Costa del Sol News, a round up of this weeks news on the Costa del Sol

Anyone who spent Christmas in Spain this year will not be surprised to find out was the wettest for 60 years with 3 weeks of virtually uninterrupted rain resulting in a total of 238 litres per square metres falling in Andalucia between 18th. and 30th. December.

Quickly add this page to your Social Bookmarks and keep up to date with all the news from the Costa del Sol.

However the good news is that is seems to be over, at least for the time being and it has left the reservoirs with enough water to last between 2 and 4 years for the majority of Andalucia.

In fact the reservoir in La Concepción, which had fallen to less than 40 per cent, was back up to 97.5 per cent in just two days with the result being that the reservoir had to open its sluice gates and release enough water to supply the Costa del Sol for a month and a half into the sea!!

So at least now we have hopefully come through the worst of it we can look forward to a long hot summer without the inconvenience of water rationing.

Skyscanner's recently conducted survey carried out among British tourists has put Málaga and the Costa del Sol top of the list of desired destinations for 2010.It is followed by Tenerife and Alicante with fourth and fifth places going to Orlando in the United States and Dalaman in Turkey.

Last year Málaga came out second but this year it has improved its position and is now top from a choice of 50 holiday destinations, so congratulations to all who work so hard to ensure it has good reason to deserve this popularity and support.

Skyscanner is the internet flight search engine which checks for the lowest prices among some 600 airlines on 670,000 routes. Now 80% of British tourists coming to the Costa del Sol make their flight reservations over the internet.

Perhaps with this popularity in mind Ryanair has recently announced plans to bring a total of 19 more routes to Málaga Airport making a total of 39 with 360 flights per week.

The new routes include connections in Spain with Santander, Santiago de Compostela, Zaragoza and Valladolid, and, in Europe, with Berlin Schonefeld, Munich West, Paris Beauvais, Stockholm, Oslo and Venice.

This expansion will not only benefit holiday makers but will also create around 200 much needed jobs in the currently very depressed employment market.

Whilst on the topic of air travel the Spanish Development Minister, José Blanco, has recently announced that Spain will not be introducing whole body scanners at Spanish airports,at least not until there is an EU-wide agreement on the matter.

He said that the cabinet is currently debating ways to make the freedom and privacy of passengers compatible with security,although it would follow the request made by the United States to tighten controls on flights heading there after the Detroit attack over Christmas.

The U.K however said it will be among the countries to introduce such scanners so passengers may still have to undergo this type of search on certain routes.

72 new works have recenetly been purchased by the Picasso Museum inMálaga valued at nearly 3 million euros.

The works include 22 drawings made by the Málaga painter between 1896 and 1925, and 48 etchings dated between 1905 and 1968. Four books illustrated by Picasso complete the purchases.

In addition Bernard Ruiz Picasso and his wife Almine have donatedsix other works along with a 15 year loan of 43 other workstogether worth over 300 million euros.This group includes works as famous as ‘Olga con Mantilla’, ‘Retrato de Paulo con Gorro Blanco’ and ‘La Niña y su Muñeca (Lola)’.

The Málaga museum now has some 280 works, of which it owns 233 valued at some 90 million. The centre’s director, José Lebrero, said, "the new drawings from Picasso’s youth give more weight to the trajectory of the artist and his fleeing from his family."

We are also pleased to be able to offer you the opportunity to read all the latest news from the Costa del Sol and Spain in general straight from the pages of the Town Crier. Just click on the links below and keep up to date with all news,views, politics,weather etc.

Costa del Sol News.