Spanish holiday rentals free listing

You may have missed it but we recently laucnhed our new holiday rentals Spain page on Eye on Spain. The great news is that it's actually free to list your properties on there for the time being. We may decide to charge for the service at a later date if it means that we need to grow it and put a lot more effort into it. At the moment it's free so take advantage. Click the following link to go there now:

http://www.eyeonspain.com/vacation-rentals-spain.aspx

Arenal 2000 and Aifos directors arrested

You all know about all the corruption scandals involving the Mayor of Marbella. Well yesterday there were some more arrests. This time they arrested the top directors of Arenal 2000 and Aifos. Now, we all know that Aifos are particularly dodgy but Arenal 2000 have generally had quite a good reputation. It seems their reputation may now take a turn for the worst!

Keep looking back here as I'll post any information that I find out about these arrests.

Our second anniversary in Spain

I really am really poor at getting round to blogging. I always mean to comment on things that are going on etc but just never get round to it.

But today I have forced myself to post. You see today is a special day for us. We arrived in Spain exactly 2 years ago today...and what a 2 years it's been! So much has happened and we've been through so much it's literally been one big roller coster ride. Let's see...

• Arrived on a boiling day...not a good move
• We rented a house for a few months waiting for our apartment to be completed....the house was a hell-hole and wondered why we'd left our glorious house in England
• Business did not take off as anticipated....at all!
• We had no phone line, no lines available in the area...and we were running an Internet business!
• Worked out of a cyber cafe for months - Passively smoked 100 cigarettes
• Employed a marketing manager who tried to con us
• Nearly stuck a business deal with the biggest agent on the coast but fell through last minute
  
• 9 months down the line still no phone line and business still slow
• Moved to apartment near Puerto Banus....got phone line :)
• Seemed great at first until realised young neighour liked 4am parties
• Also the urbanisation was just a load of steps, not ideal with very young kids and in the heat of summer
• After 6 months moved into our own apartment...much better! Oh...but no phone line again
  
• Managed to get wireless phone line...not brilliant but it works
• Things are great now

And that's just some basics. I really could write a book about our whole move as it really has been one massive experience.

But after everything we are really happy here, we've really settled in, made some good friends and we're not moving for a while.

So if you're moving to Spain to work or set up a business then prepare for the worst and expect the unexpected....especially on the Costa del Sol! But you'll have a lot of fun in the process.

English children speaking Spanish

Spent the afternoon at the pool today with the kids (their swimming is getting really good now). We live on quite an "interesting" development. There is a real mix of characters with many permanent English, Spanish and Irish residents here. I think we could write a soap opera about the goings-on here day to day!

Anyway, what always truly amazes me is how young English kids (say from 4 - 12 years old) have mastered the Spanish language and actually talk amongst themselves in Spanish! OK, some of them haven't quite mastered the accentbut they are so comfortable communicating and playing in Spanish. The next minute they'll break into English and then mix the two up. It's quite fascinating listening to them. It's a bit like people speak in Gibraltar, mixing the two languages, but then you see, there is like a "structure" to it. There is a way to mix the two. Someone just trying to do it unnaturally would sound silly.

Then you find that the parents of these kids can rarely string two words together in Spanish.

Someone really should make a documentary of this development!

What has happened to the weather in Spain?

I'm not sure what's happening in the rest of the country but here where we are in Manilva the weather is just dire at the moment. During the week we end up saying "if the weather is nice this weekend...."... that's what we used to say when we lived in England!

It's all very odd really. We've had loads of rain, it's windy for a lot of the time, we're still using blankets to sleep and it's just not that hot. We even thought that maybe it's just us acclimatising to the temperature, but I don't think so.

We were going to go to the pool this afternoon but it's windy and grey.

If the weather is nice this weekend we'll go to the beach!

My favourite fish restaurants

One of my favourite things about Spain is not so much the weather but actually the food. If you find a good restaurant where the helpings are good, the food is excellent, the service is friendly and the price is reasonable then in my opinion...you're sorted!

The problem is that with all the development going on around us, old traditional restaurants which have always been so good are being snapped up by foreigners who then re-do the restaurants, move them upmarket and charge a lot more money, although I have to say, the food generally is still excellent.

This happened to us recently. For years we have been going to a restaurant called "Bar Agustino" in small place called Torreguadiaro (near Purto Sotogrande). From the outside this place always looked like a grotty bar but walk through the bar, enter the restaurant area and then onto the terrace. The terrace is right on the beach. The location couldn't be more perfect. We've been going there for years. The friendliest waiters, the "old lady" cook who comes out to see who's eating her food which has always been brilliant.

However, we went back there a couple of weeks ago and were horrified to find a new sign about the door "El Tamarillo de Agustin". Not quite the "Bar Agustin" that we were used to seeing. Anyway, we assumed they were under new management so wandered in. The place has been transformed. No more grotty bar, it's now a gourmet restaurant...with prices to match. We couldn't believe it. BUT, I have to say, the fried fish was, I think, the best I have ever had, impeccable service and the same great location....with prices to match. But, that certain something was missing...maybe the "old lady cook" or the friendly way of the original waiters.

So we had a great meal there but were left disappointed that our favourite restaurant was no more.

But then, we went to the beach in Torreguadiaro the other day and noticed that under the "El Tamarillo de Agustin" there was a new restaurant opening up....yes, it was the old Bar Agustino, they'd taken up the premises below!! Same old cook, waiters and as we were to find out, same excellent food. What a pleasant surprise.

So if you are in the Torregudiaro area check out the restaurant that's slightly hidden under the "expensive" one.

Just wanted to mention that we also tried a chiringuito in a place called Castillo, although I can't remember the name of it. If you decide to go there be warned...the portions are huge! Don't over-order like we did.

If you have a favourite restaurant you can mention it as a comment to this post.

Happy eating.

Estepona is worth checking out

We went to Estepona yesterday morning to do a bit of shopping. I remember Estepona even just 5 or 6 years ago wasn't really a nice place. It didn't really have anything of much interest apart from some nice restaurants and a very long nice beach. But it's had a "Trinny and Susanna" makeover over the past couple of years and it truly has been transformed. The ncie restaurants and the beach are still there, but the whole town centre now has marble pavements, there are loads of great shops (for those that like shopping) and the whole town just has a really nice feel to it.

Definitely worth a visit and take a good walk around (although it's practically dead between 2 and 5 in the afternoon).


Estepona is not what it used to be!