Originally Posted by Mitzyboy

I went to college in Stratford in the 70's, and just recently last week went there twice for drinks / meals. Most of the homely traditional pubs I remember have all gone, and although they have tried to make them oldy worldy to suit the tourist trade, their real character has I am afraid long gone

Originally Posted by Mercedes

What did you study there?

Originally Posted by DrStarsky

Thanks all for the input, and let me answer to some of the points raised.

Mitzyboy, indeed I'm considering the area just south of Coventry, perhaps Leamington/Warwick. I wonder if you can elaborate as to what makes Coventry such a horrible place. Concerning the price of houses. Rural Spain may be cheap, but in Barcelona with £200,000 you buy a crappy 60 square meters flat in an average
neighborhood. Even in towns around Barcelona prices are significantly higher than what I saw in Leamington/Warwick. Prices here tripled over the last 7 years. The average salary is less than 2000 euros/month. Most people live with their parents until they marry, as with one salary it's impossible to buy anything. Then they sign a 50-year mortgage and put almost an entire salary into the monthly payments.

I gather from looking some of your posts that you are moving to Spain? I don't know if you'll have to work here, but in my view professionally Spain is a dump. I'm fed up with the lack of professionalism, people not showing up in time, not taking their job seriously, and the low standards in the way things are done. It is a very provincial and
parochial place, even Barcelona. That said, if I was older and had enough money to retire and buy property in Spain, I'd probably prefer Spain over the UK. People here are friendly and relaxed, you can walk everywhere at night without fearing of being
mugged, and it's sunny most of the time.

Concerning immigration, it's a relatively new phenomenon in Spain compared to the UK, but is growing very rapidly. In Catalunya alread 12% of the population is immigrant.

Poollounger, you are quite right that every place has its problems. Are you living in Spain? In the cities it's common to see large agglomerations of young people drinking and smoking drugs, but in general people are not confrontational. As I said, one of negatives I see in the UK is violent drunken behaviour. Could my perspective be skewed from the loads of drunken and loud British tourists I see in Barcelona?

Originally Posted by sunlover27

I've read your thread with interest as I'm doing the exact opposite to yourself. I for my sins hail from Coventry and have lived here all my life and believe me I can't wait to move to Spain. I have to agree with all the comments made about Coventry, I used to be proud to say I was from here, but no longer. There's very little industry anymore, the crime rate is awful, I won't go into the city on my own in the day let alone at night, we're overrun with ethnics from all over the world, there is no architecture (except the cathedral) but a miss match of hideous buildings and don't kid yourself Leamington/Warwick are not much better, I could go on but I don't want to bore you. Now Spain for me is a different kettle of fish, ok I won't be working as I'm retiring so my reasons are different to yours, but at least I feel safe to walk around at any time of day or night.The scenery and the culture is far more appealing. My money I feel will go a lot further and the weather is a lot healthier and I can't wait, only another 6 months to go.
Whatever you decide to do I wish you all the best