Que te mejores pronto

Get well soon.

As I write, Spain, the UK and the rest of Europe are trying to deal with the Corona virus, COVID-19.

I hope Valencia gets well soon. I hope Spain gets well soon. I hope Europe gets well soon*.

My letting agent tells me that our Romanian tenants are very, very happy with our Valencia apartment. So much so, that they offered to buy it a few weeks ago. My reply was a polite “no”, but it’s good to know that they like where they are. 

With Spain on lockdown, they will need to like where they are. Under state of emergency laws that allow residents to leave their homes for essential trips only, one of them can go to the supermercado or the farmacia. Once a day.

I am concerned for our tenants. The approach that our letting agents adopt is that they are guests to be cared for, who should enjoy our hospitality. I value this approach. I hope they’re OK.

Just to be clear, this is not
The Serra Calderona.

I do what I can to empathise. I picture us (instead of them) in the apartment in these strange days. One person allowed out of the apartment once a day. We didn’t pay for a sea view, or a vista of the Serra Calderona, but the balcony will be precious real estate all the same. We look at apartments and the comings and goings of the streets all around us. For those with an interest in humanity and its daily cycles, there are things of fascination to see at all times of day. Will this be the same with the levels of confinement that everyone is subject to?

The sun comes round to bless our balcony with warmth and light by late morning, and clouds rather than the virus will decide if we enjoy that. With sun at this time of year, it will be warm on the balcony by 1pm. Warm enough for reading, eating and perhaps a siesta.

I know that our tenants have work to occupy them. The broadband was upgraded to accommodate the demands of their profession. The remote IT worker. The “digital nomad”. Have laptop, will travel.

But I know that one of the lifestyle elements that these “digital nomads” yearn for is freedom. Open borders. The option to move whenever the mood takes them. Freedom of movement**.

Now they can’t have it. A microscopic thing that makes people ill has come and smothered their expectations.

I haven’t met our tenants, but I’m going to take an educated guess about how they’re feeling right now:

They felt settled and happy in Spain, in Valencia, and in our apartment, and they wanted to buy a place to stay. But now, they’re not allowed to move around Spain/Europe/the world, and they’ll have an irresistible urge to take flight once again.


“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” 

Pat Conroy

I hope they’re OK.

The Banco de Valencia in the heart of the city.

I miss Valencia very much, and I miss Spain. We had a trip to Palma de Mallorca planned for a few nights from Easter Saturday, which will now be cancelled. In a few weeks time, I would normally be writing a post about the smooth beauty and eclectic style of Palma, and our experiences therein, but now I won’t be. 

There should be a golf trip to Mijas/Fuengirola in late May, but this is now unlikely. ¿A quién le importa? some of you might say!

But mostly I miss Valencia.

So many of my social media feeds are dominated by Valencia, Valencian places and Valencian people, that I can never get away from reminders of how much I want to be there. Las Fallas was halted as it was just getting going. For those not acquainted with Las Fallas, its importance as a festival in the eyes of many Valencians is enormous. To have it abandoned (postponed?) a few days before the March 19^th climax is akin to sitting the kids down on the evening of December 22nd, and telling them that Christmas won't be happening.

The Valencians are all confined in their apartments. They cannot see their friends. The visitors cannot visit. The amazing bars and restaurants are closed, and their owners and staff will have their own challenges to face. Some won’t be able to survive those challenges.

El Micalet from Calle Corretgeria. We will
never take such sights for granted after this.

All the amazing places of great beauty will go unseen for weeks. The amazing sights, ancient and modern, will go unvisited. I saw agonising images of the Policia Local de Valencia enforcing the closure of the Jardin del Turia. Necessary I know, but it’s painful to think of this amazing space going unused.

On our next visit (whenever this may be) we’ll pass restaurants, bars and shops permanently closed. The same might go for attractions and monuments that have gone without income for weeks or months. These places will have been more than places of employment, more than places of business and commerce… and they will be gone, and little bits of the soul of the city may be gone with them.

Nobody is really to blame, but it looks bleak from where I am right now. I have some understanding of how Valencians view life, and how determined they are to live it! This lockdown will be beyond claustrophobia.

The city has suffered before, and now many will have hardship again. I hope they can draw strength from those past experiences.

My most fervent hope is that I can write later in the year about my first hand experiences of how the city and the people are recovering from this.

For now… buena suerte Valencia. Estoy pensando en ti.

*That’s geographical Europe.

**Don’t start me on that one.