Now you will not very often hear me complain much about the climate over here in Spain, even though it is searingly hot right now, and yes I have said in previous rambles that down on this part of the Costa del Sol coastline, generally speaking at least, that it doesn’t get much higher than 35 degrees(c), so, the 40 degrees(c) that hit us on the weekend before our visitor’s arrived and, the week of 38+ degree(c) temperatures that followed, were, I have to say, a bit of a surprise occurrence 🥵 Even under the shaded balcony it was like having our own personal Sauna, but, eventually, it had even got the better of me and forced me to surrender in defeat.

With the windows, doors, and security shutters all ‘closed’, and yes I did say closed, the living room and bedroom, although much like living in a cave house, was exceptionally cool. This is why when visitor’s come to Spain and see the majority of apartments, and houses, in towns and villages, with all their shutters down, that it makes them look uninhabited. During these Summer months we rarely tend to go out during the day, unless it is in the mornings to go down to our swimming pool, when it is a ‘little’ cooler and much quieter, or if we need to go and do some shopping, or some other ‘essential’ task, although to be honest we do not have many of them these days. But, there is a ‘disadvantage’ to having now reverted from our Winter to our Summer schedule, as we do not now go out on our daily walks very often, so we tend to miss seeing the ‘Posters’ that remind us when a particular local ‘Fiesta’ is happening, even though we do have a Calendar of Local Events, but that is only of any use if you check it from time to time 🤔

Fortunately, Shazza and I do still have regular morning conferences on the balcony, once she has of course completed her customary morning period of solitude in the bedroom with her coffee and iPad. “Isn’t there a local Fiesta coming up whilst Stacey and Dean are here ?” I asked, in a casual sort of way, for Shazza is the font of all knowledge about such things. “Yes”, she simply replied…………🤷‍♂️ Shazza can be quite economical at times with her use of words 😂 She has also been known, quite regularly in fact, to inform me that I should probably consider having my own limited daily allowance of words 😲 ‘Whatever could she mean’ 🤔 However, whilst she was checking when that particular Fiesta would be, she announced, “Oh ! It is the Luna Fiesta tonight”, I was a bit confused, which isn’t an unusual state of affairs with me at times 😂 “But they don’t arrive until Monday so they won’t be here for it ?” I said, “No, not that one, that is a different fiesta, that one is on Tuesday night, the one that is happening tonight is the one that we went to last year, but I forgot that it was actually happening on this particular weekend” she said. So, I think I had grasped what she was now telling me, and that was that there would be two Fiestas within a few days of each other “So, are you wanting to go and do this weekend one again ?” I asked her. “Is the Pope Catholic ? Is the sun shining again today ? And is it another ‘Treat Weekend ?’ she said with a playful grin on her face. “I take it that’s a Yes then ?” I had no expectation of a reply, which is good because I didn’t get one, but at least now I knew that even though it was going to be a hot and very humid night, and there would be crowds as large as their were during the ‘San Juan’ Fiesta, which we feel more than a little uncomfortable being amongst, but yes we would still be going out on our usual ‘Treat Weekend’ 🤗

However, it would only be the one ‘Treat Night’ this weekend, as it is the Euro 2024 Cup Final on the Sunday night and we had decided that it may not be a good idea to go out to watch it with the mixed Spanish and English crowds as, apart from the usual Bars that have the large TV Screens, they were also putting a very large ‘Fan Zone Screen’ up in one of the town squares. Now we know what some alcohol induced England Fans can be like, if they don’t get the right result, and there are quite a few English permanent residents within our immediate locality, also short term residents who own holiday homes here and of course the now growing band of holiday makers, but what we didn’t know was if Spanish Fans were also bad losers 🤷‍♂️ At least it would be safer, either way, watching it from the comfort of our own home.

But before that ‘Big Event’, we have a little matter of the ‘Luna Fiesta’, on the Saturday night, so, what is it all about ? I hear you ask, which is a fair question, as most ‘Fiestas’, as well as being an excuse for one hell of an all night and early morning public party in the streets, do have a meaning or purpose. Now I could try to give you my explanation, but why do that when I can just cheat and just ‘copy and paste’ from ‘Mr Google’ 🤭

Fiesta de la Luna Llena

---

Sabinillas beaches in Manilva will be decorated in white on the 13th July in honour of the full moon – and everyone is invited! Join the celebrations amid performances by jugglers, fire artists, tightrope walkers and stilt professionals throughout the evening. And that’s just the start. You can also stop off at the different music stages that will be set up along the seafront promenade to dance to the beat of different music genres. This is a Festival which brings together friends, families, locals and people who are visiting for the day and keen to have a whole lot of fun in the moonlight.

Now I could argue that actually, this isn’t the first full moon that we have had 🤷‍♂️ I have seen several, and fairly recently, from my balcony observation post, but, perhaps, it is a particular cycle of the moon during a particular period of the celestial calendar 🤔 Anyway, who really cares, let’s just go and party whilst the mood is still a friendly one, for that mood could, very quickly, change over the next twenty-four hours 🎉🥳🌝

We had departed home at 7:45pm, it was no good leaving much earlier as the sun didn’t start dropping until a little after 10pm, and after all it was a ‘Luna Fiesta’ 🤷‍♂️ but we had also forgotten that apart from the crowds for the evening’s entertainment, there were also all the every day beach goers, who would remain in their coveted beachfront locations until late in the evening, which of course meant that our usual car parking area in the village was rammed full, people parking anywhere and everywhere, on kerbs, across pedestrian crossings, on roundabouts, which by the way, is not an unusual occurrence on any day of the week here, fiesta or not 😳 Fortunately, having seen the state of the lower car park as we passed by, I took an alternative route through a small side street to the opposite end of the village, although the parking there was just as bad, but by pure luck I managed to grab the one last available space just as another car approached from the opposite direction, the driver just gave me one of those half smiles, as if to say ‘Another thirty seconds later mate and that parking bay would have been mine’.

The Marina Cafe/Bars and restaurants were pretty quiet, unusual for that time of the evening, but we guessed that the normal hoards would have made their way into the town to eat, to be part of the party mood. We hadn’t bothered pre-booking a restaurant, although that was primarily because we had forgotten about this weekends fiesta, so at this late stage we knew that it would be very unlikely for us to get a table in any of the usual popular seafront establishments, but we knew that we would be able to find somewhere to eat in town. We did try a couple of our favourites in the back streets, in one of them we were offered a table inside, but who wanted to be inside in this sort of heat, it was still 29 degrees(c) at 8:30 pm 🥵 and, apart from that, their was no ambience inside or people watching opportunities, so we declined the offer, there was also no chance at our favourite Pizza Restaurant either, so we headed a little further away from the seafront, into the Plaza, where a week or so earlier, they had held the musical event with the ‘Tribute Bands’. Next to the small Spanish Bar, that we had used on that night, was a Spanish Restaurant, lots of the tables had ‘Reserved’ signs on them, but we took a chance and asked anyway. We were rewarded and offered a table under the pavement canopied awning, which was absolutely perfect, we were out of the direct sunshine, in the shade, and there was lots of people watching opportunities. I often say that things happen for a reason, we had often said that we should try this restaurant, although to be honest it was more a bar inside, and dining outside, rather than a formal restaurant affair, but we had never actually got around to trying it. It was primarily a menu full of different fish dishes, from individual dishes, or a selection of Tapa’s that you can share, although they did have three meat dishes to cater for the ‘Carnivores’, we decided that we would share a simple Tomato Salad, Patatas Frites (Chips to us English), Rosada Frito and Calamari Frito, with a basket of Pan (Bread). We were both very impressed, the service was exceptionally friendly, the food was very good, the ambience perfect and there was loads of ‘people watching’ to be done so it would have been rude of us not to.

Then it was time to join the masses along the seafront promenade and, as with the ‘San Jaun’ Fiesta, there were a lot of additional ‘pop-up’ bars and each one, without exception, had queues of thirsty revellers. We wandered the full length of the promenade to see what was going on, the main event would once again be held on a large stage erected on the beach, but that wouldn’t kick off until midnight, but there were lots of other smaller musical acts going on, along with giant Unicorns, A Fire Eater on stilts, ‘Lookie Lookie’ men selling LED lit balloons, head-ware with flashing lights and all that sort of stuff, their were Bouncy Castles for the youngsters, Popcorn stands and the usual market selling ‘Tourist Tat’, Oriental spices, Sweets, Barbecued meats, all the usual kind of stuff, it was a real party atmosphere but one that was for all age groups, from babies in prams to the much more senior age-groups. We made our way to our usual Spanish Cafe, the one where we would normally have our Cafe con Leche’s and Tostado’s on our morning walks, but it is not usually open at night, apart from occasions like this, when there are none of the usual tables and chairs outside, just a large open area and a bar. It pays to be a regular here, I was stood in the queue waiting to order, one of the lady owner’s saw me, we engaged in some brief pleasantries, as you do, and then she asked me what I wanted, which from some of the looks of those in front of me, didn’t go down too well 🤭 We remained there until the main event started, which of course couldn’t happen until the local Mayor had once again said his piece and taken yet another public photo opportunity, we of course had to refill our glasses several times during that period and, funny old thing, each time I went to the bar I didn’t have to wait very long to get served 👍 Shazza had volunteered to be the ‘Duty Driver’ again so she went on to the Coca-Colas and before you think it, I always do offer and tell her that I am more than happy to do the driving and let her have a few drinks for a change, but Shazza isn’t really a drinker, only one or two when she has a meal, or an afternoon refreshment, if and when we are out somewhere. The drink drive alcohol/blood levels are very low here in Spain, so even just a couple of regular sized beers, or glasses of wine, will put you over the limit so we never risk it, the Spanish drive erratically enough as it is, so you can imagine what they are like with alcohol inside them 😂

We have never actually attended a ‘Rave’ or and open air musical concert, but perhaps this was the closest we would come to one, the music thumped out and the crowds danced on the beach and on the promenade, people were punching the air to the beat of the music, not just the younger element either, it certainly had that party ambience and not one Flamenco dress or Castinet in sight, we even actually found ourselves having a bit of a ‘wiggle’ ourselves 🤭 The crowds didn’t really bother us, until that was, we decided to make our way back towards where we had parked the car, it took us an age to navigate our way between the masses but, eventually, we broke into some very welcome open space and made our way towards the Marina. It had gone 1:15am but the beachfront ice-cream kiosk was still doing a lot of business, so we decided to join the queue and partake ourselves, and then we sat, enjoying our cold tubs of deliciousness, in the moonlight in the humid heat of the morning, whilst we did a spot of people watching. We never feel unsafe here and we both commented on how we probably would not have done this back in the UK, not the fact of eating ice-cream, but just being out on the streets at this time of the early morning, although that may be us being unfair and just based on our own perceptions of the thuggery and criminality that we read about in the media these days 🤷‍♂️

Although we had had a pretty late night, well more so for Shazza than myself I suppose, as I tend to stay up late on most nights anyway, but even so, I was still up relatively early that same morning, although we had decided that, apart from a morning dip in the pool, we would have a leisurely day and then watch the Euro 2024 football final later that evening.

As a football nation, over the last fifty-eight year’s, we have been used to the men’s team promising, through ‘every’ major tournament, wether that be the World Cup or the Euro’s that, ‘It’s Coming home’, but always failing to deliver on those promises, they always ‘talk the talk’ but unfortunately they are just never quite good enough to ‘walk the walk’ but, even so, we always try to remain positive in the hope that one day the miracle will happen, just like gambler’s who reckon the next roll of the dice will win them the big one, which of course it rarely does. And so it was that, once again, we had reached yet another Final, a time for them to once again prove me, and all of their other critics, that we were wrong to doubt them, but of course we weren’t, and so, once again, it was a case of ‘Always the Bridesmaid, but never the Bride’ 🤷‍♂️ Yes, our new ‘adopted’ country of Spain had won, now that should have been something to celebrate and to be happy about, but we weren’t, we were once again left extremely disappointed 🥺😢 Congratulations to Spain though, last Summer the Ladies ‘La Roja’ National football team had won the World Cup, this year it was Carlos Alcoraz from Spain who, for the second successive year, had won Wimbledon, and now the men’s Spanish National football team who had won Euro 2024, and deservedly so I have to say, as they have been the most consistent team in the tournament throughout every round. So I guess you might say that, all in all, sporting achievement wise, Spain has had a pretty good twelve months. I will be glad when we get through the next week, by then our Spanish neighbour’s, and all those we know in the Cafe/Bars and Restaurants that we frequent, may, finally, have stopped offering us their less than sincere commiserations, but I guess we would have been doing much the same had the result have turned out differently 🤷‍♂️ But I am a positive and optimistic sort of soul, thinking that at least now we can look forward to the World Cup in 2026. You of course may well ask, why is that being optimistic ? Well primarily because England have not even gone through the qualifying stages yet, so there is nothing to say that they will actually qualify to participate in that tournament when it does come around 😂

We enjoyed the next couple of days just relaxing, and although every day is still searingly hot, into the very high thirty something’s 🥵 we did go for a walk one morning, then on the second day we got the car fuelled up and put it through the car wash and then just did some final bits of shopping, ready for the arrival of our guests. Their flight arrived on time and it didn’t take them long to appear full of smiles in the arrivals lounge. It was around 8pm when we got home, Shazza had, earlier that day, pre-prepared a wide selection of both cold and hot Tapas for our evening meal, not knowing how Stacey or Dean would feel about a heavy meal after such a long travel day, but they were more than happy with everything and we sat on the balcony relaxing, eating and just generally catching up with our respective bits of news, not that there was that much as we had been in communication on-line most of the past week 🤷‍♂️ To our surprise, later that evening, they suggested going for a walk, so we drove down to our usual parking place in the village and walked into town, stopping at a local bar for some Anti Covid Vaccines, it would have been rude not to 🤭

Prior to their arrival we had asked them if there was anything that they particularly wanted to do, or places that they wanted to go, personally of course we had a long list of possibilities, but on this visit they only had four full days with us before returning to Germany and, we had to take the heat into consideration. So they decided that they would like to see the towns of ‘Gaucin’, ‘Ronda’ and ‘Mijas Pueblo’ up in our nearby mountains, as well as seeing our own local towns of Sabinillas and Estepona, with of course some time around our pool, so we had an itinerary to work to and we agreed to just play it on a day to day basis as to what we did and when.

After a breakfast stop in Estepona we did a brief walking tour through the pretty back streets, trying to remain in the shade wherever possible and of course partaking of a few ‘refreshment’ stops whilst doing so 😉

The weather in the Bavarian area where they live had been very wet and stormy for several weeks prior to their arrival in Spain, so they were pleased to get some sunshine, however, as the temperatures quickly climbed into the low 30 degree(c) mark by lunchtime we elected to return home for a late lunch and then they cooled down at the pool. We waited until early evening before going down into town for some ‘Tapas’.

There would be no let up with the searing heat so the following morning we set off early into the mountains, our first stop was the pretty small mountain town of ‘Gaucin’, a place that Shazza and I had first visited some eight year’s ago when we had started exploring our local area.

From ‘Gaucin’ it was onwards and upwards along the twisting switchback mountain roads towards Ronda, although we never tire of the awesome views, Ronda itself, for us, had no appeal as we had done this place to death with all our visitor’s over the last nine years, but for those visitors we can understand why it had that certain ‘Wow’ factor. We stopped at a roadside Cafe/Bar that had an outside terrace surrounded on one side with an assortment of different trees, the noise from the ‘Cicadas’ nestled in them was almost deafening but they were well camouflaged so we could not see them, however, the views from the terrace across the surrounding mountain peaks were amazing.

We had not planned to drive into the busy centre of Ronda but to a car park on the outskirts, however, our ‘Sat Nav’ decided to test Shazza’s nerve, but it had not accounted for her ability to not be phased by such trivial matters, we have both encountered much more alarming ‘brown trouser’ moments during our former motor homing adventures, so this was a piece of cake really. The first public car park we came across was ‘Full’ but fortunately we found another just around the corner and, quite conveniently, just a couple of minutes walk from the centre. We did the usual tourists stops first, the ‘New Bridge’, which we had actually driven across on our way in and then some of the back streets in the ‘Old Town’, with of course the mandatory refreshment stops 😉 Although the main tourist areas were busy, Shazza and I both commented on how it seemed unusually quiet, compared to our previous visits here and we have been here at all different times of the year, both during the Summer and Winter months. Was it still too early for the bulk of the Summer visitor’s ? Could it be the impact of the Anti-Tourist protests that had been taking place all over Spain ? We just didn’t really have a clue, but for us, crowd free was very nice.

We took an alternative route back down the mountain from Ronda and stopped at another small town on the way home for a refreshment, well it was another very hot day even with the car Air Con set on the maximum setting, that was our excuse anyway 🤭 By the time we got home it was early evening, the ‘Terel’ wind had raised the temperature and so it was still in the mid-thirties, so Stacey and Dean went to cool off in the pool whilst Shazza and I remained in our much cooler cave house to recuperate from another long day. We had intended to go out that evening to another Fiesta, this time one being held at the Castle and Park in the village, however, we were all quite tired from our day trip so Shazza prepared a makeshift meal and we just enjoyed a relaxed night on the balcony and, yes you guessed it, with a few more Anti-Covid Vaccines, well it would have been rude not to 🤭

The following day our much ‘younger’ guests decided that they wanted to ‘walk’ into Estepona 😲 Although it is a relatively flat coastal path, there are little opportunities on the route to stop for refreshments and we knew that it was going to be yet another searingly hot day, with the temperature forecast by the ‘Works of Fiction’ to get to 38 degrees(c), which from experience told us that you needed to add 3-4 degrees to that. Shazza and I decided to take a rest day, that walk, for us, is one for during the much cooler months. I received a text message to say that they had made it to Estepona in two hours, which is pretty good going but later that afternoon I got another message, “Dad, can you come and pick us up, it is too hot to walk all the way back and there isn’t a bus until 6:30pm”. I just laughed to myself, my daughter is now 40 year’s old and I am still providing a ‘Dad Taxi’ service for her 😂

On their final day with us we would take them back up another part of the mountain, this time to ‘Mijas’ which, I have to say, is another very touristy place that we have done very many times, although it is much easier to park. We agreed to let the ‘kids’ go and explore by themselves, it would be new for them and quite hilly through the narrow cobbled streets so we knew of a nice Cafe with lovely views, and a nearby tree shaded park by a fountain where we would patiently await their return. We decided to treat them both to a nice restaurant lunch for Stacey’s birthday, albeit that event had taken place the day before they had arrived, Stacey had selected the venue after perusing ‘Google Maps’ the night before and so, whilst they were off doing their own thing, we went and booked a table on the terrace overlooking the main town square. I wasn’t really surprised when they turned up in the park looking hot and sweaty a good hour before our restaurant reservation time, but we decided to go and see if we could get a table earlier than scheduled. As with Ronda, this usually very tourist crowded town was very quiet, so we had no problems in eating earlier, the restaurant was virtually empty, only one other table occupied. But it was very nice, we sat outside on a shaded balcony and in the square below was a youngish chap with a guitar who serenaded throughout our meal. We had an assortment of ‘Starters’ before ordering our own individual ‘Main’ courses.

Once again, we had planned to go down to the Marina, or into the town, for their last evening, just to have a few drinks, but they were sapped of energy from the heat of the day, so they had their final dip in the pool and then we had another ‘makeshift’ tea and spent the rest of the evening on the balcony, just relaxing and talking about the upcoming family event in Austria where we would be seeing them again, that event was only three weeks away.

Earlier in the day, whilst we were in Mijas, I had received an Email informing me that the following week, on Wednesday 24th July, we had our appointments at the Police Station in Estepona to go and collect our new TIE Residency Cards, so at least we would now have them prior to our trip to Austria. So now we have no more Spanish Bureaucracy for another two year’s, now that really is ‘Something Worth Celebrating’ 🤗

It had been great to have Stacey and Dean come and visit us for the first time in our home in Spain, they were quite surprised at the size of our apartment, which is actually bigger than their rented flat in Germany, but more so at the location, they knew that we lived near the mountains and close to the sea, but they hadn’t expected both to be quite so close to our front door. They had thoroughly enjoyed their brief visit with us and something tells me that it will not be their last. Although it may have been a much drier heat than they had anticipated so, as Winter months in Munich involve much lower temperatures and, a lot of the white stuff, than we experience here, I think future visits to us may just be outside of the much hotter Summer months 🤭

We didn’t have to leave home until 11:00am on the Saturday morning, to get our visitor’s back to Malaga Airport for their 14:30 flight back to Munich. Like us, once at the airport, they just wanted to drop off their suitcase, they had already done the on-line check in, and then they could go straight through the security check area and relax until called forward for their flight, so we agreed to drop them off at the ‘Express’ drop-off point right outside the departure terminal, which suited us, we hate long goodbyes and we needed to call in at the supermarket on the way home. The only time we generally park up at the airport multi storey car park is when we are dropping Shazza’s mum off, just to give her a hand with her suitcase and to ensure she gets checked in okay and gets through the security checks without any issues, she is in her 80’s after all. We were back in the comfort of our own home by 2pm, shopping done to last us over the weekend, but when we checked the on-line flight information we saw that Stacey and Dean’s flight had been delayed, by a little over an hour and a half, so they would not get home until 8:30pm, another long day for them 😲 At least Malaga Airport had not had to cancel flights due to the Global IT glitch the previous day, as they had reverted to doing everything manually, so it had only created ‘delays’ to flights and not cancellations of flights or closure of the airport.

I apologise for the length of this latest ramble, but it would be fair to say that we have been a little busier than even we had anticipated, what with the forgotten ‘La Luna’ Fiesta and then our family visit, just think yourselves lucky that we didn’t attend the Fiesta on the Tuesday, that would have really have made this a marathon read 😂

So, unless anything unexpected arises in the meantime, I will give you my readers a bit of a respite, well at least until after we return from our trip to Austria that is, which will be quickly followed by the next set of family visitors, so get some rest, reading this should help with any sleeping difficulties you ‘may’ have had 😂

Hasta Luego mi Amigos (La Vida Es Buena)