Spanish Steps from Sussex to the Sierras

 Home and thinking about the Future

So here we are now back in the UK, full of hopes, fears and a little confused.  We know that Spain is where we want to be, where in Spain is another subject. We started this journey with a plan, large house, lots of land, up in a mountain, goats, horses etc etc.  Sitting at home in the UK that looked like the ideal life for us, everything we had always wanted, self suffiency plus the potential to have some rental income to top up my pension. The original idea changed as the trip progressed.

This trip to Spain enabled us to meet ex pats already living in Spain.  Some fell  into the category of those who had something to gain from us moving to Spain and others  fell into the category of future friends.  I will briefly cover the former.  If I heard the phrase  don't worry, its Spain once, I  heard it hundreds of times, especially from the agents.  It is clear to me that the " turn a blind eye" culture is alive and well in certain quarters, which actually worried me more.  We were told that we were under no pressure to buy, really, your telling me, I never had any intentions on buying a house on this trip, we had told everyone we contacted prior to our visit that this was the case, I can only assume that some prospective buyers do change their  minds once they are in Spain.  It was amazing as to how many properties would not be their in a few weeks, and did you  know you can put a 3K deposit down and move when you wanted.  Plus buy to lets are a great investment at the moment.  Needless to say most if not all are still for sale with a lot more added to the lists since we arrived home, and I am still not sure about the buy to let investments after all and 11% return on investment, I would have thought they most people would be biting the agents hands off.   Having said all that some of the agents were informative without any pressures and answered our questions with knowledge and experience.  Moving swiftly on we also met folks who I know we would love to meet again and would easily become friends.

We had one day out of researching areas, and we spent that day in Cordoba, near to where we were staying with Alan and Lorna and the Alpaca farms.  Their house is in what can only be described as an idyllic situation, 20 minutes down a track, up and down, round and round, amazing views and surrounded by olive groves and a pretty babbling river flowing through.  Although if you read Lorna's blog  from a few months ago, you will know that the pretty babbling river turned into a torrent of flood water complete with a run away car.

Lornas Blog

Cordoba was lovely, although the highways into the city made you realise that this is not just a little historical town but a major city, living and breathing. We managed to park and walked to the old quarter.  How pretty is this, lovely cobbled streets, old buildings,leaning into each other covered in the early signs of the up and coming patio festival, which must be an amazing sight when in full bloom. Orange trees in full fruit, ripe for picking except don't they are very bitter and husband found out. The Cathedral was just beautiful and we spent a long time in here, truly amazing. Lunch was had in a little restaurant up one of the side streets,  We shared a salad to start and then Spanish Omelet and Calamaris it was all very yummy. The afternoon was a gentle stroll looking at what else was on offer, the amazing Roman bridge for one.

After Alan and Lorna's we traveled to Alcala Real, stayed at a lovely B&B run by a young couple a real family home.

The view from the window was amazing, the castle in the distance. We woke up the following morning to 3 inches of snow. This actually enhanced the view even more, however it did nothing for my nerves re driving, the B&B in Alcala Real, is at the top of the town and we were heading down to move to our next stop Valor in the Alpujarras. Snow was not on the agenda however, after a gut wrenching drive we managed to get to the main roads safe and well and headed for out next destination.

The weather over the 3 hour drive was mixed, snow, hail sunshine and more snow.  As we eventually arrived in the region, the climb up and around the mountains began. The roads were amazingly well looked after, we did come across several rock falls, but these appeared to be well cordoned off and managed.  The views were amazing, as we travelled up and down the weather changed, lots of snow, not so much snow no snow.  As we travelled the signs for all the Alpujarras villages came and went, and they brought alive for me the book I had recently read, The Hand of Fatima, a lovely story about a boy and his life in the 15th century. Eventually we arrived at Valor, and met our next hosts. We were shown to our accommodation, which was a lovely little house, typical of the Alpujarras. However the arrival was marred by the Hosts. Remember it was freezing, we were offered a tiny little heater which apparently we could use for an hour or two, it would have just about heated a mouses toe.

 However that was not what upset me the most.  Having offered us the minuscule heater, they asked if we were there to look at houses, yes we said, well that was a big mistake.  We then received what I think they thought was constructive advice, which actually came across as offensive and actually plain bloody stupid., and while sharing the knowledge with us became actually aggressive.  I will select some of the phrase that stuck with us.

Don't buy a house in the country, the police will make you work the land - Not much fun when you are retired and they make you work.

The shops don't open in the afternoon, so you cannot buy milk

I don't drive..........and I never use the buses.

If the house you buy is  too close to the road the police will knock it down

Know I know that everyone has different experiences of their lives and I know that if you buy  property with agricultural use then yes that's what you have to do, But I have yet to hear of British OAP's being picked up on a Saturday and being made to work in a chain gang. Maybe I was being sensitive but I was really angry, I was paying money to stay in the house, I did not ask and pay for advice from someone who had not even asked my name.

That night I text someone who I had been in contact with before our arrival for a recommendation for a hotel. However one of the best things that happened on this trip was that they invited us to stay. So after our house hunting day around the Alpurujjas we arrived at the house.  I cannot express in words how welcoming they were.   We had a  fabulous dinner, several drinks and some amazing star gazing. We awoke the next morning, rested, warm and happy,  this was our last day in Spain and what a way to end.  This couple were living the life of  our dream, a lovely home, not fancy as in huge rooms or marble bathrooms, but comfortable and Spanish,  land ,not acres and acres, but enough to grow vegetables etc, lovely views but close to a sweet village that was  full of Spanish life .They were  rich in spirit and giving and we found new friends.  They gave us advice in a calm and measured manner a great deal of which we took on board, including some that we may not have wanted to hear, but enabled us to re consider our ideas.

So back to the beginning, here we are back in the UK.  We have made changes to our plans. No longer do we want a top up income, we would rather have the money in the bank, a smaller house with land but a smaller than originally thought. No horses, but definitely dogs, two, Spanish Mastiffs, maybe a goat, but heating is a must as in a priority.

We are not bothered that we have changed our ideas, that's the whole point of visiting Spain, what works on paper here in the UK is not necessarily going to work in reality.  Always remember, YOU have the power to change your life because YOU have the power to change your mind

We have another region to visit, we are going to Extremadura in August, as this is an area that  I have always had a yearning for and it is an itch that I have to scratch. 

So I leave you for the moment with a selection of photo's from our trip

 Property, location, don't worry, no one worries about that, its Spain!

So we have discussed the travelling the roads etc now we look at the real reason for the visit.. does the property in reality, match up to the prose produces by the Estate agents on the web sites.

So prior to arriving in Spain, we had emailed loads of estate agents, and in the end four different agents came back with ideas and thoughts based on what we had told them about our criteria.  At the outset we were perfectly up front with them with regards to our plans.  This was not a "buying" visit but a reality visit, what were the houses like in the areas we had chosen, what did - " needs a little work" mean,  whats a large garden in spain etc etc.  Our original criteria was

·        House with seperate letting potential

·        Decent size plot of land

·        Rural

·        Walking distance of village

or

2 houses  one to live in one to rent out either holiday or long term.

So off we went.  I am not going to go into all the individual properties we saw, but believe you me we saw a lot.  We were not dissapointed, the reality was in line with what we thought, although I am still of the belief that Estate Agents all have degrees in flowery prose.  Needs a little work usually meant, needs a complete overhaul, liveable meant,  you might live there but I would not.

Everyday we viewed various houses, made notes, looked at the possibilies, fell in love, then fell out of love - with the houses not each other, walked around the land, gasped at some of the most stunning views, laughed at the prospect of driving up and down some of  the hair raising camiros(sp) me with my eyes closed, talked in the evenings about what we had seen and eventually the visit was over.

The areas we visited were firstly around Estapa, I am afraid this did nothing for me, I do not know why, but there you have it, either a place grabs you or it does not.  Our next stop over was Nr Cordoba, this was a lovely area, the views etc were amazing. We also visited the lovely town of Alcala Real, where we woke up to snow, a beautiful scene, but a slippery drive down to the main road, where we visited a lovely house near Montifrio.  This was a house that you fell in love with, and we did, but we were not ready to move and were not going to be pushed into any on the spot decision. From here we moved onto the Alpurajjas.  This was without doubt my favourite area. Stunning views fabulous little villages and houses that fitted our original criteria.

A constant phrase we heard was as I have said in a previous post was don't worry.  When we asked questions about, legal issues, renting our properties etc, planning permissions nearly all said the same thing, don’t worry, we can sort that out, we have a solicitor who manages all the details, at one time someone even said the word investment. I assured each and every one that we would instruct our own solicitor, and we did worry about planning permissions etc. In fact as soon as someone says don’t worry, I worry!  .Sometimes I was made to feel like an illiterate itinerant!  There was some pressure to make decisions from some, but others were more understanding of the need to research and look around. I cannot count how many times we were told, if I had the money I would buy this or this house will not be here next week someone will snap it up.  Needless to say, they are all still there with new ones added.

Seven days later we arrived home tired and a little confused. There were houses that we saw that we really liked and others that we hated, some we just did not understand. Why do some people rip the original guts out of a house and turn it into a box.  Did we want a mountain  life, or lots of land or..............confusion reigned.

Despite the confusion we did learn a lot.  Heating the house is a must in the winter, water rights, living off/on grid, the benefits of solar power types of roads to and from houses, location of shops, did we want a village house or rural.  Now having been back for several weeks we have changes the criteria.  We are now looking for a house just for us, no rental at all, we are reducing the budget. No we do not want a lot of land, enough for veg, chooks etc.  We now only need a small house so as to manage reasonable heating costs in the winter. No we do not want a village, we do want rural. We want views and wildlife we do want dogs, no rental accommodation. We only want one house.  Location wise, we are still undecided.  The other thing we have learnt since we came home is that although the UK is only 2 hours away on a plane it is a long way away from emotional contact with family and friends. When we arrived home we had two phone calls. My mother was ill and awaiting results. My daughter was also undergoing tests.  The latter of which was ok the former we are still awaiting to hear about. This gave us a reality check of being away from our family. It has not made us change our minds, but has made us think about the costs of returning home and how we deal with these situations when and if they arrive again. . However, we are certain about one thing. Yes we want to move to Spain, yes we can afford it, it offers a lifestyle that we want.

Next time………who we met, what we did and where we ate

 Well the day arrived and off we went to Gatwick airport for our flight to Malaga. All went well, found Monarch airways efficient and had no issues with the flight.  Although I have to say, nothing to do with the airline as such, but what are all, those flipping suitcases, on the plane about and why, we had paid to put a case in the hold, 50 odd people did not, and then at the check in they are made an offer to do so at no cost, seems a bit unfair, and why does someone have to recline their seat back on a 2 hour journey.

Arrived in Malaga on a drizzly grey morning……picked up hire car, the care we had been allocated was damaged. A couple of large dents on both sides, I was concerned and highlighted this to the staff, it was then we heard for the first time the immortal words  “don’t Worry”,  my husband was not particularly happy with this but we were caught between a rock and a hard place, as they said, they had no other car… which I know was a lie, but not fluent enough in Spanish to argue.  It was not the last time we heard these words and already I was worried. Anyway upshot was, they had documented on all the paperwork, and we took some pictures.

  So off we went to our first destination, towards Puento Genil. Except 100 yards out of the car hire compound we ended up in a shopping centre car park, a few deep breaths and a brief argument over whose fault it was.

We eventually got on the main road towards our destination dark foreboding mountains came into view, dark clouds gathered over head.  This was not the “sunny” welcome that most would expect. We knew in advance that the weather is not all sun, sea and sangria all year round.  Many do not, lots of people said to us before we went = “oh how lovely… at least you will get some sunshine………Well, they should have been there when we arrived. Sun shine was in short supply. As I said we knew the weather could get cold and we felt this first hand during our visit, More of which later.

We found the journey to our first stop over a breeze, and both commented on how empty the roads were. We had been given excellent directions from our first contacts which helped, along with the Sat-Nav. Generally we had no issues with driving in Spain. Maybe I should clarify that statement, I did not drive, and this is something that I am going to have to eventually be able to do. We travelled around all sorts of roads when we were there including some scary winding roads with what looked like sheer drops. Some dodgy tracks, however as we progressed through the week, I felt more confident as a passenger! On our next trip, I will definitely have to drive and am determined to do so.  I wish I could practice here in the UK. As I have already stated we were stunned at how empty the roads were, including the motorways we encountered some traffic the day we went to Cordoba and the on the journey from Alcala Real to the Alpujarras I was very nervous about the roads etc. around the mountains in Alpujarras, and although I did have brief moments of OMG, generally the roads were great. We came across a few rock slips, and some ice – but on our return to the UK we had more pot holes between Gatwick and home then in Spain.  Yes some of the Caminiro’s were bumpy, but we expected that. 

Generally we had no major issues driving… he had no major issues driving!  But when we were travelling around the little villages in the mountain regions it became apparent as to why the cars all have knocks and bumps. Those little villages have such tiny narrow streets with so nice bends, just sharp turns. 

Tomorrow Houses and Estate agents!!!!!!!!!!  Don’t worry its Spain comes into its own