“Spain is not Disneyland.” With that expression, Evelynne Devick and Randel Hofstede from Borger were received in Spain. A comment that has turned out to be nothing more than true. In the meantime they successfully manage a bodega in Cataloni, but in the attempt to realize their foreign catering dream, the couple lost tens of thousands of euros.
Where many campsite or B&B holder runs fire out of the slippers in the summer, Devick and Hofstede can take it easy this season. “We are closed in August and so far in June and July Wijnpoeverijen in June and July,” says Hofstede from Spain. The couple runs a Spanish bodega with mainly motor homeers as a target group. “Pensioners, people who go on holiday outside the high season, is our target group.”
And so they fill their days with chores on the site around the Bodega, a private holiday, beach days and long breakfast sessions. “If I have breakfast with friends here on Saturday, I will not get anything out of my hands for the rest of the day. That will take a long time, and in the long run beer and wine will be on the table. You will be enjoyed by that, then you will not do anything for the rest of the day.”
The Drenthe couple is just celebrating their one-year anniversary within the Spanish borders. Last June the two Borger left behind to plunge into the Spanish wine and tapas tasting. They have had enough of their work at the Dutch police and fire brigade. “We had a very structured life. Evelynne wanted to leave the organization because the police have changed over the years. For me that applied less. I was not annoyed by anything, but I knew: that will happen.”
This way the need for a foreign adventure comes to the surface. “We thought: maybe this is a good moment. We both turned fifty, so if you want to take a new step, then you just have to go, point,” says Hofstede. The choice for an actual emigration came from a compromise. “We were camper boots and Evelynne had the idea: we buy a camper, go on the road and go to remote. But I didn’t get happy, all day in such a camper behind the computer. Then we thought: if we can’t go to Europe, we’ll get Europe to us.”