HISTORICAL ORIGINS ETC....

SPANISH TRIVIA....

One of our local free papers (we get five or six) recently had an article on Spanish Trivia so I thought I would share a couple with you.

Ø      The word Spain means the “land of rabbits”.  The Phoenician settlers found so many of them running around wild on the land that they named it after them. 

Unfortunately they mistook them for the Hyraxes of Africa and named it in a Canaanite dialect, which Latin speaking Romans turned into Hispania.Down through the years it morphed into the Norman French Spagne, and then Spain.

Ø      Spain is not only the second largest country in Western Europe but is also the second highest (after Switzerland). 

Ø      The guitar was invented in Andalusia in the 1790s when a sixth string was added to the Moorish Lute (I understand this was the acoustic guitar as the electric version had to wait awhile).

Ø      Picasso´s full name was - Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano  de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso.

Ø      New York City is reported to have more telephones than the whole of main land Spain.  How this squares up with the fact that Spaniards seem to have a mobile phone permanently wedded to their ear I am not sure, perhaps New Yorkers have phones in both ears!

Ø      Phillip, Prince of Calabria, the eldest son of Charles XIII Of Spain, adored gloves so much that he often wore 16 pairs at a time.  How did he ever bend his fingers?

Ø      Thirteen of the 15 major North American oil and gas companies have Spanish management – that’s a weird one!

Ø      At 52 floors and 186 metres, the Gran Bali Hotel in Benidorm is the tallest in Europe. (link)    

Ø       Origin of Tapas ...  There are lots of legends about the origin of Tapas ranging from it was a disc of bread with food on which you placed on top of your glass (Tapa means lid in the literal sense)  to keep the flies off so I assume instead of flies getting in your drink they got in your mouth with the tapas!  

Ø       [No, a non starter really this one; others would have it that the King of Spain decreed that drinks must be served with a small snack to reduce drunkenness amongst Spanish soldiers.  From my experience in the army serving a snack with every drink would only produce fat drunken soldiers!  No I really think it's down to the weather and the Greeks do exactly the same with their Meze,  because they have a similar climate. ]

Ø       watch out for

more trivia soon  !!!

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