![]() ![]() We hope we can bring some of this new routine back to Australia. They don’t seem too affected by the new routine although I wonder if they may have stunted growth! But it was all worth it! Although they don’t fall asleep until it is dark at 10.30pm they still have to be at school at 9am (clock time). We have adjusted well to this lifestyle and revelled in it, well except for the sleep deficit of about 1-2 hours per night that our children have accumulated. People do not tend to head back out on the street until 8pm for a stroll and a 9pm or 10pm dinner. As much as we thought we would transition slowly to Spanish time, it happened much faster than we anticipated, as our bodies did not want to be indoors getting ready for bed when the sun was still high in the sky at 9pm.Īnd where in most places the hottest time of the day would be around 2-3pm, in Spain it is at 4-5pm hence the need for a siesta in Southern Spain. Surely, a distance of nearly 3,000kms in a Westerly direction required a time change? (I mean, that is the equivalent distance from Sydney to Perth or LA to New York) But no, the clocks remained the same, which meant going to bed 2 hours later on clock time (for me that meant 1am instead of 11pm and 10pm instead of 8pm for the children). When we arrived in Spain in August on a flight from Budapest to Malaga, I had my hand poised to change the time on my watch. That natural instinct to go home and rest at nightfall does not take place until much later in Spain including in winter when it doesn’t get dark until just before 7pm. In practical terms living two hours outside of solar time means that going to bed at a normal time is hard as it is still light outside. ![]() It is widely accepted that the relatively late sunrises and sunsets in Spain shift the average Spaniard’s day later than it otherwise would be. Look how far west Spain is but still in the same time zone as Poland Pre WWII European time zones Current European time zones. After the war none of the countries returned to their natural time zone except for Portugal and the UK who remained unoccupied during the war and therefore retained their time zone as they still do today. With German occupation of Western Europe and, in the case of Spain, Franco’s allegiance to Germany, the clocks were changed to central European time to align with the German Reich. ![]() Prior to 1940 Western Europe had it’s own time zone (Greenwich mean time) which was one hour behind Central European time. Here’s why: Spain’s clock time is effectively two hours ahead of its natural solar time zone and the reason for this is World War II. We have since come to adapt and appreciate it with ease but what surprised us was the reasons behind why Spaniards do everything about two hours later than the rest of the world. We knew before we came to live here that Spaniards had a unique relationship with time. The organisation of time in Spain is a fascinating topic and one that for historical, geographic and political reasons puts Spain on its own unique schedule compared to the rest of the world. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |