Why so tolerant of noise

I am fortunate enough to live in one of those dreamy white Spanish villages that inspire wishful thinking. My idyllic location is blighted by only one thing; noise. It is ear-splitting and incessant.  Zombies on off road bikes constantly race flat out along streets the width of a driveway; each time they do so it is like having a road drill rammed down your ear.

And dogs; a neighbour has five dogs; try speaking or even thinking when they are (often) in full voice. It doesn’t seem to bother our Spanish neighbours at all. At what stage do Spaniards become intolerant? Why are motorcyclists immune from police checks and balances? Perhaps if one of the brain-dead was to hit a dog or two both problems would be solved in one hit.

I know what you mean.  I stayed at a friend's house in a lovely white village above Malaga for two weeks and we had cockerels and horses on top of the scooters and the dogs - but the worst one was the binman who drove a tractor with an unsilenced engine and emptied the bins under my window at 6am every morning.  I decided then that I would never live on a main road in a Spanish village!

I have recently moved to the lovely little village of Torremendo and am out of the way of the bins, however the local kids do love their scooters and motor bikes!  After a few months you do get used to it and I'm just glad there are kids in the village to keep the place alive!

I know EXACTLY what you mean.  The mopeds with their crazy exhausts send a shiver down my spine.  The local drunk shouting at 4 in the morning.  The young kids doing their "botellon" around the corner at 2 in the morning.

No one...and I mean NO ONE has ever complained....only me!  The Spanish seem totally oblivious to it all.  It just doesn't seem to bother them whatsoever.

We have recently moved out of our local village and it is now much quieter but these idylic sleepy whitewashed villages....they hide a very noisy secret.

Justin

It's always very difficult when commenting on the habits of other nationalities and when I see the gross bodies and poor dress sense of many Brits in Spain, I often wonder quite what the Spanish must think of us, certainly I don't wish to be associated with the beer bellies and swaggering behaviour of many Brits I see wherever I go.  However, noise is one of our major issues.  I agree with everything you say Mike. although the noisy motorbikes are fairly rare here, when they do turn up they hurtle through the village at huge speeds, aparently with total immunity from the police.  The biggest problem though is the dogs barking.  We bought our apartment because of the peaceful outlook, but in the last couple of years a Spanish smallholder has set up out the back and has at least five dogs and a Cockerel in his menagerie.  The Cockerel is normal in an agricultural environment and I guess 04.00 wake up calls just have to be born with fortitude, but the dogs!!  4 of them are permanently chained up on 2 metre leashes to their kennels in the worst of the sunshine.  They are rarely if ever exercised and yap at every opportunity, sometimes all night.  They are much nearer the smallholding house than us, so the noise must be far more intense over there, but the Spanish seem impervoius to noise.

M.

Great empathy here; thanks...   I was expecting a ‘why don’t you p*** off back to England....’ response but this is of course, the Eye, which is far too intelligent and civil for that. Okay, Plan B   ....   a thrown net? Only joking. Have a good day with plenty of peace and quiet; up in the high sierra hey! 

"dog deterrent devices"

More info please; we need it!

Yes there was a thread on all devices for dogs, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it came under.  It had all sorts of gadgets on it some quite good. Some pricey but maybe worth it.

Patricia 

Great empathy here; thanks...   I was expecting a ‘why don’t you p*** off back to England....’

Wouldn't do any good, its the same in the UK

 When the dogs bark across the road, most of us shout something like "keep that flipping dog quiet" and she takes them in.  Well, words to that effect.  Unfortunately she puts them out again the next day and the shouts start again.

Mopeds.  Fortunately not a problem where I am now but my previous place seemed to have them al lthe time.  I did think of stringing piano wire across the road at a height of about 3ft 6ins but couldn't find any piano wire.

Karaoke:  Why do people, especially young girls, think they can sing when they have a couple of alcopops inside them?  Note: You can't.  The cheers and shouts of encouragement when you finish is because everyone thinks you've finished, it's not carte blanche to continue.  Again, fortunately, they all stop around us at midnight but, even though the nearest karaoke pub is over 2 miles away, it seems to echo and bounce off the walls until then.  Maybe a "karaoke tax" would shut them up a bit.  

We don't seem to have the young Spaniards boozing it up at 2 or 3 in the morning.  What we do get are drunken holidaymakers who think it great to scream and shout in the swimming pools at that time even though the sign says "Adult quiet time only 2200-2300, then pool is closed".  Fortunately we don't live right next to the pool and I feel sorry for those that do but it only lasts for 2 months out of the year.

Fireworks, however, go on day in day out (or should that be night in night out) throughout the year.  Do they really have to celebrate their birthday/anniversary/new job/marriage or whatever at 3 in the morning?  Oh for some rain!