How long to stay in Spain? (23rd – 30th August)

Wednesday 23^rd August – the Bailey’s left in the morning to catch their flight home.  We had offered to help Paul and Jacqui out in the shop and give them some time out over the next four days, especially as Paul had only had to return to the UK for two days this week. But they didn’t seem to want our help in that capacity.  We suggested splitting the days up so maybe the girls would work pre-siesta and the boys could cover the evening shift so everyone would get some time out; but they didn’t take us up on it today.  So instead, we stayed at the house together.  Whether it was a previous rain shower or over-use of the pool over the weekend, the water had become cloudy and the Gibbs had informed us that the pool urgently needed treating before it went too far to be fixed.  We had bought the tub of ‘shock chlorine’ they needed from the supermarket and once that had been dumped into the water the pool was definitely out of bounds unless you wanted your skin to turn a funny colour and smell badly!  Instead, Simon and I set to watching Narcos, a Netflix series about the Columbian drug cartels.  There were two series available at that time.  Let’s just say we got through a lot of episodes of Narcos that day!  It wasn’t even possible for me to blog whilst watching it, as the majority of the programme is subtitled so you really have to concentrate.  We were proper lazy!

To make up for the laziness we made pasta dinner for when the Gibbs (and Mel) returned and we caught up on their day.  During the evening the subject arose of their second, UK registered car that was sitting in the garage below us.  They weren’t quite sure what to do with it.  It would apparently cost a lot to register it and make it road legal in Catalonia but the only other option was to drive it back to the UK to sell it.  Just throwing it out there, we suggested that we could get insured on the car and drive it back to the UK.  In theory it could benefit us all.  At that time, we didn’t have flights booked back to the UK and we had the time to drive back. It may even save us money having briefly looked at the cost of last minute flights back to England. In return, the Gibbs would not own a car that was merely rusting and gathering dust in their garage and would actually get some money back for it once we’d managed to sell it.  We left the idea in the air for them to ponder.

Thursday 24^th August – we had another day at the house, without a pool.  Si and I were starting to realise that our intention to help the Gibbs out by visiting them was not going to happen.  It was very bizarre.  We felt like we would be in the way if there were four of us at the shop, but we are also causing them to worry about us getting bored at the house with the pool out of action.  We have tried to tell them not to worry about us, we can just relax. We came over here to spend time with them, get an appreciation for their new lifestyle and connect with kindred spirits who have also broken away from their old lives but in a very different way to us.  Sadly, we now feel further apart from them and instead feel a little like we’re in the way here.  The open-ended invitation and excitement of travelling on a one-way plane ticket has become over-shadowed by us now feeling somewhat uneasy about staying here but at the same time concerned about how much a flight home at short notice is going to cost us!

We started to discuss what to do with the rest of our summer.  Si came up with the idea of going to watch the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on Sunday 3^rd September.  This wasn’t completely out of the blue as it had previously been an idea Simon put forward for him and Paul to do as a ‘lads’ tour away.  As this was clearly not going to happen anymore I had expected it to fall by the wayside, but Simon had other ideas!  Me, being the one that constantly worries over finances and how much we are going to have left for our Australian travels and beyond, was not initially receptive to the idea! I suggested that we should just wait and see if the Gibbs had considered our offer of driving their car back to the UK for sale and if not, just to cut our losses and book the next flight home as cheaply as possible.  We were trying to work out the cost of a more expensive flight back to the UK sooner, against obtaining a cheaper flight a week or so later that, in the end, would probably turn out to be more expensive because of additional living costs!  A fun time discussing money was had by all….

I went to get some exercise (and relieve some of the tension if I’m completely honest) by sparring against Paul’s punch bag in the garage.  Having done body combat where you punch thin air, I’d never properly used this type of equipment, so I was completely naïve to the fact that you must wear wrappings and gloves on your hands to avoid injury.  I gave it my best and hardest shots…. And that was how I managed to damage my right hand like this:

The skin on the back of the hand ballooned up immediately making me panic that I had managed to break bones despite not feeling any pain or hearing any ominous ‘crunching’ noises.  Exercise over almost as soon as it had begun, I spent the best part of the next hour with my entire right hand submerged in iced water in a saucepan to try to reduce the swelling. I didn’t want to bother with the hospital.  Communication and transport issues would have made it an even more tiresome experience just to be X-rayed on the off-chance I had done some serious damage, and can they really do much to treat tiny broken bones in your hand anyway?  No, I’m not an expert, but I thought I’d make life easier by not worrying about it because the movement in the hand seems perfectly normal, even if the colour and shape of it is not!

I resigned myself to an easy afternoon, watching more TV and nursing my throbbing hand.  I do not find sitting around doing very little easy for extended periods….

Taking a couple of nice pics of the pretty garden flowers was my limit for the rest of the day!

Friday 25^th August – Paul very kindly offered to take us for a drive to see some local picturesque towns after dropping Jacqui and Ike off in Girona.  It was really nice of him to take the time out to do this, but it made me feel guilty for not just hiring a car and driving ourselves there instead of tearing him away from the business. It was as if he felt he had to do it because of the pool being out of action and they couldn’t bear the thought of us being bored at the villa for another day! But at least it meant we got to spend some time with Paul during our visit.

We started off in Besalu containing beautiful medieval buildings and bridges.  We enjoyed coffee in the square before slowly wandering around the town and giving Levi the opportunity to chase ducks in the river.

We then moved on to Castellfollit De La Roca, one of the smallest towns in Catalonia, built on a basalt cliff. Another opportunity for coffee/beer!

Lastly, we headed to a lake in Banyoles where people go swimming.  For a change we had another cold drink by the water as we people-watched!

We crammed all of this into the morning, making it into Girona for lunch at The Irish bar.  Then we were dropped back at the house with Jacqui who got changed before driving back into town as they had plans to go out with another couple that night for dinner.  We had offered to dog-sit for them, so, what did we do?  We watched more Netflix!

Saturday 26^th August – unbelievably, the pool was still out of action. The 24-48 hours estimated for it to sort itself out had exceeded 4 days.  But it was no one’s fault, we just had to be patient.  I took myself for a walk to get some exercise and got down to some more relaxing and TV watching whilst trying not to think too much about anything and telling myself to enjoy the down-time.

Sunday 27^th August – We woke hoping that the pool would be back in action today. Paul tried to clean it but the hoover wasn’t working properly. We had offered to try to clean it ourselves but it’s probably best we hadn’t or I would’ve been convinced we’d broken the equipment!  Instead, I felt bad that the pool is probably dirty because of over-use by us and here we were giving the Gibbs more work to do to clean it on their one day off and when they haven’t even got the time to use it themselves!

Pushing them for a decision, the Gibbs have decided to hold on to the car they have sitting in their garage for potential future use.  No problem, but at least now that decision had been made we would be able to start planning our ongoing travels.  We made use of the internet in the house whilst the Gibbs were sorting the pool.  I have bowed to pressure and agreed to the road trip to Italy.  We may as well do something with our time in Europe and I am fully aware that if we don’t take this opportunity to go and see the F1 this year then I won’t hear the end of it! The Italian Grand Prix has been on Simons ‘bucket-list’ for years, so it’s not worth saying no.  Si did a cracking job of research and found a reasonably cheap flight home from Barcelona to Southend on 6^th September and, having gone round and round in circles with hire car companies, it turns out that the cheapest option by far is to collect and return a hire car to the same location. Hence, we shall be getting a train to Barcelona on Wednesday to collect a car which we shall then be driving to Italy and then allll the way back to Spain the following week! (but it makes more financial sense than the 1000 Euros they wanted to charge us to leave a car in Italy!).  It felt good to finally know not only when we shall be flying home, but also to be able to tell the Gibbs when they can expect us to leave so they don’t have to worry about us any more.  It turns out ‘winging it’ can be just as stressful as being over-organised, if you ask me?!

Paul did a wonderful job cleaning the pool despite the difficulties he faced and we were allowed to use it.  Jacqui made a tasty tuna pasta lunch and we had a swim. That evening we headed into Girona for a food festival, meeting up with others for drinks (at the Irish pub) before strolling through the streets. This was one of my favourite nights of the whole trip. There was a great atmosphere on the streets, it was buzzing with people of all nationalities as we wandered, chatted and bought small plates of food and glasses of drinks to try. I enjoyed practising talking Spanish with Nadia (Not her correct name!) who is learning English – she and Jacqui meet up to talk and help each other learn their respective languages.  It was a great night of food, drink and socialising.

The view of the slightly murky pool from our balcony

Monday 28^th August – Because of the Bank Holiday in the UK, Paul didn’t have to fly there until the Tuesday morning.  Knowing that they probably wouldn’t take us up on an offer to help at the shop, he and Jacqui went to work for the day whilst Simon and I enjoyed the now fully clear and clean swimming pool and the sunshine. I was quite happy to have a quiet night at the house but Simon had invited his new pal from last night, Pedro, out for drinks again tonight, so this meant that Paul had to drive back to the house to pick us up and drive us back into Girona.  We were all tired from last night so we just had one drink and returned to the house.  Simon said farewell to Paul because he didn’t plan on being awake in time to see him the following morning.

Tuesday 29^th August – I had basically told Jacqui that I would be keeping her company at the shop today. Well, I thought I could at least achieve one day helping out at the shop and this would force her to have to spend some time with me on our own over lunch.  Simon was happy to be left to his own devices at the villa for the day.

Levi eating the shop's profits having stolen a bone from the storeroom!

The shop was very quiet in the morning.  I walked to Girona train station to research the travel options for us to reach Barcelona tomorrow to collect our wheels.  Train is definitely the best option. I wandered around some other parts of the City that Simon may not have appreciated…. Like the fresh fish market for example! I did a bit of shopping to tide us over for the last couple of days in Girona before heading back to the shop.

At 2pm we walked the dogs before heading for lunch at a noodle bar. Jacqui usually goes for dinner with local friends on a Tuesday but we agreed that we’d had a very sociable few days and would head straight back to the house after closing instead. Especially as I needed to deliver Simon some dinner and check that he wasn’t feeling too lonely.  We all had an early night.