Monday, 1 March 2010

December 2009 – Christmas in Spain

The winter sunrise provides me with a wonderful photograph.


2009 has been a strange year for holidays and I have not been to the apartment since Easter. This time however the Christmas holiday has a major purpose and we want to re-furnish so that everything will be ready for us to move in permanently come May/June 2010.


A further delight for me was to see the beach back in order after the October floods and the pool and communal areas finished and ready for those long hot days I hope we will be enjoying.



A Christmas Day Greeting from the beach


Our pool

Back to the furniture. The Spanish have a different view on furniture in many ways. One is that they do not become so emotionally attached to it and will leave it all in the house when the house is sold. Another is that the stores all deliver from stock and one does not have to wait for six weeks or so.


Our original furniture was supplied as a package when we bought the apartment and has served us splendidly. It was not of good quality however and it is time to part with it. We have been visiting furniture stores frequently to gather ideas over the last couple of years and it was delightful this time to be able to go in and choose the items we wanted. We want to maintain the “holiday feel” to the place so do not want dark wooden items. We found that the best combination of price and quality were to be had in a large store in Los Montesinos, about twenty minutes drive away.


We visited the store on a Tuesday and were promised delivery and installation (yes they always build and install) on the following Saturday. The furniture arrived as promised and the two men installed it all in about two hours. There was a slight problem with one item and one of the men drove back to the store and exchanged it without question.


We like it, what do you think?....








Our new furniture. Click each picture for a better view.

This Christmas was quite cold and for the first time in many years we saw snow on the Costa Blanca.



View across San Miguel towards Crevillent

Drivers reported that certain villages were actually cut off and that snow-chains were required on some roads.