Vitoria-Gasteiz, always a pleasant, low-key kind of place with a high quality of life, is about* to begin its year as European Green Capital 2012. The award recognises not only the city's high environmental quality, but also the fact that it has plans for significant future improvement. Local politicans are understandably chuffed to bits, and the municipal website calls it "A triumph that has taken over three decades of environmental policies developed over the years and the commitment of a citizenry that has become an example for the entire European Community in relation to recycling, mobility or water consumption" (it is a real pity that when euro- meets green, the language becomes stultifying like this, for Vitoria-Gasteiz has made major achievements other places would do well to imitate).

*Technically, the baton was handed over on December 15th, 2011, but come on, let's be serious here, it's either 2012 or it isn't.

Gaudi is so overwhelming in Barcelona that it sometimes seems as if that's where culture begins and ends there. Not so. For example, following its success at the Tate Modern, the Joan Miró exhibition "The Ladder of Escape" is being held at the Fundació Miró until the middle of March, when it will tour to the National Gallery of Art in Washington (I have written somewhere else on this site that "If you can't put your finger on who Miró is, he's the one with the pictures that look like ink blots" and I stand by that). IMO, Miró is at least as representative of Barcelona as Gaudi, and far more so in relation to the Mediterranean - think of those bright colours and apparently chaotic lines and forms, actually child-like simplifications . Read on for more about the exhibition, or see my new map of Joan Miró's Barcelona.

Hot on the heels of recieving the Best Portuguese Act at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, Aurea is to perform two concerts in Portugal this month.

Aurea released her eponymous debut album barely a year ago in September 2010. It entered the Portuguese album charts at #21 and, powered on by it's lead single Busy for Me, quickly reached #1 in the charts.

Aurea's special brand of ecclectic Soul has made her an instant hit in Portugal with worldwide appeal and her success has attracted support from automobile brand SEAT.

Almost every museum and gallery in Spain closes on Monday. The Prado Museum has announced that it will stop doing so, and instead “increase its opening hours to every day of the week in order to improve and expand its cultural activities and thus guarantee its commitment to covering 60% of its budget through self-financing.” The reason is not hard to guess in these times of crisis: cutbacks. The Prado estimates that this will have a whopping total impact on the Spanish economy, between 80 and 90 million euros. See the next page for more news about entrance to Spain's most important gallery, including a new, only slightly higher, but unified price for both the permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions.

As the Spanish general elections approach, so does the end of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón Jiménez's time as Mayor of Madrid. He leaves it for a probable minister's position, with one crowning achievement, the burial of a large section of the M-30 ring road, and the splendid new park which now covers the tunnels, Madrid Río. There's just one drawback - the enormous cost, which the people of Madrid will be paying until well into the 2040s. Was it worth it? Read on for a discussion of this, or find out more about Madrid Río.

A British pensioner couple was killed by a flash flood in La Cala de Finestrat, Alicante, yesterday. The unnamed couple is variously reported to have been holidaymakers or to have been attending their tea-and-coffee stall at a market held in a dried-up river bed when it was hit by a wall of rainwater about a metre high. They are said to have been found dead under a trailer. The flash flood is said to have been the result of ''heavy rainfall," but no flood warning had been issued. The video above was recorded on her mobile phone by Noelia Porras López from her balcony. Read on for Noelia's eyewitness account, some more of this story and some serious advice about flash floods.