Spanish Shilling

Madrid, like Barcelona and Valencia, has adopted la gentrificacíon, urban renovation where the rents go up, the old joints are closed down or turned into vanity or impulse stores in a system known to Spanish economists as Premium Mediocre – that’s to say, cheaply expensive.

It sounds swell, looks good and costs a little more, whether it’s a Starbucks coffee, bubble coffee, choosing Uber over a taxi, a bottle of designer water, food that photographs better than it tastes, dragon fruit, stores with boiled pick and mix sweets sold by weight or Pistachio chocolate from Dubai… and of course voting Partido Popular (it used to be supporting Ciudadanos, eating mangoes and putting watercress in sandwiches).  

My little romantic village of Mojácar has chosen a similar route, with the beach-bars now demolished and re-built in brick, bicycle lanes along the side of the beach-road, children's playgrounds (also invariably located on the beach), and an artful number of parades, fiestas and celebrations to attract the visitors. If this all means that the rents have gone up, well so be it!