Experiences in Spain
We returned to our apartment, tired and confused and feeling unwell……
I was up most of the night feeling nauseous, and felt I had a head cold, and this remained with me for several days, after which I did feel slightly better. This did stop us travelling too far afield but we still managed to view quite a few of the towns and villages in the area.
The weather in this region of Spain seemed so changeable, and as one drove from town to town we would go from blazing sunshine to very cold, rain or even snow. On our journey around this area, it was difficult to keep any equilibrium; we could feel the change in altitude all the time.
Inland Spain was completely different to the Costas where we have enjoyed holidays in the past.
Some of the views we saw were absolutely stunning, breath taking, very beautiful, but these places were inhabitable, usually we were high up in the mountains. The infrastructure of inland Andalusia we felt was not good, lots of very bad roads, broken barriers and lots of road works, and I hate to say it, but plenty of “cones”, something we do not see in France. Also living in France which is a very clean, looked after place, we see no litter on the roads here…. shame we found this part of Spain to be the opposite.
Unfortunately, then it was Iain’s turn to contract a bad head cold, and he became quite ill, we feel sure it was the constant change in temperatures and altitude during the day which we had been experiencing.
However, we searched out some supermarkets and found these to be extremely good, more our kind of food, the meat was very reasonably priced and looked edible. We ate well during our stay and enjoyed what we had bought, which we found to be a very pleasant change. We knew that Spain would not be a problem for food, unlike France.
Both feeling not at our best, we still travelled around and went into a few immobiliers – no luck really, it appeared that even for Inland Andalusia our money would not go very far toward a liveable property. We certainly did not mind doing a part renovation – but the properties were too highly priced for us to consider this option. We felt like this that been an experience, but a completely wasted journey.
We checked our departure information and realised we had to be out of the accommodation by 11am…what a stupid error I had made when booking, our flight was not until 9pm and they had more guests arriving that day, so we could not arrange to stay on. This would not have been a problem, had we both been fit and had we not had to spend from 11.30pm until lunchtime the following day at Stansted.
We drove to Granada Airport to see if we could get a flight a day, or even two earlier, but alas the desk only opened 7.30pm for the one flight a day. So we checked on the internet and found that we could change but it would cost us over 400 Euros to do so. Oh to hell with it, we said, we will just tackle it.
So both feeling like “death warmed up” we left the apartment at 11.00am, feeling too ill to do much, we took a slow drive to Granada Airport, and sat out the 9 hours. Arriving Stansted half an hour earlier than planned, we put our cases into the the left luggage section and tried to find some comfortable seating for the overnight stay.
What an experience that turned out to be, hundreds upon hundreds of – well, we assume back packers and overnight travellers, lying on the chairs, taking up 4 seats with their sleeping bags etc. Not only that, they were on the floor, and in every available corner, some huddled together with roll up mats, some in shop doorways. Where on earth did all these people come from?
Rather than a very expensive hotel, which even we could not afford, why did Stansted not have a large room set aside, (even a small hostel) perhaps with rows of recliners or something. Just something suitable for people who had to stay overnight to get some sleep, and of course, unclutter the walking and sitting areas. We would have happily paid a small charge for this service.
We finally found two uncomfortable chairs and settled for the overnight stint… a long cold wait where sleep would not come. We took breakfast as soon as they opened at 3.30am. and the food was just edible, the tea we had was like dishwater with a heavy film across the top. I can tell you now were so relieved when the time had finally arrived for us to board our flight. Arrived at Tours, very bleary eyed, Iain just about managed the 2 hour drive home, and we said those words…… never ever again!
We got into bed early that evening, where we felt sure our bodies became detached from our brain.
Spain was out of the equation, so it was back to the drawing board to start again……
I was up most of the night feeling nauseous, and felt I had a head cold, and this remained with me for several days, after which I did feel slightly better. This did stop us travelling too far afield but we still managed to view quite a few of the towns and villages in the area.
The weather in this region of Spain seemed so changeable, and as one drove from town to town we would go from blazing sunshine to very cold, rain or even snow. On our journey around this area, it was difficult to keep any equilibrium; we could feel the change in altitude all the time.
Inland Spain was completely different to the Costas where we have enjoyed holidays in the past.
Some of the views we saw were absolutely stunning, breath taking, very beautiful, but these places were inhabitable, usually we were high up in the mountains. The infrastructure of inland Andalusia we felt was not good, lots of very bad roads, broken barriers and lots of road works, and I hate to say it, but plenty of “cones”, something we do not see in France. Also living in France which is a very clean, looked after place, we see no litter on the roads here…. shame we found this part of Spain to be the opposite.
Unfortunately, then it was Iain’s turn to contract a bad head cold, and he became quite ill, we feel sure it was the constant change in temperatures and altitude during the day which we had been experiencing.
However, we searched out some supermarkets and found these to be extremely good, more our kind of food, the meat was very reasonably priced and looked edible. We ate well during our stay and enjoyed what we had bought, which we found to be a very pleasant change. We knew that Spain would not be a problem for food, unlike France.
Both feeling not at our best, we still travelled around and went into a few immobiliers – no luck really, it appeared that even for Inland Andalusia our money would not go very far toward a liveable property. We certainly did not mind doing a part renovation – but the properties were too highly priced for us to consider this option. We felt like this that been an experience, but a completely wasted journey.
We checked our departure information and realised we had to be out of the accommodation by 11am…what a stupid error I had made when booking, our flight was not until 9pm and they had more guests arriving that day, so we could not arrange to stay on. This would not have been a problem, had we both been fit and had we not had to spend from 11.30pm until lunchtime the following day at Stansted.
We drove to Granada Airport to see if we could get a flight a day, or even two earlier, but alas the desk only opened 7.30pm for the one flight a day. So we checked on the internet and found that we could change but it would cost us over 400 Euros to do so. Oh to hell with it, we said, we will just tackle it.
So both feeling like “death warmed up” we left the apartment at 11.00am, feeling too ill to do much, we took a slow drive to Granada Airport, and sat out the 9 hours. Arriving Stansted half an hour earlier than planned, we put our cases into the the left luggage section and tried to find some comfortable seating for the overnight stay.
What an experience that turned out to be, hundreds upon hundreds of – well, we assume back packers and overnight travellers, lying on the chairs, taking up 4 seats with their sleeping bags etc. Not only that, they were on the floor, and in every available corner, some huddled together with roll up mats, some in shop doorways. Where on earth did all these people come from?
Rather than a very expensive hotel, which even we could not afford, why did Stansted not have a large room set aside, (even a small hostel) perhaps with rows of recliners or something. Just something suitable for people who had to stay overnight to get some sleep, and of course, unclutter the walking and sitting areas. We would have happily paid a small charge for this service.
We finally found two uncomfortable chairs and settled for the overnight stint… a long cold wait where sleep would not come. We took breakfast as soon as they opened at 3.30am. and the food was just edible, the tea we had was like dishwater with a heavy film across the top. I can tell you now were so relieved when the time had finally arrived for us to board our flight. Arrived at Tours, very bleary eyed, Iain just about managed the 2 hour drive home, and we said those words…… never ever again!
We got into bed early that evening, where we felt sure our bodies became detached from our brain.
Spain was out of the equation, so it was back to the drawing board to start again……
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