Travelling Spain with Two Dogs & a Parrot

It was moving day!   This was in March 2018.

After three months in the Algarve, we were moving over the border to Spain & were ready.

Perhaps it was beacause the weather in February had been shocking, or that we were ready for a change of scenery.

I had to admit I'd been a little disappointed with the Winter weather as I'd  expected more bright, sunny days.

However, it had actually been windy most of the time, cloudy & downright wet.

England had bad snow storms & Europe in general had unsettled weather, with snow in Barcelona disrupting the F1 Grand Prix 2018 post Winter testing sessions.  Here in the Algarve we'd had torrential rain & even tornados which caused damage along the sea-front & to homes.

We'd taken a couple of trips to Spain as the border was only 40 minutes drive away & there was damage to the sea wall at Isla Cristina whilst most of the wooden board walks & steps to the beach at Islantilla were broken & cordoned-off.

Our Algarvian cottage had been rustic with shutters & single-glazed sash windows.  The windows & doors had large gaps so we could see the effect of the strong draughts from the wind blowing the curtains around indoors.  The rain blew in under the doors too, making puddles on the brick-tiled floor.  Whilst not icy cold like the Northen yellow house, the cottage had been cool & fresh with the constant movement of draughty air & we'd had the electric radiators on almost non-stop.

So we were ready to move-on.

Our next home in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain was only a three hour drive away,  so I'd informed our host we'd be there at 3pm.

In fact, this was too ambitious as packing the car (between heavy showers) & finishing cleaning took longer than anticipated so I'd had to message at 11.30am to add an hour onto our arrival time.

I'd checked our progress & time after a comfort break, thinking it would take a little over an hour to get to Sanlucar, I had an hour to inform our host of any changes.  But then it dawned!  Spain was an hour ahead of Portugal so at 4.05pm (not the expected 3.05pm), we were already late...

Following a hastily written apology, the host responded to say she'd leave written instructions at the house & not to forget that the clocks would also move forward an hour at 2am in the morning.

In less than 24 hours we'd 'lose' two hours.  Would we ever get them back?

We drove towards Seville & followed the motorway across the river to the South of the city with just an hour left of our journey to the coast & estury of the Guadalquivir river.  We were amazed at just how flat the landscape was, with fields extending for miles.  Closer to Sanlucar, there were low rolling hills with no hedgerows or substantial trees, few towns or turnoffs from the main road.

Typical to Spain, it was a well-maintained fast road, but both Rob & I agreed the journey seemed to be one of the longest hours we'd experienced!

In the end, after following Google Maps through Sanlucar to the house without problem, the host was there with her hubby & to help translate, their son-in-law & two lovely grandaughters.

We emptied the car & dumped everything in the house, cracked open the two bottles of Sagres beer we'd brought, then Googled direcions to the nearest supermarket to fetch provisions.  A qickly cooked meal later & we were in our new home for the next month.

"How many pairs of shoes do you have?"

This was a question I was asked recently.  I'd flown to London for a meeting with one of my clients, her team & board.  As I work remotely, although I'd been in contact with everyone by email or phone, I'd actually met very few of the people there.

Some may have known that I was based outside of London, but few were aware that I lived & worked from Spain.  Naturally they were curious & wanted to know more about my lifestyle.

Learning that all hubby Rob & I own fits into a car prompted the question about the number of shoes I have & a peer under the table to see what I was wearing!

This was funny & I half wished I could show something more shocking than my smart brown & red ankle boots!

12 pairs if you're wondering, plus wellies.

In just under 18 months, I've never worn my black kitten heels or cream wedge sandals, whilst there's a few other pairs have only rarely been used.

With wide size 8 feet, fashion footwear has generally never fit so when I find smart comfy shoes, I look after & keep them for as long as possible.

So even if I worked in London, I'd still not own many more pairs than I do now, but then I'd never work in London & consider myself fortunate not to have to conform with appropriate attire to be accepted in the corporate world.

Not when being a Virtual Assistant has given me the opportunity to work from Spain in my flip-flops!

We pack carefully, having a couple of suitcases in case we go on holiday elsewhere, but with most of our clothing & a change of towels & bedding in vacuum sealed plastic bags with the air sucked-out.  This idea didn't seem quite so bright once I realised continental homes have tiled floors & no vacuum cleaners...

I resort to first rolling on the bags to expel air & then sucking as much more out as I can by, well, sucking!  It's the reverse of getting light-headed when blowing-up a balloon   But it works well-enough.

I have a few packing cubes for our smalls, but did cram so much in these that some of the zips broke.  My shoes are in a (now tatty) canvas storage case & I stuff my socks into the boots & trainers.

I have to be organised with packing so I know where to find everything.  This works most of the time as we have toiletries bags, a blue holdall for wires, cables & extension leads, a cream one for small electrical items (hairdryer, straigteners & travel kettle etc), a bag for my sewing notions, large laptop bag for my computer & accessories & nylon backpack for pet paraphernalia.

But there's always a last-minute bag or two for all the bits & pieces that naturally collect on tables & worktops, or that we need right-up to leaving a home.  These are the items that drive us nuts when we attempt to find them & cannot remember in which bag they may be.

We've undoubtedly left stuff behind, but if we cannot remember what & haven't missed it, then we cannot have really needed whatever it was we left!

We've never been possession oriented & I'm appalled by today's throw-away society & shiny-object syndrome, having to have the latest new thing, when the one you already have still works fine.

I've been surprised that I haven't missed anything we used to have but don't now.  Admittedly, we need to rent furnished property & accept the varying degrees of comfort, how well the kitchen is equiped, (or not) & someone elses taste in ornaments & art.  But that's a minor detail to the life that we're enjoying.  We move stuff around to suit when arriving somewhere new & hide the most appalling clutter, then put it all back when we leave.

No problem.  Where to next?