Viva España

Spain, Monday, January 21, 2019

The first week here in our new home has flown by.

The ride to here we have happily done a slow pace, because the second day I fell ill. Abdominal cramps, enormous fatigue, giddy, in short miserable feeling. The result was that I could not drive and Wim had to take care of the whole journey. As if it had to be this way, we had nothing planned in advance and nothing reserved. This gave us the freedom to see on the way to where we got and to find something to stay overnight. We have discovered some wonderful places.

We chatted a lot, learned Spanish, laughed, smeared, slept a little 😊, sung, … The closer we got to San Vicente Del Raspeig, the nicer the weather and the more we got the taste.

On the road reality became real, it was not just going on a trip, it was final. And that surprised. It was a feeling that I had never experienced before. Drive somewhere for the first time and never return. I must admit that occasionally the uncertainty arose, the fear of the unknown, or more of the irreversible. Although this is always to reverse. If it does not work, we will sell back and we will see. But this is not in our top of mind. No, we are both convinced that we will turn this into a success story. We have both so much excitement. Wim seems to have fewer uncertainties than me. He is especially very driven and seems so relieved that it is finally ready. Actually, that uncertainty only happened to me on the way here, because as soon as we opened the gate to our resort, I knew that this was ‘it’. It is a feeling that cannot be described. It is simply beautiful here. The view of the mountains and the city, the palm trees, the stars that are so much brighter, and then the sun, the sun and again the sun. So wonderful to feel that warmth again that is completely different from the heat of any heat source. The sky is clear blue, the birds here are lively and noisy, and that in the middle of winter. https://laviniaholidayresort.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/20190120_091040-kopie_Trim.mp4?_=1 The temperatures climb to 30 degrees in the sun at the hottest moment of the day. But as soon as the sun is gone, we dive towards 12 degrees. But who cares? if you have about 7 hours of radiant sunshine on a day ?

When we arrived we got a tour of Elli and Lea from Open Door Spain and with site manager Juan Carlos. We were surprised in a positive way that so much had already happened. Vicente, the contractor had clearly kept his word. The smallest house near the pool was ready to camp in. Yes, really camping; no heating, no fridge, no cooking facilities. But there is electricity and hot water and the possibility to shower, just as we had asked for at least. Only when we really started to move into our house did we discover that the lighting was very much reduced to a minimum. There were only wires from the ceiling, no sugar, no socket. The result was that we had to drive as soon as possible to the store to hang lamps before dark, because we feared that it could be very dark here. The hanging of the lamps itself was not a sinecure, because we did not have the right material because of somewhere in the many boxes and not enough time to look for it. So we had to improvise with a knife and a step that we apparently still brought in the car. After a while we still had light in the darkness.

Fortunately, I had thought to also bring an electric fire for the chilly evenings, because, yes, it soon turned out to be only 15 degrees. Just a little too fresh to sit still.

Given that eating here is really not expensive, we had already anticipated in advance that we would just eat out the first few days. Ultimately, this is also working, because we must also be able to familiarize our future guests. Only dinner will only start here at the earliest between 8 pm and 9 pm. You will find very few things that already offer food at 8 pm. So we do it in the Spanish way. Have lunch – around 2 pm and often only dine at 10 pm. Life has been built around this. A siesta is being held and everything falls silent at that moment. No more stores open between 1 pm and 5 pm. The advantage is that all stores are open until 10 pm. We have no difficulty in adapting to this. That way we have nice long days to do a lot of work and we can afford to leave the house after 5 pm to go shopping and do whatever is necessary.

Wednesday our contents from Belgium arrived with the moving company. It turned out to be not a simple move at all, because of the accessibility and the different houses on different levels. At the bargain, the gate of the private road that gives access to the most accessible site of our domain turned out to be closed. However, this was questioned in advance by us and the contractor had assured us that it would be open. The only person who still had a key to it was our neighbour on the mountain. But she did not give up, at least she did not show herself, nor did she pick up the phone. Much to the frustration of the moving company who saw no other option than to move through that access road, because our driveway in the front has a slope of 11 percent and is 100 meters long. Ultimately, through an ultimate desperate attempt to try out all the keys to our own bunch of keys, we were able to open the gate in time. Nobody knew that the key was in our possession all that time … how hilarious was that! Happy ending at least…

After about 6 hours of hard work with 5 men from the moving company everything was moved. I am improving myself: everything was neatly ordered by color code that we gave beforehand. We will have several hours of work to unpack everything and give it the right place. But this is for later. Priority is now making everything a bit more livable here so that we can live more comfortably day in and day out and that we can cook, shower and so on. Meanwhile, it is wonderful to improvise like the barbecue we did this weekend. We all like to take it all and do not let it come to our heart. We are enjoying ourselves to the fullest and see only challenges that we go with full enthusiasm.

Tomorrow we have an appointment at the embassy, ​​we try to flare out how it is that we have not yet received any post, we are going to register with the ‘social seguridad’ (social security) we go for the umpteenth time looking for ‘rebajas ‘(sales) to decorate our villas, and I would love to work here to tinker some furniture and to decorate our house. Wim will spend the rest of the time mainly on the marketing part, because we urgently need to attract guests via channels with a very large reach. Although our photos on Facebook might suggest otherwise, it continues to work very hard. But working with a lot of fun, and together. We feel so strong as a couple, and that feeling only increases. There is no one else on this globe with whom I would dare to face this adventure. Wim is really my soul mate, and I am his, we complement each other so well, and our respect for each other is so great. That means that we are equal to every problem. And maybe that will help us in the future …

Hasta Luego !

Annemie