Further afield, in May 2016, we had a day out exploring Cadiz and its splendid cathedral. The cathedral is very close to the Atlantic sea wall and the vault is below sea level. One highlight of the cathedral not to be missed is the clamber up the tower steps (included in the ticket price) to see over the rooftops of the oldest part of Cadiz. Just watch out for the bells which are incredibly load if you happen to be standing close on the hour!
Another day out took us to the long and relatively unspoilt beach at Bolonia. As well as the beach there is an enormous sand dune to scale at the north end. However, don’t get too adventurous with any hiking plans here. We headed up the cliffs, into a wooded area and ended up on an army base not marked on the map! We just wandered along a track to be met by a security detail who were as surprised as we were. Our lack of Spanish didn’t leave us well prepared for this encounter so we mashed up Spanish, sign language and pointing to try to explain our presence. They were puzzled as to how we climbed over their very high perimeter fence. The fact was we didn’t, the fence only runs close to the road and does not reach the coastline where we had wandered blissfully unaware. We were kindly escorted off the base, outside the gates and as far as a clear footpath back down to the beach.
If you fancy a bit of culture you can visit the extensive Roman ruins of Baelo Claudia just a few yards above the beach.
As always there were things that needed sorting! I’d drafted a Spanish will Carmen with our local English-speaking solicitor in Vejer and she took me to the Notary’ office to get it formalised and logged. It makes sense to have a Spanish will to cover your assets in Spain if you are thinking of buying a property there as their inheritance laws are very different from those in the UK!
We also replaced the oven, which was playing up, as part of preparing for our first paying guests who were due to arrive mid-June. Beyond this, we were already booked up from
early July to late September so a promising first rental season.