BENNECKE Blog

Against all other market trends the famous Sunday Market in Campo de Guardamar, just off the lemon tree road, has added another extension! Last Summer they added al large section of stalls, mainly food and drink, to the west side of the market, almost doubling it in size. This winter another smaller section on its north side has opened. It is occupied mainly by fruit and veg stalls. The produce there is as fresh as it gets and the prices are almost ridiculously small. When you go, bring large bags! Even if you only came for a few oranges, you will probably be tempted by a few other things. To do a weeks worth of fruit and veg shopping is easily done for 10 to 12 Euros. Also when you are done, there are a variety of stalls waiting for you where you can refresh yourself. The market is held every Sunday, there is plenty of parking available. Opening times are 8 am til 14.00pm, some stalls open longer…

Since we started doing rentals, our phones have not stopped ringing! More than a year later the operation Bennecke Rentals is a great success. However since the demand is so high, we are slowly but surely running out of rental properties. We are almost fully booked for the summer and 95% of our long term lets are let out.

We are looking for more properties, especially 3 bedroomed property, detached property and as always the closer to the beach the better! If you have a property that you wish to rent out long or short term please contact my colleague Emma: post@bennecke.com or call us at the office (0034) 965 714 362.

I hope everybody had the best possible holidays and a smooth transfer to the new year.

All of you out there with a mobile phone (which really does mean all of you) have just two weeks to go before lines for pay-as-you-go mobile phones will be automatically deactivated if their owners have previously failed to register their details with their operators.

The move comes under a new law which came into effect in November 2007 as a consequence of the Madrid train bomb attacks on 11th March 2004, when the bombs were set off by pre-paid mobile phones. Registration has been obligatory since the law came into force, but 20 million such phones bought before that date are estimated to still be in use.

So far, 12.5 million people have registered their mobiles, but some 8 million have yet to do so and could find themselves automatically cut off if they fail to register on or before the deadline of 8th November. Operators are then legally obliged to deactivate any which remain unidentified.

It’s not difficult to do either as registration for each user can be done at one of their operator’s points of sale, where they must provide (surprise, surprise) either their DNI identity document, passport or foreigners’ residency papers. Businesses must provide their fiscal identification card.

*taken from THE LEADER newspaper

…will appear on our Bennecke website. Click here for a direct link:

BENNECKE RENTALS

So finally a Greek Restaurant has opened in the Playa Flamenca Commercial Centre. It is called Dancing Zorbas and is open evenings from 5pm.
I have been devoted to greek food and mentality from an early age and coming from Berlin, where we have a lot of excellent family-run Greek restaurants, I knew from the beginning that this Zorbas has to fill some very big shoes. You just cannot beat the open and welcoming atmosphere of a proper Greek. So when I heard that finally a Greek has opened (why are there no Greeks in Spain???) I was over the moon and full of expectation. When I opened the menu it struck me as odd that the first of three pages of main courses is marked as Italian and consisted of mainly pasta and pizza. Oh well I thought, no matter. The second page reads 8 dishes, 3 of them are Gyros, 2 of them deal with chicken wrapped in bacon. The is no lamb and only 1 fish dish. 3rd page consists of 8 different Moussakas! So we decide to go for some mixed starters and see how we go… We order Mezee which is a starter platter consisting of Zaziki, Taramasalata, Hummus, Feta Cheese, Pita Bread and fried vegetables, the lot at 7.50€. Sounds like a good deal? You wait. Also we ordered a greek salad and white house wine.
I takes some time until the starters come. But thats fine, no hurry. Finally there it comes, a small tray and an even smaller plate, like the one you would put your gravy boat on. You know how Greeks are known for their generosity and hospitality? This one did not get the message. The salad was half an inch high with thinly sliced cucumber and tomato, 10 small cubes of *feta* cheese on top. Half a dozen olives…thats it. After closer inspection the Feta turns out to be those Feta-style cubes in brine, that you buy in Lidl (which is only across the road, odd…). The Mezee turns out to be 3 tiny tubs of unsalted dips, of which I could only identify the Zaziki, deep fried Potato wedges, Potato balls, onion rings and one of those weird things with the crab claw sticking out, 10 cubes of pseudo feta and a half baked pita bread. The wine is the cheapest you can find, but sold at 1 Euro more than in other places in the commercial centre. After that we just got the bill, which is hefty at 21.90 Euros for 2 starters, a bottle of whine and a sparkling water. After we paid, we wave the waiter aside and mentioned our dissapointment with for example the salad. Thats when he starts becoming agitated, saying things like *This is my place, I make the rules here* and *I am Greek, this is how it is done*
That was when we left without finishing the sour wine. I am sorry to sound like Michael Winner here, but I can only stress that there is a large variety of international restaurants in the Playa Flamenca commercial centre, where you get good food at fair prices. Just give a miss to Zorbas.