I should have known better than to open my mouth 🤷‍♂️ In my last ramble I rather stupidly mentioned that we could just relax, as there was nothing official to be done, and additionally, no outstanding personal admin to complete, however, those ‘Dark Forces’ were listening weren’t they, perhaps I should just keep what I may be thinking to myself 🙄

Although I rarely read the UK ‘doom and gloom’ mainstream media these days, just perhaps some of the headlines but not the actual content, I do however tend to read more of the local stuff, mainly what’s happening here in Spain, but also ‘some’ headlines from what is happening in other mainland European countries. It is a good job really, for there was an article reminding foreign Immigrants (Expats) in Spain to re-register on ‘El Padron’, which is similar to the UK Council Nominal Roll, or a population census as it is known here in Spain. Now to be completely honest, we didn’t know that we had to re-register at certain periods, nobody had told us this when we first registered on ‘El Padron’ in June 2023. However, I did some on-line research after reading the article to see if it did actually apply to us, and of course, it did 😲 For those who are ‘Non-Eu residents’ and who, like ourselves, currently only hold ‘Temporary Residence Status’, then it seems that you have to re-register ‘every two years’, otherwise your residency status on the register may be cancelled 😳

Being registered on the ‘Padron’ is important because without being on it there are several ‘official’ services that you cannot gain access to e.g. Health Services, Driving Licences, or other associated renewal processes and, even simple thing’s like purchasing a car, not that we are thinking of changing it but these are some things that you wouldn’t normally think about. The first document they ever ask you for is, proof that you are registered on the “Empadriamento’ and this proof is via a ‘Certificate’ that has to be valid within three months of the product or service that you are attempting to gain access to. The most important aspect for us, at the moment, is that being on ‘El Padron’ is the official record of how long we have been officially resident here in Spain, as next year we need to renew our ‘Temporary Residency Permit’ for a further two year’s and then, at what will then be our 5 year point, in June 2028, we can finally start the application process to obtain our ‘Permanent Resident Permit’. However, if we do not re-register at the appropriate periods, and are subsequently taken off El Padron, then, when we come to apply for our ‘Permanent Residency Permit’, we would be unable to provide ‘Official’ proof that we have lived here for the required 5 ‘consecutive’ years 😲 Not being aware of this mandatory renewal process, until now, meant that we were already four months past that renewal date and so, as far as we knew, our proof of residency status may already have been removed from the register 😲

Our first hurdle in checking that status, and renewing it, was that it just happened to be the weekend of Spain’s ‘National Day’ celebrations, with a Public Holiday on the Monday, so of course all Government Offices were closed 🤷‍♂️ The next issue was discovering whether we had to drive up to ‘Manilva’, to the location of the official Town Hall, where we initially had to register on the Padron or, could we go to the ‘Foreign Residents Department’ at a smaller Town Hall Office building in our own local Town 🤔 In the end, we discovered that we didn’t re-register at either, a friendly official in the ‘Foreign Residents Department’ directed us to another Government Building in the town, only a five minute walk away. Once there, I explained to an extremely friendly non-English speaking lady, in my bestest ‘Espanyol’ of course, why we were there and asked for the appropriate form, thinking she would provide the form and tell us we needed to go away and complete it and then make an appointment to return to start the renewal process, or worst case scenario, our residency status had lapsed and we needed to start from scratch 😳 She asked for our current Spanish Residency Cards and then entered our details into her desktop computer, she asked us to wait for a moment and she disappeared into a back office. To be honest, at that point my heart sunk as I wondered whether she was going to consult with a Supervisor about our 4 month overdue re-registration 😳 However, when she returned from the ‘back office’ she had actually produced, and completed, the re-registration Forms on our behalf, which she just asked us to sign. She tapped away some more on her computer, then turned and smiled at us and announced, ‘Todos Completo’ (All Complete). She had not asked us to produce any of the supporting documentation that we had taken with us 🤷‍♂️

Once back outside of the Office I commented to Shazza at just how friendly and helpful the lady had been, and also how surprised I had been that she had not asked to see any of the supporting documentation. Shazza said, “Did you not recognise either of the two ladies in the Admin Office ?”, “Not really, why ?” I responded. She told me that they were both regular mid-morning customer’s at one of our favourite Cafe/Bars, usually sat on a table comprising of about six other ladies that we always passed pleasantries with. To be honest I still didn’t recognise her, I tend to just see a group of six to eight ladies sat around a table together and don’t really pay that much attention to them as individuals 🤷‍♂️ However, our experience that morning may perhaps justify that saying of, ‘It’s Not What You Know, But Who You Know’ 😉 Then again of course, it could just have been a total coincidence and that in truth, she was probably in fact just a very nice friendly and helpful lady 🤷‍♂️ Perhaps now though I will pay a little more attention to who I am speaking to and, perhaps, one morning buy them all a coffee, well you just never know where else some of them may work, perhaps in the local Police Station, or Immigration Office, or Driving Licence Office or local Health Centre 😂 All of which may be places with services that we will both need to access at some point in the future. However, one thing is for certain, I won’t miss the next ‘El Padron’ re-registration date, due in June 2027, as my OCD Buddy made sure that that is now already firmly marked in my diary and ‘Oh Yes’, just one other thing 🤔 “Up Your’s Dark Forces” 😂

Shazza’s mum had spent eleven full days with us and we took her back to Malaga Airport for her flight back home on the twelfth day. Prior to her arrival, we had agreed that as she had already seen most places in our area, right up the coastline into Malaga City, Up into the nearby mountains and she had also visited Gibraltar several times, so on this visit, apart from taking her back to any places that she particularly wanted to re-visit, we would just let her have days relaxing on the balcony in the sunshine, especially after her recent ‘Little Incident’, it is a nice part of the apartment where she could look out upon the views, read her book, or magazines or do her crosswords and sudoku, and of course take her frequent ‘Siestas’, something I think people of a certain age do naturally, whatever country they may be in 🤭

But that is not the way it actually turned out, for we were out every single day, mostly from late morning until the early afternoon, whilst the temperatures were a little cooler, if you could call 25 degrees(c) at 10:30am cool 😳 We had numerous morning coffees in a wide variety of Cafe/Bars, lunches out, the occasional dinners out on some evenings and lots of visits to places in the local area that she had already been to on her previous trips. She also provided us with ‘practical’ reminders of her liking for the taste of Spanish Cervesa, Vino Tinto, Tinto Verano, Sangria and the odd tipple of ‘Baileys’, she may need to enrol with ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ once she gets back home 😂 She also enjoyed the introduction and temporary membership to our ‘People Watching’, ‘Fashion Police’ and ‘Body Beautiful’ club, although we had to keep reminding her that this was supposed to be a discreet and silent activity, and not one intended to be vocalised to any ‘others’ in our immediate vicinity, especially those who were the subjects of our observations 😲 However, after apologising profusely on her behalf, numerous times, and stating that we were just returning her to the ‘Care Home’, we managed to escape without any abusive exchanges taking place 🤭 Perhaps we should have introduced her, and then left her, with the groups of older matriarches who regularly sit gossiping, and who certainly do not disguise who the victims of their observations are, often by pointing with their fingers, or a nod of their head in their direction, like a well aimed missile and when six or seven heads turn and stare in one particular direction it leaves little doubt as to who, or even what, is the focal point of their interest 😂 This, generally morning activity, is not just a privilege reserved for the older ‘female’ generation, for I have quite often observed the older men folk also doing this, sat at a Cafe, or more usually on a park bench, or low wall, smoking their cigarettes, or with the palms of their hands crossed, resting atop their walking sticks, their eyes flickering from one passing target to another, although I do have to say that they do tend to be a little more discreet than their female counterparts. I often observe them and think to myself that I would actually fit quite well into those male groups, only when my time arrives you understand, right now I would probably only be considered more of a young apprentice, learning how to hone those finely tuned skills 😂 But I have to say that I do actually enjoy watching these characters, male and female alike, a case of watching people, watching people, it has become a sort of natural progression and addition to my more usual ‘People Watching’ activities 😉

As well as visiting our more usual haunts, we also managed to find a couple of new sightseeing opportunities to visit, just to mix things up a little bit and by way of a change for Shazza and myself too. Around a one hour drive up the coast is the ‘Castello Monumento Colomares’ (Colomares Castle). Now this isn’t a typical castle fortress of any real military historic significance, those that I more generally like to explore, but it was constructed as a tribute to ‘Christopher Columbus’ and is a major tourist attraction in the neighbourhood, although to look at it, well let’s just say that it is probably more in keeping with something you would find at one of those Disney type Theme Parks.

It was not a sprawling area, perhaps summed up by the entrance fee which, for a tourist attraction was quite cheap really, €2 each for those of a more senior status (yes that did include myself 🙄), and €3 for younger adults, which came as some sort of amusement for Shazza for some reason 🤷‍♂️ Inside the grounds there was a small Cafe/Snack Bar and surprisingly, even that was quite cheap, nowhere near the usual touristy prices where you need a bank loan just to purchase a coffee.

We had selected the right morning to visit as there were very few other visitor’s, I have edited the photo’s above, so it actually looks empty, however it wasn’t. There is very little public parking nearby, which we were pre-warned about after reading ‘Reviews’ prior to our visit, so we ended up having to park up a very steep hill, Shazza’s mum did manage the walk down, albeit very slowly, as even the footpaths, which is hardly an accurate description of what we encountered, were more an accident waiting to happen, broken and raised paving slabs and Ill-fitting manhole covers, they don’t do public Health & Safety here, more a case of you being responsible yourself for avoiding the hazards. The alternative would have been to walk on the road, but with blind bends and speeding motorists the safer option were the poor footpaths. When we were finished at the castle, after about an hour, if that, we left her stood outside the castle entrance whilst Shazza and I walked back up the hill and retrieved the car, it would take the two of us to safely manoeuvre out of the tight parking space into the flow of fast moving traffic. We hoped that her mother had learnt the art of silent ‘People Watching’ in our absence 🙄 Fortunately there were no blue flashing lights when we got down to the castle (Police or Ambulance) so it seems that she had managed to behave herself and not cause a disturbance, I am not sure that I would have been prepared to have paid her bail to have got her released from custody 😂

Our next new location, not a million miles away from the Castle as it happened, was the ‘Mariposario’ (Butterfly Farm) which was housed in a very ornate Asian-style building, this however was a much more expensive visitor attraction 😳 Although we were able once again to park for ‘Free’, this time on the side of the road just a short and fairly level walk away.

In truth, personally I hadn’t expected to enjoy this place very much, with loads of different coloured, and sized, butterflies flapping around or landing on my head. However, I was quite pleasantly surprised, it was more like walking into an enchanted very humid tropical woodland, with water features and walkways and even an upper viewing platform. In the main the vast assortment of species just flew around keeping their distance, although one did decide to settle on my arm for a few seconds. Although some of the photographs (below), and I have kept them to a minimum, do not show it, their were dozens on dozens of butterflies just constantly flitting around, far too fast moving for my camera to catch them in flight, so I had to settle for those that were stationery on leaves, or on the feeding stations.

The exit led into, and through, the more usual mandatory gift shop and, to be honest, I was very nearly tempted to purchase one or two large butterfly themed ceramic wall ornaments, I thought that they would have made a colourful edition to the already resident multicoloured decorative wall vases, and the large colourful ‘Salamander’, that are already in situ on our balcony walls. However, a rather forceful tug on my arm from Shazza indicated that she thought otherwise ☹️ There was a sympathetic smile from the lady at the till counter as I passed, I did the Spanish thing, held my arms out to the side, moved the palms of my hands in an upward direction and shrugged my soldiers. It could of course have been a lot more embarrassing if Shazza had reverted to her former teacher’s method of displeasure and discipline, by grabbing the lobe of my ear and frog marching me outside 😂

We actually thought that Shazza’s mum had done quite well over the duration of her visit, coping with the constantly high temperatures, as there was just no let up whatsoever, with afternoon temperatures regularly reaching between 30-35 degrees(c). The ‘Works of Fiction’ being their usual inaccurate selves, forecasting ‘Maximums’ of ‘up’ to 30 degrees(c) and occasionally promising rain, that of course never actually materialised, unless you happened to be in more Northerly parts of the Country where they have again recently experienced severe flooding as a consequence of ‘Storm Alice’, which once again automatically started the ‘jukebox’ in my brain to start playing that 1976 pop hit by ‘Smokey’ entitled ‘Living Next Door To Alice’ 😆 Just by the way of one of those useless bits of pop trivia, the song was actually originally recorded in 1972, by an Australian band called ‘New World’, so you see, these rambles can also occasionally be quite informative and educational at times 😂

Although Shazza and I do enjoy our own company for most of the year, we do also enjoy having the occasional visits by family and friends, we are not completely anti-social 🤭 However, after nearly a fortnight, we were once again ready for our own space and to get back into our more normal routines, after being out every single day we agreed that for the next couple of days we would be happy to become complete ‘couch potatoes’, it wasn’t as if we hadn’t done any exercise walks, just not at our usual pace although their was a distinct advantage too, the partaking of ‘daily’ Anti-Covid Vaccines, and often more than just once a day😂

In Other News…………………….

Of course, one of the biggest news stories over the last week or so has been about the introduction, in the Schengen Areas of Europe, of the new Entry Exit System (EES) and how that process has effected Non-EU traveller’s. Now it depends on which News Media Publication you read as to their version of events on whether its implementation has been successful or otherwise 😉

So there you go, no chaos in Spain according to the Interior Minister, that is of course as long as you do not mention the Spanish Island of ‘Tenerife’ 🤭 But it has not been such plain sailing elsewhere it would appear and, the reason there have been no problems in other Spanish airports, well perhaps that is because they only implemented it, initially, on a very early morning flight into Madrid but have not yet started implementing them at some of the much larger airports, it will be interesting to see how Malaga for example, with its 20 million annual tourists passing through its gates each year, gets on 🤔

So I guess only those ‘Third Country Nationals’ actually travelling through Airports, within Europe, will know the actual truth of the matter but, as with any new system I guess, to be fair, their are always going to be some teething problems. Considering that the actual introduction of the EES/ETIAS system has been delayed in it’s inception for the last two year’s, it is probably considered a success, well by some, now that it is actually operational 🤔 But do not get too comfortable just yet, as it would seem that their is even more ‘Bureaucracy’ for travellers still to come, not only for you, but also for those of us that live here in Europe 😲

Now to be completely honest, this next stage of bureaucracy is actually not new at all, it has in fact been an official requirement in most areas of the ‘Schengen Zone’ for very many years, but it is not something that has been ‘routinely’ enforced, but with the introduction of the new EES/ETIAS systems, and the issues with Immigration, you can be assured that it will be the next thing to be more strictly enforced.

Now the formality below ‘Only’ applies to those visitor’s who are staying with ‘Private’ hosts and does not effect those staying in Hotels, so by way of an example, any guests coming to stay with us will mean that ‘we’, Shazza and I, will have to obtain, prior to their visit, a ‘Carta de Invitación’, which will cost us around €70 ‘per visitor’, we then send that ‘Certificate’ to our visitor(s), who must produce it at the point of Immigration, along with their Passport and proof of some other formalities e.g. Health Insurance, Return Travel Ticket and Funds available during the period of the visit 😲 So let me just stress again that this is NOT a new requirement, just one, that until recently, has not been ‘routinely’ enforced but, it would appear from recent media articles, that some European countries are now becoming more pro-active with enforcing these procedural requirements.

Now, just because I made a brief mention above to ‘Immigation’, and also, in one of my more recent rambles, I also mentioned how both Portugal and Spain were introducing tighter Immigration protocols which, I am certain is happening elsewhere too, but I also just recently saw this article……………..

Also coming soon, for us here in Spain, is the new legal requirement to carry ‘Emergency Warning Beacons’ in our cars from 1st January 2026. ‘Ditch the Triangle’, well actually don’t ditch the triangle, for this new Law is only currently a requirement here in Spain, so if you travel across European Borders you will, for now at least, still need to put out your warning triangles if you break down along a road.

Yes, like the good law abiding citizens that we are, we have already purchased our’s and are ready to go 😁 However, it would have been helpful if they could have also provided a list of what other ‘European’ countries are part of these new ‘Traffic Agreements’ because, for those that are not included, then we will obviously still need to carry our warning triangles to remain road legal in those countries 🤷‍♂️ I can actually see the good road safety reasons for this new device, if the system works that is and, the monitoring stations do not get overwhelmed, but could this also be a surreptitious way of the Spanish Authorities creating more employment opportunities 🤔 You can see now for yourselves just how my cynical nature still remains pretty active 😂 Not that increasing employment is actually to be considered as a bad thing here in Spain.

So, what else is changing here in Spain 🤔 Actually it is not just here in Spain and again, this is actually not anything new, as we have been doing it every year for god knows how long 🤷‍♂️ For yes, from the early hours of Sunday morning, 26th October, many of us will be putting our time-pieces back by one hour, it means that it will be lighter in the mornings, but darker earlier in the evenings.

But it would seem that here in Spain the agreement to continue to comply with both the ‘Spring’ and ‘Autumn’ time changes expires in 2026, after that, who knows 🤷‍♂️ From a purely personal, and extremely selfish perspective, let’s change the clocks back to Summertime in Spring of 2026 and then, stop any further clock changes, that way it will be light in the morning just as I am having my first cup of coffee on the balcony, but it will remain lighter for longer in the evenings, when I am still admiring the sea views, all the boats and yes okay, I admit it, when I am still able to conduct some ‘People Watching’ 😂

Sometimes I just wish that certain things in our every day lives would just stay the same, I mean why can those in a position of authority not just apply the common sense reasoning of, ‘If It Isn’t Broken, Don’t Try To Fix It’ 🤷‍♂️ In my personal experience, things tend to get worse when you do try to fix them, just ask Shazza about my home DIY projects 😂

Until my next ramble…………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

‘Live life one day at a time’ is one of those sayings that is quite common in many different countries and in many different languages, ‘Vive la vida un día a la vez’ is how the Spanish say it, usually with a slight tilt of the head and a shrug of the shoulders. Well that is exactly what Shazza and I have been doing since we came to live here permanently, although the ‘Living’ part is open to quite a wide interpretation, our’s has been at a generally much more ‘sedentary’ pace, well it has since we got back from our road trip, although some of that is mainly due to the extreme heat of recent day’s, for we have spent several days doing nothing, going nowhere in particular and not even doing our normal walks, on a regular daily basis, and neither of us feel one little bit guilty about it 😲 On some days though, we had to literally force ourselves to go out beyond our front door, and only then because we were running short of fresh fruit and vegetables and Shazza needed to go to the ‘Fruiteria’ in town, but even then, instead of parking in our usual place in the village and walking in to the town, we felt that lethargic that we drove into the town and parked close to all the amenities, and so it was a very much shorter walk. Of course, being in town and so close to our four favourite Cafe/Bars, we had to stop for a coffee at one of them, to do some people watching, well it would have been rude not to after coming all this way, ten minutes in the car 😂 We tend to vary the Cafe/Bars that we stop at, which are all small family owned one’s, as it means that we can keep in touch with the individual owner’s and engage in conversations with them, just casual chit chat really, but many of them, although speaking good English, always commence in Spanish, and they help us to improve our ‘street’ Spanish conversational abilities, which is much more useful and practical for everyday conversations, as opposed to the more formal Spanish that is taught on-line, or in books. Whereas, if we go into the Marina we are always, without exception, spoken to in English, with some of the ‘foreign’ employed waiting staff struggling themselves with even basic Spanish terminology 🤷‍♂️ Whilst we prefer to use the Spanish establishments in the town, we do still use certain restaurants in the Marina, but only because there is a much wider variety of cuisine.

We were both currently in a nice period of relaxation, no official business needed to be dealt with, no personal administrative business to deal with, it was just complete calm and tranquility, and we intended to make the most of each and every minute of it. Of course normal daily life was still going on around us, shops were open with the steady flow of shoppers continuously in and out of them, the traffic on the streets was just as busy as it usually was. Back at home, I sat in the sauna like conditions on the balcony for as long as I could bare it, watching the cars as they passed underneath our windows, the dog walkers and the now familiar sounds coming from the building site close by, where they were still constructing a new block of apartments, although thankfully, we will not be able to see it even when it is finally completed. Shazza did not join me on the balcony, she preferred to be in the cool air conditioned and subdued light of the cave like conditions of the sitting room, but overall, whether in town or on the balcony we just generally enjoyed sitting and watching the daily life of other’s, as if they were performers in a play in which we were the audience and not a part of the action, just observing the varying scenes being played out before our eye’s.

As I have mentioned more than once in these rambles, one of Shazza’s regular statements is that “Age is just a number” and for me, well that number is just about to increase by one again. I guess that I should be thankful that at least their are some events in this life that I actually can rely on, come rain or shine, and of course, whilst I do still manage to continue to draw breath 😂 For at least I can be confident that this annual event will happen, on the same date, in the same month, each and every year, a bit like Christmas and New Year’s Day, events which don’t need to be marked on a Calendar for me to remember when they will happen 😉 Other annual events, like Easter, can of course both change dates and month in which they occur.

I had sat and thought about ‘Shazza’s’ statement, age may just be a number, but as that number increases, no matter how fit and well you may feel internally, their can be some very noticeable external changes to one’s physical appearance, the increase in the number of ‘laughter lines’ carved into one’s facial features, I do so prefer that particular terminology rather than the word ‘Wrinkles’, although other’s refer to them as an individuals life’s road map 🤭 The other obvious change of feature is the colour of one’s hair, although in that particular area I do have a distinct advantage, for I have had grey coloured hair for more years than I care to remember, in fact I have had it so long that I may even have been born with it, although childhood photographs would tend to disprove that theory, even so, the fact of the matter is, if their are an extra one or two ‘silver threads’ on each of my annual personal number changes, then in my case they are already discreetly camouflaged amongst the hoards of existing one’s, so for me, those additional ones are unnoticeable and so, perhaps that is why I am able to retain my youthful appearance, provided that I stand in front of the mirror that has the more youthful facial picture of ‘Tom Cruise’ stuck on it, at head height of course 😂

Now, if I am correct, it was the 21st September when the local news media reminded us that, on that particular day in question, it was the ‘official’ meteorological last day of Summer, and that we were now entering into the Autumn season. Now that started me thinking about all of the four seasons in a year and how we don’t actually really experience those same quite obvious seasonal changes, well not here in this part of Spain, as some other places do, because unlike a lot of those other places, we actually tend to spend all of the four ‘Seasons In The Sun’, it is only the gradually reducing heat of the sunshine, combined with increasing density of any cloud and the decreasing number of daylight hours, that tend to make any noticeable difference down in our particular neck of the woods.

Well that was it, the word association with ‘Seasons In The Sun’ started instantaneously, I have no control over it whatsoever and so, within seconds of those words entering my thoughts, the musical juke-box in my brain had selected the appropriate song and started to play it, of course, those of you of a similar age group to myself, will already know the song to which I refer, the 1974 hit song by Terry Jacks……….

🎶 Goodbye to you my trusted friend, We’ve known each other since we were nine or ten, Together we’ve climbed hills and trees, Learned of love and ABC’s, Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees……….🎶

Although, when it came to the chorus, I did plagiarise it a little bit, as I am quite often prone to do with some songs, but again it is something that I have no control over, it is like an instant automatic response, often to Shazza’s annoyance, especially when it is one of her favourite tunes, and so the original chorus of that song has now been subtly amended to…………………..

🎶 We have joy, We have fun, We spend four seasons in the sun 🎶

Now for those of you reading this, who perhaps also remember that particular song and tune, I wouldn’t be surprised one little bit if your own personal juke-box in your brain hasn’t already started playing it in your heads, but don’t bother trying to fight the urge to sing it, as unlike the more modern physical music players, in your brain there is no off switch 🤭

The funny thing was, several minutes later Shazza was in the kitchen doing something and I could hear her singing the chorus, I popped my head around the door and said “Catchy little number isn’t it ?”, she laughed, “I can’t get the damned tune out of my head now but, am I singing the original words or your revised version ?” I thought about my answer, well for perhaps a nano-second, “No you are singing the original one’s” I replied 😳🤭 She will never know the truth unless someone tells her, I thought to myself 🤔 “If you are reading this Dougie, about that video call we were going to have……….😲” and “Debs, Shazza has had her Facebook account compromised, best you send any messages through me and I will pass them on to her” 🤭

Anyway, back to the subject of the change of season. The usual seasonal changes are ‘generally’, in most places, observed by a change in weather patterns and temperatures, but also visibly, by the change in the landscape scenery. The changing of the colour of the leaves on the trees, or a few early mornings where the first signs of a frost appear and the much cooler air starts to nip at exposed skin, until the Autumnal sunshine brings some welcome warmth on your face.

And totally by coincidence, during the weekend that I began to cobble together this ‘draft’ ramble, these two headlines below, appeared in one of our local media news publications.

Knowing the usual dismal accuracy record of our ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts and reports, we just scoffed at it, but this time we really shouldn’t have done, as the ‘30c or more’ statement proved to be correct 😲 On the Saturday the mercury hit a little under the 36 degrees(c) mark 🥵🥵 although it was a little cooler the following day, at only 33 degrees(c), but those extremely high temperatures, even for this part of the Costa del Sol, in October, are unusual, and were not helped by the accompanying hot ‘Terel’ wind.

As has been a common practice for us during the Summer months, we were finding that we were still even now having to sit, both day and night, with all the doors, windows and outer security shutters closed and the Air Con running. However, we had elected to go out for a morning exercise walk, and along our more usual route, the mercury at that time showing just 23 degrees(c), so it was a more normal sort of temperature for Autumn in these parts, but what a mistake that decision proved to be 😲🥵 By the time we reached the town, the clear blue sky and hot sun, with the accompanying ‘Terel’ wind had rapidly increased the temperature to 30 degrees(c). We made two stops in town, at our usual Cafe/Bars, whereas more usually we would just make the one stop for refreshments, then we just sauntered back towards the Marina, where we quite spontaneously decided to eat lunch out at our favourite Moroccan Cafe/Bar, but this also served as a much appreciated bit of respite from the increasing heat of the day. By the time we had returned home the mercury was showing 33 degrees(c), and it still wasn’t the hottest part of the day 🥵 At least inside, the Air-Con kept us cool, although with the outer shutters closed it still felt as if we were living in a cave, but it was far too hot to go into the much brighter balcony. We both commented on how this, the first week into October, was supposed to be Autumn, when the more usual afternoon temperatures should have been a lot cooler at around the 26-27 degree mark and starting to cool, little by little, each and every week. But are these unusual temperatures for this time of the year due to climate change, or is it just a seasonal quirk, which can occasionally happen 🤷‍♂️

Now as far as Shazza’s mum is concerned, she cannot tolerate such hot temperatures, which is why she chooses to visit us at this time of year, so, had she arrived on the day she should have done, she would have been in for a not so pleasant first weekend. However, on the day she was due to depart the UK she met with an unfortunate accident, and literally just minutes before leaving her home to be driven to the Airport by one of her son’s, but instead, he had to take her to the A&E Department at her local hospital, where she had to have two staples inserted to a head wound she suffered when she fell over. Fortunately though it was nothing too serious and she was given the clearance to fly. She did however, due to her fall and hospital visit, miss her flight and she asked Shazza to re-organise another as soon as possible, even suggesting the next day 😲 However, unbeknown to her mum, we agreed that because it was a head wound, and we were concerned about her age and the ‘potential’ for delayed after effects, we agreed that it would be best to delay her arrival for 72 hours. Shazza kept in touch with her each day and she appeared, from the telephone conversations, and updates from other members of her family who went to visit her at home, to be perfectly fit and well, and she was still eager to commence her travels.

We collected her from Malaga Airport three days later where, fortunately, it was a more overcast day and only 25 degrees(c). She of course gave us the full chapter and verse about her ‘little incident’, as she referred to it, on the journey home from the airport, also informing us that the doctor had given her the ‘tool’ for one of us to remove the staples after ten days 😳

On that first evening, after dinner, Shazza and her mum were watching TV and I was sat on the balcony, when we saw the reflection on our walls of blue flashing lights, we looked out and saw two fire engines go past and then, at the top of the road, they turned right, in the direction of the entrance to our residential complex. Was it a wildfire on an area of scrubland across the road from us ? Was it a house or car fire ? Shazza went through to the kitchen and from those windows she could see the flashing lights and they looked as if they were in our communal car parking area, so of course, she sent me to investigate. As I approached the parking area I could see the firemen at the rear of a car, it had white smoke emanating from the boot. A small group of other residents had already arrived, some with their phones, video recording the incident, for their Facebook or Instagram accounts no doubt 🙄 I stood next to ‘Daniel’, who is one of our Spanish neighbours who lives below, and just to the right of us, only then did I realise that it was actually his car that had the smoke coming out from it. Neither Daniel, or Stephanie his partner, can speak one word of English but, in my limited Spanish, I established that he suspected the issue was with a battery in the boot of the vehicle. We watched as the fireman forcibly, but cautiously, opened the boot and then sprayed foam into it before rushing backwards as thicker plumes of white smoke filled the night air, the stench coming from it indicated that it was almost certainly an electrical issue, much like a burning clutch has its own unique smell. The firefighter’s gave warnings for onlookers to stand well back, for whilst there were no flames there was still a potential risk of a battery explosion. At first, I had not seen Stephanie, as she had been stood a little further away, but she looked across and saw me talking to Daniel, she waved and then walked towards me, tears were streaming down her face and she put her head on my shoulder and sobbed. I was a little taken aback, as I didn’t know her that well, but I guess she was still in a bit of shock, so I gave her a gentle hug and in my bestest Spanish whispered in her ear, ‘Al menos estás a salvo’ (At least you are safe). I asked her where her young daughter was and she told me that she was safe, with her mum. I didn’t ask any question’s about what had happened, there would be time enough for that in a few days time, or more likely when one of the other neighbours posted it on our community social media platform 🤷‍♂️ There was nothing else that I could do, and to be honest all I had really wanted to establish at the time was whether their was any immediate danger to ourselves, or our car. So I didn’t want to just stand there ‘rubber necking’, the fire brigade had it under control so, I said to them both, that if they needed any help, to be driven anywhere in the morning, to do shopping, collect their daughter from school, or whatever, then they should just knock on my door and I would be more than happy to help. They said thank you and I left, and of course reported back to the eagerly awaiting Shazza and her mum and imparted the information.

We have known Stephanie, and her previous partner, since they arrived here, which was a few months after we ourselves took up permanent residency here, although ‘Daniel’ is a more recent man on the scene 😉 but both of them are very nice and, although they do not speak English, we have always spoken whenever we see each other, brief casual conversations over the balcony, when they are out on their lower patio garden, but also on the occasional times we pass each other in the car park. These social interactions, with our close neighbours, as well as those that we have with the Spanish Cafe/Bar owners and staff, and even with some of the regular customers we have come to recognise, all serve to make us feel a part of our local community. Of course we also have other Spanish, English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Russian and Romanian neighbours within our small residential community, who we may not see on a daily basis, but when we do, we always pass the usual neighbourly pleasantries between each other. It is a good multi-National mixed community and although there is the usual influx of tourists, of all nationalities, who rent some properties, mainly during the Summer months for short periods at a time, you soon get to know your fellow ‘permanent’ residents who, for now at least, do still make up the much larger majority of the community. So although I cannot say that living in Spain is perfect, as I may have already mentioned once or twice in previous rambles, as there are some ‘Irritations’ and ‘Frustrations’ of living here in Spain, which to be totally honest is primarily all related to the official ‘Bureurocracy’, but this ‘Officialdom’ applies to everyone, even the Spanish themselves, so if they have to accept and live with it, then of course, so must we, well as long as we are able to do so, for their are political undercurrents that may soon change our ability to do so 😲

Reading this news, in a European News Media publication, rather than a dedicated Spanish one, of course has started to ring some alarm bells for us for our long term plans for, under our current Retirement Visa (Non-Lucrative Visa), we are not permitted to work anyway, even if we wanted to, although we could do voluntary work. As for the language, well we are already making reasonable headway with that particular element, although I do wonder how they will be able to confirm the ‘speaking with your neighbours’ aspect 🤷‍♂️ However, it appears that ‘Spain’ is not the only country tightening up on the ability for ‘Legal Immigrants’ to move to another country permanently.

The same of course could potentially happen in the UK if the ‘Reform Party’ were to win the next General Election, it appears that as a consequence of the ‘Illegal Migration’ problem that has arisen around the world, let alone just in Europe, some more ‘Right Wing’ and anti-immigration Political Parties, believe that the only way to resolve the issue is to swing the axe at ‘all’ Immigrants, Legal or otherwise 🤷‍♂️ As I have said very many times in these rambles, and personally speaking, ‘I am not going to worry about something that I have no control or influence over’, so when, or even if, Spain does introduce such a policy then that is when we will deal with it, for now it is just a debate between the existing Government coalition of parties 🤷‍♂️ Both Shazza and I agree that, if the Spanish Authorities decide that we do not merit enough points and they no longer permit us to continue to live in this country, then so be it, we will, albeit reluctantly, return to the UK, or maybe consider elsewhere, although, at our ages, I doubt that we would go through all of that Expense and Bureaucracy again elsewhere. That is why, since selling up our UK home and all our worldly possessions when, at that time we decided to live a more nomadic lifestyle in our motor home, I always used to keep a few options open, ‘in my back pocket’ as I often used to refer to them, well I do still have one or two in my back pocket even now, for you can never be certain what the future may have in store for you 😉 At the end of the day, Life is really just one big adventure, with perhaps some obstacles thrown in your path along your particular journey, obstacles that ordinarily you would prefer not to have to encounter, but even so, you still have choices 🤔 Turn back, overcome the obstacles or change direction. As many of my reader’s will already know, Shazza and I have changed directions several times in our adventures. However, quite often, if you prepare in advance for an obstacle that you perceive may arise, very often it doesn’t 😉 We are fairly confident that nothing will change by the time we come to renew our residency permits in June next year, they will then be valid for another two year’s until 2028. That is the point when our next renewal would have extended our residency for a further five year’s, so if the new points policy system is incorporated, it is at that point where it then ‘may’ impact on us. This gives us another two and a half years to improve our Spanish further, stay involved in our local community, and perhaps we could even volunteer a couple of days a month to join in with the local beach litter picking club, at least then we could still keep wearing our flip-flops 😂

Until the next ramble………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

Of course, I cannot lie, yes it was nice to be home once again, there is actually something quite comforting about having familiar things around you, and I do not not just mean the usual personal things inside our home, but also the familiar scenery and the familiar noises from the outside world too, the things that we take for granted, and yes, I guess even the usual daily routines that bring the normality to our lives and combine to just make us feel comfortable. It is a bit funny when I think about it now, for it wasn’t really all that long ago when we used to enjoy the adventure of just living in our motor-home, and enjoying being somewhere new every few days, but then I guess that even then, we were actually living in what was our permanent home, with our familiar things around us, the only things that changed were the scenery and the noises and that was one of the great advantages. Covid I think changed our, and a lot of other people’s perspective, because life certainly became more difficult then, living on the road on a full-time basis. Everyday essential facilities became harder to access as Motorhome Aires and Campsites closed down, limiting where you could obtain drinking water and empty Grey & Black water tanks, or get access to Hook-Ups on cloudy days, when the Solar Panels where not getting enough energy and movement was restricted, so charging the batteries was a challenge. Although conversely, it certainly had its advantages too, like being able to find somewhere isolated to park up and wild camp was easier, as the authorities were otherwise engaged on policing the Covid rules for people in villages, towns and cities and not Motor-homers in wild-camping locations. It was easier and safer parking away from potentially infected people, yet still being able to drive to Supermarkets to stock up on provisions, or to drive to fuel stations to top up on both diesel and LPG, as long as you took sensible precautions. It was certainly a life that, at that time in our lives suited us, especially myself, and my OCD Buddy of course, as forward planning and researching for re-provisioning, re-fuelling and park-ups became an almost daily ‘essential’ requirement, funny old thing but I do still miss those nomadic days at times, but obviously not the one’s through the Covid period.

Once we had returned home from this recent road trip, it had actually taken us a good couple of days to get ourselves sorted again, catching up with the mail that had arrived, you know the old fashioned sort that gets delivered through one’s mailbox, as well as all the other stuff that mounts up electronically, I hadn’t paid too much heed to it whilst we were away, in fact, other than researching stuff that we needed for the actual trip, I managed to stay off my electronic gadgets, iPad and iPhone, for the most part and it was actually quite nice, I actually believe that I could live off grid without all of today’s communication technology, although the world is such these days that you cannot do without some of it, the Governments ensure they still can keep tabs on you if and when they need to, using paper money is becoming less and less, everything moving towards electronic payments, paperless bills, official and social communications, I cannot remember the last time I actually wrote a handwritten letter, these days it is either Email’s or Texts on various Social Media Apps, so the question is, can anyone ever really live ‘under the radar’ these days 🤷‍♂️ You need a passport to travel to other countries, you need a photo ID Card to obtain a Driver’s Licence, Banks are closing physical branches, so you need a Digital card to withdraw cash, and you need a Bank Account to receive payments, and so it goes on. Not that we want, or have a need to live under the radar you understand, but the fact of the matter is that we no longer have that choice 🤷‍♂️ Oops, I feel myself digressing again 🤭

It is another part of the year when a couple of annual payments now require renewals, things like the additional medical cover we took out last year, more as a convenience than a necessity, as we are both fully covered by the Spanish State Healthcare system, but this additional cover provides for Home Doctor visits, if we are too ill to physically go to our healthcare centre in town, where it appears that even here in Spain, getting appointments to see a doctor can now take up to a couple of weeks these days 😲 Not that we have needed to, personally speaking, but we hear about it from some of our neighbours who have. The additional medical cover we have taken out also provides for the cost of an Ambulance to hospital, if ever we should need one, for here in Spain, apart from life threatening emergencies, and unlike the UK, if you call for an ambulance here, you have to pay for it. Perhaps the UK should consider implementing a similar policy, it would free up the availability of ambulances for those that actually really need one 🤔 However, back to the renewal and, surprisingly, there was absolutely no increase in the premium from the previous year, now there’s a rarity I thought to myself. It was also nearly time to renew the Car Insurance and again, I was surprised to receive the quote that showed just a relatively small increase in the premium from last year, only €25 (£21) 👍 So I set to, and got both those things sorted, in the knowledge that another round of annual renewals was finished, and will not re-commence again, on its next annual cycle for various things, for another seven months. So the next post-trip task was to check that the bank account balances corresponded with my own personally maintained manual record of accounts as, when we have been away, we generally use a combination of Bank Debit Cards and cash, although, in truth I am usually pretty meticulous with keeping records of our finances, but I still feel the need to check the ‘official’ bank accounts just in case I have inadvertently forgotten something that I put on my card, rather than payed for in cash, some places now it is ‘Card Only Payments’, like paying entrance fees to tourist attractions. Now I could suggest that this constant need for me to double-check is an age related thing, but actually it isn’t, for me and my OCD Buddy have always done this. As for Shazza, well she had her own post-holiday list of things to do, primarily all the laundry, we actually hadn’t done any during our trip away, even though we had said that we would do it whilst we were on the road, if required, but it wasn’t, she had taken enough knickers to see her through, and of course that is what hotel bathrooms come in handy for and, as they had all provided drying lines on the balconies, it would have been rude of us not to make use of these services 😂 Then of course she stood and did all of the subsequent ironing. Then of course there was the normal ‘weekly’ shopping to do, yes including the visit to the local ‘fruiteria’, who actually stock items that the Supermarket generally doesn’t, and from that bit of information you will gather that yes, it was back to the more healthier dietary regime, having both discovered that we had put on a few extra pounds whilst we were away, which to be honest didn’t really come as any surprise to either of us 🙄 So we were really just doing all of the normal pretty mundane sort of stuff that I guess all of us have to do, when we get back from any sort of extended absence from home, but it can be time consuming and in truth, we would much rather have been doing ‘other’ things, or just doing nothing at all, I mean come on, it’s tiring being on holiday isn’t it and we needed a rest 🤭

One evening, a couple of days after we had got ourselves sorted and back into the swing of our normal routines, we went for a walk along the seafront, just to get some fresh air really and not for exercise purposes on this occasion, as we had done plenty of walking on our trip. It was fairly quiet now in the evenings, as far as the number of people are concerned, just the odd handful who, like ourselves, appeared to be sauntering, or ‘promenading’ as they refer to it in a lot of Mediterranean Countries. We were enjoying the stillness of the warm evening air, for their was barely a breeze, the relative calmness of the mill pond like sea helped, as the water gently rippled up onto the shoreline and overall, we were just savouring the sheer peacefulness of it all. Well it had been peaceful, until we reached the Marina, with its bright multi-coloured neon light’s where some of the bars were competing with each for who could play the loudest music, albeit most had little clientele now the bulk of the Summer tourists had disappeared, unlike further North where tourist season was still in full swing. So we were pleased to get around to the other side of the promenade, where normal service to our eardrums was restored.

Spanish people we find are generally polite and friendly, and like any Country, there are always the few exceptions and although you don’t know these people personally, there is still a polite acknowledgement of each other as you pass, sometimes it is just a nod of the head, a smile, or the more usual ‘Tardes’, which is generally used after 2pm in the afternoon, so it can be used to say both ‘Afternoon’ and Evening’ 🤷‍♂️ the more formal form of address at that time of the day is, ‘Buena’s Tardes’ (Good Evening) but the word ‘Buenas’ is generally dropped in casual conversation. We paused and had a coffee at one of our usual seafront Cafe/Bars in the town, where we got the question as to where had we been because they hadn’t seen us recently, and yes, it was Coffee and not Anti-Covid Vaccine on this occasion, as I confess that I ‘may’ have over indulged during our trip, as if there was any ‘may’ about it 😂 We sat silently, just listening to the chitter chatter around us, the Spanish like to come out of an evening, to sit and have coffee, or a beer or glass of wine and tapas, so it gave us the opportunity to do some people watching, as you do, it would be rude not to, and we also sat watching the freighters on the horizon, as they were rapidly becoming just silhouettes in the fading light. The wide expanse of beach in front of us was completely empty, no last minute sun worshippers, fishermen, dog walkers or joggers and their were no leisure craft on the water, it was just a picture of complete serenity and we could physically feel our bodies beginning to relax, enjoying the moment. It was a bit strange really when I thought about it afterwards, for although we were relaxed when we were away, somehow we just feel that little bit more relaxed now, probably because we knew that we no longer had any long distances to drive, or to look for the next place to visit or search for accommodations, we were back at home now, in our more familiar surroundings and we would decide what, if anything, we were going to do tomorrow, when tomorrow arrived.

We sauntered back towards the Marina, and then on to where we had parked the car, recounting some of the highlights of our recent trip away whilst doing so. When we arrived at the area that we often refer to as ‘Our Beach’ we stopped and looked back, over the sea and the mountains. The evening sky was just about to bring its night blanket of clouds over the land, but we still had the blue sky above them and could see the tint of orange of the fading sun as it reflected off the top of those clouds, there would be a colourful sunset that evening. We spoke no words for those few moments but just stood, absorbing the calm and silent scene before our eyes, then we both broke our silence and agreed on just how lucky we felt to be able to live in a place like this, and for probably the umpteenth time, said how good it felt to be home.

Shazza was first to break the silence, “Do you think we are just getting old and now just like the security of routines and familiar things around us ?” she said, although it was probably intended to be more of a comment than an actual question, I shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t think it has anything to do with getting old, in fact, I don’t actually feel old, do you ?”, she took a few seconds before answering, then said, “Sometimes”, in a thoughtful sort of way. Her answer came as a bit of a surprise to me, for after all, she is the one who is generally always saying that “Age is just a number”, and ‘How fit and healthy we both are with no medical conditions’ so we ended up in conversation as to why she felt that way, “I am noticing a few more wrinkles, I now cannot watch the TV without my glasses and, I cannot read labels when I am shopping, without putting my glasses on”, I smiled before answering, “Well I guess that must mean that you are about getting ready for me to send you off to the knacker’s yard then”, I dodged her elbow aimed towards my ribs. “But in all seriousness, Do you feel unwell ? Are you worried about any aspects of your health that you are not telling me about ? Do you feel physically unfit ?” I fired the whole barrage of question’s at her in one go, knowing that her answer would reflect that, in fact, and in all reality, she is in perfectly good health. We have always been very open with each other on such things, so I knew that she would have told me if she had any major health concerns, or had felt unwell, ‘she’ is the one that certainly sticks to a much more healthy diet, as opposed to myself who strays off it more regularly, and we both exercise on an almost daily basis. She gave the anticipated one word answer that I had anticipated, ‘No’ she said, almost defensively. The thought did enter my mind though, perhaps she has developed an allergy to ‘road trips’, for I recalled that she had taken ill during our last extended road trip. I did wonder whether she is becoming more of a ‘home bird’ now, or are these two things just a coincidence 🤔

I put my arm around her shoulder, “Well there you go then and, I haven’t noticed any extra wrinkles, well at least not since last week, can you point the new one’s out to me” then I laughed before saying to her, “Neither of us are immortal, yes we are getting older, that’s just a fact of life, but I for one certainly don’t intend going anywhere soon and I hope your not either, we still have a lot of sunrises and sunsets to see yet my love”. She squeezed my hand gently, I knew that she had just been having ‘a moment’, we all have them from time to time, and I am sure the time will come when I may have one myself at some point 🤭 although, at this particular moment, I do have to say that I feel perfectly content with my life. “Come on, I will race you to the car” I said, and before you my reader’s ask the question, of course I won 😂

Now as you know, or at least the majority of my regular readers will know, I have often referred to the word ‘Fate’ in my rambles, and had done so in one of my recent rambles in relation to our road trip, believing, at the time, that it had once again been responsible for re-directing us from our ‘intended’ direction North, and instead took us in a Southerly direction, and then West into the mountains, where we enjoyed a wonderful few days. But, as a consequence of that change of direction we continued our journey South. However, once back at home, I read the local Spanish papers and it made me wonder, ‘Had Fate Come To Our Rescue Yet Again’ ? Although not in the manner, or for the reason, that I had initially believed that it had 🤔

The main area that we had been touring in had primarily been in the ‘Valencia’ region and, at one point, before ‘Fate’ had intervened, we were intending to head a little further North West, into the city of ‘Teruel’, where we intended to spend at least three full days sightseeing and, on one of those days, we had intended to catch a train for a one day sightseeing trip to the nearby city of ‘Zaragoza’, which was about another one hour North of Teruel. However, had we have done so, during that time period, it would have put us into the ‘forecasted’ weekend of the severe weather alerts, which, at the time, we knew nothing about, but fortunately, the intervention of our invisible and silent friend, had meant that we continued to head South, then ultimately elected to return home a little earlier than originally planned and had therefore already left the areas, ‘Just Before The Weather Bomb Struck’. The town of ‘Manzanares’, the last location we had stopped in, was actually in the ‘Castilla-La Mancha’ area, and our route back, once again took us close to the Murcia Region, and of course back into our own Region of Andalucia, all of which were areas ‘forecasted’ to be hit by this severe weather system. What is it they say, about the difference between when good and bad things can sometimes happen 🤔 “It’s all about the timing” is the phrase I believe 😉

However, without getting too over dramatic about this, and I am sure you all know by now how indecisive Shazza and I both are at times, we can change our minds and directions at a moments notice, well it is extremely likely that, had we have elected to have remained on the road, for that extra ten or twelve days that were available to us, we may also have ended up being ‘nowhere’ near any of those areas, even possibly further South West, on the border between Spain and Portugal, or even over the border itself and into Southern Portugal, as I say, you just never know with the two of us 🤷‍♂️ But as it was, it had been a lucky escape by all reports, we were already at home when the storm’s hit those areas, some quite badly, fortunately it did not reach as far South as our location and, for the rest of that first week back at home, in our neck of the woods at least, there was not one storm cloud or spot of rain in sight, although there was some ‘forecasted’ to arrive over the following week, but we will continue to rely on our own ‘Forrest Gump’ method of weather forecasting for the foreseeable future 😉

Now, one thing that me and my OCD Buddy were interested in, once we had got settled back at home, was just gaining a few facts and figures about or recent trip, just out of general interest really, so for those who may also be interested I list them below, for those who are not, then just scroll past 😉

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The duration of the road trip was 12 days

We travelled a total distance of 1,850 Km (1,150 miles), that was from leaving home to returning home. In that time we did 5 separate journeys, the longest journey in one day being 278 miles, the shortest being 82 miles.

We spent €180 (£156) on Diesel

We spent €1,170 (£1,017) on 4* and 3* Accommodations (one of which included ‘Full Board’)

We travelled in, and through, 4 ‘Regions’ and 8 ‘Provinces’

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From the conversations between Shazza and myself, both during our recent trip and again on the journey home, where Shazza suddenly started to wax lyrical about exploring more of our own Region on future road trips, me, and my OCD Buddy of course, were curious to discover some information more specific to our own region and we wasted no time in doing a little more in depth research on what Andalusia has to offer. So please forgive me if I have already told you some of this before, although I don’t believe that I have gone into as much depth before, even for my own benefit. Of course, I did know that Andalusia comprises of 8 different Provinces and that it basically covers the whole of the Southern part of the Spanish mainland, right down to the ‘Straight of Gibraltar’, across to the Atlantic Coast on the West where it borders Southern Portugal, and across on the Mediterranean Coast right up to where it reaches the Regional Border of Murcia on the Eastern side, and then, up to the North where it borders two Regions, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha. I know that I have mentioned this before but, Andalusia is actually the second largest Region in Spain.

So maps are all well and good, but what about what is actually in these eight Provinces, things to do, or places to visit that would be of particular interest to both Shazza and myself and which would satisfy both our individual, and joint interests. We acknowledge that some locations may be close enough to do in just a day trip, as many parts of the Atlantic coast, on the opposite side to where we live, are within easy reach, just over a one hour’s drive but, others in the Northern part of the Region could take a bit longer, a 3-4 hour drive, where we can then do extended mini-breaks of maybe two or three days, or even beyond that, if we were to include several places and areas in a round robin sort of trip, but these would be locations and places that we have not already visited, which would rule out most of the major Cities and Towns in Andalusia, as we have done most of them already. We could perhaps even base ourselves somewhere for several days, where we could then mix some village/town sightseeing with a bit of hiking. As I started to research the opportunities I began to realise just how much there was for us to do and, yes I have to confess that the two of us, me and my OCD Buddy, did start to get a little excited at all the opportunities available, but it was probably just a little too soon to share this excitement with Shazza 😉

In our previous explorations in and around our immediate area, it had nearly always been Shazza that had planned surprise day’s out, and as you may recall, always with the starting gambit of “What do you want to do today ?”, but in reality it was never a real question in which I had a choice, for she knew exactly what we would be doing on that particular day. She appears to have lost a lot of that enthusiasm these days, so I have now taken over the mantle of advance planning such adventures and boy, do I have a lot of research ahead of me, as the Region of Andalusia has :

Over 270 Castles, 39 Lighthouses, 30 Embalces (Reservoirs), 3 National Parks, 24 Natural Parks, 28 Nature Reserves and 5 Mountain Ranges. There is no exact official count of how many Waterfalls exist in Andalusia, but travel resources mention at least 20 ‘beautiful’ one’s in the region, so I am guessing there will be more, which these ‘travel resources’ do not consider as beautiful 🤭 The same applies to Natural Hot Springs, where again the travel resources mention at least 10. I didn’t bother researching how many Hiking Trails, as we already have several hiking trail books, and a couple of dedicated walking trail ‘Apps’, so we know that there are literally hundreds, some of which are graded as Easy, some Moderate and other’s that we certainly wouldn’t even consider doing ourselves, we are not stupid and know our limitations, so we will let the much younger, so called ‘Influencers’, risk life and limb to grab those scenic photo’s 😂

So now, having taken the blinkers off, I am discovering that there really is so much to see and do here in our own Region, that I had not actually realised and, a lot of it is virtually right on our very own doorstep 🤗 Of course, this does not mean that we will not fancy a change of scenery from time to time, either within other Regions and Provinces of Spain, but Portugal in all reality is only a hop, skip and jump away, around four hours to the Southern part of the ‘Algarve’, probably even quicker if ‘Luis Hamilton’ is in the driving seat 🤭 and although we did some of Portugals Western and Southern Atlantic coastline, in our former Motor-Home travel days, there is still so many areas we have yet to explore. Then of course there is the rest of Europe, so perhaps there is still time to convince Shazza to ditch the car and invest in yet another ‘home on wheels’ 🤔 Now what’s that saying about trying to move mountains ? To be completely realistic though, for Shazza these days, a 4* or 3* Hotel with all the luxuries, against a Chemical Cassette Toilet and Limited Water usage, yeah, you are probably right, you don’t have a hope in hell of convincing her Eric my boy 😂

So whilst I continue to surreptitiously get ready for our next adventure, Shazza is putting her time to much better practical use, preparing menu’s for our next family visitor, her mum, who will be arriving within the next few days and staying with us for two weeks, and she most definitely will not eat our more usual ‘Plant Based’ meal options 🤭 So Shazza has set about planning meals to suit her catering requirements. Then, just before Christmas, my Sister and Brother-in-Law arrive from Australia, to stay with us for 3-4 days, this will be their first visit to us here in Spain, they are on their own wider travels around different parts of Europe, primarily visiting their own children and grandchildren, who have now also elected to live in Europe. So I guess I still have a bit of time to continue with my research into our own ‘future adventures’ and then put my own question to Shazza of, “What do you want to do today” 😉

We had been out for our usual morning walk, on this occasion opting to have a late breakfast, it was much cooler with a temperature of only 21 degrees(c), which was actually very nice in the Westerly breeze. Later, I was sat on our balcony, looking out over an unusually grey coloured and unsettled sea, and grey, rain threatening clouds above, which the ‘Works of Fiction’ had forecasted would deposit their wet cargo later that evening, and continue throughout the night and all day the following day, and I have to say that ‘Forrest Gump’ was tending to show signs of agreement, but then the occasional patch of blue sky and glimpse of sunshine appeared, reflecting that it hadn’t quite made up its mind what it wanted to do 🤔 However, after a very prolonged period of searingly hot weather over the last few months, any rain would actually be more than welcome. The wind had started to pick up and whistled at me through the French windows and, as the afternoon wore on, the clouds thickened, the arrival of the wet stuff was looking more likely. I found myself having a moment of reflection, which is quite different to a moment of personal contemplation 🤭 I found myself thinking about the last nine months, and what is still to come over the last three of this year. We would have had four sets of different family visitors come and stay with us, we ourselves have had a month’s trip away, at the beginning of the year, the majority of it spent back in the UK visiting family, and meeting up with friends, and we have just completed our recent two week road trip here in Spain. We have had a new water boiler fitted, and had a complete re-build and renovation of our en-suite bathroom and finally, we have now got our UK Tax situation sorted, he says with fingers crossed, and importantly, received our refund of taxes which they, the UK Tax Authorities (HMRC) had taken, which they shouldn’t have done. So, all in all, it has actually been quite a busy and quite a productive period. I think that we will both be quite happy now to have a much quieter last three months of the year although, we can never be completely off our guard, as we never know when those ‘Dark Forces’ will rear their ugly heads once more 🙄

So, I am not sure what I will find to ramble about in the next few weeks, although you can rest assured that I will almost certainly find something 😂

So, until that next ramble…………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

We were both a little sad to be leaving the very small mountain town of ‘Montenajos’, yes I suppose we could have squeezed in an extra day here, where we could have payed to visit the Thermal Baths, and perhaps booked another one of the evening tourist train trips, as they did three different routes, dependent on which day you selected to go, but we had already seen everything else that there was to see, so remaining for another full day, and paying for a dip in a hot bath when both the swimming pool and the river were warm enough, and another three and a half hour evening tourist train tour, albeit to a different set of villages in the lush green mountains, just didn’t really seem to make any sense and, as we had already started heading in a Southerly direction, neither did it seem logical to head North again, so we agreed that we would just continue to keep going in a general South-Westerly direction and search for another inland location.

Shazza had, somewhat surprisingly, volunteered to choose the next location on this occasion, which would also involve locating, and booking, the respective accommodation, well I suppose it did take a little bit of the pressure, and frustration of finding somewhere to stay, off me and my OCD Buddy for a change. However, we all know by now, don’t we ? That when Shazza ‘volunteers’ to do these things, and seemingly out of the blue, it very rarely is. So I already knew with some certainty that at some point over these last few days, probably whilst I had been otherwise distracted with other urgent matters, like having a period of personal contemplation 😴 she had already been looking and, I was guessing, with some confidence, that she would have already selected both our next location and the accommodation 😉

Shazza had identified the town of ‘Manzanares’, and surprise surprise it had another nice ‘Parador Hotel’ with pool, she had enjoyed the first one that we had stayed at in ‘Lorca’, although at that one we hadn’t used their pool facilities. The other reason, and in truth, probably the main one, was that it had a ‘Manchego Cheese’ museum, with of course the mandatory attached and associated cheese and wine shop. Shazza’s Achilles heel is her love of cheese, although these days she tends to stick to Goat’s cheese, Feta or Mozzarella, but if they had anything else that took her fancy I think the temptation would have been too strong for her to resist, I already knew which area of the shop I would be paying more interest in of course, and believe me it would have nothing to do with ‘Curds and Whey’ 🤭

However, the drive to ‘Manzanares’ would be back to doing yet another longish journey and at 9:15am, when we departed the hotel, the temperature was already 26 degrees(c), and it would continue to rise as we returned back to sea level, with temperatures forecast to once again reach 36 degrees(c), before we even reached our destination, so we were once again very pleased that we at least could rely on our good air-con system in the car, and once again, allowing for stops, it would end up being another relatively long travel day of around 5 hour’s.

We left Montanejos via a different route to the one we had arrived in on so, on the outward journey we still had similar terrific Mountain View’s, but this time through a slightly different scenic area. It didn’t seem to take us as long to get off the very good mountain roads and onto our first Motorway, only around half an hour, and that one took us back towards the coast and towards the city of Valencia, although we would skirt around that on the A7, as we had visited Valencia on a previous road trip we decided not to stop there again this time, so we continued on and then started heading inland again on the A3.

This particular motorway was absolutely chaotic, this being the main fastest route from Valencia towards Madrid, there were Big Trucks with additional trailers on the back, known as ‘Wagon & Drag’, normal single trailer trucks and then the smaller HGV’s, these trucks were carrying everything from Livestock, Fuel, Fruit & Veg, Building Materials, Beer and Wines, well just all the usual sort of cargo really that you see being hauled around the roads in most other countries too, nothing out of the ordinary but just a lot of it. Then there were the Tourist Coaches, fleets of them, confirming that in these parts the holidays season was far from being over, and they didn’t hang about either ducking and diving in and out of lanes to get past the slower moving HGV’s. Then of course there were the usual array of both Caravans and Motorhomes, we were interested in looking at the differing number plates, which identify their country of origin, but the largest majority were actually from within Spain, although there was also a large number from France, Germany and the Netherlands, with no more than the odd one or two that we saw from the UK, Belgium and Italy. Of course there were the usual vast array of Transit type Delivery Vans, rushing to collect, or deliver, their cargo’s of whatever 🤷‍♂️ But far the greatest number of vehicles were the Cars, with of course the usual ‘Get out of my way I’m in a hurry’ brigade, then the ‘I don’t care if I am going too slow, I’m doing the speed limit so I am not moving out of the outside lane to let anyone else pass’ and, of course the ever increasing number of ‘I don’t have time to turn on my indicator, you should know that I am going to pull out in front of you’ 🤷‍♂️ However, then, as if we needed anything else adding into this mix, the Sat Nav gave us a verbal warning that there was standing traffic ahead of us, the screen reflected a roadworks symbol and a solid ‘red’ line, rather than the usual ‘Blue’ or sometimes ‘Yellow’ for slow moving traffic. Not that any of the vehicles in front of us could have had any such modern road traffic information systems built in to their vehicles, otherwise they would not have had to violently slam on their brakes at the last possible minute, when three lanes suddenly became one, although their had also been a fair number of roadside visual warnings of this beforehand but they were probably answering, or making, phone calls on their mobile phones to notice them 😲

This was the first time that we have encountered these kind of lengthy roadworks on a Spanish Motorway, one’s that involved us being virtually at a stand-still, this one lasted for close on 15 minutes, oh well, that was a less than desirable first, on this, or indeed any other, road trip that we have done here in Spain 🤷‍♂️ However, we were in no hurry so we just sat patiently in the queue until we saw the three lanes open up again, it wasn’t as if we could have done anything else, there was nowhere else to go, but when we saw the ‘All Clear’ sign we moved over into the middle lane, we couldn’t get into the inside for all the trucks, we waited for all the formula one racing drivers to sling shot past us, in a hurry to die it seemed at the speed they were going, even though my own little Luis Hamilton was herself already doing close to the maximum permissible speed limit of 120Km (74mph), but they all soon became just a speck in the distance and then the traffic started to thin out a little bit.

At the risk of upsetting any other of my Spanish reader’s, I do have to say that the landscape along a lot of this part of the route that we were on, was very flat, and very boring, the earth a parched rusty red colour for miles and miles, although some of it was dispersed with neatly planted straight rows of Olive Groves along with several miles of grapevines, which did add a little more colour to the proceedings, confirming that the farmer’s irrigation systems were doing their job.

We were grateful when we left this A3 route, leaving the hoards of vehicles to continue their journey towards Madrid, whereas we now started heading South West, on the very much quieter, and much more scenic AP36, where we took the first opportunity we could to stop for a coffee, and comfort break, and also to take the opportunity to change driving positions. Shazza had done the first, and what had turned out to be the more chaotic leg of this journey, well I guess some you win, and other’s you don’t, but in reality we had both lost out on this second part of the journey, for on this second stage, where I was now doing the driving, it turned out to be the much more scenic part, with hills and greenery in abundance, but you know what that meant of course, with Shazza in the passenger seat, exactamundo, no photo’s 🤷‍♂️ Although in all honesty, I guess one virtually traffic free motorway, and mountains with perhaps the odd church, castle or white finca on it, must tend to look just like the last one, well to you my reader’s at least.

I was a little surprised when we arrived at the hotel, for these ‘Parador Hotels’ are ‘generally’ perched on hilltops, in the grounds of grand historical estates or castles, looking down on the towns spread-eagled below them, or over vast swathes of mountains and countryside, but not this one, no this one was at ground level and sat virtually alongside the A4 Motorway. Although there was an advantage to that, the estimated half hour walk into the town would be on the flat and so quite an easy one. It looked, once we had driven through the arched entrance, as though this particular property had once been part of a large estate of stables, from all of the now brightly painted stable type doors in the very large inner cobbled courtyard, and there was some horse and cart related paraphernalia dotted around. However, once inside, in the nice air-conditioned reception, it was modern, albeit that the main large interior of the building still retained a lot of its former character and charm, with large wooden doors and large wooden framed windows with the older style heavy iron window latches, with some antique looking furnishings dotted around the reception entrance hall. Shazza had pre-booked for just the two night’s, we had agreed on just the one full day of sightseeing the following day would suffice, as by now we had both seen quite enough of historical architectures, castles, churches, convents etc, and the statues of Kings or Knights on horseback, or other famous former residents emblazoned for eternity in grey concrete, marble or brass, stood in Plaza’s, or at road junctions, towering over everything else, the usual kind of stuff you find in most large towns and cities all around the world.

Shazza just really wanted to visit the cheese museum, wander through some of the narrow cobbled shaded streets and enjoy a leisurely breakfast, at a nice little street cafe/bar, people watching, as is our want, that was if we managed to get up early enough to beat the worst of the day’s heat, another scorcher was forecast. I had looked on Google to see if there was very much to interest me but, other than the usual museums and churches there was very little that sparked any real excitement. So once we had done our walkabout, perhaps, before returning to the hotel, we could partake of a light lunch, which may, or may not, have required partaking of a dose, or two, of Anti-Covid Vaccine medication 🤭 Once we had returned to the hotel, we would then probably just relax and enjoy the rest of the afternoon taking cooling dips in the outside pool, so it sounded a pretty decent plan to me although I knew that at some point during that afternoon we would have to commence looking for our next destination and accommodation.

Once we had checked-in and settled into our very nice room, we made our way to the more ‘informal’ Cafeteria for a light lunch, They had quite an extensive menu, from starters to main courses and sandwiches, we knew from our previous ‘Parador’ experience that they were never going to be just a ‘sandwich’, so we ordered a Salmon and Creamed Cheese Bagel each, there were no egg and bacon butties or baked beans on toast here I will have you know 🤭 Okay, so all of these ‘Paradors’ looked a bit posh on the outside, and during the height of Summer they are in high demand and the more popular one’s, in the more touristy locations, can command up to €400 per night 😳 and that is on a room only basis, we were fortunate to catch them in ‘their’ low season period and so had only paid €80 per night. We were initially a bit surprised, as whilst they look a bit on the more ‘Upper Class’ style shall we say, they are actually much more casual than they first appear, most of the guests wore shorts and short-sleeved shirts, which is a good job really as I had left my ‘Jodhpurs’, ‘Hacking Jacket’ and ‘Cravat’ back at home, although I was still rather hoping that Shazza had remembered to pack the ‘Whip’ 😂

Once again though, no tea or coffee making facilities in the rooms, but at least they did provide a stocked ‘Mini Bar’ comprising of Bottled Beer, Soft Drinks and Snacks (All of which would have incurred an additional cost of course), however, as stated previously, we always come prepared to cater for our own needs. The rest of that late afternoon and evening we stayed at the hotel, I sat on the nice shaded balcony and commenced drafting my blog, the previous one to this, the ‘War and Peace’ volume, which some of you will be forgiven for, if you are still ploughing your way through it 😂 Shazza sat on her double bed, yes we had one each again, she checked her social media stuff and then read something or other on her ‘Kindle’ device, it was nice with the room air-con doing its job very efficiently. Later that evening we went back down to the Cafeteria area and ordered a meal off their quite extensive menu, we couldn’t be bothered going to one of the two on-site restaurants, for although it wasn’t ball gown and tuxedo attire, it would have meant wearing long trousers and a smarter style shirt, or a dress for Shazza, we couldn’t be bothered with any of that and I am not sure whether Shazza had even packed a dress anyway 🤔 We sat outside on the terrace, although their were no dramatic views like their had been at the one in Lorca, but it was pleasant enough as their was enough opportunities to do a spot of people watching.

We did manage to get up relatively early the following morning and head out in the direction of town, the early signs were promising, as we passed by lots of expensive looking houses, set in their own grounds and protected by high walls and electronic gates, okay yes I confess, I glimpsed through gaps in some of the gates or fences, well it would have been rude not to, but I refrained from poking the lens of my camera through to take some photo’s in case one of the neighbour’s was watching, and reported me to the Police, who may have arrested me, thinking I was casing the joints 😂 We passed the town’s ’Plaza de Toro’s’ (Bullring), on the outskirts of the town, but their was no external indication of whether it was still being used for that sometimes controversial traditional event, although the building itself looked in a good state of repair. In many towns now, where the bullfighting no longer takes part, the buildings are used for different events, mainly musical but occasionally, as wedding reception venues or, as the one near us in Estepona, the weekly ‘flea markets’, although that one in Estepona has not been maintained and looks rather scruffy, some are just left to fall into a state of total disrepair, a shame really as they are rather iconic traditional Spanish looking buildings.

One thing that was very noticeable to us though, was just how quiet everywhere was, we had seen just one or two people in the half hour it took us to walk to the main periphery of the town, and their was hardly any traffic, literally just the odd car, and it was a weekday 🤷‍♂️ We were beginning to wonder whether we had arrived on a local ‘Public Holiday’ perhaps 🤷‍♂️ However, I saw what looked like market stalls in the distance ahead of us, so we walked in that direction and sure enough there was a market, it was a big market with lots of stalls, but just the usual array of clothes, shoes, kitchenware and plants and shrubs, no food produce of any description, not even the usual fruit and veg stalls, however a lot of these stalls were selling exactly the same sort of stuff and they stretched along the street for quite some way. At least there were actually people here, although not crowds and we could just saunter without being shoulder barged every couple of minutes, but there were enough people to at least prove that we hadn’t arrived in a ghost town.

Once we had walked the full length of the market stalls there was no obvious indication of which way led into the main town area, it was just narrow empty streets of two or three storey residential buildings, often there is a ‘Plaza Espana’ sign, pointing to its location, nothing here that we could see and strangely enough, none of the other more usual ‘Brown Coloured’ tourist signs pointing to a central Church, or other places of interest, not even one indicating the location of the Cheese Museum. To be completely honest, it just all seemed a little drab compared to a lot of the places we had visited recently, it made us wonder why there were so many large luxury houses that we had seen on the walk in, it didn’t look a particularly affluent area but perhaps the owner’s made their money in the nearby cities but invested in properties here that were not only cheaper but had lots more open space 🤷‍♂️ I checked Google Street Maps and then followed a route leading towards a central area that showed shops and bars, somewhere to at least sit and have a coffee and tostado.

We kept walking, aimlessly really, just following the Google Map directions and eventually, well within probably five or ten minutes, we did come across a much larger, and quite impressive looking church. Outside it there were umbrellas, tables and chairs stacked up, indicating that it would have been a nice area to sit and have a drink and watch the world go by, but not today it would appear. There was the odd shop here and there, all with their external metal shutters down and no signs of life so we looked at the sign on one of the shop doors with the opening hours, to see if we had arrived on the day everything was closed, but no, it indicated that it should have been open from 10:00am, but it was now 10:30am 🤷‍♂️ We continued wandering, in search of that elusive Cafe/Bar, most other cities, towns or even villages have Cafe/Bars on almost every corner, but not in this one. We came across some other nice looking historical buildings but our question was, ‘where were all the other tourist’s 🤷‍♂️’

More by luck than judgement we found our way into ‘Constitution Square’, this would have been the ‘Plaza Espana’ in most other town’s and this was where the ‘Ayuntamiento’ (Town Hall) was located, and other Government Offices, an arched pedestrianised walkway ran across the lower level and their were a couple of nice looking Cafe/Bars with their plush looking ‘wicker’ style chairs and tables outside, but there was absolutely nobody about, no waiters or customer’s, surely the whole town couldn’t all have been at the market 🤔 There were no obvious signs or banners that would indicate that a ‘Fiesta’ had just taken place or that one was about to happen, nothing, the place was almost completely devoid of people, except the market of course.

After a little more aimless wandering we finally discovered the main shopping street, pedestrianised and with shops on either side of the narrow precinct. We discovered one Cafe/Bar, which was open 🥳 however, it had only three tables outside and all three were occupied ☹️ There wasn’t enough room to swing even half a cat inside, so we walked on. The hostelries highlighted on Google Maps were either still closed, or looked as if they were no longer in business and, to top off a rather disappointing morning, the Cheese Museum didn’t open until midday, still an hour away. Shazza didn’t want to hang about and wait, it was getting hotter and hotter and we had nowhere to sit and wait anyway, so we decided to head back towards the hotel, a few minutes away from it there was a ‘Repsol’ fuel station with an attached Cafeteria, we would stop their for a coffee and maybe a Tostado, if we were lucky.

Whilst we were finally getting to enjoy a very good, and hot, Cafe con Leche, and Tostado, Shazza asked me how long it would take to get back home from here. She said that she was about done with sightseeing now, and she was getting fed up of living out of a suitcase, she really just wanted to get back and enjoy her home comforts again. It came as a bit of a surprise, as although I knew she was getting ready to head home, and I knew before we even left on this trip that we wouldn’t in all reality, remain on the road for a full three weeks, I had thought that we would have got at least one more location in, potentially for another couple of nights. The scenic town of ‘Jaen’ which, by coincidence, also had a ‘Parador Hotel’, located on a hill within Castle Grounds and which had a nice swimming pool, was actually on the route home anyway 🤷‍♂️ Yes I had done a Shazza, and already looked in advance knowing that it was a place that she had said, in a previous conversation, was a place that she would like to visit at some point. But not even the temptation of another ‘Parador Hotel’ could tempt her, so I looked at Google Maps and it indicated that we could be home in just a little over four hour’s, although we would have to get back to the hotel, re-pack our bags, check-out and re-fuel, and allowing for a comfort break, I estimated that we could be sat on our own balcony by 6pm that evening. So the decision was made.

It was telling that when we went to check-out and I explained why we were leaving early, the female receptionist gave a knowing smile, but why would they have a ‘Parador Hotel’ here on the outskirts of this anonymous town was the question in my head 🤷‍♂️ Shazza wanted to drive the first part of the journey, not just because she knew it would be relatively quiet but she wanted to stop off when we got nearer home to do some shopping for some groceries to see us over the next few days as we had emptied the fridge before we departed, so she wanted a bit of a break before trudging through the shopping aisles. It gave me an opportunity as the passenger to take the last photo’s of this trip, especially as we would be approaching the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges from the North, and then driving through a part of them before heading South. She also knew that we would have to do battle with the heavy traffic around Malaga and Marbella, she didn’t fancy that as it would be in the middle of the Spanish rush hour, the end of the Siesta period when everybody rushes back to work.

We had only been on the road for just a little over an hour when we decided to stop for a cold drink and then we also realised that apart from the tostado, we hadn’t eaten lunch, so we pulled in to a roadside Cafeteria, it was very busy although the road up to here had been very quite. Shazza managed to find an empty table and we looked at their menu, we both opted for a hot Calamari Sandwich and I went up to order. A very nice lady, who spoke absolutely no English, took my order and then checked back with me to confirm that she had understood what I had ordered, before telling me to go and sit at the table, which I had pointed to so that she knew where we were. She brought across our cold drinks and a huge bowl of crisps covered with plump anchovies, she must have seen my expression as I hadn’t ordered these, but she said ‘Gratis Tapas’ and then smiled. They were just crisps and anchovies, but boy were they delicious, the saltiness and vinegar of the anchovies, with the plain slightly salted crunch of the crisps, were an explosion of loveliness in our mouths. Shortly afterwards came the hot Calamari ‘Baguettes’, there were oodles of Lightly battered Calamari rings in a half fresh crisp baguette, with the usual small side portion of French Fries, and the total bill, including the drinks, a mere €13 (£11). This is what I enjoy about these road trips, no not just the value for money at places like this and not just getting to a particular destination, but the experiences along the way, the unscheduled stops, time to pause and enjoy the surroundings and the people that we meet, but the next stop would be the ‘Mercadona’ supermarket, just twenty-minutes from home.

As we left the rest stop, Shazza had said that she didn’t really want to drive anymore, which I didn’t mind one bit as I really enjoy driving and, to be truthful, I would do all of it if I could, but the eye issue that I now have since my detached retina operation in March 2022, means that I am less confident in places which have very narrow and busy streets, but as it was now Motorways all the way home, bring it on 😁 We had been back in our own ‘Region’ of Andalusia for some time, but it wasn’t until we reached the outskirts of Malaga City that we felt as if we were in home territory, although we were still a little over an hour from home. Unusually, it was Shazza, and not me for a change, that started spouting lyrically about the scenery, we could see the sparkling blue of the ‘Mediterranean’ on one side and the lush green forested mountains on the other, “Look at what we have on our own doorstep ?” She announced. I had been telling her this all the time we have owned a property here, and although we have explored quite a lot of it, there is still so much that we have not ventured into, but she had always been dis-interested when I had mentioned having weekends away in a ‘Casa Rural’, or even a hotel, in our own nearby mountain ranges or even in some of the plentiful coastal areas that lay to the East, South and West of us 🤷‍♂️ Finally, and I think a lot of it has to do with the short period we spent in the mountain town of Montanejos, which she thoroughly enjoyed, but I believe that she may be coming around to my way of thinking and, if it took this trip to make her realise it, then it was ‘Worth Each And Every Mile, And Day’ that we had just spent away 🙏

The ice-ing on the cake, when we got home, was to discover some exceptionally joyous financial news. You will recall from my recent previous rambles of the process I was going through with the UK Tax Authorities (HMRC), to claim a refund for the ‘UK tax’ that I had paid, which I should not have been paying over the last two year’s. But I was not expecting to hear from them quite so soon, but they have already come back and officially confirmed that I had overpaid, which I guess must have stuck in their throats a bit 🤭 and advised me of the amount of refund they would be giving back to me, which I should receive ‘within’ the next 14 days, so Christmas will have arrived a little earlier than anticipated this year. They also notified me that my tax code has now been changed accordingly, but I will still be keeping a close eye on any future income tax deductions they take from me 😉 but what a lovely way to end a two-week vacation, and at least this time, unlike our previous month long holiday in the UK at the beginning of the year, we were not coming back for urgent work to a water boiler, or any other domestic crisis 😂

It does feel good to be back at home in our own surroundings though, it is certainly true that whilst it is sometimes good to get away from the same four walls, and routines, it also feels very nice to be back home again.

Until the next ramble………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigo’s, La Vida Es Buena

Whilst Shazza had been enjoying herself in the sea, and apart from me being entertained watching her, and the other’s, battle with the waves, as well as obviously being engaged in a fair bit of both ‘people’ and ‘boat’ watching, I also spent some time researching routes, and accommodations, for the next part of our adventure. On my original route I had planned to head a little further North, but go a little more inland, I had been using a guide book that gave ‘Spanish Driving Routes’, and had found one route in the area that would cover two small historic towns/villages in the one day, the first being a relatively short ninety-minute drive away from ‘Peñíscola’ and, the second just a further one hour drive away from their. But by the time it would have taken us to drive to and between both locations, and spent time visiting them both on foot, making the stops worthwhile and doing these places some justice, it would be time for an overnight stop. The frustration came when I tried to find suitable available accommodations at such short notice, in or near these locations, and which also had on-site, or nearby, parking. But unless we wanted to book a whole ‘Casa Rural’ property, for a minimum of at least five nights, then it was not going to be and the one’s that did let out individual rooms were all fully booked 🤷‍♂️ As for Hotels, well we could forget that, they too were very much a case of ‘No Room At Any Of The Inn’s’, perhaps if we had been travelling astride a Donkey, with Shazza in the family way, we may have been offered a stable, although they would have probably have then told us to come back at Christmas 😂 We did consider whether it would be best to just bite the bullet and rent one of the ‘available’ Casa Rural accommodations for the week, using it as a base camp, but most of these places were out in the wild and the places of interest to us, or worthy of visiting, would have involved driving miles each and every day, returning to the accommodation at night, we didn’t fancy that idea. I didn’t give up though and, after running out of all of the usual options, I just started to scroll through ‘Google’ using the search term ‘Places To See” and came across this……………

Further research revealed that in this small hillside town they also ran a tourist train that, on certain days of the week, took you around the local area, to other small villages and stopping at scenic locations along the route, each trip lasting three and a half hours and running during the late afternoon from 16:00-19:30. So, with the River and Thermal Spring, ‘Fuente de Los Banjos’ and the tourist train trip, this sounded ideal, but to be able to enjoy these we needed to find suitable nearby accommodation 🤷‍♂️

Within this relatively small town of ‘Montanejos’ we saw a 3* Hotel advertised, it looked perfect, sat overlooking the small ‘Rio Mijares’, and directly below the hotel, less than 25 metres away, was a ‘River Club Restaurant’ which also had its own swimming pool, which, for Hotel guests was ‘Free’ to use, the bonus being that the hotel was also just 100 metres walk from where the ‘Tourist Train’ departed and only a fifteen minute walk from the ‘Fuente de Los Banjos’. What’s that saying, ‘When something sounds too good to be true’ ? So what were the chances of them having a room available for the three night’s that we would require ? I got myself ready for another huge disappointment 🤷‍♂️

Shazza looked on our usual on-line hotel booking site and to our absolute amazement discovered that their was availability for the three nights that we required, so she hastily made the booking and had the reservation confirmed 🙏

I planned the route, however, instead of our intended direction being North, this particular location whilst still heading inland, it would be two hour’s South but, ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’ as the saying goes. However, the journey would take us up into and through National Park Areas, up into the mountains. I started to get excited, not just about the destination, but the road journey to it, for whilst Shazza had just had her preferred beach resort break, now it was my turn to enjoy the more rural and natural landscapes that I particularly enjoy, although, even Shazza commented that she too was looking forward to a slightly quieter environment now, although I reminded her that if these accommodations were all generally still fully booked, how quiet they may be could be quite a different matter 🤔

We didn’t bother with breakfast at the hotel on our morning of departure from Peniscola, first stop was a quick re-fuel just ten minutes down the road, we didn’t really need to, it was only an 80 mile journey and we had half a tank of fuel, but we know how scarce fuel stations can be in these inland areas, well, scarce of the more branded one’s like Repsol, Cepsa, Galp etc. and we had learnt a rather expensive lesson, twice in fact, in the past about using fuel from the more locally branded one’s 😲 At least we would have enough fuel to get us, not just to our next destination, the small town of ‘Montanejos’, but also to the next location beyond that, wherever that maybe as that was still in the research and planning stage 😳 Shazza is finally beginning to come around to my way thinking, with the ‘Planning Ahead’ business, as there were several places within this large Valencia area, towns and villages, that she would have liked to have stopped at, for a day or two, but where ‘suitable’ accommodation was not available. But life is a learning curve as they say, although I did take the opportunity to remind her that our ‘former’ travels where a little more flexible, when of course we were travelling in our own ‘home on wheels’ 😉 You may well ask how that comment went down with her, let me just say that my black eye now matches her purple nose 😂

When I looked at my ‘paper’ road map, before planning the route using ‘Google Maps’, I had expected the first part of our journey to have been on the A7 motorway for the first part, up until ‘Castellon’, before then heading inland, but ‘Google’ took us straight onto the CV13, so we decided to go with it. It was actually a very good road and relatively traffic free, compared to the Motorway. However, for anyone from the Valencia area, who may be reading these rambles, I wholeheartedly apologise for probably sounding a little disparaging about the landscapes of this region in my previous ramble, for just minutes away from the coast we entered terrific lush green vistas that were a feast for the eyes and, as we ventured further inland and uphill, the scenery just got better and better.

We have often heard other’s use the expression, ‘When you go away, once you return you really appreciate what you have on your own doorstep’. Well my comment, and title of my last ramble, is certainly beginning to ring true and now Shazza is beginning to realise that fact too, for yes we do actually already live in a lovely beach resort holiday location ourselves, so why on earth do we need to go to another holiday beach location just to appreciate what we already have 🤷‍♂️ But, as she too pointed out to me, we also live within a thirty-minute drive of some beautiful lush green forested mountains, with rivers, lakes, thermal springs and even Castles. So I guess that whilst we are enjoying our individual aspects of this particular road trip, you could say that it is also actually turning out to be a ‘reflective trip’, personally for the both of us, and so, whilst we do not want to give up on exploring other ‘Regions’ in Spain, or even other Countries in Europe, we are now in total agreement that, as our home Region of Andalusia is actually the second largest region in Spain, perhaps we should spend a little more time exploring much more of our own inland areas too, and I guess the occasional beach location wouldn’t harm either considering that in Andalusia we have both the Mediterranean and Atlantic Coastlines to choose from 🤔

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves heading up into the thicker forested mountain roads, the CV10, CV13 and then CV20, which I have to say, were all extremely good, albeit a lot more twisting and winding, which is why 80 miles on these roads takes longer than 80 miles on faster motorway routes, but the drive is certainly far more exhilarating, in a good, not a scary way, and as for the scenery, well all we could say, around almost every corner, was how ‘Absolutely Stunningly Beautiful’ the scenery was, and picture perfect, with a cloud free gloriously blue sky as a background. Shazza may not be into photography herself, she enjoys seeing the landscapes through her own eyes, but I think that she may now also be beginning to appreciate why I feel the need to capture these views, to perhaps look back upon in year’s to come, and of course, to share with you my reader’s, and who knows, maybe provide some inspiration for you to take your own road trips, but please remember that having an OCD Buddy is not always a bad thing and could save some disappointment 😉

Of course, I took dozens more scenic landscapes throughout the journey, but to be honest, I am sure you can visualise it for yourself with the few that I have included above, but it really is a case of having to see it with your own eyes, to fully appreciate the expanse and beauty of the surrounding landscapes. Perhaps the one downside to these roads is the fact that there is a severe lack of ‘safe’ stopping places to take the photographs, so the majority of the time, provided that, as on this occasion, I am the one in the passenger seat with the camera, they have to be taken from a moving vehicle which, sometimes works, and sometimes it doesn’t 🤷‍♂️

We were in no hurry as ‘officially’ we could not check in to our hotel until 3pm, Sat Nav had us getting there at 1pm 😲 But we decided on a ‘Brunch’ stop, if we could find one in one of the small villages or towns along our route, we could see several picturesque places as we drove along, but many of them were up in the hills and too far off our particular route, however eventually, and we nearly missed the turning, we saw a sign that said ‘Cafe’, right on the turn where it was located but which you couldn’t see until you were virtually on top of it, so we followed the narrow gravel road until it came to the outskirts of what looked like a very small hamlet, one of those one horse sort of places, but it had the most amazing views. This was not a typical Cafe/Bar, but a small cafeteria that occupied a small corner of the local community hall. Outside, a handful of white plastic tables and chairs, at one, their were four elderly ladies sat chatting, they stopped their conversation as we approached, smiled and said ‘Buenas Dias’, as if we were regular faces in the village, we returned the pleasantry. A very pleasant young girl who was inside, took our order, our usual, ‘Cafe con Leche y Tostado’s’, she told us to take a seat outside and she would bring them to us.

The four ladies departed before we had finished our very late breakfast, but they stopped at our table, wished us “Ustedes una bien Dia”, or words to that effect, (Have a nice day) and then “Adios” as they walked off down another dirt track in the direction of the small unassuming village. We resumed our journey for a few more miles and then, as we crossed a bridge that spanned a small babbling river we saw a parking area just up from the river bank below, so of course, we stopped to have a look. Once we had walked down the small hill, we saw a traditional old style drinking fountain in front of a brick building, which we discovered were Public Toilets, although the doors were locked, a good job neither of us needed to use the facilities, albeit there were obviously plenty of trees and bushes if we had been that desperate 🤭 A gravel path ran down towards the river, well more a stream really, and then we saw a smaller bridge that ran across it, to one side there was a grassed area, with a small wooden fence around it, which had the words ‘Bar Area’ painted on it, so we guessed that this was a picnic spot primarily for the local residents, as it was not indicated on the map as a ‘tourist attraction’

We continued our drive through even more lush green mountain vista’s and headed towards the town of ‘Onda’ where, quite conveniently, and somewhat surprisingly, there was a large ‘Mercadona’ supermarket, we needed to stock up on Coffee, Sugar, bottled water and some fresh fruit. None of the hotels we had stayed at so far had tea or coffee making facilities, although they all had a small fridge, but not a mini-bar as such, as their was not even a bottle of water or soft drinks inside, fortunately though, we are quite accustomed to this here in Spain, so we always take our own travel kettle, cups and any other provisions we may need.

Although we had attempted to delay our arrival at the hotel, until nearer the official check-in time, we failed miserably, but hoped that they would permit us to at least park the car in their car park where we could leave our luggage until the time came to check-in, then we would go for a wander through the small town. We pressed the buzzer at the parking barrier, the lady who answered asked for our names and then raised the barrier. We left our bags in the car and reported to the reception where the very pleasant receptionist proceeded to check us in to our room, informing us that it had already been cleaned and so was ready for us to occupy. There were actually two receptionists on duty, both spoke limited but reasonable English, but they also acknowledged the fact, in a positive way, that we were also communicating with them in Spanish, “Ustedes Espanyol es Muy Bien” they said, (Your Spanish is very good), we were well chuffed, even if they were just being polite as we know our limitations and that our sentence construction was probably not perfect, but understandable, which is what counts in my book 😉However, our check-in process was interrupted, on several occasions, by them having to also answer incoming phone calls, we could hear them saying to each and every caller without exception, “Lo Siento, No es possible, Hotel Completo” (Sorry, it isn’t possible the hotel is fully booked), I couldn’t understand why they bothered answering if that was the case, it wasn’t as if they were losing any immediate business, but there again they may have been advance bookings, not everyone books within 24 hour’s of requiring a room 😂 Shazza and I looked at each other, we were thinking, but not speaking, exactly the same thought, ‘How lucky were we to have booked when we had’ 😲 We went straight back down to the car and got our belongings and then made our way to our room.

We had stayed at two 4* hotels so far on this trip, and we had no complaints with either the facilities or the rooms in either, but this was a 3*, so we were not expecting quite the same amount of grandeur, or size of room. However, sometimes you get the best surprises when you least expect them, we were not expecting the very spacious room, which matched each of the previous one’s, or a large quite modern en-suite bathroom, with one of the best showers that we had yet experienced, by way of water pressure and very hot water. We were not expecting two full size ‘double’ beds, a modern automated and amazingly efficient Air Con system, or a 60” flatscreen TV that was more like having a Home cinema screen, and we certainly were not expecting a balcony, upon which their was a domestic sized clothes drying rack and also two chairs and a patio table, but best of all, we were not expecting the most amazing view from the balcony, or through the full floor to ceiling glazed patio doors. “Are you certain that this is only a 3* Hotel ?” I asked Shazza. This was, by quite some margin, the best of the three hotels that we had stayed in so far, perhaps ‘fate’ had worked in our favour once again, directing us towards this small town in the Valencia mountains and to this particular hotel, for it just seemed absolutely perfect, in every way 🙏

Getting into our room so early, we then decided to go straight to the ‘Tourist Train’ office in the town, a five minute walk, to see if we could get tickets for that evenings trip. Unfortunately, it was already fully booked, so we booked for the following evening. We decided that we may as well go on a bit of a walk around the town as we now had some time on our hands, and to get our bearings for a deeper exploration at some point over the next two days 😂😂 I laugh because, the town was that small that our very short reconnaissance ended up being the full tour, a handful of small Cafe/Bars, a Church, a Police station, a Chemist, a small Supermarket, a ‘Panaderia’ (bread shop) and a handful of other small local traders and, ‘three’, yes three other, but smaller, hotels 😲 If all of these hotels were full that would probably be more than treble the size of the population of this town 🤭 Oh well, we could now return to the room, have a nice coffee sat admiring the views from the balcony and then, perhaps some time for a period of personal contemplation before dinner 😴

However, although this mountain town may have been small, it had everything that I was particularly looking for on this visit. A beautiful riverside restaurant with tremendous food, that catered for both of our dietary requirements, not one mention of ‘Goats Cheese Salad’ which impressed Shazza as she had numerous other tasty alternatives that made a nice change for her, both on the Starters and Main Courses, as for desserts, well let’s just say that she was on holiday and so probably not quite so disciplined with that particular aspect 😂 As far as activities were concerned, the beach club also had the lovely swimming pool, which had a small poolside bar that served ice-cold ‘Alhambra’ beer, I am not much of a beer drinker but I have taken a liking for this particular brand, although one bottle is plenty otherwise it tends to bloat me, unlike my more usual Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 We would spend ‘at least’ one morning, or afternoon here at the pool, but their was also the ‘Fuente de Los Banos’, only a short fifteen minute riverside walk away, which we would visit and have a swim in, and then there was the three and a half hour tourist train in the evening, so anything over and above those things, in our short visit here, would just be a complete bonus. And no, I have not mentioned the weather, well when you are dining out in the evening at 9pm, dressed in smart Shorts and casual collared short-sleeved shirts, it say’s it all really 🥵

We had paid for ‘Room Only’ on this occasion, €18 for breakfast, that was the total not per person, seemed just a bit steep for the little we ate, and we knew we could get our more usual breakfast’s for a total of €6 at a local Cafe/Bar. We tended not to eat lunches if we had a latish breakfast and so we had a nice three-course dinner in the evening’s.

So, on Day 2 we started with a rather leisurely morning before having a late breakfast (Brunch) at a small Cafe that we had discovered on our first, and only, town wander. We returned to the hotel and got changed into our swimwear and spent a good couple of hours at the pool before then getting changed and getting ready to board our tourist train. We were two of twenty other passengers, but we were the only ‘foreigners’, the remainder were all Spanish tourist’s on their own vacation. Tony the driver, and tour guide, spoke a little bit of English, and after doing his commentaries in the local lingo he would then come and check with us what we had, or hadn’t, understood, then he would fill in the important essentials we had perhaps not grasped. At first we felt a little like outsider’s as the rest of our travel companions spoke very little English, the odd word here and there, but we soon bonded, talking to them in Spanish, albeit not perfect, they seemed to warm to us and as we got off the train at certain points to walk about they would engage in conversation with us, the usual stuff, ‘Where are we from ?’, then on discovering we lived in Spain, ‘Which part of Spain ?’, ‘How longs have we lived here ?’ all the usual sort of stuff, by the end of the tour, which ended up being a little over 4 hours 😲 we felt a part of the group and we were quite flattered at how many of them made a point of coming to say goodbye to us, as we disembarked to each go our separate ways. Just by coincidence the following morning, we were returning to the hotel after our Cafe breakfast and two ladies, who had been on the train tour, recognised us, before we had even seen or recognised them, and they shouted across the street to us, “Buenas Dias Eric y Sharon, Como Estas ?” 🥰

So as you can imagine, during the tour, my clicker finger never stopped, but I will not bore you with too many photo’s, just enough to give you a flavour 😉

Our first stop was at the top of the quite large and impressive Reservoir, the ‘Embassement d’Aronos’. The tourist train stopped and we all disembarked, Tony, the driver and tour guide, did a rather long talk about the history of the reservoir, the small hamlets that had to be evacuated and the families that had to be re-housed to make way for it. He gave lots of technical information, capacity of water, the area that it provides water to, and the future plan to make it a Hydro-Electric facility. We picked up most of the general stuff and so he just imparted some of the more technical stuff to us in English, we both tried very hard not to yawn though, but we appreciated his effort to make us feel part of the tour group. We then walked down to the base of the reservoir where we were lucky enough to see a mother deer with her fawn cross our path, then a large Eagle flew right across the top of our heads, too quick to get a photo of it though and the deer were gone too 😢 I said to Tony that it was good bit of marketing on his part, to bring an Eagle shaped drone and fly it just at the right time, he laughed and put his fingers to his lips, “Don’t tell the other’s” he said.

Near the base, a long bridge ran towards an entrance into the mountain. Tony explained that inside, it dropped 500 metres to where the machinery was located to control the flow of water and release the pressure when needed. He said that there was a continuous flow of water from the reservoir at the base, this was because one of the Reservoir’s sources was from the upper level of the ‘Rio Majares’ and that the construction of the reservoir could not restrict it’s flow, he took us down to show us it.

Now some of you know, from my previous rambles, that whenever I am amongst large clumps of rocks that I can often see faces of strange creatures looking down on me, I know, I should really seek out some medical help for my condition, or get some better glasses 🤭 or perhaps I have just watched too many horror type movies 🤷‍♂️

We were already into the second hour of the trip when we re-boarded the tourist train, but we continued onwards and upwards further into the mountains, the views were absolutely amazing and we were quite surprised at how many farmhouses and larger more luxurious houses there were, mostly hidden away from view in the dense forest, but we occasionally caught a glimpse of them, but never quite quick enough to point and shoot the camera ☹️

We found it quite amazing to think how they must have got the materials up here, to build Castles, Convents and Monasteries, let alone whole villages and towns and, as in the below photograph, on remote forested outcrops of rocks 🤷‍♂️

We had made our next stop in a small hilltop village, at a local Bar for a drink and comfort break, as I entered the small dark bar interior to order a couple of cold refreshing beers, there were four elderly men sat around a table playing dominoes, ‘Buenos Tardes’ they said in Unison, without lifting their eyes from the table, I made the instant assumption that this was quite obviously a regular stop for this tourist train as they did not appear at all surprised by this sudden intrusion. There were tables and chairs outside, under a canopy of hanging grape vines, full of their ripe green and red fruits, we all sat around chatting, well Shazza and I listened mainly and only interjected appropriately, when we understood what they were saying. One lady in our group came out with a jar of fresh natural honey she had purchased from the lady bar owner, Shazza suddenly disappeared, and then re-appeared moments later, clutching her own purchase of sweet nectar.

We had one final visit to a small town on the descent, it was already 7:30pm, the time we should have arrived back at our starting point 😲 Nobody was particularly bothered though, it had been a good trip with a great bunch of fellow tourists and we finally returned at 8pm, we were glad we had reserved dinner at the restaurant for 9pm, time enough to get showered and changed and although it was now dark, it was still very very warm and humid 🥵

Our final day arrived and it would be a more leisurely day, a late breakfast at our now usual Cafe in the town, then we returned to the hotel, got changed into our swimming gear, grabbed a towel and off we went on the fifteen minute walk to the ‘Fuente de Los Banos’. It was a pleasant enough walk along the wide riverside path, the sun was high in the sky but there was lots of shade along the route.

Once there, we discovered that there was a Kiosk that sold ice-creams and snacks, although we had been unaware of this so had taken our own, obviously not ice-creams though 🤭 there were also some very clean toilet and changing facilities, which we also had not known about. In this area of the river, no chairs, sunbeds etc. were permitted and the beach area was all stones and gravel, so we sat on our towels. The recommendation was to wear water shoes, due to the large underwater rocks and shingle river bed, we again were not aware of this beforehand or we would have brought the ones that had been laying dormant in our wardrobes at home for some time, but we managed to get by with our flip-flops, and we had seen other’s go in barefoot. Now this was not the ‘Thermal Spring’ that we had read about prior to coming here, the one were the water was a constant 25 degrees(c), no, that was, as we later discovered, in a purpose built building in the town 😲 and which we soon came to realise when we initially entered the water in the river 🥶 Actually, I am exaggerating for the water wasn’t actually that cold, although it did come as a bit of a shock when we were expecting to enter a warm bath 🤭

We ended our final evening, once again, at the very nice River Beach Club restaurant. We had only spent two and a half days here, 3 nights in the wonderful hotel, but we had done everything that we had come to do and we both agreed that this had in fact been the highlight of the trip so far. We had decided that we may as well keep heading Southwards, towards home, and so had picked our next destination, but more about that in my next ramble 😉

So, until then……………………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

The ‘Forrest Gump’ method of weather prediction once again proved to be much more accurate than the official ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast, why should that no longer come as any surprise to us 🤷‍♂️ We departed ‘Lorca’ on a bright and sunny morning, with not one grey, or black, rain cloud in sight. Our next destination would entail another longish drive, around 270 miles and it should again take us a little over 4 hours, we shared the driving and anticipated making a couple of stops along the route so, all things being equal it would once again end up being around another 5 hour journey.

The first part of our journey would see us remain inland but, after skirting around the city of Murcia we would gradually start to weave our way across to the East Coast towards Valencia, when we would then follow the A7/AP7 Coastal route to our intended destination, normally the AP roads are generally toll routes, but the particular stretch that we would be using would not incur any such costs 👍

Initially, the scenery and landscapes were very much similar to what they had been driving through the Andalucia landscapes, mainly green and lush, however, we noticed the visual change around the outskirts of Valencia, where in parts it became much more arid and certainly very much more Industrial, large quarries that had, and still were, scarring the landscapes, rocky grey granite mountains and miles upon miles of Poly Tunnels, essential for protecting the delicate fruits and vegetables from the harsh heat of the unforgiving sunshine, and the large row on row of factory outlets, the fruit co-operatives that we had often seen as a common place agricultural necessity, and convenience, for the surrounding farms, replaced here by car and truck manufactures, large scale furniture manufacturers and large freight distribution centres, another necessity in today’s modern world. Yes, we had entered twenty first century Spain, but don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bleak, there were some nice areas, it was just a very noticeable landscape from those that we had witnessed only a day or so earlier. I guess we should consider ourselves still lucky to have the lush greenery that surround the areas where we live, although we are not certain how much longer even that may continue to be the case ? Even the demands of today’s more modern world are racing rapidly South towards us, from the city of Malaga 😲

Another significant observation that we both made was the increased intensity of the traffic, which kept our minds and eye’s very firmly focused, as they were coming at us from all sides, and it appears that modern cars and trucks these days are sold without operational indicator lights, although the brake light’s and accelerator pedals seem to be in good working order 😲 Perhaps we should have chosen to use the less crowded roads, rather than the much faster Motorway routes, but this would have increased our journey time even more and, as we were already discovering, finding short notice accommodation availability, even the ‘Casa Rurals’, was not going to be easy, those that we had looked at beforehand were either fully booked, or only offered rentals of the complete houses, not just a room.

Although the Tourist Season down our neck of the woods appeared to be beginning to slow down, here, further North, it still appears to be in full swing but more so with the Spanish domestic tourism, so finding an ad-hoc room for a night or two was not going to be quite as simple as we had imagined that it was going to be, what was I saying in my last ramble about missing the freedom of our former Motorhome 🙄 However, we did have the forethought to pre-book our next accommodation and after a brief, but very welcome, lunch stop we knocked the remaining miles off in the knowledge that there would actually be a very nice reward at the end of it 🤗 Fortunately, I had smuggled my OCD Buddy into my suitcase, we would certainly need to work together as a team once again to try and plan our following weeks road trip accommodations, although, as yet, we still hadn’t selected a direction of travel 🤔

Our destination today though was the seaside resort of ‘Peniscola’, located on the ‘Costa del Azahar’ (Orange Blossom Coast) in the Province of Castellón, positioned some 90 miles North of Valencia, and 180 miles South of Barcelona. At the end of this particular leg of the journey we would park the car and we certainly had no intention of using it again for the next five days.

One of Shazza’s earlier options, when considering our holiday choice, was an ‘All Inclusive’ 5* Beach Hotel holiday, however, she had been thinking more on the lines of a Caribbean Resort Beach but, as she didn’t want the hassle of Airports and 8-10 hour flights, this was the best we could get here in Spain at such short notice 🤷‍♂️ It was however a 4* Hotel, and we had booked on a ‘Full Board’ Basis, (Breakfast, with both Lunch and Dinner including wine so, Anti-Covid Vaccines provided too, now there’s a bonus 😁) We had a Double Room with two separate large double beds and our allocated room on the 4th floor had a Large Balcony with a lovely uninterrupted Seaview. Their was a Large Hotel Pool and literally just across the Promenade, at the front of the hotel, a golden sand beach with the most amazing coloured green turquoise looking sea, so it still looked very tropical, even if we weren’t in the Caribbean. The hotel itself though, was located on the North side of the resort town, which was quite a decent walk away, ‘Google Maps’ indicated some 45 minutes, with the ‘Old Town’, located on a bit of a peninsular, with quite an impressive Castle sat atop it, perhaps a further fifteen minutes walk beyond that, and of course, it was on a hill, where else would you put a Castle, unless it was like the one where we lived which was virtually on the beach 🤷‍♂️ At some point during our stay we would do the walk into the main resort, and also visit the castle, well we must keep the exercise regime up if we are to attain that ‘Blue Zone’ age group 😉

Now to me, in all honesty, this resort did sound rather like us going on ‘A Bit Of A Busman’s Holiday’ 🤔 I mean come on, we already owned our own very nice accommodation, in a holiday location, indeed it was more on par with a luxury suite in comparison with even this very nice en-suite hotel room, and our home had a large balcony, bigger than this one, and we had a sea-view too, a swimming pool and okay, I will admit that our golden sandy beach is a five minute drive away but, even we had a castle in our small seafront village so, what was the difference between home, and here ? Other than here, we were actually paying for the privilege of having these amenities and views 🤷‍♂️ Although okay, yes, stop shouting at me, as I do concede that this was probably more the part of the road trip holiday for Shazza, she could take a break from grocery shopping, no preparing of meals, or cooking them and no clearing up afterwards, no domestic cleaning or making the bed, so yes I could fully appreciate why it would feel more of a holiday from her perspective than mine, although to be honest, I also do my fair share at home, apart perhaps from the majority of the cooking of evening meals, the ‘placing’ of the laundry into the washing machine and of course the ironing 🤔

As for the weather, we’ll all I can say is that it is as hot here, both day and night, as it was back at home, not one day so far has been less than 32 degrees(c), or the night’s less than 25 degrees(c) and it is already nearly the middle of September, should it really still be this hot at this time of year 🥵🥵

Our first day at our seaside resort was a very relaxed one, although the journey, and the heat, had begun to take it’s toll on us, so we were grateful to just be able to sit on the balcony of our room with a nice hot cuppa (Yes, a hot cup of tea in the afternoon, come rain or shine, it’s a British thing 😂). We were happy to relax and just sit watching the people in and around the pool, sunbathing on the sun beds and also at those across the promenade on the beach and swimming in the sea, this was going to be a great ‘People Watching’ and ‘Boat Watching’ observation point 😉 We went down to the ‘Buffet Dinner’ in the evening, our first meal in the hotel, we expected to be served only a glass of wine, then perhaps topped up if required, but no, we sat down and a waiter immediately brought us an ice-cold bottle of water before asking whether we preferred ‘Blanco’, ‘Rose’ or ‘Tinto’ vino, we selected ‘Tinto’ and were delivered, not a glass, but a full bottle of our selected flavoured ‘Anti-Covid Vaccine’ 😁 This was to be the pattern at all of the ‘Lunches’ and ‘Dinners’, however, we declined the lunch time bottle of vino, otherwise we would have just slept the ‘whole’ of every afternoon away 😵‍💫😵‍💫 Just worth clarifying though, in case you were wondering, we could not take any unfinished bottles, water or vino, away from the restaurant and back to our room to perhaps enjoy on our balcony later 🤷‍♂️

The following morning we went to the restaurant for the buffet breakfast, although it was wasted on us really as I don’t generally eat breakfast and Shazza only toast or croissant, but there was plenty available, even the ‘Spanish version’ of a ‘Full English’ if that was your thing 🤷‍♂️ However, we learnt very quickly that if you want a poolside Sun Lounger you needed to get there by 10:00am, at the latest 😲 and there was no trying to reserve one in advance by placing towels, magazines or other objects on them before disappearing off to breakfast, the pool attendant would remove them, but to be honest we did not witness any of that kind of behaviour anyway 👍 However, when the ‘boom, boom, boom’ of what they described as music started at 10:00am on the dot, which lasted until 1:00pm, only stopping for the Siesta period before re-commencing and going on until midnight, when thankfully it came to an abrupt end, leaving us thinking that we had suddenly gone stone deaf 😲 On top of that, the pool was taken over at 11:30am, every single day, for the ‘thirty minute’ Aqua Aerobics’ sessions 😳 This may have been a 4* Hotel, but Shazza and I both agreed that this was no ‘RIU’ Hotel, the standard of which we had become accustomed to, “Do you think we are turning into right snobs ?” Shazza commented, “What do you mean ‘turning into’ snobs ?” I replied, followed by a loud laugh, then I qualified the statement with, “There is nothing wrong with enjoying a little more luxury and refinement in our more senior year’s , we have both earned it” I said. This time she laughed, “What do you mean in our more senior years, you have always been a snob from the first day I met you” 😲

We agreed that the pool, as nice as it looked, was not for us, so we elected to walk the 20-30 metres to the much more tranquil beach, the loudest noise there, coming from the waves as they broke on to the shoreline, perfect. The cost of a day’s hire for two Sun loungers, underneath a wooden poled sun shade, which of course came with the tropical looking woven straw umbrella hat, was a mere €13, although in a more tropical resort location the hotel would have probably provided them free of charge, however, we had saved on the cost of the flights so it was worth every penny (or cent 🤔) Just to top that off for near perfection, the sea was warm, not cold or even slightly chilly, neither was it boiling hot or uncomfortable, let’s just say that you didn’t have to wait for the more usual initial Arctic shock, to numb your ‘nether regions’, when that first wave hit you 😂 Another thing that we both observed about this long stretch of golden beach was the absence of any beach traders, the ‘Looky, Looky’ variety and additionally, on our stretch of beach, there was not one Chiringuito, although the numerous Cafe/Bars were not that far away, spread out along the very long Promenade. I for one certainly needed the protection of the sun brolly, otherwise I would have fried to a crisp in a matter of minutes, so needless to say we both spent a lot of time dashing to and from the shade into the warm, but very refreshing, salty water, now this was more like it, it looked like we could have been in the Caribbean, but without all the physical inconvenience of actually getting there, or back again 😁

That evening, after having dinner in the hotel buffet restaurant, where we still couldn’t manage to polish off the whole bottle of ‘Anti-Covid Vaccine’ between us, although we did somehow still manage to drink a cheeky couple of iced cocktails on the outside terrace of the hotel bar, whilst listening to the racket they advertised as music by the ‘Entertainment Team’, it was enough to turn us to drink I can tell you ! We didn’t wait until the end of the ‘show’, which is what ‘they’ called it and not us, as we had a bit of an early start the next morning, well that was our excuse anyway 😂

It was far too early for me to even think about eating anything, but I went to the restaurant in the morning with Shazza, where with my glass of orange juice, I sat and watched her eat her ‘Tostado con Mermelede’ (Toast with Jam). We had decided that we would attempt the walk into the town and then on to the Castle, there was never going to be a good day to do this, every day was a scorcher, but we hoped that by leaving early we would miss the worst of the heat. Yes, of course we could have caught a bus, but neither of us wanted to succumb to that, stupid perhaps, and if we had ended up in the local hospital with heatstroke we probably would have called ourselves that, but for some inexplicable reason, we still ‘enjoy’ (I use that terminology very loosely), these walking challenges and it is amazing at just how good, personally speaking, we both feel after the event once we have made it back in one piece. We both agreed that the heat had made it tough going, although it wasn’t so much the heat that got to us, more the high humidity, we also had no idea what gauge ‘Google’ was using to measure the time it would take, they had estimated that it would take 45 minutes, we did it in 30, and to be honest, we were not actually walking that fast, well not by our own usual standard anyway, perhaps we are just fitter than we give ourselves credit for. Once we had reached the far end of the town, at the base of the hill that led up into the ‘Old Town’, we stopped at a small Cafe/Bar for a much needed refreshment break, in the shade, and to try and let our clothing dry out a little before the hill climbs to the ‘Old Town’, and then up to the ‘Castle’ we knew that that was going to be a whole different challenge 😲

To say that we were disappointed with the ‘Old Town’ would be a grave understatement, they had simply used this area as a complete tourist trap, over inflated prices everywhere, even in the small Cafe/Bars and Eateries, yes there were very nice sea views, but you were expected to pay for them. We were not optimistic about what we would get to see on finally reaching the Castle, with signage pointing to the ‘Ticket Office’. However, we were to be completely taken by surprise, the normal entry fee was quite cheap, but even better when we discovered that even Shazza met the reduced ‘Seniors’ admission price of only €3.50, which included the entry to the Lower Gardens (Former Battlements Area). It was quite apparent that a lot of renovation work had been completed, but this meant that several rooms, nooks, crannies and stone stairways had been made accessible, and there were lots of different rooms to explore, along with several turrets to climb, well worth it for the 360 degree views. So just for those of you that may be interested in some of the history of this castle, here is a taster and it actually turns out to be something of an unexpected coincidence for myself 🤔

‘Peniscola’ had been under the control of the Arab Nation since the year 718, but under the period of the Christian uprising it was eventually handed over to King James I. Between 1294-1307, the ‘Templar’s’ (You may remember my mention of them during our road trip last year) it appears built this castle and what was also a monastery, their last great fortress before ‘disappearing’ from the historical map and becoming nothing more than just a legend 🤔 In 1411, Pope Benedict XIII (Papa Luna) made the castle his political seat until his death in 1423.

I am still quite interested in the ‘Knights Templar’ but there is little ‘authenticated’ evidence of whether, and what form, they may now exist in the shadows of today’s modern world 🤔 There are modern day groups who claim to be descendants from the ‘Knight’s Templar’ but their origins often conflict with known historical facts and, the fact that these numerous global groups advertise themselves publicly, on Social Media, contradicts the original ethos of the origin and purpose of this secretive order. I personally find it interesting that there are certain ‘historical symbols’ that are still present today on ancient buildings, primarily throughout all corners of Europe, Western and Eastern, not all buildings necessarily being of any religious significance, as these ‘Knights’ derived from all backgrounds, from Religious Orders, Military Soldiers, Carpenters, Blacksmiths etc. but these symbols, which you may see, but not know what they are, only bear any actual relevance to those privileged enough to be ‘In the know’ 😉 There is some ‘unfounded’ speculation that today’s group known as the ‘Masons’ may have some association with the historical ‘Knight’s Templar’, but with no actual evidence to support this assumption, but then, you wouldn’t expect there to be would you 🤔 Anyway, back to our visit of the ‘Peniscola’ Castle and grounds…………….

Needless to say, I was in my element exploring every room, stairway and turret in this very impressive Castle, certainly worth a visit in my humble opinion, and to my surprise, Shazza explored everywhere with me, which was superb considering she is not really into these sort of historical structures. Now the little matter of getting down again, which can sometimes be as hard on the knee’s as going up 😲

Once back down at sea level, and in the more modern area of the resort, we sought shade in the back streets and discovered a maze of Cafe/Bars, Restaurant’s and vast array of shops. Yup, this was the more modern tourist side of Peniscola, and it was very busy with ‘Menu Del Dia’ signage everywhere, and not unreasonably priced either, between €14-€18 for three-courses including a drink, however, we were only interested in finding some much needed shade in a hostelry that could provide us with an ice cold Cervesa, we had plenty of choices 😁 By the time we were ready to head back to the hotel, the temperature had already risen enormously, to around 28 degrees(c) and still not at its peak, it was certainly much hotter now, although less humid, since we had set out earlier that morning and we already knew that it was going to be a primarily unshaded walk back 😲🥵 Did we consider getting a taxi, or a bus, back to the hotel, of course we didn’t, did it take us longer to get back, of course it did, we were already both knackered before we even started the walk back !! When we did get back, just before collapsing on the bed, Shazza informed me that we had walked a distance of some 6.2 miles and very nearly 20,000 steps, which to be completely honest, was not really that much further than our normal daily walks when we were back at home, however, it did feel longer, probably because at home, we wouldn’t even have considered venturing out further than our swimming pool in such temperatures, strange the things you are willing to put yourself through when you are on holiday 🙄 She also informed me that on our day out in Lorca, a few days earlier, we had walked a little over 5 miles, I just haven’t quite decided whether she is trying to get hold of her inheritance early, or trying to ensure that we both stay healthy and fit enough to reach those all important ‘Blue Zone’ age groups 🤔

After dinner that evening, where once again we didn’t manage to finish the whole bottle of Anti-Covid Vaccine (Lightweights, I know 🤷‍♂️) we decided to just go back to the room, however, an early night would not be an option, as they had a show on around the pool which would go on until midnight, and it just happened to be right below our balcony. However, we both watched it and actually, quite surprisingly, we found it quite entertaining, although we blamed that enjoyment on us both suffering from diminished mental capacity due to heatstroke from our day’s walk 🤭 The hotel ‘Entertainment Team’ performed dances associated to different countries from around the globe, traditional and modern and, somewhat reluctantly, I have to admit that they did quite a good job, we felt a bit like those two old geezers on the ‘Muppet Show’, ‘Terrible ! Get Off ! Hoorah ! Brilliant ! Enchore !’ 😂

Our last couple of days, between Lunch and Dinner, were spent on the beach. The sea was still the gorgeous turquoise-green colour, however, the swells were very much larger than they had been on our second day here, whilst this made them great to play in, it made it much more difficult trying to get in and out as the strength and height of these swells, as they crashed on to the shoreline could easily knock you off your feet. On one such attempt to get in, Shazza got knocked down by a large breaking wave and, as she attempted to get up she was knocked down again by a second, and then a third, leaving her with a cut to her knee and a bruised nose, but she didn’t give up and kept going back in and out for even more punishment, but she wore her battle scars with pride 😁 I do have to confess that after the first day, when I had enjoyed the much more gentler swells, and apart from the odd paddle thereafter, I remained fixed firmly on my sun-bed under my sun umbrella, you may call me a ‘Wuss’ but I’m not the one with a sore knee and sporting a purple nose 😉 She wasn’t the only daredevil though, their were plenty of other women, and men, taking on the challenge with the sea, and certainly none of them were spring-chickens, but I take my hat off to them all, for they all provided me, and other’s who were watching from the comfort of their sun loungers, with hour’s of entertainment and laughter, watching them all get bowled over in the surf and scrambling to get back to their feet before the next wave came, some more successfully than other’s, not many came out of the water unscathed, they all bore their ‘Gravel Rash’ scars on various parts of their bodies but like Shazza, they did not let it deter them 😂😂 I do have to compliment Shazza though, she learnt the knack very quickly, of timing both her entry and exit, even being complimented by many of her fellow daredevils when she exited gracefully from the surf, well as gracefully as you can looking like a drowned rat 😂

Before going for our last Dinner we visited the small bar outside, but next to, the hotel complex, we had discovered the evening before that they served proper Spanish ‘Vermut’, not the Tourist stuff from Italy (Martini Rossi) that costs twice the price for half the measure 😉 then, after our pre-dinner aperitif, at Dinner, we finally succeeded in consuming our whole bottle of Anti-COVID Vaccine, the previous four night’s where we hadn’t were obviously just training sessions for this final event 😂 Then, as it was our last night, we went to the terrace bar and had another couple of cheeky cocktails, well we were on holiday after all. It had been a good decision to pack our suitcases prior to going for Dinner, as we were in no fit state to do it once we had got from having our cocktails, oh yes, and the wine and the Vermut’s 😲 Needless to say that we both slept well and somewhat surprisingly I still awoke at 7:00am feeling totally refreshed, perhaps all this sea air is good for me 😉 I let Shazza have another hour before shoving a hot coffee under her nose, and yes, it was still purple 🤭

So, a new day and time to hit the road once again, but to where ?

Until the next ramble……………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

So, in my last ramblings we were waiting to take the car for its bi-annual ITV Test, the result of which would dictate when, or even if, we could get away on our holiday. The whole inspection process, although very thorough, like a well oiled factory production line process, had only actually taken a little over fifteen minutes and I cannot describe the sense of relief that I felt when the technician handed me back my vehicle registration document, accompanied with the all important vehicle windscreen sticker that reflected that my car was ‘officially’ roadworthy until September 2027, when the next inspection would be due. Of course, I waited until I had cleared the test centre before punching the air in celebration and shouting ‘Yes, get in there !!’ 😂 So, once again we had managed to evade the mischief of those ‘Dark Forces’ by being prepared for their potential ambush so, by way of a quick word of warning to you my reader’s, beware, for they may now be on the lookout for revenge and look elsewhere for ‘other’ less suspecting victims 😲

So that was one very urgent matter sorted, now it was time to address yet another important one, yes I of course mean the holiday, but to where, if indeed anywhere 🤷‍♂️ So, Shazza my beloved, the spotlight is now firmly shining on you, it is decision time ‘Where, if indeed anywhere, do you want to go ?’ She looked at me, knowing how much time and effort that we, that being me and my OCD Buddy, had put into sorting the three potential options, “I don’t really fancy all the hassle with airports and flights” she said, a bit cautiously, followed swiftly by a question of her own, “Do you ?”. I looked at her and just smiled, “So our original Plan A it is then, a road trip” I said, and to be totally honest, I was pleased with that decision. I like road trips and so had been looking forward to conducting yet another one of our exploration’s around some other part’s of Spain, areas that we had not visited before, and for me, using our own car was so much more preferable and convenient although, as I was very quickly to discover, it was not going to be quite as simple as sticking to my original ‘Plan A’ route 🙄 Shazza informed me that she did not now want to go all the way, which, considering our ages and lack of motivation towards such things, I told her that that did not come as a big surprise to me, she let out a cheeky little giggle 🤭 “I meant, all the way to the North Coast of Spain” she said, “I know exactly what you meant” I replied, then gave her a cheeky little wink. But even that piece of news didn’t really matter that much to me, Spain is a big country, with simply loads of places that we have still yet to discover, and let’s face it, their is no hurry to do any of them, so that area of the Northern Spanish Coast can go on the back burner for another future trip 😉 We sat down together with the road atlas of Spain, and yes, I do still use the paper versions, as well as ‘Google Maps’, and in conjunction with some useful travel guide books that we have and which we will take with us, we planned an initial route. We agreed to plan only the first two stages of the trip, to cover our first seven day period, but how long we actually spent on the road after that initial period would then be completely up to ourselves, just as long as we were back home no later than the 30th September, as Shazza’s mum was arriving on the 3rd October, and before her arrival we would have some domestic stuff to do. We didn’t want to hang about and agreed to depart on the Monday morning (8th September), allowing us a period of twenty-two days, if in fact we chose to utilise all of them. Although I will admit that at times like this we do begin to miss our ‘Little Fokker’, the freedom that it gave us to stop virtually anywhere we wanted, without having to rely on making accommodation bookings for the night’s we required, or finding somewhere convenient to stop and eat lunch, or dinner But, at the end of the day you cannot always have ‘everything’ that you would like, and so compromises sometimes have to be made, their are advantages and disadvantages to lots of things in this life 🤷‍♂️

Sunday, the day after our vehicle inspection, was a bit hectic, cleaning the apartment before we departed, it is a habit we have gotten into and it would save us a job when we eventually returned home. We also had to get our individual cases and rucksacks packed, once we decided what clothes we needed to take, we would travel ‘relatively light’, using our aircraft cabin sized suitcases, rather than the much larger hold-all that we would normally take. We agreed that if we needed to use a launderette whilst on our travels, they were readily available in many of the local towns that we would stop at, or pass through, so we could always stop and have a cheeky Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 and perhaps even a Tapas lunch, whilst we waited for the laundry to be done 😉

We departed, on our ‘Adventure Into The Unknown’, on an unusually cloudy overcast Monday morning, although it was warm and already extremely humid, the clouds were actually a light brown in colour from the ‘Sahara Sand’ (Calima) suspended within them, the visibility over the mountains and sea were hazy and it must have rained during the early hours, as the car had the tell tale signs of the brown sand ridden rain spotted marks, so much for washing and waxing the car a day or so earlier 🙄 We had agreed that on this particular road trip we would explore the more North Eastern side of the Mediterranean Coast, between Valencia and Barcelona, and perhaps even venture to some of the more inland areas too, but we didn’t have any specific locations in mind to visit, other than our first two locations, we would just decide once we got nearer the end of that first week on which direction we would head towards next 🤷‍♂️ We had previously visited the cities of Valencia and Barcelona, although those were many year’s ago, back in our Motor homing days, but we had never actually done any of the coastline between those two locations, so that would be the area we would initially concentrate on.

We set ourselves an initial target of just getting out of our own Region of Andalusia and, being located almost at the South East corner of the Costa del Sol, that journey itself would take ‘at least’ four hours, dependent on how many stops we made en-route. So we planned for our first stop to be in the town of ‘Lorca’, located just a few kilometres over the Andalusia Northern boundary in the Region of ‘Murcia’. Although we had passed Lorca numerous times on previous journeys, it was a place that we had never actually stopped at and explored so, we decided on a two night stopover, it would be late afternoon by the time we arrived at our pre-booked hotel on our first travel day, so this would allow us the evening to just rest up and relax and then allow us the following full day to just do some sightseeing.

I elected to do the first part of the driving, it was a very familiar route to us so the landmarks we passed just served to make the journey appear a little longer, although I still found the landscapes to be pretty awesome. After getting away from the busy coastal traffic, after the first hour or so, once we had cleared the northern outskirts of Malaga, the land seemed to just expand its lungs, taking in the much cleaner and clearer mountain air and, it seemed to sigh with relief at the freedom to be able to stretch itself out and it opened up with grand views for miles around, mountains of green forested pines, hectares upon hectares of Olive groves, whitewashed mountain villages that made the perfect picture postcard views and near empty roads that stretched out in front of us like a gigantic elongated snake, the only thing missing from this near perfect view was the usual Spanish sunshine, although the outside temperature still registered 30 degrees(c) so we were certainly thankful for the efficiency of the car air-con system 🥵

The journey to Lorca actually ended up taking us five hour’s, although that was because we had four stops, only two were actually scheduled, the initial re-fuel of the car, as we departed home, then a lunch stop, after which Shazza took control of the steering wheel, however we also ended up having an unscheduled coffee break stop, just because we could, but then an additional comfort break stop, probably due to the extra unscheduled coffee stop 😂 But hey, we were on holiday now, so we were in no particular hurry, we had already pre-booked our hotel accommodation so we could just take our time 🤷‍♂️

Our hotel was located on a hilltop, within the grounds of ‘Lorca Castle’ and overlooking the large town below. The views from our room window, and elsewhere around the hotel, were absolutely stunning and we ate dinner that evening on the outer terrace of the Restaurant, it was so warm with just a slight breeze blowing and it was so quiet, no road noise, no dogs barking, no excitable or tired children, just the moonlight and the lights of the town below, it was as near perfect as it could get and the ideal way to commence our road trip.

The only minor issue was that unless you were a keen hill walker, or mountain goat, access to the town below was either by taxi (€10) or using our own car, I was happy to get reception to call for a taxi but Shazza said that she was happy to drive down the following morning. So that had been the plan, except that once we got back to our room and checked the weather forecast for that following day it appeared that the ‘Works of Fiction’ had other ideas 🙄 Heavy rain and thunder was forecast to commence from 07:00am, right through until the early evening so we agreed on a wet weather plan ! We decided that we would have a lazy start to the morning, then breakfast around 9:30am, followed by a session in the internally heated Spa swimming pool, which was ‘free’ to use, only the Spa treatments, if we chose to have any, would come at an additional charge, however, we both agreed that we had far too many wrinkles for one Spa treatment to resolve or have any noticeable impact, so we would perhaps give them a miss 🤭🤭 Then we would go and have a light lunch, followed by the mandatory Siesta, it would of course be rude not to, then in the evening, a nice Dinner and, just to round off our re-arranged day, we would watch the Serbia v England World Cup Qualifier match on our iPad, it was pointless getting frustrated at the weather, just another one of those many things in life that we had absolutely no control over 🤷‍♂️

Perhaps it was the ‘Dark Forces’ seeking their revenge on us, but because we had made yet another plan in readiness, it seemed that we were to thwart them once again. I awoke early and looked out of the large window, expecting to see dark storm clouds and even rain on the windows, so I got a pleasant surprise when my view was one of white clouds, with some patches of early morning blue sky. The hastily arranged wet weather programme was shelved and the original sightseeing plan re-instated.

We found a parking area right opposite the towns magnificent looking ‘Visitor Centre’, although it would only accept a single €1 coin which only gave us 90 minutes. Rather than do battle with the traffic in the very busy town to try and locate another car park that would offer longer stay parking, as it was only a ten minute walk into the centre we decided to do a preliminary reconnaissance and then, if it was worth staying longer we would return and feed the parking meter with another €1, which is exactly what we did, however, on our return visit to the pay machine, I observed that we could actually put €1.45 into the machine, the maximum permitted, and when the new ticket came out it gave us 4 hours 🤷‍♂️ strange, very strange, as it hadn’t shown the different rate earlier that day. However, we were not complaining as we had used up the first thirty-minutes of our original ticket having ‘Coffee and Tostado’s’ in the Plaza de Espana, so now we could just wander at our leisure.

Our usual habit is to obtain a street plan from the Tourist Information centre and use that as sort of guide to find our way around large towns, but more often than not we just do not refer to it and wander aimlessly discovering places for ourselves, and that is exactly what we did this time. As you my reader’s already know by now, neither of us are ‘History Buffs’ or ‘Shoppers’ we much prefer to wander down narrow streets, getting lost as we do so, but always managing to find our way back to where we had parked the car. Sometimes that may mean missing some significant or even unique tourist attractions in that particular town or city, but we can live with that, although often we find some interesting places too, and get to see the mix between the historical areas and the more modern parts, which in truth are often intermingled with each other anyway, and that was the case here in Lorca.

It was inevitable that eventually at some point in our wanderings, through the back streets and alleyways, that we would find ourselves in the more modern town centre, with all of the more usual high street stores, the crowds of people and the busy and very noisy traffic, our worst nightmare 😲 There were lots of historical buildings, churches and museums, most of which we didn’t bother entering but, if you were that way inclined, I would guess that you could spend two ‘full’ days here visiting them all, or if you were a ‘Shopper’, at least several hours wandering in and out of all the shops and of course, the usual array of ‘Tourist Tat’ retailers, but what surprised us here in Lorca were the high volume of street beggars, going around the Public Parks and Cafe’s with their palms open wide, not just the odd one or two but absolutely dozens of them, you could spend a fortune just giving everyone of them even just a handful of change, but which one’s do you give handout’s to and which do you choose not to 🤷‍♂️ We took the option to decline, politely of course, to not give anything to any of them, it seemed the only fair way. We found a nice side street cafe to have a snack lunch, of course with the obligatory beggar, who cannot have been that hungry as we did offer to buy him a coffee and sandwich, but he wanted ‘Dinero’ (Money), which we declined to provide him with. After resting our rapidly weary legs we commenced heading back towards where we had parked the car. Just as an aside, it seems worthy of a mention, the sky remained a bright blue, hardly a cloud in the sky all the time we were out and, the temperature at one point registered 32 degrees(c) 🥵 So much for the accuracy, once again, by the ‘Works of Fiction’, which still proves that the ‘Forrest Gump’ method is by far the best option. Our day finished on a high, another dinner taken on the lovely open terrace of the hotel and to wrap up our brief stay in Lorca, we sat and watched England, somewhat surprisingly, beat Serbia 5-0, the perfect end to a perfect day.

I do not know why we bother, but ahead of another long drive the following day, we still checked the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast for our drive North, up along the coastline, and yet again it didn’t bode well 😳

I guess we will just have to wait and see what our ‘Forrest Gump’ forecast reflects in the morning 🤷‍♂️

Our journey continues ‘Onwards and Upwards’ so, until the next time……………

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena

Personally speaking, it has been a funny old couple of weeks really, although not funny in a ‘ha ha’ sort of way, it is difficult to put the feeling in to words as it isn’t a tangible thing, I suppose the English expression would be to say that ‘Things have just seemed to be a little bit out of kilter’ recently, not majorly so, just a case of us not quite being in our more usual chilled zone, or our more usual relaxed daily, or even weekly, routine 🤷‍♂️

It started when we were taken completely by surprise, when I received a telephone call from the UK Tax Office (HMRC), advising me that they had commenced processing my Tax Refund Application, which was just 10 days after they had received it, this of course was great news, or at least that had been my first thought, but that early elation was swiftly halted by the more worrying thought of “Why were they then contacting me this early into the process ?” 🙄 So, that initial perceived piece of good news about them already starting to process my refund application was cut extremely short when, after providing some clarification of the information that I had provided, the Tax Officer, a very pleasant man as it happened, declared that I had placed a tick, in answer to a question, in the wrong box, I had ticked the ‘Yes’ box instead of the ‘No’ box, although he confirmed at that time that there was nothing else on the form that had been completed incorrectly or lacked the information that they required. I had, it appeared, simply misinterpreted, or misunderstood, the question and No, of course he couldn’t just amend it, and Yes I would have to re-submit the whole form again, apart from the Spanish Tax Certificate which he said they would keep on record. So, I have now completed the form again and, as you read this, it is already winging its way back to them, but of course my refund application will not go back directly to him, the system doesn’t work that way, it goes back into the queue then waits to be processed again 🤷‍♂️ On a positive note, it is a good job they had already started processing the form and discovered my error, rather than in the projected six months that they had initially stated it would take to process it, which would have then created an even longer delay. I do try to turn a negative into a positive when I can 😉

We have also been spending a lot of time, and I do mean a lot of time, the ‘We’ I refer to being myself and my OCD Buddy, perusing ‘Google Maps’ and ‘Booking.Com’ and other such travel websites, looking at lots of ‘potential’ routes, and accommodations, for our ‘potential’ road trip, I say ‘potential’ because my beloved hasn’t made up her mind whether she wants to drive around exploring more of mainland Spain for a couple of weeks or so, which had been ‘our’ original intention, or whether now she would prefer to fly to the Balearic or Canary Islands for a couple of weeks, spent lazing around a pool at an ‘All Inclusive’ hotel or, she has now even suggested that maybe we could perhaps do a city hopping trip through Italy, flying direct to Bologna, before taking a train to Florence, and then on to Rome, using the local public transport rather than hiring a car 🤷‍♂️ So ‘we’, myself and my OCD Buddy, have been exploring ‘all’ options and locations, looking at different routes and destinations, Hotel and ‘Casa Rural’ accommodations, Flight availabilities, train timetables, sightseeing attractions, the whole nine yards 🤯😵‍💫

However, the biggest one single problem that we actually currently have, this time the ‘we’ being Shazza and myself, is that we just cannot book ‘anything’ in advance, as that could present a whole set of other issues if we had to change bookings or cancel them, whether that be with either travel, flight or accommodations, simply because we cannot do anything until we have had the bi-annual mandatory vehicle inspection done on our car, and got the official mandatory new window sticker, to confirm that our vehicle is road legal. But if, for whatever reason, it fails the test, we will then have to get, whatever the issue is, rectified before then taking it back to be re-tested, subject of course to their appointment availability 🤷‍♂️

So of course, we are ourselves pretty confident that there is nothing wrong with the car, it was fully mechanically serviced at the end of May, and they found nothing wrong, they just conducted the usual oil, filter changes etc. and they did a pre-ITV inspection check and didn’t discover anything that may effect a positive outcome. I had replaced all four tyres in May, whilst we were back in the UK, and we replaced the wiper blades just this week, although I am not personally convinced that they needed replacing as they still clear the windscreen, but we were advised that this is a common reason for a vehicle failing its test here in Spain, something to do with the UV rays and the dust and sand wearing out the rubbers much quicker than usual, so we thought that it was better to be safe than sorry. So, I should be feeling pretty confident right ? Well, anywhere else in the world and my answer would be an emphatic ‘Yes’, but not here in Spain 🤷‍♂️ You learn pretty quickly not to take any Spanish Bureaucratic Systems for granted, so subsequently, no holiday bookings of any description can be confirmed until after the test, because you just know who will be looking over my shoulder if I dared to even think about taking the risk of doing so, yup those bloody ‘Dark Forces’ 😡 We only have a relatively short window of opportunity to take this holiday, as Shazza’s mum arrives right at the beginning of October and we will need a few days to get sorted, after our holiday and before her arrival, but even so, that should still give us a possible twenty-one day window of opportunity, provided of course that we (Shazza) can decide exactly what type of holiday it is that she prefers 🙄 and then of course being able to find the availability of the accommodations, or flight’s that we want 🤷‍♂️ So, as it stands, me and my OCD Buddy do have a sort of Plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ although, I am already anticipating Shazza coming up with one of her own, a Plan ‘D’, the one where she say’s that it is all too much hassle and let’s just stay at home in our own holiday location and accommodation 🫣

Another reason for it being a funny old couple of weeks was due to our Annual IBI Payment (Council Tax) not being debited from our account on the due date. Now the Town Hall are pretty keen when it comes to taking money off you, they are usually as regular as clock work, especially when it comes to local tax payments, but it was overdue by several weeks. Now if it wasn’t for my OCD Buddy continually prodding me in the ribs about this, I would probably do what anybody else would do, even Shazza was saying, “If they haven’t taken it, that is their problem and not our’s” and yes I guess she was right, but, it was in my advance financial accounts as a payment that was due, and on a certain date, the same date as it had been for the past 11 year’s and now, this irregularity was wreaking havoc in my head, and my OCD Buddy was continually in my face about it and refused to just pi** off and leave me alone 🤷‍♂️ “Do you think that I should contact them ?” I said to my beloved, “No, I am certain they will take the money at some point, when they get around to it, you never know, perhaps they have given everyone a tax break this year”, then she laughed, very, very sarcastically. But she was right, as always, for a few day’s later, our bank account was finally debited 🤷‍♂️ In the end it was actually a nice surprise, as it was ‘exactly’ the same amount as it had been in 2024, and even that previous years bill (2023) it had only gone up by €2 from the previous year, no that wasn’t a typo, an increase of just €2 in the last three year’s 🤗

Shazza commented that it was a good job we had opted to come and live here in Spain, rather than remaining in the UK where, without any exception, everything just keeps going up year on year, Council Tax, Insurances, Electricity, Gas, Water, Groceries, Fuel and, almost all subscription services whether that be Telephone or TV Services, so the question we now ask ourselves is whether we could even afford to return to live in the UK, even if we wanted to 🤷‍♂️ To be honest, yes we probably could, but there would almost definitely be a drastic downturn in our lifestyle to the one that we currently enjoy here. Shazza, who as you probably know by now, keeps a constant eye, and ear, on all things happening back in UK, both Politically and Financially, which naturally includes the ‘Cost of Living’, told me that this year in the UK, Council Tax Bills had been hiked by 10%, some areas a little lower but some even higher, however, generally speaking, that can involve an increase of between £100-£200 which, on its own, doesn’t sound like very much over a year, but that is just an increase in ‘one’ bill, add the rest of the household bills and cost of living increases together and you do not have to be a financial expert to realise that increasing outgoing expenditures, over the small annual increases in income, which in our case would just be from our Pension incomes, makes people very much worse off year on year 😲 Yes I know, welcome to the real world Eric.

Why ? I continually ask myself, does it not appear to be the same here in Spain, yes the cost of some Household and Vehicle Insurances go up each year, but not astronomically so, Electricity bills only really vary on how much we use the Air-Con system in the Summer, or heating in the Winter, but again, they don’t appear to be anywhere near as expensive as in the UK, additionally, you would expect Water Bills here to be much higher, considering that it is generally a very scarce resource with the number, and frequency, of the drought’s, but they are not, I don’t know why, are we missing something obvious 🤷‍♂️ Dare I even suggest that a factor could possibly be due to the UK now actually feeling the long term economical impact of ‘Brexshit’, however, and in all honesty, I really do not know the answer to that, but we are certainly glad that we live here, although not just for financial reasons 😉

Anyway, I will continue to leave Shazza to worry, and she does, about the state of the UK and all the things that she has absolutely no control, or influence, over. Whereas, I am selfish, yes I admit it, I am only interested in the here and now, and with what I can actually control and influence, and that I have to say does appear to be working out just fine for us, at least at this moment in time.

As for the here and now, we’ll another funny old thing has happened over the last few weeks, it has started to get very much quieter, devoid of the crowds and the noise, not just around the communal pools, our own and the one opposite us, which I view on a daily basis from my balcony vantage point, but their are not so many on the beaches, on the seafront promenade, in the Marina, their are even empty parking spaces in the town’s car parks, and the Supermarkets are not as choc-a-blok as they have been, their are now more empty tables in the restaurants and Cafe/Bars especially at the peak times. It just seems a little too early for the tourists to be leaving just yet, we know that some of the schools go back during the first week of September, but the European and International tourists are usually still here until the last week of August and, in previous year’s, even right up to the middle of September, the end of the Tourist Season isn’t officially until the 30th September when the majority of the beach Chiringuitos shut down 🤷‍♂️ Could it be that with tougher financial constraints, people just cannot afford to come on holiday for as long as they usually would, a week instead of two, or a month instead of six weeks ? Has it perhaps been due to all the Wildfires ? Or perhaps the ‘unusually’ hot Summer that we have experienced this year, not helped by the increase in the number of ‘Terrell’ wind events that we have also experienced, and which have caused and increase in the number of heatstroke related deaths amongst the Spanish and Tourists alike.

Or, perhaps it is because of the arrival of the ‘Blue Dragon’ in Spanish Waters, and no, before you think that I am suffering from heatstroke myself, or that perhaps I have consumed far too many Anti-Covid Vaccines causing me to hallucinate 🤭 These ‘Blue Dragons’ are not figments of my imagination or mythical creatures, they are very real and, extremely dangerous to humans, even causing fatalities as they are highly venomous 😲

So, whatever the reason, whilst the end may be in sight to this year’s Summer Season of tourist’s, and I am attempting to not sound too joyous about that fact, the summer temperatures and extreme heat, well at least down in this part of Spain, does not look anywhere near beginning to relent 🥵

That said, they then went on to state, “The mercury could reach 35C in parts of Andalucia, Murcia, Castile-La Mancha, Valencia and the Ebro Valley”, well all that I can say to the ‘Works of Fiction’ is that there use of the words ‘Could Reach’ should be changed immediately to, ‘Continually Reaches’ temperatures in excess of 35 degrees(c) during the afternoons and into the early evenings. Although to be fair, it is now beginning to get slightly cooler in the early hours of the mornings, and I know that without even having to look at the temperature gauge, because I have to get ‘into bed’ and under the duvet at around 3-4am, rather than sleeping on top of the bed all night as it get’s a wee bit chilly and, during the later morning’s, on our walks, which are still not quite back to being on a daily basis, the temperature, at around 10:00am is only between 21-23 degrees(c), nearly time to start digging out the winter woollies 😂

There is some very good news, I do much prefer good news stories, it assists with maintaining my more usual positivity and Karma 👍 It has been announced that the majority of the Wildfire’s, throughout Spain, are now either completely extinguished, or at least are now under control. Even so, I would hazard a guess that those that suffered the most, those in the North of Spain, will probably appreciate the heavy rain that is now forecast for their area’s, it should extinguish any areas that may still be smouldering and also encourage Nature to commence restoring the thousands of acres of destroyed habitat. As for us, well even in the heat we have experienced, and continue to do so, there is also some good news down in our neck of the woods ………

You may recall in my last ramble that I mentioned that Shazza expressed a desire to go and visit the ‘Van Gogh Exhibition’ which is still currently on display in Estepona. Although right on our doorstep, being just a 15-20 minute drive away, we do not go to Estepona that frequently, only when I need to re-supply my E-Cigarette supplies or we want a change of scenery from our own seafront promenade. Anyway, we decided to get up and moving slightly earlier than normal, so that we could get a parking space in the area we wanted to be, as it happened, we found a new parking area, ‘Free’ of charge (my favourite word 🤭) and midway between the town centre, where my E-Cigarette shop is located, the seafront promenade and the Exhibition Centre. We started by stopping at one of our favourite seafront Cafe/Bars, a bit touristy, but with good views of the sea, Gibraltar and the north coast of Africa and so we had breakfast, Cafe con Leche and Tostado’s. From there, a leisurely walk through the town centre where I purchased my necessary supplies and then, after a brief stop in the large ‘Carrefour’ supermarket, where we were looking for a couple of ‘Microfibre’ towels which are lightweight and so dry quickly, useful for our ‘potential’ road trip where I had planned some stops at Reservoir Beaches and small Waterfalls, unfortunately we were unsuccessful in our acquisition, so normal cotton towels it would have to be then ☹️ From there, it was just a short walk to the exhibition hall which is right behind the Estepona main bus station.

As I mentioned in my last ramble, I am not really one for visiting Art Galleries or Museums, so this was something that Shazza had wanted to do, it obviously wasn’t a Gallery of his ‘actual’ physical art works, there would have been an army of Police and Security Guards around the place if that had been the case, no, the artworks were all holographic images but the exhibition itself was amazing. There were several rooms to walk through but it started with information boards and a timeline of Vincent Van Gogh, from birth to death (In both Spanish and English). He lived a short life, dying from an ‘alleged’ self inflicted gun shot injury at the age of just 37 year’s, although there was an alternative theory suggested as to how he suffered his gunshot injury 😳 He didn’t start painting until he was 27 year’s old and had no formal training and, in his lifetime, he only actually sold just one painting, for a small handful of French Francs but now they sell for Millions. If the information provided was factual, it would seem that he led a quite interesting but disjointed and sometimes ‘colourful’ life (although not colourful in an artistic context) with a few romantic interludes along the way, none of which lasted very long, it was only in his latter year’s when he became insular and depressive and an explanation was provided as to why he cut off part of his ear, but I will leave you to discover that for yourselves 😉 To be honest, and somewhat quite surprisingly to myself, I actually enjoyed this ‘different’ kind of art exhibition and would not rule out going to similar one’s in the future, Shazza is already making murmurings about a ‘Picasso’ exhibition in Malaga 🤔

After wandering through different rooms, where his artwork was displayed in different holographic formats, we came into a large room with seats spread around in small groupings. Huge 3D images were reflected on all the walls and, at times, also on the floor, in the centre a large display on which a verbal and written dialogue of his life was provided, the verbal dialogue in Spanish but the written bit was provided in English.

I have to confess, it was a unique and fabulous experience, and coming from me that is praise indeed !! The entrance fee was a mere €24, Shazza still classed as a youngster had to pay full price(€13) whilst Senior’s, like myself, got a €2 discount, sometimes this ‘age’ business has its advantages 🤭 There was no time limit, no audio visual machines or ear pods to pay extra for, you just wandered around at your leisure and it did not finish after you left the large hall.

One of the things that remained in my thoughts, long after we had departed this exhibition, were some of the words that Van Gogh had put into a final letter sent to his brother about his paintings, his brother, who he was very close to, had supported him, both emotionally and financially, throughout his short life “You Only See What You Want To See”, which was referring to his art work and how ‘other’s’ viewed them, for he was the first to acknowledge that he was frustrated that the pictures he had in his mind he could not transfer perfectly on to canvas. But I believe that his words can also be transferred to today’s world in general, along with the addition of, “You Only Hear What You Want To Hear” 🤔

So all in all it had been a relaxing , productive and interesting day out and, for the most part, we had managed to stay out of the intense heat. Throughout the last couple of weeks we have of course been doing the same routine stuff, which you are more than familiar with by now, so I won’t bore you with any of that and hopefully, in a few more days, after the publication of this current ramble we may, or may not, be elsewhere 🤷‍♂️ One thing is for certain, I will tell you all about it in my next ramble so, until then……………

In Other News…………….

It may not be considered as newsworthy material anywhere else, but here in Spain the humble ‘Tortilla’ is taken very seriously.

Something that caught my attention in the local news media and, after watching a TV programme, ‘Kerridge Cooks Spain’, which, as the title suggest, was a six episode series where Chef, Tom Kerridge, visited several ‘Regions’ in Spain, promoting the produce from those areas, and using them to create his own twist not seen or tasted before by the Spanish. Now these sort of programmes do not generally interest me, but Shazza told me that he was travelling around in an old Mercedes Campervan and that the programme wasn’t just about cooking, so I sat with her and binge watched all six episodes. Anyway that isn’t the main focal point of the subject I want to mention, but it is about the products that Spain produces, loads of it, Meat, Fruit, Vegetables, Various Beans and even Rice (Well they are famous for Paella). One of the products grown here and allegedly eaten in great quantities by the Spanish, are the ‘donut’ shaped Peaches. Now I like Peaches, but generally eat the more usual roundish shaped ones, so when we went to do the shopping, shortly after watching the programmes, I went to pick up a pack of these Spanish delicacies, only to discover that they originated from ‘Paraguay’ 😲 A day or so later, again, in the local news media, I came across this article…….

Our small local Municipality of ‘Manilva’ within the larger ‘Malaga Province’ rarely gets a mention in the Local or National media, and to be honest we tend to like it that way, heavens forbid the greater outside world should ever get to hear about this haven of peaceful tranquility, apart from those who already do know about our location of course 😂 But anonymity also has its disadvantages, places like Estepona, Mijas, Fuengirola, Marbella, Benalmadena and Malaga are constantly in the news and, as major tourist resorts, they get lots of money from both Local and Central Government to keep them maintained. So it was rather nice to read that at last, some funding is coming our way to improve a small Plaza in our local town of Sabinillas.

Well here endeth another ramble where I didn’t have much to talk about 🤭 God help you when I do 😂😂

The car has been washed and waxed, sparkling clean ready for its Inspection. Shazza has done all the washing and ironing so we are ready to go, well apart from the bits that we don’t know, like when we will be leaving, whereabouts we are heading to, or how long we will be away and the small matter of having made absolutely no bookings whatsoever 😂 Living life by the seats of our pants, not sure my OCD Buddy is a big fan of that and I worry that he may have a meltdown before too long 🫣😳

Until the next time…………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena 😉

For those of you who are not really too interested in reading about the recent visit of our family, which I of course can, and will, completely understand 😉 please just scroll down to the section, ‘And In Other News’ 👍

I remember it as though it were only yesterday, it was October 2020 when Shazza and I finally decided to turn what had been our seven year semi-retirement lifestyle into the proper Full Monty. At that time we both genuinely believed that the days, weeks and year’s would begin to slow down quite a lot with us no longer having the daily routine of getting up to go to work. Our children had already all grown up and flown the nest, so we had already become ‘Free Agents’, to do with our lives whatever we chose to do. However, as Shazza and I discussed very recently, we are just coming up to five years now, since we actually retired properly, and neither of us can understand where those five year’s have actually gone to 🤔 My pessimistic side, which very rarely rears its ugly head to be honest as I am generally a very optimistic sort of ‘glass half full rather than half empty’ sort of character, tends to want to persuade me to believe that it is a ‘bad’ thing, because, looking back over those five year’s, well in my initial opinion at least, personally I do not think that we have taken many of the opportunities that we have had, to do some of the things that we had said that we were going to do over these last five years, mainly on the travelling adventures side of things that is. Although, Shazza, and very unusually for her it has to be said, as she has generally more of a pessimist outlook on life, but she thinks, looking back on it, that we have actually done quite a lot, all things considered, and given everything that we have had to do, organising starting a new life in a new non-English speaking country (at least non-English speaking on the Bureaucratic side of things) and then once here, getting ourselves sorted ‘officially’ and, due to our particular ‘Non-Lucrative Visa’ conditions, which have placed certain wider global travel restrictions upon us, we have been a little cautious, but she was also quick to remind me that we have also had several family commitments in that time, some of them good events, and other’s not so. So okay, I had to concede, as she listed many of the travels that we had actually achieved, that perhaps it was just me being a little impatient in not having conducted any of the wider global ‘bucket list’ activities on our individual lists. “It isn’t as if we have a time limit to do any of these things do we ?” She said to me, although I reminded her that she is almost 9 year’s younger than myself so, in the grand scheme of things I will, in all likelihood in the natural course of events, probably have less time on the Lifeline Clock than she has, which wasn’t me being morbid, just realistic 🤔 She confessed that she hadn’t really considered my age into the equation as I was just as physically fit as she is and, she considers that in some aspects, walking up steep inclines for example, probably even more so, so she never really ever considers the age difference. Anyway, after our discussion we agreed that we should both really dust off our individual ‘Bucket Lists’ and make more of a concerted effort to tick a few of those travel adventures off the list over the next couple of year’s 👍

The catalyst for this discussion had been pushed to the forefront of my mind on the same day that our family visitor’s had departed after their week’s holiday with us, they had departed at 06:30am to return their hire car and then catch their mid-morning flight from Malaga back to the UK, but it had gone so quickly, in what had appeared to be ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’. The Grandchildren were growing up so quickly, it had seemed like only yesterday when we had first had them come to visit us here in Spain, although Orla, the youngest wasn’t even a twinkle in Mum and Dad’s eye at that time, but she turns seven year’s old in a couple of weeks time, the Twins were a little under one year old when we collected them all from Gibraltar Airport but now they were ten year’s old 😳 Here they were, sitting with us on the balcony having full on proper conversations with them and answering their numerous questions about our life here in Spain and why we chose to come and live here, rather than remaining in England, it was genuinely lovely to see them absorbing the replies, before squinting their eyes whilst formulating their next question but, my goodness it didn’t half serve to make the both of us feel our ages 😲

Our day’s with them did get into some sort of a routine, starting with Shazza at breakfast, feeding five extra mouths, boy can the three of them girls eat 😲 breakfast was followed, every single morning, with three hour’s down at the pool, before returning to the apartment for lunch, with Shazza again catering to their different ‘individual’ dietary likes and dislikes 🙄 In my childhood year’s it was a case of, either eating what was put in front of you at meal times, or you went hungry, and when I mentioned that to them they just said that they thought that that was so cruel 😂 After a post-lunchtime rest, the afternoon’s were spent back down at the pool for a second Session, another three hour session, although I have to confess, I didn’t make it to the majority of those second sessions, instead I took the opportunity to partake of that other ‘mandatory’ Spanish custom, well for those of a certain age at least, yes the ‘Siesta’ period 😴

As if the two swimming sessions a day were not exercise enough, after Dinner we would then all go for a walk, when the temperatures had cooled a little, although I use the word ‘Walk’ extremely loosely, as it was more a case of just parking the car and then sauntering to the large kids playground for an hour, once we had managed to find two car parking spaces that is, we rarely found two in the same location as the town and beaches were literally packed to the gunnels. After the kids had had enough of the play park we then headed to the ice cream parlour and then, mainly for the adults, we would find a Cafe/Bar to partake of a cooling beverage (or two) before finally returning home. Everyday of those seven days were long one’s and extremely active, so it had come as a bit of a shock to our more normal lethargic, more sedentary, retirement lifestyle sort of days 😂

What has now become a customary arrangement on their visits to us is that we ‘volunteer’ to let Chris and Sarah have some time to themselves, so they pre-book a local hotel, generally just outside Estepona and have themselves a thirty-six hour mini-break, to be honest, and as with all parents with young families, they get very little time to themselves throughout the rest of the year and it also provides us with some quality time with the three grandchildren, and of course the opportunity for us to spoil them rotten, as is the privilege of grandparents, and without the need for them to first seek the approval from mum and dad 🤭

The week had flown by and it had finished on a high with the icing on the cake coming on their very last day on their last swimming session when, with a bit of encouragement from mum and dad, ‘Orla’ finally parted ways with her armbands and started to swim, non-stop widths, from one side of the pool to the other, now all three of the girls can swim, and they had all learnt to do it over the last two year’s, here in our communal pool in Spain, now there will be no stopping them wanting to visit 😂

Okay, I know, why on earth would you be interested in reading a ramble all about our time with our family 🤔 although in my defence, these rambles are about our lifestyle here in Spain and that will ‘occasionally’ include visits from both family and friends. But, yes I feel your pain so, for those who have persevered and managed to get to this point, I applaud and thank you, those that didn’t, well you will have had the advantage of reaching this point in the ramble far quicker, so I will now swiftly move on to other, more general things so…………………

In other news………………….

Let me start with an update on my Spanish/UK tax affairs 🫣 As you may recall, from my last ramble, I had posted the package on 12th August and, according to the package ‘Tracker App’ that they had provided me with, and of course respective reference number, I could see that the package had reached the UK, and that it had gone out for delivery on 17th August, which I thought was pretty quick. I kept checking the tracker app everyday, just waiting to see the box ticked that showed that it had been ‘Delivered’. However, on the morning of Friday 22nd August, I received a text message on my mobile from ‘Correos’ (Spanish Post Office) stating that they had attempted ‘Unsuccesfully’ to deliver the item on two occasions, and they now required me to confirm the address they wanted me to return the package to 😲 I couldn’t understand it, surely the UK HMRC couldn’t have moved to new premises, could they, will they do anything not to refund me my two years worth of taxes 🤔 I of course rang HMRC, after making myself a flask of coffee and a picnic, as this could be a long wait, perhaps hour’s, even day’s waiting for them to answer 😲 but, to my surprise, I only had to wait 15 minutes before a human voice, not an AI one, answered. I explained the situation, after they confirmed some personal security details with me, then they actually informed me that there records confirmed that ‘they had’ indeed actually received my refund application form, and that was on the 18th August, and it was now in the queue to be processed, which they did just take the opportunity to re-confirm that that could take up to 6 months. To be honest I was just happy to hear them confirm that they had received my refund application form at that point, and only 6 days after I had posted it. Needless to say I sent a message back to ‘Correos’ with this information but have had no response from them, as yet. The problem is obviously an administrative one between ‘Correos’ here in Spain and whoever they contract in the UK to make the delivery, Royal Mail, Parcel Force, DHL 🤷‍♂️ So it would appear that whilst the postal system from Spain to the UK is very efficient, the electronic tracker service isn’t 🤔 It could mean of course that the package was delivered without the person delivering it obtaining a signature, just shoving it through a letter box, but then why the text message stating that they had attempted to deliver it twice, but unsuccessfully 🤷‍♂️ A mystery that may well remain unanswered, but ask me if I care 🤭

As you may imagine, that text message did not start my day off too well, not initially at least but, after confirming that my package had actually been received, at least my anxiety levels subsided, although as it was to turn out, my day was just about to get a whole lot better.

I hadn’t mentioned in a previous ramble that, on 12th August, the day before our family visitor’s had arrived, we had gone to our local supermarket in town to do a ‘big’ shop. When we went in I hung my sunglasses on my shirt, as you do and as I have done several hundred times previously, okay, probably a slight over exaggeration, but you get my drift. Now these are not ten-a-penny normal sunglasses, but quite expensive normal ‘Bi-Focal’ reading glasses, but with a permanent dark tint (not reactolites). However, once we got out of the car at home I realised that they were no longer hung on my shirt. Obviously we searched the car, the car boot and all the shopping bags, just in case they had dropped inside whilst loading/unloading. We telephoned the supermarket immediately, they took our contact number and stated that they would phone us if they were handed in, no phone call was forthcoming and one pair of quite expensive glasses gone 😡 After sorting out the Tax Form business on the Friday morning (22nd August), we then went to do another shop in our usual supermarket and, on the off chance, I asked whether anyone had handed in my glasses, I was taken to a Private Staff Office by a supermarket supervisor, she opened a drawer that was full of a variety of glasses and she invited me to look through them all, and lo and behold, me and my expensive glasses were re-united 🥳🥳 So, whilst that morning may not have started all that well, by lunchtime, it had turned into an unexpected ‘Very Good Karma Day’ 😁 I celebrated when we got home with a glass of Orange juice and two chocolate chip cookies, only because I had already partaken of a ‘Cafe con Leche’ and ‘Bacon Roll’ in one of our favourite Cafe/Bars before we went to do the shopping 🤭

Now how about a coincidence for my next piece of this current ramble. So, in one of my recent ramble publications I had mentioned about the average life expectancy here in Spain (85 year’s), and made mention of ‘Blue Zones’, which are places throughout the world where people often attain the age of 100 years or older and for which I ‘hope’ to attain 🙏 So it felt a little bit spooky, and it got me to wondering wether the content of my rambles are being monitored (play spooky X-Files music 👽) for, since publishing that particular ramble content, this much more recent article has been published 😳

Now you may think that I am becoming Paranoid, probably having been out in the sun a little too much 🥵 But within many of my previous rambles I have also made mention of the disparity between the UK, and some other European Media Publications, and their perspective on the lack of tourists that are now coming to Spain, and the devastation it is creating to the Spanish Economy, since the ‘Anti-Tourism’ protests, and what it is actually like here in Spain. Now of course, I cannot speak with any factual knowledge or accuracy, about any other area’s in Spain, other than our own Region of Andalusia, but we have seen little evidence that the number of ‘Tourists’, either local Spanish domestic tourists or wider International Tourists are any less than in previous year’s but, to add to my paranoia about someone monitoring the content of my rambles, the following media articles have also just recently appeared in the media…….

So I have to ask at this point of the ramble, “Have I cured Your Insomnia Yet, Or are your Eyes still open ?” If your answer is ‘No’ to the first bit and ‘Yes’ to the second, I will continue 😂

Spain still continues to party, throughout the whole country but probably the largest party of the ‘Fiesta’ season in our area is the ‘2025 Malaga Ferreira’, an event that encompasses the whole city, from the actual large Fairground where numerous events take place and not just the traditional fairground attractions, many of the city’s Plaza’s and streets are just one massive party stage, from dawn to dusk, for a whole seven days, the local Spanish dress up in traditional costumes whilst the tourists just turn up in their Summer attire, but all are welcome to join in the revelry

Well of course, the Summer heat always makes the headlines, I don’t know why, for it is always hot here in the Summer, wether it be 30 or 40 degrees (c), that is normal so why is that news 🤷‍♂️ Probably because those normal temperatures have risen to 45 degrees, and even this far South, those temperatures are certainly not normal and so, with the added issue of the ‘Terral’ winds paying us yet another visit of the Summer, not just with the additional heat that they always bring, but also with the strength of the gale force like winds, which are continuous, day and night, the prolonged heatwave continues 🥵🥵

So, naturally of course the major topic that is on the front pages in the local news headlines, as well as appearing in National and International news media channels, every single day for more than a week now, are all the Wildfires burning throughout many parts of Europe, Although for many Countries, including Spain, these wildfire events are a normal and frequent annual occurrence but, it would appear, from the statistics that are being published, that this particular year has probably been the worst for Wildfires since records began.

However, and somewhat quite surprisingly, at least here in Spain, the majority of the worst fires have actually been in the Northern areas, not in the more usual ‘hotspots’ down in the Central and Southern parts of the Country, albeit they are of course still occurring in those Southern areas, but certainly not on the scale as elsewhere 🤷‍♂️

Now ‘some’ of these wildfires are obviously occurring as a consequence of the extreme heat, and ‘some’ as a result of Lightning strikes on the tinder dry trees and scrubland, but what is shocking to read is that a great deal of these fires have, from investigation, been attributed to people actually starting them deliberately 😲

I really cannot comprehend what is going through the minds of some of these people, to do it deliberately entailing the loss of lives, thousands of hectares of land, people’s livelihoods, homes and livestock and not to mention the thousands of gallons of essential water in the attempt to put these fires out. I mean throughout the majority of Spain, we have just come through two year’s of devastating drought conditions, the ‘Embalces’ (Reservoirs) have only just recovered. Not all wildfire locations are near the sea, so that means that water has to be obtained from these Embalces, essential drinking water for thousands upon thousands who rely on these resources 🤷‍♂️ As for the hectares of land that are consumed in the flames, yes it is sad to see the catastrophic toll, but as Covid proved, if you leave Nature alone, it will eventually start to heal itself, ‘Devastated Today, But Back Tomorrow’, but that cannot be said for humans or animals, when they have been maliciously incinerated, all that is left is the grief of those who managed to survive…………..

As I sit on my balcony drafting this latest literary masterpiece and looking down upon all the people lazing around, and swimming in, the communal pool opposite and, after having been out this morning ourselves, sat on the seafront in the sunshine looking out upon a white sandy beach, adorned with multi-coloured sun umbrellas, sat amongst the crowds of locals and tourists alike, enjoying just another routine day getting on with normal life, watching the jet-ski’s and sailing yachts on the sparkling blue sea, and perhaps doing some people watching, it would be rude not to, I now find myself sat pondering on just how ironic life sometimes is, for whilst some, all over the world in many differing situations, live in daily fear of potentially losing their lives, or lives of loved-ones, homes and businesses, other’s, like ourselves are, generally speaking, oblivious to all of that until we see the news reports on the TV, or read about them in the various media channel publications. Not that we can do anything about these things of course, but still, it does sometimes feel to me that this world that we live in, can be a sad old place at times.

Anyway, let’s not end this ramble on a sombre note 😉 Let me mention something that I have only recently become aware of myself, and that is in relation to the ‘Camino de Santiago’, and I will make an educated guess that those interested in these sort of Pilgramage Walks will be aware of what I am talking about. The most popular route, and one which you will find many people making ‘You Tube’ video blogs about, starts from San Sebastián on the French/Spanish Border, to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, located on the North Western side of Spain, there are of course several alternative routes, one of which follows the coastline of Portugal. However did you know that there is also a route from Malaga ? Well actually no, neither did I 🤔 Shazza and I, in our more nomadic days, once had an ambition to do the Northern route of this particular pilgrimage walk, but like a lot of things Shazza and I ‘intend’ to do, we never actually got around to doing it 🙄 So now may not perhaps be the best time to consider doing this route, what with the very extreme heat and the Wildfires in those Northern areas and, just before you even consider asking such a stupid question, one that I know you are already formulating in your minds, let me just say this, we both have a struggle with getting the motivation to do our 4-6 Kilometre walks along the seafront promenade, so how on earth do you think we will find the motivation to do a walk in excess of 1,400 Kilometres, that I think will answer your question before you even ask it 😂

As for Shazza and myself, well we have finally got our apartment all ship shape again, after the departure of our family visitors, we have re-provisioned the fridge and cupboards, Shazza has washed and ironed all the ‘guest room’ bed linen and towels, and we have thoroughly cleaned the bedroom and bathroom, in advance of our next visitor arriving, Shazza’s mum, but she does not arrive until the beginning of October. Before then, we have the car to take in for its bi-annual mandatory safety inspection, but that isn’t for a couple of weeks. There is a ‘Van Gogh’ Exhibition in Estepona that Shazza would like to go and see, why I do not know 🤷‍♂️ she has never shown any interest whatsoever in any Artists, past or present but, in accordance with our life together agreement, ‘If there is no good reason for either of us, not to do something that the other wants to do’, so we will choose a day to get out and do that I guess 😳 But for now, we will just slot back in to our normal daily routines and look at some potential ‘travel locations, both here in Spain, for some shortish trips (3-4 days) once the tourist season is over, around mid-September, for there are still so many places in this our new home Country that we have yet to see. You may also be pleased to know that I have already started to research some wider global locations to visit, for at least one of our ‘Bucket List’ trips for next year, okay so it may be one that is on ‘my’ own personal bucket list, but hey, I had to start somewhere 😂

Until my next ramble, enjoy the rest of your Summer, or Winter, dependent on which part of the world you are reading this 😉

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena