Living in Spain as an Expat

We have a type of 'promenade' at the bottom of our little Spanish village.  It runs from far beyond the south of the village to the pine trees in the north.  On first view, it makes the village look a little like a seaside town.  However, in this case, standing on 'the prom' and looking down you do not see the sea, but a valley full of olive trees and farm land, with the mountains beyond.

The prom glows white in the sunshine.  It is swept regularly by the village 'maintenance crew', who have recently planted young trees at the prom's northern end, possibly to separate it from the road which runs alongside.

The prom gives our little Spanish village a unique charm and provides the ideal location for a village 'meeting place'.  Every evening, except for when it's raining, many of the locals gather in groups on the prom.  They sit with their legs dangling over the edge onto the road while sharing a joke or two and the latest village gossip.

Teenagers use the prom to meet and put the world to rights.  Mothers sit with their chidren, carefully watching to make sure they do not  fall over the edge into the valley below.  And dog walkers and ramblers begin their treck on the prom before they take a more energetic path up and down the undulating fields beyond the village.

As well as sitting and chatting, many of the locals take an evening stroll along the prom.  If the weather is hot, they will rest a while in the shade of the pines at the northern end, before making their way back again, stopping and chatting to new groups of 'promenaders' as they go.

A visitor to our little Spanish village will probably remark that the promenade adds great charm to the place.  Many stop and take pictures of 'this charming rural Spanish scene'.  Perhaps they will wonder why more villages in Spain do not have a promendade of this nature...

Truth be told, the prom is actually a safety measure, set up to protect unsuspecting walkers and car drivers from falling into the canal which flows beneath, making its way from a large lake 30 or so kilometres south, to a filtration plant in the north.

The white 'walkway' is built from concrete slabs, many of which have handles built in for engineer's cranes to grasp if they need to remove a slab to do major work on the canal below.  It was never designed to be a walkway, although its structure makes it ideal for that.

When you walk along the prom you will find the occasional small hole, where the concrete has crumbled away.  One hole is so large you can see the canal water far below.  When you see this, you just hope that the slabs you are walking on are well-inspected and are not going to crumble the same way any time soon!

The 'prom', like so many other things about life in Spain, is there for a purpose, pure and simple.  It may look charming to travellers searching for 'the real Spain'.  To expat eyes, it may even remind them of the seaside towns of their youth.

But like so many aspects of living in Spain as an expat, if you look deeper you will find something else...

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