Still Discovering Spain...

Why is there a giant frog in the street at 37 Recoletos Avenue? By the Gran Madrid Casino’s gate stands a big and seemingly outlandish frog. This bronze sculpture, created by Eladio de Mora (alias dEmo), was installed in April 2014 as a gift to the City of Madrid.

Spain’s last casino closed over 90 years ago when gambling was forbidden during the Franco regime. To honour the return of casinos to Madrid, the Gran Madrid Casino gifted the lucky frog to the city. Why a frog? A frog was chosen for its symbolic fortune in many cultures around the world, particularly in the Chinese Feng Shui tradition.

According to tradition, frogs have traditionally been animals that bring good luck. According to legend, the origin of this tradition came because frogs are found near water, which is essential to survival. The presence of a frog always indicated life-saving water was near, turning the animals into symbols of luck.

Eladio de Mora is a famous sculptor in Spain and his bronze frog sculpture measures 11,5 ft, tall enough for people to walk beneath it and marvel at the 34 lucky symbols and numbers engraved in its underbelly.

Carved into the great big frog are several numbers and representative figures including an Egyptian beetle, a four-leaf clover, a horseshoe with seven nails, a rabbit, a dolphin, an elephant, an owl, a witch with a broom, a heart, a key, a star, a moon, the yin-yang, an eye, an X, a chicken bone, the Chinese Do, the Hindu Ohm, the symbol of infinity, an open hand with an eye in the palm, amongst others. Quite clearly there is no excuse for not getting lucky when you walk past this frog, no matter which country you are from or whatever beliefs you have, this frog caters for them.

Whether we like it or not, if you live in Spain, Mercadona is an inseparable part of our lives ... And, in recent years, the supermarkets of Juan Roig, one of the richest men in Spain, has focused on updating their suppliers so that they offer more and better gourmet products: cheeses, beers, chocolates, ice cream, sweets ... And, of course, their wines too.

The Mercadona wine line is full of references but… What are the best wines in the most popular supermarket? The ‘Guide to Supermarket Wines 2019’,  highlights up to 6 Mercadona wines that could well enter other more ‘premium’ lists, such as the best wines in Spain.

Whatever the case, these wines have a more than remarkable quality, enough to surprise you and also your guests ... These are the 6 best Mercadona wines (all red, I may add) that should be in your cellar ... And all of them at less than 5 euros the bottle! 

Mercadona's Top 6 Wines - according to the experts:

6. Estola Reserva

Bodegas Ayuso – DO La Mancha
4 stars
3,65 €

5. Torre Oria Monastrell Joven

Torre Oria – sin origen
4 stars
3,25 €

4. Comportillo Crianza 

Bodegas Ontañón – DO Rioja
4 stars
2,95 €

3. Torre Oria Viñedo Antiguo Roble

Torre Oria – DO Utiel-Requena
4 stars
2,90 €

2. Castillo de Liria Bobal Shiraz

Vicente Gandía – DO Valencia
4 stars
2,29 €

1. Vino Tinto Torre Oria Crianza

Torre Oria – DO Utiel-Requena
4 stars
2 €

Every night in a corner under the baroque clock tower in the Plaza de la Quintana, a hunched pilgrim appears. He stands life-sized and wears the traditional garb of the religious pilgrim: cloak, broad-brimmed hat, and a staff top-heavy with a gourd for water and the traditional scallop shell, which is the symbol of the pilgrim.

Upon closer inspection, the pilgrim is a trick of the light - and an unintentional one. His body is the shadow cast by the lightning rod pillar in the corner, and his staff is the shadow of the support column of the Berenguela clock tower. There are dozens of these lighting rods and hundreds of vertical supports in the cathedral exterior, but only one pilgrim.

According to local legend, the pilgrim is a local priest, who had fallen in love with a nun of the convent of San Paio, across the plaza. They met every night secretly, travelling through a secret passage under the Quintana stairs that join the convent to the cathedral. The two lovers planned to elope, and he promised to meet her in the plaza dressed as a pilgrim to conceal his identity. On the appointed evening, he waited in the shadows, but she never came. Since then, every night he returns, hoping to see her.

Dressing as a pilgrim is a good disguise in a city that has historically been flooded with them. Pilgrims have been coming to Santiago de Compostela for more than a thousand years, walking the miles from France through the well-worn route of the Camino de Santiago. They came to receive the blessings and forgiveness of sins from the body of the Apostle James, purportedly buried in the cathedral.

The story of the discovery of the bones of St. James (Sant-Iago) has the flavour of medieval fervor: In the year 813, when most of Spain was under Islamic rule, a hermit, guided by heavenly light (the Campus Stellae, or field of stars in the city name), discovered the previously unknown tomb of the apostle, somewhat improbably in far Northern Spain. The bishop at the time determined that the bones had arrived in 44 AD by an unmanned, rudderless boat following the decapitation of James in Palestine. A shrine, and then a church, and finally a cathedral was built over the site of the discovery, and the pilgrimages began.

If in Santiago de Compostela.....Walking from the north-east corner of the cathedral complex through the Plaza de la Quintana, towards the front of the cathedral, walk down the first set of stairs into the large plaza area. Look for the deep corner between the base of the clock tower and the Royal Door. The pilgrim is behind the lightning pillar as you can see in the photo.

It is unknown to many, including car lovers. The circuit of Terramar is the third oldest in Europe after Brooklands and Monza, ahead even of the legendary Le Mans, and the first in Spain. 

The Roaring Twenties were the last time the Terramar race track heard the roar of engines. It opened on the 28th of October 1923, but a failure to pay the construction workers for an unforeseen overrun in construction costs, led to them seizing the money that was taken at the gate, and left the organizers with no money to pay the drivers. 

This disastrous inauguration, led to an immediate ban on the track hosting international events and while a few local automobile clubs held a few races here, they were unsuccessful, and the track was closed by 1925.  

The track has changed hands a few more times over the years, and despite a short-lived revival in the 1950s, it has long served as a chicken farm and a place to graze sheep.

The Autodrome has seen no structural intervention in the last 90 years but has held up incredibly well, a testament to the quality of its original construction. In fact, despite its degradation, Red Bull sponsored the circuit as a showpiece in 2012. 

Today, the track can be viewed from the road, surrounding hills and footpaths. It’s overgrown, banking corners reminiscent of dams that have long since cracked and displaced their water. It is rumoured that the current owner is seeking funding to repair and reinstate the Autodrome, but only time will tell….

In this unique environment that still keeps the greatness, it once had, two of the best riders of the moment, Carlos Sainz and Miguel Molina, tested their skills as drivers. The challenge: to overcome the rigours of the old track at the wheel of one of the fastest cars of the time (Audi R8 LSM).