Adjustment to time differences

When it comes to mealtimes the British eat early and the Spanish eat late. This can be a positive when it comes to getting a table in a restaurant. It is very noticeable, particularly in the height of the holiday season where we live, that in the early evening the chatter in local restaurants is almost totally in English whereas after 22.00 the conversations are almost totally in Spanish and the Spanish families might sit in the restaurant until one in the morning. There are often negative comments made about the noise that the local population makes. This is not really true. It is just that the Spanish population operate on a different time clock and when the British population are thinking about going to bed the Spanish are just waking up.

This does need to be taken into consideration if you choose to live in an area that is oriented towards the holiday market since a large number of Spanish do holiday on the Costa del Sol in August and restaurants can be quite noisy until the early hours of the morning.

Similarly Sunday lunch will start for the Brits at 12.30 or 13.00 and be over by 16.00 whereas the Spanish will only arrive for lunch at 15.00 and lunch can last until 20.00.

Another irritation can be the time difference of one hour between the UK and Spain. This can be a problem if some of the TV programmes you like to watch are shown late at night. As a result you often find yourself sitting up until 1 am.