Casa el Jardin

L’Alfaz del Pi, home of the free?, home of the Spaniards, quite a few Norwegians, and, lo and behold, for the next two weeks, me! The shuttle bus that I had booked from home, awaited me and my companion for the first week, right outside the customs, and took us, and on this occasion no others, to our designated bus stop…and left us there. By this time daylight was quickly fading, but through a combination of my friend’s map reading skills, a kind, Spanish man with a dog named Matt and an 11 year old son with the beautiful name of Marcello, my intuition and quite a bit of luck, we soon found ourselves outside the “pearly gates” of Case del Jardin.

“Pearly gates” is not casually used here, as upon setting foot inside both the garden and the house, we felt we had been admitted into a small corner of Heaven.  The Jardin lived up to its name, with an abundance of trees and plants, at home only found as tiny indoor versions or in botanical greenhouses; Palms of different kinds and sizes, succulents, cactuses, purple bougainvilleas decorating fences and framing entrances, hibiscus trees full of intensely red flowers, lemon- and orange trees, with fruits literally ready for the picking, and a several hundred years old Carob, or St. John’s bread tree.  And in this garden of Eden, on all sides of the house, a great selection of terraces and seating areas, a hammock, a pool, a fountain, a view over the mountains, and, if you stand on top the garden table facing the pool, even over the ocean.

As we aw’ed and wow’ed over it all, we fumbled with the keys in the dark for a while, and entered the Casa. Which was spacious and cozy at the same time. Homely, simply, yet elegantly furnished and decorated, the house welcomed us, manifold exceeding our expectations. And as we started “installing” ourselves, and finding our way around the house, we soon discovered that much care must have gone into planning it all. Everything, from kitchen equipment to wireless was in place and working. Electricity sockets were where you needed them, and even the wine opener was easy to find, when we after a long journey and some hectic grocery shopping, were ready to put our feet up, dig into bread, local cheese, ham and olives and, having in the supermarket tryed to avoid anything Norwegian, Scottish salmon.

We sat down, ate, drank, looked at each other. And smiled. Amazed at our good fortune, amazed at the generous people having lent us this jewel. And then we slept, the smile, I am sure, probably still on our lips.