Life in Culebrón

I heard this information on a couple of news broadcasts today, and I checked it against several AI sources to list the changes. I have asked one version to check the information provided by another several times but I cannot be certain that every detail is completely accurate. I believe they are, and in broad strokes it definitely is, but if a Guardia Civil officer tells you otherwise, or if the DGT website says otherwise, then they will be right and I will be wrong. The Spanish government has officially approved a major update to the General Traffic Regulations ( Reglamento General de Circulación ). Aimed at protecting what the DGT describes as “vulnerable road users”, the reform introduces significant changes to everyday traffic rules. Before going into the details, it is important to note that although the Council of Ministers approved this legislation today (23rd June 2026), it has not yet been published in the Official State Gazette ( Boletín Oficial del Estado , or BOE). As a res...

We went out the other day with the Amigos del Vino de Pinoso—the Friends of the Wine. We made a full day of it, starting with a mid-morning snack on the picnic tables of a motorway service area and ending with a visit to Guadalest Castle, but the main focus was a trip to the Mar de Vins bodega in La Nucía. Now, Maggie has taken me along to plenty of bodegas over the years, so I’ve seen my fair share of grape destalking machines, stainless steel tanks, thick rubber hoses, and bottling lines. You normally have to endure all that before they let you drink. The tasting itself has its own ritual: sniffing, swirling, angling the glass to inspect the colour. I’m never sure whether knowing a wine smells of blackberries is good or bad, but it’s part of the performance. One place told us to use all five senses when judging wine—though I forget where touch came in, and the sound of pouring is surely a dead giveaway about quality. Or not. Bodegas nearly always offer bits and bobs to snack on, usua...

Terrible, what you don't know sometimes.  I was chatting with a Spanish pal during a video language exchange. She was telling me about some event for Corpus Christi held near Toledo. Obviously, living here I know that Corpus exists, but heaven knows what Corpus actually is. The sum total of my knowledge is that it's some sort of Christian religious celebration. I also know it's the one where little girls, dressed up like miniature brides, and boys in their sailor suits parade through the streets after their First Communion. I haven't seen any of the other sexes yet, so I've no idea what they wear. Anyway, Charo mentioned that the streets near Toledo were strewn with thyme. I'd seen something about that for some event around here. I couldn't remember what, where or why, but it sort of primed me. I already knew it was Corpus time because the folk in Elche de la Sierra had started bombarding me with emails and WhatsApp messages about their own event. I've s...

When we first came to the Pinoso area, the locals were having a field day selling the semi-abandoned houses that their grandparents had left them: basically stone-built sheds with almost no modern conveniences, uncared for at the end of some dusty track and surrounded by half-abandoned terraces and plots of land. Lots of the houses had neither electricity nor running water. We Britons were an easy mark. We seemed to be willing to hand over thick wads of cash for houses that the locals considered more of a burden than a welcome gift, and, when we'd bought the house, we employed their cousin or their uncle to do it up. Electricity and water were deal-breakers for many houses at the time. Britons just expected that water would come out of taps and that there would be somewhere to plug in the fridge and the telly. One saving grace for many of these houses was that they had "agricultural water" – water designed for watering crops rather than drinking, but which had been extend...