Luxuriating In A Thermal Spa

It did not take us very long to forget the horrendous and extremely lengthy period of really bad weather that we had experienced over the last three months, even the ‘Works of Fiction’ seemed to reflect a much cheerier disposition for the week ahead, although they still continued to display characteristics that were far closer on the side of ‘pessimism’ rather than ‘optimism’, with the odd dark cloud thrown into the daily weather picture just to keep us guessing. But for now, we found ourselves being able to step out for our morning walks into a very much warmer and sunnier environment and, for the first time this year we were both back to wearing shorts and tee-shirts and it felt quite liberating. As we walked along the bright and picturesque beachfront we observed a multitude of people who, like us, were celebrating the freedom of discarding much heavier winter clothing, many were sat on the beach and the majority were exposing bare flesh and sunbathing although, rather surprisingly, we also observed some swimming in what was an invitingly turquoise green and blue sparkling sea. The daft buggers I thought to myself, as it is still only the end of February, and whilst the sun may have been out in all its glory, the actual sea temperatures at this time of year would realistically still feel more like an ice bath 🥶 However, I quickly chastised myself for perhaps being a little too hasty in my silent criticism of them for, when I thought about it, I realised that some of these crazy people may very well have been visitors, who had quite possibly arrived here from very much colder climates and so, to them at least, the sea temperature may have felt more like, ‘Luxuriating In A Thermal Spa’ 🤭 So I reconsidered my initial hasty judgement of them and smiled and thought, fill your boots, or your budgie smugglers and just enjoy, although we will perhaps just save our own salty water dips for maybe just a while longer 😉

We actually managed to enjoy a full week of gorgeous sun filled days, with temperatures varying between 18–22 degrees(c), our daily walks became more of the sauntering variety, rather than of the ‘Exercise’ type, we made up for it though by extending those walks a little further than our more regular route, returning via the meandering narrow back streets, the one’s we rarely wander, and we re-discovered quaint residential back streets that had small artisan retail shops, the kind that only the locals generally know about and frequent. Some of the elderly female residents were sat outside their front doors, with what we assumed were their neighbours, some on wooden chairs, the kind from yesteryear that you tend to see in bric-a-brac shops, others sat on the more typical white plastic patio chairs or aluminium framed beach chairs. Here in Spain this tradition is known as ‘Sentarse à la Fresca’, although it is not an activity that is just confined to people in Spain and I am certain that each country will of course have their own name for it. They were chitter chattering amongst themselves, occasionally breaking out in a cackle of group laughter, but their eyes focused on us as we drew closer. I nodded in acknowledgement of them and smiled and said, ‘Buen Dia’, they all smiled back and one or two returned the greeting, the other’s just nodding in our direction, they all seemed genuinely pleased that we had spoken to them, but then quickly returned to their much more important conversations. I did wonder what their topics of conversation were, perhaps their fellow neighbours who were not present so ripe for some gossip to be passed about them, maybe the cost of food in the shops these days, or even the state of the economy, perhaps even how things have changed since their younger days, and not for the better either, more likely a combination of all of that and more 😂 This was not actually the first time that we had observed this, we actually see it on a regular basis, at first we felt a little uncomfortable, thinking that we were possibly intruding into, and through, their narrow residential streets with their tightly packed low rise terraced houses , but now we just actually enjoy this friendly interaction when we come across it. Their is an elderly lady, in the village where we park our car, we often see her stood on the street corner and, as we pass, she smiles and gives a wave, the reality is that she probably does this to every car that passes, so it isn’t as if we believe that she actually recognises us personally, or our car, more a case of her perhaps living alone and this is her way of getting out and socialising and not feeling invisible to the outside world, bless her.

On another sun kissed day we payed yet another visit to the Organic farm, Carlos was not present on this occasion as he was out doing deliveries to some Fruiterias in the local area, he had left his father in charge and although his English was minimal, it provided us with the opportunity to once again impress ‘ourselves’ with our level of basic conversational Spanish, although we were not fooling ourselves, it was slow intermittent conversation at times, as we occasionally had a brain fart and struggled to remember some of the relevant words that we needed, the frown and confusion on the old man’s face being our instant recognition that perhaps we still had a long way to go, ‘but we got there in the end and that is what matters’, we said to ourselves as we walked back to the car, we came away with another two carrier bags full of assorted fruit and vegetables, oh deep joy I thought to myself, or words to that effect 🙄 The bonus of taking that morning trip to the Organic Farm was that it gave us another opportunity to take a stop in Estepona Town which was just seven minutes drive and on the way home anyway. We didn’t need anything from the town on this particular occasion so it was just nice to take another leisurely stroll in the sunshine, along the very nice seafront promenade to start with, before then turning away from it and into the main town area. Estepona is always vibrant, we can understand why both Spanish and International tourists love this place, for it beats hands down the numerous other touristy towns that occupy this stretch of the Costa del Sol coastline. We made our way to what has quickly become our favourite Tapas Cafe/Bar here in Estepona, not the seafront one where we often stop, that one is generally just for coffee and people watching opportunities. We sat, under the shade of a sun umbrella, overlooking the small sun-drenched plaza where we were are also able to fulfil our most pleasurable leisurely activities, yes you know the one’s I am talking about 😉 This Cafe/Bar have a full menu of Tapas, which do not change very much and so they are always available, but they also have a ‘Specials Board’ which varies on a daily basis, generally offering around six choices, which are written in Spanish only, on a small blackboard hanging by the door. We can often interpret what they are between ourselves, but occasionally there are some where we just don’t have a clue 🤷‍♂️ Yes of course we could use ‘Google Translate’ on our phones, but where is the adventure in that, so we just choose a couple at random, and include a tapas of ‘Rusa Salat’ (Spanish Potato Salad) off the main menu, that is served with half a dozen or so small biscuit type crackers or bread sticks, the contents of this Rusa Salat, and how it is presented, varies from one establishment to another but of course, they all include potato but can also include chopped up boiled egg, small pieces of ‘Jamon’ (Ham) or Prawns, our’s was just the basic which suited Shazza 😁 She selected the ‘Canalloni de Salmon’ off the ‘Specials Board’, she had obviously recognised the words ‘Cannalloni’ and ‘Salmon’, but when it came out it bore no resemblance to the ‘Italian’ version of Cannelloni, as there was no Pasta involved, more just a generous roll of salmon, stuffed with a mousse like cream, she offered me a taste and it was delicious. I too ordered off the ‘Specials’, but neither of us had a clue what I had ordered, ‘piruleta de carne’, but when it arrived it was a circular piece of grilled meat, rather like a small flattened meat patty, stuck on top of a wooden skewer, served with a mild spicy sauce, and that was delicious too. I did check later on what ‘Piruleta’ meant, which is ‘Lollipop’, so then it became obvious, as it had looked like a lollipop of meat when it was served. These were just tapas, so not large meal type portions, but with the ‘Rusa Salat’ it made a nice light snack lunch, which is all we wanted and they were perfect ‘lite bites’ to accompany my glass of ‘Vermut’, and Shazza’s Diet Pepsi. The Rusa Salat was brought out with our drinks, Shazza’s, because it was a cold dish, came out a few minutes later and mine, because it had to be grilled, or fried, came out shortly afterwards but we were in no hurry for we were just enjoying the leisurely ambience. The thing about these varied Tapas dishes is that often, the picture in your mind of what you expect them to be, or even look like, bears no resemblance to what is actually put in front of you, it adds to the gastronomic adventure and rarely disappoints.

The days passed quickly, we took advantage of the beautiful warm weather and apart from our one weekly domestics cleaning day, we had been out on every single day, combining our leisurely walks with a bit of shopping at the Supermarket, or visiting the Correo (Post Office) to mail cards back to family in the UK and on one day, to collect a new pair of sunglasses I had ordered the previous week from my local Optica (Opticians). Apart from the bits and bobs we sometimes have to do, it is generally just a case of getting some fresh air, maintaining a bit of daily mobility and enjoying the relaxation with time spent in various Cafe/Bars in the town, some on the seafront, other’s in sunny Plazas, or some that are just pavement side one’s, but all offering us the opportunity to just sit and observe the world pass by.

However, after what had been seven full days of glorious, almost summer like weather, the skies once again became much more cloudy, although not grey and bleak, but hazy enough to block out the sunshine and with it, much of the warmth that we had recently enjoyed, so it was back to jeans, short-sleeved shirt and a lightweight hoody top. Some morning’s even commenced with a light mist that hugged the coastline and which hung very low over the mountains and it continued well into the early afternoons, but it hadn’t prevented us from getting out on our daily walks, although we spent much less time at the Cafe/Bars as it became much chillier when we were not actually moving. But this was the prequel for what was to follow, ‘Storm Regina’ apparently, although this was coming in from the Atlantic side which would suffer the worst, but even on this Eastern Mediterranean side, the wind picked up, the sky turned a much darker threatening shade of grey, the thicker and heavier looking clouds hung much lower over the mountains, if their was any sun above them it certainly wasn’t getting through. The temperatures however remained quite reasonable at around 15 degrees(c) and what rain fell was intermittent and fairly light, it certainly looked a lot worse outside the balcony windows than it probably actually was, but still, no matter how light the rainfall was, it still got you wet if you went out in it, so we chose not to and our daily mobility work-outs would be confined to one fifteen minute session on our ‘Tension Bands’, and frequent walks into the kitchen to make hot cuppas 😂

The ‘Works of Fiction’ once again took to forecasting its more pessimistic outlook, alerting us to even more of the wet stuff over the coming week, some a lot heavier than it had been, but not in any real great abundance in comparison to the last few months, However, whether or not any of it would actually materialise would of course be another matter, but it was enough reason for me to be forced to cancel Forrest’s vacation, his daily services would be required once again and surprisingly he wasn’t that upset about it, he had heard that things may be hotting up a little too much for him at his holiday hotel in the Middle East, but not in a good way 😲

Saturday the 28th of February marked a major event on the Calendar, well at least it did for those of us who live in the Spanish Region of Andalusia, for that particular day, ‘Día de Andalucía’ (Andalusia Day) serves to commemorate a very significant date for Andalusian’s. It was on that date forty-six years ago when a ‘Referendum’ was held on the Autonomy of Andalucia, a date on which a massive majority of the Andalusian electorate voted for the Region of ‘Andalusia’ to become an ‘Autonomous Self Governing Region’ of Spain, with its own democratically elected Regional Political Leader, who was empowered to initiate Laws, and Political decisions on matters that effected the region. So, on this date each year it is a Public Holiday in many municipalities and cities of Andalusia, people decorate their balconies with the regional flag and/or with Green and White bunting and, on the day itself, people are encouraged to wear some sort of clothing with that colour combination, or at least that is what the local media had stated.

According to the media blurb, Cultural competitions are often held in conjunction with the day in some larger cities, especially in the Malaga area, schools are closed for a ‘Cultural Week’ (Semana Cultural) which, on the Friday, is often a day of celebration in schools with a traditional Andalusian Breakfast being served (desayuno andaluz), consisting of a slice of toast with a thin layer of olive oil and an orange juice, students colour pictures that refer to the symbols and insignia of Andalusia, its history and customs, put on plays and sing the Andalusian Anthem, the Himno de Andalucía. To be honest with you, I didn’t actually know that they had one, it seems that we never stop learning things about our new home country and Region 🤔

We had of course, subject to the weather of course, agreed that it would be good idea to go and celebrate with our fellow Andalucian’s, seeing as we now live here. However, the truth of the matter is this, even though it was a grey and overcast morning we decided that we should go and join in these ‘alleged’ patriotic regional celebrations, in our opinion it would have been so rude of us not to. But as we drove down the hill towards the village I mentioned to Shazza that it seemed a bit odd that we had not seen any evidence of Green & White Bunting, or the Regional Flag, displayed anywhere, not on Apartment balconies, Villas or Houses, and on our usual walking route not even on local ‘Official’ buildings, there was only the usual Andalucian Regional Flag on the flagpole at the car park in the village, but that is always there come rain or shine every day of the year.

When I ordered our morning coffee’s I wished the two lady owner’s ’Feliz Dia de Andalusia’, they both gave wide beaming smiles as if it came as a surprise that a foreigner had known what day it was, they both said, ‘Muchas Gracias’. But then I asked, “Por qué no hay banderas regionales ni banderines verdes y blancos en ninguna parte?”, (Why are there no Regional Flags or Green and White Buntings displayed anywhere ?), they both just shrugged their shoulders and told me that it is a Public Holiday, most of the main retail shops are closed, and for most locals it is just a reason for some to take an extra day off work. So from that I made the assumption that, apart perhaps from some major Andalusian Cities and Towns, it perhaps isn’t such a big deal everywhere, as perhaps a lot of the media and social media ‘Influencers’ would have you believe 🤷‍♂️ Shazza did check her local Social Media App on her phone, whilst we were sat drinking our coffee’s, she discovered that our much smaller community of ‘Manilva’, up the hill where our ‘Ayuntamiento’ (Town Hall) is located, were actually celebrating the day, in a fashion, with a local choir singing the ‘Himno de Andalucia’ and some other minor events, wine and local produce tasting, my previous memories of these local events, on the two occasions we had gone to check out the food and wine events, were not exactly one’s that would encourage us to hurry back, so we agreed that as the weather wasn’t exactly great for sitting around, we would return home and if the weather was better on the following day that we would come out and have a nice proper full lunch somewhere. It wasn’t and so we didn’t 🙁

But here we are, having just entered the month of March and, in a little less than four weeks before this month is out, we will commence our extended road trip, which could hopefully last for 5-6 weeks, subject to the weather of course, and/or, other more undesirable impacts from ‘Global Events’ that are kicking off right now as I type this. It just confirms the hypocrisy of the Worlds political leader’s when once a year, they spout the words ‘Lest We Forget’ 🤷‍♂️

And in other news…………….

Although there is a lot going on the news recently, Locally, Regionally, Nationally and Globally, I have selected two particular Media headlines, primarily because, whilst they do also impact on other’s, this time they are also of particular interest to Shazza and myself on a more personal level, although, I will just add the comment that, in all likelihood, although good news for us, neither will, in reality, have any major practical impact on our lives or lifestyle here in Spain.

Why is that of personal interest to us you may ask ? Well, as some of my readers who have been following my rambles since the time we came to live here in Spain will know, our ‘Temporary Residency Visas’ have a travel restriction whereby, in the first five years of our current residency period, we cannot spend more than 10 months, within the whole of that year five period, outside of Spain. But what you probably didn’t know was, once we have applied, and obtained, at the end of that 5 year ‘Temporary Residency’ period, our ‘Permanent Residency Visa’, which will then have to be renewed every 5 years, the travel restrictions applied to that Visa states that we cannot spend more than 6 months, in any one single year, outside of Spain. However, the good news is that this ‘new court ruling’ now scraps that travel restriction so, if we wanted to, once we have obtained our ‘Permanent Residency Visa’, hopefully in June 2028, there will no longer be any time restrictions on how long we can spend outside of Spain. Just a pity that it hadn’t come into force before we sold our Motorhome 🤷‍♂️ What has not been clarified however, is whether the initial travel restrictions on our 5 year ‘Temporary Residency Visa’ is still applicable, that being the 10 month travel restriction, although in truth that isn’t a major issue either, as in our first, very nearly three years here, and even including the proposed dates in our upcoming extended road trip, we will still have used up just over two months of that 10 month allowance, so we have plenty of accrued travel credit in our back pockets.

So moving on to the next ‘quite big’ media story……..

Today, as I write this, Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory, and now that we live here in Spain that brings about its own unique issues due to ‘Brexshit’. It is, physically speaking, just a half an hours drive from our front door to the Gibraltar Frontier Crossing, and with lots of British Goods in the large Morrisons Supermarket located across in Gibraltar, the tax free goods, and of course not forgetting the very much cheaper fuel costs, it is an attractive place for some ‘British Expats’ in Spain, who live close to it, to go and visit. However, due to ‘Brexshit’ it means that when we now cross the ‘Frontier’ (Border) we have to have our British Passport stamped as exiting the EU, something we never had to do when we first bought our property here in 2015, when the UK used to be a member of the wider EU community. Now, and bearing in mind the 10 month travel restriction that we have attached to our ‘Temporary Residency Visas’, crossing the Frontier on a regular basis since 2020, would certainly have eaten away into that limited travel allowance. We are also restricted to what Products that we can and cannot bring back into Spain, due to the conflicting UK and EU rules. Even people who come to visit us, if they choose to fly into, or out of Gibraltar, means that we have to collect them, or return them, on the Spanish side so that we do not have our Passports stamped as leaving the country and losing yet another day’s travel allowance. Whilst on the subject of the Airport, there are currently only flights from Gibraltar to the UK, no other European destinations. So you can imagine our feelings when we read the following headlines……..

So, and subject to all the formal political ratifications and approvals, which have already been agreed by the UK, Gibraltarian and Spanish Governments, as from April 2026, there will be no physical border crossing between Spain and Gibraltar. So for us personally, as we are ‘Officially’ Spanish Residents, we will no longer have our British Passports stamped as exiting the EU, meaning that we now will not lose a day off our travel allowance each time we cross, we can purchase goods from Gibraltar without restrictions and, albeit a little further into the future, we may soon be able to take flights to other European destinations and so no longer have to travel to/from Malaga Airport, which is 75 minutes drive away 👍

However, when Governments negotiate such changes, their are always winners and losers, as their was for UK Citizens when Brexshit became effective, this new agreement will be no different. Some, who currently have certain advantages with the ‘current’ procedures, like those who currently use Gibraltar as a convenient place to stop, thereby temporarily halting the ticking ‘Schengen Clock’ for example, well this former ‘Non-Schengen Zone’ sanctuary will cease to exist as under the new agreement, Gibraltar will fall under the EU Schengen Zone rules, which of course means that the Schengen Clock will continue to tick if you entered the Schengen Zone from elsewhere, or it will commence, or re-commence ticking, once you enter Gibraltar via the Air or Sea Port, ‘Brexshit, the gift that keeps giving’ 🤷‍♂️ Now the UK Government are at pains to stress that they have not negotiated away Britain’s Sovereignty of Gibraltar, other’s however, tend to believe otherwise 🤔

To be totally honest, whilst Shazza and myself may consider ourselves as potential ‘Beneficiaries’ of both of these changes, realistically and practically speaking, it will not make any great impact on our lives. However, had these things have perhaps happened back in October 2020, when we chose to fully retire and we still owned our Motorhome, but still have decided to make Spain our permanent home, then perhaps our lifestyle would have been a lot different to what it is now, as we could have actually lived our European full-timing Motorhome adventure as we had originally planned to do, but hey, it was not to be, at that time 🤷‍♂️ However, that door may now have just re-opened, should we choose to go through it of course, only this time, it would be as ‘Spanish’ residents, with a freedom to travel, without the ‘Schengen Shuffle’ or ‘Visa Residency’ time-restrictions, so one may say, ‘Brexshit, the gift that keeps giving’ but this time, with a different more positive connotation to it 🤔

Until the next ramble……………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena