Christmas Abroad in a Motorhome

I’m pretty sure that nearly everyone reading this had a very different Christmas this year, not being able to travel to where they want to be or unable spend it with who they want. For us 2020 was our fourth Christmas abroad in a motorhome, but our first in Spain. In our first two years of travel we spent Christmas in Portugal and Sicily, then a few years ago we had another Christmas in Portugal. Each of these was very different to spending Christmas at home, but still very memorable (well apart for Christmas Eve in Sicily as it was a bit wiped from memory due to alcohol!).

We arrived back in Spain on the 21st December, and it took a couple of trips to the supermarket on foot and one on our bikes (for cold stuff) to get Zagan stocked back up with food. With the local Lidl shut for a refurbishment (nooooooo!), we’ve been shopping at Mercadona, so there were no ‘pigs in blankets’ for us, instead we had dates wrapped in bacon which, dare I say, are possibly even better!

As well as food shopping, the days leading up to Christmas were spent unwinding from the stress of our journey to get here, we took advantage of warm days to do plenty of walking and and some running. Looking out at the sea, skimming stones and sitting outside in the sunshine melted away all the tightness in our shoulders and soon we were back to sleeping like logs.

Conscious that we had arrived from the UK just before the borders closed again, even though we had a negative covid test before we flew, we’ve kept to ourselves. It’s really easy to do here as the town is so quiet.

We walked into the town centre as the sun set on Christmas Eve so we could see the lights. Many of the hotels and restaurants are closed due to a lack of customers, but there are still plenty of places to eat and drink which are allowed to be open until 6pm each day; we have to keep reminding ourselves that it’s takeaways only at home. On Christmas Eve hospitality venues still had to close at 6pm, but could then reopen at 8pm for a couple of hours. It seemed strange when we first heard about it, but seeing people walking home at 6pm it kind of made sense as it deterred those who had been eating in the afternoon from carrying on into the evening. We arrived in town just after 6pm to a bit of a ghost town, but one that was ready to burst back into life at any moment.

On Christmas morning we woke to a lovely sunny day, so popped on our walking boots and headed up into the nearby pueblo blanco of Frigiliana. When we got there I was a surprised to see the restaurants were open, I guess some should have been open at home too but sadly it hasn’t happened this year. We stopped for a coffee and hot chocolate in a cafe by the main square, as a woman on a nearby table serenaded us all with a rendition of ‘feliz navidad‘ (the song was 50 years old this year!).

After video calling our families from a viewpoint overlooking the terracotta topped white houses of Frigiliana and their beautiful view down across avocado plantations towards the glittering sea, we set off back to the campsite. As we turned off a dirt trail onto the road something long, thin and black wiggled across the tarmac – SNAKE!!! We both saw it slither off into the cover provided by the foliage on the roadside verge, we didn’t get a photo to identify it, but needless to say we didn’t hang around very long for a better look.

On Christmas Eve fellow campsiters Tracey and Andy asked if we had any plans for Christmas dinner, unsurprisingly we didn’t as we weren’t sure we’d even be on the campsite and when we did make it, we weren’t sure folks would want to mingle with us. They kindly invited us to join them and after going over all the guilt of gathering when folks at home can’t, and thinking ‘what would Chris Whitty do?’ we decided to accept. We were so glad we did because not only were we treated to a slap up dinner of roast duck, with roast carrots and potatoes as well as peas and port gravy, which was delicious, I think the best part was that it all felt so normal, very un2020! In Andalusia the rules allow up to 10 people to gather in their homes for Christmas dinner, and once we’d got over the edginess of being sat around a table with them sharing a meal it was simply lovely.

We’ve been in Nerja for a week now and our thoughts are turning to our plans for 2021 (which will no doubt get changed, but that’s what plans are for). We’ve just booked a ferry back to the UK for March, as they are starting to fill up with everyone going home after their allotted 90 days in the Schengen area. We’ve looked into visas for staying longer but have decided to head home, adhering to the 90 in 180 rule in 2021 while everything is still up in the air – perhaps we’ll get a visa and stay out for a year another time, that’s the beauty of our lives, we have so many options.

Ju x