Montrondo, Sunday 2nd August, 2020
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| Me on the staircase of our new house to be |
Good morning my friends. I hope this blog post finds you all well wherever you may be.
Life is good at the moment, no complaints at all. That is on the home front though. What is not good is the fact that we are seeing an increase in cases of coronavirus after lockdown in Spain and many other countries. The reasons may be because people are relaxing social distancing and because of young people partying at night. Family gatherings are now seen as a possible cause too and in the UK they are being limited. The UK imposed quarantine on people traveling from Spain and in some areas in the north they have gone back into semi lockdown. In Spain we are seeing cases spiraling with over 500 outbreaks. The worst hit areas are Catalonia, Aragón and Navarra. We are also seeing that the average age of the infected is far lower but so too is the mortality rate which has gone from 11 or so percent down to about 1 or 2. We have to be on our guard all the time. In Spain we are worried about all the new outbreaks but as a friend pointed out what is really shocking is the number of cases in the US where nearly 25% of all cases come from. Today the number of infected there is over 4.7 million and the number of deaths is 157 thousand. Worldwide, the numbers grew again this week to a total number of cases up to nearly 18 million and 685.855 deaths. The virus is not going away.
With no sign of Covid in our village, we had a great week in Montrondo. It was warm and sunny but we we were spared the excruciating heat of Madrid. We have visited areas in Asturias to see houses - our new and exciting project. Today is our last day here as we shall be returning home this morning.
Last Sunday was Grandparents' day but we were missing little Elliot who is now 10 months old. Oli sent us a beautiful photo of him to compensate.
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| Little Elliot last Sunday |
I thought it was a beautiful photo of him. Even though I am biased, I think you have to admit he is a gorgeous looking baby. Don't you? In the evening we had a video call and were able to see him. He had taken a fall that day while crawling on the concrete around the pool where they live and had his first bruises on his face. Poor little mite. No doubt, there will be more.
We wished he and his parents could be with us in Montrondo but that wasn't possible at all as Olivia is so busy with her presenting job that she wasn't able to come. Nor will she be able to come until September.
Of note, by the way, an actress of the same name as my younger daughter, the much admired Olivia de Havilland, died last weekend, aged an astonishing 104 years old. Who doesn't remember her as Melanie in Gone with the wind, one of the most popular films ever? It's one I could watch over and over again and never get tired of. However, I didn't really like her role in the film as she was far too much a goody goody two shoes. She was British born and I heard that day that she and her fellow actress sister, Joan Fontaine who died in 2013, did not speak to each other for 40 years. Imagine. De Havilland was the only surviving member of the cast of Gone with the wind. RIP I thought.
There was a little bit of news about Montrondo which hit the local papers here and which I wanted to share with you. I think I have written here before that our village seems to produce more twins than normal. A few years ago there were 7 pairs. Well since then the number has grown. The article reports that there are now 11 pairs. That is quite incredible when you think that in the winter the population here is under 20 people. It seems the village may hold the record for more twins per square metre than anywhere else in the world. In the article, my neighbour, Salomé, who is a mother of twins herself (Patri and Adri), is quoted as saying that when a woman from Montrondo gets pregnant her first question is not what sex the baby is but whether she will be having twins. It would be great to get the 11 pairs together but people come and go and none of them live here permanently so I can only show you a photo of just some of them taken a few years ago.
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| Some of the twins from Montrondo |
Nobody seems to the know the reason for this phenomenon but local lore points to the water from a spring near the village. Could the water really be the answer? I have no idea but I do find the statistics for twins here exceptional.
We felt safe in Montrondo and only ventured out for our walk in the morning, joined by Suzy who had no classes as it was Sunday. We went along the old paths so as to be able to skip wearing a mask. It was in the woods part of the path that we were interrupted by cows who rushed past us on their way to other pastures. Pippa goes mad when she spies cows so thankfully we had just enough time to put her on her lead. I was not unduly worried as I think cows are generally very peaceful animals. Suzy though nearly had a fit hahahaha. Well we nearly all had a fit when on our way back a bull appeared and a gigantic one at that. Eladio told us to continue our walk and not to be worried. He was right of course. The bull was bringing up the whole herd and stayed a while to look at us to make sure we were not a threat. I found the whole episode quite exciting and took a short video which you can see here.
We loved the walk and I quite enjoyed the cow episode hahahaha. Here are Eladio and Suzy on their way down the path towards Montrondo.
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| On our walk on Sunday |
It was coffee time when we got home and also time to make lunch. Suzy and I spent time cooking together and that day made my new salmon and leek pies which are just divine. I made a vegetable soup to go with it. Here is the table ready for our lunch.
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| Our lunch last Sunday |
The rest of the day was spent very quietly, lying on the sun loungers at the back of the house and under the shade of the apple trees with the help of a large parasol.
Monday came and our house searching resumed in earnest. We spent a lot of the day ringing estate agencies to see some of the houses on our list the next day. By the end of the day we had a list of 6 to visit on Tuesday and another 5 on Friday.
It was just Suzy, Pippa and I on our walk that morning and we chose to go to Senra for the reward of a coffee at the grumpy man's bar, Cumbres de Senra. We then walked up the hill to the local bakery which has been going strong for more than 150 years but instead of walking home we called Eladio to come and pick us up as it was so hot. That day was possibly one of the hottest in Spain and even though up in the mountains it is cooler, it was still pretty stifling even in Montrondo. Suzy had her first lessons after the weekend and was very disappointed with the internet coverage here - plain ADSL - which hindered some of her classes. She was very upset as she had planned to stay with us for a week but could not jeopardise her job. So there and then we bought a train ticket for her to return to Madrid that evening. We would miss her. We had a quick lunch and I had some time to rest before driving her to León - 75km away. Her Ave train (high speed) was leaving at 8.30 pm and takes only 2.15 h compared to 3.15 by car, but we had a bit of time to get her some food at a nearby supermarket. I stayed on to buy more provisions while Eladio took her to the train station nearby.
Meanwhile, of course, we missed Olivia on TV reporting that day at 8 pm. We missed her live but were able to see her presenting when she sent us the links. She looked spectacular that day when she was wearing a royal blue dress which is definitely her colour. Her hair looked great too but I'm afraid her news was dire. Her first report was on restrictions imposed by other countries about travelling to Spain which you can see here. Her second report was more upbeat and positive and saw her reporting on new vaccines, some of which it seems may be ready by Christmas. Oh how they are needed.
We weren't home until 9.45 and it was still light. I love these long summery days. We had a simple dinner on the kitchen terrace which consisted of a most delicious meat pie I had bought at Gadis, accompanied by a glass of gazpacho and some much needed Rioja.
We later went over the houses we were to visit the next day and even looked at more - there were so many and we were very undecided as to whether we wanted one out in the sticks, in a small village or in a town. There was a lot of choice but I knew it would all boil down to both price and a gut feeling of "yes this is it" even if it didn't tick all the boxes.
We planned to get up at 6.30 on Tuesday morning and leave at about 7.45 for our first house visit at 10 am near Cudillero. In the end I woke up at the unearthly hour of 5 in the morning. As I browsed my phone over my first cup of coffee, Facebook reminded me that that day, 28th July, 37 years ago had been our civil registry wedding. Wow I thought! We actually met 40 years ago this summer and for both of us it was nearly love at first sight. I have never looked back and consider I won the lottery of life when it comes to marriage. Our real wedding was the church ceremony on 21st August 1983 but as we were to be married in a non Catholic church, not recognised by the Spanish government, we had to have a civil registry wedding. We couldn't marry in a Catholic church as I am not Catholic and Eladio as many of you know was a priest and it was a no no for him. I didn't want to go through it but we had to do the motions. Our only guests were our two witnesses, Eladio's parents. We went out to lunch afterwards and I remember having an odd feeling of yes, I'm married but not the way I wanted to be. For the record, Susana, our older daughter, was conceived that night although at the time we had no way of knowing. We only celebrate our church wedding anniversary but officially it was our 37th this week. Here is a photo of us looking quite serious. I was 26 at the time and Eladio was 39 but looks far younger.
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| Our registry wedding 37 years ago this week |
When Eladio got up, I told him and he said we must celebrate. We kissed and later forgot. We will celebrate properly in August and this year we are going away for a few days and have chosen Portugal. Hopefully the borders will be open.
We left for Asturias at 7.45 and it would take us 2.15 hours to get to our first viewing in a village called Albuerne. I had a strict programme to see houses at 10, 11, 12.30 in the Cudillero area, then at 13.30 in Candás and finally at 16.30 somewhere near Llanes. The whole day was a bit of a rush. The rain did not help either and we got soaked during the day. It was sunny all over Spain except for Asturias. I was wearing some yellow suede espadrilles which got soaked too and later I saw my feet were all yellow hahahaha. It still hasn't gone completely after several showers.
We were to be met by various estate agency representatives and our first stop was Albuerne. We did not like the house and quickly moved on. We had some time before our next appointment so decided to visit the little village of Lamuño where we had seen a house we liked but couldn't visit because it was rented out to holiday guests. We wanted to contact the owner, and avoid estate agency fees which can be up to 5% of the price, so decided to find it ourselves. We loved Lamuño, just 1.3km from the most amazing beach and we loved the façade of the house which we found after asking in the local bar - always the best way. This is it from the front. It is though very modern and it seems a pity the owners covered the original stone with some pink sort of paint.
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| The porch entrance to the house (the one in the middle). |
We bravely knocked on the door and a surly man opened it just slightly, a guest of course. We told him our story and he gave us the owner's phone and we rang him. The owner said it was fine to go inside but the surly man wasn't having it. Later we spoke at length to the owner and he sent us lots of photos . It is a renovated 19th century terrace house which is spacious. It has 3 bedrooms, a study, 2 bathrooms, a wash room, kitchen and lounge and most importantly a garden.
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| The house and garden from the back |
The house is about 120m2 and the garden 300. Best of all it has been completely renovated and looks immaculate and brand new inside which means we would not have to do any repairs and could just move. Above all we wanted to avoid having to renovate a house in Asturias all the way from Madrid. We did that in Montrondo and it took 2 years and we don't want to go through that again. Of all the houses we saw that day, this was the one we liked best. Also we loved Lamuño. It's a pretty and well kept village with lots of beaches very near and surrounded by beautiful views. For most of the week our hearts were set on this house but in the end we chose something very different.
We were on time for our next appointment in Samao. The house was lovely but tiny with just two bedrooms and one bathroom so we saw it quickly and moved on to the next appointment in a village nearby. There the house was lovely from the outside but awful inside so again we moved on. Our next appointment was a town house in Candás, a sea side town, and which we had had our eye on for quite a while. We arrived in pouring rain and the estate agent gave us gloves and shoe covers to put on before going inside - an anti Covid measure. In Asturias there are hardly any cases and they don't want more.
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| Eladio in the rain - see the steps we don't like |
We liked the house from the outside but it has a big drawback in that it is built on a slope and has lots of steps to the entrance.
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| The house in Candás |
We actually liked the house and garden but I hated the surroundings - ugly blocks of flats and did not like the inside at all. Of course this is a house town so there would be flats. We were also told that everything was on our doorstep - shops etc, but we didn't like the streets. We are just not town people. The house is 500 metres to the port and beach and we went to have lunch on the sea front at a place called Nautico. As it was raining Candás was not looking pretty but I compared it to other towns such as Luanco, Luarca, Llanes, Ribadasella and I'm afraid Candás is nothing special compared.
At 16.30 we were in the village of Hontoria near Llanes and saw a house which was great on the outside but terrible inside. The estate agent then suggested seeing a small house which had just been renovated in the seaside village of Poo. We went along as after all while we were in the area it was worth seeing another house. It was lovely but minuscule, like a doll's house. We had finished our house viewing programme at about 17.30 and faced a 2.15 hour drive back home. It's amazing how Eladio and I have the same taste for houses or a feeling for what we might like and that day we both agreed that our first choice by far was the little house in Lamuño. But we still had to see houses on Friday so couldn't decide then.
We were home by 8 pm to be greeted by Pippa who we had left in the house with the door open to the garden. I felt bad about leaving her but thought she would be better off at home rather than in the car all day.
Again we had missed Olivia on the TV but saw her later via the links she sent. She also sent a photo of her ready to go live in the studio. She was wearing a white dress that day. She told us the whole process of getting ready to present in the studio (hair, make up and dressing) takes one hour.
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| Olivia ready to go live on Monday evening |
Both of us were pretty exhausted when we got home. All we did was call the girls, have a simple dinner, look at the photos of the houses, ask the owner of the one in Lamuño lots of questions and then we went to bed to read before falling asleep.
I got up at 6.50 on Tuesday morning feeling rested after the long day driving and visiting houses. We both spent a pretty lazy day and didn't even go for a walk. It was very hot in Montrondo with temperatures reaching 30ºc and Spain has seen a heat wave this week with July being one of the hottest on record. The forecast for the rest of the week showed towns like Bilbao up in the north reaching 42ºc something that hasn't happened since 1940 odd! Instead of our walk I did domestic tasks such as the laundry and hanging out three washing loads in the garden. I also did a deep clean of all 4 bathrooms and felt very satisfied afterwards. We had planned our second house hunting trip for Friday and when another house came up for sale which looked like it might be a good fit, I rang the estate agent concerned, adding one more house to the list.
I was even lazy about lunch and decided on a barbecue which meant Eladio would be the main chef. Here he is grilling our hamburgers and sausages.
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| Eladio preparing our barbecue on Wednesday. Note Pippa is lying in the sun nearby! |
We watched the news and the top topic is still coronavirus. In Spain the numbers increase daily and on Wednesday there were nearly 2000 newly infected. The profile of those infected has changed since lockdown and it now younger people, men and women in their early 40's. That could well be because old people are now much more protected. The daily number of those newly infected is on a par with when we were in lockdown. However, very few are dying and there are not many people hospitalised. The explanation our top scientist gave for the increase in numbers is the increase in the amount of testing. He may have a point. I am still asking myself whether this is a second wave or a continuation of the first.
It was a question I asked my dear friend Amanda in our weekly skype call that afternoon. She wondered the same. Of course, as she lives in the UK and I live in Spain we spoke about the UK Government imposing quarantine on all travelers coming from Spain. Most of our conversation was about the pandemic too but we also spoke about our house seeking. Being British born, we also spoke about the weather (haha) and I was happy to hear that the UK was enjoying good weather for a change. The UK had some very high temperatures again this week and saw droves of people hitting the beaches which looked far too crowded for people to maintain social distance. The cases there are also increasing.
The good weather here has enabled us to eat all our meals outside every day since we have been here, including our breakfasts when it should be much colder outside yet it isn't. We weren't very hungry but had a pleasant dinner together on the kitchen terrace.
That day we did not miss Oli on the TV. Her news was also about the surge in outbreaks and cases in Spain of the virus; Catalonia, Aragón and now Madrid being in the top spots.
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| Oli presenting on Wednesday |
Later that night we started a new series on Netflix called Dark and which seems to be very popular. It did not have me riveted and Eladio soon fell asleep.
I was up again at 6.50 the next day. It was another lazy day but this time we went on our walk and we needed it too. We chose the old paths so as to walk without masks, only donning them when in the street. We went early to avoid the heat. Here is Eladio that day enjoying our walk. Thankfully there was no sign of any cows to distract Pippa.
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| Eladio on our walk on Thursday |
We later spent a lot of time finalising the details of our programme of visits to houses in Asturias the next day. We even found some new houses which meant more logistics, phone calls, scouring photos, etc. That actually took up most of the afternoon but finally I had a detailed programme for Thursday. We both feel so excited about this new project so late in our lives and commented to each other whether we were crazy to be buying a fourth house, albeit a very modest one with the budget we have.
We were living in our little bubble in Montrondo that day and most of our time here. We missed the girls and Elliot. Oli is so busy now having to prepare content and present it live in the studio every day. We watch her as often as we can and are always interested to see what she will be wearing or how her hair has been done. On Thursday she looked spectacular in a shocking pink dress with the best hair style so far. I told her so and she relayed the information to the hairdresser who was pleased. Here she is on TV talking about the super spreaders of the virus - pretty frightening I have to say.
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| Oli in pink on Thursday with a lovely hairstyle |
When she finished she got ready to go home. She took a picture of herself which had me laughing as she was still wearing the pink dress but had changed the high heeled shoes for her yellow sandals which made for a funny match. Her mask was at hand too reminding me of the pandemic which I sometimes forget about. It is still there and not going away.
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| Oli relaxing after reporting - notice no high heels anymore |
After work she rushes home to see Miguel and Elliot. She told me that night in our daily video call that Elliot gets very excited when she comes home. I'm not surprised. We also had a call with Suzy who seemed in high spirits which made me happy. She had a friend over - Pili - and has lots of plans this week. Good for her.
The rest of the day panned out as usual and there is nothing much to report. We went to bed early feeling excited about our trip the next day.
On Friday I was awake at 6.10 although we weren't leaving until 8.30. Our first appointment was at 11 and the drive was about 2.5 hours. It was to be an interesting day visiting parts of Asturias we didn't know. We were to see 3 houses that day and had no idea that at the end of the day we would have given our word in acceptance for one of them.
Our first appointment was in a tiny village called El Cueto Meré, next to the village of Meré. These villages are located in between The Picos (Picos de Europa natural park), an important tourist destination, and the sea with lots of beaches to choose from which are just a short drive away. Meré is just 12km from the popular town in the Picos called Arenas de Cabrales where the famous cheese comes from. Beaches are very close too with quite a choice at only a short car ride away. We had found this house on internet last weekend and had phoned the owner, Mari Paz, who runs it as a rural hotel. We couldn't see it until Friday as there were guests and there would be guests coming too on Saturday. We loved the village as soon as we saw it with views everywhere of these extraordinary mountains. We loved the house from the outside but were wary about what we would find inside as our experience had shown us that despite the photos, many of them are fine on the outside but disastrous inside. This was not the case with La Casa del Cueto which is what probably influenced our decision to buy it.
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| Our new house to be: Casa del Cueto |
It was her husband, José Manuel, who greeted us and showed us the house. As soon as we walked in, without talking to each other, both Eladio and I knew that this was it, this was the house we wanted. Overall, for the budget we had, we think it is the best we could find. The house comes fully furnished and equipped, just as it is so we would be ready to move in. I like everything apart from some of the decoration and the settee and a few other pieces, but the rest is fine. I hate the bric a brac and pictures but they will be easy to replace. The main changes are minor and would be redecorating the lounge, getting rid of the cheesy bric a brac, maybe some new doors on the kitchen cupboards, a complete change of the pictures hanging in the house and getting rid of the hallway console which is just not our taste. The rest of it is fine. What we like is the structure, the floors, ceilings, doors and staircase which no doubt are original. The house is big on the outside, not so big inside but has everything we need: kitchen, pantry, lounge and bathroom on the first floor and 4 bedrooms and another bathroom on the second floor. There is also an attic which could easily be turned into another room, lounge or study. The house comes with a garage which seems to be used as an outdoor covered terrace and an open terrace. There is no garden but as the house is surrounded by green, it's not vital. The house has been recently painted and is in very good condition. It is quaint and has a special charm. Being over 100 years old it has a feel and decor resembling the 30's. It is an old fashioned house which is right up our street. The owner told us that if our idea is to rent it, which it is, in between using it ourselves, that the house would eventually pay for itself. That is our hope too. We took some pictures and told José Manuel we loved the house, but had to see a couple more and that we would most probably buy it. We also asked him to let us know if there were other interested parties so as to secure it for ourselves. He kept his word.
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| Me in the very old fashioned kitchen |
You can see a full set of photos here.
We left with a good feeling and drove down to the bigger village of Meré and had a coffee at a bar.
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| At the little bar in Meré 1.1km from the house |
Then we drove back the way we had come via the nearest big town of Posada de Llanes and saw signs to various beaches on our way. Our next appointment was in a village near Colunga where we were to see a stunning old Asturian style house in La Riera.
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| The house near Colunga. Wonderful outside but a disaster inside |
It was fabulous on the outside but totally vandalised inside. It belonged to an investment fund and no way were we going to embark on a project to repair it entirely inside. We left feeling more convinced than ever that we far preferred the house in El Cueto actually called "Casa El Cueto". We liked it more than the house in Cudillero, despite the former being nearer the sea.
Wanting to explore the beaches in the area, to see what they were like, I had booked a table at a popular restaurant called Fito Mar on the Espasa beach. We loved the beach but weren't so fond of the restaurant.
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| The Espasa beach near Colunga - very typical Asturian beach |
It was full and very noisy and service was slow. What was excellent was my plate full of miniature scallops, not so the dish of clams as the sauce was terribly salty.
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| Miniature scallops - had these at the Fito Mar restaurant on Friday |
I later had an ice cream enjoying the view of the beach.
With time on our hands until our next appointment at 5.30 we drove back to Posada to see what the town was like but we went at the wrong time. In the morning it looked thriving with a wonderful little market but when we arrived it was all sleepy. Thus we walked the streets a bit and then drove back the way we had come, this time to a tiny village called Carrandi also near Colunga. There we were to see the last house on our list, a modern construction perched on a a very steep hill.
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| The pink house in Carrandi |
The house looked great on the outside but we hated everything about the inside. We didn't like the plot of land either as it was on a sort of precipice. We did the motions of looking around with interest out of courtesy to Jorge from the estate agency but wanted to run away as soon as we had seen the inside.
We must have left at around 5.45 and had a 2 hour drive back to Montrondo. During the drive we agreed we would buy Casa El Cueto. José Manuel rang us while we were driving to say he had other interested parties coming to see it the next day. Whether that was true or a strategy to make us buy the house, we will never know although I tend to trust him. Thus we agreed verbally there and then that we would buy it and give a deposit after signing a pre purchase contract. We can't move in or sign the deeds until the beginning of October so we shall have to wait. Eladio was impatient (me too) but I told him if he had spent all his life without a house in Asturias he could spend another couple of months. No doubt Mari Paz and José Manuel want to take full advantage of the high season before giving up the house. I would do the same.
We came home to find lots of Eladio's family here. They were gathering for the annual Santa Marta fiesta which because of Covid is not going to happen maybe for the first time in the history of the village, bar the Civil War.
We were soon in the house and made our dinner which we had outside on the back terrace. It was unbelievably warm at 9 pm at night which is very unusual in Montrondo. I didn't have much food left but rustled up a little meal of scrambled eggs and ham. Ah and we celebrated giving our word to the purchase of the house with a glass or two of Albariño white wine from the excellent Martin Codax winery in Galicia. La casa del Cueto will be our 4th house! We wondered whether we were crazy but thanks to Airbnb we have managed a good standard of living since I lost my job over 3 years ago and this new house is part of our business. 4 houses sounds a lot and it is but in truth the only house of real worth is our Madrid home. The other 3 are properties are of far less value compared. Reservations at our apartment near Santa Pola and the beach are coming along nicely, despite Covid and people traveling less, and that day we had our third set of guests; 2 couples from Valencia who were spending 3 nights there. Lucy welcomed them warmly and the guests told me they loved the apartment. I was glad.
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| A glass of Martin Codax Albariño white wine to celebrate on Friday evening |
We rang both girls to give them more information about the house and to catch up on their lives. We will be seeing them this evening and Elliot of course whom we have missed.
We watched some old Clint Eastwood film on TV but were soon asleep on the sofa and had to wake up to go to bed. I slept quite well that night.
Saturday came and it was 1st August. It should have been the village fiestas but that was not to be. Usually the village is full at this time but it didn't seem it at all yesterday. I went on my walk with Pippa and hardly saw a soul. Eladio stayed behind to hoover. We had changed the sheets and I had cleaned the bathrooms so everything would be ready for the next time we come here.
We were both excited about the house and keep looking at the photos. I keep thinking about the things I want to change. My husband who is not into interior decorating (haha) thinks everything Mari Paz is leaving us if fine but it is not. I shall make the changes slowly until the house is more our style.
We had lunch from some of the last of our provisions and spent the afternoon as we have done here nearly every day, reading under the shade from the trees and parasol at the back of the garden and in peace.
The day ended with our last dinner on the kitchen terrace and a video call with the girls. They were at home where they had all enjoyed the swimming pool that afternoon. I am not looking forward to the high temperatures in Madrid but I am looking forward to seeing the girls again and especially little Elliot.
We were in bed early on our last night here and this morning I was awake at just after 6 am. It's still dark as I am writing now while Eladio and Pippa sleep. We will be in no hurry to leave and will no doubt have lunch on the way home, maybe at the Parador in Benavente.
Next week we will be on grandparent duty and life will be back to normal at home near Madrid. You will hear all about it in next Sunday's post. Meanwhile, my friends, I wish you the very best until then.
Cheers for now,
Masha
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