End of lockdown, operation beehive, off to Santa Pola, our sea view apartment listed on Airbnb, Elliot on TV and reunited with Suzy, the Brits flock to the beaches ignoring the virus and other tales of the week.

Santa Pola, Sunday 28th June, 2020

Enjoying the simple pleasure of having a cup of coffee at a café - here in Santa Pola on Thursday morning

Good morning everyone.

It's Sunday again but not just any Sunday. It's been a week since lockdown ended in Spain and it's been the first week of summer. And, oh, how hot it has been. Summer arrived with a vengeance. Thankfully we are here in Santa Pola at our cool and airy apartment where we can keep away from the heat. 

Yes, we are in Santa Pola. Finally we have had a change of scenery, something I dearly needed after more than 3 months of lockdown.  But let me go back to last Sunday, 21st June, the end of lockdown and the first day of what is being called the "new normality".

We should not forget that despite the crisis being over or at least kept at bay that it is still ravaging countries around the world and that it can come back at any time. Even in Spain where we hardly had any deaths this week, there have been small but controlled new outbreaks which are very worrying. Top of the league are US, Brazil, Russia and  India. If last week the total death toll was 464.610, it has gone up in one week to 501.393. As to infections per country, this has gone up from a staggering 8.8 million to an even more staggering 10.086.925. But here in Spain, at least, we could celebrate the end of lockdown which has been hard on all of us. I include myself but know that we have been free of its devastating effect and can be grateful that our time spent in lockdown was a walk in the park compared to many other people's. Even so, I needed a break. 

I did not get a break until Monday. I had to put up with Sunday which was a challenging day. At noon, our 6 hen party ladies were leaving and at 1 pm, 3 young boys were arriving. Thus we had just one hour to get the house ready before they arrived. We managed, just. At 1 pm sharp, Daniel and his 2 friends arrived. They seemed nice kids and loved the house. They were surprised to see we lived in it. Well we do and it's in the ad which lists our house as a shared one on Airbnb. The thing is, often, first time Airbnb users do not realise there are 2 kinds of lodgings, either an entire house or private rooms. Ours is listed as private rooms. They had not read the advert, nor my house information pack. They wanted to bring 3 friends to join them by the pool that afternoon. I do not allow free extra guests so negotiated a price. Later I wish I hadn't as the group turned out to be probably the worst we have ever had. Oh my God, how loud and noisy they were, not to mention untidy and very messy. They turned the swimming pool terrace into a veritable party or discotheque. While we lay at the other side of the garden trying to read above their noise, it felt like someone had organised a party at our house to which we were not invited. 

While they were partying I had a scheduled facetime call with my dear friends Kathy and Phil to whom I could complain loud and clear about these awful guests. It was nearly dinner time by the time we had finished and while Oli and I were making our meal, the beekeepers arrived to remove the hive under the drain hole on the pavement outside our gate. It was quite a spectacle again. Unfortunately the wax from the honeycombs had melted in the heat and fallen down the drain into the water taking most of the bees with it who would die. They saved as many as they could of the bees that were hovering around outside the manhole and then charged us 100 euros for the operation. In a way we paid for the show only as the bees had already drowned. Here are the three apiarists inspecting the drain hole.

Operation beehive

I must say though it was an interesting operation to watch and the end of the fear of bees stinging us. The post man would be glad too. 

Monday came and I was up at 5.30, probably because I was excited to be going to Santa Pola. I looked a the pool terrace before I had my breakfast. The guests'  stuff was all over the place  while they were sleeping off a hangover and I was appalled at how they had left the pool area. Thankfully they hadn't broken anything. It was just a mess with empty bottles and empty glasses everywhere and the furniture all over the place. This is just one of them to give you an idea, not to mention fag ends and all their clutter. 

 

Just some of the mess created by our Sunday Airbnb guests

I was furious but had to bite my tongue as if I gave them a lecture, retaliation could be a bad review from them which I don't want. That's the thing with Airbnb guests, you are always at the mercy of their reviews. Thus I limited myself to telling one of them gently that they had made quite a mess. He promised they would clean it up. These boys were young and don't know how to clear up anything. In the end they stayed till 12 on the dot and it was Lucy who had to deal with the mess. I gave them a scathing review later which they would not be able to see until they wrote theirs. I'm still waiting for theirs. 

I couldn't wait to see them go. I think they were our worst guests ever. Don't get me wrong, this case is not usual as nearly all our guests have been and are wonderful. Anyway they have gone now and will never come back as I have blocked them for future reservations.

We were waiting for them to leave so that we could leave ourselves for Santa Pola. It was with a huge sigh of relief  when at around 12.30  we left our house where we had been stuck from March and hit the road with Pippa to spend a week here at our quiet apartment. The mission here apart from a change of scenery has been to see if we can rent it out on Airbnb and get it ready for any potential guests this summer.  For that we needed someone local to manage the receiving of the guests, the cleaning, etc.

We stopped for lunch and it felt so normal; like life  before lockdown. But it wasn't. People wore masks, the tables were distanced and there was hand sanitiser at the entrance plus a host of often invisible measures to remind us life is not the same any more.  I remarked to a friend this week that we didn't know what we had until they took it away. I think we all now appreciate life so much more. I do at least. 

We got to our flat at around 5 pm. It took a while to settle in and we had to do a lot of cleaning. It was the girls who were last here and damn them they had left the fridge off and closed when they should know the door has to be open, otherwise it gets moldy. Well there was mold everywhere and Eladio spent an hour cleaning it. There are stains which won't go. We also had to clean the floor thoroughly as there was more dust than normal because, thank you girls, they had left a window open!!  Aagh. I think it took us 2 hours to get the apartment clean and ready for use. It was too late for a walk. Thus we sat on our lovely little terrace and contemplated the sea in the distance and the lovely Mediterranean garden in the middle of our block of flats which is shaped in a U.

The garden by our apartment

I went down with Pippa to inspect the gardens which looked in great shape. I was also curious to see if the pool was open and what restrictions there were. Actually there was just one family there. I would go the next day. Everything looked normal and lovely. I always appreciate that we bought a seaside apartment in a quiet and secluded gated community. It's lovely here. I took a few photos with a view to adding them to the listing I want to create on Airbnb. This is one of the pool which overlooks the sea.

The pool was looking great

It was more difficult to capture the photo of our apartment as they all look alike. 

Our apartment - the one one on the top floor 

Ah and this is the entrance to it from the front.

The main entrance to our apartment.

Here too is a view from inside.

Inside the apartment

 Best of all is the view of the Bay of Alicante and especially at night. 

The night view of the bay of Alicante from our apartment

I came back to the flat to spend peaceful time with Eladio on our terrace. We made a simple dinner then watched an episode of Line of Duty before turning in.

Tuesday was a very productive day. The mission we had come for - put the apartment on the market via Airbnb, was accomplished. We spoke to our neighbour, a Venezuelan lady called Lucy, about managing potential guests and the apartment, including cleaning it and changing the sheets, etc. It turns out she also manages 2 properties locally so is familiar with the job. I spent the day taking photos and she came to talk to us later in the afternoon to come a final agreement. 

But first things first and in the morning we went down to the beach. We had expected to see certain policies in place vs a vs Covid, but apart from a poster on the street and the fact that the showers were not working (point of possible infection), everything seemed normal. In any case our beach is not usually crowded and when we went down at 10 am, there was hardly anyone there. How marvelous to go into the sea and feel the cool water on our skins and to bathe for the first time since last summer. It felt like freedom again and was a joy to experience. Spot Eladio in this shot I took that morning.

Our first bathe in the sea on Tuesday morning

We went in a few times and then sat and read in the shade and a while later walked to the end of the beach to get some exercise and enjoy the views. I love our dune surrounded beach. There were a few other walkers but it was easy to maintain social distancing. 

Our beach

Wanting to avoid the midday sun, we left at about noon and went home. Before going in for a shower, I always love taking a dip in the pool. At the pool there was hardly anyone and it had been beautifully renovated and was looking very tempting. I had to have more photos for my Airbnb listing. In the end, of all the photos I took, I chose this one as the main photo for the listing.

View of the pool and apartments. 

I couldn't stay long as we had to go shopping to buy food for lunch and for our stay. We went to the proverbial Mercadona. It was so pleasant to shop for 2 rather than 7 people and a whole lot cheaper I should add.

After lunch I took a short siesta and then at 5 pm, had my weekly video call with Amanda. It was great to talk to her from somewhere different, rather than our house where we had been confined since the beginning of lockdown. I had to cut short the call at 6 as my neighbour Lucy was coming to talk about her role in managing the renting of our apartment on Airbnb.

We soon came to an agreement and then we showed her the apartment, where everything is and how stuff works. From her experience I think she will do a good job. The main thing is that she is always here so it doesn't matter at what time guests arrive. As soon as she had left, I set about creating the ad which I did in a jiffy. It was up and running by dinner time and then I kept tweaking it until I was satisfied. This is it by the way. If you want to rent it you can get in touch with me direct and you will not have to pay any fees. What do you think? Do you like it? We do. It has been our holiday home for 21 years but it's expensive to keep up and any income we get from renting it will give us a bit of pocket money and help to maintain it. 

I was so absorbed with making the ad, it was late by the time we had dinner. Eladio fancied fried eggs - he was brought up on them😅 - so I made them for him. We both read on the terrace afterwards until it was time for bed.

Wednesday came. It was pretty much a repeat of Tuesday; i.e. we did the same things. We were down by the beach by about 9.30 and were surprised to see many more people than the day before. It turned out it was a bank holiday in the area for Saint James (San Juan). This also meant shops were closed so our plan to go into Santa Pola in the afternoon would have to be postponed.

Eladio on the beach with our 20 year old beach seats and parasol and an old Yoigo towel. 

I spent the afternoon reading and announced to Eladio that I finally felt relaxed after so much tension caused by 3 months of lockdown at home. While I read, he cleaned the windows (good man) and did some bed linen laundry in preparation for potential guests. So far no bookings which sort of worries me. Then I thought as my target are the British tourists, they may well book later when things are clearer about travel in and out of the UK. That day we heard the EU may not allow in US travelers because of Covid. Ouch. The latest news from the UK is that people will be able to travel to selected EU countries, including Spain, Italy and France, from 6th July. 

Meanwhile that day, Oli was organising a report on the reopening of pools post Covid and she used the swimming pool at her block of flats. She also used her partner Miguel and little Elliot. Both would appear in the report for her programme, España Directo, on TVE at 19.30 that evening. I thought that was very exciting. Elliot on TV, wow!. Here they are during the photo shoot.

Miguel and Elliot during the photo shoot

Elliot behaved perfectly and was a natural poser. He always is. We watched Elliot and Miguel's appearance in the evening with great excitement. It was funny not only to see Elliot on TV but his father too. As a cameraman, it's unusual for him to appear on camera. I have to say he did it very well. Here are two photos I took during the report. They are a bit unclear as it's not easy to take a still photo of something on TV.

Miguel with Elliot being interviewed on TV

Miguel with Elliot in the water during the TV report

Suzy would see it too as that morning she was finally flying back from London. She would also be reunited with Elliot whom she hadn't seen since the middle of March. We won't see her until tomorrow. I felt a bit guilty about not being there when she arrived and for having left for Santa Pola last Sunday knowing we would miss her arrival. But I, at least, had such a need to get out of Madrid and I knew we would see her for a while this summer, so I tried not to feel like a bad mother.

It was Oli and Miguel with Elliot who picked her up at the airport. She arrived to messages from friends insisting she had to have a coronavirus test as they were worried she had picked it up in London and could pass it on. She doesn't know if she had it but her flat mate did. In any case that was 2 months ago. I felt sorry for Suzy getting that reception. She must have felt like an outcast. She would do the test the next morning and would have to wait 6 days for the results. Luckily Oli was not so strict and Suzy was allowed to hold and touch Elliot. She was so happy to see him. Of course he did not recognise her after such a long time but they were soon fast friends again as you can see in the photo below. She played her ukelele for him and he loved it. I wish I had been there for the reunion.

Elliot and his Aunty Suzy reunited on Wednesday

Because there is not enough room at Oli's flat, Suzy went home to our place. She later rang us and we spoke for a long long time.

Her call had interrupted us watching Line of Duty. I carried on afterwards and got so enthralled with it I binge watched until nearly 2 in the morning. I did so on my own as Eladio is not so keen on the series.

I obviously did not get much sleep that night as I was up at 7 in the morning. It was Thursday and we were looking forward to going to the local fruit and veg market across the road where our apartment is. 

The visit to the market is always a highlight of our stays here and it was on Thursday too. The market was much quieter than usual and there was lots of space between stalls. I vaguely looked at the clothes but didn't dare touch them and thought that if I tried anything on, it would cause a problem for the stall owner, so I didn't buy anything. However, Eladio did. The Moroccan stall owner let my husband try on t-shirts and he had to try 2 or 3 before he found 2 that he liked which he bought for 6 euros each. We also bought honey and some amazing pistachios from Iran which we later enjoyed that evening over a glass or Rioja each. Our main objective was to get fruit and veg. Usually the prices are low and mostly the produce is locally sourced. Prices had gone up but they are still lower than in the supermarkets. The price of food has gone up a lot since lockdown. I wonder if you have noticed. We got a variety of summer fruit including black figs and black cherries and all sorts of vegetables including fresh asparagus we would have for dinner that night.

At the fruit and veg market on Thursday morning

You may have noticed I mentioned Iranian pistachios. Well, I did and I bought them precisely because they were from Iran. Usually we buy the odd bag of these delicious nuts from Mercadona but did you know that those that grow in Iran are supposed to be the best in the world? I knew that long ago. When I worked for that dubious arms company, Defex, my first job in Spain, we had an Iranian agent who procured arms from Spain for his country. The agents who procured arms always got huge commissions. I remember once a Nigerian agent who got 100% commission on a munition order which shocked me at the time. I got to know quite a few of these agents and remember the one from Iran bringing me boxes of caviar, lovely Persian wooden objects and once he brought me a  great big bag of pistachios. He told me they were the best in the world. They were amazing. So when, nearly 30 years, I saw a bag of Iranian pistachios at the local market in Gran Alacant, I just had to have them. They are far superior than any I have tried since those the Iranian agent for Defex gave me all those years ago. You see, I had never forgotten. 

That morning we did not go to the beach as we had some errands to do in Santa Pola. Who did go to the beaches and in their droves were the Brits as that day was hottest day in the UK so far this year with mercury rising to 32ºc. The Brits must have gone mad as literally hundreds of thousands were reported to have flocked to the coast. Bournemouth beach was in the news for the crowds there which made it look even fuller than Benidorm in August. Just look at this photo. Have the Brits gone mad? Have they forgotten that we are in the middle of a pandemic? Are there no rules or regulations about accessing beaches in the UK like the ones we have in Spain?

Bournemouth beach on Thursday - unbelievable

The crowds who went there ignored all social distancing. Not only that, they left a huge mess behind. Is it so difficult to pick up your stuff after a day out? I just don't get it. 

Rubbish on Bournemouth beach

I was appalled at the news coming from my home country, the UK, which has the highest death toll in Europe (over 43.000) and where the virus has not yet been fully controlled. If people continue to behave like that they will no doubt have to go back into lockdown.

In comparison, Spaniards, in general, are behaving as they should and observing social distancing at the beaches. Each province or town has its own rules to control the number of people going to the beach. Here where we are staying our beach, "Playa de Arenales" and the one next to it "Playa Carabasi" are literally empty compared. People  are being far more careful and I should add, more civilised. This is a picture of our beach which is a stark comparison to the one in Bournemouth. I was gobsmacked at the news coming out of England that day.

Our beach in comparison

So no, we didn't go to the beach that day and even if we had it would have been very quiet. Instead, we went into Santa Pola to do some errands after dropping off our fruit and veg at the flat and picking up Pippa. We parked in the old town and first things first, went to have a cup of coffee (café con leche in our case) in the main square next to the castle. That felt so good. Such a simple thing as having a coffee out now feels like a luxury after 3 months of confinement. Eladio took a photo for this blog and I have chosen it as this week's feature photo - me with a great big smile on my face enjoying a coffee out with my husband. 

On our way home we stopped off at the offices of the administrators of the buildings where we have our apartment. It was to get new keys for the swimming pool. While there we were happy to learn of lots of improvements being made to the installations. At the beginning of October we were told that the lift in our building will be changed for a new one - about time too. The lifts are old and awful and I hate them and I can't wait for them to be changed.

Once home, I set about making a simple lunch and then, after the news, I resumed watching Season 3 of Line of Duty and must have binge watched at least 4 episodes.   We didn't venture out that afternoon or evening and after dinner - prawns cooked in garlic and asparagus - we started watching Season 2 of the New Amsterdam series on Prime Video. In between I had a long video call with Suzy. I can't wait to see her again.

She told me about the new guests this weekend - a group of 6 guys, who, thankfully seem to be behaving much better than last weekend's. It was good that Suzy was there to take care of them and it was great for me to get a break from hosting. 

I went to bed at a more civilised time that night and was awake at 6.45 on Friday morning. That morning we skipped the beach again as we had things to do in the flat. My main job here was to sort out all the bed linen and towels and to choose 2 sets for each room. That took me a while as I had to get out every sheet to see which bed it belonged to. We had piles and piles of old towels and bed linen so the job took me a while. We then hit the road and drove a few kilometres to a pottery shop we know and love. We needed a few plates for the terrace to replace those that had fallen during storms and a few other items. We got what we needed and then drove into Santa Pola. There we had to get copies of the apartment keys for Lucy and the guests and do a few other errands. We parked by the port and walked along the sea front where we later had a another coffee out. I was interested to see the fishermen mending their nets. Santa Pola may be a national tourist destination but it is still a fishing town. Eladio posed with Pippa for this photo I took so as to capture the fishing men at work too.

Eladio and Pippa by the port in Santa Pola - notice the fishermen mending their nets

It was over the cup of coffee that I chose my moment to tell Eladio about a surprise holiday trip I had planned for our wedding anniversary at the end of August. The other day he had mentioned the pretty little village of Obidos in Portugal which we visited with my parents on a trip round Portugal the spring before we got married in 1983. Obidos got me thinking and I looked at making a reservation at the famous Pousada, the castle of Obidos. It seemed fully booked so I then remembered we had stayed at the fishing village of Nazaré, a charming little place which we always remember, especially the hotel on the beach front. So on Thursday while the news was on,  I found the hotel I think we stayed at, the Ribamar, and I booked three nights. Over our coffee the next day I told Eladio of our plans and he was delighted. Now that is something to look forward to as well as our 6 nights in Asturias in July. 

We drove home on the narrow coastal road between Santa Pola and Gran Alacant, excitedly talking about our trip to Portugal. I used our gas oven for the first time and thankfully my salmon and leek parcels came out fine. The afternoon was spent quietly. Eladio did more cleaning (bless him) while I read and later watched more of Line of Duty until it was time to get ready to go out to dinner.

Being Friday I had booked a table for dinner and chosen our favourite, Maria Picola on the road to Elche. Actually my favourite is La Finca but at over 100 euros per person it's a bit over our budget. But we shall go again one day. Maria Picola was looking as lovely as ever. It's an old house surrounded by nature - beautiful flowers - with a great big but romantic terrace. We have been going for years.

Our favourite restaurant in the area, after La Finca

We were the first guests there. I was happy to see all the post Covid precautions in place, especially the distancing of the tables. Here is Eladio at ours. 

Eladio at the restaurant, Maria Picola, on Friday night.

We had a great meal as always and were home by about 10.30. I rang Suzy to check how she was but also to check on how our new set of guests were - another group of 6 young boys or men. I was relieved to hear they were much better behaved than the group last week.

Before going to bed we sat on our terrace enjoying the cool air until it was time for shut eye. I was awake at just before 6.30 am on Saturday morning. 

Yesterday morning we went to the beach again. We went early at just before 9.30 so as to avoid too many people. For some in Spain this weekend will have been the start of the first week of their holiday and we worried that  the-up-till-now semi empty beach would fill up. We heard someone say that we were only allowed on it in turns of 4 hours and there were plenty of police around. We hadn't heard anything and in any case would not be there for more than 3 as we like to leave at around midday to avoid the hottest part of the day. There were more people than the rest of the week and no doubt, today, Sunday there will be even more as it is on Sundays that the locals spend the day at the beach. Thankfully, though, social distancing was respected. The water was great with some waves to ride on and enjoy. They weren't too strong though so we were also able to swim at leisure. We sat on our old beach chairs under the old parasol which I would really like to replace with some new beach kit. We read for a while and then took a walk to the end of the beach and back. We were up by our apartment by before 1 pm and again I enjoyed a dip in the pool where there were more people than usual but only about 4 small groups. 

The rest of the day was spent quietly in our apartment. I had a hell of a long siesta; about 3 hours which I suppose helped me make up for lost sleep. Later I binge watched the whole of season 4, the last available on Netflix, and was up till past 1 am but I just couldn't stop watching. I had to find out who the baddies were 😀. It's a great series and I'm going to miss it now. 

Today is Sunday and our last full day here as we shall be going home tomorrow. We don't like to leave my father for too long and of course we are dying to see Suzy again. We are already planning a trip to Montrondo next week so maybe I shall be writing next week's blog from there. 

Meanwhile my friends, I wish you all the best until next Sunday,

Masha

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