Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: I confess: I have not read "The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha," the literary masterpiece by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra It was number one on the list of my high-school mandatory books but that year I left for the United States While my friends read about the adventures of the "Knight of the Sad Countenance," I struggled through the epic poem Beowulf Cervantes did not give away the name of the birthplace of Don Quixote a middle-aged gentleman who becomes obsessed with chivalrous ideals and takes up his lance and sword to venture along Spain's roads to perform heroic deeds in the name of his beloved Dulcinea a weather-beaten village of almost 7,000 people This year marks 400 years since the death of Cervantes a perfect excuse for a road trip in the footsteps of Don Quixote and his loyal squire Sancho Panza across the high plains of today's La Mancha The forecast says it will rain all day everywhere in Spain My idea is to capture the mood and energy of the region that he had described in so much detail So in true Quixote spirit I think of the weather as an opportunity The rain will force me to picture things in a different light "The two most international things about La Mancha are Don Quijote and our cheese," Angel Gutierrez Carrasco says while tending his flock by the Penarroya dam near the quiet town of Argamasilla de Alba Carrasco has not read Cervantes but he is well aware of the episode when Don Quixote charges at two herds of sheep after taking them for armies Every year he lends animals to a theatre group to reenact parts of the novel on the streets of Argamasilla Cervantes didn’t give away the name of Don Quixote’s birthplace but some people identify it as Argamasilla Other locations in La Mancha fight for that distinction but Argamasilla showcases a rebuilt house with a cave underneath where In the prologue to "El Quijote," Cervantes wrote that his work had been "engendered in a jail" These days visitors can see the Cave of Medrano and imagine that Cervantes wrote part of his masterpiece there is adamant about where Cervantes himself was born no matter what people from Alcala de Henares say," Montesinos says in open disagreement with scholars who widely accept that Cervantes was a native of the latter Montesinos is the only person I met during my five days in la Mancha who had read "El Quijote" from beginning to end His astronomer son is partly responsible for getting a star named after Cervantes and four planets in its orbit named after Don Quixote Cervantes and Don Quixote have finally gone cosmic The clouds obscure any sign of stars when I meet Italian travellers Irene Decarli sharing dinner inside their camper by the bleached-white windmills of Consuegra We strike up a conversation in English as I mistake them for northern Europeans we go on to talk about La Mancha and Don Quixote in our mother tongues I ask them the reason behind Don Quixote's universal appeal and after some mimicking I make out that people relate to him because he is a free spirit Left: Sister Isabel poses with a box of sweets "Caprichos de Dulcinea" (Dulcinea cravings) made at her convent Right: A man walks past a statue of Dulcinea I search for Don Quixote's great love Dulcinea in the village of El Toboso There is only one woman named after the Princess of La Mancha there but she now works in London and is tired of journalists misquoting her a cloistered nun of the Order of Saint Clare makes sweets named after Dulcinea and invites me to her convent's bakery She and other nuns have been making the best-selling "Caprichos de Dulcinea" (Dulcinea's cravings) since 2005 the fourth centenary of the publication of the first part of "El Quijote" As I drive towards the town of Ossa de Montiel on my last day in La Mancha I take stock of all the interesting people and places I've come across Nothing can prepare me for what I find inside the Cave of Montesinos While descending into the cave where some claim Don Quixote fell asleep to have the most fantastic of dreams signals with his flashlight to what looks like powder on the ground the grey dust lit in the cave’s darkness are the ashes of "Bob was an Englishman who came to live in Ossa de Montiel out of love for his Spanish wife He started impersonating Don Quixote outside the cave and along the lagoons and gathered a following of locals and tourists he died in a car accident in January and his family decided to scatter his ashes in the places he was so passionate about After five days of seeking out Don Quixote in every corner of La Mancha I find him in a bat cave - and he turns out to be English The Israeli Embassy in Spain condemned on Tuesday a display at a recent parade in the town of Campo de… The controversial parade show in Campo de Criptana Photo: YouTube screenshot (via Europa Press) The Israeli Embassy in Spain condemned on Tuesday a display at a recent parade in the town of Campo de Criptana for “banalizing the Holocaust.” some members of the Asociacion Cultural El Chaparral de Las Mesas’ carnival troupe portrayed marching Nazi soldiers while others dressed up as Jewish concentration camp inmates who danced to contemporary disco music while waving Israeli flags A video of the show can be seen here (via Europa Press): While the troupe said the show — titled “Holocausto” — was meant to honor the victims of the Nazis “We condemn the vile and repugnant representation banalizing the Holocaust at the Carnival of Campo de Criptana making fun of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis,” the Israeli Embassy in Madrid tweeted “European countries must actively combat antisemitism!” — Embajada de Israel ?? (@IsraelinSpain) February 25, 2020 The pro-Israel education group StandWithUs tweeted “An outrageous and disgusting display of antisemitism in Spain!” — StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) February 25, 2020 The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the Israeli embassy had reached out to the local municipal council seeking an explanation the troupe posted on Facebook a picture of its parade float which on its front included an inscription reading “In memory of the six million Jewish men women and children who perished in the Holocaust and those who suffered persecution and extermination because of their race the troupe had announced its intention to honor “the millions of people who died in the extermination that took place during World War II.” “We present this issue as a mere historical fact without pretending to make any kind of political allusion or that could be offensive or hurtful for someone,” it stated at the time Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted “The participants’ purported good intentions are completely lost with this wildly inappropriate display Evoking Holocaust imagery like this is disrespectful at best and dehumanizing at worst to the victims of the Shoah The participants’ purported good intentions are completely lost with this wildly inappropriate display. Evoking Holocaust imagery like this is disrespectful at best and dehumanizing at worst to the victims of the Shoah. An apology should be forthcoming.https://t.co/UWnhBET4IJ — Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) February 25, 2020 The controversy in Spain erupted as another European country, Belgium, continued to face criticism for an antisemitic parade that took place in the city of Aalst over the weekend Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Israeli embassy says parade in Campo de Criptana was a vile mockery of the Holocaust The Israeli government and the Auschwitz museum have accused a Spanish carnival of “trivialising” the Holocaust after a troupe danced through the streets of a small town dressed as Nazi officers and concentration camp prisoners accompanied by a float bearing a menorah and two crematorium chimneys the people of Campo de Criptana in the central Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha celebrated carnival HORRIFIC - Nazis and Israeli Holocaust flag bearing women are the central theme for Spain’s Carnival celebrations today inin the village of Campo de Criptana. pic.twitter.com/oqnWtVepHB Among those taking part was El Chaparral Cultural Association the association intended its act to be a commemoration of the “6 million Jewish men women and children who perished in the Holocaust and all those who suffered persecution and extermination because of their race its tribute met with an angry response from the Israeli embassy in Madrid and from the Auschwitz memorial museum “We condemn the Campo de Criptana carnival’s vile and repugnant trivialisation of the Holocaust, which mocks the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis,” the embassy said in a tweet on Tuesday Condenamos la vil y repugnante representación banalizando el #Holocausto en el carnaval de Campo de Criptana, haciendo burla de los seis millones de judíos asesinados por los nazis. ¡Los países europeos deben combatir activamente el #antisemitismo!https://t.co/9UZwU5UyF8 The museum, meanwhile, tweeted: “Hard to describe: memory upside-down the town council of Campo de Criptana said permission for the act had been granted on the understanding that it would honour the dead of the Holocaust “We share the criticisms that have been expressed,” it added “If the aim was to commemorate the victims According to the local Cadena Ser radio station the town’s mayor said: “I agree that it doesn’t feel like a very carnival-type theme Earlier this month, the American Jewish Committee accused the pro-independence Catalan MEP Clara Ponsatí of trivialising the Holocaust and making “unacceptable” remarks after she used a speech in the European parliament to compare Spain’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 with its treatment of the “Catalan minority” and suggest the mass banishment had inspired Hitler the Israeli embassy also said that European countries needed “to actively combat antisemitism” Two days prior, carnival organisers in the Belgian town of Aalst were criticised for allowing people to dress up in antisemitic costumes that depicted Jews with huge noses and as ants. Belgium’s prime minister, Sophie Wilmès, described the parade as an “internal affair”. Last year, Unesco removed the Aalst carnival from its list of “intangible cultural heritage”, saying the festival had been guilty of “recurring repetition of racist and antisemitic representations”. local folk traditions and regional cuisines also attest to a rich and diverse cultural history There are stretches of Spain’s meseta central where anything that stands taller than a man on a horse can seem to loom gigantically over the plain This helps to explain how the windmills of La Mancha were mistaken for giants by the fictional his imagination enflamed by reading too many folk tales about fantastical creatures of the region meanwhile—the great writer-adventurer of the Spanish Golden Age—cast the landscape into prose that continues to give a mythic impression of his country’s interior as a dusty and mostly empty space between the big cities and beach-lined coasts questing fans of that 400-year-old novel can still find parts of Castilla-La Mancha that fit the description on road trips that follow the map-marked Ruta del Quixote to Cervantean landmarks and artworks Most evocative remain the windmills of Campo de Criptana their wooden arms outstretched like gigantic X’s on the horizon and their white-painted towers now housing museums of sculpture Ripe grapes bring bursts of color to the surrounding countryside where many vintages hold DOP (protected designation of origin) status It’s easy to see why Cervantes’ character Don Quixote mistook the windmills of Campo de Criptana for giants: Blades engulf Juan like outstretched arms.Photograph by Matthieu PaleyManchegan saffron is the only of this spice that bears the same stamp and fields of it cover much of the terroir in painterly vistas of purple flowers at harvest time yielding fiery crimson filaments known as “red gold” It was first planted in this soil by the conquering Umayyad caliphate in the Middle Ages but green and blue in summer,” explains Yuuria Moerano a nature guide in Tablas de Daimiel National Park “It’s not the La Mancha that people expect.” Here is a kind of oasis through the warmest months supporting resident and seasonal populations of water birds herbalists who made medicines from abundant native plants were commonly assumed to be witches The Isla del Pan—a wooded islet that seems to float over the floodplain―was named after the faun of pagan legend “This is basically a magic forest,” says Moerano Other lonely reaches of the province are similarly fertile and ethereal Rare birds like the Eurasian black vulture and Spanish imperial eagle skim the treetops of Cabañeros National Park and the even rarer Iberian lynx is sometimes sighted between the Mediterranean pines (Efforts to revive this endangered apex predator—a “giant” of this wilderness in its own right—are ongoing.) There can also be a dreamlike effect to approaching the cities of the hinterland was built by the Moors as an impregnable fortress on a limestone precipice high above a river gorge or “hanging houses,” have leaned out over the void for close to a millennium (albeit subject to many renovations including one that now accommodates a museum of abstract art) turns on a vertical axis against a horizontal scroll of farmlands rising like a layer cake of different architectural styles and periods Roman foundations lie beneath Visigoth temples Islamic minarets and battlements blend into the Judeo-Mudejar designs of the Jewish Quarter and an upper tier of spires is dominated by the soaring bell tower of Toledo Cathedral The bell tower of Toledo Cathedral pierces the sky—a colossus standing among a cityscape of varied architectural styles.Photograph by Matthieu Paley the skyline of Zaragoza appears reflected on the River Ebro as another otherworldly cross-section of Spanish history and Christians have all played their part here in alternating waves of conflict and coexistence The dazzlingly tiled and domed Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar marks the spot where some believe the Virgin Mary appeared atop a pillar of wood to the apostle James in AD 40 while the Aljaferia Palace stands as a medieval Islamic wonder-structure constructed for the city’s ruling Hudid dynasty especially during the autumn festivities of Pilar a costumed fertility dance of jaunty leaps accompanied by lute music said to have been introduced by the exiled Moorish poet Aben Jot a dry wind known as the cierzo sweeps over plains that look like backdrops to phantasmic paintings by Francisco de Goya—the locally born master whose art drew heavily on folk traditions and superstitions Ancient pagans of the Aragonese Pyrenees saw behemoths called Omes Hail manifested in those high peaks and heard their voices as hailstorms in the valleys Giant rock formations sit like the hunched muscular bodies of giants in Ciudad Encantada a geological site formed by the erosive power of wind and water near the city of Cuenca.Photograph by Matthieu PaleyOn the other side of the tableland in Extremadura that sheer richness of myth has left the mountain hamlets of Las Hurdes with as many imaginary beings as living people and Entihnaol the rain-bringer all join the annual parade of atavistic weirdness that is the Hurdano Carnival The agricultural cycles they venerate have in turn grown ingredients for the recipes of multiple resident cultures to give this region its reputation for gastronomy subsistence cuisine,” says practicing chef and cookery professor Francisco Refolio from Cáceres the eclectic and archaic walled town sometimes called “the pantry of Spain.” At the same time certain complex broths and stews are said to have inspired French haute cuisine—one popular fable tells of a Napoleonic general who stole the recipe book from a local monastery and changed the course of epicurean history Refolio then reels off some select foodstuffs made to DOP standards and “ancestral methods” across Extremadura: Jerte Valley cherries creamy cheeses from Casar de Cáceres and Acehúche acorn-fed Iberian ham from the “unique ecosystem” of the nearby dehesa forest and taste are not inconsiderable,” he says he recommends “a fine cut of two fingers in length.” Today’s adventurer can even explore the grassy hilly domain of the black Iberian pig on horseback gastro-tours meeting and eating with Jamón producers on their farms Find more Spanish legends here. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Auschwitz Memorial urges Amazon to stop selling 'virulently antisemitic Nazi propaganda' Peter Dutton says 'left-wing lunatics' must be dealt with as well as far-right extremists 3 min readPublished 27 February 2020 6:48am ShareGet SBS News daily and direct to your InboxSign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.Your email address *Morning (Mon–Fri) Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Israeli embassy in Spain says European countries should ‘actively combat antisemitism’  I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A carnival parade “commemorating” the Holocaust was condemned as “vile and disgusting” after performers dressed as Nazi officers danced through a Spanish town in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha Footage shows one group dressed as Nazi officers dancing in front of a float containing a menorah placed between two crematorium chimneys The troupe also featured performers dressed as concentration camp prisoners who waved Israeli flags the Israeli embassy in Spain strongly condemned the act as “vile and disgusting” adding that it mocked the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis The post added that European countries ought to “actively combat antisemitism” The Auschwitz memorial museum also tweeted its disapproval on Tuesday saying: “Hard to describe: memory upside-down The El Chaparral Cultural Association put on the Holocaust-themed display According to a sign on one of their floats the association claimed it wanted to remember “6 million Jewish men The town council of Campo de Criptana said in a statement that permission for the act had been given on the basis that it would pay tribute to those killed in the Holocaust “We share the criticisms that have been expressed it’s obvious the attempt fell short,” it added The parade took place the day after a carnival in Belgium, which was called “hateful” by Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, after it included caricatures of Jews for the second consecutive year. Among other caricatures, the Aalst Carnival parade featured an Orthodox Jew with a box of diamonds and people wearing fake elongated noses. A spokesperson for the mayor of Aalst described the parade as “our humour... just fun”. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies has died after suffering an allergic reaction to cow's milk last weekend who was allergic to cow's milk protein always took precautions when ingesting food or liquid last weekend she went to an establishment in Campo de Criptana But now an investigation is underway as to the possibility that there were traces of cow's milk in Irene’s coffee glass She suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest and was rushed in an ambulance to La Mancha hospital in Alcázar de San Juan and was admitted to the intensive care unit where she died The young woman had travelled to Campo de Criptana to take part in a religious event organised by the youth pastoral group of the Ciudad Real diocese Irene was a volunteer in her parish in Manzanares where her funeral and burial took place yesterday The town is in mourning after the death of this young woman who belonged to a choir and a music and dance group in Manzanares and attended the Azuer secondary school It is believed that Irene's allergy to cow's milk protein caused an immediate anaphylaxis which does not occur in the case of people suffering from lactose intolerance who usually only suffer digestion problems Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados Home » News » Oil & Gas Major Cepsa to Build 400 MW of Solar Projects in Spain Spanish oil and gas major Cepsa has announced that it will be building three new solar power projects in Castilla-La Mancha of Spain Cepsa said that the total capacity of the three farms will be 400 MW Cepsa will develop the solar projects in the towns of Campo de Criptana and Arenales de San Gregorio (Ciudad Real) with an investment of more than EUR280 million The construction of the solar power projects is expected to begin in 2025 The solar projects will be generating about 840 GWh of power annually once they are put in operation Cepsa said that this much of energy is equivalent to one third of the residential power demand of Castilla-La Mancha the Town Councils of both Arenales de San Gregorio and Campo de Criptana have authorized the scheme of things with Cepsa to amalgamate it with the ‘Sumamos Energías’ programme that promotes the local economy who will also oversee the development of the solar power projects “Castilla-La Mancha is a strategic area for the development of Cepsa’s renewable resource portfolio which will enable us to drive our Positive Motionstrategy “We are most likely to advance the decarbonization of our activity while generating a positive influence on the environment based on the DNA that defines us: production of shared value listening to the public as well as developing long-term relationships based on dependence.” Cepsa is working on the development of nine renewable energy projects of combined capacity of 1200 MW with an investment of over EUR 840 million Spain looks to hit its target of 160 GW of renewable energy by 2030 mainly as the country has strong solar irradiance owing to its geographical location Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE) said that the solar power capacity of Spain had already reached more than 17 GW bypassing hydropower and multimedia products increase our coverage to cater to the different demands of the renewable industry To get in touch, contact us at info[at]saurenergy.com Never miss the most relevant stories in the solar and renewable sector everyday Follow @SaurEnergy for the latest news and happenings across these social media