If you’re expecting to hire a car in Malaga or anywhere else in Spain really, consider yourself forewarned. First, the hard facts: recently reformed penal codes require an offence charge for drivers caught passing the speed limits by 60 km/h within city limits or by 80 km/h on the highway. This kind of charge can carry from 3 to 6 months jail time, no laughing matter to say the least. And even if you’re only speeding marginally, according to the Spanish points system, they’ll also drain your licence of between 2 and 6 points as well. (Drivers with a clean record generally start out with 12 points.)

Thought that was it? Wait, there’s more! Beginning yesterday, the government has implemented a two-week bout of radar checkpoints across the country. They’re setting them up on secondary highways, along with safety reminders on electronic panels and radio messages. In Malaga alone, they’re planning to control about 50,000 vehicles, an average of about 3,000 a day.

The Spanish authorities are doing a notable job of cracking down on irresponsible behaviour on the road, with the intention of reducing the number of accidents. So before you get into speed-demon mode behind the wheel of your car hire, think twice. Or even three times… cause it will certainly be worth your while!

VuelosBaratos – which allows travellers to quickly compare flight deals from a ton of other travel sites – ranked over 50,000 searches on their site for trips during the Easter week. Note this just takes searches into account, not actual reservations, so take this study for what it’s worth. But it’s interesting to notice how many Spanish Internet bargain shoppers opted for home turf instead of other European destinations or even further out: 15 out of the top 20 are national. Of course those that didn’t have the envied 9-day stretch of vacation mostly stuck close to home for their kick-back days, as in Andalucia the only official days off were Thursday and Friday. An interesting trend I noticed from this study: inlanders from Madrid, Seville and Granada headed to the coasts and vice-versa: coastal residents from Barcelona and Malaga escaped to the interior. You’d think we weren’t content with the natural surroundings we see every day!

But regardless, the slowing economy made a clear dent in last week’s travels, as travellers didn’t opt for many long-haul trips beyond the relatively cheaper options of New York and Cuba. Many hotels and restaurants also noted much lower profits than expected for such a normally peak week. Sounds to me like the Spanish are cinching up their belts a bit and spending instead on necessities.

At around 10 pm tonight (Spanish time) millions of viewers are expected to tune in to a debate of presidential candidates, and we’re not talking about Clinton, Obama, McCain, Huckabee, or even newcomer Nader. Gearing up for Spain’s presidential elections on March 9, incumbent Socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and conservative Popular Party opponent Mariano Rajoy will face off in the first of two televised debates, the following to take place next Monday. Issues tonight will probably center around the slowing economy, terrorism flaming up recently with more ETA attacks and some other topics such as pension funds, marriage and divorce rights, and the environment. This is only the second time Spain has held televised debates since it was established as a democracy, the last time 15 years ago.

Although it has become the norm for Internet interaction in the American election process, it’s only starting to become common in Spain. The Antena 3 Media Group has created a special election portal on YouTube where users can post video questions. However, of the questions posed so far candidates have only answered a select few, steering clear of fringe issues and controversy. It remains to be seen whether they will indeed respond to any during the televised debates, to be carried by a number of major channels including La 1, La 2, Cuatro, laSexta and VEO.

Without any doubt, Pablo Ruiz Picasso is the most popular painter in Spain and also one of the most recognized in the world. Picasso and Georges Braque created the cubism art movement.

He was born on October 25th, 1881 in Malaga and died April 8th, 1973 in Mougins, France. His last words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.” He was having dinner with some friends at home.

Curiously, his birth name was: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso.

See some of his main paintings in this video: