The ease of being

Oh, you haven't heard from us in a long time!!

That's certainly not because I'm lazy. Rather, technology sometimes just paralyzed me. I had a finished story for you several times, but while sending it, the story suddenly disappeared. That happened with my Christmas story, the New Year's fire on the beach, and the sweet life here on the Costa Blanca. Simply disappeared into orbit. I pouted for a while and ignored my laptop, threatening to sink it at sea if it misbehaved again. I think that worked, and we have been able to work together again recently.

Yes, a lot of time has passed and we are already in the 4th month of being on tour. We have gotten used to a new rhythm and are totally relaxed. We sleep in pretty late in the mornings (at least until 10 o'clock), occasionally watch the news from bed, and then Holger prepares our beloved breakfast in the sunshine. I go to yoga and Holger tidies up, makes the beds, washes the dishes, just a little bit of household chores. Then it's time for Waltraud, she loves to take a walk with me on the beach while Holger does our laundry.... Time flies by and after so many deadlines, it's time for my afternoon coffee, which is a new specialty that I didn't know before. It's called 'Kaffee Bonbon,' heavenly, and Holger serves it to me on the sun lounger. I must say, he's really lucky to have me.

But kidding aside, we both are lucky to spend our senior life here in Spain. It truly is the ease of being.

After exploring the surrounding area with our bicycles, we followed the recommendation of our experienced neighbors and rented a car so that we could expand our radius of exploration. There is an incredible offer here from 'Spaintogo', where you can rent cars for an incredible 2 € per day. These are partly brand new cars and you can drive them without any mileage restrictions. However, these offers only run in the winter because the car rentals apparently don't go so well during that time and the cars have to be put on mileage. Because it's only at a mileage of 60,000 km that the cars can be sold profitably, and that seems to be the real business of all car providers. So now we have an almost new Opel Corsa and cruise up and down the coast with it. Many of our fellow campers have such a car for the entire winter season. We will do the same next year.

There is so much incredible things to see here, and we are always totally amazed after every trip.

For example, there is the city of Denia. A city that was once a Greek colony and was shaped by the Moors. Denia is the oldest port on the Gulf of Valencia and has a great castle ruin. It is stored in the category 'particularly beautiful' in my memory.

Calpe with its huge rock as a landmark is an elegant tourist metropolis with a fantastically beautiful beach. Very glamorous and I'm right in the middle...

Altea, the jewel on the coast. The city with 100,000 stairs (Holger cursed) and enchanting architecture. Many artists have settled here and created their own flair in this place. I immediately felt a sense of well-being here.

Whether it's 'el Montgo, Santa Pola, or Elche, we never get tired of discovering something new, letting ourselves be amazed, and then returning to our campsite and merging with nature. Yes, life is beautiful!

But this time I can't boast about the beautiful weather, until Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 5:00 PM, we had full-on spring. But then, a storm system hit us like we had never experienced before. The forecast had announced wind speeds of up to 120 km/h, waves up to a height of 7.5 m, and rain pouring down in torrents. There was an evacuation plan from the Civil Guard, and we all had to leave the dune and try to find shelter from the wind with our campers. I was somehow excited about the event and wanted to take pictures of the waves because when do you ever get to see waves over 7 m high. But I had no chance. It truly was the apocalypse. If I had even gone near the beach, the sharp wind with sandblasting would have forced me to my knees, and my phone would have mercilessly sunk into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. Everything happened just as predicted, and even worse, and we had a very restless night despite being in the wind shadow. And since there is no sewage system here in the deep south of Spain, the entire campsite was knee-deep in water the next morning.

Since my Holger pays great attention to cleanliness, he went to the shower on that Monday morning, right after that, the heavens opened mercilessly again, pouring liters of water on us.

Since I didn't find my usual, rich breakfast in the usual way at the usual time, I became worried and went in search of my manservant.

When I found him, he was in something like 'distress' in the shower room. The rain had raged so heavily that he would not have made it out of that place unscathed. When I realized the situation, I quickly fetched our rental car and drove up. Opening the door was not possible as the water was too high. So I rolled down the side window and Holger squeezed himself into the car through the side window. We drove almost unscathed to our motorhome with his legs hanging out, where he could immediately start preparing breakfast. I still have tears of laughter in my eyes when I think about that situation...

The wind has subsided, the rain has not shown itself for hours, so we have reason to believe that the state of emergency will soon be lifted and we can move back to our dune by the sea.

Take care, you winter people, I will think of you again when I enjoy my next 'Cafe Bonbon' on my sun lounger in the sun with the gentle sound of the sea. And Holger also thinks of you.