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Although we do keep ourselves relatively mobile with our regular walks, which often than not is on a daily basis, they are generally pretty much flat walks, so we were pleased when we awoke the morning after our day trip into the mountain, to discover that we had no aches and pains after the numerous steep climbs that we had done, using and stretching leg muscles, and working them very much harder than we would normally have done. So, at our routine ‘What Do You Want To Do Today ?’ morning conference, sat on the balcony and leisurely looking at the world go by, even though it was yet another warm and sunny day, Shazza and I agreed unanimously that we would conduct a less physically active sort of a day, which actually interprets as not venturing out of the front door, opting to spend our day doing very little of any importance, apart from one essential outstanding task that had been on our ‘To Do’ list for several weeks, but apart from that, our day would be given towards our continuing transition into becoming a little more Spanish, yes this day would be about developing our own ‘Mañana’ culture 😂

As for myself, well I made a start on reviewing the mass of photographs that I had taken on that road trip, after which I then had to try and select one’s that I wanted to include in the respective ‘Rambles’, and with so many to sort through this was never going to be an easy task. Eventually, the time then came for me to commence tapping away on the keyboard, making an initial start on drafting what would then become ‘Part 1’ of my next ramble. Shazza, on the other hand, who can never sit still for very long periods of time anyway, combined her daily activity between perusing her social media accounts, reading a couple of chapters on some book she was reading on her Kindle, a routine telephone call to her mum, starting the process of making a fresh loaf of ‘sour dough’ bread and whilst doing so, making more home-made soup for some of our lunches, catching up with some ironing, whilst watching one of her ‘Girlie’ Netflix box series, then watching some different ‘You Tube’ Plant Based cooking and baking videos, I was knackered just sat in my balcony chair watching her 😂

We now only had six weeks before we would depart on our Christmas trip to Munich, which we were now beginning to get quite excited about, we had already pre-booked and pre-paid for our return flights well over a month ago, but we were still considering the best way to get ourselves to and from Malaga Airport, journeys that generally we are not accustomed to doing with our own luggage. My personal preference had been to drive there ourselves, and use our normal parking, but the multi-storey car park opposite the terminal building, the one we would normally use, when we are either collecting, or delivering, our visitor’s, would we believed, be astronomically expensive if we were to pay the usual hourly rate, and to be honest we also believed that this was only short-term parking anyway. So, that meant that we would have to consider leaving the car at one of the several long-stay storage areas that are located on the fringe of the airport, some of which provided a courtesy bus to and from the air terminal, although not all of them. Shazza had done the due diligence research around this, the proximity to the airport and of course costs, but she became concerned after reading a lot of the ‘Independent’ On-Line reviews, many of which related accounts of cars being left on public roads outside the facilities, rather than in a secure storage area, other’s having sustained damage, and more worrying, some reporting excessive amounts of additional mileage on them 😲 The last thing that we wanted was to have our Christmas spoilt, worrying about the car whilst we were away, so we also considered alternative options, a taxi, or using buses, however, cost, or timings and convenience, did not really make them attractive options.

Shazza can sometimes be like a dog gnawing at a bone, relentless, but more often than not I do have to say that her tenacity does actually pay off. She managed to find an email address to contact the firm who manage the Airport short stay multi-storey car park, so she enquired about the possibility of longer term parking arrangements at their location and she discovered that, if we were to book and pay in advance, then we could actually leave the car in that multi-storey car park, which would be very handy for us with it being directly opposite the air terminal building especially as our return flight was not until the evening. So, for a period of seven days under-cover parking it would cost us €96, which worked out at less than €14 a day, which we thought wasn’t that bad really, although it was not as economic as the other longer stay parking facilities that she had looked at, but it was certainly much cheaper than a return, door-to-door, taxi transfer service (€200). The cheapest option would of course have been public transport, as in buses, we could get a bus from the bottom of our hill to Estepona bus station, from their we could get a bus that went via Marbella directly to the bus station at the Airport, but that would give us an issue with timings, to meet both the bus and flight schedules, on both the outward and the return legs of the journey, and of course the inconvenience of perhaps spending a lot of time waiting around for connections, not to mention lugging baggage up and down the hill. So in the end it was a no brainer, we both agreed that for peace of mind and much easier convenience, and for the sake of only a difference of around €50, the Multi-storey parking at the airport was the most viable. Shazza went ahead and pre-booked the parking and within seconds of doing so, she received a confirmation Email with the procedure to follow when we arrived at the parking entrance barrier, it was a little different to the normal entry procedure because of the pre-payment. So that was our one and only essential task for the day completed, now our Christmas travel arrangements are all sorted, apart from the final On-Line checking-in procedures a week or so before we actually travel.

The following morning we had our pre-arranged appointments at our Solicitor’s local office in town with one of their Tax Consultants, they had already been dealing with our ‘Non-residents’ tax affairs for the last eight year’s, so we were confident that we would receive the correct advice and information and as a bonus, this consultation came at no charge. I had already conducted a lot of research into the Spanish Taxation requirements and procedures, well before we had even considered seriously thinking about applying for the Residency Visa itself and, whilst I am certainly no Economics or Taxation Expert, I have always been pretty astute when it comes to matters that concern our own personal finances. With my own, and Shazza’s, incomes all coming from UK ‘Government’ Pensions, I had gone to the trouble of finding, downloading and reading, the rather laborious ‘No Double Taxation Agreement’ Document, that had been signed off between the UK and Spanish Governments, and so I believed that I already had a good understanding of the requirements, and how the taxation procedures worked. However, it was only after we had obtained our initial Residency Permits that I had contacted the UK HMRC office, which is a mandatory requirement, to inform them of our change of residency circumstances, they in turn sent me a Form, which instructed me to complete and return to them, on the telephone they had made it sound simple and straightforward, but now they needed additional ‘official’ paperwork, not from us but from the Spanish Tax Agency, and then also required ‘us’ to tell ‘them’ how much ‘refund of tax’ we were claiming back from them 🤔 Now this had certainly created some confusion as, my understanding had been that, under that Agreement, and because our incomes were solely from ‘UK Government Pensions’, we would remain being taxed ‘at source’ on those pensions, meaning paying our income tax in the UK and not in Spain, so the question in my head was ‘Why on earth would I require to apply for a refund of tax payment’ 🤷‍♂️ and, now lets just say that I had totally misunderstood the ‘Agreement’ procedures, surely ‘they’, UK HMRC, would already have our tax records, so ‘they’ should already know themselves how much tax ‘they’ had already deducted from us ? Something just didn’t sound right with this, although I could certainly have understood it if our incomes had been from ‘Privately’ sourced pensions, as these would have been different procedures.

I had expected the meeting to last for at least an hour, if not longer, and then, at the end of it, to probably come away more confused and frustrated by it all, the way that Government’s generally like you to be, and leaving me asking the question ‘When is a No Double Taxation Agreement, NOT a No Double Taxation Agreement ?’ However, and as it turned out, our meeting lasted no more than ten minutes, five of those engaged in pleasantries and just general chit chat about how we were settling in to our recently acquired new residency status. They already were fully familiar with us, as I have previously stated, they had been our Solicitors, and dealt with everything on our behalf, for well over eight year’s now, from the initial purchase of what was then our ‘Bolt Hole’ property back in April 2015, setting up a ‘Power of Attorney’ so that they could act on our behalf in obtaining our NIE certificates, registering our ownership of the property with the local council, opening our On-Line Bank Account, setting up our Utilities and Direct Debit payments, arranging our Spanish Wills, preparing and submitting our annual non-residents tax returns and now, much more recently, assisting us with obtaining our residency permit here in Spain.

Our Tax Specialist confirmed, and re-assured us, that they were very conversant with the ‘No Double Taxation Agreement’, how it related to us, as British Citizens living permanently here in Spain and in receipt of UK sourced ‘Government’ Pension incomes. The bottom line was that our Pension Incomes ‘would’ actually remain being taxed in the UK, as I had originally understood that they would, and they, our Tax Consultants, would, on our behalf, prepare and submit our Annual Spanish Tax Returns, and apply for the necessary ‘Exemption Certificates’ for the both of us, from paying Spanish Tax on these pension incomes. They also confirmed that we would no longer pay the annual ‘Non-residents’ property tax. So, in the end I think that it would be reasonable to conclude that, I knew, and fully understood how the ‘No Double Tax Agreement’ works, our Tax Consultant, and the Spanish Tax Authority, know and fully understand how the ‘No Double Taxation Agreement’ works, leaving the only people that do not have a bloody clue as to how it works being the UK Tax Authority themselves. It really is no wonder that the UK is in such a mess, both economically and otherwise, it appears that whilst ‘Boris Le Clune’ may have already left the building, the rest of the dysfunctional and shambolic circus remain. Now we do not need to do anything else until April next year, when our Tax Specialist will contact us again just to collate some information in order for them to prepare and submit our Tax Forms on our behalf for the 2023 Tax period.

As we are now on our Winter lifestyle schedule, meaning that we now ‘occasionally’ go out to enjoy afternoon Lunches’, rather than going out in the evening for ‘Dinners’ and, with it now being relatively quiet during weekdays, we much prefer to go out for those lunches at weekends when there are more people out and about, the ambience is so much better, as are the ‘people watching’ opportunities 😁 We do however still go on our regular walks through the week, but at weekends, when we are eating out, we do not stop for our more usual ‘Cafe con Leche and Tostado’ at our little Spanish Cafe.

Now I know that it can perhaps become a little tiresome for you to keep having to read about the weather that we enjoy over here in the Winter months, but I do feel the need to have to mention it yet again, certainly not to gloat, but because, as with most parts of the world, this Climate Change business is seriously messing around with the more usual seasonal temperatures and weather conditions, and that is very evident this year in this part of Spain. Whilst it is generally always very much warmer down this part of the world, than in the more Northerly European countries, the daytime temperatures here are currently remaining consistently higher than would be normal, we should, generally speaking, now be experiencing very variable weather conditions, with daytime temperatures alternating between perhaps 14 degrees(c) one day, then perhaps 22 degrees(c) on another, warm sunshine one day and grey overcast ones the next, with periods of drizzle and rain becoming ever more frequent as the Winter months move on. However, we are still enjoying day after day of brilliant sunshine, clear blue skies and the daily temperatures are ‘constantly’ in the mid-twenties. However, another major weather discrepancy for us this year, is in the strength of the wind, now we have always experienced quite windy conditions along this part of the Costa del Sol coastline, more so during the Autumn and Winter months, something to do with being located close to the Gibraltar Strait, the narrow channel of water where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean collide, so we are used to it generally being a little blustery along this coastline, but again, currently we are experiencing wind strengths that are only between 2-5mph, which are nothing more than a light breeze, and not the more usual 15-20mph with gusts of 30-40mph, so this unusual weather is making for rather more consistently pleasant warm days, which you would think we should be very happy about.

As a temporary seasonal tourist here, this certainly is something to be enjoyed, but actually for permanent residents here, a category in which we now fall under, it is becoming rather worrying, as the severe lack of rainfall, starting from as far back as last Winter, right through the Spring and Summer and into this Winter, has created major water shortage issues, although personally speaking, we have been pretty fortunate up to now, with no shortages or restrictions to our domestic water supply as their has been in other Provinces and Regions of Spain, only our communal facilities, such as use of the swimming pool, have been affected. However, over recent weeks, reading our local Spanish media reports, and speaking with several of our Spanish neighbours, the water levels in the reservoirs all around the country have not been this low for a great number of years and, there is a real fear that if this unseasonably very warm weather and lack of rain does not change very soon, it will be ‘Stand Pipes’ in the streets, or bottled water (whilst supplies last), being the only access to drinking water, something that has previously been experienced here. However, if things do get to that state, then it is not just the domestic supplies that get effected, there will also be a much wider impact, obviously within all aspects relating to the Agricultural and Food industries, but also the Tourism industry, just imagine if hotels, holiday rental accommodations, campsites and motor home Aires, cannot provide access to water for paying visitor’s, that would have a major impact financially, as people return home early, or even cancel advance bookings. So yes, whilst I do regularly tell you that the weather here is very nice, especially for this time of year, there will almost certainly be a severe price to pay for it, if things do not change, and soon 😲 So perhaps suffering the cold and wet Autumns and Winters when we were in the UK, may be something that we often used to moan about, but there are always differing Pro’s and Con’s in this life 🤔 However, sticking with my usual philosophy of not wasting time, or energy, on things that I have personally no power to influence or change, so lack of rain or not, our new retirement lifestyle philosophy is to just continue to enjoy each and every day whilst we still can, we will deal with what tomorrow brings, tomorrow 😉

I look back on it now, and I have to say that it does seem a little strange that, during the height of this past Summer, we actually only went down and spent a few hours on the beach once, that was when the grandchildren were out on holiday, but here we are now, in the Winter, a time when sitting on the beach would normally be a rare opportunity, rather than a daily occurrence, but here we are, spending lots of our days just enjoying picnic lunches, and hour’s on our favourite beach. Anyone would think that we had paid to be on a Winter Sun holiday 🤷‍♂️

Shazza, as usual, when we come down to the beach, will generally get stuck into reading a book on her Kindle device and do some solar basting, yes it is still that warm, whereas I, as usual, just enjoy sitting, under the shade of my beach umbrella, listening to the tranquil ripples of the gentle waves lapping slowly, and rhythmically, onto the shoreline, now it wasn’t quite as flat as a proverbial mill pond, but very nearly, with the crystal clear water sparkling in the sunshine, everything being just so peaceful. There were none of the more usual intrusive beach noises, no hoards of people sandwiched very close together, only half a dozen, at most, just doing much the very same as us, there were no children splashing around noisily in the water, or making excited screaming noises, it was I have to say, complete and utter bliss. The only loud sudden sound that did startle me at one point, was the noise of someone suddenly letting out a very loud snore, however, it was a good job that there were not the usual hoards on the beach, as I discovered that that loud snoring noise had actually emanated from myself 😲 I cannot even remember closing my eyes to have that particular period of ‘Personal Contemplation’. Shazza looked across at me and laughed, “Wake yourself up did you ?”

A lot of times, if you are patient enough to just sit and watch, things will sometimes just materialise in front of you, things that not only visually attract your attention but can sometimes also lead to a bit of curiosity. I had seen the bow end of one of the small fishing boats, from our Marina, suddenly appear from the seaward side of the outer harbour wall, nothing unusual in that you may say, but it appeared to be drifting rather than motoring, and it was exceptionally close to the large boulders that project into the sea to protect the harbour wall, the small boat was rolling gently from side to side in tune with the motion of the very slight sea swell. From where I was sat, it was just a little too far away to see, in any great detail, what was going on but my eyes remained fixed on it. Gradually the full length of the small boat became visible, I could make out two people on the front deck looking over the bow, they didn’t appear to be in any sort of panic but they were in discussion about something, I had brought my pocket camera out with me and so used the zoom lens to take a closer look.

I really had no clue as to what was going on, so sat watching with no information to go on, there was no alternative, from the visual evidence before me, I had to make up my own version of events, which went something like this………they had been out checking, or laying out, their fishing nets when something had become entangled on or underneath the hull of their boat, I knew that the stretches of beaches nearby, and the harbour wall, was a very popular location for the Line Fisherman to stand and fish, we see them on a regular basis, so perhaps one of their lines had snapped when they were reeling in a fish, or perhaps there was some other sort of debris that had been floating in the water that was causing them concern. Anyway, as the boat turned I got a good view of the Stern and could see the three of them engaged in some sort of activity, perhaps they could see the fishing line, or other debris, and were then able to release it from where it had become attached to their boat. It certainly cannot have been anything too serious as not long afterwards they chugged off out of sight, oh well it had passed a good fifteen minutes of my day 😁

Now if I thought that that was enough intrigue and entertainment for one afternoon, I was to be proved wrong. Shazza, who lets be honest here, does not normally take very much interest in what is going on out on the water, unless I spot a pod of dolphins, and especially if any sort of activity is out of her normal vision range, on the horizon, but it was she that had noticed a weird looking long, but also tall, looking shape way out on the horizon, which I have to say, looked nothing like the normal freighters that we see, and we are quite used to seeing all vessel shapes and sizes. What added to the mystery was that this shape was blurred in the heat haze, it was certainly moving away from us and not towards us. I called my small pocket camera into action once again, however, I was not convinced that my zoom lens would extend to that distance, but I gave it a go anyway.

When we returned home shortly afterwards, I looked out from the balcony to see wether the strange looking vessel was still visible, if it had been, then I may have been able to see it better with my binoculars, however, it had completely disappeared from sight, so it must have been travelling East, down towards the channel that divides the Southern Italian coastline and the Northern African coastline, and not passing through the Gibraltar Strait into the Atlantic, where I would still have had a very good view of it and at a bit closer quarters, so it will have to just remain one of those mysteries that I will never uncover, I will try though not to lose any sleep over it 😁

We took advantage of being able to spend more warm days, both walking and being down at the beach and, as you will already know by now, when you put Shazza near a large body of water, she just has to get into it and have a swim, she soon regretted that this time though 😂

”The Water Is Lovely, Come On In” she shouted to me, now I am not saying that I mistrust my beloved, or that I do not believe what she tells me without question, but I do know that at times she can have a wicked sense of humour, so I have learnt, over the years and through past experience, that it is best to sometimes not be too trusting of her 🤔

A little later, once she had returned from her ice bath and I was satisfied that she had defrosted without going into hypothermic shock, I, somewhat rather stupidly now that I come to think about it, became a little too curious as to just how cold the sea temperature really was, so I dared to venture in myself, now it took about twenty-minutes for me to only get in as far as waist height, there were other’s on the beach watching, so I couldn’t race straight out again screaming like a small child, I had a ‘Hasselhoff Bay Watch’ macho man image to protect, but when I realised that I could not feel any of my submerged bodily organs or limbs I came running out, screaming like a small child 🥶 Thereafter, I was more than content to just sit in my beach chair, enjoying my picnic lunches, passing my time engaging in my favourite pastimes of people and boat watching, although it wasn’t really particularly busy with either, but as previously said, just be patient, give it time and you will always see something.

On another day, as a bit of a change from the beach and our more usual promenade walk, we chose to go through and along the ‘Reserva Ecologica’. We started off in the usual sunshine and cloudless blue sky, however, when we got down to the beach we couldn’t see a thing out to sea, as there was a thick ‘Sea Fret’, it was already rolling in landwards, it reminded us of some of the Autumnal walks we used to take in the UK, the difference being that here it was currently 23 degrees(c) and, along with the Sea Fret, came a sticky humidity.

This Chiringuito is open all year and is on one of our other favourite stretches of beach, although it was a lot busier than we have ever seen it before, with lots of people enjoying lunch, lots of cyclists also stop here and their bicycles, which were of all shapes and sizes, and from what we could see, probably matched the riders 😁 their bicycles all lined up against the wooden decked rails. We had already eaten our lunch before we left home, but the aroma of the ‘Chicken’ and ‘Ribs’ was still very tempting 😋 however, I managed to not succumb. Now normally we would sit here and look out at all the water activities going on, it is a popular place for both snorkelling, scuba diving, kayakers and Paddle boarders but not today, due to the thick mist, however, if you are patient and sit and wait and watch………………………..

Later that afternoon, more early evening really, I was sat on the balcony, whilst Shazza was in the kitchen preparing a ‘Paella’ for our evening meal, I had been engaged in a lengthy text conversation with my daughter in Germany, who was quite excited about us going over to spend Christmas with them, when I looked up out of the French windows to discover that the Sea Fret had now crept silently up our hill. I stared out upon a thick greyness, which had totally blocked out the sunshine, I could physically feel a sudden drop in the temperature, whereas earlier, on our walk, the rise in the humidity level had been the result of the grey mist, but now it had brought a damp chill with it. It was time to get changed out of my shorts and short-sleeved shirt and to put on something a little warmer, and my slippers as my feet were getting chilled too 😲 However, I was not getting too excited about this sudden change in the weather, it didn’t mean that the normal Winter conditions were finally on their way, as we regularly get these ‘Sea Frets’ during the height of the Summer as well.

So yes, we have had a relatively easy and relaxed week, but we do have to keep reminding ourselves that this is the new normal for us now, we are not on an annual holiday, or on a ninety-day travel time restriction, where we used to feel the need to get as much done as we could within a certain timeframe. We do, truly, both feel very fortunate that we now find ourselves actually living permanently in a place where other’s choose to come to, in both the summer and winter months, for their annual holiday, so we do have to occasionally remind ourselves that we need to just enjoy being ‘here’, and not feel the need to always be somewhere else.

One of my regular blog subscribers recently told me about a new ‘Michael Portillo’ programme, currently being broadcast on TV in the UK, where he was travelling around Andalusia, of course we know of Michael Portillo, and his other travel adventures, but we had not realised that he was himself half Spanish or, that he had family who had lived in this region for year’s, and has many that still do. We have now watched the first couple of episodes and that programme just reminded us that we now live in a fantastic, and very historical and culturally rich area of Spain, with some fantastic Cities, Granada (that we yet still have to visit) Malaga, Seville, Cordoba and Cadiz (all of which we have already visited), let alone the numerous other coastal, and inland, towns and villages, which as you probably now know, we are beginning to visit and explore more of them ourselves now. So whilst there are other Countries in the world that we certainly do still want to visit, there is just so much more of Spain, and not just Andalusia, that, as yet, for us, still lay undiscovered, and so we aim to put that right. One of our initial retirement ambitions back in 2013, was to travel throughout Europe, some of which we did manage to do, but certainly nowhere near as much as we had hoped to do, and although now we will no longer be able to continue to do that in a motor home, it still remains one of our ambitions on our future travel itinerary. We do still get quite excited when we sit and talk to each other about the things we still want to do, the places we still want to visit, but our priorities, and our attentions, have more recently been directed towards getting settled here into our new home and country, and lets face it, we have after all only been here for five months, but the dust from those processes and procedures are now finally beginning to settle, so we are very much looking forward to now putting that excitement and travel desires into action, and I hope that you will also continue to enjoy those journey’s with us, as and when we go on them.

Wherever you may be reading this latest ramble, take good care of yourselves, and each other, and until my next ramble………………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida es Buena 😉

From where we had parked the car, half way up a hill on the outskirts of ‘Setinel de las Bodegas’, it was difficult to turn around to simply follow the route out, back in the direction in which we had arrived, so we thought that there would be a place to either turn around further up, in the direction of where the official car park was signposted, or there would, at some point, be a road junction directing us back towards ‘Ronda’, but as it turned out we never did come across the official car park 🤷‍♂️ As we departed the outskirts of the town, just following the main road, we saw, in the distance, and a little further up the mountain, two other villages, or towns, it is at times hard to distinguish between what are villages or towns when you are some distance away, however, the one at the top of the hill certainly had two rather imposing buildings, one of which certainly bore the resemblance of being a Castle. I checked ‘Google Maps’ on my phone and identified the location of the one with the Castle as being the town of ‘Olvera’, so we made the split second decision to head there, we were not in a rush and who knows how long it would be before we came this way again, if ever 🤷‍♂️

Sometimes, when you are travelling on these mountain roads, you rarely see many other vehicles, or pass through any other villages, there is just miles and miles of road passing through rural land with Olive Groves or Fruit trees, the animals we see are mainly Goats, Sheep or Horses and along the hillsides the occasional clumps of Forest, the winding, well surfaced roads, cut through the mountains granite and limestone jagged peaks which all makes for interesting landscapes, occasionally we meet a herd of grazing goats along the roadside, they seem less interested in us as we do of them and they just continue to graze away. Suddenly, without any advance announcement, we came across a rather decorative ‘Glorietta’ (Roundabout) on the outskirts of a small hamlet. The town of Olvera was signposted off it, so at least we did not have to rely on guesswork as to which direction to take.

The small white-washed hamlet of ‘Torre Alháquime’

It looked like just another stereo-typical whitewashed village, looking at the stone monument that decorated the roundabout, it really did look to have the emptiness of a one-donkey hamlet, but it was well tended, the streets were immaculately clean, the houses all looked fairly modern structures, but the streets were deserted, we didn’t see any shops of any description, or the more usual Cafe/Bars, which I have to say, is actually very unusual, there are normally always a multitude of Cafe/Bars, even in the smallest Spanish village 🤔 But as quickly as we had entered the village we then found ourselves exiting the other side, we had passed no other vehicles and saw absolutely no sign of any life, animal or human, they were probably all sat around tables in a back street Cafe/Bar somewhere, warming themselves around a log fire and drinking copious amounts of Anti-Covid Vaccines, I was rather envious of them.

I had given my camera clicker finger a well deserved rest, there are only so many Olive groves you can photgraph and, after a while, even the rocky peaks begin to look much of a muchness. The large Religious type building, that suddenly appeared as we rounded a bend, caught me a bit off guard as it looked magnificent against the mountain background but I had missed the photo opportunity. In a cloud of dust, a screech of rubber on loose gravel, which was being thrown up from the tyres, Shazza brought our chariot to an emergency stop outside a Cafe/Bar located on the opposite side of the road to the religious looking building. Okay, I confess, I may have exaggerated that last bit a little bit, Shazza actually pulled in to the gravel car park in a more careful and refined manner, no bystanders, had their have been any, would have been sprayed with shards of gravel, however, it was actually a bit of a last minute sort of manoeuvre. We got out of the car and crossed the road on to a nice well surfaced open courtyard sort of area, signage on the door indicated that this was the ‘Sanctuary of Nuestra Senora de Los Remedios’ 🤷‍♂️ The front door was open and there was no admission charge although a sign instructed us that we must maintain silence, once inside the sanctuary, our curiosity was raised sufficiently so we ventured inside to take a peek, it was as quiet as the proverbial church mouse, if their were any occupants, perhaps an order of Nuns committed to a vow of silence, we didn’t see any and, for obvious reasons, neither did we hear anyone. On the lower floor area there was a central patio, full of well tended plants and flowers, with rooms leading off, a prayer room with an Altar, and a side room that contained orange flamed candles that were flickering away on a large table, but like a lot of religious places these days, these candles were not the real wax ones with real yellow flames but artificial, battery operated. We found a set of stairs that led to an upper level, we went up only to discover the doors, that gave access to the internal balcony, were closed, there were some pictures on the wall but to be honest there wasn’t really much else to see so we didn’t spend too long inside before returning to the car to continue our journey.

The quite ornate internal courtyard affair

As we neared the outskirts of the town we got a much better view of the Castle, perched right on top of the town and next to it, an equally impressive large structure, there were no obvious signs of what it was, a Church or Cathedral perhaps ? What we did know is that unless we found somewhere to park close to Castle, we would be having another steep walk 😲 Our ‘Google Maps’, which is usually quite good at identifying car parks, didn’t reflect any close to the castle, although there were several in the main town at the foot of the steep hill. Fortunately, once again, as we kept the view of the Castle in our sights, which wasn’t exactly difficult to do, we drove towards it and we found some more roadside parking bays, the majority were occupied but someone must have known that we were coming and had left us a space. There were a few more cars about on the town roads, and we saw several people walking along the pavements, not what you would consider crowds of people, not by a long shot, but at least it didn’t now feel as though we were the last surviving humans on the planet.

I had checked on ‘Google’ to confirm that the Castle was actually open to the public, I didn’t want to climb all the way up to it to then discover we couldn’t have a look around. The big structure we had seen next to it was the ‘Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación’ (Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation) and both the Castle and the Church stood almost side by side, separated only by a large open courtyard and Mirador, which provided a fantastic rooftop view over the city and the surrounding countryside.

We had walked from the car towards the town but, from ground level it wasn’t immediately obvious which direction we should head in to get to the Castle, so I stopped a couple of ladies who were passing, and in my bestest Spanish I asked “Cual es el Camino al Castillo ?”, (Which way to walk to the Castle ?) it was a good job that I had stopped them to ask as it turned out that we had been heading in the wrong direction. It was not so much a long walk, but my goodness it was bloody steep and we had to stop on a couple of occasions to admire the wonderful views, which was fortunate, as it also gave Shazza an opportunity to catch her breath, and being the loving and considerate husband that I am, I of course could not leave her standing alone in a strange town 😂

In addition to the Castle and the Church, there was also a Museum in a separate more modern building, this also housed the Tourist Information Office with of course the mandatory ‘Tourist Tat’ shop, this is where we would pay the Admission Fee to cover a visit to all three attractions and all for the princely sum of €2 each. Apart from the Coffee and Toast, and a couple of small beers, in ‘Sentinel’ (€9), this was turning out to be quite an economic day trip so far 😁

We started our tour in the Castle, through a small but pretty archway and then came the steps, and more steps, and even more steps, and the one’s that took us right up to the top ‘turret’ were via a very narrow spiral staircase, and we needed to take care when we were coming down them, our calf muscles were feeling the strain again so we took plenty of opportunities to stop and admire the views along the way 🤭

Now I have to be honest and say that this is not the best Castle that I have ever visited, in fact, and you don’t hear me say too many good things about the UK these days, but at least they do have some wonderful Castles and Stately Homes, in some of them they even reproduce what the rooms would have looked like in their day with lots of furnishings, Portraits of all the owner’s through the ages, Heraldic flags, pieces of Armour and Weaponry on display, but that of course usually comes at quite a cost with the Admission prices in the UK, and of course they charge for car parking, so my advice would be to invest in Annual subscriptions to organisations such as the ‘National Trust’ or ‘English Heritage’, you will generally recoup the annual subscription after just your first visit to one of the attractions 👍 However, this one I have to say rated ‘pretty good’ on my scale of enjoyment, as it was not just a heap of rubble, like some can be, and it did have different rooms to wander in and out of, with several viewing turrets, so the effort to actually come here was worthwhile.

After the Castle we went across to the Museum and ‘Tourist Tat’ shop, but only because that was where the ‘Public Conveniences’ were located 🙄 We were all ‘Churched’ out for one day, so we gave that a miss and decided it was time to go back down the hill. “Do you want to go and have a wander around the town now ?” I asked Shazza, “Not really” she replied. Neither of us are actually much in the way of shoppers, unless of course we specifically want to buy something, or the town is noted for having a certain sort of must see charm, Olvera didn’t, it was just really a normal working town, although it would have probably have had some nice ‘Plaza’s’ with Cafe’s and Eateries. “Are you hungry yet ?”, Shazza asked me, “Not really, I am still full after that humongous Tostado this morning” I replied, “Me too” she said. Which was surprising because we had done a fair bit of walking, and up and down a lot of steps and hills so we must have been burning a lot of calories. Now whilst I can go most of the day without food, I always know when Shazza needs sustenance, she goes quiet and moody and then tells me in no uncertain way that she needs to eat. I remember the signs very well from our Motor-homing days, especially when we were on long drives. We were actually all walked out now, it was well into Siesta time here so most of the shops would have been closed anyway, although the Cafe/Bars would have been open, so we agreed that we would make our way back down to the car and down the mountain and, if we did start to feel any hunger pangs, we could always stop somewhere on our way home.

We would take the same route back, via the small hamlet of ‘Torre Alháquime’, and the towns of ‘Setenil de las Bodegas’ and ‘Ronda’ and, although the landscapes would be the same, but because we were doing the drive in the opposite direction, with the sun now in a different position to when we drove up, the views would be slightly different, so my clicker finger was primed once again.

The road back towards ‘Setenil’ was as quiet as it had been when we were driving in the opposite direction, other people must travel along these roads we said to each other, other tourists like us, out exploring the area, even the locals who live here in the small villages or driving between the towns, the folk who live in the ‘Fincas’, even van or truck delivery driver’s, did they use a different route that our Sat Nav didn’t know about ? In the UK, roads like these would be at least busy with tractors and trailers, but nothing, absolutely nothing, it was quite tranquil but I have to say that it did feel a little strange too.

We drove down the main road and through ‘Sentinel’, at least here there was evidence of plenty of traffic and civilisation. You know when sometimes you are told that some things in life are all about ‘timing’, well the perfect example of our good timing was as we passed back through the main town area, two tourist coaches had quite literally just dropped off their cargo of ‘turistas’, there must have been close to a hundred people and they were all making their way into the narrow ‘Tourist Tat’ street, in the direction of the under cliff retail units. Now of course the retailer’s would be very appreciative of this sudden influx of trade, we however were glad that we had made our visit much earlier that morning. It wasn’t long and we were back on the main switchback roads that would take us around Ronda, down the mountain and back towards home.

We had both finally started to feel hungry as we neared the final part of our journey, so our discussions naturally turned to what we fancied to eat. We would be back in our own town area by 4:30pm, so we could have driven to our usual village car park and walked the short distance into the Marina, there would be plenty of choice of eateries in there. As it was, great minds think alike, now there is not much that we miss about the UK but we both really fancied Fish & Chips, Curry Sauce and a slice of bread and butter, to make a ‘chip butty’ of course, as you do. We knew that there was a very good English managed Fish & Chip restaurant at the bottom of our hill, near our favourite Indian restaurant, but we hadn’t used it now for well over a year, but when we had, it had always been very good. So that was it we had decided on what, and where, we would eat. That was until I checked the opening times and discovered that it didn’t actually open until 5:30pm, did we really want to have to go home first and then have to go back out again 🤔 You know what it is like after being out all day, you come back tired and just want to take off your shoes, sit down and relax with a nice hot cuppa, and once settled we knew that getting motivated to go back out again would be a real struggle. So we considered our options, however, our taste buds had already been stimulated, and salivating at the prospect of the taste of hot freshly cooked Battered Cod, with proper Chips, lashings of Salt ‘n’ Vinegar and a chip butty, we could even already visualise it on a plate in front of us.

Well I can tell you, it was a struggle, but that is exactly what we did, we went home, took of our trainers, sat on the balcony with our piping hot mugs of tea and waited for the hour to pass, then we went down the hill to the Fish & Chip restaurant, sat down, ordered and enjoyed every mouthful, it tasted so damn good, the perfect ending to what had been a very enjoyable day trip up in our local mountains.

We both agreed that, if these sort of days were an example of the sort of ‘The Up’s And Down’s Of Living In Spain’ that we will have to put up with over the next few year’s, then I think that we just might be able to cope with this lifestyle 😉 The only question though, “Where should we go next ?’

Until my next ramble,

Hasta Luego mi Amigos

The last time we ventured into the mountains that surround our location was in March last year, I remember it well, as we had taken some family visitor’s staying with us, up to the beautiful hilltop town of Ronda which is located 739 metres up, in the Serrania de Ronda mountain range. Upon our return, that same evening, I started to suffer difficulties with the sight in my right eye and, by the following morning, I had lost my sight completely in my right eye. Shazza rushed me to the Costa del Hospital, some forty minutes drive away, where it was discovered that I had actually suffered a detached retina. Now obviously the visit to Ronda and my detached retina were possibly just coincidental, although we later discovered, from the eye Consultant, that actually high altitudes can be associated to such eye conditions. However, it is worth pointing out that I have, since that incident, flown in an aircraft at a much higher altitude and without any issues, hence my belief that it was a purely coincidental occurrence.

I only mention that because our next ‘Shazza Adventure’ would take us up the same mountain range although, on this occasion, a little further up beyond Ronda and so it did bring memories back of that unfortunate incident, I guess it was something that had been in the back of both our minds but neither of us mentioned it out aloud. We had decided to visit the small town of ‘Setinel de las Bodegas’ across the border into our neighboring Province of Cadiz. The town has a population of around 3,000 people, although that number substantially increases with the hoards of visiting tourists during the Summer months.

Now for those, unlike me, that are actually interested in the ‘History’ of places such as this, then the Internet of course provides a wealth of information and, although Shazza and myself are self-confessed ‘History Heathens’, occasionally I do enlist some help, to add ‘stuff’ to my ramble content, more usually acquired from my two friends ‘Mr Google’ and ‘Mr Wikapedia’, however, on this occasion I discovered a very informative ‘Plaque’ in the town itself that gave a very brief resume, in much fewer words than I ever could, so I am sure you my reader’s will be applauding that.

Shazza had discovered this place several weeks ago whilst perusing one of her many Spanish sightseeing and walking books, but it wasn’t for the hiking that she wanted to visit. We have often driven past other towns and villages that have ‘Cave Houses’, but they have been merely fleeting glimpses as we sped by en route to somewhere else. But this particular small Whitewashed village was a little unique in that, as well as cave houses it also had shops built directly under overhanging cliff tops and, from the photographs it looked like it would make a decent day trip out. The only unknown factor with these sort of high altitude locations is the weather, during the Summer months the temperatures in these mountain villages and towns can be a lot hotter than those at sea level, but in the Autumn/Winter months, well they are certainly a lot cooler but, if it is a grey and cloudy day, visibility can be down to just a few feet. Fortunately the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasted a bright and sunny day, but, would they get it right, that was the question in our minds as we know only too well the inaccuracy of their weather predictions.

We had a choice of three routes, all would provide excellent scenic views as we drove up the mountain, and we had driven all three on previous road trips but this time we elected to take the shortest, as it was only 60 miles and would take us 90 minutes to get there, the much easier route, driving wise, would have taken us on a much better dual carriageway road for a large bulk of the journey, but it would entail driving an additional 30 miles, and add on an extra thirty-minutes driving time. Now I was more than happy to do all the driving and was actually quite looking forward to both the outward and return route driving, up and down all the steep twisty switchback roads, however, Shazza can sometimes feel car sick on such mountainous routes when she is a passenger, so I suggested that we share the driving and that she could do either the outward or return part of the journey. However, this is where you my reader’s will see the relevance of the first part of the storyline in this ramble, because Shazza had other ideas, only then did she reveal to me that she was concerned about last years eye incident and ‘suggested’ that she would prefer to do all the driving, with the proviso that if I felt any kind of discomfort, or blurred vision, during the ascent, that I should tell her immediately and we would not then continue with the mountain trip. Now I of course argued my case by reminding her that we had actually flown at over 9,000 metres in an aircraft since then, but you know what these women can be like, once they get a bee in their bonnet about something then that is it, so, although I really enjoy doing the driving, it really was no ‘biggy’ for me, I had no problems with being chauffeur driven all day, and you lucky people, my readers, have also got the advantage of now having a passenger who has a very enthusiastic ‘Clicker Finger’ 🤗

We departed at 09:15am, it was 16 degrees(c), so even slightly cooler for us than we have been used to at this time of the morning, but we also knew that it would be a lot cooler up in the mountains, so we dressed appropriately, no tee-shirts, shorts or flip-flops today, it was jeans, long sleeved shirts and trainers, and we both had thicker woollen zipped tops to put on once we arrived, however, as we looked up at the mountains as we got into the car, all the surrounding mountains peaks were totally clear of any low lingering cloud and their was a nice clean looking blue sheet of sky above them. There would be no need for a picnic lunch either, as we had not intended to do any hiking, so a ‘Tapas’ lunch, or even a ‘Menu del Dia’, would be the order of the day, in one of the numerous local hostelries and, as I had now been ‘officially’ relegated to being ‘a passenger’, well sometimes their is a silver lining in every cloud, I would be able to partake of an Anti-Covid Vaccine, or perhaps two. Hmmmm, I might just get used to this being chauffeured around M’larky, a thought that I obviously did not share with my driver 😁

I had forgotten at just how stunningly beautiful the differing mountain landscapes were at much closer quarters than we normally view them, with totally awesome and stunning views for miles around, first we wound our way up through the lower foothills, through larger populated villages with some very expensive looking residences, some with their own individual private gated entrances, how the other half live we commented but then smiled as we realised that we too have a private gated security entrance, just one we have to share with a lot more people. The surrounding landscape was primarily lush green pine forested slopes, with the odd broad leaf tree’s set amongst them showing off their own Autumnal attire of Golden Brown leaves, glowing in the sunshine and just adding to the magnificent portrait scenery. These sort of drives were definitely not all about just getting to the destination, it was the visual feast for the eyes during the whole of the journey, it really did make me appreciate having sight in both of my eyes so that I can continue to enjoy such views, I really do owe the Spanish eye surgeon, and the other medical staffs at the Costa del Sol hospital, both pre and post-op, a massive debt of gratitude for their prompt intervention which enabled me to keep my eyesight, any delay in having the surgery could have meant losing my sight permanently.

The traffic on the well surfaced and maintained mountain roads was fairly light, but as we drove further up the mountain, a group of around eight motorcyclists came racing past us, on the wrong side of the road and on very tight sharp right hand bends, which they most certainly could not have seen around, so just took the risk of their being nothing else coming in the opposite direction 😲 Being in a right-hand drive car and, driving on the right hand side of the road, even Lewis Hamilton (aka Shazza) was happy to just stick to the speed limit, or below, on this occasion, but having a car that had Automatic Transmission certainly proved beneficial on these roads, it was really hard work doing such drives previously, when we had ‘Wuxly’ (Shazza’s little car) with it’s manual gears and underpowered little engine, although it had always got us to where we were going, even if at times we could have walked faster up the hills 😂

As we drove ever upwards, one minute we would be in full sunshine, the next in the shade, as we went from being on the sunny side of the mountain one minute and then the ‘dark side’ the next. We watched as the temperature gauge dropped to 8 degrees(c), we turned on the car heater as we could most certainly feel the drop in the temperature. As we climbed higher we left the more densely forested area and out into the more rural areas, where the views became even better, at one point we could see right out to sea with Gibraltar and Africa so clear, but the ever twisting roads prevented me from getting a decent photo, hopefully I would be better prepared and get one on the downward ascent.

It was 10:45am when we reached the outskirts of the town of ‘Sentenil de las Bodegas’, and quite fortunately, as we both needed somewhere to go and powder our noses, and have a coffee, we came across a Cafe come Restaurant with a large car park, so we pulled in. My goodness, did we feel the chill as we opened the car doors and so we quickly put on our warmer woollen tops. The heat from the open log fire greeted us as we entered, several tables were already occupied and the people sat around them stopped talking as we entered, they said ‘Buena’s Dias’, as is normal here in Spain, and then they just continued with their conversations. We sat at a table and then a young woman came across and I ordered ‘Dos Cafe Con Leche’, as she left, Shazza looked at me and asked inquisitively “No Tostada ?” 🤷‍♂️ So I went up to the bar counter, where the girl was preparing our coffee’s, she turned around, “Lo Siento, tambien Una Tostada con Tomate y Una Tostada con Mermelede por favor” I said, “Vale, no hay problema” she responded. Now we are more normally used to Tostado’s being small baguette type rolls, cut in half and toasted, or sometimes they are large round bread rolls, but here, and you are going to think that I am exaggerating this, but I am not, what came out was a massive slice of bread, as if it had been cut from the centre of an almighty giant loaf, it was ‘at least’ an inch thick, what in some areas of the UK are referred to as ‘Dorrsteps’, and it was well toasted, just how we like it. Then came a large round plate which contained a ‘tub’ of margarine, the sort you would have in your fridge at home, with small individual tubs of different processed meats of some description, a tub of liquidised tomato, bottle of olive oil, individual packets of Salt and of course individual tubs of strawberry jam, we only wanted the tomato and jam 🤷‍♂️ So of course, the question in my mind was wether we would be charged for ‘all’ of this plateful of different foodstuffs ? We finished our coffee and toast and I went to the bar counter and asked for “La Cuenta” (The Bill) and the young girl said, “Seis” (Six), she had no way of knowing what we had or hadn’t eaten off the plate, but it was exactly the same price as we we pay at our local Spanish Cafe, although down there we do not get a selection of all the extra’s that we did here. I thanked her and said “Adios” and we made our way back out, as we did so the other people in the Cafe, who were the same people that were in when we had arrived, looked up and said “Luego”, (see you again), so we responded accordingly. We were total stranger’s in this place but felt so welcome by people we did not know, and would probably never see again.

We drove into the town and through it’s twisting roads looking for a suitable parking spot, we followed the ‘P’ signs up a hill that climbed away from the main part of the town, but fortunately, half way up we saw several marked parking bays at the side of the road and were lucky enough to find an empty one. It was a beautifully sunny and virtually cloudless day, the odd cotton wool ball one floating by, but there was certainly a chill in the air and certainly needed our zip up woollen tops.

Now I have to confess that at this stage of our visit, whilst it was nice to see the geology of the place and how they had turned, what used to be old historical residential dwellings, which in the day were most commonly used to house both humans ‘and’ their animals under the same roof, into what is now more modern residences and retail outlets, but to be completely honest this part of the town was predominantly targeted at prizing money from tourists wallets and purses, it certainly was not somewhere that the locals would come to do their daily or weekly shopping, they would use the small supermarket which we saw signposted in the back streets of the ‘normal’ residential habitations or, alternatively, and very much more likely, the more permanent residents would drive, or catch the local bus, the half an hour or so journey to the much larger town of Ronda where all the main everyday essential facilities were located.

So it was just another one of those places that sold the same old type of ‘Tourist Tat’, at the same inflated prices, that you could purchase anywhere, but with this towns name and pictures, printed on to the fridge magnets, tee-shirts, spanish fans, tablecloths and tea-towels, ceramic mugs and plates, well you get the idea by now. We were also quite pleased that we had eaten earlier and were still quite full from our ‘doorstep’ proportioned Tostado, rather than having to pay the extortionate prices they were asking at most of the tourist Bar/Cafes and Restaurants in this part of the town. But yes, scenically it was very nice, but the question is, was it worth the drive here, ninety-minutes up the mountain ? Well you may be surprised but actually, yes it was, but only due to what we were about to discover…………………

So, after doing the touristy bit and, as is our way, we decided to just wander aimlessly and explore in and out the numerous narrow alleyways just following our noses, now sometimes that can lead us to nothing of any real interest and be a bit of a waste of shoe leather, or in today’s case, rubber soled trainers, but sometimes our fortitude is rewarded, as proved to be very much the case as we discovered some lovely paths and walkways, and as a consequence we were able to see the ‘real’, more interesting side, of this unique town. As to be expected though in these mountain towns and villages, there were lots of steps to climb and descend, but it was all well worth the effort.

We couldn’t actually gain access to any of the cave houses, many were inhabited, or in the process of being renovated, and quite a few had ‘En Aquilar’ (To Rent) signs attached to them. I guess they would have made nice quirky accommodations for Summer holiday escapes, especially if you enjoy hiking in the mountains more than lazing on crowded beaches.

It was beginning to be one of those places where you just could not afford to miss out exploring every nook and cranny, to wander down alleyways and through arches, to climb or descend different steps, there was always something that made the effort so worthwhile. At the top of the florally decorated steps was a narrow cobbled road which led to yet another square and Mirador, with more amazing views and some more of the Olive Groves in the surrounding countryside. However, also within this were two separate Churches.

Shazza is not much into Castles, but I am, but she will always come in and explore them with me, conversely, I feel the same about Churches, so will always go inside with her to have a look around. I generally find that Churches, throughout the ages, were overly self-indulgent, adorned with ‘Gold’ antiquities when, the vast majority of their congregations were living in poverty. However, I was to be very pleasantly contradicted on entering this particular religious interior.

We found ourselves back into the nice upper level square, the one with the nice Cafe/Bar’s and other eateries and we stopped for a much deserved cold beer. Our original plan, when we had first set out that morning, was to do our sightseeing and then stop for lunch in the town prior to returning back down the mountain. We had certainly not anticipated the size of the Tostado that we had devoured for our late breakfast upon our arrival, so we both agreed that as we did not feel hungry we decided that we would probably just make our way back home and, if we happened to see somewhere on our way back down the mountain, then we could always stop, we were in no rush.

However, when we got back to the car, instead of making our way back ‘down’ the mountain we elected, for reasons that will become clear, to drive further up it 🤷‍♂️ I guess that you could say that these are the sort of adventures that we consider as being just ‘The Up’s And Down’s Of Living In Spain’ 😂

To be continued………………………….

Hasta Pronto mi Amigos 😉