Having found them, we count down the days to departure until finally it arrives. Will the weather be kind? Have I packed enough/too much? What about currency? How bad will the queues be? Is stress an inevitable part of finding relaxation?
Lois and I returned from a week in Spain a few days ago - somewhere we both know well. We’ve been going to the same region there for years and are very familiar with it. That’s not to say we know everything about it though - far from it. There are no guarantees about the weather there and this time we found it really windy on the coast.
The effect of the sun is powerful and we’ve witnessed grass fires - indeed, it’s not at all uncommon to find firefighting aircraft on standby at Malaga airport where we tend to fly into. It’s an efficient airport which has to be so throughout the ceaseless comings and goings of millions of travellers (many from the UK) coming and going through the year. Remember the Spanish and Portuguese power outages which caused many headlines recently?
Last week we spoke to a British airport transfer driver who said that despite what we might have been told, the airport simply switched over to backup power and carried on handling passengers inbound and outbound without interruption. Heathrow might like to have a chat with the estates and infrastructure management team for future, perhaps.
Having arrived mid-afternoon and picked up a tiny but extremely willing hire car we fell into what has become a familiar routine over time. Arriving at our local destination, we put the water and power on and immediately went around getting the internet connected, sheets on the bed and all the domestic arrangements which, in reality, we might have otherwise been doing back in the UK.
It never ceases to make me smile that where we stay is a sort of second home, staying as we were just off one of the many Spanish golf complexes which dominate the south of the region and are themselves a huge contributor to the local economy. There is much to be said for familiarity - particularly because it inevitably brings the opportunity for new and unexpected discoveries. House sorted, we headed for the shops to stock up on groceries and the like. It was at this point we learned that just like the UK, Spain was experiencing an extended national holiday - so we instead diverted to a favourite beach restaurant to see the afternoon out. Stocking up could wait until the following day, and did.
We’d both packed light for our stay, and with only enough to cover our immediate needs. I’m known for packing too much for our travels - a state which can prove problematic because I also like to buy clothes in Spain which I bring back with me. This time I’d pared things back and made sure that there would be space enough in my hand baggage (generally I don’t use a suitcase) for anything that took my eye. I ended up returning with a new pair of trousers, two pairs of trainers and four shirts. Some of it I wore in the plane - it’s amazing what you can return with and without causing problems at the departure gate if you put your mind to it.
This time I had a new facility at my disposal - it transformed my holiday. Perhaps strangely for one who started his working life in a bank, it had only occurred to me to avail myself of it a couple of days before we left the UK. Mated to my current account, it took all of three minutes to set up a free, online euro currency account into which I could deposit sufficient funds in advance - or top up if I needed to. This ended up saving me a small fortune in transaction and exchange rate charges and I could also use my existing bank card or phone to make the payments I needed.
I cannot speak highly enough of it - I used it extensively and it proved to be a godsend seeing as I don’t speak Spanish. Carrying a small amount of cash in transit will always be a good idea but in the case of a currency account, as the Amex strapline has said for so many years, don’t leave home without one. Having the currency balance there in advance also helped me to reconcile what I was spending and how quickly - the local traders seemed to like it too, rather than having me bumble around with notes and coin.
In a sense, having the currency account available to me made the whole holiday that much more homely. Feeling in control in a strange land is an important part of the whole relaxation process - this facility also helped to break down barriers of communication. Whatever your views of Brexit and whether or not our relationship with Europe will change to whatever extent in the future, broadening our horizons by broadening our ability to interact with each other has got to be a good thing. The TV series Star Trek introduced us to the Universal Communicator - maybe AI will turn sci-fi into factual reality and allow us to speak and be simultaneously understood at some point before too long. It’d be nice and do a tremendous amount for international relations, I’m sure.
All of which brings me back home - literally. Our holiday ended - as it always does - all too soon. Time up, we drove back to the airport, left our car to be collected by the hire company, shuffled (but efficiently) though security and border control, settled back in our seats on the plane and returned to a new pope, a new political era at WNC, new trade deals with the US and India and a lot more besides. The day before we came home I had woken up with a completely clear mind, which hasn’t happened for a very long time. It was as though I’d experienced a kind of mental detoxification - a very welcome one.
A change is as good as a rest they say. The changes really made themselves known after we got off the plane at Luton - potholes and all. But we DID come home rested, recharged and ready for what follows, whatever that might be.
Adios España for now - we’ll be back. Hello UK - how’ve you been?