"Last night of the 'Pons'!"

Wednesday, January 21, 2026 @ 9:30 PM

What a good title for this short piece!

"Pons" is the Latin for "bridge", in Spanish "puente".

And two nights ago, on Monday January 20th, was the last night of Venta El Puente .....

..... not for ever, of course.

[Facebook]

The family that runs "The Bridge" is taking a well-earned break. Two weeks. Dad Manolo said:"We're not going away, we're simply having a rest!"

When asked why they weren't off to Tenerife or somewhere else warm, the portly paterfamilias responded with a twinkle in his eye:"Keep it to yourself, but maybe I shall nip off somewhere on my own .....!"

[Karl Smallman]

This is interesting. In the UK and other countries of northern Europe, the pubs never close for holidays; they don't even have rest days.

They make use of staff rotas to cover the long opening hours and, if the landlord, landlady or pub manager wants to go on holiday with their family, relief staff take over in order to maintain the status quo.      

[Reuters]

The last night

So, I arrived around 8.45 pm, expecting it to be packed. There were just two locals at the bar, until shortly aterwards a young couple and child arrived.

There were nearly more staff than customers.

The family's publicity, ie word of mouth, clearly hadn't worked. 

© The Merry Tippler 

Pictures:

Facebook, Karl Smallman, Reuters 

Thanks:

Paul Whitelock, Venta El Puente 

Tags: