Return to Spain – Last Stop and Pandemic Escape

As I mentioned in our Palermo post, as we were leaving Sicily, we started to see signs of the COVID pandemic. People were wearing masks and extra cleaning on trains and planes.

We added a few days to our Barcelona stop, as we needed to retrieve a package that was returned to a post office close to our Airbnb that we stayed during our previous visit. Jos had sent a package to her family, one of the items being a little bottle of liquor It was returned….no liquid can be shipped!!

We were able to retrieve the package from a friend of a friend that was sweet enough to take possession of the package before the Spanish postal service disposed of it. It also was good to have a few nights to visit some more sites, eat at some nice restaurants, and hit the cool bar we had visited previously. The weather was warming, so we went to the shoreline to walk around, then back into the Spanish Quarter for a lovely dinner at an amazing tapas restaurant. We then went back to ????bar. This time however it was the weekend and crazy, crowded. We had to wait for a bit as the line of younger tourists went in before us. We finally got a seat upstairs, overlooking the bar. Service was slow and the drinks weren’t nearly as good this time around. Lessons learned…..go during the week.

After our quick stop through Barcelona, it was back to the airport for a short flight down to Malaga, Spain, on the South East Coast of the Country. After grabbing our rent car, we made the short drive farther South to Marbella (about 1 hour North of Gibraltar Rock). We had some difficulties checking into our Airbnb, as our host was out of town and he was relying on a friend to manage the place. We had a difficult time getting the keys, and an even more difficult time finding the unit, but after getting into the unit all of that frustration was overshadowed by this beautiful condo overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The 2-bedroom, 2 bath, 2 story place was amazing with 3 decks, including a huge one that spanned the living room and kitchen…big enough for a full size dinning table, chairs, etc. The view was unparalleled. We were up on a hill overlooking a gorgeous golf course, and as mentioned, amazing views of the Mediterranean. What we found out over the next few days, because of the direction we faced, we were able to see Gibraltar Rock and the African Coast when the skies were clear. We finally had a big place to spread out with a full kitchen. Since it was the offseason, there were very few people around. The pools were closed, but not a big deal, as we could lay out on our private decks.

This was the first time we had to really settle down and relax, as we had booked a stay of 3 ½ weeks. This area is a big draw for British tourists, second home buyers, and retirees, so we found people generally speak English in this part of Spain. I found it a little annoying, as I was trying to learn a bit more Castilian Spanish. Reason being, I was in the middle of interviewing for a job in Madrid (more on that in a bit). This area of Spain is a hot bead for tourists during the summer…. people flock to the beaches to get sun and swim in the sea. There are a lot of restaurants, shops, etc. all along the coastline.

In addition to lounging around most of the time, I managed to get back into consistent running and exercising. We walked a lot around the area and by the beach, which for the most part was backed by sand dunes. Fortunately for us, most of the large, white people were clothed due to the cooler temperatures of late winter. Back to lounging around. We were also able to buy some Aperol, so our nightly ritual was an Aperol Spritz, usually followed by wine. Really, really, good wine that was also very inexpensive. I was able to cook a lot, which makes me happy and is a little healthier than eating out.

During the first two weeks, I also had several interviews with two great companies, one in London (a carryover from January in person interviews) and zoom interviews with a company in Madrid. Both roles were exciting, and I was looking forward to getting an offer (or two!). I was invited to come up to Madrid as a third, an in-person interview with the senior team, unfortunately, my trip was cancelled twice as the COVID pandemic started to worsen throughout that region. I’m sad to report that both opportunities went away due to the pandemic. It is unfortunate, as Jos and I were excited about the possibility of working oversees. Things always happen for a reason, and everything will work out in the end.

Switching gears a bit, Jos thought she had a broken tooth, so off we went to the dentist. She found an English speaking one, which as mentioned above is not hard to do in this area. Funny thing, the dentist was from the U.S., specifically in So.CA. Small world. The only negative about this dentist office is they were not set up, and really had no idea about how to deal with COVID. Jos decided to wait until we got back to the U.S. to get the tooth worked on.

OK, back to fun in Marbella: We got out most days to run errands, pick up supplies, and to buy really cheap over the counter drugs. Drugs are incredibly cheap in Spain. My Nasonex is $100+ bottle at Costco….in Spain, $8.00….yes, only 8 bucks per bottle. I stocked up!!!! I had to prep for interviews, so off to the dry cleaner, which were surprisingly scarce. I wanted a quick turnaround…the nice guy who owned the dry cleaner mentioned something about Corona, so when I returned that afternoon to pick up my rush order, I brought him a few Corona beers. This got me a handshake and a big laugh from all he workers. Kind of an inside joke.

We had a lovely dinner on the hill overlooking Malaga on an extremely windy night. The views were amazing at night, the food was excellent, and the service amazing. A great evening at a wonderful restaurant that a friend recommended.

The next day was a Friday, and we decided to drive down to take a closer look at Gibraltar Rock. This was a leisurely drive, about an hour South of Marbella. We drove through mostly newer communities with tons of condos….it looked more like Southern California then Spain. We were excited to see the big rock up close, but as we got closer, we had to go into a security gate and found out that we needed to have passports to enter. We still aren’t sure exactly why we needed to have passports, and I think most people don’t drive around with passports on a day of sightseeing. Oh well, we did get some great shots of fog rolling over the Rock and took a nice walk on a beach boardwalk.

That night our trip changed dramatically. Our wonderful friend, Amanda texted Jos and asked if we had heard that the Spanish President was going to announce that they were closing down the boarders and stopping all flights in and out of the Country. The craziness begins. We were about 10 days away from our planned departure from Spain back to the U.S., but now we had to find a quicker way out of the Country, so we decided to get a flight to London. Normally a flight to the UK is easy and cheap, but given the circumstances finding a flight was very difficult and very, very expensive. We contacted our wonderful Airbnb host who said we could stay as long as we like, and that we would always have a roof over our head in Marbella. He was stuck in Mexico with his family. At the same time, we were calling and online trying to change flights, make arrangements to return a the car early, and started to pack. Oh yeah, and we had to drink a lot of wine, so it didn’t go to waste!!! We ended up leaving some wine, liquor, and food for the cleaning people.

We had an early morning flight that Sunday, with a long stay over planned in Barcelona, before our flight to Heathrow. We packed up Saturday night and left early enough to get gas and return the rental car. Fortunately, the flight left on time, and just like that we left our little Oasis of Marbella (10 days before we had planned). The airport was fairly crowded as a lot of the British folks were trying to get out of the Country, like us. Barcelona airport had started to really ramp up their COVID security measures, including closing all of the lounges ☹☹☹ and most of the restaurants. We ate some convenience store food and hung out as far away from everyone else that we could. Since this was the last night before the lockdown, the airport slowly emptied out as the day wore on. Our flight was schedule around 7:00, and the board said to check about an hour before flight time for gate assignment. As we were standing in front of the board at 6:00, the flight went from on time to cancelled. Yikes!!!

The next decision we made was in retrospect a good one. As everyone else was heading downstairs to customer service, we made our way down several gates and found a customer service person. We asked them about the cancelled flight, and they asked us and two others on our cancelled flight to follow them down to another flight that was leaving soon (last flight heading for Gatwick….in fact, it might have been the last flight out of Barcelona to the UK). There was so much confusion about how many passengers on the flight, that they didn’t know if we would get on, but after a head count on the plane they took our original tickets and hand wrote the new flight information and seat numbers. In a way we felt bad for the passengers who went downstairs and likely got stuck in Spain for some time. We were also a bit appalled that there were so many open seats as our plane backed out of the gate…. more people could have joined us. Now, as for our luggage. We obviously knew that it was not our flight and we would have to spend a few days in the clothes we were wearing. Fortunately, we had a few extra things and some toiletries. As our plane took off, we could only wonder how long it would be before we would see our luggage, if ever. Crazy times.

At the same time we were dealing with our flights, I had to cancel and book a new hotel near Gatwick. Thank God I had reception and the SPG/Marriott App!! One hotel room booked, and only a short walk from the airport. Just like that we were back in cold, damp, and dark London!! We grabbed a bite in the airport when we arrived, because we figured the hotel wouldn’t have food that late at night. We also had to put in our claim for lost luggage.

The travel saga continues, as we were being chased out of Europe by the COVID pandemic.

Look for our next blog…..the exit from London, flights back to the US, and quarantining in Ann Arbor, Michigan.