Mike,
The ring circuit consists of cables run from the panel to each receptacle in turn, then back to the panel to complete the ring. It's been the most common sysem for feeding recepts. in British homes for many years (lights are on separate circuits here).
Forgive me if I don't go into a long explanation again, but allow me to refer you to the treads "Hello from U.K" and "Ring circuits U.K. style" in this section where we had quite a discussion about rings.
Texas,
The hotel I mentioned above was actually in Majorca -- Magalluf to be exact.
The new EU-wide 230V standard seems to be more political than anything else at the moment. The U.K. is now officially 230V, even though nothing has happened to our 240V supplies. All they've done is juggle with the permitted tolerances so that they can call it 230 volts! I have no up-to-date information on Spain, but I wouldn't mind betting that they've done something similar and that their supplies are still really 220V.
Considering Spain's often poorly regulated supply and undersized cables where outlet voltage can easily be down to 190V on heavy load, it probably doesn't make much difference anyway!
