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……

Spanish Disaster

As I have said previously our apartment in Spain was excellent, even to the point of having an electric blanket. Goodness, we realised that we would need it, as it was very cold on the Thursday morning when we woke. The views were wonderful we did not realise we were so high up.

We had two appointments on that day to view properties that looked great on the internet. Our first one was just after lunch in a small village, this was my favourite it was described as having a lovely rose garden and the outside looked a dream.

We met the agent who had a “runner” with her, and we followed her in our car for miles up in the mountains, we seem to leave the lovely quaint village well below us, and climbed and twisted through a dirt track up the side of this mountain. Quite a difficult time for our hired car, one really needed a 4x4 to tackle such a route. The look on my face I believe said it all when we finally stopped in this mountain village, and started walking to the house. One could not even park near, as the street was so narrow. I wished now that I had taken pictures of this tumble down dump, which required total reform so you could see what condition this property was in. We think it had been on the market for many years and just left to rot. The photographs we saw must have been taken many years prior when the house was looked after. There was a 3ft breeze block wall to the rear of the property that was all cracked and broken and then a sheer drop of over 250ft down the mountain. I myself could not get near enough to look down, it didn’t feel safe. The house itself had no windows to the sides or the back due to having this drop obviously with no access around the house. Just one door and two front windows. The house needed gutting, a total reform. No kitchen, no bathroom, nothing. The “rose garden” was several roses that had been left to go very wild. 85,000 Euros was the asking price !

We were disappointed but not deterred at this stage and looked forward to our next viewing which was late afternoon, this was Iain’s favourite, a village house with 4 bedrooms, again the photos looked lovely. Although we had noticed that the photo of the front of the house had been taken quite close and one could not see the adjoining houses.

For this viewing we attended the immobilier (estate agency) and she drove us to this viewing. Iain looked around as he could not spot the house we were viewing, I had seen it and my mouth dropped. Next door’s side of the house was made of corrugated iron – the whole side, all rusty and dented, and took up the whole side wall of the front garden of the house for sale. Next door on the other side, well, it had burnt out, had a fire, and had been left for many years in this condition, it was a wreck. This house inside again needed total reform, although the details did not convey this message at all. Perhaps at this stage I should say we were looking at properties up 100,000 Euros. Although this was slightly cheaper, certainly not worth the money they were asking.

OK, we were disappointed again, and we learnt from that moment on that one should not take any notice of photographs, they can be too deceiving. We looked forward to Friday afternoon, as another agent who had half a dozen properties for us to see was taking us out.

We woke Friday morning to minus 1c… a very cold morning, and very misty. So jumpers were donned and we drove to a very busy Jaen to investigate the NIE documents and have a look round and then onto our meeting with the agent who took us in her car to a number of houses. The first two houses were reasonable although did need new bathroom, new kitchen, new electrics,etc. but we did see the potential there, with lots of work they would have been wonderful, unfortunately close to our budget, we could not have entertained all the expense to make these a viable proposition. The third house was better, top of the budget with no money to spare really, and just needed a bathroom, new kitchen and the electrics looking at, and obviously decorating from top to bottom. Lots of potential for this property, it could be very nice and I could imagine it completed. But none of these houses had any form of garden just a patio, which we felt was not good for our animals. The village was tidy and the people very pleasant.

Our next stop was a cortijo, we were told this did need some work but had a garden, OK. I agree it had a garden, and was cheaper, unfortunately not cheap enough. It needed total reform, including a roof (it was corrugated) – well it required absolutely everything. Having had one house back to its shell, we could not tackle anything like that again and be alive at the end of it to tell you about it. However, I did get the camera out at this one and took a picture of the bathroom – see picture titled Spanish Cortijo Bathroom.

Last house on the list was miles away and we sat in the car for quite a time whilst this patient lady drove us to our destination, we should point out that now the sun had come out and it was 28c…so we wilted in the car for quite some time. Felt quite ill. Whatever made me put a jumper on !

She parked the car and we started walking again through narrow streets, well all we could say about this one was more than total reform was required. We think it needed to be pulled down and started again. High price for such a property, but it did have a small section of garden – but one had to climb up the side of the hill to get to it – so that one was at the same height as the adjoining properties roof.

We returned to our apartment, tired and confused and feeling unwell……..