Moving To Andalusia

I don’t travel well. Driving long distances makes me nervous and cranky, we always get lost, no matter how many tomtoms we bring along and at the end there somehow never is any food or internet, even though the hotel’s site always lavishly promises both.

So after an indifferent stay at Cap d’Agde (Hotel Azur. Nice folks, terrible internet and the town is something from a Stephen King movie, filled with rundown funparks) and a strange stay somewhere under Tarragona (Hotel Golfo Panoramico. It’s basically an old folks resort, a gated golf community with hardly anyone living there. So everything was shut and occasionally you’d see someone scuttle by, but all in all it was kinda creepy. Good internet and a great apartment though) we ended up at a B&B. Hard to find in Spain, not because there aren’t any but because they don’t seem to find their way to internet. Or if they do, they are tucked away at the bottom on page 5 of your search results.

With one exeption, the Oasis B&B in Almendricos. Run by Maarten, a Dutch guy, with his parents it was truely like a stay with friends. Maarten started this b&b with his parents, Daniel and Janny, two years ago. After the usual initial trouble we know so well from all those nice tvshows, with Spanish workmen not showing up, endless delays and doubts, they have made a real success of it. Maarten is even dating a local beauty. These folks made a go of an adventurous new life, I really respect that.

Of course, we couldn’t find it, being stuck in the muddy streets of Almendricos where it rained for the first time in five months, lucky us, but once Maarten and his dad came and got us things started to look up. Before we knew it we were having a poolside bbq and singing the night away. Good times, lovely place, and I certainly hope to be going back there some time.

For me, b&b’s are the way to go, at least if I can find them.

September 29th, 2008 | Tags: Gated community, Hotel, Spain, Tarragona | Category: Free wifi, On the road, Places to stay | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL