Back to the UK. Not everything went to plan I have to say.

The day after the last blog Lorraine was knocked off her motor scooter.

Five days before we were due to fly.

Four broken ribs, two fractured ribs and a cracked pelvis. Which is a bit greedy.

Actually, if it hadn’t been for the leathers and helmet she might no longer be here.

Bit/lot scary days.

So there was no way we were going to be able to go away. She was even in hospital for over two days…

But go we did.

Okay, nearly a week later than anticipated and in a slightly more roundabout fashion.

We were both pretty desperate to get away and – half in jest – I said we could always go by boat and train or by train alone.

And having communicated with Die Tochter an itinerary very soon appeared.

She’s very good at this sort of thing I have to say.

Boat to Bilbao or Santander was swiftly ruled out as you had to take a car. No foot passengers until March 2021 at the moment.

You COULD leave the car in a long term car park in Santander but the trains from there to Madrid and on to Malaga were not all that frequent.

Couple that with the sailings being twice a week and it was pretty safe to rule that one out.

So what about train?

Well Eurostar (you can tell this is an American spellchecker, most of the Spanish places and Eurostar are not included) will get you to Paris.

So what about on from there?

WELL…

There is a service 2-3 times a day from Paris to Barcelona. And another one from there on to Malaga. And a bus from Malaga to Estepona where we were going to stay.

So, doable? Definitely! Feasible? Let’s put it all together.

With help from the daughter of course.

Not cheap – around £1,800 return rather than £150 but it could be done.

The decision to have a cheaper, local “abroad” holiday this year was no longer but it COULD be done!

Three days there and three days back to the UK.

So let’s do it.

Train to London Waterloo, Uber (oddly NOT in the spellchecker???) to St Pancras, Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord and an overnight stop just outside Gare de Lyon was day 1.

TGV (Train a Grand Vitesse) to Barcelona and meet up with daughter who wanted to help us with the journey and overnight stay there was day 2.

AVE (Alta Velocidad Espana) from Barcelona to Malaga was day 3. We arrived Malaga after the last bus so a (Spanish version of Uber) “Cabify” to our hotel in Estepona. Over €100 but door to door and late evening so money well spent.

Lorraine was unable to sleep horizontally for most of the holiday (can’t call it a break for obvious reasons 😁) so that tended to be our limiting factor each day.

Could we find enough pillows, cushions, etc. for her to get some rest?

So we next wake up on Monday morning and we are THERE.

Her with no wish to do anything too strenuous and me with enough stress for a nervous breakdown.

Now it can be told.

So why had we been so desperate to get there?

I seem to remember having whinged a few times about my rheumatism/arthritis?

I’ve been saying for some time that if I never had to experience another UK winter it would still be too soon.

Now the climate in that area is lovely and the humidity is low. What would be the effect of a longer stay?

A day or two soon proved that my aches and pains were much reduced so part 2 of the plan could be rolled out.

Could we live down there – at least until next Spring?

Well. To be honest, suck it and see.

And so we found ourselves visiting a number of the local estate agents with a view to finding a property for the Winter.

And that turned into viewings.

Including the obligatory ridiculously expensive new builds up on the gated community up above the town (very nice, bit remote, unlikely to be what we wanted but got a free beer and a guided tour of a construction site so what’s not to like?).

So we’d got it down to a shortlist of one with the expectation of one more viewing a day or two later as the keys had to be couriered from the UK.

Which duly happened and proved to be – not perfect, that’s really not going to happen is it? – but good enough to tick most of the boxes.

We’d met a couple of ladies we’d been introduced to by the daughter who are property finders. One of them had agreed to be our friend who knew a bit about Spanish property.

And the upshot was she looked over the documents and also got €100 knocked off the monthly rental cost for us!

Can’t say fairer than that.

We returned the same way (in reverse obviously) and stayed in the Hotel Barcelo on top of the Barcelona Sants railway station on our way back to the UK.

And it was wonderful.

Can’t praise it highly enough. And just a couple of hundred metres from a craft beer bar.

The next day’s journey was the interesting one.

When we had left Estepona the daytime temperatures were around 28C.

Barcelona was pretty similar but after transiting the Pyrenees the weather took a definite change for the worse.

Okay I’m comparing first thing in the morning Paris with midday Barcelona but under 10C?

You are having a laugh!

And I’ve been freezing and my joints have been aching ever since.

No socks to furry extra socks and lumps of ice below my ankles. Back to the UK…

And hot and cold running sweats.

First thing on the to do list this week was to casually broach the news to my clients.

I’m pleased to say not one objection.

I’m going to apologise in advance in case this blog becomes at all erratic over the next few weeks.

Not that many will notice but I’m meaning frequency as well as content.

Bear with me and join me as I relate the story of the move and what it means to work from somewhere else in the world.

Back to the UK or a square in Estepona? Image by Vidar H. Andersen from Pixabay