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!!!!!

Bits and Pieces

Bizarre

We had met a couple in Wyndham’s one day and that is the sort of place that you get chatting, it’s a very friendly place full of locals and campsite people, mainly English.  The ice was broken a few days before when France were playing England at rugby and everyone was supporting France (because if they won then England would win the Six Nations) but the lady was supporting Ireland – because she was Irish of course, so there was some banter to be had.

A few days later we got chatting to them and it turned out that they lived in Broadstairs which is the town in which I grew up.  It turned out that Greg had lived in the area as a child and that he went to the same school as Iain but was a couple of years older than us.  We swapped names of brothers etc (all our brothers went to the same school as well, as did the ex Prime Minister, Ted Heath) but there was no connection. Suddenly Greg said that he thought he knew Iain.  Well we thought it would just be some vague recollection from  school when he said – “You used to work for a freight forwarding company at Ramsgate Hoverport” – so he did know him after all.  What a memory – that must have been in about 1978. It turned out that they still drink regularly with an old friend of Iain’s.  Well what a small world it is.

Morning Brandy

You must be thinking that we are just on one big round of partying and boozing by now – well you are not far wrong, however now that we are almost here alone – the campsite is emptying, friends have moved on and the Dutch are going home to check their tulips (it’s an Iain joke that not many people get) - we are trying to have some much drier days (that’s drier in drink rather than the weather which has been great).

There is a real café/bar culture here and we have got into the habit of going shopping late morning and then stopping at a bar for a coffee (me) and pint before going back for lunch – I’m not much of a day-time drinker and only drink before 6pm on special occasions – of which there have been too many lately.  But Morning Brandy is something else.  While we are walking to the supermarket, it is not unusual to see people sitting outside bars drinking pints, however we are still stunned to see brandy drinking in the morning.  Here you can often buy coffee and cake or coffee and brandy, the latter is usually cheaper than the former so it is sooooo easy (check out the El Cisne photos).  So on the way up the main street  we go brandy spotting. The earliest we have seen brandy drinking is 11.30 am but the search goes on for an earlier time.

Weather

The weather has been very good ever since we arrived with only a couple of days having rain and even at night the temperature very rarely getting below 10C .  However they do seem to have some very strong winds here and it’s been very blustery although warm.  A couple of days ago we had a very strange sand storm.  I know that it has been reported in the UK but here it actually rained sand and it started in the early evening.  Firstly the clouds were a strange red colour, you could actually see it coming in.  We were out and the cars were becoming covered, it was like snow but very, very fine sand and just a fine mist of rain.  Strangely you add sand to paint to make it non-slip, but when mixed with water and dropping onto marble it was very slippery walking home. This was followed by  some heavy rain during the night and by the morning everything was covered in a layer of very fine red sand dust.

This stuff is a nightmare to get rid of, couldn’t be brushed off and  had to be washed off. By 8 am most of the Dutch were out cleaning their vans and cars.  Luckily our end of the campsite is nearly empty so we only had to share the hose pipes with a few others.  There was a lot of complaining about water pressure but hey, there were a lot of hose pipes being used and they were climbing on their roofs to wash them.  We just sat and watched everyone else and then when they had all finished we set about cleaning our van and furniture.

Poor Hannah and Tomas had only cleaned their van a few days before in readiness for their departure.  We did smile however that after they had again cleaned their van, their neighbour brushed off the sand from the roof of his van and we could see it picked up in the wind and dumped again onto Tomas and Hannah’s.  

Later in the week we have experienced some weird sea mists.  A mist cloud that can come in within 5 minutes and then you are literally walking in the cloud - a bit like December in the UK.  The other day there was a band of it across Altea, whilst in Albir we were experiencing great weather.  It was so bad in Altea that the buses had to stop running.  The other evening we came out of the restaurant and it was warm then only 50 metres away it was cold because of the sea mist - more strange weather.

Neighbours

Firstly I’d like to say that we have been very lucky with our immediate long-stay neighbours.  Hank and Jenny were very friendly, spoke very good English (which came in useful at times) and they had their dog Monty with them.  The other side we had Nol and Meerke who we also got along very well with.  You will probably have already read about our short Sunday when we invited Nol and Meerke to join us. 

In the week before Nol and Meerke left we had a few drinks with them and they took us into Benidorm for a meal.  There are some advantages to having a caravan in that you have a car so at least you are mobile.  It was nice to go out in a car to somewhere else for a change.

We went to a hotel in Benidorm and we saw more of what it was like to be on a package holiday there.  The hotel had about 250 rooms and as I’ve said before overshadowed the side roads.  There was a nice big pool, but I would suspect that most of that would be in the shade for some of the day.

The food was a pretty good buffet service and the dining room could seat up to 700 people.

Afterwards we went to a bar not far away for coffee (and brandy of course).  Now I would liken this bar to a northern working men’s club.  Very little in the way of decoration to soak up the noise and bench seats all round.  It was just what it purported to be “The Cheap and Cheerful Bar”. As you may have gathered by now we are certainly not on the “Cultural” phase of our travelling!!!!!! It sounds like we are constantly in bars – but then when you are over 3 months in a place you can’t do sight-seeing all the time.  And one for Nick, who likes a bargain – the beer was only 1euro a pint – the cheapest we’ve seen anywhere.

We had lovely company however one evening in Benidorm was enough. We came back to the campsite and joined them for another drink – Nol however was being very good, just drinking a couple of beers  as he had to drive in a couple of days.  I’m sure we will keep in touch with Meerke and Nol and hope to see them here again next year.

However………………… as I’ve said before this campsite is 80% Dutch and some of them were less than friendly towards us – we didn’t mind this but some of the short-term stayers near to us did give me a bit of a downer.  We had a couple behind us and another couple next to us who were friends – however we learned that one couple had been here before and no one liked them.  Anyway they seemed to have a problem with our dog, as did some other Dutch on the campsite.  Now dogs will be dogs and dogs pee and poo where they want to.  We never leave the dog outside on her own, always watch her, make sure she doesn’t stray onto anyone else’s pitch  and are fastidious about clearing up after her and straight away. This is a dog-friendly campsite and whilst we take her for regular walks she is a little sh*t machine and there will always be a time when she will pee or poo on our pitch.

Well I had a couple of run-ins with our neighbours,  I was sitting outside when she squatted for a pee.  The next thing I knew the window of our neighbours van was thrust open and heads came out looking at where she had been.  I promptly took her inside. Then the man came out of the van and walked all around and I saw him shaking he head at the occupants as if to say he hadn’t found anything – I knew he wouldn’t.  Iain was out and the neighbour didn’t say anything to me but I could see the looks and feel the vibes!!!!! A couple of days later we were walking to the entrance when she squatted for a pee in the roadway.  Now this is tarmac and although it’s still on the campsite she thinks it’s a road so she thinks it’s ok.  Well this Dutch woman started yelling at me and gesticulating wildly “Off the camping, off the camping”.  By now I was starting to get paranoid.  It’s a long way to the entrance of the campsite and there’s no way my dog is going to get there before doing what dogs do.  Iain said I should tell them to go away in no uncertain terms but I don’t like confrontation so I just scuttle away.

I do understand and respect that not everyone has or indeed likes dogs, however this is a campsite which allows dogs and dogs will do what dogs do, so really if they have that much of a problem then they should choose a campsite which doesn’t allow them.  Legally it is not fouling if you pick up.

Luckily one couple moved off a few days later and the other moved further up the campsite.

Now the campsite is very empty in the run up to Easter and we have no close neighbours, in fact there are only 5 vans on about 25 pitches up our end.  Whilst I wanted to move down the other end at the beginning because they get more sun in the morning, I’m actually happy up our end of the campsite even though it’s a long way from the “Servicios”.

Family

Having dealt with neighbours, I’ll do family next.

A lot of people who winter in Spain have a big pull on the heart-strings to see grandchildren back home.  Often one partner doesn’t want to come until after Christmas or wants to go home early which can cause some problems.   Regretfully,  we don’t have that problem.  I don’t have any children and sadly Iain’s daughter passed away in January and his son is severely mentally disabled and lives in a care home.  He is very well looked after and we will visit him often when we are at home although he probably doesn’t know that we do.

We do both have siblings but they are of course adults and whilst we worry about them all they can take care of themselves.

Both our mothers are deceased, mine 20 years ago this year and Iain’s mum last March.  But we do have two dads who are like chalk and cheese.

Mine – has his own life (and a wife) and having emailed our plan for when we return to England, refuses to see us even if we are in the area – I haven’t seen him for about 9 years now – well that’s his decision.

On the other hand Iain’s dad is 80 this year and I dropped him an email this week to see if he was ok as we hadn’t heard from him for about a month.  The response we received basically said – sorry my internet has been down, I’m fine, see you Sunday, arriving in Alicante at 20.15.  How fantastic is that!   I had emailed in January to say that as we’d be here until the end of April why not come out for a couple of weeks of sunshine which would do him good,  but I didn’t want to push it in case he didn’t want to.  Then suddenly he’s coming with only 5 days notice.  Having nursed Iain’s mum for many years he seems to be getting out and about as much as possible and making the most of things – long may it last.

We’ve booked him into one of the “Log cabins” on site and as the weather is now quite warm I’m sure he will be fine – it was 18c last night.  These are basically a shed but they are fully equipped – I think that’s what is now called “Glamping” – camping in a shed instead of a tent or caravan.

We’re looking forward to seeing him and have planned some days out and a visit to El Cisne again next week. 

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