The Fish Restaurant – Part 2.

Throughout my adult life the majority of major decisions have been made on ‘gut feeling’. First, I have to make the decision, whether it is right or not is then confirmed by how I feel inside knowing the decision I have made.

When we decided to move to Spain, it felt right. It has felt right at every stage so far. The decision to reserve a property at San Juan de los Terreros felt right. We had now decided on the house we would buy and paid our reservation fee. We had all the plans to take home with us and we had put the pin into the site plan in the site office to say this was ours. We now knew where we would be living in Spain – we had reserved a plot on Calas Del Pinar. It wasn’t built yet, but at least we had moved one step forward. http://www.tarletonproperty.com/property/id/20009

To celebrate, we walked down onto the promenade and had coffee sitting outside a bar in the autumn sunshine, listening to the waves rippling onto the beach and visualising life here. Wonderful!

It was now time to head back towards Murcia and leave Almeria behind us, but we would be back next month.

Once we were back in Murcia we decided we would go back and have a further look around the houses at Los Alcazares, and to take some photos so we had something to refer to when we were back home.

Having done this, Dan suggested we go back to the Fish Restaurant and eat a celebratory meal there. It was Monday and so it was unlikely to be busy. We drove up and sure enough there were plenty of parking spaces free.

With great promise of great seafood we got out of the car and walked over to the restaurant door …… only to find it was closed on Mondays! It would seem we are not to eat here on this trip.

Instead, we went out to Roda Golf course. We had played Roda last time we were in Murcia and it is a lovely course. The club house is only small at the moment, but it did serve good food, we had eaten there when we played so we had a good meal over looking the 18th green, watching to see how many would take the courageous shot over the water to the green and how many would play safe. Neither Dan or Russell are golfers so some of the enjoyment we got from eating there was lost on them, but it was a nice place to spend a couple of hours before heading off to the airport.

And the Fish Restaurant – well, we would be back – and now know not to try Sundays or Mondays.

The Fish Restaurant – Part 1.

It was getting reasonably late on a very warm Sunday afternoon and Dan said he had a fabulous restaurant that he wanted to take us to that did great fish. We knew as soon as we arrived that it was going to be busy as there was no where to park at the front, and we ended up somewhere round the back. The restaurant is rather on the large side and obviously very good as there wasn’t a table available and at least an hour wait. So, we were not going to be eating there today! Still, we would be in the area tomorrow, we’ll have dinner there tomorrow before we fly home.

It still left us in need of somewhere to eat and just across the road was a lovely square with a little café so we sat outside in the square and drank in the atmosphere; a cold beer, a good sandwich and a few chips and we were happy travellers.

We had now finished our viewings in Murcia and headed back towards Almeria. The change in landscapes is quite dramatic and we both preferred the landscape of Almeria, but liked the houses at Los Alcazares. Neil really liked the house at Arboleas, I really liked the villa on the golf course but none of them were ticking enough boxes. One more place to visit and then we would have some talking to do. We already had a second trip planned for early November so if we didn’t find a place on this visit, it wasn’t too concerning.

We sat back to relax as Dan began the long drive back to Almeria, it had been quite nice to be chauffeured around and it had all been very relaxed although it was obvious that Dan had put a lot of thought into the planning of our viewing trip and with all the comments I had read on the internet about the pressure put on you during a trip, I was pleasantly surprised how informal and relaxed our weekend had been.

We passed Aquilas and crossed into Almeria. The first place you reach is San Juan de los Terreros, a small coastal town. Dan drove us up to the castle where we got a good view across the bay, the beach and the development that he had brought us to see. Now, you don’t like to let on too much too early, but both Neil and I immediately liked the place and wanted a look around.

The development was being built by the same builder that had built the houses at Los Alcazares, so that seemed a good start. We went down to have a look around the area; we had a walk along the new promenade, went out to a couple of coves, and drove along the front. We had a drive around the perimeter of the development and around the new golf course that is being built. The site office had closed for the day so we were unable to have a look at the plans but if we decided that this was somewhere we were interested in we could call back the following day before travelling back to the airport, as our flight wasn’t until the evening.

So, we had now seen all the areas and properties that Dan had planned for us and we now needed time to decide how we wanted to spend Monday. Whether there were any properties we wanted a second look at, whether there were any areas we wanted to go back to or indeed any areas we wanted to see for the first time. Russell suggested that Neil and I should have dinner alone that evening so we could discuss what we wanted to do without any pressure from them.

So, dinner for 2 it is…….

Inspection Trip! Day 2.

Sunday morning saw us up early and off on the drive back up to Murcia. On today’s agenda was a development of multi-coloured houses, a development at San Cayetano of villas, quads and apartments, this would be our first chance to see what a quad house looks like. It would also give us an opportunity to compare the Murcia landscape with that of Almeria and try and decide where we wanted to live. Dan had told us that one of the developments we would be visiting were also building another development that we would visit towards the end of the day. We arrived at our first destination where we were viewing a couple of key ready houses, a 2 bed and a 3 bed – one slight problem, we arrived half an hour before the office opened for us to get the keys, bearing in mind it was Sunday and things started a little later than the day before. Next to the office was a small, very quiet square, with trees casting shadows to protect from the warmth of the sun. Dan suggested a coffee while we waited. Well, remember my comment about when we arrived and how the hotel they had arranged for us definitely made a good impression, well this was definitely at the opposite end of the scale. Whilst the coffee was perfectly drinkable, it wasn’t exactly Starbucks! But sitting in a Spanish square in the autumn sunshine was extremely relaxing and definitely felt good!

Anyway, coffee over, keys collected we went to look around the multi-coloured houses at Los Alcazares. We looked around the 2 bed first and immediately liked the feel of the place, it had some great features and had terraces outside the bedrooms which is a definite plus for us and it had a roof terrace –another box was getting ticked. We then went across the road and after trying to get into the wrong house we entered a house that I immediately started to visualise our furniture in. It was lovely inside and had lots of outside living space. It had an unusual, but very attractive courtyard out the back that concerned me little as we were planning to have a dog, and so our own perimeter was preferable, but we both liked the house a lot.

We then went off to have a look at San Cayetano, again a great development but we decided that the style of the villas and quads didn’t suit what we were looking for, the apartments however would make a great investment place for holiday letting. It was so convenient for the airport, coast and golf. One for the future maybe.

We then had a trip to the new United Golf Resort at La Tercia, no we weren’t going to be buying there, but we did get to see the development, the crazy driving range which will be over a lake where the floating balls are brought back on a wave machine – and definitely a lottery win would see us on this development. What a place! We will definitely be playing golf there when it’s ready.

Ok, next – 1st instalment of the Fish Restaurant!

The Inspection Trip! Day 1.

Friday evening we flew out to San Javier airport in Murcia and were met by Russell and Dan from Tarletan. They told us we had a drive of just over an hour and as it was dark we wouldn’t get a chance to see any of the area. So, we took advantage of the time and discussed what the plans were for the next 3 days. Dan had arranged a number of viewings for us on Saturday and Sunday, and then Monday was free for us to re-visit any areas we wanted a second look at or any areas we still wanted to see.

After an hour travelling on a very quiet motorway we arrived at our destination – Valle del Este golf resort. Now, I can understand them wanting to start the trip with a good impression – but this really is a nice place. We had a room overlooking the golf course which, both Neil & I being keen golfers, was good and bad – good as we could chill on the balcony watching the players coming up the fairway at the end of a hectic day viewing properties, bad because we were really jealous that we hadn’t got our clubs with us! But, we will be back with clubs on another trip.
We were spending Saturday looking at places in Almeria and Sunday in Murcia. So we started Saturday by meeting a local agent who took us first to view a re-sale mid-terrace house, a key ready detached villa, a re-sale detached villa and a detached house off plan and a villa on Valle del Este itself. One in a small town, a couple inland and one remote in the hills. None of them ticked enough boxes, but we were quickly identifying where we didn’t want to live. Don’t get me wrong, they were all nice places but not right for us. We both loved the villa on the golf course but it was right at the top of our budget and only 2 bedrooms when we ideally wanted 3 – plus we picked up so many golf balls from the garden that we would never have had to buy a golf ball again, but we would have worried about sitting out in the garden having a glass of wine incase of mis-hit tee-shots landing close by, a real concern. Neil loved the detached house at Azerbache and it was nice, but I didn’t have the same positive feel about it, I felt it was a bit small. The villa set way in the hills was really nice with spectacular views but you would need to use a car to get a paper or loaf of bread – too remote. So, by the end of Saturday I have to admit to feeling a little dis-appointed. Not to worry, we still had Sunday

Planning an inspection trip.

We planned to fly out to Spain for a weekend at the beginning of October and spend a few days trying to narrow down the town we would want to live in. We knew we wouldn’t want an apartment as we were planning to have a dog – more on that later. We wanted a place with plenty of outside living, after all we were moving to a part of Spain with lots of days of sunshine – we wanted to be able to enjoy it to the full.

Russell asked me for a shopping list of property types and areas we would like to visit and he planned our trip, booked our flights and arranged for the hotel – I think the only things we had to do was confirm the dates we wanted to go, give an indication of what we wanted to see and tell them what we hoped to achieve.

Our shopping list included Mojacar, Arboleas, Turre, Mazzaron, San Cayetano and a selection of duplex, villas, and town houses. Oh, that’s something you need to understand – what a duplex is, what a bungalow is etc. generally a duplex is a terrace or town house or an apartment on 2 floors, a quad is 4 houses built together, one on each corner, a bungalow is a property on one floor, but it may have others built above it, a finca is a rural property - so it is really important to understand what the various types of property are. It took us ages to identify what some of the terms meant.

It seems very odd leaving all the arrangements to someone else, I am by nature an organiser. We were to be met at the airport and taken to the hotel and we had the option of arranging our own car to use or to let Tarleton drive us around. We chose to let then do the driving, after all we didn’t know the area and it would take us a lot longer to visit the various places. Russell had assured us that we would have plenty of opportunity to have time on our own so that we wouldn’t feel pressured, which was important to us.
So, on Friday 5th October we found ourselves at East Midlands airport, case packed and a lot of expectations……