WORK is well underway on the enormous new La Zenia based Commercial Centre, destined to be among the biggest in the country.

It was beginning to seem as if the long-awaited Commercial Centre, to be situated beside the AP-7 toll in La Zenia, Orihuela Costa, was all a myth, as little work was being done there several months after the plans had been made public.

Even after the first stones were laid during an official act in February of this year, progress remained slow and rumours that the project may not go ahead continued to circulate.

However, now that summer is out of the way it is full steam ahead at the colossal building site, which appears to grow considerably everyday. And whilst closure of the bridge linking La Zenia to Villamartin is currently creating many problems for local people, it will all be worth the trouble when it is re-opened at the end of this month, featuring a pedestrian footbridge for a safer route to the centre.

The entire project is being managed by “Immochan España”, the Comercial Real Estate Company of the Auchan Group that is present in 11 countries worldwide and responsible for a staggering 312 commercial centres, encompassing some 2 million square metres of land.

Christened “Zenia Boulevard”, the company’s latest centre will encompass a whopping 180,000 square meters plot, incorporating 150 shops of all kinds, an “Alcampo” superstore and  5,000 parking spaces, half of which will be underground.

Among those confirmed are international names like Auchan, Norauto, C & A, Worten, Leroy Merlin, Decathlon, Primark, and the Inditex Group, which includes high street favourites Zara, Zara Home, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Oysho and Bershka.

It is not only shop-a-holics that will benefit from the ambitious venture, but also the local labour market, with an anticipated 1,800 jobs being created directly within the centre and almost 3,000 on a global scale.

An announcement was made in the Orihuela Costa town hall this week, prising the progress of the new La Zenia Boulevard shopping centre. With 150 shop units creating jobs for 2,000 people, the centre is eagerly awaited by residents and visitors alike.

The provisional completion date has now been set at the end of June 2012, but a secondary date has also been put at the end of September, to allow for potential summer time delays.

City planners at the Orihuela town hall are now closely investigating the road network that leads to the centre, in a view to create enough clear and alternative passageways to avoid potential congestion at the N-332, La Zenia roundabout.

Weather viagra Alicante, Spain
Costa Blanca, mild climate all year round

Costa Blanca enjoys over 2,800 hours of sunshine throughout the year, with an average annual temperature of about 19.3ºC, giving its microclimate ideal characteristics for living in Alicante and Costa Blanca region all year round.

The numerous clear, sunny days make the province of Alicante an excellent place for leisure and holidays, because it is possible to enjoy the fresh air every day of the year.

The Alicante Weather is well known for a very mild climate amongst the cities at the Costa Blanca.

Covered in the north by small hills and further north by rather high mountains (about 1600 m high), the area keeps the Alicante weather in a kind of microclimate.

This limits the rain days per year to just about 20 per year. The average temperature even in winter time does not fall below 16° C.

Construction of the new international airport in Murcia began in July 2008. The airport, which is now expected to take its first flights later in 2011 or early 2012, will be one of Spain’s largest airports.

The company responsible for the airport started recruiting staff in February 2011 for training later in the year. The airport will be a huge boost for the Murcia region and comes at a time when a major theme park project by Paramount Pictures looks likely to be constructed just 15 minutes from Corvera.

In March 2011 the current San Javier airport in Murcia opened a second runway and Alicante airport, just one hour from the region, is soon to see the opening of its new terminal building at six times the size of the current facility.

Blanca is Playa Pinet, (Parque Natural de las Salinas, Santa Pola, Alicante), a
sandy beach backed by dunes and pines, 2.8 kms long.
Playa Calblanque (Parque Natural, Costa Calida, Los Belones, Cartagena,
Murcia) is a 1.5 kms long nudist beach with golden sand and good bathing.
See migrating birds including flamingos. Some of the best Mediterranean
beaches are those in the Parque Nacional de Cabo de Gata, Almería. Framed
by contorted rock formations and a sapphire sea, visit Genoveses and Monsul.
West of Gibraltar, Playa de Bolonia (Tarifa, Cádiz) is reached by road through
rolling farmland. A famous, long wide, sandy, crescent shaped beach with
chiringuito bar. See the remains of a Roman fish salting factory, Baelo
Claudia.
West of Barbate is Playa de Zahora (Los Caños de la Meca) with a huge
unspoilt expanse of sand running from Cape Trafalgar for miles westwards
towards Conil. Magnificent sunsets. Playa Doñana (Parque Nacional de
Doñana, Huelva), with 40 kms of virgin beach, is part of the largest wetlands
bird reserve in Europe, sheltered from the sea by dunes. Playa de Punta
Umbría (Huelva) is part of a peninsular with a great wide stretch of sand about
12 km. long with occasional restaurants and bars.
In the Canary Islands, Fuerteventura is a beach paradise but volcanic
Lanzarote is more picturesque. For example Playa de las Conchas (Teguise) is
in a protected natural park with dark sand and no buildings. Playa de
Maspalomas (South of Gran Canaria) has miles of dunes.
In the Balearic Islands, typical of Menorca’s lovely coast is Playa Ferragut (Es
Mercadal, Menorca) with wooden stairs down to this beautiful secluded virgin
beach backed by cliffs. Playa Arenal de Son Saura (Ciutadella) has two virgin
beaches divided by a rocky point. This could be the Caribbean!
Mallorca’s Platja d’Es Trenc (Campos) is a long stretch of sand beside shallow
crystalline waters with a pleasant yacht club at the southern end. Isolated Es
Caragol (Santanyi) is 500m long with enticing waters. Hedonistic Ibiza’s Playa
Las Salinas (San José) was once the Mecca of nudist hippies. Now less
exotic, the still glorious beach is edged by pines and dunes with splendid
bathing.
Finally, Formentera has glorious beaches such as Illetes, Cala Saona and
Migjorn. Quieter Playa de s’Alga in the north is famously beautiful around a
low promontory.

Although Madrid is officially divided into 21 districts it is really a
city of neighbourhoods and since each has its own special feel and
customs to really know Madrid you need to understand its Barrios.
Originally Madrid was never planned. It just evolved. In the 9th century the
advancing Moors put it firmly on the map with a fortress or alcázar on the
escarpment overlooking the feeble Manzanares river.
After the reconquest, Philip ll decreed Madrid the new capital of Spain in 1561
and when a fire destroyed the site of the alcázar, the magnificent 18th century
Royal Palace replaced it.
Central Madrid is really
divided into pueblos, each
with their own identity, and
the contrasts you will
encounter in each proud
barrio are fascinating. Each
area has its own markets,
bars, restaurants, banks and
little shops – these days,
many run by Chinese – plus
perhaps a major plaza or
even a park to take the
evening air.
In some barrios vehicular
access is finally being
restricted to the benefit of the neighbours. With cheap and ample public
transport, it’s easy to get around Madrid if you have to but the barrio system
ensures most necessities are within walking distance.
Here we take a rapid, clockwise tour of the pueblos that make up Madrid’s
centre.
Near the Golden Triangle of Art, which includes the Prado, Thyssen,
CaixaForum and Reina Sofia museums is El Barrio de Las Letras, so-called
because Cervantes, Lope de Vega and the other giants of the 16-17th
centuries of the golden age of Spanish literature lived here, close to the
theatres, bars and cafés. The hub is the tapas Mecca of Plaza Santa Ana
dominated by the 1745 Teatro Español. Hemingway held forth in the plaza’s
Cervecería Alemana, hardly changed in over centur

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Spain is everyone’s holiday of choice at the moment. Guaranteed sun, fantastic food, some of the world’s best beaches and all at your doorstep……there’s no better place to recharge those batteries.

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Spain – not a million miles away…

Spain has many unique sights and attractions which help to draw millions of tourists each year but now it has another with the exciting announcement of a major new theme park from Paramount pictures.

The Paramount Pictures theme park in Spain will be built at Alhama de Murcia near Mazarron and it is estimated that as many as 3 million tourists will visit the theme park each year.

This is great news for the Spanish tourist industry which many years ago were hoping that Disney would announce that it had chosen Spain as the site for its European theme park.

Of course we all know now that Paris was chosen instead. In hindsight this now looks a mistake given the problems that it has endured with the cold and wet weather being just one of the reasons for the lack of success of Disney Paris.

There are already many other popular theme parks in Spain. The best-known ones are currently Terra Mitica in Benidorm, Warner Brothers Movie World near Madrid, the Universal Studios owned Port Aventura theme park near Barcelona and Isla Magica in Seville.

The Murcia region is growing in popularity as more and more people decide to move there or go on holiday there. There are some wonderful secluded sandy beaches which are very much undiscovered and the Murcia weather and climate is one of the best in the whole of Spain with very little rainfall and hot temperatures most of the year round.

This could be a great time to buy property and land close to the park although the planning process and construction time must be at least four years if not more.

The first phase of the Paramount theme park will cover 3.5 million square meters with an estimated cost of over €60 million. Later phases will be added to include more hotels and services. The Murcia regional government have provided great support for this project which will create 20,000 new jobs.

An agreement has now been made between with the AENA workers so, a cancellation of the air strikes in Spain over the Easter and Summer holidays are almost cancelled. The agreement still has to go to vote viagra all the hands are pointing towards a normal air traffic schedule for Spain.

President of Spain Zapatero has confirmed that“There is an agreement that will avoid the strikes and thus ensure full normality of the airports and the mobility of citizens.”

Good news for hopeful travelers but has the damage been done already? Ryanair hope not, the have now released their 8 Euro………ticket sale. I Don’t think you will get a flight for 8 Euros, but flights have definitely come down in price this week. Pack your bags, looks like you will be traveling after all.