Dad's visit and other things

Happy Easter to all my readers.  I've not kept a diary in years, well not since my mum found it when I was 12 and it caused such a fuss.  I decided then it's best not to write down anything that you don't want someone else to read!!!!   Although I don't add all of my innermost thoughts here - well it's hardly secret is it, I have always threatened to keep a diary of our travels but have never done it before. As I actually believe that some people read my blog (maybe I'm a little delusional), it does encourage me to keep it up.  I hope you enjoy this latest installment.

Stop Press – Brandy Alert

Record broken – brandy sighted at 11.05 am – and it had already been drunk.

Visit from abroad

I left my last post with the imminent visit of Iain’s dad, Ronnie.

The first couple of days we had  a lazy time, introducing him to all the sights of Albir, not that there are many and as this is a new town there is very little culture to see, so we decided to hire a car for a day so that we could take him up to Guadalest and Villajoyosa which were the most memorable places that we had been to.

Unfortunately we had to hire the car for 3 days as the rate was the same, so we had to make use of three consecutive days out and about.

Dad joined us for the quiz on Wednesday night but I can’t remember what our name was. We came second. See we’re in quite a little routine in our home from home.

On Friday we went up to Guadalest, which is an old town on the side of the mountain with a main reservoir below.  While we were there, we saw a bush fire up in the mountains and it was interesting to see the helicopters coming down to the reservoir to pick up water and then dump it up in the mountain. Then we went down to Villajoyosa and walked around the old part.  This is very pretty with all the houses and bars painted in different colours and is much more like “old Spain”.

Villajoyosa

Saturday we took Dad to El Cisne.  Although we were doing things that we had already done it was nice to revisit and remind ourselves what it was all about – and we did promise Joy that we would go back to El Cisne before we left.  The Flamenco dancers were brilliant again and it was a different routine this time.  The male dancer – who incidentally is no spring chicken – joined them again after breaking his arm and they were even better that we had seen before. 

That left Sunday with the car and we decided that as we hadn’t seen much of Calpe when we went there that we would  have a look at the “other” side. We’re not that keen on Calpe as it just seems a smaller version of Benidorm and we were absolutely right.  Not a place that I’d be too fussed to go back to.  Moving up the coast we tried to find Benissa, now there are two, one at the coast and one inland, of course, me driving and both the men just sitting back and expecting me to navigate as well, I took a wrong turn and ended up going inland to the wrong Benissa.  Now this was interesting as Mr Always Right isn’t keen on mountain roads and I’m not sure if it is my driving, well this road took us high up the mountain on some very steep and windy roads and of course there was nowhere for me to turn around until we got almost to the top.  The view to the sea was incredible on the way down and we even saw a motorhome on the road.  I would not want to drive the behemoth on that road so if anyone with a motorhome is reading, to avoid the mountain road, you can go to Calpe and then take the sea road.  We totally missed Benissa, probably because the road didn’t go anywhere near the beach, so we decided to travel on to Moraira where the coast road ends.  That was well worth a visit, a pretty seaside fishing village with a very family friendly beach.  There was also a fresh water lake which fed into the sea and this was formed from some underground caves.  The marina there certainly had some money in it with luxury boats of all sorts.  From Moraira you can see across to the other side of Calpe and the penon de lfach (rock at the end).  We really liked it there and have checked out the campsite which is a possible for another trip.

Moraira

On the way back, Iain asked if we could stop at what looked like an interesting church that he had seen from the road on our previous trip.  From the road in the direction of Calpe to Altea,  you can see some golden domes on top of a wooden building nestling in the hills.  I have to admit that I did say that he might be disappointed and that it might be an indian restaurant.  But Mr Right was right again and indeed it was a most stunning church.  In fact it was Church of the Archangel Michael which opened in 2007. This is the first Russian Orthodox Church in Spain which is after all a very Catholic country. Well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

Church of the Archangel Michael

The best thing was that we would have missed the church and Moraira if we hadn’t been “kicking out heels” hiring a car for 3 days instead of the planned one.

The following day (Monday) we returned the car. Jo and James kindly looked after Connie the smelly one for the day and we all took a bus into Benidorm.  Well you can’t come to Albir without a trip into Benidorm.  

Honestly, we did take him to Benidorm

For us this was the fourth time we had been into Benidorm but Dad had never been there before.  I think there were several times when he was open mouthed at what he saw.  We did the usual touristy things and went for lunch in a back-street tapas bar which was very enjoyable.  A walk along the sea front and the myriad of shops, a couple of souvenirs later we hopped back on the bus and returned to the sanctuary of Albir.

Tuesday lunchtime we took Dad for a big English breakfast at Oasis and he left shortly after lunch for his return journey home.  Ten days had gone, just like that.

So back on our own again with only two weeks left on this site.  We can’t believe that we have been living on this pitch for nearly FOUR months now – where has the time gone;  got bored? – certainly not; got drunk? – only once (well only once badly); done any crafting – not while the sun shines.

We even found a new bar to frequent called MeetPoint.  We had been told it was good but hadn’t ventured there before so after a disappointing meal at a restaurant that was purporting to be posh, we popped into MeetPoint for the customary Brandy and Coffee.  Well this place is great, comfy chairs, flowers on the tables,  nice people and the general feel that you are sitting in your conservatory.  Makes some other places look more like working men’s clubs.  Sorry Dad that we hadn’t discovered it earlier and taken you there.

Saturday and we decided to cook at home – just for a change.  Now I spent about 10 euros on dinner that I then had to prepare, cook and wash up afterwards and you can eat out for not much more than that – so that explains why we go out so often.  It will be a very different story when we get back into France.

We knew that there was live music at MeetPoint on Saturday between 5 and 7 so I cooked dinner before we went out and we would only need to heat it up and serve it when we got back.  But as has happened before our plans always seem to go out of the window.  We got back about 9.30 ‘ish and not in a state to appreciate dinner, so Iain went to bed without any supper, while I dived into bread and salsa dip (home-made I might add).   Dinner will now be served on Sunday – I hope.

It is sad that we are leaving this campsite and we keep saying, only two weeks left here now.  This sounds odd, as we may only have two weeks left, but we are then moving onto somewhere else, we are not going home to our house and jobs etc and keep having to remember that most people only get 2 weeks a year away.  Today, we’ve been living in our motorhome for 5 months and whilst I had to be taken kicking and screaming for leaving behind all our friends, family and STUFF – I’m absolutely loving it.

Easter Sunday

Dave was disappointed not to receive an Easter Egg from us on Friday and we politely informed him that Sunday is the day for Easter Eggs.  But of course that gave us an idea.  So we bought an egg cup and I “blew” an egg (for him!!!!!!!!!).  I then painted it blue in Chelsea colours and decorated it for him.  The initials CFD were put on in “glow in the dark” 3d paint and of course some girly sparkles.  I delivered it to his table at 7.30 this morning and he has been past our pitch a couple of times today but has not yet said anything.  We are waiting until the curiosity gets the better of him to ask what CFD stands for – shouldn’t it be CFC for Chelsea Football Club – then we are going to have to admit our nickname for him “Chelsea F**king Dave”.  Enjoy!!!!!

Happy Easter Chelsea F**king Dave

The Weather

The weather has been fantastic the last couple of weeks.  We have had some really strange sea mists where Calpe totally disappears, but generally it has been getting hotter and hotter. It really is time for us to move on, we even had 28 C this week.  Today is cooler as there is a strong breeze but it’s still T shirt and shorts. If it gets any hotter then it will be time for us to move north. 

Iain keeps saying that he doesn’t tan and I’ve explained to him several times that he has to meet the sun halfway and actually expose some flesh for that to happen.  Even he is now in shorts and sandals and you can see from the picture exactly what I mean.

Nice legs Iain!!!!!