Pedro understood that the village could not remain as it was – a sleepy little coastal village on the east coast of Spain. He knew that to survive it has to change and embrace modern day living. In his official capacity he encouraged people to open cafes, restaurants and bars. He gave licences to them to operate their businesses and he allowed the foreign tourists to come to Benidorm´s beautiful beaches. He allowed the chic foreign ladies to wear their little polka dot bikinis and he welcomed and embraced overseas investment through tourism.

Unfortunately, the Catholic Church did not embrace this new wind of change in the same manner and Pedro was threatened with excommunication. So what you may say but in those days excommunication did not only mean that you were not longer welcome at the priest´s teas parties but you were not allowed to hold any official office or operate a business.

Rather browned off by this threat, Pedro got on his 50cc moped and went to Madrid. Now anyone who has travelled the road from the east cost to Madrid will know it is no joke nowadays let alone sixty odd years ago.

On arrival in Madrid Pedro headed for the palace where the dictator General Franco had set up residence. He asked to see Franco and was told to “go away” in no uncertain terms but he sat outside on a seat for several hours until a member of Franco´s household gave in and said that if he could wait another half an hour then he would see what he could do to get him an audience with the General. True to his word, he did get Pedro an audience with the diminutive dictator and Pedro told people for year´s to come that he went in to see Franco in a clean shirt but still with the oil from his moped splattered up his trousers. Franco listened intently to Pedro´s story and his reasoning for allowing things to change in Benidorm. At the end of the audience Franco said that he would consider what Pedro had said.

One week later Carmen, Franco´s wife accompanied by the Minister for Governance arrived in Benidorm. Carmen liked the place, she liked what Pedro had done to give the village a new life in a new ear and she became a life long patron of Benidorm. The Catholic church received a rather terse call from Franco “suggesting” that they should forget about excommunicating Pedro for the good of their own health and the little polka dot bikinis stayed.

Benidorm grew into one of Europe´s leading holiday destinations and whether you love or hate the place you have to admit that Pedro Zaragoza the railway porter certainly helped put Spain on the international holiday destination map.

he proceeded to dump her for Anne Boleyn the protestant harlot as she was branded,  much to the humiliation of Catherine´s parents the King and Queen of Spain. Suspect there was more than a little angst there.

Henry´s daughter Elizabeth I got on well with Philip II of Spain so much so that he had thought of marrying her although he had been married to her aunt Mary previously who rather inconveniently died aged 42.   However, it all turned to tears in July1588, when Philip sent a huge Spanish  Armada of 130 ships and 30,000 men to England to replace Elizabeth with a Catholic monarch but we all know how that seafaring foray ended.

By the early 1800´s we were getting on a bit better though and the British joined with the Spain to fight the French in the Peninsula Wars against our close neighbour the French a la Sean Bean in the TV series Sharpe.

The defining moment when the British fell in love with Spain came in the 1950´s when Pedro Zaragosa the then mayor of Benidorm had a excommunication process started against him.  Not because he was a bad catholic and did not go to mass but because he allowed the bikini to be worn on his beaches. So Pedro got on his scooter and went to Madrid, no mean feat, it is a long way on a 50cc moped.  He asked to speak to General Franco the Spanish dictator.  Probably only to see the madman who had ridden 9 hours on a moped from Benidorm, General Franco gave him an audience. Franco told him to go back to Benidorm and eight days later Franco´s wife and the Minister of Governance arrived in Benidorm, reconfirmed his appointment as mayor and gave him an insignia to wear on his jacket so he could enter Franco´s Madrid palace whenever he wanted. Mrs Franco stayed on in Benidorm for 4 or 5 days.  She liked the place a lot and used to visit and stay at Pedro´s house.  Carmen Franco became one of Benidorm´s leading patrons.  The town has changed greatly from those days as a fishing village. It now has the highest concentration of skyscrapers in the world outside Manhattan.

The British spread south to the Costa Blanca and established holiday resorts such as Torrevieja.  They swarmed further south to the Costa del Sol and established Marbella, Estepona and Malaga to name but a few of the well known Brit enclaves.

However, at the beginning of this decade people had a change of heart and decided that what they really wanted was “real Spain”.  Considering the amount of British who had come to Spain and built their version of England in the sun it is surprising there were any unspoilt areas left to call “real Spain” but it is a big country with a large landmass so thankfully some of it remained untouched by Burlington Bertie´s English Bar and the obligatory Fish and Chips.

The Brits started coming in smaller units.  Gone were the days when 52 seater coaches queued up at the airport like massive wagon trains waiting to pick up the incoming Brits and whisk them off to their hotels.  Now we had people arriving in two´s and four´s on budget airlines to airports who´s names they could not even pronounce like Jerez and Seville.  They were booking villas and apartments in places like Cadiz City, Chiclana de la Frontera and Vejer de la Frontera and hiring cars so they could explore the countryside and local beaches.  They wanted to eat Spanish food, some of them spoke some Spanish and they wanted to blend in.  The Spanish tourist industry had changed forever and the only little enclave which is still doing what it always did and is as popular as ever is …………………….. you´ve guessed it – Pedro Zaragosa´s Benidorm.

Many people ask me what the Spanish think of us and if they like us.  Well the answer is yes, they do like us.  I recently heard the chief of the Guardia Civil say that he liked the British because they keep themselves to themselves and didn´t cause any trouble. They come to Spain, they spend their money, they enjoy the sun and the lifestyle and they get back on the plane and they go home.

For the Spanish, money is not the only consideration.  They genuinely like the British, they find them friendly and relatively easy going but confusion sets in when people drink so much they cannot walk as the Spanish fail to understand why you would get so drunk that you are in your hotel bedroom by 11 o´clock. They also fail to see why you would lie in the sun until you are so burned you need to go to the local emergency centre for treatment but other than the odd little foibles, they do like us and they would miss us a lot if we suddenly decided to go elsewhere.

What happened to Pedro Zaragosa – well the archbishop got the message and dropped the excommunication proceeding against him, the bikinis stayed and Spain flourished into the modern holiday destination we now know.