A Culture of Benidorm

Mention Benidorm and, therefore, the concepts of mass tourism, buffet hotel, bar the UK with a euro a pint of lager, follow the northern English Working Men's Club turns into something neither themselves nor their audience ever, lobster swimmers spit representation burned and fried English breakfast with bacon already coated in tomato sauce, and I would bet that very few punters would auto-people associate the term "cultural experience". More likely, perhaps,be the image of holiday spectacle of over-spewing industrial sized, garish and scruffy discos along the strip of nine clock in the morning, was impressive on the road in the middle of the split, broken and crushed plastic waste, it seems that this environmentally conscious, no doubt a ton of people generate.

Benidorm, of course, is not Spain. Like many other popular resorts in the world of mass tourism, has an identity apart from its host country or a country back.Benidorm is not Spain, perhaps in the same way that it is not Kuta Bali, Nice, France, or Acapulco in Mexico. On the same scale, Blackpool United Kingdom! In reality, these places are the crucible of the same amount, usually with a strong taste, the largest group of visitors. In the case of Benidorm, is of course the British. A fortnight in Benidorm offer up as many contacts with the Spanish culture as experience informs visitors to light in September in Blackpool LancashireCotton Industry. (The past is very relevant.) Benidorm also side by side with the word "culture" might be a definition of "oxymoron" in German with humor, Ireland, with many culinary and honest with English . (Here and there I can borrow from the tradition of our Working Men's Comedy Club, but perhaps with a different color of the skin in a consistent manner!)

Benidorm is known for its seven miles of perfect, clean beaches, year round tourism, its millions of visitors known.It has nice places to eat in their city and its neighborhoods. E 'nightlife, theme parks and five star golf resorts. E 'surrounded by mountains, has a nature reserve island. And in a sense, the European space as a whole is truly cosmopolitan and increasingly sophisticated.

So when my wife and I came here five years ago on the basis of an application in November, while the possibility of a change of life going from one day working pressure selected, our primary objective was to examine whether in the vicinity of theseTourism megalith, may depend on the space for a small rent to those who yearn, perhaps next to the cave unfair, but also wanted an S-distance from the bike shrill, bachelor parties, beach clubs that maintain Harley Davidson pub plastic glass and even line dancing. Now we have found our place and took the plunge. What I did not expect was the "culture".

In this first month as a tourist package of late booking, we wereSo our first visit to mainland Spain for 24 years and we were pleased to find a treatment or two odd. Having been here for a few years, we now know, of course, lived, which is actually pretty hard to avoid them! The town of Benidorm band - symphonic band tradition in the Valencia region, we now know - the mountain is a free concert in healthy Benidorm Palace, a place whose normal monkeys show the film. The local choir, the castle near Venus of original music from TannhauserCompositions for the band and former populist. We searched and found a sub-set of Latin jazz band by night and at the CAM Bank Auditorium, where an extra night there was a recital of chamber music. Just across the street from the Cultural Center of Alfaz del Pi is an American pianist who plays for Barcelona, he studied Montsalvatge.
We also found a soprano opera arias give in Calpe.

So we bought the place and there was the owner of a house with twoApartments, a beautiful Mediterranean garden, proximity to the tourist center, but still very much a part of their city, a place with excellent local services. Our goal has been limited, pragmatic and clear. After about 56 years of continuous professional use among us, we decided that a change might have been better than others. We had already lived and worked in five countries and had a great experience of some others, but we also found that pound of flesh the same weightaround the world. Even if we had won a couple of these over the years, having sought and extracted from time to time he ran the risk that ripped the critical areas. to pay over the years was worth significantly the total pressure and the rewards of pain. But times change, to change lives, to achieve the priorities change and fifty people.

This was the time for something else to do the income of commercial quality. We bought a house in La Nucia, just five kilometers from BenidormThe beaches, the city of skyscrapers visible from our hotel balcony. Our goal was to create our own niche business of renting your own apartment with two bedrooms, garden, and a modest life, if sometimes indulgent lived on the first floor. Now we have been doing this for more than four years, they have a customer base and in fact have achieved what we wanted to achieve. We will not get rich from trade. That was never our goal. From the beginning we wanted to offer simple, clean, accessibleAccommodation at a reasonable price, our field of modeling the kind of middle place backpackers we had class about how both happy and a little 'surprising price. It worked well. What I did not expect was the "culture".

For some sixteen of our thirty years of post-graduate who had lived in London. We've been trained dogs to enter the field of culture, when the power to make it work. We have been friends of the English National Opera in its "powerhouse" years. Iit was a holiday and the school teacher, used to from Balham in central London on foot in lunchtime concerts at St James's in Piccadilly to be my favorite place. Then we moved to Brunei and then in the United Arab Emirates. In Brunei, we became members of the Society of Music and helped organize concerts. In Abu Dhabi, cultural events much the responsibility of the private sector and people have diplomats, and was and remains a vibrant cultural life, which is, after allCapital of the country. We were able to attend a high quality cultural events, mainly music, theater and visual arts, in both places. And then we arrived in Spain.

Our first visit was proposed to start in this area as a suspect by the package holiday brochures can look. But if to tell me that over the past eight months, we have four operas, four orchestral concerts, ten chamber music recitals, five local festivals, an international film wereFestivals, art exhibitions and many who knows what else - and what's more, if I do so not once we had to qualify to travel more than ten miles from home, would you associate this with Benidorm and the Costa Blanca? And, if you Slightly surprised by what I just said, it would probably be surprised to learn also that in addition to this, Benidorm is building a new cultural center which is six miles up the road the new VillajoyosaCultural Centre is opening and this year, La Nucia, our hometown, also opened a 600-seat concert auditorium and a 3,000-seat outside.

I may have to demonstrate how local state my claim. Twenty miles on the road from Benidorm, Alicante, a regional center with a theater of the nineteenth century presents a varied program of ballet, theater and opera. More than 140 miles north of Valencia, where the program operates the spectacular new Reina SofiaHome with those of the New York Met and Covent Garden in London coordinated. What I have described, including local and contains only what can be found within ten miles of where we live within ten miles of Benidorm, a cultural paradise.

Can you guess that we are very interested in music, my wife and I are, but we also want to theater, dance, painting and art in general. We tend not to go, pop festival, but if we had both at the local level.

Why notCheck this list to La Nucia, Altea, Benidorm, Alfaz del Pi, Villajoyosa, Finestrat? Choose your time of year and it was a wonderful musical event every night of your stay and I guarantee that the standard of performance is as good as anywhere. And if you're in Joachim Palomares and his ensemble take their arrangements of Piazzolla tangos, or during the week of April or Opera Altea La Nucia Les Nits festival, will be true in a party. And if the new culture BenidormCenter is open, imagine glossy brochures packages also offer seats in the stalls or Puccini, a performance of Steve Reich's Drumming! Followed, of course, one euro a pint of beer, bacon and eggs and a comic strip in the north, perhaps.