Trasmediterránea Celebrates 100 years
Coinciding with its beginnings, “in 2017 we will be commemorating a Hundred years of Trasmediterránea that we want to share with all the people who have been part and those who are still part of the company; workers and clients, the maritime sector and the institutions that collaborate on a daily basis in the development of our activity”, affirmed the Company’s Senior Manging Director, Mario Quero, in a statement. On the 25th November 1916, the four directors of the founding shipping companies; José Juan Dómine (African Steam postal company), Vicente Ferrer Peset (Ferrer Peset Brothers), Joaquín María Tintoré (Tintoré Steam Company) and Enrique García Corrons (Navigation and Industry) affixed their signatures in Barcelona. The new shipping company began operating in January 1917 with a fleet of 44 ships. In the next three years other shipping companies would also join: The Maritime, The Mahon Steam Company; Island Maritime, The Maritime Company of Barcelona* and Vinuesa Public Limited Company of Seville; and in 1930 the Canarian Inter-Island Steam Postal Company also joined.
In addition to the fleets provided by the shipping companies, a plan for new constructions between 1927 and 1929 was added, in which ten new ships were incorporated into the trans Mediterranean Company, some of them built at the Levante Naval Shipyard, founded in 1924 and whose main shareholders were the promoters of Trasmediterránea.
A hundred years later, Trasmediterránea maintains its regular passenger and cargo connections between the main ports of the peninsula, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, Morocco and Algeria, including Ibiza.
The Embassy Tea Rooms in Madrid to close after 86 years.
If the walls of the Embassy could speak they would be able to tell many State secrets. The historic tea room, opened in 1931 by the Irishwoman Margarita Kearney Taylor in the Paseo de la Castellana was a key place during the Second World War for enabling the Jews to leave for Portugal. Due to its position between Embassies, it was a place where the Diplomats could always be found. And elderly ladies in search of its famous lemon pie.
The doors of this restaurant have now closed for ever, but with the idea of finding a new site with a cheaper rent, insists Adriana Rivera, Communications Manager for the business. The restructuration plans envisage laying off more than 50 people, according to information received by the employees.
The 400th birthday of Madrid’s Plaza Mayor
It’s been 400 years since the design of the plans by the architect Juan de Mora for the construction of this historic and now centrally located enclave, which was originally called Arrabal Square because of its position on the outskirts of the city, but the event will continue until 2020, to coincide with the four centuries since its inauguration in the times of King Felipe III.
For four centuries the Plaza Mayor has been the communal patio of the city, a square which is both uniform and diverse, a place for meetings and for spending time together, to be used and enjoyed by all. It is one of the most unique places in Madrid.
With the celebration in 2017 of the IV Centenary of the beginning of the works of its construction, it is intended to confirm the Plaza Mayor of Madrid, both for its history and for its popular character, as one of the central cultural axes of the city, giving voice to all the proposals and the initiatives of the cultural, artistic, economic and social agents, so that it is reborn beautiful and harmonious, cultured and popular, austere, and decked out and may celebrate together with all Madrid residents and visitors, its 400 years of history.
The 12.5O euros a menu restaurant that was awarded a Michelin star by mistake.
The prestigious Michelin guide has caused a surge in reservations at El Bouche à Oreille, a modest establishment in the small town of Bourges, in the centre of France. The organization awarded it, by mistake, one of its highly sought-after stars, which really should have gone to a restaurant with the same name and in the same street but in another town.
“We’re overwhelmed. I have new clients that want tables for three, four…and at the same time, all the regulars. The problem is that I don’t have a lot of space and only four hands”, explained the owner, Veronique, in the newspaper Le Parisien. El Bouche à Oreille is a café which attracts local workers with a daily menu of 12.50 euros.
But, since last February 9th when Michelin published its 2017 guide in France, the habitual clientele began to be joined by the sybarites attracted by its new star. The restaurant that should really appear in the guide, the Bouche à Oreille in the town of Boutervilliers, an establishment with a tasting menu priced at 48 euros, layered table settings and elegant décor, chose to take the error with humour.
The emblematic café Comercial de Madrid reopens its doors
The Café Comercial, in Madrid’s Glorieta de Bilbao, has finally reopened its doors. The historical café, frequented by writers such as Antonio Machado or Camilo José Cela, had closed in July 2015 after 128 years of activity.
The café has opened after the new managers, the El Escondite group, had undertaken a refurbishment of the establishment to begin this new phase.
The café is catalogued with Level One protection by the Directorate of Municipal buildings, reserved for venues of exceptional value, which involves the complete conservation of its architecture. Features included are the staircases, the counter and the lamps which decorate the room. Also, the façade, the main room, the vertical surfaces, ceilings, panels, the sign, auxiliary furniture, and other types of furniture. Being a protected building, all the licence documentation must go through the Patrimony Commission.
The literary debates brought to the Comercial writers such as Antonio Machado, Camilo José Cela, Blas de Otero and Gabriel Celaya. In fact, Machado had his own tribute in the café: Don Antonio’s Corner. Amongst contemporary writers, Luis García Montero and Arturo Pérez-Reverte were frequent visitors. The Comercial was, together with the Gijón, the last bastion of the debate bars. During the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century, the capital had more than 100 cafés where intellectuals and artists got together. Now the mythical venue is beginning a new phase.
