Just take a car and drive North. The Cantrabrian Coast has barely got above 25c the whole summer.

Re, the previous discussion about Usted, nobody mentioned business. You should really use Usted with clients, at least until you really get to know them. My wife always uses it with her clients even if they are in their 20s.

She gets really annoyed when receiving phone calls from call centres and they start talking to her in "tu" like they were her best mate. And she's only 30!

Yeah, that's just the point. In the UK, I'd wait 10 months for summer, and then it would almost always be a let down. Here I get better in Spring and in Autumn both, so I'm ahead twice over.

I've often thought about that.
Having spent some time up there previously I do quite like it, however having family,friends, some business interests and a nice area to live, back in blighty, Summer in the UK suits me just fine.
Anyway a maximum of 25c is probably not the norm in the Cantabria, Asturia and Galicia areas and the rain can often be worse than in the UK.

Hi bil,nice to see you've survived your "endurance test" ok.

I think I'll always prefer mid summer and mid winter back in blighty and as we've seen recently there's still no guarantee that Spain will always be better in other seasons.

Anyway I do count myself as very fortunate in still having a choice, not having burnt my boats and to me personally it's very much a case of swings and roundabouts.

Now when I was in the Canaries it was a totally different kettle of fish and I was always chafing at the bit to get back there as swiftly as possible, but there again to be totally honest the climate wasn't the only major attraction.

Again, it's the same argument, isn't it? Comparing fairly is effectively impossible, and open to interpretation.

For me, July and August are a bit of an endurance test, but better than than the UK's long grey wait for a summer that seldom merits the name.

Around an hour ago, near to the end of my daily siesta, I was woken by the sound of rain. Knowing it was just a wishful dream, I tried to get back to sleep. A few minutes later I heard distant thunder and dismissed that too. But my dogs had more sense then me and came in to wake me as the lightning started.

I made myself a strong cup of coffee and went out on the terrace to witness the spectacle. Seeing rain for the first time in months made me deliriously happy.

Does it mean that two months of torture have come to an end? I hope so.

You know that smell the ground has after rain, and especially the smell of tarmac after rain? It's a bacterial aerosol that you smell.

Started with distant rumblings (the sky, that is)and about 15 minutes ago the heavens opened. They're still opening!!!!!!

OOh, I hope it makes it here. It was spitting as I came back from school, big angry plops that felt like the threat of something more.

I want to go out in it and get soaked.

the kids go back to school soon, if they haven't already (another 1.5 weeks here)

that usually heralds a pretty sudden drop in morning & evening temperatures, even if it warms up nicely during the day

like the smell of a wet dog

I don't know. Wet dogs smell bad anyway.

I once had a tour round a big hospital lab by a bacteriologist friend. Absolutely frigging amazing. He asked me if I wanted to see his zoo, and pulled out a drawer full of petri dishes.

He gave me one to smell (never ever do that unless you trust the person as sniffing some cultures is potentially VERY dangerous.) It smelled like tarmac after rain, - the bacteria live in the tiny cracks of the tarmac, and the raindrops 'explode' in these cracks, sending tiny droplets loaded with bacteria into the air. That's what you can smell.

We've had no more than a few paltry drops in Velez, could do with a downpour not to cool us down but to damp down the dust from the confounded streetworks outside - FIVE MONTHS we have had no pavements now, and last week they came back and started again at the top of the street, digging up the same stretch they started on in March. God knows why, I think it's a plot to drive me insane.

I would much rather stay indoors in the afternoon (possible siesta) with the air-con running here in Spain than be in the UK, where if I was lucky I just might see a blue sky once in a while and very rarely have it warm enough to go out without a coat!

We have had a little rain here in the last two days ending in a storm this afternoon when the heavens opened, now the sky has cleared and the sun is out again, we will now get our second spring of the year and months of very agreeable weather to look forward to.
Even in January and February we get days when we can go into the mountains for a picnic......try doing that in the UK and you'd probably get frostbite!

I actually feel cold at 25c now.