Welcome to Expats! 👋 Say hello below and tell us a little about yourself.
Welcome to Expats! 👋 Say hello below and tell us a little about yourself.
Conversations in every Lapdrop circle: towns, regions and interests. Read along here; post and vote in the app.
Welcome to Expats! 👋 Say hello below and tell us a little about yourself.
Welcome to Kosmographia! 👋 Introduce yourself below: what are you reading or researching right now?
Flamenco guitar at a birthday dinner, a DJ at a villa party, a string duo for a wedding, a mural in the kids’ room… Spain has a lot of creative talent. A few things to agree in advance: set times and breaks, equipment…
Arriving at 1 a.m. with two kids, a dog and five suitcases is a different trip from arriving alone with hand luggage. In Spain, official taxis wait at the rank, while VTC (private hire, including app rides) must always…
A calima can leave your car orange overnight. Salt air and strong sun don’t help either. Tip: never wipe dry dust off, because it scratches like sandpaper. Rinse first. Also good to know: many town halls don’t allow…
Heat, sun, dust and leaves make Spanish pools hungry for care. The basics: skim, empty the baskets, brush, vacuum, test the water and keep an eye on filter pressure, at least weekly in summer. Most pools aren’t drained…
Gardening in Spain is a different game: hot, dry summers, sudden autumn downpours and, in many areas, water restrictions. Drip irrigation, mulch and tough plants like rosemary, lavender, olive, oleander and succulents…
Water heaters (termos) full of limescale, persianas that get stuck, leaking terraces, AC units that give up in August… Spanish homes have their own set of usual suspects. A tip if you live in a flat: work out what’s…
Birth certificates, criminal records, diplomas, powers of attorney… Many Spanish offices want a traducción jurada, signed and stamped by a translator appointed by Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You can check a…
Planning a new kitchen, an extension, a café or a holiday let? In Spain, the paperwork depends on your region and town hall. It might be a declaración responsable, a works licence, an activity licence, or for tourist…
Spanish admin is a rite of passage. Getting an appointment (cita previa) can be the hardest part, and every office seems to ask for something slightly different. Quick reminders: the NIE uses form EX-15 and model…
Rental contracts, builder’s quotes, arras contracts, powers of attorney… We all end up signing documents in Spanish sooner or later. Some things worth checking every time: who is really signing for the other side,…
In Spain, a building survey isn’t a standard step. The bank’s valuation (tasación) is for the bank, not a check of the building. So many buyers skip the inspection, and some regret it when the first winter rain finds…
The notary, the arras contract, the nota simple, ITP that changes from region to region… Buying a home in Spain has its own logic, and most of us learned something the hard way. A few things worth knowing early: get…
Welcome to the Expats group, a place to swap tips, ask questions and help each other settle in Spain, wherever you are. A quick note on what Lapdrop does: if you need something done, like paperwork, a sworn…
New book: The Epic of the Disk — A Pictorial Year-Book Reading of the Phaistos Disc I’ve published a 72-page book on the Phaistos Disc, the stamped clay disc from the palace of Phaistos, Crete (Middle Minoan, about…
I strongly believe that people should watch Randall Carlson’s series about Atlantis and then reasearch everything he references. Core samples taken from the edges of the Atlantic Ridge have revealed beach sand, shallow…
From The New Guilds — discuss here. Subject — Handbook plates — all figures from the book The New Guilds — subject: figures The PDF carries the working plates of the handbook: Atlantic reconstruction at about −200 m,…
From The New Guilds — discuss here. Hoofdstuk — Sacred number on Terra Part I — Hoofdstuk The numbers do not live only in the table. They live in the earth, if you keep the old measure. 7,920 as diameter of the ideal…
From The New Guilds — discuss here. Hoofdstuk — Baalbek Part II — Hoofdstuk Trilithon in the west wall. Hajjar al-Hibla still lies in the quarry. Baalbek, Heliopolis in the Bekaa. Largest Jupiter sanctuary of Rome.…
From The New Guilds — discuss here. Hoofdstuk — The Great Year Part II — Hoofdstuk Round numbers are the song. 25,772 is the measured value. Earth wobbles. The axis describes a cone. Therefore the spring point slides…
From The New Guilds — discuss here. Hoofdstuk — We descend from survivors Part II — Hoofdstuk The guild’s awareness must be: we do not descend from a century, but from a millennia-long line of survivors. Survivors of…
From The New Guilds — discuss here. Hoofdstuk — The island realm, the ridge, the pool of mud Part II — Hoofdstuk Not one mountain chain. A realm of islands. The school print of Atlantis is a rectangle that sinks in one…
From The New Guilds — discuss here. Hoofdstuk — Horus at Edfu — where the ancient evil comes from Part II — Hoofdstuk The temple of Horus at Edfu is not a guidebook to Atlantis. It is a machine that kills the same…
From The New Guilds — discuss here. Hoofdstuk — Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe Part II — Hoofdstuk Pillar 43, the Vulture Stone. Sweatman reads stars. Schmidt dug the site. Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia is older than the…
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