Moving to Spain - Part 5

Xmas Eve in Spain

Part 5

One officer then took charge of the situation by way of a stern index finger........a wag from side to side (you are in the wrong!)........a point to my eyes (look where you're going) ........and to my relief a point southwards (go!). PHEW! No fine and we are on our way. Who says grovelling doesn't pay!

An hour later we reached Logrono and with my wife navigating we soon found our hotel situated in the centre. We had specifically chosen it because it had an underground car park which we thought would be ideal to protect the possessions in our car. What we didn't expect was a nightmare journey down to the car park – imagine the tight curves and the drop on a helter-skelter – it was like that. Was the Laguna too long to get around the almost 90 degree corners? Perhaps we shouldn't have exchanged the Clio, but eventually we managed it in the end.

Our early evening search for a restaurant proved fruitless but we were learning! They didn't open until 9pm. A snack in a bar would suffice, however.

We walked around Logrono the next morning to get a feel for the city and were impressed by the mixture of historical buildings and shops. I will rephrase that! I was impressed with the historical buildings and my wife was impressed with the shops! Then we were on our way again.

We agreed the hotel was very pleasant. The staff were friendly and it was clean and airy. We decided we would certainly use it again to break our journeys in the future. It is one of the Green Hoteles Group – Hotel Condes de Haro, C. Saturnino Ulargui, Logrono.

We arrived at our rented apartment in Benidorm later that day, unpacked the car and soon settled in. We were familiar with our surroundings, had brought our own bedding, cooking utensils (inc pressure cooker) and food resulting in our being much better prepared for our stay.

Not long after our arrival in November we were joined by our daughter and family. We were able to sample the tourist attractions for the first time particularly Mundomar (Seaworld) with it's display of exotic birds, flamingos, a sealion show, a dolphin show and many other sea creatures. A really good family day out. It was too cold for the adjacent park, Aqualand (Water Park) which was closed at that time of year.

Christmas was soon upon us and having become more friendly with our night porter, Ignacio, he invited us for Christmas dinner with his family traditionally held late on Christmas Eve. Our instructions were to arrive at his apartment in the old town of Benidorm at 10pm on that night. We did not know what to expect or what a typical Spanish Christmas dinner consisted of. Over drinks we met his wife two sons and daughter then were offered food – plates of jamon de serrano (the very best Spanish cured ham) and cheese were spread across the table and we all tucked in. Thinking, naively, that was the only course I filled myself up BUT there was more to come............

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Summary of Links

Moving to Spain
Part 1 - The Idea
Part 2 - The First Trip
Part 3 - The Return Back Home
Part 4 - Second winter in Spain
Part 5 - Xmas Eve in Spain
Part 6 - Trips to Spanish Cities
Part 7 - Madrid
Part 8 - Third winter in Spain
Part 9 - The Villa
Part 10 - The Decision to Move
Part 11 - Research
Part 12 - Leaving Home
Part 13 - Buying a Car...(or not!)
Part 14 - The Perfect House
Part 15 - Completing on the house
Part 16 - Moving In
Acknowledgements

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