It has been a while since our last update. There’s a reason for that; very little has been happening. We’re still here, still haven’t gotten the plague knocks forehead, still in Valencia.

Since Christmas things got very bad in Spain and the whole country has been all but locked down, including “perimetral lockdowns,” meaning the provinces’ borders are closed. What this means is we haven’t been doing much exploring. Valencia has done particularly well but now the UK variant is becoming dominant and the case numbers are starting to rise again. They’re trying to keep everything buttoned down beyond Easter (another big family event here) so we continue with a 6 PM curfew for bars & restaurants and 10 PM curfew for everything else.

Interestingly, the Spanish government has begun allowing German and UK tourists into the country even though the lockdowns are still in force, to the chagrin of the provincial governments. This is because the provinces are in control of their own Covid protocols but EU tourism is managed by the central government and dictated by agreements in place with the EU itself. See? Screwed up government isn’t unique to the States. The French are required to provide proof of a negative PCR test before they can drive across the frontier too.

On top of that, we’ve been having fun navigating the bureaucracy to get and renew our residency cards, which fun has been compounded by Covid and Brexit. Covid means the necessary government bureaus aren’t at full strength and Brexit means there’s a bunch of British expats who suddenly have needed to get their papers sorted at the same time as us. It’s an ongoing slog of fighting to get appointments and visiting government buildings all over the city. In one case we paid a bunch of cash to a lawyer who then found a way (*ahem*) to get us a critically needed appointment.

On top of THAT, I’ve been working on acquiring a Spanish driver’s license. This is not a straight one-for-one exchange for your US license, oh no. I had to take the written test (twice) and have had handful of lessons to work toward my actual driving test, which is scheduled for early April, next week as I write this. This process has been slowed by our difficulties getting our residency cards, because I couldn’t schedule myself to take the written test without card in hand.

On top of THOSE, we just moved to a new apartment. We took the keys at the beginning of March and moved our stuff a duffel bag load at a time from the old flat which is a ten minute walk away. While the new flat is furnished, I spent several days on hands and knees putting together IKEA furniture for dressers, desks etc. That’ll make ya feel old, let me tell you. We have three bedrooms, one of which I’ve turned into an office / practice room, one of which has a double bed waiting for guests to arrive.

The new place is next to the Central Market, containing over 8000 sq. m of fresh and prepared food, wine, crafts and goodies. It’s an amazing place that will take us a long time to fully explore. It’s like Pike Place Market’s wildest dreams.

Behold the photos:

The living/dining room, and a hint of the french doors opening onto the plaza

Galley kitchen. Next to the table in the distance is the washing machine

The plaza outside the windows. The pop-up tents for diners follow the plaza to the Central Market

The rest of the front view. More of the market is in the giant gray building behind the brick one.

The other street on our corner spot. Looming in the distance is the Miguelete, which we could also see (and hear, as it chimed the hours) from our old flat

An example of the goodies that can be found at the market. So good and so fresh.

We bought bicycles! Our new apartment comes with garage space and while we aren’t especially eager to get a car yet it does give us a place to put bikes and we’re taking advantage of it. Cindy’s bike is a city cruiser; mine is a low-tech hybrid bike (seven speeds on the rear derailleur and a single sprocket up front) that I haven’t taken possession of yet. We’re looking forward to getting out to explore some of the wider spaces.

Looking at the vaccine situation here vs. in the US, we’re thinking we might fly home in May / June to get our jabs. We can’t even get an estimate of how long it’ll be for us here; they are distributing vaccines through the national health service and as expats with private insurance we figure we’re at the end of the priority list, meaning probably next fall. The provinces here are doing the best they can but they still haven’t vaccinated all of the over-80s and are limited mostly by the amount of vaccine they can get through the EU. It looks a lot more likely that we could get jabs in spring / summer back home. That plus the fact that we haven’t seen the kids in a year makes the pull home pretty strong.

Hints of spring are in the air:

Hope you’re all staying strong and healthy and at least some of you are getting some vaccine in your arms.