English

Now that we have put the changeable weather behind us and my sisters are still here for a few weeks before they have to go back to Switzerland again, it is high time to prepare the garden for summer. With the little money we have left from the winter season in Switzerland, we take stock. What do we really need and what can wait? A new coffee maker? The suitcase racks…

I was eighteen when I went abroad by myself for the first time. I had just completed high school and my mother, who also comes from a family that loves to travel, encouraged my sisters and me to travel for a year before we would start college. That I got (somewhat) fluent in English, and not Spanish, after an eight-week language course in Barcelona, didn’t matter.

Vall de Gallinera, the municipality to which Benialí belongs, has approximately 585 inhabitants spread out over eight villages. With a percentage of 52%, there are slightly more men living here than women. At 58%, the age category 18-64 years is the largest, whereat the average age is 52 years. As in the rest of the province of Alicante (78%)…

“How exactly did you end up here?” It is a question we are asked regularly. By both the Dutch and the Spanish. Justifiably. Because Vall de Gallinera does not yet enjoy the fame it deserves. It’s a shame. Because when we first visited Benialí (the village we now lovingly call home) a few years ago, we were immediately sold. Not much later, our dream house was too. To us, that is.