I think that the life in general in this european country, Spain, is one of the cheapest in whole of Europe, from the financial point of view! How it stayed this way over the years...? after the 'modernization' of this land following the creation of the European Union? I don't know, probably for the fact that the working people's wages remained low, if any, the prices went up on most commodities with people taking advantage of the exchange rate from Pesetas to Euros.

For this reason - that is afordability of everyting including Real Estate - compared to other countries, especially western european, there was an influx of capital coming to Spain, big money being spent on properties, especially along the coast. No wonder there, Spain coast have seen an unprecedented growth in Real Estate to the point of becoming known of being overdone... today there is a overcrowding of properties, skyscrapers, highrises, pretty houses of every shape and description adorn the entire coast line all the way from France to Portugal and beyond... well over 1000 kilometers!

It is safe the say that the municipalities, in their neverending thirst for money, have approved developments that in places look ridiculous...! You drive south from Barcelona, that is from Costa Brava towards Costa Blanca on 'Autovia del Mediteraneo' excellent (and expensive) highway and you see in the distance, on the side of a hill, a large neighborhood of houses built, covering the whole visible hill side; the only advantages that I can see is that the people that bought in that area have a good view of the land bellow, with the highway and the sea in the distance. It trully puzzled me as to why some people will spend money buying a house on a hill, completelly isolated from any city, also a few good kilometers away from the sea, or a beach, or enything resembling fun... But, they go back to their home and friends, wherever they come from, Spain or abroad, and tell their friends that they have a house on the beach in Spain...?!?

Yeah, no kidding! Another good example of the concrete jungle that most of this lovely Coast have become is Benidorm, a city near Alicante, in Valencia province, just about in the middle of the Coast. It is really surprising what the developers have done to this place; it will soon look like New York or some other overcrowded city... Tens of buildings that probably have 50 to 100 floors... I would not live in that jungle if they will give me a property for free... And I am not a country boy, I was born and I lived all my life in cities with over 2 million people... it's convenient, all facilities near by, but when you go in holiday you want the same thing...? I don't think so my friend! You go on holiday to relax, to slow down, to have some fun... different from the big city fun!

Yet, in all this jungle of concrete that I see along this stretch of highway... we feel good, we am on holiday, the road is excelent, I am driving at approx. 160 km speed but the Mercedes and accasional Porsche cars are flying by like I am standing still... don't dear to drive on the passing line, at least not for other reason than passing. OK, we reached Cosat Blanca after about 4 hours drive. At this time, a good idea - if you have the time - would be to get off the highway towards the sea and take a smaller local road, autovia N332, that runs talong the whole coast and continue to drive south. We drive trough Alicante, a lovely city with a very nice promenade to the sea, towards Cartagena, another ancient city which is at the end of Costa Blanca.

Along this coast... is where my heart is living...! There are several areas, patches of land that have been declared as natural habitat protected areas by the World Health Org. (WHO) that Spain through the European Union must comply to, no constuction permited, decision which, I am sure, gave heart attack to a lot of developers. There are several salt lakes along the coast that end up with the largest salt lake in Europe Mar Menor, one of the best places on this Earth to take mud baths for your artritis and cures for several other ailments. This is the area on this planet where you live longer... the air we breed, the 'organic' food you can buy from local farmers coming to street markets... let's face it, we all get older and come to appreciate the quality of life that you can live here, especially coming from this poluted world of city life.

I think we reached the end of our trip... I wouldn't want to go further, if you can afford to come here a few times, get used to the area... you feel like you are coming home...! One more thing that is quite remarcable of this land, in my opinion... the Spanish people... the friendliest people I ever met on this planet, and I traveled quite a bit to know the difference. Deceptivelly simple people, they don't mind that you don't know the language, they will smile and give you the directions for your question, explaining to you for several minutes in Spanish, forgeting that you don't understand... is really funny... you don't know how to make them shut up just sit there smiling! It all ends up with a smile just say 'gracias, yo comprende' or something like that and you can see on their face that they are happy because they could help you...!

Well, I hope to meet you there, I think you will agree...