Day 77 - "Benidorm Brits and Bikinis"

Spanish Practices

Today the story of a railway porter who transformed the whole of the Spanish tourism industry, a story that involves a Bikini and General Franco.

Find out more: https://www.thesecretspain.com

Day 77 Benidorm Brits and Bikini’s

Sunday, the eve of Phase 2 and another step toward the new normal here in Spain. Today the Spanish Tourism Minister Maria Reyes Maroto has said that the UK must improve the Covid19 rates before Britain’s can be allowed to come back to Spain for their holidays.

Last year just over 18 million Brits visited Spain with just over 65 million from other countries so about 11% of all tourists in Spain are British.

In the next couple of weeks Spain will open up some test corridors from other European countries with a wider expansion on the 1st of July.

The Daily Mail was suitably outraged by the statement from Spain, with an editorial suggesting Brits should stay at home. They have a point. I very rarely read the comments written in the Daily Mail but this one made me chuckle from Vestan Pants, guessing that is not his real name!

“Piling onto planes wearing their Elizabeth Duke jewellery clutching bottles of duty free grog, dressed up to the nines (they think) in Matalans finest fashion then piling out at the other end and being pistas farts for a fortnight. Can’t for the life of me imagine why Spain wants to defer their arrival for as long as possible.”

He has a point British Tourists have a rather dubious reputation here. A few years ago, when we were living in the flat in the little village, we met a lovely family around the pool who had come from just outside Benidorm to spend some time down here on the Granada Costa Tropical coast.

I asked them why they didn’t take a holiday in Benidorm? Their son, who spoke good English looked down at his feet, he said. “Have you been to Benidorm?” I said “No, I didn’t it think it was the place for me.”

“We have been once, it was terrible, many people in the morning, drunk, being sick.” Their daughter chimed in “And making the pee pee on the floor.”

He continued, “We saw some peoples fighting, and my mother and father say we will go now and have not been back.”

So, a Spanish family who actually live near one of the most popular British tourist hotspots in Spain, chose to stay away. What a reputation we have abroad!

I am not saying that the other countries behave that much better, Germans are quite capable of bringing their country into disrepute. It is interesting that many of the new-age travellers down on our small but beautiful beach are Germans.

It makes the beach, not a no-go area, but a place where you are not entirely comfortable. We were at the Chiringuito at the beach when four people came in, they were all as stoned as those old ladies in our village that Saturday afternoon. It took them about thirty minutes to order, they say huddled around an MP3 player, on quite loudly playing Ibiza sunrise type music, which I actually like, the owners of the bar were having none of it and told them to turn it off.

I do wonder if our appetite for all-inclusive pile your plate high from the buffet, lay sweltering by the pool holidays in Benidorm are coming to an end? It would be a shame as there is nothing wrong with those sorts of holidays, but they do decimate local bars and shops as holidaymakers prefer to stay in their complex rather than go out to eat.

To discover just why Benidorm became such a draw we have to travel back to the 1950s Benidorm a pretty little fishing village that it was then. But something ghastly happened, the bikini had arrived on the beaches and the Catholic Church were horrified and wanted it banned.

They had not reckoned on a railway porter by the name of Pedro Zaragoza Orts, in 1950 he had become the Mayor of Benidorm and in 1953 he allowed the wearing of Bikini’s on the beach, this caused uproar.

The Guardia were pictured grabbing bikini clad women from off the beach, the Catholic Church began the process to excommunicate Zaragoza, this would have been a disaster as the Church controlled the Mayors office and no Mayor can stay in office without Church approval.

The church even erected a huge cross on the top of the hill that looks over the town, just to make the point.

But Pedro Zaragoza Orts was having none of it, he believed the future of Spain was tourism, so one chilly winters day he got on his Vespa scooter and made the 8 hour trip to Madrid - to see Franco.

General Franco was probably the one person in Spain who could question the Church’s authority. Zaragoza says he managed to change his shirt before meeting the General, but his trousers were still spattered with motor oil when he was summoned.

What happened at that meeting between the two men went unreported – whether or not Franco gave his tacit approval for Bikini’s is a mute matter. But Zaragoza returned to Benidorm to say ‘the General he says yes.’

Once the Catholic Church heard the news, they immediately reversed the excommunication from the church and Benidorm became Europe’s first holiday resort town.

I agree with that Spanish family that nobody wants a drunk Brit staggering down the road parking their breakfast on the pavement, I believe those Brits are the minority and most of us just want some sunny seaside fun.