Gaudí never fails to amaze every visitor.

When you get tired of the city (if you ever do that is) you can always escape to the coast and soak up the springtime sun somewhere along Barcelona’s 4.5 km beaches. You have the choice of Mar Bella, Barceloneta, Bogatell or Nova Icaria, which is closest to the Olympic Marina.

When I said this city has it all, I really wasn’t kidding. If the beautiful buildings, cultural museums and plush shops don’t fulfil you are tired of being a beach bum the head up to Montjuïc and Tibidabo, the two mountains above Barcelona.

On Montjuïc you will find not only stunning views of the city and its coast but also a botanical garden, a modern art museum dedicated to Joan Miró, the Catalan Museum of Archaeology and an Olympic Museum.

Barcelona is crammed with things to do and see, so much so that only a fraction has been mentioned in this article. What is for certain is that Barcelona has definitely earned the title of “The city that has it all”.

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Image credit: papalars

Tags: History, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries, Spain by Rosie Khdir
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Nothing quite beats the thrill of cruising along the open road in a vintage classic with the fresh coastal breeze in your face. John Hillman discovers a rally in the Catalan capital, Barcelona, where like minded enthusiasts from across Europe converge.

If you are a genuine vintage car lover then the chances are you’ve already heard of the annual Sitges Vintage Car Rally.

Each March, as winter disappears and spring approaches, huge crowds flock to the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona to admire this wonderful collection of cars, nearly all of which pre-date 1924.

Around 150 cars take part in the rally, many driven by enthusiasts who have come from the farthest corners of Europe to join in.

The 52nd Sitges Car Rally will begin the day after the Parc de la Ciutadella exhibition. The race starts at Plaza St. Juame in Barcelona at 11 a.m. on Sunday 21st March and ends 45 kilometres later at Sitges, a small town on the coast just south of Barcelona.

This really is one of the best events in Europe for anyone with a passion for these vintage classics, you’d have to go a long way to find such a rich and varied collection of 1920s automobiles anywhere else in the world.

Motoring enthusiasts can get to Barcelona with P&O Ferries either by catching the Portsmouth to Bilbao route and driving along the A68 to Zaragoza then catching the A2 to Barcelona. It’s a fantastic route through some of Spain’s most beautiful rural scenery.

A cheaper alternative – and more of an adventure – would be to catch the ferry from Dover to Calais and tour your way down through France, reliving the classic touring journeys of a bygone age.

Image credit: rallye sitges

Tags: Spain by Gabriel Grant
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Towards the end of January we will no doubt still be shivering and moaning about the cold, but Rosie Khdir discovers the villages of the Basque Country that will be celebrating the end of winter.

On the last Sunday of January the people of Ituren and Zubieta, two small villages in the Pyrenees, begin preparations for their end of winter carnival.

This festival is a long standing tradition with both villages, where local people dress up and chase away the bad spirits of winter. The main part of the carnival involves a procession from the depths of the forests toward the village square by what are known as the Joaldunak.

At the sounding of a horn from the mountain slopes above the Joaldunak, villagers clad in sheepskin, high hats, neckerchiefs, ribbons, lace petticoats, carrying whips and with huge copper cow bells round their waists, make their way to the crowds waiting in the village.

Some villagers dressed as witches and demons, representing the darkness of winter, are scared away by the carnival bear, a man dressed in rams wool and horns (not far off resembling a character from Where the Wild Things Are). Then a week of celebrations begins, with traditional foods, drink and songs, to welcome in the forces of spring and fertility.

The carnival is of Pagan origin and is considered to be linked to the energies of the earth. In 2008 the carnival was recognised by UNESCO as part of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

This year the festival starts on January 30th and last until February 6th, so why not take a trip to the beautiful Basque Country and wave goodbye to winter the Pyrenean way.

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Image credit: birasuegi

Tags: History, P&O Ferries, Spain by Rosie Khdir
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Tomas Mowlam looks at the news that Catalonia in Spain may soon ban bullfighting.

The vote in the Catalonian regional parliament today narrowly passed with 67-59 vote and five abstentions, to debate a law which could lead to a ban.

It’s a narrow victory, but a victory none the less for animal rights activists, who argue that other cruel sports like bear baiting have disappeared from Europe so why should slowly killing an equally big mammal, in an equally cruel way, have the protection of the armour of tradition and culture?

The vote came about after a petition was started with 180,000 signatures against the brutal sport by Prou! (Catalan for enough) and it has become a touchy subject.

Brigette Bardot has even waded in, with a letter to the Catalan Socialist Party which said bullfighting was “an incredibly sadistic spectacle”.

AP reported that “the issue proved so sensitive and divisive that Friday’s voting was kept secret, a rarity in the Catalan legislature.

“Some lawmakers covered their hands with newspapers as they pushed electronic voting buttons at their desks.”

Some in the pro bull fighting community have said that it’s just a way of Catalonia distancing itself even more Spain; it has its own language, culture and substantial regional autonomy.

The motivation doesn’t matter that much though, what’s important is that this could be real step forward for preventing cruelty to animals in Spain.

“The parliament has recognized that this is a subject that society is concerned about. Now for the hardest part, winning the legal battle,” said Proud under a banner reading THE MPs SAID YES on their website.

If Catalonia does ban bullfighting it will be the second Spanish region to do so after the Canary Islands in 1991.

Matadors were once great stars but its popularity has declined, and the only bull ring in Catalonia is in Barcelona.

It’s still big in Sevilla, Madrid and Pamplona, and some Catalonians are worried that it could hurt the tourist economy as well. What? The majority of people who come to Barcelona don’t do it for the bullfight, a spectacle which is pretty stomach churning.

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Image Credit: Cloudsoup

Tags: P&O Ferries, Spain by tmowlam
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Christmas is a time for heart warming stories, says John Hillman, so what better way to start the festive countdown than with a story of loss, high seas adventure and, of course, a very happy ending.

With Christmas approaching, and the pantomime season upon us, it looks as though we have a new ‘famous feline’ tail to tell, one to join our regular festive favourites such as Eliot’s Macavity and Puss in Boots.

Sandi the Seacat tells the tale of a remarkable ginger tom who went out for his usual Friday night stroll and, through a series of mishaps, found himself onboard The Pride of Bilbao and bound for Spain.

How Sandi managed to get all the way from his quiet patch of backyard territory to the hold of a P&O Ferries ship remains a mystery, but his owners, Tim and Patricia Austin, from Lee-on-the-Solent on the outskirts of Southampton, are convinced that he was the victim of a sinister catnapping.

“We know our cat wouldn’t have gotten into a car or van with strangers voluntarily – even we can’t get him into a car. We think he got out of the vehicle on the ferry when someone opened the door and he ran.”

Said Tim Austin, who spoke to Portsmouth Today.

“Him being micro-chipped has been absolutely key to his return – without that he would probably have been put down after they found him.”

“And P&O have been fantastic. He’s been well looked after.”

Indeed once Sandi was discovered by P&O Staff, wandering the car decks of the ferry, he became the one of the first cats to experience P&O Ferries’ famous hospitality on the Portsmouth to Bilbao route.

Brian Rees, P&O spokesman, said:

“Since he was found he’s been treated like a VIP – he’s had a cabin to himself for the return journey and been dining on chicken and salmon. I think most of the crew have had a cuddle – they’ll be sad to see him go.”

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Image credit: Fritzchen

Tags: Lifestyle, P&O Ferries, Spain by admin
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We might crave turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce but what do our continental cousins tuck into during the festive season? Tomas Mowlam explains.

In the Netherlands there are a great range of sweets; Kerststol, is an oval shaped fruit and nut loaf, with an almond paste in the middle, Kerstkrans is a puff pastry ring filled with fruit and nuts and Banketstaaf is a flaky pastry log with almond paste in the middle decorated with cherries.

There’s also Speculaas, short crust biscuits with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and other spices. They’re decorated in traditional shapes and are also eaten in Belgium and parts of Germany. Oliebollen are deep fried dough balls dusted in sugar sometimes with fruit inside them.

In Belgium la bûche de Noël, a rich creamy log shaped cake. Belgian’s also tuck into cougnou or cougnolle a sweet bread shaped like the baby Jesus, usually served with a cup of hot chocolate.

In Spain the big meal happens on Christmas Eve, la nochebuena. The main dish is a roast; lamb, cordero asado (above), or a main fish dish depending on the region or taste. There are great starters like white asparagus, Esparragos blancos, and traditional tapas and soups.

There is a wide selection of desserts including turron, an almond nougat, along with los polvorones , soft crumbly cakes, and marzipan figures.

Straight across the channel the French go in for Christmas meals in a big way. The big meal was traditionally eaten after midnight mass, though this is not as common. A roast goose, l’oie, is the main meal but oysters, les huîtres, are served along with salmon and caviar as starters. And of course litres of wine to wash it down.

In Alsatian France slices of Gugelhupf eaten, it’s a sweet dough ring with candied fruit and nuts, and in Provence 13 dessert items are traditionally served to represent Christ and the apostles.

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Image Credit: jlastras

Tags: Belgium, France, Netherlands, P&O Ferries, Spain by tmowlam
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