October is a brilliant month to go to the beach in Comunidad Valenciana. It’s no longer hot and there’s few people. The air is fresh. We bring coffee, tea and sit there for a few hours. Sea is still warm, probably more than air, and swimming is enjoyable.
On the day I’m writing this, we stayed sitting or laying on the blanket the whole time. But we did keep our 3-week streak of going to the same beach cafeteria for “un almuerzo” – a smaller meal eaten in the late morning.
The waiter recognized and welcomed us with a warm “De nuevo? Bienvenidos” – “Again? Welcome”. He also remembered our order from the previous visit – “un café con leche” for both of us, “una tostada con tomate, queso a jamón york” for Kristina and the same thing but with “jamón serrano” for me.
The waiter, who I’ll ask about his name the next time, also anticipated our inclination to dip the bread in their delicious olive oil and placed a bottle on our table. I adopted a habit of checking the origin of the ingredients. This olive oil was of variety Arbequina, made near Valladolid, the capital of autonomous community of Castilla y León.
We left in a good spirit. Kristina’s words “This is my favorita cafeteria!”.
Receiving a great service is always worth a few words. To show it’s not taken for granted.
So, the next weekend, “de nuevo”?