I have been
neglecting this blog for the past months, not only for a lack of travel and ideas, but also because of little spare time. The semi-retirement of my husband last autumn has not only changed his daily routines but also affected mine.
One outcome is that we decided to look for a second home in warmer parts of Europe. To follow the birds when winter comes and escape to warmer climates had been a life-long dream of mine, climbing on the back of a strong bird and fly south in November to return in April. So literally and in spirit, in winter this year we followed the cranes and storks on their route south towards Gibraltar and found close-by and on this side of the water: Andalucia!
Why Andalucia? It is a beautiful land, with a history of civilizations going back to Europe's foundations. It provides connectedness to our heritage. It has mountains and valleys, as you can see above, natural parks, a long sea shore on the Mediterranean Sea, excellent weather with no frost in winter with the possibility to make a great garden, perfect infrastructure for second homes, airports, motorways, good food, a love of music, and last but not least: the local people love horses!
We flew over five times in the past months and finally found a place, an old house in a huge garden, to be renovated, with lots of charming crazy details:
but has a functioning intercom system:
The view is perfect:
And two little but significant details convinced me that this was the right place to be happy:
I started to learn Spanish ...
Hasta luego!
One outcome is that we decided to look for a second home in warmer parts of Europe. To follow the birds when winter comes and escape to warmer climates had been a life-long dream of mine, climbing on the back of a strong bird and fly south in November to return in April. So literally and in spirit, in winter this year we followed the cranes and storks on their route south towards Gibraltar and found close-by and on this side of the water: Andalucia!
shot from the plane window shortly before landing in Málaga
We flew over five times in the past months and finally found a place, an old house in a huge garden, to be renovated, with lots of charming crazy details:
... this beautiful door leads nowhere ...
but has a functioning intercom system:
The view is perfect:
And two little but significant details convinced me that this was the right place to be happy:
Its huge garden has many old olive trees and beneath the olive trees grows sprawling one of my tiny favourites: the white and pink mexican daisy Erigeron karvinskianus ! Lots and lots of them!
And the name of the house is:
Hasta luego!
