SWAP Motorhome Life For Abandoned Spanish Village?

Рет қаралды 1,272

3 ай бұрын

In this week's van life video we visit 3 very different Spanish villages, Estrada, a traditional village with little to no tourism, Ainsa, one of Aragon's leading tourist attractions and Janovas, an abandoned village that's trying to bring itself back to life. But could we give up van life to live in a derelicts village with a population of 3?
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Live, Love & Explore the world...We are Alison & Darren. A married couple who sold everything to buy a Motorhome and see the world. Join us as we attempt to see as much of the world as we can and along the way experience local cultures, find natural locations to swim, hike up the odd mountain and explore the local towns and villages, all while living full time in our motorhome Percie with our 2 cats and 2 dogs.
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Пікірлер: 30

@martinoryan6582 2 ай бұрын

It's absolutely gorgeous going to different places you think you are the first person to see them. Thank you for taking us along. 🤟👍

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

We're so glad that you get it. These places really do hold something special when you visit them. Although we may just be easily captivated. 🤣 It's a pleasure to have you with us, thank you for coming along for the ride. Much love Alison and Darren 💜🤟

@wandagonzalez3302 4 күн бұрын

Yes !! Amazing to have a chance to see all this Incredible beautiful places because if you two ❤

@findingxanadulife 4 күн бұрын

Hi Wanda, What a lovely comment. We're glad to take you along with us. We are very lucky to be able to visit those places. Thank-you so much for watching and for your comment. Much love Alison and Darren 💜🤟

@Suziereed 2 ай бұрын

So awesome. We would have loved the last abandoned village as well, wow. Thanks for taking on such great adventures while we sit on the couch lol We can’t wait to start ours. :) Safe travels, Suzie & Lee

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

Hey Suzie and Lee, There are so many abandoned villages in Spain. It's heartbreaking. I'm sure we'll be visiting some more. Haha Your welcome..! We used to do the exact same thing before we got started on our adventures. Your time will come. Much love Alison and Darren 😘💜🤟

@Suziereed 2 ай бұрын

@@findingxanadulife Yay good to know we are not just dreaming lol Everything will happen as it should, I am trying not to be impatient. Not sure how long everything is going to take with our house this year… We have planned next year and 2026 through August. Actually August 2026 we plan on being in Oviedo Spain to see the total eclipse pass over it instead of Iceland.

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

@Suziereed We tried not to be impatient and failed miserably..! 😂🤣😂🤣 We hope to be in Spain for the next eclipse too. Maybe we can meet up and all watch it together. 😍💜🤟

@steven-ms2bc 2 ай бұрын

Spectacular places! Great to see! Keep enjoying the adventure!

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

Thank-you Steven, we hope to be able to enjoy adventures for a long while yet. Much love Alison and Darren 💜🤟

@joannehaas8613 2 ай бұрын

Happy Anniversary 🎉. Loved the video. Have you ever seen the Spanish series: “El Pueblo?” I couldn't help but think of it as you walked around the last town.

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

Thanks Joanne. No, we haven't. Will have a look and see if we can find it on Netflix. 😬💜🤟

@comealongdear 2 ай бұрын

It's almost comforting to know that, even in Spain, you occasionally have to resort to an industrial park or a layby occasionally. We don't feel so bad now 😂 Some wonderful locations this week. I feel you truly encapsulated Spain's villages with those 3, as most will fall into one of those categories. Janovas felt very emotional, very much with you both in how you felt there. It makes you long for it to do well, and it was heartwarming seeing the restored houses. It also looks like a beautiful location to boot. I find it interesting you said some people have said not to advertise places as it's only for locals...but then, as you say, these places often struggle with no one there? 🤷‍♂️ Surely a balance is better with *some* footfall than nothing at all. Ainsa looked gorgeous but yes of course that was the flip side of the tourism coin. And why the old houses cost half a million no doubt 😂😮 Shocked to see all that rain, I guess they need it though unless that part is usually wet. We said if we drive to Spain again we'd like to cut through the middle next time, so Ainsa/Janovas could be ideal stopping points. Thanks for the trip guys, much love and enjoy the (presumably) warmer weather you now find yourselves in 😊❤ Dan and Stephen xx

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

The problem is Spain is not set up for rain so when we have heavy rains everywhere floods and we mean everywhere. The tourist thing is a hard one, we understand that for some having thousands of people outside your door might be a little frustrating, but some towns are desperate for visitors to help bring in some money and as such keep their town alive. However we believe that no person owns the right to see a location, but we all have a responsibility to look after the locations we visit. It's a shame many people don't understand that. As for Janovas, we really fell for this place. A beautiful little village in a beautiful location that has crumbled to almost nothing, yet you can feel the fight it's putting up and the village refuses to die. We both found it very emotional and would have loved nothing more than to be able to have helped in some way. All we hope is that our video does it some justice. Thanks for watching and your amazing comment, much love as always Darren & Alison 🤟♥️

@comealongdear 2 ай бұрын

@@findingxanadulife I can well imagine you both settling in Janovas and it being a future chapter in life. Mind you, I hope you've got some renovation skills 😂 Yes I imagine heavy rains come as a shock, this is the problem with extreme weather too, it's so hard to manage. The UK has been so so wet, with so many floods, and we're a country used to it, yet it's still caused extensive damage, especially to farms. Some sunshine and dry spells can't come soon enough 🙏

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

Us... Skills... There is something we never thought we'd here 😁

@derrickfz 2 ай бұрын

Happy wedding anniversary and great video love the last village why don’t the four of us buy there

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

Thanks Derrick..! ☺️😍 Wouldn't that be something..?!? We think the council are in the process of making sure that the properties go back to the families that owned them, but some of them may want to sell, or not have any remaining relatives, which means the council would own them, so who knows, it may be a possibility for the future. We'll certainly be keeping our eyes on Jánovas and how it progresses in the future. 😘💜🤟

@1650million 2 ай бұрын

About the bridge that is no longer there, I don´t know if you guys are aware that you can easily report Google Maps mistakes, if they give you the wrong directions. I was cycling through rural Spain some time ago, and Maps indications finally took me to an insurmountable obstacle, basically a 2m irrigation canal; so I had to take a big detour... powered by my legs. When I got home, I sent them a report with the GPS coordinates, and a couple of months later, they sent me an email to tell me I was right, and the mistake had been fixed. The point being, it only takes a few minutes to report these kinds, and you´re potentially helping thousands of people, for years to come. Anyway, glad to see your enjoyment while visiting my country. Have a great stay!

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

To be fair to Google, we hadn't actually asked for directions to the village knowing the roads were unpaved. We were however very surprised when the bridge we saw on satellite view was no longer there. However we think that it was possibly submerged by the extreme water. However we were not aware you could report map error on Google Maps so thanks for the heads up, it may well prove useful for some of the locations we plan on heading to over the next couple of years 🤟♥️

@davewalkden7248 2 ай бұрын

Another fantastic vid, guys. And sorry to bring politics into it but seeing that last village & hearing about the efforts to revitalise it, it made me think about Brexit & how all the idiots who voted for it because they were fed up of "being dictated to by the EU" & clamouring for a return to "how England used to be" fail to understand that many of these projects are funded (partly at least) directly by the EU. So bloody frustrating when you consider everything we've lost as a direct result of leaving the EU.

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

Firstly, thanks for your kind words regarding the video. As for Brexit, we never know what to say on that one, plus we always feel a little hypocritical when we live in Spain. What we can say is we both find it very emotional when places become lifeless and history is eroded to nothing. This is usually caused by decisions made by people who won't be affected, which makes the loss even harder. We hope Britain won't lose itself, although we don't live there, we are still British at heart. Much Love Darren & Alison 🤟♥️

@user-zf5ii8xu5p 2 ай бұрын

Heartbreakingly beautiful! Thinking of the people who have lived out their time here, children playing in the streets, etc. Love coming along with you. Our ferry is booked for 10th May, but as we are 78 and 80, our travels are rather more limited now! Enjoy!

@faye5891 2 ай бұрын

Please do research We are still controlled by the EU Only in a single trading with brexit

@davewalkden7248 2 ай бұрын

@@faye5891 Do research? What on earth are you on about? And try typing in actual English next time, eh...

@anacasanova7350 2 ай бұрын

No digan el pueblo, digan solo la provincia, en este caso Huesca , de Aragón.

@faye5891 2 ай бұрын

Where is this pyrenees?

@findingxanadulife 2 ай бұрын

Hi Faye, this was all filmed in the north Aragon region of Spain and quite close to the Pyrenees as part of our tour across the north of Spain and into Portugal 🤟♥️

@anacasanova7350 2 ай бұрын

@@findingxanadulifeestos pueblos están en el Pirineo Aragonés en donde está el pico más alto de los Pirineos el Aneto 3400 mts alt. +-

@anacasanova7350 2 ай бұрын

Muy emocionante reportaje, Pareja , gracias.😊❤