Page 627 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Spain

PR A C TIC AL INFORM A TION  625

Several other English-language and Wave96FM (96 FM) from Correos and the town, and
and European titles are also on Malagá on the Costa del Sol. collected from main offices.
the stands, but usually only the All of these stations can also be To send and receive money
day after publication. The most listened to online and are a by post, ask for a giro postal.
widely read Spanish papers are good source of local and
El País, El Mundo, ABC, La Razón international news in English.
and La Vanguardia (in Catalonia). Addresses
Popular weekly news In Spanish addresses, the house
magazines such as Time, Postal Service number follows the name of
Newsweek and The Economist Correos is Spain’s postal the street. The floor of a block
are readily available throughout service. Mail sent within the of flats comes after a hyphen.
the country. same city usually takes a day to Therefore 4-2° means a flat on
Weekly listings magazines for arrive. Deliveries between cities the second floor of number four.
local arts, entertainment and take two to three days. Urgent All postcodes in Spain have five
events are published in or important post can be sent digits, the first two being the
Barcelona (see p194), by urgente (express) or province number.
Madrid (see p324) certificado (registered)
and Seville (see p460). mail. For fast delivery,
Several other Spanish use the Correos Postal Local Government
cities also have their Express Service or Spain is one of Europe’s most
own listings magazines. a private courier. decentralized states. Many
A number of foreign- Post can be powers have been devolved to
language periodicals registered, and the 17 regions, also known as
are published by expa- tele grams sent from comunidades autónomas, which
triates in Madrid and in all Correos offices. have their own elected parlia-
the country’s other main However, it is much ments. These regions have
tourist areas. Some easier to buy stamps varying degrees of indepen-
examples in English from an estanco dence from Madrid, with the
include Metropolitan Spanish postbox (tobacconist). Postal Basques and Catalans enjoying
in Barcelona, Sur on the rates fall into three the most autonomy. The
Costa del Sol, the Costa price bands: Spain; Europe comunidades provide some
Blanca News and the and North Africa; and the services – such as the promo tion
Mallorca Daily Bulletin. rest of the world. Parcels must of tourism, plus education and
be weighed and stamped at health – that were once carried
Correos offices. out by the central government.
Television and Radio
The main Correos offices The country is subdivided
Televisión Española, Spain’s open 8:30am–9:30pm Monday into 50 provinces and two
state television company, to Friday and 9:30am–1pm on autonomous cities (Ceuta and
broad casts on two channels, Sat ur day; outside the cities they Melilla), each with its diputación
TVE1 and TVE2, which run close by 1–2pm on weekdays. (council). The affairs of each of
24 hours a day. Letters sent from a post office the Balearic and Canary islands
Several of the comunidades usually arrive more quickly than are run by an island council.
have their own publicly owned if posted in a postbox (buzón). Every town is administered by
television channels, which In cities, postboxes are yellow an ayuntamiento (town council –
broadcast in the language of pillar boxes; elsewhere they are the word also means “town hall”),
the region. In addition, there small, wall-mounted postboxes. which is then supervised by an
are a few national television Poste restante letters should be elected alcalde (mayor) and a
stations: Antena 3, Tele-5 addressed care of the Lista de team of councillors.
(Telecinco), La Sexta and Cuatro.
Digital TV in Spain is offered
by two companies, Canal+ and
Imagenio. This provides access
to dozens of local channels
and the possibility of watching
programmes in their original
language or with subtitles.
Radio is very popular
throughout Spain and there are
a number of English-language
radio stations based mainly in
the south, including Talk Radio
Europe, which is the largest net-
work, (88.2 FM, 88.9 FM, 105.1 FM,
92.7 FM, 103.9 FM and 104.6 FM) Murcia’s town hall (ayuntamiento or casa consistorial)

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