CIUDAD QUESADA is a town built for leisure,and little else. At three o’clock on a Friday afternoon, activity can mostly be found on the terraces of pubs along the main drag. Up the hill, or at the local bowls club,members decompress after a top-of-the-table clash against a local rival. One of their number, Tony Goddard, and an amiable former construction manager,pauses while drinking whisky and gestures to the sun. “That’s why we’re here!”For decades, the lure of blue skies, and cheap living and qualified food possess drawn British pensioners to the continent. Pinning down precise numbers is difficult,but Britains Department for Work and Pensions says that around 340000 people living in the European Union draw British pensions (this excludes Ireland, where another 135000 are based). Many end up in towns-cum-retirement-communities dotted along the Mediterranean coast, or like Quesada,which sits on Spain’s Costa Blanca. A common architectural style—contemplate Roman columns and whitewashed porticos—was...
Continue reading
Source: economist.com