Saving Time . .

Saving some time in Altea . . .

Ok, I already wrote about “Living on Spanish Time”, but I realized yesterday exactly how well I had adjusted to the relaxed pace of life here is El Campello.

The owner of the apartment kindly offered to let us use their Post Box to get a package that was left in Grenada by accident, and since she was in El Campello yesterday, she offered to deliver the package to us. We had plans to go by tram to visit Altea, another pleasant little seaside town along the coast, so we said we would wait for her to come and then leave. So long as we arrived in Altea before they took “Siesta” we would be Ok. We had been warned by a Scottish couple we met that everything closed in Altea at 2:00. They highly recommended visiting the town, but were very disappointed with the number of shops that were closed when they got there. No problem, our schedule was flexible and we could go any time. We went out for a walk before breakfast so we would be here when she arrived with the package. However she was very early and rang the bell just as we were starting breakfast. We were happy to get the package and discussed plans to visit their village on Thursday with them.

We had the times all planned out to get to the train station in time to catch one train that would get us to the first stop with only a short wait for the second train, but when we arrived at the station, purchased tickets and sat on the platform to wait, we discovered that the time on the station clock was 10:50 not 9:50.

What was going on . . . . . .?

Did the time change here . . . . . . .?

When . . . . .?

How long had we been operating on the wrong time . . . . . .?

I changed my watch, and we caught the train, and made all the connections, arriving in Altea with no problem. As we usually do, we stopped in the local Tourist information booth to get a map of the town and to ask for advice of what to see. I noticed a local English newspaper that was free, so I picked it up. There on the front page was a notice - “Don't forget to set your clocks ahead on Sunday Morning!”

It was Tuesday; we had gone two days without noticing that the time had changed. Now it did answer the question of why the waiter seemed to be hurrying us out of the restaurant on Sunday evening. We had gone for dinner at 9:00 not 8:00 and he was ready to close up by 11:00. That also sheds some light on why the workers downstairs were working so late on Sunday night. Now on Monday, when we took the tram to Alicante, we never even noticed it. I didn't wear my watch, and we weren't even thinking of the time. We got up, ate, and took the tram to Alicante when we were ready, returning on the same flexible schedule. Nothing gave us any indication that we were operating one whole hour out of sync with the rest of the world.

I do not know if it is a good or bad thing when you are so much into Vacation/Retired time that you do not notice a time change for two days, but we seem to have survived it. I do not know how I am going to deal with the hectic schedule when we get home . . . . . . . .