Spain week four, day one

Saturday May 17th 2008

Hacienda, Villamartin, Spain

A couple of days of poor developments back home have resulted in Linda having to return to the UK. So I have wrapped up the end of our run at the Moorish farmhouse on my own. Luckily our friend Ellie is coming out for next week when we have four other guests. Things would certainly be much harder if Ellie wasn't with me to help.

Last photo of the Moorish farmhouse at 7:30 this morning - already looking forward to going back again.

All packed up and ready to depart. Among other things, the car was loaded down with a complete food shop

It would be fair to say that today has been quite an experience all round. My own journey was fine and I arrived at the hacienda at lunchtime, meeting the owner, Angel, exactly on schedule. And on first go round, I was actually really pleased. Every query we had left over from our visit last year turned out to be no problem. And the house even looks better than I remember it.

Fields near Granada - the first poppies I've seen this year

Ellie rang just after lunch to say she had only just got her car sorted out but was on her way. She made it by about 2:30 after a couple of hairy moments and then agreed to drive off and get one of guests from a local train station. While she was gone, Kate arrived, our first American guest, coming in from Germany where she lives (Heidelberg to be exact, one of our favourite cities). She has recently discovered she is pregnant so I have been checking the details of my class plans to ensure that I have the correct modifications for her.

Ellie arrived with our next guest, another Jonathan just to be confusing, after what was apparently quite an adventure of their own. And then a number of further mishaps seemed to start. Firstly Kate couldn't get any hot water in her shower but this truned out to be just that it hadn't run long enough to get hot. Then, as we started to prepare dinner, we lost all power in the kitchen. The local housekeeper, who speaks no English, had to phone Angel till we finally discovered that we had tripped a fuse somehow.

And as time passed during the evening there was no sign of Nicky and Luigina, our two other guests. Finally we had to eat and soon after we'd started, we got a text to say they were at Seville airport and sorting out their car. A while later they called so say they were a little bit lost and could we help. Actually it is really difficult to find the driveway for the hacienda in the dark. So Elle and I went down to find them in the nearby twon of Villamartin. This went quite well and we finally had our full group around midnight. So our opening things have been been delayed an hour tomorrow so everyone can get a good night's sleep.