Sunday 26 May 2013

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE COSTA DEL SOL.. Part Two..

Norty Blogspot cuts ME off in the middle of Posts and there is nothing WE can do! 

So let's go back to the sunny climes of Andalusia and the funny but extremely nice folk whom SHE knew and counted as friends.

One couple of friends were beyond any price and they lived in the strangest house YOU could ever imagine! Well, actually, SHE knows YOU would never be able to imagine their house! 

Carla Harvey and Del Bland were two of the funniest, kindest people YOU would ever want to meet and be friends with.

Carla was an American, scarily well educated with a remarkable brain, she had come to Europe on a Scholarship, fallen in love and never went back. She was a journalist and also taught at The International School.

Del was English and an 'ace' photographer. Sadly, Carla died many years ago and Del has vanished, last known to be living near Granada.

Back to olden times.. in the late 40's, a Swedish 
family had built a home just outside Marbella, the house is long gone, gobbled up by a development. But it was situated on the opposite side of the road to where the Don Pepe Hotel still stands. 

The whole of Spain suffered greatly during the Civil War but Andalusia had always been poor and, of course, the war in Europe had only been over for a very few years. 

Tourism was not the same then, there were no cheap flights with budget airlines or masses of hotels. And cars? YOU might see one a week. 

So to cross a quiet road to get to the beach was no problem and neither was it a problem to build a proper sauna on the edge of this beautiful sandy beach! YOU got out of the sauna and jumped into the sea! 

Fast forward to the 70's and this is where HER lovely friends lived, in the old Sauna house on the beach.

They rented it for fifty pesetas a month! In those days, a San Miguel beer used to cost thirty five in a bar! Why was it so cheap?

Well, the son of the original family still owned the land on which his father had built the sauna and he knew that 'one' day, someone would pay him very 'serious' money for this plot of land but until then, he was happy for Carla and Del to live there on a lease which was renewed every five years. 

There was a bedroom, a kitchen with a huge fireplace, a bathroom and an outdoor living area, half of which had a roof and walls that folded back, half of which was open to the air and sun.

That was one lot of lovely friends SHE had.

Another were a Danish family called Wessel. Hugo Wessel was previously been married to 
Nina, who then married Frederick, do YOU remember the singers called Nina and Frederick?

He was now married to a lovely woman called Tove and they had a son called Mark. Hugo came 
to live in Andalusia a long time before, probably in the late 50's.. here is a sweet story. 

He did not know why people saluted him when he drove past, until a friend of his in the Guardia Civil explained that his car, which was a Ford, was probably the reason.. "strange, why should they salute a car", said Hugo, the Guardia explained "No, they are not saluting the car, it is because they think you are a Consul, it is written on the front of your car!"

Blogspot is going to cut ME off.. I am off, there will be Part Three later.

GeeGee Parrot.
May 26th, 2013.

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