DavidJackson.info

Minister of State for Development José Blanco (known to his friends as ¡Peeepe!) together with an assortment of VIP’s and hanger-on’s, visited Almería yesterday to oversee the switching on of the tunnelling machine that is building the 7,5km tunnel from Sorbas to Barranco de los Gafarillos. The tunnel will be the longest in Andalucia once finished, and in the top 5 nationally.

Rumours that they had to ask the Ministry of Defense to locate Almería for them on a map are, I am assured, unfounded.

The tunnel is 7,5 km long, costs 251 million (and a few cents), and Europe’s largest tunnelling machine is making the hole. Special protection measures are being taken to locate and remove tortoises in the works area, according to the Ministry (ie, two moros have been told to take a walk under the blazing sun and pick up any they spot), and special care is being taken to not penetrate or disturb any natural aquifers in the area. (Portalmeria.com)

The fact that the ADIF, the railways infrastructure company building the line, has asked for (and received) special dispensation to pour all water into the local Rio Aguas with no environmental checks was not mentioned.

Meanwhile, the AVE line past Los Gallardos remains paralysed while arqueologists pour over what little remains of Cadima, the Roman Villa that was there.

Pepe used his visit to assure locals that the AVE line will be completed on time, and announced in Sorbas that his ministry will be shifting its attention away from roads to completing the railways. “We have finished with motorways” he said. “We are building trains now and our train projects are guaranteed”. The A7 motorway project is likely to be cut back, and no news on the Almanzora project. (El País)

A busload of local pensioners on a Autocares Rodriguez bus (from Los Gallardos, the big bus company next to the petrol station) were inconvenienced, although not as much as local commuters were, after their bus broke down outside the Galician town of Cambados.

It seems the bus suffered an electrical failure that jammed its brakes. Local police, Proteccion Civil and the Guardia were all unable to shift the bus and so they had to call in a mechanic to make some “on the spot” repairs.

Seems the bus caused quite a bit of a backlog, as it was blocking the road which has about 8,000 vehicles a day. Large tailbacks were caused. It took almost five hours to get the thing moving again.

Local newspaper Faro de Vigo is rather sniffy about these “Almerienses” blocking the road, which I feel is unfair. Not our fault the bus broke down!

Have you seen the new Turre square?

Having had to close the place for… what… almost a year? (six month overrun as they forgot to put electric piping in and had to dig everything back up again) it’s only been open a week.

The concept is nice. Different colour cobbles to mark out pedestrian and car spaces. Dark grey for the cars, grey for pedestrian walkways, red for zebra crossings.

Trouble is, as usual, they didn’t think things through and skimped on the cost.

It’s already, one week after opening (and one week after a heckava rain storm) stained, mucky and sticky. Some young and enthusiastic fellow has christened the stones by seeing how long a skidmark he could produce on it. Chewing gum stains show up nicely.

And – get this – after putting the stones down, the Authorities realised they hadn’t put any road markings on the road, so they’ve gone and (badly) painted over the stones with road paint. Which will soon fade.

I shudder to think what this will look like in a years’ time.

Contrast this with the new entrance to Los Gallardos, which was done in the same fashion.

There, they’ve actually used different colour cobbles for all the road markings, so no paint on top of the nice new cobbles. Everything is nicely thought out and properly laid down, with several different colour of stone, clearly visible, showing road, car parking, zebra crossing and pedestrian walkways. A few large, carefully placed, plant pots (made out of iron, so I pity the fool who backs into them) ensure that drunk drivers don’t run over too many pedestrians.

All in all, a complete contrast between the two villages. It just goes to show what an important part a strong team in the Ayuntamiento does. Turre, which changes every few months, has sunk into obscurity and dirty poverity, versus Los Gallardos, which has had the same team since democracy kicked in (and before!), which goes from strength to strength.

Which brings me onto the new Avenue that’s still being planned, years after the original plans were made public.

Anyway, here’s a video released by Turre townhall showing how it was made.

Digging either side of the newly paved road. A nice tunnel should soon be there!

PIZZA? In Los Gallardos? Are we mad? Has the world lost all coherence?

Los Gallardos is a rich village. A smart village. A clean village, and an orderly one. But it is not the cuisine centre of the world,  it is a village where peanut butter is viewed as suspicious foreign muck. Pizza is something that -like sushi- is fine when one is abroad -say, Turre- but not to be considered when decent, local food such as sesos or tripas a la anchoa are at hand.

Yet LG’s latest innovative restaurant, Pizzeria Sam’z, is taking the place by storm.

In part, this is because of the high altitude chimney which belches the rich stench of cooking pizza dough from the traditional Italian gas pizza oven over the village. Nobody who passes by the village can fail to be attracted by the smell. It is rumoured that people passing by on the motorway with the window open get off at exit 525 to double back to trace the smell and purchase a fresh pizza.

The chef is a young lad called Fran, who doubles in his spare time as one of the city councillors and can be found most mornings in the townhall dispensing advice and paperwork. In front is a smart lad called Oliver, and another efficient fellow called Afonso. Oliver speaks 5 languages, including Serbo-Croat. Crikey.

The main menu is a model of efficiency. Some 8 basic pizzas are there, encompassing the entire range of human desire. For those who wish more, additional ingredients can be added or removed. Prices range from 7 to 9 euros.

If you decide to take away your pizza, if you order two, you get a free bottle of pop – or beer. Mmmmmm…. beer!

Mssrs Ben & Jerry provide the puddings.

Fran also makes what are possibly the best homemade burgers in the Levante. Huge. Crisp. Tasty. Made to order and fresh. Cheese optional.

Pizzas are big, fresh and made to order. You go in, say “I want a pizza with [xxx ingredients]” and a few minutes later a fresh one is delivered. Simple!

A TV will provide football on request (Canal +) and lots of beer -including John Smith’s- is on tap. Not many tapas, but you get some delicious mini-pizza tapas with your beer or wine, which go down a treat.

A smart restaurant inside allows you to eat there, with comfy tables. A patio upstairs will open soon.

Weekends it’s packed. We went on a Wednesday and it was packed. Mainly locals, 99% Spaniards. A stream of people entering and leaving with takeaway pizzas that put me in mind of a trail of ants. Crikey.

Pizzeria Sam’z.
C/ Mayor 41, Los Gallardos
(Main street, past the doctors house on the main entrance to Los Gallardos up towards the Unicaja and townhall)
950398981

Closed Mondays

In my youth, Bar Juventud was the “other bar”. As people who lived on the “Crespo” side of the street, going into Juventud was akin to a Madrid supporter sneaking into a Barça pub. Only to be attempted wearing a large hat when noone was around. Which was a pity as it always had better tapas.

Then we grew up and rarely visited Los Gallardos, as we lived out in the sticks and once we were given a moped LG was “too rural” for our newly discovered expensive tastes. But Juventud still had the best tapas in the Levante. And it’s not just me – the director of the RTV-A (admittedly from Los Gallardos) thought much the same. (He also said the same about the old La Rueda – the perils of being related to the families of two different bars, no doubt).

Fastforward twenty years to 2009, when an Uruguayan named Eduardo and his wife took the place over. Eduardo started to run summer BBQ’s, once a week. Not for long, but it became famous and full. After all, the man is a master of the Parriallada. Despite his apparant OCD which leads him to wash his hands often (a good sign in both chefs and surgeons).

Eduardo has stopped the outdoor Parrialladas for the winter – despite the small door and narrow space for clients, Jueventud boasts a large exterior patio – but upon a smile, a wink and a 24 hour reservation will do one. As we discovered tonight.

The menu was simple. An ensalada de huerta, lots of tomatos. Couple of bottles of wine that had -how to put it?- been too close to the BBQ to be considered vintage but were still quaffable. Pan, with lots of ajo. Some homemade chimicurri. The best jacket potato I’ve had all year – crisp yet soft and tasty. And either secreto iberico or ternera – entrecote. You can have it well done, or very well done.Coffee, Orujo and a couple of Mr J’s “homemade” cigars for pudding. Ironically the cigars also seem to be from Uruguay.

The BBQ consists of a bonfire of ancient olive wood, coals from which are heaped over, under, and alongside, the meat. So rare doesn’t appear to be an option.

Flippin delicious. If you don’t like food like this, ‘eff off back to McDonalds. The daily tapas are good, too.

http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2009/05/29/pdfs/BOE-B-2009-18153.pdf

Within the next 15 days if you´re affected you have to turn up and sign the paperwork to get compensation.

After sidelining Mojácar in the POTALA plans, cutting back on it’s development and limiting it’s future possibilities in order to promote the (as yet unbuilt) future megacity of Llano Central, the Junta has made up its mind on the future of Mojácar -

They’re going to build an extremely large sewage farm there.

18 months, 16 million euros (plus another 14 million on pipes) and it will service L.G., Turre, Bédar, Mojácar, Garrucha and others.

It will be on the site of the current one, but it will be “a lot larger”.

We’re promised that this will “benefit residents”, according to Clemente García (Environmental goon from the Junta).

Source: El Almería

The Consejo de Gobierno of the Junta de Andalucía approved yesterday the contentious “Plan de Ordenación del Territorio del Levante Almeriense (POTALA)”, which covers an area between Los Gallardos, Turre, Mojacar, Garrucha and Vera, contemplating the construction of a city the size of Redditch, England (or Ferrol, Galicia), with some 30,000 homes. It is expected to create 130,000 jobs and has an investment of 5,000,000,000€. The name of the new city is currently “Llano Central”.

For the plans they didn’t want you to see, click here. Don’t forget that the POTALA is a regional plan ranging from Carboneras to Huercal Overa (exclusing the Almanzora valley, whatever the EuroWeekly says), and Llano Central is the macrourbanisation contemplated in the windy dry bit next to Valle del Este.

The city is expected to be comprised of 25,000 luxury homes and flats attractively placed around (public) golf courses, 5 star hotels and swimming pools. Much like El Toyo was in Almería, a place now regarded as sliding towards being considered a ghetto, with unbuilt flats, no infrastructure, raising crime and no upkeep by the authorities.