Time to move to Spain
26th April 2015. A date that will live in my memory for ever. My last day at work. My medical retirement starts tomorrow. The dream of my wife Sue and I to retire to Spain is on and there is little time to waste. The list of priorities is endless but the main ones involve renting out our house and finding somewhere to live in Spain. One piece of advice I received form a well-intentioned friend when I announced my decision on Facebook was not to make too many changes too soon after retiring - Oops!
There will be those who will be critical of many things we do during our move, but despite our lack of knowledge (until this year I had only visited mainland Spain once, my wife, never); our poor timing (we plan to go on 20th July, the first week of the summer holidays) and despite my small pension (we will need to make a living somehow) we have decided life is for living, let’s just do it.
A short fact finding mission is quickly arranged. We have decided on the Costa Blanca and we are going to stay in Calpe. We have to be within about 45 minutes of the airport and, well, Calpe looked lovely. To add insult to injury, we don't speak Spanish. We download two courses and attempt to learn as much as we can before we leave.
On arrival in Alicante we collect a hire car and have to negotiate the increased costs that aren’t mentioned in the brochure. Within ten minutes of parking on Alicante sea front, the car is damaged by another car and a nasty scrape is the result. It leaves a bit of a sour taste. Our attitude is ‘it can happen anywhere’, thankfully the hire company are reasonable about it, the insurance will cover the damage. Isn’t it strange how things you take for granted in normal circumstances become a concern otherwise. Of course the insurance will take care of it.
In contrast to the UK the temperature is a pleasant 23C and a little chilly in the evenings. We try out our new 'Spanish' and are quite impressed with ourselves. I notice quite quickly how, when negotiating words I've never used before my arms and hands move to compensate. Thankfully my 'el servicio de caballero' is near enough for me not to have to do the actions.
Ive never driven outside the UK before and we both have a few anxious moments over driving too near to the kerb. I'm wary where we park up and air conditioning, even in April is a godsend.
We are loving Alicante itself, together with El Campello and Sant Joan with its fabulous golden beaches. Decision final – Its Alicante! And we haven’t tried anywhere else?
If you have ever moved house before you will understand the stress it causes. I would say double it for moving to Spain, and double it again if you haven’t anywhere to live yet! Bearing this in mind we plan another two day inspection trip in June. In the meantime we have the small matter of putting our house up for rent.