Where We Live in Spain . . .

In Spain, we live in a townhouse in a little village called El Algar. The very small neighborhood where we live is a combination of nice townhouses and lower income apartments. It's a very quiet neighborhood. There is a neighborhood elementary school about a block away, and a playground area right next door. There is a gated pool right outside our lower patio, but it has been too cold to swim. The neighborhood has a lot of English-speaking expat types who live in or rent the townhouses. But on the surrounding streets and blocks, there are locals who walk their kids to school and play basketball, very few of whom speak English.

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Although we have found the neighborhood to be very quiet (except for the rooster that crows from 4am to 10am every day, and one baying hound), security gates, grilles, locks, walls, etc., are everywhere. There are bars/grilles on all our windows and doors--every one including bathrooms--and there are locks or padlocks on all the grills and gates. And this applies to all windows and doors we have seen as we walk or drive through the town. In addition to the grilles, we also have metal security screens that pull down and cover all the windows, which we are encouraged to utilize at night or when we are not home. They are very cool. They pull down very easily with a little webbed strap that is beside each window, and they pull up the same way. The only drawback is that the house stays dark after sunrise and we sleep too late (no more alarm clocks unless we have a train to catch)!

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