Until he moved out of London Michael Pope had never had a job he really loved.
Now settled in Madrid, running his own business, and spending his time off enjoying a glass of wine on a sunny terrace with friends or hiking in the mountains, he is only sorry he didn’t make the move sooner.
“Even my parents, the first time they came to visit me here, said that they had never seen me looking so happy or relaxed,” he said.
In London, Michael had a well-paid job in tech sales. On paper his life looked good.
“It was OK, it paid the rent, but it didn’t excite me,” he said.
The seed of his move to Spain was sown when he met his girlfriend, Maca, who comes from Madrid. “We did talk about moving there one day, but there wasn’t a plan about when,” he said.
Fate threw the couple a curve ball when Maca’s younger brother was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
The couple decided they needed to be with him and headed to Spain in July 2018. Maca’s employer, a travel company, allowed her to work remotely but Michael’s company was less than enthusiastic about the idea.
So he found himself jobless and living in a city he barely knew and where he did not speak the language.
To make ends meet Michael began teaching English, whilst simultaneously studying Spanish. After a few months he was approached by a British company who wanted him to set up a sales department for them, and he spent a couple of years on that before moving on to work for a local start-up.
By that point he had not only mastered Spanish but immersed himself in Spanish culture, in particular the wines of the region. “The quality is fantastic, there is a really rich wine culture here, and I wanted to learn about it,” he said. “It really consumed my life.”
Michael’s work, studies, and linguistic efforts, plus supporting Maca and her family, gave him no time to feel stressed or anxious. “All I really remember is being very tired,” he said.
Just before the pandemic the start-up Michael was working for made him redundant. He planned to get another job in the same sector until Maca, 37, suggested that, with the cushion of a pay-off in his back pocket, he gave himself time to think about what he’d really love to do.
And so Vine Travel was born. The company offers holidaymakers English language tours of vineyards in and around Madrid, with Michael acting as host, wine expert, and interpreter. He ran his first tour in September 2023.
By then things were looking up all around. Maca donated bone marrow to her brother for a lifesaving transplant during the pandemic and, thankfully, he has made a great recovery.
She and Michael live in a two bedroom flat in the Prosperidad neighbourhood, three miles from the city centre. Their rent is €650pcm, about half what Michael’s final London rental, a tiny one bedroom flat in Mile End, costs.
The couple have saved up enough money for a deposit for a place of their own, and have begun flat hunting. They have also expanded their household to include Charlie, a small but opinionated dachshund.
“Life here is very different to London,” said Michael. “Because of the climate most of your time is spent outdoors. Before lunch you might go out and get an aperitivo with friends, it is very sociable here. There are lots of bars and restaurants in Prosperidad, and lots of green space too. And we are only half an hour from the mountains so you can get out of town for a hike at weekends.
“I plan to stay in Spain forever. There are moments when I do miss strange things about England, like the rain and the dark evenings. But honestly life is just better here.”
