There are many people abroad that imagine this stereo type of Sunny Spain, Ole Fandango and pass the sangría, failing to realise that Spain can get very cold.

We have all been guilty, at some point, of associating Spain with the coast of Andalucía but just inland winter is a very different reality.

When Lieutenant-General, Sir John Moore’s troops retreated along the northern coast of Spain in winter at the beginning of the 1800s they faced a cold nearly as intense as Napoleon’s illfated troops retreating from Moscow in 1812. Many redcoats under L.G. Moore froze to death or suffered crippling frost bite, as they plodded towards a port in Galicia to be rescued by the Royal Navy.

A much more recent reminder of just how cold Spain gets in the winter, was this week in Castilla y León when they recorded a temperature of minus 35.6ºC, which is the lowest in the recorded history in Spain.

Yes, in Canada or Siberia, it gets much colder, but nobody says Sunny Siberia nor Sunny Saskatchewan!

(News: Castilla y León)