My FI had mentioned that a local qualification would need a conversion test to allow me to fly in Europe but to be honest I'd put that in the "problem far in future, no need to worry" box.
As for the rest - I wish I had the same confidence you to have in my ability to get through the PPL in 7-8 months! I suppose I'm still at the stage of thinking of the whole thing as progressing very slowly but once you get to a certain stage I guess you're building hours and won't be working on the basis of an hour every weekend but instead will be doing blocks of time. Weather / time / funds permitting that sounds like the best option, even if it does involve a week in Spain prior to leaving to batter out the kinks in a single lump.
Thanks for the responses!