Hendrik(72)

I had been painting for fifty years, but always as a hobby alongside my job as an art teacher. After retiring at 67 I noticed the grey Dutch light no longer inspired me. I had visited Granada on an art trip and fallen in love with the light — that bright, high-contrast Andalusian light that Lorca described and that makes the Moorish architecture glow.

At 70 I took the leap. My house in Apeldoorn sold for €340,000. I bought a carmen house — the typically Granadian houses with walled gardens — in the Albaicín neighborhood for €195,000. Costs were significant: 10% transfer tax (ITP), notary fees and the gestoría brought the total to about €220,000. But I had my own house with a view of the Alhambra.

The IBI — Spain's property tax — on my carmen house is €420 per year. Shockingly low compared to property tax in Apeldoorn. My monthly fixed costs are: €85 electricity, €30 water, €50 internet and phone. With my AOW of €1,350 and a small ABP pension of €400 per month I live comfortably. I spend about €200 per month on painting supplies.

Granada is a city of students, artists and musicians. The Albaicín — my neighborhood — is a UNESCO World Heritage site full of narrow alleys, squares with fountains and carmen gardens full of jasmine and roses. I paint every morning on my terrace overlooking the Sierra Nevada. In the afternoon I walk to the center for a café con leche at a bar near the cathedral.

The healthcare arrangement through the convenio especial was important for me. Because my ABP pension is taxed in the Netherlands, I didn't have automatic access to the Spanish healthcare system through the S1 form. Instead I signed a convenio especial with the Seguridad Social for €60 per month, giving me full access to public healthcare. My cardiologist at the Hospital Universitario San Cecilio is excellent.

I now exhibit in a gallery on Calle Elvira and sell three to four paintings per month to tourists and local collectors. The light here has transformed my work. Granada is not an easy city — it's hot in summer, the bureaucracy is Kafkaesque, and without Spanish you're lost. But for an artist seeking inspiration, there's no better place on earth.