Skip to main content

Los holandeses

In Poza de la Sal we went to a tiny tourist office. There we met Sergio for which we are very grateful as he connected us to the Artim festival and to some Dutch people living in the area who are also interested in helping the environment. Some lived in small empty villages as well. 
Nowadays getting into contact is as simple as adding the phone nr and sending a WhatsApp message. So we did. We had contact with Eva which unfortunately was in Holland at that time but connected us with Marjolein and Ruben. They responded enthusiastic and we could visit them for lunch. 
We went on a site seeing tour and did a nice hike from Oña. 
 

 
A bit later than expected but still welcome we arrived at the nice house of Marjolein and Ruben. 
As luck goes they were really friendly and studied water management in Wageningen (Holland). They also had a lot of experience in empty villages and are working in regenerating soil. A perfect match!
We were really looking forward to work together with them on a food forest as they have so much knowledge. 
On the way back we also visited Dorien, which was going to held a book presentation so we could not speak to her long. But it was still nice to visit and see another living example of a Dutch person making a nice living in rural Spain. She also has a nice bed and breakfast so we could return there.
Unfortunately we did not have enough time to contact and visit all Dutch contacts we got but we will keep them for later use.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Never alone in an abandoned village

One might expect that being in an abandoned village will be lonely. But a part from Carlos and all the people who we knew were going to visit us, everyday there were people visiting the village. let's start with the people we knew were going to visit us in order of appearance.   Mirthe, Rick and Vos who came visiting with their camper to find out if they want to live in Bárcena and to help us some days. They are now in the process of preparing to move to Bárcena so it seems that the answer is yes!     Maaike's Brother Teun, his wife Marieke and daughter Sarah , who were there for 2 weeks and took a lot of trips with the kids and cooked for us almost every day! But most important: they really liked being there, so hopefully they will come often when we live there.      As an ultra runner Teun explored the area by running and cycling. For example he explored routes to Lences and found three different ones. Tibor's daughter Fiona , who helped a lot with ...
3 comments
Read more

travelling to Bárcena without a car

Since I was travelling alone to Bárcena for the festival and I don't have a drivers license, I couldn't use a car to go there. Therefor I rented an electrical bike in Burgos.  There are nice bicycle routes in Spain on former train tracks called viasverdes. One of them is Camino: Santander - Mediterranean Railway (Burgos - La Engaña Tunnel) Greenway Nature Trail. https://viasverdes.com/en/itineraries/santander-mediterraneo-burgos-la-enga%C3%B1a/mapa.asp This part of the viasverdes starts close to Burgos and passes close to Bárcena, about 4 kilometers in Arconada. Of course on my way there I didn't take a lot of pictures, but on the way back there will be more. It was a very nice route to Arconada, passing the village we normally pass by car when we drive to Burgos. Since I past Arconada I decided to see if I could find Victor and I did. I met Maria, saw there honey making machine and they offered me lunch! Then after that I had to cycle the last etappe to Bárcena, which was ...
2 comments
Read more

The first week of work

After the transaction we had time to think about what we could do in the village, as now we are the owners. The next option for us to go to Spain was in the autumn holidays. Earlier on we tried to combine it with Spanish classes for the kids, but we couldn’t arrange extra free time from school, so we had to stick to the one week of school vacation. We thought about starting at one of the houses which is in the relative good condition, like getting a door, so we could close it and store stuff there. But we had no electricity or tools as we had no space to keep stuff safe. So we were kind of stuck in a chicken and egg problem. To get out of this we set up a plan to get a container which we could lock. But that would not be there for this vacation. Then Maaike’s parents asked: “Would it be of any use if we were there with some tools to clear away the burrs, bushes and so on?” Of course that would be great! We were happy that they were enthusiastic and by itself there was a plan to do ...
20 comments
Read more