Officially needing more Spain
Just like Jen, I too left my heart in Dénia last week.
The past week was more than just a vacation, it was a scouting trip. For the first few days we scoured towns in the Valcencia region of Spain, with the aim of appreciating the area more and establishing whether Dénia is indeed the place for us to plan a future home.
Once you get yourself right inside a typical Spanish rural town, they all pretty much look the same: narrow streets, tall town houses, clusters of cafés and bars. Understanding the character of a Spanish town lies beneath its architecture, hidden in less tangible impressions.
In and around Dénia
Having fallen for Dénia on our first visit in October 2008, we were driven to return to confirm that our immediate attachment was not simply the result of holiday sun, sea and sangria. Gladly, our initial feelings for the town had not changed, and returning felt very comfortable.
Dénia is not one of the cheapest locations to buy property on the Costa Blanca, so with similar properties apparently up to tens of thousands of Euros cheaper in surrounding inland town, we felt the need to explore those options.
Few towns stood out to us as possible places for relocation. Travelling south, one heads closer to the Costa Del Sol and the land of the great British ex-pat invasion. This is tourist land at its most intensively exploited, which begins to become clearly apparent at Calpe, then degrades rapidly into the monstrous Benidorm – which, we read this week, has recently received approval for a further 22 skyscrapers and 4,000 new homes.
There are great locations still further south in the regions of Murcia and Andalucia, but something continues to draw us back to the Costa Blanca and the borders of the Alicante and Valencia provinces.
Inland from Dénia lies Pego, a town that promised cheaper properties. But it seems to struggle with establishing a distinct personality, being a town that feels its only reason to exist is as somewhere to live. It’s not that we feel the need for attractions or other trappings, but a sense of identity and purpose greatly enlivens a town.
Other towns, more and less rural passed us by, most in being a little too rural and remote for our tastes. Living more than about an hour from an airport with direct flights to London is less attractive when considering our future career plans and hopes.
Looking over Xátiva
Xátiva, on the other hand, stood out. The town is directly overlooked by a steep hill on which is perched one of the most extensively preserved castles we have yet seen on our travels. The town at first appeared like any other Spanish town, but driving around we became aware of a distinct identity. There was something a subtly different about the architecture and layout and gave us the feeling of a lingering Moorish influence, something that has become diluted with many more tourist orientated towns.
Back to base
After many miles had passed under our wheels, we returned to Dénia and the assurance that despite the added expense, this was to be our target. Dénia most certainly has a distinct personality, if a split one.
To the north of the town lies the seemingly endless beach and the expected tourist area. Here, hotels, apartment blocks and beach-side restaurants cater for the fleeting sun-seekers. Building regulations enforce a limited number of floors on these blocks, resulting a much more pleasant experience than Benidorm, for example.
The north section of the central town itself is the most traditionally Spanish, with older town houses and small squares reached via narrow passages and streets. Nearer the port, buildings become more modern, with apartment blocks and and the main shopping high street.
Dénia’s port services the needs of fishermen – it’s regular fish market is well known, if, in our experience, a little on the expensive side – and is a ferry terminal for sea access to the Balearic Islands such as Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca.
To the south-west sits the mountain of Montgó, the foothills of which have become the main villa style residential area. Here a tangle of small roads lead to all manner of properties from small, simple holiday homes, to extensive, multi-bedroom villas with surrounding land. Some have simple gardens, while others small orange groves. Most, of course, have pools.
Back home
The holiday over, it is time for action, our hearts remain most certainly in Dénia: the character of the town, its lively and energetic centre, but peaceful, secluded residential suburbs, a mountain at its back, and an ocean at its front. All these feel right for us, as does the vastly improved quality of life available in such a place. (I even prefer driving out there compared to the UK.)
It will likely take us a couple of years to achieve, but we are setting out with purpose and the promise of a great adventure ahead, one that more than compensates for the hard graft ahead.
Expect me (and Jen) to write more about Dénia and Spain as we learn the language, understand more of the country, and work towards a home in another country, between a mountain and the sea.
