“And now the end is near and so we face …” having to say hasta luego to the beautiful Alpujarra and the lovely village of Bérchules, our home for the past six months. Tomorrow we´re off to start the second phase of our new life in Andalucía, this time in the province of Málaga. The car is more or less packed, (yet again, we´ve over-estimated the loading capacity and ended up leaving our computer desk behind at our landlady´s, so we now have our belongings stored in three different places across Europe). The flat will get its final clean tomorrow morning. Various religious artifacts we couldn´t bear looking at on a day-to-day basis have been pulled out from under the beds in the spare bedrooms and put back where we found them. We´ve bid farewell to most of our neighbours and friends and we had a final drink in the Posada bar last night. You see, we originally intended leaving today but the weather has been so atrocious (it´s been raining for the past four days) that we simply couldn´t shift our stuff from flat to car today (a distance of several hundred metres) so we gave in and decided to leave tomorrow instead. (I think Bérchules is trying to tell us something: “Don´t go!”)
The strange thing is that we almost feel more emotional about leaving this time than we did when we left Norfolk. Why ? I have no idea. We didn´t have the best of starts (as you might have gathered if you´ve read any of the previous blogs) and it has taken us a while to settle in, cope with the thick Alpujarran accent and get to know people. Having lived in semi-rural Norfolk where we had a detached cottage with a big garden, it´s been quite tricky living in a small flat underneath the noisiest family here in Bérchules. Their two young kids running around on tiled floors, screaming and crying did wonders for keeping our headaches topped up throughout our stay.
Noise is something Spaniards are very good at. Rather than talking to one another, they shout (sometimes hanging out of the window whilst the other person is standing in the street or leaning out of a window themselves, often a fair distance away). In bars and even restaurants, you´ll frequently find the television blaring out and kids´ toys in Spain always make a racket (if not, they´re most definitely broken). This has all been very alien to us and yet, even though we didn´t particularly like it (and still don´t) - we´ve somehow got used to it. We´ve never had a cross word with any of our neighbours, adopting very much the Spanish `live and let live´ attitude. In fact, people here have made us feel very welcome and part of the village. Our landlady has rung our doorbell many times, bringing us buñuelos, cake, vegetables and even complete lunches. When we told her we were leaving, she had tears in her eyes and, clutching at her heart, said that she´d miss us as by now she considered us as part of the family which was quite moving. Spaniards can be very direct and often seem abrupt but they are hospitable, kind, genuine and quite simply fabulous people. I love living in this laid-back country and I have really enjoyed our time in Bérchules. When you arrive here, it feels as if you have stepped into the Tardis and travelled back in time. As David who runs one of the local supermarkets once said:” If you´re in a rush, don´t come to the Alpujarra.” There is no doubt that this region and particularly the village of Bérchules will always have a special place in our hearts.
I´ll close with some photographs taken over the past months throughout the Alpujarra. I hope they will whet your appetite for visiting this beautiful and unspoilt part of Spain.
So long. xxx
The pool at El Cercado
See the top village on the right hand side? That´s Bérchules.
Bérchules
Typical village house in Bérchules
Typical Alpujarran chimney
Our home
Ploughing the fields as in the olden days outside Bérchules
Above Bérchules
Walking in the mountains
The Alpujarra in autumn colours
Trevélez – the highest populated village in Spain
Almond blossom in the Sierra de la Contraviesa in January
Spring in the Alpujarras
View of Alcútar, Narila, Cádiar and the Contraviesa
Ready to go