There are times when I really do wish that I could look into the future, although on this occasion, just having the ability to look forward over the next 5-6 weeks would have done for me 🤷‍♂️ Would the ‘Works of Fiction’ have got their forecasts wrong and allowed us to have a decent drive and exploration through France ? Would the ‘Strait of Hormuz’ re-open and start to at least ease the global fuel crisis ? Unfortunately I was not given the luxury of having time in which to make a decision on which direction the next leg of our journey would take. Then of course, I had another irritation to contend with, that being my OCD Buddy who was insisting, no, let’s be truthful about this, he was definitely demanding, that he had an input on any decision that I was considering, whether I wanted him to or not 😲 I knew it was a mistake to have allowed him to accompany us on this trip 🙄

However, in truth, it was not my OCD Buddy that was to be my biggest issue on this particular occasion, it was the clock that was against me, usually I can make advance, considered, decisions but, on this occasion if I didn’t make a decision soon, then the freedom to do so would almost certainly be taken out of my hands. Part of me wanted to just say ‘Go with the flow and stick with the original plan’, for in the past fate has always looked out for us and been on our side so, perhaps we should just let fate play our hand for us once again 🤷‍♂️ However, something was nagging irritatingly inside my brain, telling me that this was one decision that we really had to make for ourselves and soon, as time was not on my side. Now, if I elected to choose the ‘head over heart’ practical decision, that being to postpone the French adventure and just return to Spain, then we would need to amend our existing pre-booked ferry and that was the one thing that would pre-determine our fate, for if we were unable to amend that booking, irrespective of what the weather was like in France, or even the availability of fuel, then regardless we would be going to France as originally planned 🤷‍♂️

Personally speaking, apart from seeing our Grandchildren, which was actually only for three days, out of the nine that we had scheduled to be in the UK, we also had other family members to visit whilst we were in the UK so, I never really consider our visits to the UK as being an actual holiday, well not in the true sense of the word, as we always have a lot of travelling to do up and down the country and in a short space of time which gets to be quite tiring. To be completely truthful, I would have much preferred to have just driven up through Spain and straight across the border into France and not bothered with going to the UK, after all, our Son, Daughter-in-Law and three grandchildren had already pre-booked their usual annual two week Summer holiday, coming to stay with us in August, so it wasn’t as if we would be sacrificing seeing them, provided the Airlines had sufficient fuel and didn’t have to cancel flights. With our short stopover in Northern Spain, before catching the ferry to the UK, we had now been away from home for very nearly two weeks already and it was looking increasing likely that we may not even get to do any part of France 🤷‍♂️

The weather in France was one consideration, although it had gone from being a total washout at one stage, to there being several dry periods here and there, but the ‘Works of Fiction’ were changing their forecasts on a daily basis, at home in Spain we just go with the flow, but when you are away on a trip you just want it to be a bit more reliable so that you can plan on what you do and where you choose to go 🤷‍♂️ The temperatures even in France were still remaining on the much cooler side and, apart from experiencing a very short two day mini-heatwave in the UK, primarily with the wind chill factor, it had been bitterly cold and we were certainly hoping to get to go somewhere a lot warmer. The other quite important consideration was of course the fuel situation, for whilst there had been reports of a ‘potential agreement’, on a two week ceasefire in the Iran – USA conflict, that hadn’t actually materialised and therefore the fuel situation in Europe was deepening. We had seen prices for Diesel, within the UK, increase, during the short period of time we had been there, it went from £1.85 per litre when we had first arrived to £2.06 and we were now seeing some fuel stations ‘purportedly’ running out of both Petrol and Diesel. I had of course been keeping an eye on the fuel situation in France and had seen much the same issues being reported over there, although the Diesel prices there were being reported at being currently at €2.50 per litre (£2.17) and many of the smaller independent fuel stations were actually beginning to close down 😳 Although, I do have to say that what you read in the media, and the real situation, can very often be two quite different things. In Spain however, it was being reported that the fuel situation was stable and prices remained at around €1.87 (£1.63) 🤷‍♂️ although, to be fair the Spanish Government were still subsidising the cost, but for how long was the overriding question 🤷‍♂️

So, with time rapidly running out, my decision, based on everything that I was reading on a daily basis, had to be a common sense one, the last thing we wanted was to find ourselves stranded somewhere in France unable to get enough fuel to get us back home. Additionally, apart from the fuel issue, being stranded, for who knows how long, would have meant additional costs for food and accommodation, and if the weather was not good, being confined, unable to enjoy getting out and about would have driven us both mad. So, both my OCD Buddy and Shazza agreed with my reasoning, albeit reluctantly, for I had been looking forward to this France trip so much. Although I had made the decision, and before Shazza got back on to the Brittany Website to try to amend our ferry booking from France to Spain, we still tried to counter that decision with all of the ‘But what ifs’. However, we agreed to first try to see if we could amend our ferry booking, if we could, then that was it, we would be heading back to Spain but, if we couldn’t, then we would be forced to stick with our original ‘Plan A’ and, come what may, France it would be. As it was, Shazza, even at such very short notice, had no problems whatsoever with amending our booking, that told its own story, as we had no issues with booking the cabin accommodation that we wanted, and we even managed to book for use of the VIP Lounge again, which is generally severely restricted in its numbers and is often fully booked, so perhaps lots of other’s were now cancelling their holiday trips due to the fuel situation 🤷‍♂️ I had mixed feelings once Shazza had made the amendments, were we lucky to manage to change our booking ?or were we unlucky that we had been able to 🤔

So, we would now be heading on a 32 hour ferry journey back to Santander in Spain, as opposed to a much shorter 9 hour crossing to Caen/Oustreheim in France. I have to confess that, personally speaking, I had mixed feelings about it, although I think that Shazza was more relieved that we would be going back to Spain and had felt a certain sense of relief that I had at least come to a decision. I felt more disappointment, and a big part of me wished that I had just said let’s risk it and head to France as planned. However, as if to confirm that I had probably made the correct and logical decision, that same day, after amending our travel arrangements, when I did my rounds of the European ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts I saw this……………..

That thought of a rough crossing was tempered when I was looking at the Spanish News Media publications, and then a rather large smile returned to my face, okay it wasn’t France, but at least we would be returning to sunshine and much hotter temperatures😎

In our original plan, once we had finished the French part of the trip, we had planned to also do some sightseeing in Northern Spain and then down the Eastern Coastline before returning home, Donastia, Pamplona and Zaragoza and although we may not have packed too many shorts and tee-shirts in our suitcases on this trip, we had both brought swimwear and flip flops and it was looking likely that they would get to be worn quite a lot, if not on a beach then in a hotel pool, the holiday excitement started to return 🤗

As we would be arriving in Spain a lot further West than originally planned, I got back to doing some amendments to our original route planning, so instead of Donostia and Pamplona we agreed on travelling from Santander to Logrono, Zaragoza, Valencia, and then either Murcia or Toledo, dependent on how we felt, or more likely how many clean clothes we had left 😂

After having spent some time with Shazza’s mum, and also seeing her three brother’s and their families, and a couple of her Aunts and Uncles, it was time to head South again, so we spent another long day travelling back down to Swindon to spend a final day with our Grandchildren. We had travelled down the previous evening so that we could spend the following full day with them, as on that same day, in the early evening, we would be travelling back down to Portsmouth to get our ferry for our crossing back to Spain, we would depart Portsmouth at 10pm on the Friday night and arrive in Santander at 08:00am on the Sunday morning. Now I had planned to celebrate Shazza’s Birthday (17 April) in the French seaside resort town of La Rochelle, so that was a little disappointing that it wouldn’t come to fruition, but we could still celebrate it somewhere else in Spain, I just wasn’t sure where ?

When we turned up at our Son’s house early on the Friday morning, they were ready for us and Chris had Baked Shazza a Birthday Cake and the Grandchildren had decorated it, they had got a load of Birthday Balloons and they had also hand-made her some Birthday Cards, so although her Birthday wasn’t actually until the following week, it was a nice surprise for her, and a very nice way to end our visit with them.

We had a good, incident free journey, down to Portsmouth that evening after saying our farewells, which is always a lengthy process and one that I always have to allocate additional time for on my travel itinerary, when we visit them 😂 We had refuelled in Swindon at a supermarket fuel station (£1.87 per litre), just before going to our overnight hotel, knowing that we would have enough fuel to get down to the ferry and still have sufficient to at least start our road travels in Spain. However, I still made a stop at a Supermarket fuel station again, just a couple of miles from the Port, it is one that we usually use to top up when we are returning from the UK, although it only took 10 Litres and was still priced at €1.87, but at least now I was confident that we had a full tank, just in case things had changed in Spain when we got there.

In previous rambles over the year’s, I have made regular mention of the ‘Dark Forces’ that tended to plague us, more so when we were living full-time on our Motorhome adventures but they had kept paying us irregular visits since living in Spain, although their unwanted sudden appearances had been getting fewer. However, I should have known better than to rest on our laurels, for that is when they are at their most mischievous, and just as we were feeling rather smug with ourselves that we had managed to turn a ‘Negative’ into a ‘Positive’, in respect of our revised travel plans, they had been in the shadows watching us and we were to discover that ‘The Dark Forces Were To Strike Once Again’.

The ferry crossing was not as bad as the Weather and Wind Apps had forecasted, although I have to confess that it was a little more than what I had considered ‘Lumpy’ on our crossing from Bilbao to the UK. We certainly needed our sea legs this time and walking anywhere on the ferry, during the long passage, made it look as if ‘everyone’ had had one too many alcoholic beverages as we all involuntarily zig zagged our way to wherever it was that we were going 🙄 However, it didn’t prevent us from making our way, several times throughout the journey, to the VIP Lounge to eat our meals, not even Shazza suffered with any sea-sickness so it cannot have been all that bad, although she couldn’t read her ‘Kindle’, choosing instead to keep her gaze firmly fixed on the horizon outside of the large glass windows. Although I discovered that consuming several large glasses of Anti-Covid Vaccine, at every possible opportunity, had physical, not just medical attributes, as they appeared to counter the zig zagging effect, or then again, perhaps I just didn’t feel it when I bounced off the walls when returning to the cabin 😂

I was looking at the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts for the period when we got off the ferry, just casually looking to where we may be on Shazza’s actual Birthday. I was hoping to try and surprise her by pre-booking, without her knowledge, a nice luxury hotel for perhaps a 3-4 night stay, with either an outdoor swimming pool with a bar, or one that was beachfront, just so that she could totally relax and unwind a bit after all our travelling. But to our horror the original ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast had changed completely, and now the Spanish Media and ‘Works of Fiction’ were in cahoots with each other and had updated their last sunny predictions to this.

Let me ask you, have you ever wondered what it is that you must have done in your life that was so bad to have so much ‘bad luck’ rain on your parade 🤔 If it wasn’t ‘Brexshit’, a Pandemic, or a war somewhere in the world that impact globally, then it was the bloody weather, and yes of course, it could all change once again at a moments notice, I mean we all know how inaccurate, or just completely wrong, the ‘Works of Fiction’ often are. However, Fate certainly didn’t appear to be smiling upon us this time around, perhaps we have already had more than our fair share over the year’s and simply just used up all of our allowance 🤷‍♂️ However, I couldn’t be doing with anymore of this trying to second guess it all, “Perhaps we are not supposed to take extended holidays anymore, for this is the third consecutive one, that we have had to cut short” I said to Shazza in, I have to admit, quite a frustrated manner. Now she knew that normally I would just be quite passive about it, saying ‘Oh well, it is what it is, it is totally out of our control so I am not going to worry about it”, but on this occasion she knew that not only had I been quite excited at the prospect of touring several areas of France, and that I was extremely disappointed about having to make the decision to postpone it. However, although it wouldn’t be quite the same experience for me, I had cheered up at the thought that we would at least get some sort of a holiday before returning home, just the two of us spending time together, somewhere new just doing what we do and making more memories in the process. However, I had felt under time pressure to come to a reluctant decision over France, and now it was looking very much like our amended Spain trip was in jeopardy. We decided to wait until we arrived in Santander, if it was raining and the forecast hadn’t changed then we would just head straight back home, if they had changed the forecast yet again, back to a much dryer and warm outlook, then we would continue with ‘Plan B’ 🤷‍♂️ “Just out of interest” she said, “What is the weather like back at home”. But I had a grumpy head on by that time, which I have to say, is unusual for me “I haven’t looked and does it matter anyway, for what it may show now, or tomorrow or the next day, it could say the complete opposite a day later” I responded, so okay, perhaps I had not quite got over my disappointment of France completely 🤔 But she looked anyway, “Just out of curiosity” she said. I knew then that she had made her mind up on what she wanted to do and there was a certain joy in her voice when she showed me the forecast for the next ten days.

We arrived in Santander as scheduled at 08:00am, the sky was grey and cloudy and it was wet, not raining hard, just spits and spots as they say. We were one of the last to be offloaded as we had not pre-booked ‘Priority Disembarkation’ so we were in a queue to get through Immigration Checks. Now I had expected to just sail through (Excuse the pun), after all we were EU Residents and would not have to go through the EES procedure of facial recognition and fingerprints, but no, their were no separate lanes and we had to queue with all the British vehicles who did have to go through it, although once we got to the checkpoint we didn’t have to do all the EES stuff, which was lucky for the vehicle behind us who didn’t have to wait very long before getting processed themselves. “Well they haven’t got this very well organised” I said to Shazza, but our delay was only going to get worse as we were then stopped at the Customs Check Area, where they wanted to do a search of our vehicle for non-authorised products being brought into Spain, not weapons, explosives or drugs no, much more important than that, Meat or Dairy products 🤷‍♂️ Thank goodness I had eaten my ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast before departing the ferry that morning, otherwise my day may just have got even worse 😳 Whilst I was stood at the rear of the car watching them rummage through the boot contents, it was both wet and cold, it was only 10 degrees(c) and I had chosen to travel, in the anticipated sunshine, in a bloody tee-shirt 😡

It was 09:15 before we finally pulled away from the Port, whilst Shazza elected to do the first bit of the drive I double checked the weather forecast for both Logrono and Zaragoza , “Let’s just go home, to hopefully some dryer and warmer weather” I said, “Still wet then ?” she responded, although it was more of a rhetorical question. The ‘Dark Forces’ had won this particular battle I conceded 🙄

It would, the Sat Nav informed us, take 9 hours and 22 minutes, to complete the 1034 Kilometre journey (643 miles) to get home, and that was without a re-fuel or comfort stops, so I had estimated that it would be around 9pm when we arrived. The grey wet weather stayed with us until almost the half way point, with temperatures dropping, in the mountains, to -3 degrees(c) and an ice and frost warning displayed on the dashboard, it barely managed to reach double figures and we had the heating full on. Shazza drove for around two and a half hours before needing a ‘Comfort Stop’, so we took the opportunity to top up with fuel (€1.87) and make it a ‘Brunch stop. I then drove for five hours and gradually, as we got beyond half way we saw the temperature rise to 15 degrees(c) and started to see some blue sky and sunshine. We were just a few Kilometres North of Seville when I started to get tired, well it was more a case of monotony really, the scenery was, as usual, beautiful, but the roads were straight and long and I had been driving with the ‘Cruise Control’ on as there was very little traffic on the roads. We decided to make it our last fuel stop before getting home and also using it as a ‘Comfort Stop’, but without stopping for a coffee or anything to eat on this occasion, we were both still full from our earlier ‘Brunch’, although we did buy a bottle each of nice cold water. Fuel was still €1.87, not bad for motorway service stations, although I only needed 21 Litres, but the temperature was now 24 degrees(c) and the Air-con was set to ‘Cool’ and Shazza drove us home, although we stopped for something to eat just half an hour from home, realising that there was nothing in the fridge or freezer and we had no bread. Even so, we arrived home at exactly 7:15pm, spot on 10 hours and that had included three stops, “Someone was obviously not adhering to all the speed limits” I said to my little Luis Hamilton, but she responded with, “Well, let me see, who was doing most of the driving this time”, 😳 It was windy when we got out of the car, but still 21 degrees(c) and sunny, it doesn’t get dark here now until 9pm. However, although tired from our long drive, we still had to unload the car, that took three trips from the car park, up and down the stairs to the apartment, but we were glad to be home, in our own surroundings and no longer having to live out of a suitcase.

On our long journey home we had discussed all the disappointments of this trip, apart from seeing our Grandchildren, which is of course always nice, but we agreed that we probably have to admit that, as we are both getting more senior in year’s, long road trips are beginning to take their toll on the both of us. We tend now to enjoy shorter holiday trips, one’s where we go away for maybe just five or six days at a time, allowing two days for travelling to and from whichever destination we choose and then, three or four days exploring that location. We would probably enjoy doing two or three trips of that sort in a year, rather than one long extended one. That is probably the way we will now go in the future, no more extended trips, sticking to Spain, Portugal and possibly even the Southern parts of France on our road trips, but taking flights to the UK in the future, and then short City Breaks to some European destinations.

As I now sit on my balcony, rested from our previous days travels and enjoying my first morning coffee back at home, whilst looking out on the blue Mediterranean Sea, the blue sky, even freighters and cargo ships passing to and from the Strait of Gibraltar, at least there are still some vessels moving I think to myself, but I find myself questioning, once again, why we actually feel the need to travel anywhere else, when we already have everything we enjoy and need right here 🤷‍♂️ I then start to read the main headlines on the World Media pages and it doesn’t look like the World is going to get any better, anywhere, in the near future with all the conflicts going on, impacting and causing so much chaos, not just the current fuel crisis, the cost of living, the general economies, the environment and even disruptions to global travel and yes, not even the ‘Works of Fiction’. I am not surprised at why there is a lot of depression and despair these days, but this morning I elect to put on my much more positive head once again. I accept that no, I cannot control or influence any of what is going on in the outside world, but yes, I can control and influence what is going on in our own lives, and that is all that matters, so here we are, back at home in our own little bubble of tranquility, back to normal everyday routines and yes, there is certainly something good to be said for that 😉

Sorry to disappoint all my reader’s who were looking forward to reading all about our French adventures, but I guess there will, at some point in the future, and perhaps even before the official start of our Summer, still be some to read about, albeit perhaps only much shorter mini-adventures, for now though, I have to say that it feels really good to be back in the safety and comforts of our happy place, that is of course unless Donald Trump decides to continue with his MAGA campaign and invades, or goes to war, with someone else, perhaps now that his mate in Hungary has been dethroned it may be them next, or even the whole of Europe, after all, he likes to go Large, and not just at McDonalds 😂

Until the next ramble…………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

On checking the ‘Wind Map App’ just prior to departing Bilbao, it looked as if we would be in for a bit of a bumpy sailing across the Bay of Biscay. I just don’t know what is about any of these weather related forecasts these days, but they just don’t appear to get their predictions correct. There were ‘swells’ which did cause the ferry to roll slightly, but that is normal, we have been on previous crossings where we have bounced of the walls when trying to walk along corridors, and many a time Shazza, who can get sea sick just standing in a puddle, has laid on the bed in the cabin and stayed there for the full duration of the trip 🤢 However, on this occasion we were able to go to the VIP Lounge where we took all our meals, Lunch and Dinner on the first day and Breakfast and Lunch on the second and, over the 32 hour crossing we did occasionally walk around the various decks on the boat just to stretch our legs so, all in all, a very reasonable crossing.

We had a cabin that had a nice big viewing window, however, apart from the odd fishing vessel, or a freighter or two on the horizon, we rarely saw anything else, not even any Dolphins or Whales on this trip. So it came as a nice surprise, when I just randomly took a look out of the window, to see us passing a three masted sailing yacht.

Five days after leaving our home in Southern Spain, we arrived in Portsmouth, England on schedule at 9pm. We did wonder if, due to the UK ETA procedures, there would be separate Immigration lanes for British Citizens and Non-British Citizens and, if so, whether driving a Spanish Registered car through a UK Only Citizens lane would create any issues. As it turned out there were no separate lanes, however the Immigration Officer had noted our Registration Plate as when we presented our Passports he asked, “Are you visiting for long ?” and “Where are you travelling to today ?”, he was quite friendly and wished us a pleasant stay and then we were on our way, it was all quite painless really. By 10:30pm we were checking-in at our pre-booked hotel.

I won’t bore you too much with our time spent with our Grandaughter’s, suffice to say we had a very active few days with them, Ten Pin Bowling, walks to the Play Park, visits to various Eateries and Ice-Cream Parlours, yes ice-cream, even on cold days 🥶 Although the adults quite sensibly stuck to hot coffee and cake. Swindon also has a couple of nice country parks and we visited them too.

So, after a very active few days 😮‍💨 it was time to head three and a half hours North to South Yorkshire, we would be staying this time with Shazza’s mum and enjoying a short, but much welcomed, two day mini-heatwave, temperatures reaching 24 degrees(C) 🥵 Our time whilst here would be spent either visiting Shazza’s other family members, or them visiting us but the fuel crisis was constantly on our minds. Although we could have easily have got to Doncaster with fuel to spare, we had decided to just keep topping up when we could, so we departed Swindon we called in to a ‘BP’ fuel station on the outskirts of the town, Diesel here being £2 per litre, we only needed 14 Litres, although we could have got it a little cheaper at a Supermarket fuel station, but that would have meant deviating off our route. As we drove up we noticed that a lot of the pumps had collars on them stating “Fuel Not Available At This Pump” 😳 that applied to both Petrol and Diesel, however, we did manage to find a pump there that did have diesel available. When I went in to pay I asked the chap behind the counter if the fuel supply was getting worse, he told me that he should have had a tanker deliver him fuel five days previously, but that it hadn’t arrived until the previous day, and then he was only permitted to have half of the tanker contents 😲 Every time we drove past a fuel station we looked at the prices, but also we looked to see how many had ‘No Fuel’ collars on the pumps and some did, but other’s didn’t 🤷‍♂️ However, a few minutes away from Shazza’s mums we knew that there was another fuel station, so we stopped and topped up again, this time with 17 Litres (£2 Litre). However this time there were no fuel collars on any of the pumps and, when I asked about whether they were having any issues I was told ‘No’, and that they had two deliveries a day, because they were on a major motorway route, and the tanker drivers had, ‘allegedly’, told them that they couldn’t get it out fast enough 😳 So it seems that we had experienced a ‘Tale Of Two Cities’, a North South divide. The main thing was that as it stood, we had sufficient fuel in the tank which would get us back down for a final day visit to our Grandaughter’s in Swindon, and then still have sufficient to get us to Portsmouth and into France, but we would try and refuel again at a fuel station we have used previously just a couple of miles before the ferry port before getting our ferry to France, where Diesel, according to media reports, is apparently between €2.20-€2.30 per litre and still on the rise 😲 So, here in the UK, dependent on where we re-fuelled, we were still able to get diesel at a cost of between £1.86 and £2.00 per litre. We would continue to monitor the fuel situation on a daily basis, but we also had another dilemma, that being the adverse weather in France !!

We knew, well roughly at least, the direction we would be heading in France, as we journeyed from the Northern Coast of Normandy down towards the Pyrenees and the Spanish Border, although we had no specific route, as we wanted to be flexible as to where we would go and where we would stop, for we had planned on spending around 3-4 weeks just exploring the numerous different Regions, Cities and Towns in France, before exploring some places in Northern Spain, that we had not previously visited, like Donastia (San Sebastian), Pamplona and Zaragoza before heading home again, which would be a total road trip, including the 9 days in the UK, of around 7-8 weeks 🤗

However, each morning and evening, whilst we have been in the UK, I have checked the weather forecasts for the different areas we would potentially be travelling through, disappointingly it showed wall to wall rain, North to South including Northern Spain 😲 It was looking as if those ‘Dark Forces’ had it in for us yet again, our only hope was that the ‘Works of Fiction’ would do what they normally do, and get it wrong. However, in Northern Spain, on the Eastern side, although they were currently forecasting that they too, in the North and Central areas, were currently having day on day of rain, but that was due to change with effect from the 12th of April, when the sun would return, with daily temperatures of between 23-27 degrees(c), now that sounded more like it 😎 However, we only had a short window of opportunity if we wanted to ‘try’ to change our ferry bookings from France to Spain, for even now, at such short notice, that may not be possible, decisions decisions 🤔

We had both been looking forward to a few weeks exploring France, for whilst it was nice to see family in the UK, with all the travelling, and family visiting that we do, it isn’t really a holiday for us. Even when we were living full-time in our Motorhomes, both ‘Big Momma’ and ‘Little Fokker’, we never really travelled that much in France and so there are so many places that would be new for us, which we were quite excited about but, will they be as enjoyable in the rain ☔️

The media reports showed no sign of the fuel crisis easing, and whilst it may still have been available now, even if a ceasefire was agreed between Iran and the USA, they were saying that it could still take months for the flow of Oil, and other essential goods, to reach countries. So, our primary fear now being that as fuel reserves diminished, UK, France and even Spain may introduce fuel rationing, to essential user’s first with domestic users being the lowest priority. Governments do not want to create a state of Panic that would creat people bulk buying, so they are cautious not to be open about the real situation, but they could implement rationing at short notice.

We could not have foreseen this crisis at the time of booking our travels and advance accommodations, but now, we were both asking ourselves whether it would actually make more sense to just cut short this extended holiday trip and go straight home ? At least once at home we were not really reliant on diesel fuel for our car, we could still go out walking and could do our general shopping at local stores, in small amounts that can be carried up our hill, and over a period of days rather than in one large shop. To be truthful, we had anticipated that most of our time, whilst we were on the road, would be taken up on deciding which places we would be travelling to next, researching what there was to see and do in and around those places and what scenic routes we could take to them and not being concerned about the availability of fuel, or what the weather situation would be like in mid-April in Europe 🤷‍♂️

I did mention to Shazza that when I looked back on it, that we had not been very lucky on our last two or three road trips, having to also cut them short too, for one reason or another 😤 But, with my more positive head on, I also just mentioned that at least we were not being bombed, or finding ourselves homeless, or not being able to go on, or return from holiday as flight’s were being cancelled at short notice, it would be so easy for us to get despondent, but as I said to Shazza, “There are always people who are worse off than ourselves”, although I am not sure that in reality my words provided any sort of consolation, for either of us 🤷‍♂️ Shazza told me that she would leave the final decision on what we did completely up to me, not that she was putting it all back on to my shoulders but more because it was she that had wanted to come to the UK, as part of the overall trip, but she knew that I was really looking forward to the France part of the road trip. So this was probably going to be a practical head over heart decision for me, no pressure then 🙄

To discover the decision that I made, based of course on availabilities of an alternative ferry, if required, all will be revealed in my next ramble………………

Adios mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

We awoke on our first morning in Bilbao, not knowing what sort of weather would greet us, the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts had all reflected differences of opinion, nothing new there then, I thought to myself, but the main disagreements were not as to whether it would, or would not, rain, more as to how much of the wet stuff would actually fall down upon us. It was also a Sunday, which meant that the majority of shops would be closed, as is pretty much normal here in Spain, but unlike our own area down on the Costa del Sol, these closures also included a large majority of the Cafe/Bars and Restaurants. However, sometimes it pays to have an OCD Buddy, one who had prepared for this in advance, and had fortunately had the foresight to provide a list of around six establishments that would actually be open, where we could at least grab a morsel for breakfast and lunch. We could of course have taken the option of having breakfast in our hotel restaurant but, at €20 ‘each’ for the privilege 😲 for Shazza and I at least, that expense just would not be justified, as I am not really a breakfast sort of person and Shazza is happy with just a bowl of yoghurt and fresh fruit.

I looked out from the large glazed windows on the enclosed balcony, the sky was a little cloudy but the road, pavement and large wide riverside promenade were completely dry. The branches on the trees that lined the riverside were blowing, in what looked like quite a stiff breeze but there were lots of people walking, jogging and cycling and, whilst they were all well wrapped up in outdoor coats or rain jackets, there was no sign of any of them with umbrellas, neither in the up position or being carried, so we got ourselves showered and dressed and headed out into the streets of Bilbao.

Our hotel room directly overlooked the tidal ‘River Nervion’ which eventually flows out into the Bay of Biscay, and was located on the Eastern side of the city, within the ‘Old Town’ district. On the opposite bank was the newer and much larger modern side and, weather permitting, over the next couple of days we would attempt to explore both. But first we needed a little bit of sustenance and this particular morning’s breakfast establishment was, according to ‘Mr Google’, just a short twelve minute stroll away, what he didn’t reveal was that ten minutes of that walk was all uphill, Shazza certainly didn’t rush to thank me for that one 😮‍💨

It was a very small local back street Cafe, the sort we like, and where a generous slice of warm ‘Tortilla’, accompanied with a chunk of crusty Baguette, and a hot freshly brewed cup of ground coffee beans, cost us €3.50 each and, even I managed to eat, probably due more to the energetic morning walk which had made me have an unaccustomed breakfast appetite. When we had initially arrived at the Cafe it was quite busy, a group of females, comprising of a mixed age group, were all dressed in running gear and wearing some sort of Athletic ‘Bibs’, advertising something that we were unable to interpret, we assumed quite naturally that they were probably participating in some sort of a weekend charity ‘Fun Run’, or perhaps even that they were part of a local community running group, however, we were to discover a little later that morning, the true meaning of those bibs and that it was part of a very much larger Regional event 🤔 Mid way through enjoying our relaxed breakfasts we saw, out of the windows, the first few drops of wet stuff darkening the pavement and road surfaces outside, but we had come prepared, with our rain jackets and hats, although, by pure good luck, by the time we had finished our breakfast’s and paid our bill, it had stopped, perfect timing we both agreed.

We had no real plan of action for the day, other than acknowledging that the weather may play a role in the extent and duration of our explorations, but for those that are regular readers of these rambles, and followers of our mini-adventures, you will know that we just like to wander aimlessly, quite often getting lost down narrow cobbled streets and alleyways, but in doing so, nearly always stumbling across things that provided us with memorable experiences, today would prove to be another one of those days 🤗

We did agree that we would initially remain on ‘our side’ of the river and explore the ‘Old Town’, but you know us, and so that didn’t really mean anything, we would end up where we ended up 🤷‍♂️ We are not the sort that go hunting out Museums, historical or otherwise, or even Art Galleries, although occasionally we may elect to visit a few, as we do with Cathedrals, Monasteries, Convents and Castles, however, we do like looking at the old style Architecture, and there was plenty of that on offer in the old part of town, we also have a strong tendency to lean more towards the kind of places that provide local delicacies, if you get my drift 😉 with perhaps the odd opportunity, here and there, to partake of some of the more ‘fortified’ refreshments, well it can be thirsty work this exploring lark 😂

From the hillside cafe we made our way back down to the river and decided to just follow the lovely wide promenade walkway. The streets and pavements were much busier now and we saw a local Bilbao TV & Radio Station setting up a platform with cameras and associated recording equipment ? Across the river we could hear the sound of a public address system with loud music emanating from them, frequently interjected by verbal announcements, which we of course were unable to understand, we cannot understand many of the ones that are delivered in English 🤷‍♂️ We saw dozens on dozens of people all wearing the same ‘Athletic style Bibs’ that we had seen earlier, and there was a lot of people carrying and waving huge flags, our curiosity was certainly raised as to what was going on, could this be like the large marathon events held in other cities around the globe 🤷‍♂️ Initially we were a little confused, as generally we could interpret Spanish words on advertising posters, and could generally decipher parts of the local Spanish conversations that we overheard, but we were having great difficulty understanding anything we heard on this particular morning, that was until ‘The Penny Finally Dropped’ 🙄

Although you know that Shazza and I are generally ‘History Heathens’, I think that I should perhaps just provide you with a little bit of historical context for you to understand this particular, and quite unique, area of Spain that we are in, for this small corner of Spain is the ‘Basque Country’, which not only has its own quite separate cultures, culinary and otherwise, from the rest of Spain, but quite unique to this region it has its own centuries old language, which even the bulk of Spanish speakers themselves do not understand, let alone International tourists with a smattering of Espanyol 😲 So bear with me whilst I attempt to condense a whole cultures history into a very, very brief explanation 🤷‍♂️

The ‘Basque’ region is currently very much the same as many other regions in Spain, much like our own region of Andalusia, it is what is known as an ‘Autonomous’ Region, largely self-governing, but whereas all other regions in Spain all speak ‘Spanish’, with some small regional dialect differences, the Basque Region is unique in that it has its very own ‘Officially Recognised’ language. The Basque region has been, for very many years, even prior to the notorious Civil Uprising against the Castro regime, been lobbying to become an Independently recognised State within the borders of Spain, and several local ‘Referendums’ are still being held where a large majority of inhabitants of the region continue to push for this to happen, but the Central Spanish Government have resisted this call and so it is still very much an active and ongoing debate. Now I admit that this is my own very ‘simplistic’ interpretation of the matter, it goes a lot deeper into cultural differences and traditions, but you can dig into this further yourselves if you are interested. The Autonomous region of Catalonia attempted to do this itself more recently, but in a much more aggressive manner, and it ended up with Central Government putting tanks onto the streets of Barcelona 😲 Anyway, enough of that, back to our brief but more peaceful and enjoyable visit to just a small part of this Basque region.

Now some publications and travel documentaries would have you believe that the ‘Basque’ people are quite insular, secretive and even unwelcoming and unfriendly to ‘outsiders’, including their native Spanish compatriots. Now that may possibly be true of those in much smaller rural close knit communities, I really honestly don’t know 🤷‍♂️ However, what I do know, from our short personal experience here in Bilbao is, that that is certainly not the case, most do speak the normal Spanish language and they certainly appreciate visitor’s who attempt to speak it, but Bilbao, much like Santander and Donostia (San Sebastian) which are themselves International tourist locations, do also speak some English.

By way of an example, Shazza and I we were both stood waiting, amongst the crowds, on a bridge spanning the river, waiting for some sort of a procession to pass by when a woman, with a toddler in tow, came and stood next to us, to also view the procession. I noticed that she too was wearing one of the Athletic style bibs, so not being backwards at coming forward, and in my limited but sufficient Spanish, mixed with a little bit of ‘Spanglish’ 🤭 I asked her the significance of them. She explained, in Spanish, not Basque, that today was the eleventh, and final day, of a run by a group of purely ‘Basque’ people. This group of runners had spent the last eleven days running around towns and villages through the whole of the Basque Region, an annual event, to celebrate the continued existence and support of this local Autonomous community, only true Basque born and bred people wore these ‘Bibs’ and, whilst they did not all participate in the whole eleven day run, many inhabitants from the local towns and villages would join the run in their area, and then many of them travelled to be here in Bilbao where their would be entertainment, music, culinary events and general partying in the streets, the whole day and well into the evening. She then asked us the usual questions, where we were from, why we were in Bilbao and then said that she hoped that we would join in the festivities and have a really enjoyable day. Purely by coincidence, very much later that day, on our way back to the hotel, she saw us and recognised us, she stopped us and asked if we were enjoying ourselves, and then said that she hoped that we would enjoy our second day exploring her city. Now whilst we had many memorable moments that day, that one particular moment just rounded off our day perfectly, we certainly had no prior knowledge of this event when we had originally booked our ferry tickets, but it is unplanned coincidences such as this, that make visits to places just that little bit more special and which create such lasting memories.

Anyway, I digressed a bit again didn’t I 🤔 Along the riverside path there were all sorts of tents and gazebo’s being erected, at one very long tent their were rows on row of trestle tables and chairs set up, and in a cooking area there were seven huge deep circular pans bubbling away on top of gas fired stoves, I could see that each pan contained something different, meats, vegetables, rice and then, right at the end there were large containers stuffed full of long Baguettes, this was obviously going to be one hell of a communal feast, the question buzzing around inside my head was, is this for invited guests only, perhaps a reward for all the participants of the eleven day run 🤔 We certainly couldn’t see anywhere selling tickets 🤷‍♂️

We continued walking, weaving our way through armies of extremely jovial folk, family groups with babies and toddlers, groups of teenager’s, some mixed groups and others gender specific, all had come prepared with rucksacks on their backs and carrying large flags identifying the ‘Basque Region’. Many were holding plastic beakers containing beer or wine, but there was no drunken or loutish behaviour, well at least not yet, after all it was still morning. Then we saw the groups of more ‘Senior’ members of this community with a lot of the men folk wearing the traditional ‘Black Basque Beret’, although these days they can be purchased in different colours and are worn more as a fashion accessory, but they are still a highly significant piece of headgear in these parts, dating back to the ‘Castro’ era and the resistance fighters that opposed the regime, but today was not about protests, or rebellions, it was about celebrating a way of life that has survived through multiple generations. We did not at anytime feel unsafe or intimidated, although it was quite apparent that we were ‘outsiders’.

We turned away from the river and into the narrow paved streets, there were primarily 3-4 storey high buildings, of differing colours and designs, many had local retail outlets at ground level, fruiterias, mini-markets, pastelerias, clothes, shoes, hardware stores and of course small bars, in fact a lot of small bars, in every street we wandered down, and every one was full, with people spilling out onto the narrow streets with their drinks, and plates of Pinxto’s, talking, laughing, and joking. Above were the accommodations, from the number of bell presses outside each door we obviously assumed these were more individual apartments rather than single occupancy dwellings, the Basque flags draped from many of the balconies. We obviously realised that as good and considerate as my OCD Buddy had been, at preparing a small list of hostelries that would be open on a Sunday, this turned out to be no ordinary Sunday and we would not be short of choices, provided that we were prepared to wait our turn in getting to the bar area. Of course, these were the traditional ‘Pinxtos’ Bars, we made sure we did not make the mistake of referring to them as ‘Tapas’, that would almost certainly have got us lynched 😲 So, when in Rome, as the saying goes, although we were in Bilbao, today’s lunch would comprise of what the British call a ‘Pub Crawl’, well we would be on the equivalent, ‘A Pinxtos and Vermut’ bar crawl, note not my typical Anti-Covid Vaccine of choice🍷 but it was my second favourite so I wasn’t complaining 😉 and, as Shazza had no reasonable excuse as she had no driving to do, she elected to join me and I knew then that this day could get, on a personal basis, quite messy 😳 Whilst we were in several different bars we heard the music and as we looked out we could see the ‘white hooded’ processions passing by, there was no way I was going to risk fighting my way back out to grab a photo, so you will just have to take my word for it.

We had been extremely fortunate with the weather, we did encounter a few very brief periods of the wet stuff but certainly nothing of any significance, and when the raindrops fell we didn’t have too much difficulty in finding a Bar to shelter in, the younger element didn’t appear to notice the wet stuff, but more importantly, none of the organised events and celebrations had been affected, and so we were grateful that the ‘Works of Fiction’ had, in the main, got this one wrong.

It was amazing at just how quickly the morning had turned into afternoon and then early evening and we were beginning to get quite leg weary, Shazza informing me that we had covered a distance of some seven miles and, to be quite honest with you, we were both beginning to feel a little worse for wear, although it certainly had nothing to do with the distance we had covered, perhaps one too many ‘Pinxto’s’ 😂 We made our way back to the hotel with the aim of having a bit of a Siesta, before coming out again to join in the nigh-time festivities and finding somewhere to eat dinner. We ended up spending a little more time engaged in ‘Siesta’ 😴 and did not awake until well after midnight 😳 by which time we had lost any motivation to rejoin the revelry that we could still hear going on outside, but it wasn’t intrusive.

DAY 2:

I had been awoken again in the very early hours of the morning, not this time by the sounds of music or laughter, but by the sound of heavy rain pounding on the balcony windows, at least the ‘Works of Fiction’ had delayed its earlier forecast and had allowed the bulk of the Sunday celebrations to be conducted without too much disruption, and on that happy thought, I drifted back off to sleep.

By the time we had awoken again, at a more respectable time later that morning, and surprisingly, feeling none the worse for wear from our slight excesses of the previous day, I again looked out of the windows and discovered that it was another fairly bright morning, a little bit more overcast than the previous day, but at least it was still dry, although, on checking the ‘Works of Fiction’, it did not look as if it would be staying that way for very much longer, still, we needed to get out whilst the opportunity allowed, across to the more modern side, to hunt down breakfast and to explore what we could of the more modern part of Bilbao.

Our first stop would be at a Cafe that I had discovered on ‘Mr Google’, it advertised itself as a ‘Healthy Eating’ establishment, although not ‘Vegan’ or even ‘Plant Based’ as their were Ham, Eggs and Cheese within the menu options, but that said, there were certainly many more choices that were more in keeping with Shazza’s palate, probably around 80% of what was on the menu. To be quite honest, even the Pinxto bars the previous evening, had several non-meat options, although I wouldn’t go as far as saying that any were ‘Vegan’ or totally ‘Plant Based’, but at least Shazza did now eat eggs and some fish so she had enough choices to prevent her from starving. Later on that second day, whilst we were dodging between rain showers, and more by luck than judgement, we did come across another cafe/bar that advertised on a large neon sign, ‘Healthy Food Porn’, only natural sugars, no glutens and no artificial flavourings or colourings, although on this occasion, still stuffed from our healthy breakfast’s, she only had a Roasted Bean Coffee with Oat Milk and I settled for freshly squeezed Orange juice.

By the time we had finished our very generous breakfast’s the heaviest of the rain had stopped and it was now just a continuous light drizzle, we decided to take our chances on either the wet stuff stopping completely, or else we would have to find somewhere else to take shelter, it was going to be one of those sort of days 🤷‍♂️ It was a normal weekday so it was very busy with traffic and pedestrians and, oh my goodness, they must hold the record here for the most number of traffic lights, roundabouts and pedestrian crossings and, as their were multiple exits off of the roundabouts, we found ourselves stood for long periods just waiting for the pedestrian light’s to turn green, good job we were wearing hats 🙄

We made our way to a large park, on a drier day we would have enjoyed just walking around it but instead, we discovered a shopping mall right next to it, and yes, of course it would have been stupid not to 😂 It wasn’t a large shopping mall but it was sufficient time to take a leisurely stroll and then when we came back out again, it was to a surprising brief spell of sunshine. Now of course, you cannot come to Bilbao and not go and take a look at the ‘Guggenheim’, it is what modern Bilbao is now famous for. I had seen this on numerous Travel Vlogs on ‘You Tube’ and several TV Travel Documentaries, so I already felt as if I had seen it all before, but yes, you are right, it would have been rude not to 🤷‍♂️ Although, and because we really are history heathens, we unanimously agreed not to pay €30 each to go and look inside, and that would have been the case even if it had been thunder and lightening 😂 But it wasn’t, so we didn’t have to put those principles to the test.

To be honest, we both do like Architecture, primarily the older stuff, but we do also like some of the modern stuff, however, I wasn’t exactly overly impressed with this, it didn’t seem to live up to all the hype, or perhaps we had just seen it, from every angle, including drone footage, too many times before. We persevered and walked around it, even taking a couple of photo’s, although I could have just cut and pasted those from some other media publication and you would never have known 🤭 But no, we were there and these photo’s were taken with my very own ‘clicker finger’, honestly. I should just say though, that as we crossed a footbridge back into the ‘Old Town’ district, the ‘Guggenheim’ looked a lot more impressive from a distance.

Another thing that I do enjoy is walking along Riverside promenades, this one in Bilbao can be walked on both sides and at several locations, on both sides, are various sculptures, some just modern art sort of stuff and other’s are statues of various people or scenes. There was one that we came across with four women dragging rope but there was no explanation of what they were representing. It had intrigued me, to the extent that I had to do some research to discover whether this was just an artistic sort of thing with no particular relevance, or……………….🤔

What I discovered was that these Bronze Statues are known as ‘Las Sirgueras’ (Rope Girls) and are a fairly recent addition to the riverside Paseo, only being unveiled in 2021. They are to honor the 19th Century ‘Basque Women’ who physically towed cargo ships, laden with ‘Iron’, along the Estuary during the Spanish ‘Carlist Wars’, whilst the men folk were away fighting and so, these statues represent the recognition of ‘Invisible Women’s Contribution’ to the Industrial, Economic and Social Development of Bilbao. Even though our walk had been interrupted several times by the wet stuff, it hadn’t really spoilt our wanderings and, as usual, we had no specific ‘must see’s’, apart from the Guggenheim of course, we just walked along a street then, for no reason inparticular, would divert down another, then another to see if there was anything of interest. The city centre didn’t offer much, we are not shoppers and just like many other modern cities and large towns, the busy internal streets were filled with the same corporate retail chains so we chose to just head for the riverside and the outer periphery, to look at the views. There were boats doing the usual tourist scenic trips and to be honest, although a little chilly, it would have been a good day to do one, as most looked pretty empty, apart from a handful of souls on board. However, over the last couple of days we had probably walked beyond where the tour boats would have gone, and along both banks of the river, so we didn’t bother with a boat trip ourselves. Once back on the Eastern side of the river we were back in the Old Town district where the riverside promenade was more of a relaxed tree lined avenue sort of walk, the river on one side and the quieter roads on the other. On our first day we had walked a little over seven miles in total, on this second day only five miles, but we were beginning to get a little leg weary so when we came to our hotel we both agreed that we were still pretty much full from our earlier generous breakfasts, so we didn’t need lunch, although it was well past lunchtime, but a rest and a coffee in our hotel room would suffice, okay, and probably a brief Siesta 😂

Whilst Shazza read a book on her ‘Kindle’ I did another check on the street map just to ensure that we hadn’t missed out on anything, but we hadn’t, their was a Basilica in the Old Town District, but Shazza wasn’t overly enthralled so we decided that we would go out later that evening just to find somewhere to eat before returning to re-pack our suitcases and rucksacks, ready for our drive to the Brittany Ferries Terminal the following day. We generally find that for cities like Bilbao, two full days of exploration and sightseeing is just the right amount of time for us, although in larger cities like Madrid, Valencia, Seville and Malaga, well they required perhaps a little longer, although the latter two being on our doorstep so we can, and have, done them in several day visits. But we had enjoyed our short two day visit here in Bilbao and agreed that it really does have much more to offer than just being a gateway to the UK.

The following morning, we checked-out of our hotel and manoeuvred our way through the ‘Old Town’ labyrinth of narrow one-way streets, towards the ferry terminal, which Google Maps showed would be a journey time of just 22 minutes. We stopped at the first ‘Repsol’ fuel station that we came across, just to top the tank up for when we first arrived in the UK, the cost of a litre of Diesel in these parts had now hit the €2 mark (£1.74) 😲 however, it was still readily available and I had read nothing to indicate that it was going to be rationed here in Spain, although we were not confident on just how long that would remain the case if the US/Iran conflict were to go on for very much longer.

Checking in at the terminal and going through the outbound Immigration formalities was a breeze, we just presented our Spanish Residency Cards alongside our British Passports, which are no longer stamped, and we were directed to our appropriate boarding lane. We were one of the first cars to be boarded, as we had payed for ‘Priority Disembarkation’, we were directed to the parking garage on level 3 on the ferry and positioned right at the exit door, at least we would get a good start upon arrival in Portsmouth on the Wednesday evening, where, if we were on schedule, at 9pm meant that we would then only have a 90 minute drive to our pre-booked hotel accommodation in Swindon. But for now, it would be 32 hours of enforced relaxation, although I had previously stated in an earlier ramble that it was only a 27 hour crossing, I obviously now am beginning to have an issue with my numeric abilities 😂

Next stop, dear old Blighty so, until my next ramble…………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

We pulled out from our car park at 07:20am, now normally my OCD Buddy would be in a state of high anxiety at this point, after all, we had scheduled ourselves to depart promptly at 07:00am, but even he appeared to be in holiday mode and was quite chillaxed about the twenty minute delay. It was daylight, the sun was up, although it was still low in the sky, necessitating the need to wear sunglasses even at that early hour of the morning 😎 but it was already 12 degrees(c), so at least we had a good dry start to our long drive. The ‘Works of Fiction’ though, forecasted that we would encounter the start of the wet stuff before we even reached Madrid, some six hours drive away and to be honest, we would be spending a lot more time driving at higher altitudes, so I guess we would be very much closer to any threatening rain clouds 😉 It made me remember that, although you only really think of the more popular mountainous areas in Spain as being the ‘Sierra Nevada’, Picos de Europa or the Pyrenees, the rest of Spain, North to South, has very many more mountainous regions and, as the bulk of our journey would primarily be inland, we would be travelling through a great deal of them, so we would just have to wait and see how long it would be before the sunglasses had to be removed.

I had elected to do the first stint at the wheel, which would allow Shazza to tuck into her pre-prepared healthy home-made breakfast of Natural Oats, Blueberries, Greek Yoghurt, Nuts and Honey, when her stomach clock told her the time was right, which actually turned out to be only around thirty minutes after being on the road 😂 As she is not one for taking photographs, there will be no images of the landscapes for the first three hour’s or so of the journey, but regular reader’s of these rambles will have seen them many times previously anyway. To be completely honest with you, my own initial thought, before even commencing this journey, was that it would probably be quite a long and boring road trip even for us, as we had seen it all before, very many times. However, that proved to be a totally wrong assumption on my part, as the landscapes were still just equally as awesome as they had previously been. I often say in my rambles that the landscape views, whether they be in our own local area, or on our wider travels, never get boring and this trip was already proving that to be the case. However, once I got to have my turn in the navigator’s seat my clicker finger would once again be working overtime, so take that as a pre-warning of things to come, by way of photographs, a little later in this ramble 😂

Both our local Spanish media, and the European Weekly News publication, had both warned of a high ‘Guardia Civil’ Police presence all over Spain, which actually commenced the day before our travels, and would continue until after the Easter Holiday traffic rush, with lots more random stops, checking for valid vehicle documentation, physical checks of vehicle serviceability and, in some circumstances, breathalyser checks, although it sounded more likely that such checks would be more evident on all major routes heading ‘South’ towards the very popular Coastal tourist hot-spots, rather than on the cooler Northern routes, where most tourists tend to avoid at this time of year unless they enjoy winter sports. I didn’t have any particular concerns, due to the fact that we are both quite anal about our vehicle documentation being up to date, and the serviceable condition of our vehicle, as for the breathalyser checks though, Mmmmmmmmm 🤔 I did have to wonder how much alcohol there was in Shazza’s mouthwash ? I always tend to abide by the varying speed limits and we would be well on our way to Madrid, before my very own little ‘Luis Hamilton’ got anywhere near the accelerator pedal 😂 The other points of interest en-route, other than the wonderful landscapes that surrounded us, were noting the ‘Diesel’ fuel prices along our route, apart from the really cheap local suppliers, which we tend to stay away from, ever since our second fuel contamination incident whilst we were travelling in the ‘Little Fokker’, our last Motorhome, several year’s ago. We tend to stick now to using the more popular brands, Repsol, Cepsa, Shell or BP, and we noted that they were all selling Diesel at a very similar price, varying very slightly from €1.85 per litre (£1.61) to €1.88 (£1.63) even at the Motorway Service Stations, although that was still €0.30cents per litre more than before the fuel crisis, and that price at the pump was ‘allegedly’ with the 11% IVA tax discount from the Government, although the media has reported lots of fuel companies profiteering by putting up the prices, but not taking off the Government subsidy 😲 It will be interesting to see what the comparative prices are like in both the UK and France, although it wouldn’t really matter, if you need fuel then you pay the price, whatever it is 🤷‍♂️

After being at the wheel for a little over three and a half hours, and still being a little over 200Km South of Madrid, whilst I would have been quite happy to have kept driving, we both needed a ‘Comfort Break’, so we elected to stop at the next available services, have a coffee, take the opportunity to top up the fuel, even though we didn’t really need to as we could have got well beyond Madrid before actually needing to do so, but in the current fuel climate we aired on the side of caution, and that was when we also took the opportunity to change seating arrangements.

You will note two main things from the following photographs, these being taken whilst still South of Madrid, the beautiful bright blue sky, with the occasional wispy white clouds and also how relatively quiet the traffic was on the roads, this is quite normal here in Spain and is what makes it such a pleasurable country to drive in, away from the major cities. However, we had expected to see much more traffic on the Southbound carriageways as this weekend was supposed to be the start of the great Easter getaway period 🤷‍♂️ To be completely transparent with you, yes we saw two major tailbacks on the Southbound carriageways, each stretching back several kilometres, but these were due to accidents and not due to just the sheer volume of traffic, it made us glad to be heading North, but still a bit cautious, as we still had to get around Madrid on the Ring Road 🙄

We of course saw quite a few traditional Spanish Windmills along the way, which always reminds me of the legendary story of ‘Don Quixote’, but we also saw, very many more, of the more modern Windmills, which, although now being essential modern day necessities, for providing ‘fossil free’ energy requirements, unlike the older versions which were for the production of flour, but these modern one’s are not as scenic as the older ones.

We were pretty much still on schedule when we reached the Southern outskirts of Madrid, we would be heading East on to the Ring Road around the city, which would then swing us back around to the Northern side of the city, passing close to the ‘Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport’, which is the primary International airport serving the city. With it being a Saturday, usually a very busy shopping day, and being on one of the main routes to the Airport, we had anticipated the traffic to be extremely busy and hectic, much like the M25 route going around the Western side of London and serving as the main route to Heathrow Airport, and commonly joked about as being one of the largest car parks in Europe, as the three and four lanes of traffic are regularly at a standstill, but we were pleasantly surprised, although it wasn’t anywhere near as traffic free as our journey had been thus far, under the circumstances it was very much quieter than even we had anticipated, we encountered no hold-ups and when we saw the constant flow of aircraft coming in to land, we knew that we were very close to our exit on to the A1 motorway that would take us North, almost all the way to Bilbao.

Just to the North of Madrid, going through one of the outer suburbs we saw a sign for a ‘Burger King’ right at one of the main exit junctions, with easy access to get back on to the Motorway. We were both hungry now, and Shazza had had a fair stint at the wheel. We don’t usually eat in ‘Fast Food’ establishments very often, but when you are hungry and want just a short stop, and ‘Comfort Break’, then they do provide a useful service. To be honest, I don’t usually enjoy these sort of establishments as more often than not the ‘French Fries and Burgers’ are generally only Luke warm at best. We had to do battle with the new, well at least to us, modern way of ordering our food selections, on a machine which just kept providing lots of different screens, what type of Burger, Standard, Large, Jumbo ? Did we want a ‘Combo’ ? Standard Fries, Large Fries ? Extra Cheese, Bacon ? What sort of Sauces ? What drink selection, then the list of Small or Large ? We had to do this for each of our individual choices, before then going through the payment options, Apple Pay ? Card Payment ? Or Pay Cash at the counter ? Whatever happened to ‘Fast Service’, like going to the spotty faced youth at the cash register, pointing to the large neon menu board above their heads, ordering, paying, getting your food and drink, finding a table, eating and leaving 🤷‍♂️ We could have gone in to a standard restaurant, eaten a three-course meal and still have left the establishment quicker than this allegedly modern day ‘Fast Food’ establishment ! However, the girl at the cash register was so friendly and helpful to this grumpy old geriatric standing in front of her, “Are you taking it away or Eating In ?” she asked, “Eating in” I replied. Then she gave me a number thing to put on our table and told me that she would bring our order to us when it was ready. We were not waiting very long, just a few minutes, and when it arrived the Fries were hot and so was the Burger, the longest part of the whole process was ordering at the bloody machine, but I suppose that youngsters, probably the age of our granddaughter’s, with their lightening fast gaming fingers and thumbs, can probably do all of this technology stuff in seconds 🙄 I suppose the one consolation was that the young girl hadn’t offered to help me to my seat 😂 and, by the way, neither was she spotty faced.

I was quite surprised when, on finishing our meal and leaving the establishment, Shazza announced that she was happy to keep driving, although I knew that she would prefer to be occupied at the wheel, rather than be bored sat in the Navigator’s seat, especially as their was nothing to Navigate along these long mile after mile stretches of motorway. For me, well it meant I could keep my clicker finger active for a bit longer 😁 It wasn’t long before we were back into the mountains, there was still no sign of the wet stuff, although we noted that the white clouds were getting thicker the further North we travelled.

The external temperature dropped significantly, at the highest altitude it dropped as low as 5 degrees(c) and we had to put the car heater on 🥶 The scenery changed too, there was much more lush green pastures, thick green forests, a tell tale sign that this area experiences a lot more of the wet stuff than we do down South. The higher we climbed the more the mountains became barren craggy rock faces and, rather than the roads cutting through the valleys and between the peaks, we were now encountering more and more tunnels that cut straight through them, and then, the first spots of rain appeared on the windscreen. But we were not downbeat, we had covered virtually 80% of our journey in beautiful sunshine, much more than we had anticipated given the forecasts provided by you know who 🙄 We made one more stop for a ‘Comfort Break’ and Coffee stop, we changed driving positions so as to give Shazza a break, she would take over again just before we reached the outskirts of Bilbao. With the impediment in my right eye, Shazza was very much better better at manoeuvring her way through busy city streets, I was better at navigating and guiding her through those streets, letting her concentrate on the traffic, bus lanes, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings etc. and I could give her advance notifications on how far in front each turning was, which lane to be in, and this actually generally works out quite well for us.

As we entered the city streets, it was quite busy, the shops don’t close in Spain until 8pm, but we still had daylight and the rain had stopped, thank you to whoever was responsible for pressing that particular ‘off switch’ 🙏 We pulled into the Hotel’s underground car parking area and were lucky to immediately find a space, it looked very busy and so luck was certainly on our side and although the parking space was a tight fit, we were able to park sideways, near a wall and away from other cars, so hopefully we would return to it in three days time with no unwanted dents or scratches 🙄 I had guesstimated a twelve hour journey, start to finish, including associated stops, so we expected to arrive at 19:20pm, as we had departed twenty minutes later than originally scheduled, our watches said 18:55pm, so well done to my little ‘Luis Hamilton’ who, in all fairness, had done the bulk of the drive that day, although I did do a total of around four and a half hours over two stints 😉

By the time we had checked-in at reception and got to our lovely big room on the 6th floor, we were both too tired to want to go back out into the city, just to find somewhere to eat, to be honest, we were still quite full from our burger lunches, but then again we had just been sitting in a car so had no chance to work any of it off, so we just wanted to get settled into our room and relax with a nice hot cuppa. Dependent on whether the ‘Works of Fiction’ got the next two days forecasts right or wrong, would dictate just how much sightseeing we would be able to do over those next couple of days, we both prayed that they would come true to form, and get it wrong, as the weather outlook for both days was not very good, two full days of the wet stuff ☔️🌧️🙁

We cannot control the weather, but we would be quite disappointed if we could not get to do some sightseeing whilst we were here, so we would just have to wait to see what tomorrow brings. So, until the next ramble…………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

Of course, I can perhaps understand some people, who may be reading this ramble, thinking that we are totally irresponsible for even thinking about going on ‘A Driving Adventure During A Fuel Crisis’ 😲 However, the majority of my regular readers will appreciate that this trip had been in the planning stages for very many weeks, if not months and well before this current global fuel crisis had even started. So it has been many weeks now since we initially took the first steps and pre-booked our two Ferries, as they get fully booked very quickly and we wanted to ensure that we got the sailings, on the day that was most convenient for us, and also to get the cabin grades that we preferred. That involved making two separate ferry bookings, the outbound one from Spain to the UK and then, ten days later, the return journey from the UK to Northern France, and of course we also needed to combine those dates with advance hotel bookings in both Bilbao and also one for our first few night’s in the UK. Now this did involve either paying advance deposits, and for some hotels, payments in full up front.

Now of course, our plan is to travel the entire length of Spain, South to North, in order to get to our first point of departure, then travelling many miles visiting family in the UK, before returning via Northern France to our home in Southern Spain, which will of course involve us covering very many miles in that time, and of course requiring us to use several tanks of Diesel fuel in the process. However, as the fuel crisis intensified dramatically just prior to our departure, we did give the matter some very serious consideration including, should we just postpone the trip ? Although, for some of our advanced accommodation bookings, that would entail losing money, for other’s, like the ferry bookings, we could have perhaps just changed the travel dates, but we had no idea of how long this fuel crisis would extend.

So, as the countries we intended to drive to and visit, Spain, UK and France, all of the reports that we were reading, on a daily basis, were telling the public that fuel, both Petrol and Diesel, was still ‘widely available’ and there was no reason to start panic buying, albeit the costs of such fuel was now being sold at very much over inflated prices. So, rather than cancel our pre-booked trip, we both agreed, having taken everything into consideration, that we would just treat this latest global crisis much the same as we had to, after the ‘Lockdown’ periods were over, during the Covid Pandemic, normal life still had to go on. In the Countries we are visiting, fuel is not being rationed and, so far at least, freedom to travel has not been stopped, using either public or private transport, so basically every day life is still going on as normal, people are still flying out on holidays, cruise ships are still operating around the globe, although perhaps not in the ‘Straight of Hormuz’ 😲 International Sports events are still taking place, including fuel guzzling Formula 1 Grand Prix, people are still using their motor and sailing yachts for their personal leisure activities, and other International events, requiring the use of all modes of travel, are still going on, so at the end of the day, what impact would our road trip have on the worlds fuel reserves 🤷‍♂️

Now if we had have cancelled this trip, perhaps choosing to wait for things to get better, or even worse, then how long would we be waiting ? What other world disasters may happen next week, or next month or the month after that, to prevent us from doing anything else that we may want to do in our lives 🤷‍♂️ So, whilst we are both fully aware of what is going on in the wider world at the moment, we have done our own personal risk assessment, yes we have considered the If’s, But’s and even the Maybe’s, and have come to the conclusion that we are going to continue with the original plan, but of course we will continue to monitor the availability of fuel in each country that we happen to be in at the time, and then, if required, re-assess the situation accordingly, and believe me, my OCD Buddy will make sure that those assessments are conducted with military precision 😉 Hopefully though, there will be sufficient fuel available throughout our trip, and we will top up our fuel tank at every opportunity, how that works out for us, well you will read that for yourselves as you follow the next few episodes of these rambles, who knows we may even have to start one of those ‘Go Fund Me’ accounts on Facebook, although not asking for you to donate money, just 20 Litre cans of Diesel Fuel 😂

Anyway, back to the real subject of this ramble………………

The two, or three days, prior to going on any ‘long’ trip, which usually means for us going anywhere for longer than just one week, but even so, we always tend to initially view it as a bit of a pain in the arse if the truth be told, there just seems to be so many pre-trip things that we need to do, although to be completely honest, I do question as to whether many of them fall under the category of ‘need’ doing but, to save myself a lecture, I did not share that thought with my beloved 😁 I did wonder whether this had anything to do with Shazza’s more usual pessimism, thinking that if something terrible was to happen to the both of us, and we never returned home, then at least the Apartment would be in immaculate condition for the kids to be able to put it straight on to the market, and be in a suitable condition for prospective purchaser’s to view it 😂

Shazza always tries to plan what we are going to have for our pre-trip lunches and dinners, so that she can effectively run down whatever there is in the fridge and freezer, and of course to use up the remainder of any fresh produce, so by the time we leave, I for one will be sick of the sight of Spicy Red Lentil Soup, Vegetable Stir Fry’s with Tofu and Salads 🙄 We of course do our mandatory apartment ‘plus’ clean, which is much more in depth than our usual weekly routine one 🤷‍♂️ but at least we will not have to do any cleaning immediately upon our return albeit, at the time of beginning to draft this particular ramble, three day’s before we had even departed, we did not have any idea of when that return date would actually be, four weeks, perhaps even five or six 🤷‍♂️ I guess though, either the lack of diesel fuel or adverse weather will be the main dictator’s of such ultimate decisions.

Once the domestics have been sorted then we have to try and think about what clothes we are going to wear throughout the holiday, so that Shazza can do laundry to freshen everything up before we go, which of course then entails the subsequent ironing, which she insists on doing herself, even though I am quite capable of doing these sorts of things, however, I think the real reason is not because of her love of ironing but more because she does not like the razor sharp creases that I have a tendency to put into her blouse sleeves, on her trousers, jeans, and shorts, but some Military habits still remain 😂 She also has a thing about changing bed sheets and pillowcases on our bed, the day before we go, so that we have clean bedding to return to.

Although we tend to share the domestic workload, as in the apartment cleaning, we also each have our own ‘other’ areas of responsibility to take care of and, after being together for so long, these tasks are now just automatic, no lists or discussions required. I just accept that Shazza will have taken care of her’s, without the need for me to question the fact, whereas she on the other hand always asks, “Have you done this, and did you do that”, I guess it is just one of those women kind of things, and of course I am always prepared for it, “Yes Sergeant Major, all present and correct” I reply, even if I haven’t quite got around to completing all of my associated tasks but, I am always ready when the time arrives 🤷‍♂️ My primary tasks before, and after, the domestics duties, are to get my pre-holiday haircut, get the car re-fuelled and give it a wash ‘n’ wax, through one of those automated machines I hasten to add, then once back home, checking all the under bonnet bits and pieces (or ‘Hood’ as my friends across the pond refer to it) the fluids, and of course the tyre pressures, although the automatic tyre sensors provide me with that information, so I no longer have to go physically around each individual tyre, unless they need adjustment that is.

I also tend to look after the Administrative stuff, Passports, Travel Money, at which point I do feel that I just have to ask, why was it that the UK could not have changed to using the Euro when it was actually an official part of the brotherhood of neighbour’s ? It would certainly have made life a lot easier, for everyone, not just for me, even all of those British travellers who regularly holiday in countries all over Europe where the Euro is widely used, instead of constantly having to exchange money back and forth, there is just no consideration towards simplifying things these days 😂 Although, the British Government is currently working towards closer ties with the EU so who knows, maybe one day it will happen, but don’t hold your breath as their are more important things for them to worry about right now, like have they got any Navy vessels serviceable and fit for purpose 🫣

Then, as I start to see a bit of light at the end of the pre-holiday checklist, I make sure, for at least the tenth time, that we have our Ferry and Accommodation Booking confirmations and Reference Numbers, before we finally move on to what we both consider as being the worst task of all, packing our individual suitcases and rucksacks 🫣 Shazza, once she had completed her packing, then puts on her Customs Officer Uniform and scrutinises my suitcase contents, “Do you really need that many shirts, trousers, shorts, jackets, shoes 😲 and of course her favourite, what on earth are you taking that for ?”. Then, if that wasn’t enough to be going on with, my OCD Buddy turns up on the scene and bloody well insists that we double check the route, for the third or fourth time, why I do not know, when we have travelled this route regularly over the past eleven or so years 🤷‍♂️ I guess the only benefit that we do currently have, with this travelling M’larky, is that whilst in Spain we travel, and check-in to our accommodations, using our Spanish Residency Card and we do not have to go through the European EES process at the borders, and then, once we arrive in the UK, we revert to using our British Passports, so we do not have to queue to go through the British ETA process, and vice-versa on the return trip, but I am reasonably confident that the ‘Authorities’ will manage to cock that up too, at some point. So to be honest, we already feel as if we have been through the mill before we have even left to start our holiday 😮‍💨 It used to be such an easy, painless and exciting prospect, now it just seems to be much more of a chore, complicated and bureaucratic, or could the truth lay much closer to home, that being that we really are just getting old and have got used to liking our much simpler ‘routine routines’ 🙄

We knew that it would be a very long day of travel on the road, when we did finally depart home on the first day of this year’s extended road trip, driving from virtually the most South Easterly tip of Spain right up to our hotel accommodation in Bilbao, on the Northern Coastline of Spain, a distance of some 1,046 Km (650 miles). Now normally we would be in no rush when we were just heading up to catch a ferry, so we would have spent a few days breaking up our journey en-route, making stops along the way to explore some places that we had not already stopped at on previous road trips. On trips such as those we would also have selected to use the much more scenic ‘normal roads’, as opposed to the much quicker and direct ‘motorway routes’. However, this time, because we were going directly to Bilbao, we would stick to the Motorways and head up via the Madrid route which, if we were to do it without any stops would, according to ‘Google Maps’, take us 10 hours, however, we knew that we would need to stop for an unspecified number of ‘comfort breaks’, dependent on how much fluid intake we had during the drive, then a stop for lunch, one re-fuel stop which could be combined with a ‘Comfort Stop’ and then stops to enable us to change over driver duties, so I ‘guesstimated’ that we would probably be talking of a total journey time of twelve hour’s 😮‍💨 We also wanted to arrive in Bilbao whilst it was still daylight, as our hotel accommodation was in the centre of this busy city, and so it would be better traversing the streets and traffic during daylight, so that would mean an early start, we agreed that we should depart at 7:00am, when the sun would have already risen so that the first full day of our driving trip, start to finish, would be completed in daylight.

Although all the pre-trip organisation was a little frustrating, we were both quite looking forward to our latest adventure and although it would be a long first day’s drive I said to Shazza, “Well at least whoever is driving the first stint can still take a bit of a nap on the way up to Bilbao”, she gave me one of her confused looks, “What on earth do you mean ?” She said, in one of her questionable tones. I reminded her that our car did of course have all of the mod-cons, meaning that it already had the latest advanced ‘driver less’ technologies, Cruise Control, Automatic Lane Activation Sensors, Automatic Braking, Automatic Light Adjustments and, forward, rear and side traffic sensors, so it could virtually just drive itself 🤷‍♂️ “Silly Bugger” she replied 🤭

The advance ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts had pre-warned us that we would be greeted by the wet stuff as we headed into Central and Northern Spain, typical, we both thought to ourselves, just when the much higher temperatures and sunnier weather had returned to our area on the Costa del Sol, although we did laugh as we took an optimistic view of it, “Well at least we would have already re-acclimatised ourselves ready for the much cooler temperatures in Northern Spain, the UK, and in Northern France on the return leg of the journey” we both hunched up our shoulders at the very thought of it, as a consequence, neither of us packed too many shorts or tee-shirts for this trip, mainly jeans, chino’s, long sleeved shirts, sweaters and rain coats 🙁 But all that paled into insignificance, because we were excited at getting to see our Grandchildren once again 🤗

And so, the big day arrived and we commenced our latest Eric & Shazza’s mini adventure………………

To be continued……….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

It arrived without warning, as these sorts of things often do, it was the early hours of the Wednesday morning, I was having my usual late night quiet period before bedtime, when I must have inadvertently suffered an unanticipated period of ‘Personal Contemplation’ 😴 However, I was startled back into full consciousness mode by the strangest feeling, one that made me believe that the whole room had just moved, my initial thought was, no surely not, ‘Had I Just Been Dreaming ?’, but that brief thought came to an abrupt end when Shazza, who had already gone to bed two hours earlier, came rushing through and said, “Did you feel that ?”, so it must have been quite some movement to have awoken her from her sound sleep. I looked out from the balcony windows, just to see if there was anything obvious that may confirm our suspicion that we had perhaps just suffered a ‘tremor’ from an earthquake, for example, my balcony window being a lot closer to the seafront than it had been when the sun had gone down that evening 😲 However, fortunately everything looked quite normal, the street lights were still on, but their were no other people looking out of windows, or standing out on the streets, and so we were still not quite sure what it was that we had just experienced, we waited to see if there would be any other ‘tremors’, one’s that would alert us to the need that we may just have to gather some clothes, and other personal items, in case we needed to evacuate the building 😳 However, nothing had actually moved inside the apartment, furniture was still in its usual place and nothing had fallen off the walls, it appeared that it had only been the actual building that had been given a bit of a shake, so we chose not to panic and agreed that it probably wasn’t such a big deal, although it had been a weird feeling all the same. These sort of events are not uncommon throughout Andalucia, so it was more just a case of it being a first experience of such an event for us personally. We felt no other movements, so we just decided to go to bed, on doing so I turned to Shazza, “Well on this occasion the earth did really move for you my love” and laughed, “Yes, and I can tell you this, I certainly didn’t like it very much” she replied. ‘Oh well, I suppose that put and end to any realistic hopes that may have entered my head, about the possibility of any further, more natural, earth moving opportunities occurring during the remainder of the early hours’, I thought to myself 🙁

I have commented, several times in my previous rambles, about other villages and towns, in our Region, experiencing tremors from minor earthquakes, even as close to us as Estepona, but this is the first in our own particular immediate local area and, with the increasing frequency of these incidents, I somehow do not think that it will be the last. The following morning was one of the few occasions where I was in a bit more of a hurry to check the local ‘News & Gloom’ media reports……..

However, what is probably a little more concerning is that the Earthquake that caused this tremor, happened, not inland, but out in the ‘Alboran Sea’, for it is these type of oceanic events, although at much greater magnitudes I hasten to add, that can create ‘Tsunamis’. After considering that thought for a few moments I turned to Shazza and said, “I hope we live high enough up this hill”, she hadn’t reacted to that comment as I anticipated that she would, she just said, in a rather nonchalant way, “Let’s hope we never have to find out”.

On the Thursday morning, and quite separate from the previous nights incident, we received an advanced ‘Orange Weather Alert’, notifying us that ‘Storm Theresa’ was now on its way and was anticipated to reach us on the Friday, I suppose we should be grateful that it wasn’t ’Saint Theresa’, as that may have had other wider Biblical connotations to it 😲 Although, I mused to myself after having that humerous thought, that all of this ‘Armageddon’ hypothesis is now getting to be a lot like that old fable, the one about ‘The Shepherd Boy Who Cried Wolf’ too many times until one day it happened, but he was ignored and got eaten by Wolves. One day this ‘Armageddon M’larky’ will happen, but you will ignore my soothsaying and those ‘Dark Forces’ will wreak their almighty havoc upon you, remember then, if you have the time for such thought’s, that you heard it here second, because another popular publication just happened to mention it first, very many year’s prior to me commencing these ramblings, damn it, always the ‘Best Man’ and never the ‘Groom’, although when I think about it, that is probably correct 😂

On the Thursday night, we suffered two power outages, one at 10pm and another at midnight, but each hadn’t lasted that long, only five minutes or so before the power was restored but, was this the early indications that the storm had made landfall I asked myself ? Storm Theresa had already severely battered the Canary Islands and was travelling North, hitting the Western Andalucian coastline first, although it seemed strange that we were on the Eastern side but were still being warned of major coastal events, it must be one hell of a wide storm I remember thinking, before then seeing a photograph of the dark clouds in the papers on the Friday morning, now tell me, you reader’s out there, that you cannot see a pack of Wolves heads poking out of those demonic clouds 😳

We were both awoken again, during the early hours of the Friday morning, to the sounds of the gale force winds, and the heavy rain battering the external window shutters, although we are quite familiar with these sorts of noises now 🤷‍♂️ But then, just a little later later, due to normal early morning bodily function requirements, if you know what I mean, I had to force myself out from the warm hug that the duvet had been providing me with, and so, as I was already up, I thought that I may as well go and put the kettle on for our morning cuppa, if the electricity was still available that was 🤔 It was, so I sat on the balcony, as usual, and observed the scene being played out in front of me. The heaviest of the rain, that had persisted throughout the early hours, had all but disappeared, well for now at least, although the sky still looked black and threatening and the latest weather picture reflected that we hadn’t, as yet, been hit by the main storm front. However, powerful gale force winds were still battering the Palm Trees outside and, from the balcony windows I could see the white stallions galloping in waves on to the shoreline, battalion after battalion they came relentlessly, but these were not Tsunami like conditions, although in truth I have only ever seen a Tsunami on TV or disaster movies 🤷‍♂️ but it became clearly obvious to me that I had to make the sensible decision, which was to inform Shazza that we should cancel our normal daily walk for that day, but for some reason neither of us had felt a deep sense of disappointment at that decision. The wind screamed and whistled and we could, quite clearly, hear the tumultuous waves as they crashed onto the shoreline below, but we felt extremely safe in our hilltop sanctuary, provided that there wasn’t another earthquake tremor bad enough to force us to evacuate, I mean come on, it really would have been a disgusting sort of day to have had to go and stand outside 😂 I also had to smile a little sarcastically when I considered the ‘Civil Authorities’ advice in Earthquake and After-Shock situations, ‘Go Outside And Stay Clear Of Buildings’, Mmmmmm I thought 🤔 “And if you live in an area surrounded by tall buildings ?”, I was waiting for a gruff voice from the sky telling me that then, I would just have to ‘Suck it up” 😂

The weather has certainly been very unpredictable over the last three months or so here in our part of Spain, and I guess elsewhere too, but I cannot speak with any confidence on what it has been like in those other areas. But, saying that, over the last week here, it has been beautiful and very warm, dare I even mention out aloud the words, ‘Shorts and Tee-Shirts’, so we have of course been able to go on our usual regular local daily walks, but in addition to those we have also had another day out in Estepona, and yes, just in case you were wondering, including the drive to the Organic Farm, and as Shazza informed me, rather sarcastically in my opinion, “Well it would have been be rude not to” 🙄 In that same week we had another day out, but this time in the opposite direction, to the town of La Linea, which as I have mentioned previously, is the Spanish town that is quite literally just across the road from Gibraltar and a short hop, skip and jump from Morocco (See Photo at top of this ramble). However, more recently we have partaken of our normal daily walks into our own local town again, enjoyed our usual coffee stop and on the way back we made the impulse decision to partake of lunch in our favourite Moroccan Cafe/Bar/Eatery, in the Marina. On that walk back from the town we had seen the arrival of the large trucks and trailers with their Fairground Equipment, they hold several fairs here throughout the year but, rather unusually, we hadn’t seen any advance signage of this particular event happening 🤷‍♂️ There is no particular relevance of me telling you that, other than, as I sat on the balcony on that stormy Friday morning I thought to myself, no way would you get me on a ‘Big Wheel’, or any other of those elevated fairground attractions, in any type of weather, but especially not in these current conditions, it’s bad enough trying to keep upright on terra firm in high winds but, also being soaked through to the skin, and suspended a hundred feet or so in the air, come on, where is the enjoyment in that, I may be getting more senior in years but I certainly haven’t lost all my marbles, well not just yet 😂

However, then I had a more serious thought, one where I hoped that this latest storm had best hurry up on its journey North, as in just a little over one weeks time, we would be on a 27 hour overnight ferry journey, crossing the notoriously bumpy ‘Bay of Biscay’, it can be bad enough under normal sea state conditions, I certainly didn’t fancy it under storm force conditions 🤢🤢 Having also looked at the advance ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts for Bilbao, for over the 72 hour period prior to that ferry journey where we would be in Bilbao sightseeing, but it certainly didn’t look too promising, weather wise, at least not for the actual ‘outdoor’ sightseeing part of the visit we were hoping to do, so we may just have to consider a much more extensive ‘wet weather’ itinerary I thought to myself, with a bit of a smile on my face 😁

Although that happy thought soon came crashing down to earth when Shazza informed me that during her own pre-visit research, she had identified a handful of more ‘Vegan’ style Cafe/Bars and eateries, that soon wiped the smile off my face I can tell you 😲

Now whilst I may have somewhat inadvertently wandered into the territory of, pictorially at least, indications around the consumption of Anti-Covid Vaccines 🍷, it seems quite appropriate for me to then perhaps just to mention yet another media article I read, on that rather wet and dismal Friday morning, one which actually brought a bit more happy news, and if I am honest, perhaps even brought a bit of a smile back on to my face, although for other’s, it may well be dependent on your opinion on the particular subject.

Now I did briefly mention this subject in a previous ramble, but just to refresh your memories, if this stricter law had come into force, then even as little as just one small glass of beer, or wine, or any other alcoholic beverage, would have meant that you would have been ‘over’ the drink-drive limit and subject to a fine and points off your licence (The points rule is slightly different here in Spain but I won’t go into that now). Personally speaking, for us it would not really have actually created a problem, if the proposed new limit had have been introduced, as Shazza rarely drinks alcohol and, on the very rare occasions when she does, and we both want to have a drink, then we are fortunate enough to be close enough to the Marina, and Town, to walk to the different watering holes, then walk back or get a taxi. I do acknowledge though that there are very good reasons for such laws, but, I ask myself, why not just go to a ‘zero tolerance’ as the legal limit is already quite low at just 0.5grams, but that level does at least allow for being able to have one drink ? Unless of course, there were other more ‘compelling factors’ involved in the decision making process, yes I do have my cynical head on again. By just dropping it to 0.2grams, would very likely catch out even ‘responsible’ drinkers who may not be fully aware that, just the one drink, that they may have had with their lunch, or dinner, would actually take them over the legal limit, meaning that even they would have ended up, if stopped and checked, with being fined, which, apart from the ‘Safety’ concerns, would then of course have included the procurement of very much more money into the ‘Coffers’, but for whom…… Police ? Councils ? Government ? 🤔 Now if the whole premise around this, was solely focused on road safety and saving lives then, surely the ‘zero tolerance’ approach would have been the way to go and made a lot more sense 🤷‍♂️ And to be honest, those who regularly drink to excess, and still choose to drive, will continue to do so, so who was this proposed new law aimed at targeting 🤷‍♂️ However, that said, I personally believe that the reason that this proposed new law was actually voted down, was not, for any ‘practical’ or common sense reasons, but more to do with ‘Political’ manoeuvre’s, for here in Spain whilst there is a two party ‘Coalition Government’, it relies on support from several smaller ‘Regional’ and ‘Minority’ parties to maintain its Parliamentary majority, so in the end it is much the same as many other Governments around the world, more a case of ‘You didn’t scratch my back so I am not scratching your’s’ 😉

Anyway, I hadn’t intended to publish another ramble until after we had commenced our upcoming road trip, and truly I really hadn’t intended to, but I would not have remembered most of this recent stuff during or after that trip, so I followed the common practice of most Government’s, and made a ‘U turn’ on that earlier decision, you however should consider it in a more positive perspective and consider it as a bonus ramble 😂 I may just have to close my eyes for the next week, until we depart on our extended road trip, for if I don’t, you know what will happen, something else will happen in the meantime that I will feel the urge to write about 🤔 Now we cannot have that can we 😉

As far as any other Earthquakes, After-Shocks, Tsunamis or survival of this current storm goes, if you are reading this then you know that we survived, well at least long enough to press the ‘Publish’ button 😂

Until the next ramble ……………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

It made us both smile, during our latest weekly video chat with our Granddaughters, when they greeted us with, “Only 24 more sleeps now” 😂 It made us realise how ‘time’, in their minds, is gauged differently to our own, for we generally think about how long future events are, in terms of either days, weeks or even months. Before we actually do get to see them we have some sightseeing days scheduled in Bilbao first, before we actually board our overnight ferry to the UK, so we actually have fewer sleeps than them before we ourselves commence the start of our own next mini-adventure. We could of course have been with them very much sooner, by departing home and arriving at their house all within the same day, but only if we had opted to have taken a flight directly from Spain to the UK and perhaps, on future visits, that may be the way we will choose to go if the visit is purely to see family. However, this was to be an extended holiday for us, as already mentioned in a previous ramble, where we have chosen to return from the UK via France, and then some travels within Northern Spain before then returning home, so for us, using the car and ferry was to be the best option this time around, travel freedom which has additional advantages over taking a flight, namely no issues about how much weight we are permitted to carry in our ‘hold luggage’, or the size and weight restrictions of any additional ‘cabin baggage’ and of course, using our own transportation will mean having the advantage of a little more available space in the car boot, for perhaps those few little extra’s that we may collect on the return journey 😁 I was thinking French cheeses and bottles of different French flavoured Anti-Covid Vaccines, although that ‘may’ mean that Shazza would perhaps have to limit the size and quantity of any of her ‘little extras’ she was considering purchasing, however, I thought it best not to mention that bit to her just yet as I already knew what her reaction would be, and I am guessing you, my reader’s, would also have a pretty good idea too 😂

But as I started ‘drafting’ this latest ramble, we still had 16 sleeps before we started the outbound leg of our holiday, although 🤔 by the time I get around to publishing this ‘live’ and you get around to reading this, it may very well be less sleeps, I can imagine the excitement that you may be feeling, the thought of all those future rambles about our return trip, dropping like confetti into your ‘Email Inbox’ 😂

The weather has changed once again, after another much briefer spell of the wet stuff and it serves as a reminder to us of one of the main reasons why we chose to relocate here permanently, although, I do have to tell you that after a rather lengthy cold and wet period, we were beginning to start to question that decision ourselves, but only for a very brief moment you understand 😉

The stretch of beach, the bit between the village and the marina, was looking rather green, the rain had certainly encouraged the plant life to sprout through the sand but, as we walked from the marina side towards the town, it was more manicured and ‘beachy’ looking, rather than a lawned park 😂 Now to be completely honest with you, we have not really been up to much, well not ramble worthy content, just our usual daily walks in between the odd periods of wet stuff, with the occasional trip into Estepona, which was just for the change of scenery really. We don’t generally make any advance plans, we just tend to ‘Take Each Day As It Comes’ and then go with the flow, as the saying goes.

On one particular morning, we decided over our morning coffee’s, to just do our usual walking routine, park in the village, walk through the marina into town, stop for coffee, call in at the local fruiterias, Shazza said she didn’t need much, so it wasn’t worth the drive to the Organic farm on the other side of Estepona, perhaps the novelty is wearing off, I thought to myself. Then, like most other days, we would return home for lunch and then spend the rest of the day sat on the balcony, so yes, very much just another ‘Retirement Groundhog Day’ 😁

So, on what was supposed to be, as far as my understanding of the situation was, just a normal routine day, we were sat in the seafront Cafe/Bar just finishing our coffee’s, when Shazza suddenly suggested that we could perhaps walk a little further, as it was such a very nice warm morning and, with the sky literally cloudless, and a lovely shade of blue, with barely a breath of wind, the sea was as flat as a mill pond, only the gentle sounds of it rippling onto the foreshore giving any indication that it was actually moving, it was the sort of day where you could sit on the beach in your reclining sun chair and drift into a peaceful sleep, occasionally waking to the sound of someone letting out a loud snore, although to be honest, that ‘someone’ was generally myself 😂 However, our sun chairs were still in their Winter hidey hole, back in the apartment, rather than in their Summer location in the boot of the car and it was still far too early in the season for the majority of the beach chiringuito’s to have their sun beds out for rent.

“How far do you want to walk ?” I asked, which was a reasonable question under the circumstances, I thought. “Oh I don’t know, until either one of us decides that we have had enough” she replied, which I guess, she thought was a reasonable enough answer 😂 Now Shazza likes the warmth, but on a scale that measures somewhere in between it being not ‘Too Cold’ or not ‘Too Hot’, the only defining difference between the two is generally her personal level of ‘Lethargy’. So we started walking towards the river bridge that defines our ‘Municipal’ boundary, which is actually something that we often do anyway, when we are in no hurry to return home but, on this occasion, as we approached the footbridge across the river, just when I was mentally preparing myself to do an about turn, she asked if I fancied walking a little bit further 😲 It wasn’t so long ago that walking that ‘little bit further’, into the neighbouring municipalities back yard so to speak, was actually quite a regular occurrence, but since the previous two years of drought, with scorchingly Hot Summers and very Warm Winters, and probably much more importantly, with the lack of convenient ‘watering Holes’ on that part of the walk to take some shade, or refreshments, we had stopped doing these longer walks and had let lethargy take over completely. “How much further do you want to walk ?” I asked, once again a reasonable question I thought, although probably a little more relevant than the last time that I had asked her the same question, considering that this was part of the Coastal Path that ran virtually the full length of the Eastern Spanish Coastline, and almost, if not all the way, to the ‘Pyrenees’ and the border with France 😲 “Oh I don’t know, until either one of us decides that we have had enough” she replied, followed by a mischievous chuckle and a wink of her eye. “Perhaps we should stop at the ‘Decathlon’ store when we get to Estepona” I mentioned casually, “I’m not walking that bloody far !” She exclaimed, but at least now I had some sort of vague idea as to just how far our wanderings may take us, although Estepona was still some 8Km away !! After a couple of minutes she suddenly asked, “Anyway, what did you want from Decathlon ?” I laughed, for I had wondered how long it would take for her to ask me that question, “I don’t, but not knowing how long this walk would be I didn’t know whether we would need to pick up some camping gear en route”, she laughed and gave me a gentle nudge in my ribs with her elbow, “Daft Bugger” she said.

We reached the footbridge across another river (Storm Drain) that marked the area known as ‘Caceres Playa’. This footbridge, come cycle path, had a tendency to collapse every-time their was heavy rain, the fast flowing river water, from the mountains, would wash away the sand that secured the rickety wooden foundations, that was often the excuse to end our walks at that point. The Council must have finally realised the false economy of regularly having to repair it and had since built a proper bridge, with more permanent concrete foundations, although that had actually been done some time ago, I had simply forgotten about it, which would prove to be to my disadvantage on this occasion. From this point we could see, on the cliff in front of us, the “Torre de Sal” (The Salt Tower), we have previously walked up to it, in fact we have done so on numerous occasions and, in previous rambles, I have included Photographs of it and the stunning views from it, but the fact that I had not anticipated a walk this far when we had left home that morning meant that I had not come out with either my phone or camera, so you will have to seek out those earlier rambles if you want to see any photo’s 🤷‍♂️

We both agreed, that although it would mean walking up a bit of an incline to reach it, that that would be our end point on this particular day, although we have walked much further on some of those previous occasions, but decided that that would be the extent of our ‘exercise walking’ for that day, and it was more of an exercise walk as we had upped a gear from the ‘Sauntering’ pace, and also because the temperatures, like us, were also beginning to climb and we would still have to walk all the way back 😮‍💨

I had forgotten how beautiful the views were from the ‘Torre de Sal’, with 180 degree views of the Mediterranean Coastline, North beyond the Estepona Bay and up along the peaks of the coastal mountain ranges, then South where, from here, Gibraltar was clearly visible although it looked more like a stand-alone Island and, on such a bright clear day, we could clearly see the whole mountain range on the Northern Coast of Morocco. Behind us there were stunning 180 degree views of those Andalucian mountain ranges with the small whitewashed villages stuck to the sides of them. Near silence surrounded us, only the chitter chattering of a few small birds that hopped and skipped their way through the bushes that grew out of the cliff side rocks and the shrubbery that surrounded it, combined with the gentle sounds of the sea, washing over the jagged rocks below. I closed my eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face and arms, listening to these unobtrusive sounds of nature and it felt so calm and peaceful, this is why we prefer being out and surrounded by nature, rather than in the hustle and bustle of the modern world with all its constant physical and technological noise, you don’t appreciate the beauty and the silence until you are surrounded by it. If only we knew, twenty year’s ago, what we know now, probably our choice of where we would live would have been very much different to what it is now, probably somewhere a little more remote, but close to the sea, as in being able to actually see it and walk to it, and living more or less a self-sufficient lifestyle, although within a reasonable distance of the essential modern day necessities, unfortunately you cannot live without them completely, with almost everything these days being so reliant on Technology, but as we reluctantly had to agree, you cannot turn back the clock, or look into what the future may bring, mores the pity…………….

There was an unexpected advantage to agreeing to do this slightly longer walk, for it was now beyond the time we would normally be eating lunch, and it was now very much nearer to the start of the Spanish Lunchtime hours. Shazza announced that she was ‘muchas hambre’ (very hungry) and suggested that, instead of waiting until we returned home, that we should eat a ‘proper’ lunch out, with the bonus that she then wouldn’t have to cook that evening, if we were hungry later she could warm up some of her pre-prepared Spicy Red Lentil soup which we could have with a large chunk of her home-made sour dough bread. Now of course, I thought that that was a bit of a cop out by her, and of course I should have perhaps remonstrated with her 😂 “Sounds like a great idea to me, you choose what and where you would like to eat” I responded happily, for I knew that being an ‘Omnivore’, I could eat at any establishment, whereas Shazza has much more limited choices.

I do believe that it was the mere thought of food, that caused Shazza’s pace to definitely quicken on that return walk, she was somewhere between a fast pace and a jog now 😲 She selected one of our favourite Cafe/Bar’s, ‘Annie’s’ in the town, the one that we often stop at for our morning coffee’s which is located in a nice little sunny Plaza, although one street behind the seafront promenade, it still provided good partial sea views and decent people watching opportunities. Annie was outside wiping the tables when we arrived, she greeted us with a big smile and in the usual Spanish tradition. Because of the time of day she already knew our drinks preference, ‘Radler y Vermut’, she said, more in a confirmatory way than a question, but we also asked for ‘La Carte’ (The menu). “Acabamos de regresar de un paseo hasta la Torre de Sal” I told her (We have just returned from a walk up to the Torre de Sal), she feigned mopping her brow and gestured to us to sit down, our legs certainly appreciated the relief. Annie disappeared inside, a few minutes later she re-appeared with a cold bottle of ‘Radler’ (Lemon flavoured beer that is only 2% alcohol) for Shazza, and a rather larger than usual measure of Vermut, with ice and lemon, for myself, I looked at it and then back at Annie, she just smiled and gave a wink.

Shazza actually has several different food choices here, but to my surprise she went for her usual ‘Goats Cheese Salad’, “Annie’s cook does one of the best I have had” she said, almost apologetically, “You eat whatever you enjoy my love” I replied, I ordered two of my favourite dishes, although to be honest, I do have a lot of favourites here, whether they be individual Tapas, or a main meal, or even the ‘Menu del Dia’, but on this occasion I ordered my usual ‘Ensalata Rusa’, which for me is the best I have tasted, either here in town, the Marina or even in Estepona and, for my main, ‘Braised Pork Cheeks in Sherry Wine Sauce’ which just melts in your mouth, no chewing required and it came with Patata Frites (Chips to you and me). The remaining tables filled up around us very quickly, as the Spanish arrived for their lunches, we had arrived just in the nick of time otherwise we would have been left trying to decide on a ‘Plan B’.

We paid the bill, €33 (£28) and then with full bellies and weary legs we had to complete the last part of the walk. It was a long hot and very much slower walk back, through the marina to the village, where our carriage awaited us, and we were grateful to get home, we both just plonked ourselves into our comfy seats on the balcony and agreed on what an absolutely fantastic day we had just had. “We should do that more often” Shazza said, “What, eat lunches out” I replied, with a cheeky smile on my face, “No, the longer walks” she said, with a pretend scowl on her face, followed by, “Although I suppose the lunches could always be a bit of a reward afterwards”.

You may not be surprised to hear that, by mutual agreement, the following few days walks were of the more usual, sedentary version 😁 I cannot foresee me publishing any further rambles now before commencing our road trip, but hey, you just never know there is still time for ‘periods of contemplation’ which I may just feel the need to share with you 😂

So, until my next ramble………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

It did not take us very long to forget the horrendous and extremely lengthy period of really bad weather that we had experienced over the last three months, even the ‘Works of Fiction’ seemed to reflect a much cheerier disposition for the week ahead, although they still continued to display characteristics that were far closer on the side of ‘pessimism’ rather than ‘optimism’, with the odd dark cloud thrown into the daily weather picture just to keep us guessing. But for now, we found ourselves being able to step out for our morning walks into a very much warmer and sunnier environment and, for the first time this year we were both back to wearing shorts and tee-shirts and it felt quite liberating. As we walked along the bright and picturesque beachfront we observed a multitude of people who, like us, were celebrating the freedom of discarding much heavier winter clothing, many were sat on the beach and the majority were exposing bare flesh and sunbathing although, rather surprisingly, we also observed some swimming in what was an invitingly turquoise green and blue sparkling sea. The daft buggers I thought to myself, as it is still only the end of February, and whilst the sun may have been out in all its glory, the actual sea temperatures at this time of year would realistically still feel more like an ice bath 🥶 However, I quickly chastised myself for perhaps being a little too hasty in my silent criticism of them for, when I thought about it, I realised that some of these crazy people may very well have been visitors, who had quite possibly arrived here from very much colder climates and so, to them at least, the sea temperature may have felt more like, ‘Luxuriating In A Thermal Spa’ 🤭 So I reconsidered my initial hasty judgement of them and smiled and thought, fill your boots, or your budgie smugglers and just enjoy, although we will perhaps just save our own salty water dips for maybe just a while longer 😉

We actually managed to enjoy a full week of gorgeous sun filled days, with temperatures varying between 18–22 degrees(c), our daily walks became more of the sauntering variety, rather than of the ‘Exercise’ type, we made up for it though by extending those walks a little further than our more regular route, returning via the meandering narrow back streets, the one’s we rarely wander, and we re-discovered quaint residential back streets that had small artisan retail shops, the kind that only the locals generally know about and frequent. Some of the elderly female residents were sat outside their front doors, with what we assumed were their neighbours, some on wooden chairs, the kind from yesteryear that you tend to see in bric-a-brac shops, others sat on the more typical white plastic patio chairs or aluminium framed beach chairs. Here in Spain this tradition is known as ‘Sentarse à la Fresca’, although it is not an activity that is just confined to people in Spain and I am certain that each country will of course have their own name for it. They were chitter chattering amongst themselves, occasionally breaking out in a cackle of group laughter, but their eyes focused on us as we drew closer. I nodded in acknowledgement of them and smiled and said, ‘Buen Dia’, they all smiled back and one or two returned the greeting, the other’s just nodding in our direction, they all seemed genuinely pleased that we had spoken to them, but then quickly returned to their much more important conversations. I did wonder what their topics of conversation were, perhaps their fellow neighbours who were not present so ripe for some gossip to be passed about them, maybe the cost of food in the shops these days, or even the state of the economy, perhaps even how things have changed since their younger days, and not for the better either, more likely a combination of all of that and more 😂 This was not actually the first time that we had observed this, we actually see it on a regular basis, at first we felt a little uncomfortable, thinking that we were possibly intruding into, and through, their narrow residential streets with their tightly packed low rise terraced houses , but now we just actually enjoy this friendly interaction when we come across it. Their is an elderly lady, in the village where we park our car, we often see her stood on the street corner and, as we pass, she smiles and gives a wave, the reality is that she probably does this to every car that passes, so it isn’t as if we believe that she actually recognises us personally, or our car, more a case of her perhaps living alone and this is her way of getting out and socialising and not feeling invisible to the outside world, bless her.

On another sun kissed day we payed yet another visit to the Organic farm, Carlos was not present on this occasion as he was out doing deliveries to some Fruiterias in the local area, he had left his father in charge and although his English was minimal, it provided us with the opportunity to once again impress ‘ourselves’ with our level of basic conversational Spanish, although we were not fooling ourselves, it was slow intermittent conversation at times, as we occasionally had a brain fart and struggled to remember some of the relevant words that we needed, the frown and confusion on the old man’s face being our instant recognition that perhaps we still had a long way to go, ‘but we got there in the end and that is what matters’, we said to ourselves as we walked back to the car, we came away with another two carrier bags full of assorted fruit and vegetables, oh deep joy I thought to myself, or words to that effect 🙄 The bonus of taking that morning trip to the Organic Farm was that it gave us another opportunity to take a stop in Estepona Town which was just seven minutes drive and on the way home anyway. We didn’t need anything from the town on this particular occasion so it was just nice to take another leisurely stroll in the sunshine, along the very nice seafront promenade to start with, before then turning away from it and into the main town area. Estepona is always vibrant, we can understand why both Spanish and International tourists love this place, for it beats hands down the numerous other touristy towns that occupy this stretch of the Costa del Sol coastline. We made our way to what has quickly become our favourite Tapas Cafe/Bar here in Estepona, not the seafront one where we often stop, that one is generally just for coffee and people watching opportunities. We sat, under the shade of a sun umbrella, overlooking the small sun-drenched plaza where we were are also able to fulfil our most pleasurable leisurely activities, yes you know the one’s I am talking about 😉 This Cafe/Bar have a full menu of Tapas, which do not change very much and so they are always available, but they also have a ‘Specials Board’ which varies on a daily basis, generally offering around six choices, which are written in Spanish only, on a small blackboard hanging by the door. We can often interpret what they are between ourselves, but occasionally there are some where we just don’t have a clue 🤷‍♂️ Yes of course we could use ‘Google Translate’ on our phones, but where is the adventure in that, so we just choose a couple at random, and include a tapas of ‘Rusa Salat’ (Spanish Potato Salad) off the main menu, that is served with half a dozen or so small biscuit type crackers or bread sticks, the contents of this Rusa Salat, and how it is presented, varies from one establishment to another but of course, they all include potato but can also include chopped up boiled egg, small pieces of ‘Jamon’ (Ham) or Prawns, our’s was just the basic which suited Shazza 😁 She selected the ‘Canalloni de Salmon’ off the ‘Specials Board’, she had obviously recognised the words ‘Cannalloni’ and ‘Salmon’, but when it came out it bore no resemblance to the ‘Italian’ version of Cannelloni, as there was no Pasta involved, more just a generous roll of salmon, stuffed with a mousse like cream, she offered me a taste and it was delicious. I too ordered off the ‘Specials’, but neither of us had a clue what I had ordered, ‘piruleta de carne’, but when it arrived it was a circular piece of grilled meat, rather like a small flattened meat patty, stuck on top of a wooden skewer, served with a mild spicy sauce, and that was delicious too. I did check later on what ‘Piruleta’ meant, which is ‘Lollipop’, so then it became obvious, as it had looked like a lollipop of meat when it was served. These were just tapas, so not large meal type portions, but with the ‘Rusa Salat’ it made a nice light snack lunch, which is all we wanted and they were perfect ‘lite bites’ to accompany my glass of ‘Vermut’, and Shazza’s Diet Pepsi. The Rusa Salat was brought out with our drinks, Shazza’s, because it was a cold dish, came out a few minutes later and mine, because it had to be grilled, or fried, came out shortly afterwards but we were in no hurry for we were just enjoying the leisurely ambience. The thing about these varied Tapas dishes is that often, the picture in your mind of what you expect them to be, or even look like, bears no resemblance to what is actually put in front of you, it adds to the gastronomic adventure and rarely disappoints.

The days passed quickly, we took advantage of the beautiful warm weather and apart from our one weekly domestics cleaning day, we had been out on every single day, combining our leisurely walks with a bit of shopping at the Supermarket, or visiting the Correo (Post Office) to mail cards back to family in the UK and on one day, to collect a new pair of sunglasses I had ordered the previous week from my local Optica (Opticians). Apart from the bits and bobs we sometimes have to do, it is generally just a case of getting some fresh air, maintaining a bit of daily mobility and enjoying the relaxation with time spent in various Cafe/Bars in the town, some on the seafront, other’s in sunny Plazas, or some that are just pavement side one’s, but all offering us the opportunity to just sit and observe the world pass by.

However, after what had been seven full days of glorious, almost summer like weather, the skies once again became much more cloudy, although not grey and bleak, but hazy enough to block out the sunshine and with it, much of the warmth that we had recently enjoyed, so it was back to jeans, short-sleeved shirt and a lightweight hoody top. Some morning’s even commenced with a light mist that hugged the coastline and which hung very low over the mountains and it continued well into the early afternoons, but it hadn’t prevented us from getting out on our daily walks, although we spent much less time at the Cafe/Bars as it became much chillier when we were not actually moving. But this was the prequel for what was to follow, ‘Storm Regina’ apparently, although this was coming in from the Atlantic side which would suffer the worst, but even on this Eastern Mediterranean side, the wind picked up, the sky turned a much darker threatening shade of grey, the thicker and heavier looking clouds hung much lower over the mountains, if their was any sun above them it certainly wasn’t getting through. The temperatures however remained quite reasonable at around 15 degrees(c) and what rain fell was intermittent and fairly light, it certainly looked a lot worse outside the balcony windows than it probably actually was, but still, no matter how light the rainfall was, it still got you wet if you went out in it, so we chose not to and our daily mobility work-outs would be confined to one fifteen minute session on our ‘Tension Bands’, and frequent walks into the kitchen to make hot cuppas 😂

The ‘Works of Fiction’ once again took to forecasting its more pessimistic outlook, alerting us to even more of the wet stuff over the coming week, some a lot heavier than it had been, but not in any real great abundance in comparison to the last few months, However, whether or not any of it would actually materialise would of course be another matter, but it was enough reason for me to be forced to cancel Forrest’s vacation, his daily services would be required once again and surprisingly he wasn’t that upset about it, he had heard that things may be hotting up a little too much for him at his holiday hotel in the Middle East, but not in a good way 😲

Saturday the 28th of February marked a major event on the Calendar, well at least it did for those of us who live in the Spanish Region of Andalusia, for that particular day, ‘Día de Andalucía’ (Andalusia Day) serves to commemorate a very significant date for Andalusian’s. It was on that date forty-six years ago when a ‘Referendum’ was held on the Autonomy of Andalucia, a date on which a massive majority of the Andalusian electorate voted for the Region of ‘Andalusia’ to become an ‘Autonomous Self Governing Region’ of Spain, with its own democratically elected Regional Political Leader, who was empowered to initiate Laws, and Political decisions on matters that effected the region. So, on this date each year it is a Public Holiday in many municipalities and cities of Andalusia, people decorate their balconies with the regional flag and/or with Green and White bunting and, on the day itself, people are encouraged to wear some sort of clothing with that colour combination, or at least that is what the local media had stated.

According to the media blurb, Cultural competitions are often held in conjunction with the day in some larger cities, especially in the Malaga area, schools are closed for a ‘Cultural Week’ (Semana Cultural) which, on the Friday, is often a day of celebration in schools with a traditional Andalusian Breakfast being served (desayuno andaluz), consisting of a slice of toast with a thin layer of olive oil and an orange juice, students colour pictures that refer to the symbols and insignia of Andalusia, its history and customs, put on plays and sing the Andalusian Anthem, the Himno de Andalucía. To be honest with you, I didn’t actually know that they had one, it seems that we never stop learning things about our new home country and Region 🤔

We had of course, subject to the weather of course, agreed that it would be good idea to go and celebrate with our fellow Andalucian’s, seeing as we now live here. However, the truth of the matter is this, even though it was a grey and overcast morning we decided that we should go and join in these ‘alleged’ patriotic regional celebrations, in our opinion it would have been so rude of us not to. But as we drove down the hill towards the village I mentioned to Shazza that it seemed a bit odd that we had not seen any evidence of Green & White Bunting, or the Regional Flag, displayed anywhere, not on Apartment balconies, Villas or Houses, and on our usual walking route not even on local ‘Official’ buildings, there was only the usual Andalucian Regional Flag on the flagpole at the car park in the village, but that is always there come rain or shine every day of the year.

When I ordered our morning coffee’s I wished the two lady owner’s ’Feliz Dia de Andalusia’, they both gave wide beaming smiles as if it came as a surprise that a foreigner had known what day it was, they both said, ‘Muchas Gracias’. But then I asked, “Por qué no hay banderas regionales ni banderines verdes y blancos en ninguna parte?”, (Why are there no Regional Flags or Green and White Buntings displayed anywhere ?), they both just shrugged their shoulders and told me that it is a Public Holiday, most of the main retail shops are closed, and for most locals it is just a reason for some to take an extra day off work. So from that I made the assumption that, apart perhaps from some major Andalusian Cities and Towns, it perhaps isn’t such a big deal everywhere, as perhaps a lot of the media and social media ‘Influencers’ would have you believe 🤷‍♂️ Shazza did check her local Social Media App on her phone, whilst we were sat drinking our coffee’s, she discovered that our much smaller community of ‘Manilva’, up the hill where our ‘Ayuntamiento’ (Town Hall) is located, were actually celebrating the day, in a fashion, with a local choir singing the ‘Himno de Andalucia’ and some other minor events, wine and local produce tasting, my previous memories of these local events, on the two occasions we had gone to check out the food and wine events, were not exactly one’s that would encourage us to hurry back, so we agreed that as the weather wasn’t exactly great for sitting around, we would return home and if the weather was better on the following day that we would come out and have a nice proper full lunch somewhere. It wasn’t and so we didn’t 🙁

But here we are, having just entered the month of March and, in a little less than four weeks before this month is out, we will commence our extended road trip, which could hopefully last for 5-6 weeks, subject to the weather of course, and/or, other more undesirable impacts from ‘Global Events’ that are kicking off right now as I type this. It just confirms the hypocrisy of the Worlds political leader’s when once a year, they spout the words ‘Lest We Forget’ 🤷‍♂️

And in other news…………….

Although there is a lot going on the news recently, Locally, Regionally, Nationally and Globally, I have selected two particular Media headlines, primarily because, whilst they do also impact on other’s, this time they are also of particular interest to Shazza and myself on a more personal level, although, I will just add the comment that, in all likelihood, although good news for us, neither will, in reality, have any major practical impact on our lives or lifestyle here in Spain.

Why is that of personal interest to us you may ask ? Well, as some of my readers who have been following my rambles since the time we came to live here in Spain will know, our ‘Temporary Residency Visas’ have a travel restriction whereby, in the first five years of our current residency period, we cannot spend more than 10 months, within the whole of that year five period, outside of Spain. But what you probably didn’t know was, once we have applied, and obtained, at the end of that 5 year ‘Temporary Residency’ period, our ‘Permanent Residency Visa’, which will then have to be renewed every 5 years, the travel restrictions applied to that Visa states that we cannot spend more than 6 months, in any one single year, outside of Spain. However, the good news is that this ‘new court ruling’ now scraps that travel restriction so, if we wanted to, once we have obtained our ‘Permanent Residency Visa’, hopefully in June 2028, there will no longer be any time restrictions on how long we can spend outside of Spain. Just a pity that it hadn’t come into force before we sold our Motorhome 🤷‍♂️ What has not been clarified however, is whether the initial travel restrictions on our 5 year ‘Temporary Residency Visa’ is still applicable, that being the 10 month travel restriction, although in truth that isn’t a major issue either, as in our first, very nearly three years here, and even including the proposed dates in our upcoming extended road trip, we will still have used up just over two months of that 10 month allowance, so we have plenty of accrued travel credit in our back pockets.

So moving on to the next ‘quite big’ media story……..

Today, as I write this, Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory, and now that we live here in Spain that brings about its own unique issues due to ‘Brexshit’. It is, physically speaking, just a half an hours drive from our front door to the Gibraltar Frontier Crossing, and with lots of British Goods in the large Morrisons Supermarket located across in Gibraltar, the tax free goods, and of course not forgetting the very much cheaper fuel costs, it is an attractive place for some ‘British Expats’ in Spain, who live close to it, to go and visit. However, due to ‘Brexshit’ it means that when we now cross the ‘Frontier’ (Border) we have to have our British Passport stamped as exiting the EU, something we never had to do when we first bought our property here in 2015, when the UK used to be a member of the wider EU community. Now, and bearing in mind the 10 month travel restriction that we have attached to our ‘Temporary Residency Visas’, crossing the Frontier on a regular basis since 2020, would certainly have eaten away into that limited travel allowance. We are also restricted to what Products that we can and cannot bring back into Spain, due to the conflicting UK and EU rules. Even people who come to visit us, if they choose to fly into, or out of Gibraltar, means that we have to collect them, or return them, on the Spanish side so that we do not have our Passports stamped as leaving the country and losing yet another day’s travel allowance. Whilst on the subject of the Airport, there are currently only flights from Gibraltar to the UK, no other European destinations. So you can imagine our feelings when we read the following headlines……..

So, and subject to all the formal political ratifications and approvals, which have already been agreed by the UK, Gibraltarian and Spanish Governments, as from April 2026, there will be no physical border crossing between Spain and Gibraltar. So for us personally, as we are ‘Officially’ Spanish Residents, we will no longer have our British Passports stamped as exiting the EU, meaning that we now will not lose a day off our travel allowance each time we cross, we can purchase goods from Gibraltar without restrictions and, albeit a little further into the future, we may soon be able to take flights to other European destinations and so no longer have to travel to/from Malaga Airport, which is 75 minutes drive away 👍

However, when Governments negotiate such changes, their are always winners and losers, as their was for UK Citizens when Brexshit became effective, this new agreement will be no different. Some, who currently have certain advantages with the ‘current’ procedures, like those who currently use Gibraltar as a convenient place to stop, thereby temporarily halting the ticking ‘Schengen Clock’ for example, well this former ‘Non-Schengen Zone’ sanctuary will cease to exist as under the new agreement, Gibraltar will fall under the EU Schengen Zone rules, which of course means that the Schengen Clock will continue to tick if you entered the Schengen Zone from elsewhere, or it will commence, or re-commence ticking, once you enter Gibraltar via the Air or Sea Port, ‘Brexshit, the gift that keeps giving’ 🤷‍♂️ Now the UK Government are at pains to stress that they have not negotiated away Britain’s Sovereignty of Gibraltar, other’s however, tend to believe otherwise 🤔

To be totally honest, whilst Shazza and myself may consider ourselves as potential ‘Beneficiaries’ of both of these changes, realistically and practically speaking, it will not make any great impact on our lives. However, had these things have perhaps happened back in October 2020, when we chose to fully retire and we still owned our Motorhome, but still may have decided to make Spain our permanent home, then perhaps our lifestyle would have been a lot different to what it is now, as we could have actually lived our European full-timing Motorhome adventure as we had originally planned to do, but hey, it was not to be, at that time 🤷‍♂️ However, that door may now have just re-opened, should we choose to go through it of course, only this time, it would be as ‘Spanish’ residents, with a freedom to travel, without the ‘Schengen Shuffle’ or ‘Visa Residency’ time-restrictions, so one may say, ‘Brexshit, the gift that keeps giving’ but this time, with a different more positive connotation to it 🤔

Until the next ramble……………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

I cannot remember what day it was, too much water has passed under the bridge since then, quite literally, but by the powers of deduction, it was obviously at some point between publishing my last ramble, and publishing this one, 🤔 However, I can confirm that it would have been on a rare non-rainy day, so now I come to think of it, as we hadn’t had many of those, I remember that it was Friday the 13th February, we were sat in one of our favourite seafront Cafe/Bars drinking our Cafe con Leche’s, nothing new there then, but thinking back, Tina Turner was crooning away in the background, 🎶 I Can’t Stand The Rain 🎶 and we both commented on just how appropriate that song was at that particular time. However, what I remember most about it was how it felt so good, to once again feel the warmth of the sunshine, and the warming breath of a very mild westerly breeze, on my face. Shazza and I used this time to each sit in silence, well we had done a lot of chitter chattering the whole way along the first part of our walk that morning, so we agreed that we had probably both used up our allocation of words for that morning 😂 So we were each able to just sit, gazing out upon the vast wide and empty expanse of shoreline that stretched out in front of us. The sea, having worn itself out after such a long period of turbulence, was now a picture of serenity once again, with its calm turquoise greens and blues just sparkling away in the sunlight. The scars, wreaked from the havoc created by the seemingly never ending storms, had now all but gone from the beaches, although some work was still in progress, repairing the damage to underground water drainage pipes that had been displaced, along with the tons of sand, such had been those extreme forces of nature. However, the extremely efficient army of local council workers had now very quickly removed the mountains of debris, the co-ordinated teams had scraped, raked and manicured the whole foreshore, bringing it back to looking a lot more like its more normal ‘Blue Flag’ award standard. These are unsung heroes in my book, they barely get noticed by passers-by as they toil relentlessly under the sun in their green ‘high-vis’ uniforms, conducting what must be a very monotonous task. But I for one noticed them, for there is absolutely nothing that evades my prying eyes constantly seeking out ramble worthy content. Not even the dog walker on the beach who allowed her dog to crap on the beach before hurriedly scampering away, without cleaning it up, did not escape my scrutiny and which got her a very much deserved loud ‘tut’ from your’s truly I can tell you, she was lucky that she was too far away to be vocally admonished, it is dog owner’s like her that give responsible owner’s a bad press, I thought to myself. There will of course be those who will spring to her defence with statements like “It will wash away with the tide”, and yes, hopefully it will, at some point, although perhaps not before another unsuspecting beach walker, or jogger, finds it adhered to the bottom of their flip-flop, or trainers 🤷‍♂️

It had been good to get out for a longish walk, and to see other’s out in abundance once again too, all taking the opportunity of another, albeit brief, respite in the weather, not having to rush around between torrential raindrops, or walking, bent over double, protecting themselves from the gale force wind, eyes fixed firmly on the ground directly at their feet, so as not to step in lake-sized puddles, or dog crap. Now they, and we, were able to just saunter, making the most of every valuable second of this unexpected change in the weather. These few dry hours of the day had truly been totally unexpected, because the ‘Works of Fiction’ had actually predicted, forecasted, or probably more accurately, just used the less technological ‘Madame Zelda’s Mystic Fortune Telling Service’ and guessed, that we were once again supposed to have wall to wall rain again on this day, dawn til dusk, which would continue for ‘at least’ the next forty-eight hours, well I suppose they did have a 50/50 chance of getting it right 🤷‍♂️

The Cafe/Bar was not as busy as it often can be, probably because we had arrived slightly later than usual that particular morning, but all the usual suspects were still there, including the German expat couple we had come to know, for not even the weather, good or bad, can interfere with the mandatory leisurely Spanish morning coffee routine. Upon arrival we of course engaged in the traditional round of pleasantries with our fellow customer’s, as well as with the two lady owner’s who, on this particular morning, were both stood side by side on the steps at the entrance, “Dos Cafe con Leche” one of them simply said, “Si Gracias” I responded, and within a minute or so our ‘Vaso’s’ (Glasses) of piping hot coffee were delivered to our table, by the more elderly of the two lady owners, whom we engaged in a brief conversation with, primarily about this unexpected, but very much welcomed weather, well it would have been rude not to have at least acknowledged this moment of rare sunshine and warmth.

I was well overdue a haircut so, after our leisurely coffee’s, we bid ‘Hasta Luego’ to our fellow customers, many of whom were now indulging in slightly stronger beverages 😲 well I suppose the sun was very nearly over the yard arm, to quote a nautical expression, depending on which direction you were looking at that yard arm I suppose, but it was far too early for either Shazza or I. Whilst I called in at my usual Moroccan barbers shop, Shazza wandered off up into the town’s Main Street, you won’t need many guesses at to which shop she would almost certainly be stopping off at 😂 Although, as you read on, the question is, could this be the beginning of the end of us giving our routine custom to this particular favourite trading post 😲 When I was finished having my hair cut, and feeling a little more lightheaded 🤭 I found her sat in the sunshine, on the wall overlooking the beach, my barber’s was just around the corner and she had already informed me where she would be waiting. Neither of us were in any hurry to walk back to the village to where the car was parked, so we discussed finding somewhere for lunch, we wanted nothing too heavy though, so we spent a few minutes trying to decide whether to stay in town, or whether to walk back to the Marina. We agreed that it was too early for the Spanish lunch time, which would have meant us being sat at a table in an empty establishment like a couple of ‘Billy No Mates’, and we certainly didn’t want to try and kill another hour and a half just waiting for more diners to appear so as to create a better dining ambience.

We sauntered back towards the Marina, allowing us more time to soak up every ray of golden sunshine, whilst looking out at the gorgeous sparkling colours of the sea, it is amazing at just how the feeling of warming sunshine can make you feel so happy. We were just casually chatting about this between ourselves as we walked and talking about just how relaxed we both felt right at that moment, “Neither of us really needs a lot to make us happy and content these days do we ?” Shazza commented, and she was right, for generally speaking, we now find ourselves just being happy with our lot, even our previously intense ‘Itchy Feet Syndrome’ has quelled somewhat these days, leading her to ask, “Do you think that we are both just getting old ?”. Mmmmm 🤔 I didn’t like the sound of that word ‘Old’, so I paused for a moment before answering, “Well yes, it is a fact that we are both getting more ‘Senior’ in years, one of us a little quicker than the other, but”, I paused again, before finishing my response, “I actually truly believe that we have now found the ‘sweet spot’ in our lives, no longer needing to seek out the next adventure, just being content with what we have in the here and now”. She half muttered an agreement, but not convincingly then, after a few moments I saw the scowl appear on her face, “But that doesn’t mean that we cannot still have some travel adventures if we want to, does it ?” She said. “Of course not” I replied, for it is true that we do still have those moments when the ‘Itchy Feet’ return and we find ourselves having to scratch them, when we do, we generally go somewhere and do something, whether that be going somewhere different, either for a day, or even a few days on a Spanish mini-break, or sometimes a longer extended holiday break like we are going to do in only a few weeks time, however, in the main, nowadays, it would be true to say that we tend to just relax and enjoy the moments we have here, in this small corner of the Iberian Peninsular, although, we will see just how true that last statement is in a few months time, when we are once again dealing with Spanish bureaucracy, applying to extend our residency permits once again 🫣

At least in the Marina complex it was much busier than on the seafront in the town, with the usual menagerie of International Expats, who tend to eat lunch much earlier in the day than our Mediterranean cousins. Of course, us being us, we wanted to sit outside, and not just because of the sunshine, regular readers will know our particular reason for that 😉 However, with the sun shining, the very calm water in the Marina sparkling alongside the shiny white hulls of the different sized boats, which were sat quite sedentary on their moorings, everybody and their dogs, and I mean that quite literally about the dogs, also wanted to be sat outside at tables in the sunshine and yes okay, who could blame them I suppose, and so, as a consequence, our choices were somewhat limited.

The last time we ate at the ‘Mexican’ Cafe/Restaurant in the Marina, which happened to be a good couple of year’s ago, we found that, unfortunately, they did not cater very well for Shazza’s more ‘Plant Based’ palate, or indeed for anyone of a more Vegetarian/Vegan persuasion, unless you wanted a basic Salad. However, on this occasion, with it being one of the few establishments that had an outside table that was free, and right at the front and immediately overlooking the Marina, we stood and perused the menu board that was attached outside, this time Shazza identified a whole host of things that she could eat, they had obviously had a change to their menu options since our last visit and not one menu item mentioned the words ‘Goats Cheese’. We both ordered ‘Burritos’, Shazza a Mediterranean Vegetable and Black Bean one, myself a Chilli Beef one, which also came with both black and red beans, lots of them, I guess this is why Mexicans always seem so jovial, they are always ‘Full of Beans’ 🤭 Both came with Mexican Rice and three bowls of dips, Sour Cream, Guacamole and a very spicy Chilli Salsa 🥵 Shazza settled for her more usual bottle of sparkling water but for me, finally, after weeks of incarceration with no dining out, I finally got to treat myself to a very nice (large) glass of Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 Should I really still be calling it that I wonder ? In truth we do ‘occasionally’ open a bottle of wine at home, where we will both have a glass (or two), but that is, in all honesty, a very rare occurrence, for some inexplicable reason 🤷‍♂️ Although we always have plenty of bottles of the stuff on the wine rack, it is my emergency fluid supply, just in case of another drought, although not much chance of that happening this year. Somehow though, drinking wine at home just never seems to quite taste the same, not like the stuff you quaff when you are out in public, perhaps because it always tastes better when combined with a spot of ‘People Watching’, or when conducting our moral duties of ‘Fashion Policing’ or ‘Body Beautiful Observations’ 😂

It was mid afternoon when we drove back into our small residential complex, our slightly younger Spanish neighbours, Miguel and Katya, who are probably in their late forties or very early fifties and who live directly above us, had followed us in through the gates in their car, we have not seen them for several weeks, partly because of our incarcerations due to the weather, but also because they both still work on a full-time basis. We stopped and passed the usual pleasantries and chatted, just about general stuff, as you do and, although they both speak excellent English, we always try to converse with them, initially at least, in our stumbling erratic Spanish, they acknowledge the fact by giving a warm appreciative smile and they never criticise us, or make fun of us, when we occasionally get some of the words not quite right, or in the wrong place in a sentence, or when we have to slip back into our own mother tongue, which I do have to say, is getting less and less. I remember a few years ago when Miguel had told me, in a casual conversation, how it irritated him that a lot of other ‘International Expats’, not just British I hasten to add, and who have resided in our small community in excess of 10 years, still do not speak the most basic of Spanish words which, I guess subconsciously at least, is probably why we always attempt to speak to them both in Spanish, and to be honest, after three years here, I guess that is the way it should be, even if it isn’t perfect. It reminded me of an answer to a question I had seen about whether, in these more touristy areas, you really do need to speak Spanish.

It is warm enough now, well on some days, to spend the afternoon and early evening on the balcony, the daylight hours extending now to a little beyond 7:30pm, and in just a few more weeks, when the clocks go forward by one hour on to European Summertime, it will be more like 9:00pm as the sunsets get progressively later 😁 One evening, whilst we were sat on the balcony, the sun had just begun to disappear behind the thickening night clouds, although there were still some flickers of hazy blue sky obstinately hanging on, the calm sea reflected a much softer blue now, no longer were there any sparkling turquoise greens. I could hear the Gulls circling noisily overhead, above the foreshore, the evening dinner bell must be close to sounding I thought to myself as the evening tide made its way inbound. The freighter’s on the horizon were becoming more of silhouettes, they were getting much harder to distinguish through the descending veil of light grey haze and then, the next time I lifted my eyes from the book I was reading, the horizon had disappeared altogether, making it impossible to distinguish it from the natural line that separated the sea from the sky. As I sat just looking out upon the various landscapes surrounding my elevated observation post, the lights in the grounds of the neighboring complex came on, albeit dusk had still not yet fully arrived, but I noticed that the earlier much lighter breeze was beginning to turn into more of a stronger wind, the heavy leaves on the palm trees starting to sway rhythmically with it, and beginning to make much more noise, the temperature also started to fall quite rapidly as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Shazza had already retreated into the living room by this time and had turned on the three bar halogen heater, and it wasn’t long afterwards that the orange glow of the fire tempted me inside too. I sighed a contented sigh at what a very enjoyable day it had been, amazing how just a little bit of sunshine and warmth can physically, and psychologically, do to brighten up your day’s.

There is a saying that goes, ‘Enjoy each and every day whilst you can’, well that saying is most definitely true at the moment, for whilst we had enjoyed that previous days weather respite, during the very early hours of the morning, I heard the now familiar tap tap tapping on the external window shutters, and the wind blowing outside had certainly picked up and both lasted well on into the night, I lay awake listening to the gentle rhythm of the rain and wondered what the daylight of morning would bring, for right now it is more like a ‘Lucky Dip’ and certainly much like that famous Forrest Gump line, “You just don’t know what your gonna get”.

What is that other saying ? the one about ‘Giving with one hand whilst taking away with the other’. The ‘Works of Fiction’ had at least got one prediction correct, the previous warm and sunny day had only been a ‘very brief respite’ and what followed was to be another forty-eight hours of incarceration 🙁 As I skimmed through the usual array of ‘Doom and Gloom’ articles in the morning’s media over those following two days, it did serve to remind me that it wasn’t just Spanish people that were rapidly growing webbed feet, for many parts of Europe were suffering their own, not so pleasant, meteorological events, some suffering more than other’s and it reminded me to be grateful for the fact that, at least in our particular corner of Southern Spain, that we had in fact been extremely fortunate in the grand scheme of things.

We do not have to count down the number of weeks it is before our first vacation of the year, because our Grandchildren are already doing that for us, it is the very first thing they say to us on our weekly video chats with them, followed by, “Will you take us bowling again ?”, “Can you take us to the Park ?”, “Can we go to the Pizza Restaurant ?”, they each reel of a long list of the things they want us to do with them, each one making sure they include something different to what their sisters have asked, to which we of course just simply reply, ‘Yes’, in the full knowledge that we will not be able to fulfil every single one of their requests as we only have so much time to spend with them, but ‘Yes’ is much easier than trying to explain the ‘Adult logical reasons’ why not everything will actually be possible, within the time frame we have with them. However, it also serves as a timely reminder to the two of us, that we only have a few weeks remaining to up our stamina levels, in readiness for what will certainly be a full body and mental wellness workout 😲 So, our current, more sedentary exercise regime, will be totally insufficient for the demands of three ‘very active’ grandchildren, our fingers are crossed that, hopefully, the weather will soon change and we will be able to extend our walks a little more, and of course up the pace 😮‍💨 as their will be no opportunity, when we are with them in a little under five weeks, for me to grab my more customary afternoon Siesta’s 😲 “Shazza, as you are the younger, perhaps you may consider having some dedicated Girlie time with them for an hour or so 🤔”, reply unprintable, “No, I didn’t think so 🙁”

The weather did eventually change for the better, we were now, once again, awakening to the much more desirable blue skies and sunshine and, although the different ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts were still squabbling with each other, like a bunch of school kids in the playground, over how warm the daily temperatures would be, or the strengths and directions of the wind, it really didn’t matter to us, as long as we saw that sunshine symbol in the forecast, that was all we needed, so confident was I that there would be no more rain in the next ten days or so, hopefully much longer than that, I even let ‘Forrest Gump’ go on vacation for a while, although I do have him on speed dial just in case he is required at short notice 😁

I won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say that not only had the meteorological conditions resumed their normal sunny service in our part of Spain, but so did our normal daily routines, we went out ‘every single day’ on our usual walks, occasionally extending them but not, if we are honest, for any reasons of upping our stamina levels, more a case of having been incarcerated for so long we just wanted to enjoy most of our time outside of the confines of the apartment.

Shazza informed me one morning, whilst enjoying our first coffee of the day, taken now back in my happy place on the balcony, that she had discovered an Organic Fruit and Vegetable Farm just on the outskirts of Estepona, on the Northern side of the town. Obviously the reason she was informing me of this was because it was more her way of telling me where we would be going that morning, that was as soon as I got my arse into gear and got washed and dressed 😂 The ‘Works of Fiction’ predicted the afternoon temperature to climb to 24 degrees(c), it was already 18 degrees(c) at 10:00am so they may just have guessed correctly this time around. I put the route into ‘Google Car Play’ and off we went, it didn’t take long before we remembered that we needed to re-set the Air-Con system in the car from warm to cold 🥵 The location was a little further outside of Estepona than it had initially looked, but not that far. Now it is not often that you get personal service from a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a firm, unless of course you are from a more entitled background and the chauffeur drops you off at the door 💵💰🤑 and to be honest, we didn’t know that we were at the time. The sales area was a metal shipping container set at the entrance of a large field, we waited for the only other customer to be served and then a very friendly youngish chap, early to mid thirties I guessed, dressed as you would expect a land worker to be dressed, introduced himself in perfect English, “Hello, I am Carlos, Is this your first time here ?” he asked, when we answered ‘Yes’ he said, “Okay, it is quiet this morning so let me show you around my farm”. We chatted as we walked and we learnt about Carlos, his previous life and how he came to own this farm, his family was originally from up in the hillside town of ‘Antequera’, before they then moved to ‘Cordoba’, he had left home and worked in the ‘Science Based Agricultural Industry’ in Northern Europe, before returning to Spain and starting this farm just three year’s ago. He was ‘A Very Happy And Pleasant Chap’ and we both took an instant liking to him, he was very enthusiastic about his farm and his plans for the future and was keen to confirm that all of his produce was grown without any chemicals or pesticides, 100% Organic he proudly stated. There was not much produce on the hand-made wooden racking in the container, but he explained that the rain and flooding had taken it’s toll on the ground and crops, but he had plenty out in his fields that had survived and ready for cultivating, so out we went back into the fields stopping to cut handfuls of fresh ‘Kale’, Bright Green and Dark Purple varieties. As you may imagine, we came away with two plastic carrier bags full of different fruits and vegetables and he said that if we wanted anything specific that he didn’t already have available, just to let him know and he would grow it, Shazza suggested Fresh Ginger and he said that he already had plans to grow it as part of his expansion plans. As we left he gave us his card, so that we could contact him if we had any other suggestions for produce that he didn’t already grow, but to be honest he already grows such a wide range and much more than there is on our local supermarket shelves, but that is when I noticed his official title of ‘CEO & Owner’. I chuckled and said that I had never been dealt with personally by a CEO before, he laughed, “Nothing but personal service here’ he says, and then thanked us for our custom.

Now okay, for Shazza this farm produce location was a major discovery for her, she waxed lyrically about it all the way back to Estepona and I knew from that, that this would not be our last visit, and that it would probably now extend the distance we travel on our weekly shopping trips 😲 For me, somewhat of a ‘Plant Based’ heathen in her eyes, I wasn’t convinced that I would be able to tell any difference in taste between these fruit and vegetables, from the the ones that we have been eating from both the Supermarket, or the Fruiterias, in our local town 🤷‍♂️ Although, some of the local produce in the supermarket has been seen to contain labels stating country of Origin in countries as far away as Peru, not very local eh, considering that much of the same produce is actually grown here in Spain 🙄 So at least she will know that by purchasing from the local farm, that we are actually supporting the local Spanish economy, now that cannot be a bad thing can it 🤷‍♂️

We parked on the waste ground in Estepona, opposite the large Carrefour supermarket, and walked into the town along the seafront promenade and, in the rapidly rising heat it felt a long walk, but we were definitely not complaining. The first stop was my E-Cigarette supplier, the last time I had visited to re-stock my supply of vape fluids was nearly six months ago, and as we do not have a ‘Vape Store’ in our own town this is the nearest, so I ensure that when I come here I purchase in bulk. The shop is at the top end of the town but just around the corner from it is a very pleasant Plaza, with a couple of ‘Taperias’, so just right for a nice ‘Vermut & Tapas’ lunch, yes of course we did, it would have been rude not to. Estepona is such a vibrant place and we love coming here, although, even though it is only a twenty-minute drive from home, we probably do not come as often as we could, not only was it a very productive day, but it also made for a nice change of scenery.

And In Other News……….

Perhaps the reporter for the European Weekly News (EWN) had some insider information that the other Global Tabloid Press do not have, for when reporting on the Supreme Courts ruling in the USA very recently, it would appear that, according to the EWN this is, and not a case of you saw it in Eric’s ramble so it must be true, that TRUMP is now the ‘Former’ President 🤔 Perhaps this could just be a ‘typo’ ? or perhaps a case of CNN and FOX News being a little slow off the mark ? Or perhaps…………. the Iranians got to him first 🤷‍♂️

Until my next scintillating ramble, from what is now a Sunnier part of Spain, wherever you may be in the world right now, stay warm, stay dry or just enjoy the sunshine, but ultimately, stay safe 😉

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena