Alfredo once lived in Bárcena

Finally, it's vacation time again. We're going to Briviesca for a week, a village about half an hour's drive from Bárcena. Our first appointment for renting a house in Lences is rescheduled, but the second appointment with former resident Alfredo is still on.

Just before eleven o'clock, we drive to our village, followed by a small car behind us all the way to Bárcena. Five people get out of the car: an elderly couple, two middle-aged individuals, and one younger person. The man turns out to be Alfredo, the 85-year-old former resident who wants to sell his property. Together with his wife and two daughters and his grandson.

He has four ruins and a piece of land, the latter of which nicely connects to our village. We all walk through the village together as he points out and explains things. He indicates where the school used to be, but his wife interrupts him, saying no, it was over there. He's also still upset that money once collected to connect the village to the electricity network, suddenly was gone. He was 25 years old when he married his wife and left due to the lack of electricity.

He also shows us his fruit trees bearing sweet plums and almonds. One of his houses has a beehive that yields 20 kilos of honey per year. As we were walking around, some tourists also passed by. Thanks to the nice weather, everyone started conversations, making the village lively and cheerful for a while.

Afterward, we went in search of the water well. According to Alfredo, it should be somewhere in the bushes. After searching for a while, we couldn't find it, so that will be a project for the future.

After this enjoyable walk, we went to Lences where they are currently staying. There, we finalized the deal and were given cookies and a jar of Bárcena honey. Before we left, they showed us a shorter route to Briviesca. This shows how important local contacts can be. We had a really nice day.

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The first week of work

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Todo

We are looking forward to our next vacation in August. We have a substantial list of things we can do and are now busy preparing everything for it. We have made a list of all the things we need to prepare based on this list of things we want to do: WC/shower hut - an outdoor space made of clay and stone as a toilet and shower Creating paths - many walking paths are difficult to traverse and need to be cleared Building a clay wall - to practice, we want to build a clay wall Building a stone wall - to practice, we want to build a stone wall Making stairs - there needs to be a staircase to get from the container to the romantic forest Planting trees - there are 120 Paulownia trees that need to be planted Connecting solar panels - we want to have 10 solar panels on the container and another 8 by our house Building a room - in the main house and our house, we can build a room Making an outdoor kitchen - along the container, an outdoor kitchen needs to be made Clearing stones ...

Never alone in an abandoned village

One might expect that being in an abandoned village will be lonely. But a part from Carlos and all the people who we knew were going to visit us, everyday there were people visiting the village. let's start with the people we knew were going to visit us in order of appearance. Mirthe, Rick and Vos who came visiting with their camper to find out if they want to live in Bárcena and to help us some days. They are now in the process of preparing to move to Bárcena so it seems that the answer is yes! Maaike's Brother Teun, his wife Marieke and daughter Sarah , who were there for 2 weeks and took a lot of trips with the kids and cooked for us almost every day! But most important: they really liked being there, so hopefully they will come often when we live there. As an ultra runner Teun explored the area by running and cycling. For example he explored routes to Lences and found three different ones. Tibor's daughter Fiona , who helped a lot with ...

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